Naruto, Star Wars 1. Chapter 1

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

I know I wrote on my profile about a Naruto Star Wars crossover so here is the first chapter. I'm not sure how often I will be able to update this because I am busy with my other story, but I wanted to put something out because I've had thoughts of this story on my mind for a while. I also don't know exactly where this story is going so I am hoping to get whatever suggestions and inputs anyone can provide.

Enjoy

Timeline:

(BBY – indicates years before the Battle of Yavin)

57 BBY – Obi-wan Kenobi is born

54 BBY - Darth Maul is born

52 BBY - Palpatine fails to be elected as senator for the planet Naboo but, after having his competition for the position assassinated, becomes senator.

**51 BBY – Current Year**

x-x

Chapter I: The blinking light

LiMerge Power building on an uninhabited planet in the Mid-Rim, somewhere near Naboo

(LiMerge Power is a company whose building Sidious used for his secret hideout on Coruscant and was seen in the movies, I'm making it a Sith owned company)

x-x

A dark cloaked figure walked slowly down a long shadowed hallway. The surfaces of the hallway, the walls, ceiling, and floors were all made of metal. The hallway wasn't decorated or in anyway elaborate, but rather cold and sterile. Passing by various doors, the man's thoughts wandered to the memories that he had of the place. Though he had been born on Naboo, he had spent years training and learning the intricacies of the dark side of the force in that very building.

He remembered when his Master had first offered him a chance to become something more than he could ever be alone. He remembered when that same man had become his Master started his training. Darth Plagueis was his Master's name and in time Plagueis bestowed upon him the name of Darth Sidious. During his apprenticeship, every pleasure was denied, everything he loved was taken away, every fear he had was thrust upon him, and every weakness he had was taken advantage of by that same man. He always hated him for it but that training had made him a powerful Sith.

He had learned to immerse himself in the dark side of the force. Learned to harness the power that the dark side held and to wield his emotions to his advantage without letting them control him. Plagueis had taught him everything that he knew. He was also given access to ancient teachings and writings that made him even more powerful as the years went on but things could no longer remain as they once were.

Plagueis' obsession with mastering death was not something that he was previously concerned over. Nearly every Sith before his master had been obsessed with conquering death and extending their lives indefinitely. It was even something that he himself was concerned over but certainly not to the same degree as his Master.

Plagueis' research had changed over the years when he decided that the transference of one's essence did not appeal to him. The Sith Lord had therefore sought an alternative method which led to his research into the manipulation of midi-chlorians.

Midi-chlorians were intelligent life forms that lived inside the cells of all living things. In beings with sufficient numbers present in each of their cells, they allowed for the detection and manipulation of the Force. Plagueis was originally experimenting with the manipulation of midi-chlorians, through Sith Alchemy, in order to promote spontaneous cell growth. This could be used to prevent the cells in a being's body from deteriorating with age and even produce new cells which would extend a person's lifespan indefinitely.

Sidious had been rather interested in these experiments as it would be preferable to extend a person's lifespan using these methods than to transfer the essence into a clone body every time the clone grew old. Despite having planned to kill his Master for many years, Sidious was content to wait for Plagueis to finish the experiments. Plagueis would eventually teach him what was discovered through the research and then he would kill his Master and use the research to great affect.

It was something that every Master and Apprentice of the their Sith Order did. Eventually one would kill the other as was standard among the adopted Rule of Two. The master might kill the student and find another, better student or the student might kill the master and replace him as Sith Lord and then start training an apprentice. It was necessary to keep their line going. Only the strong should survive and weakness was cut out as they moved toward their ultimate goal of the Sith ruling the galaxy. It was therefore obvious that Sidious noticed over the years that Plagueis had shifted focus from the primary goal of the Sith, to focusing solely on his research.

Sidious watched his Master through hidden surveillance devices and monitored all activities. So it was easy to noticed his Master's complacency. Plagueis was no longer so concerned over the goals of the Sith or what Sidious was up to. Plagueis wasn't even aware that Sidious had recently taken a secret apprentice and was plotting against him.

However, it wasn't until Plagueis began talking about creating new life with his research that Sidious truly became worried. Plagueis seemed determined to use his midi-chlorian manipulation technique to spontaneously create new life, specifically a child. Plagueis had theorized that a child born in that manner would have a greater midi-chlorian count, a stronger Force ability, and more powerful connection to the Force than any other being.

It was obvious to Sidious that if Plagueis created such a child, then there would be no need for the current apprentice and therefore his life might be in danger. Sidious felt threatened at the potential of that child. He became paranoid over what his Master might be planning and could no longer sit idly by and let his Master finish the research.

Did Plagueis know about his secret apprentice? How long had his Master been planning to replace him? Was his Master one step ahead of him? Had Plagueis been manipulating him into a false sense of security? All of these questions kept going through his mind, even when he tried to force them out. Thus, his prior planning would need to come to fruition much sooner than originally planned. He would kill Master Plagueis as soon as he could.

That was the reason for his current visit.

'Soon...soon I will take my rightful place and begin setting my plans in motion. Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.' were the sadistic thoughts going through the cloaked man's head as he smiled and continued making his way down the hall to his Master's quarters.

Sidious glided soundlessly through the dark throne room that his Master always used and to the adjoining personal chamber. All security measures in the facility had already been disabled. The few security droids in the building had also been deactivated. The stage was set for the final act with Plagueis and his ascension from Apprentice to Master.

Reaching into his black robes, Sidious removed a dagger from its hidden sheath. He had chosen a simple weapon in which to kill his Master. Plagueis always had a fascination with the arcane and it would be fitting for him to be killed with such a simple weapon. The dagger wasn't a vibro-blade but it was a strong curved blade, adorned with a large gem at the pummel and gold inlay along the blade with a comfortable handle. Sidious had planned out every detail extensively before this moment. He knew that he might not be able to face Plagueis in real battle and remain unscathed. While Plagueis may have become complacent with the goals of the Sith, the Muun's Force ability and knowledge of the dark side hadn't diminished. Plagueis would have been a difficult foe for him. Perhaps too difficult.

Therefore, Sidious had decided to rely on stealth and treachery to eliminate his Master. He would arrive on the planet undetected and slip into the building without letting Plagueis know he was there, which he already had. Then he would make his way to his Master's chambers, which he was in, and open the door to proceed with his plan, which he was about to do.

Reaching down to the control panel on the door, Sidious pushed the button to open it. The door opened almost instantly and with far too much noise for Sidious' liking but there was nothing he could do. If he used the Force to open the door or cut it with his lightsaber, it would most likely alert Plagueis. Sidious was after a victory with no fighting involved and he had to mask his Force connection in order to escape detection by his Master.

Walking through the opening and over the threshold of the room, Sidious admired the objects and trinkets that his Master had collected. 'Master Plagueis always did have good taste.' He passed through the main room without a sound and headed for the bedroom. There was no door linking the main room to the bedroom, just an open passageway. Entering the bedroom, Sidious couldn't help but produce an evil smirk at the sight of his helpless Master. Of course he had already foreseen this moment several days ago but he still liked the thrill of victory. His paranoia had been unfounded after all. Plagueis knew nothing of his plotting. There was nothing his Master could do to escape death.

Approaching the bed, Sidious eyed his Master one last time and decided on exactly where to stab with the dagger. 'Should it be once or multiple times? Should I aim for an area that will instantly kill him or an area that will allow him to wake and see his killer?' debated Sidious gleefully as he enjoyed the power he had over his once great Master in the moments before the act. He had never felt more alive.

Sidious decided to aim for a fatal area with a single strike and allow Plagueis to wake and see his murderer. He also wanted to see the reaction of the gray skinned Muun and feel the life drain from him. Sidious only hoped he could finally see fear in the eyes that had denied him everything and made him feel inadequate.

Lifting the dagger up, Sidious let the emotion flow through him. He felt rage, anger, passion, fulfillment, and a sadistic triumph. His smirking face altered. The mask that he wore as Palpatine fell to reveal a hideous twisted visage. The once smooth face was far paler then it had been. The smirk became an insane smile filled with cruelty. His eyes became a sulfuric yellow filled with nothing but malice. The emotions threatened to overtake him and he yelled out in triumph as he plunged the dagger into his Master's chest.

Sidious quickly removed the dagger a moment later and looked at the face of his Master as he backed up slightly from the bed. Plagues' eyes had opened and he was trying to figure out what was happening. Sidious could see the pain that his Master was in and feel the Muun's confusion but didn't speak to him, only smiled with unrestrained delight at what he had done. A very brief moment passed before Plagueis' eyes widened as he realized what was happening.

The Muun attempted to sit up or move his body but Sidious' strike had paralyzed him from the neck down. He then attempted to speak but blood was already filling his lungs. With little option, Plagueis focused on his attacker. The grayish skinned Master was slowly bleeding out and had little time left until he expired.

For Sidious, he drank in his success over his master. He didn't get the fear that he wanted to see in his Master's eyes but the anger, conflict, despair, and disbelief that he could sense in the Muun was more than worth the trade. Sidious laughter rang out in the bedroom as he watched his Master slowly expire, but Plagueis wasn't dead yet.

Calling upon the dark side of the Force, Plagueis attempted to fight back. When calling upon large amounts of the dark side, it was possible to heal injury without having any prior Force Ability in healing. Sidious' laughter stopped when he felt his Master's buildup of dark side energy. Sidious yelled, "NO!" and acting quickly, striking his Master again with the dagger. After the second additional strike, Sidious stopped and looked once again into his Master's eyes.

They weren't the same eyes that he had seen before. They were no longer the eyes of a person realizing that death was upon them and contained something akin to amusement or laughter. The smallest hint of a smile adorned the Muun's face as he slowly expired. A single sound came from Plagueis as life left him and it could only be described as a "Hn" sound.

Confused with what had just happened, Sidious tried to analyze what had caused these emotions in his former Master. Answers came to him when he looked at his hand that was still holding the dagger. He was gripping the dagger as hard as he could and his hand was shaking uncontrollably. He also realized that his heart was beating rapidly and his breathing was ragged. Searching his feelings, Sidious realized why Plagueis had reacted like he had and sneered at the body of his dead Master.

He had shown his Master fear.

His Master was paralyzed before him at his mercy and yet, at the slightest hint of Plagueis fighting back, Sidious had become afraid and lashed out. Plagueis had seen it, felt it and was, in a sense, amused at the weakness of his Apprentice. It was humiliating and infuriating for Sidious. He couldn't believe his own weakness.

Throwing the dagger to a corner of the room, where it hit with a loud clang, Sidious let loose his anger and frustration in the form of Force Lighting on his Master's dead body. While the body was being burnt beyond recognition, Sidious screaming out his frustration and rage in the bedroom of his former Master. It was supposed to be a moment of triumph for him, yet Plagueis had turned it into a moment of humiliation that he would never be able to forget.

x-x

Sidious emerged from the LiMerge Power building and headed towards his ship which was on one of the landing pads connected to the main building. Before he left, he copied all of Plagueis's computer files onto a datacard that he had with him. He also took his Master's lightsaber and set one of the building reactors to overload. Sidious was confident that he already had all the Sith holocrons and texts that Plagueis had so there was nothing else to take but the information on the datacard and the lightsaber as a trophy.

The building itself didn't actually matter to him but he wanted to destroy it entirely and leave no evidence behind. Darth Plagueis the Wise would be nothing more but a memory of another long dead Sith Lord and he would never admit to being the Sith Lord's apprentice nor having an association with him. As the pilot droid took the ship off the landing pad and it began moving away from the building, Sidious watched as the building became smaller.

LiMerge Power was a company that was founded and owned by the Sith after Darth Bane had started the new Rule of Two nearly a millennium ago. It was used as a cover to hide many of their various deeds in the galaxy over the centuries. This facility was rather old and no longer used by the LiMerge Power Company because the planet had already been strip mined years earlier.

The existence of this facility wasn't known to anyone because it was built and operated solely by droids, and no one would look for it or even notice that it was destroyed. Looking to the pilot droid, Sidious demanded to be taken to Naboo and let the droid work out the specifics on how to get there safely by hyperspace while the ship moved out of the planet's atmosphere.

He was trying and failing to reapply his Sith Mask, which was a Sith technique that, with great skill and concentration by the user, allowed them to not only hide any connection to the force but also change their appearance. As it required precise concentration, he was unable to perform the technique until he regained control of his emotions and managed to calm down.

He had come to the planet expecting victory but was ultimately leaving in defeat. He hadn't foreseen this part of his Master's death, he only foresaw that he would kill his Master. He attempted to meditate and forget about what had just transpired but it would take time for him to be able to reach such a state.

As the shuttle exited the atmosphere of the planet and entered hyperspace, part of the LiMerge building exploded on the surface of the planet. A very small explosion could actually be seen from space on the small planet and there was no one to see it but there were however people who felt it.

x-x

A rumbling that shook the entire ship was what awoke Doro Bas from his sleep. Doro was the owner of a YG-4210 light freighter which he named Forty-Two and was currently working as a gunrunner. He had a crew of four which was all that he needed to run guns for Borvo the Hutt, who controlled the local gun smuggling as well as many other nefarious things in the sector. The tremors worried him as his ship was rather old and also they weren't flying or even in space but sitting on the surface of an uncharted, uninhabited planet. Exiting his cabin, he quickly headed for the bridge.

Several scenario's went through Doro's head as he sat down in the pilot's seat. He wasn't concerned about an attack considering that he had hid the ship rather well inside a canyon, but it was possible that whatever had woken him up was just as bad.

They were waiting for a shipment of guns to arrive on the planet. The shipment would be more than they could carry in their freighter so they would hide the rest of the guns and transport what they could, then come back to transport the rest. Doro had many years of gunrunning under his belt and had used this particular planet for quite a while as a resting spot to hide and ferry guns. Most of the clients who bought the guns from Borvo were in the Outer-Rim or Mid-rim, so having a planet to stash the guns that was right on the border of the two was quite beneficial.

Checking the ships scanner, Doro found that the scanners detected what looked like an explosion at or near the largest of the LiMerge Power buildings on the planet. Doro knew about the buildings and left them alone because then no one would know he was using the planet. Most places didn't have that many security droids for being abandoned and the illegal mining operations had already ceased years prior. It was suspicious but Doro had no intention of investigating the building, at least until now.

'If one of those buildings had been damaged then the security droids might all be damaged too.' he discerned and that meant that they could go scavenging before anyone from LiMerge Power was able to come out and investigate. By the time someone did come, it would be too late and they could damage the area more to make it appear like nothing was missing because it had been completely destroyed. His communications officer came into the cockpit to find out what was going on and Doro told him to wake the rest of the crew. He may be cautious but he wasn't going to let an opportunity for credits pass him by.

x-x

After setting down a good distance away from the building and sending out one of his men to scout on a small speeder bike, Doro and the remaining three crew members waited for news.

The radio crackled several minutes later as the rest of crew sat or stood in the cockpit and waited for news, "psssst...I made it to the building...its mostly destroyed but the top part seems partially intact...it looks like it just fell over after the blast. I'm not picking up anything on my scanner and I don't see any security droids. Over." said the crewman.

The rest of the crew broke out in smiles at what that possibly meant. It was time for scavenging. Doro radioed back, "Stay there, I'll bring Forty-Two closer to the buildings. Over and out."

x-x

Minutes later, Forty-Two arrived on the scene and touched down near the building. Every crew member but the captain left the ship and started looking through the wreckage of the building. Doro stayed with his ship to monitor the sensors and if needed, start up the ship in a hurry and make a quick escape.

He listened to the chatter of his men as they found different things to take back to the ship. His crew had found a small infirmary in one of the rooms and salvaged a medical droid as well as much needed supplies. It seemed the buliding was even outfitted with a bacta tank, which was something that was far too expensive to even consider putting on his ship, but now they had one. Forty-Two's medical bay was rather understocked and the medical droid they had wasn't operating as well as it should be. Doro had more than one complaint about the deficient medical bay from the crew but now they would be set for quite a while.

It wasn't until his men got to what they believed were offices that things started to get really interesting. There seemed to be a rather well furnished apartment in the tower. Whatever artwork and furnishing that his men were finding, he was sure he could sell to someone. Although Doro really didn't understand why a well furnished suite would be inside what looked to be some kind of industrial plant, it was their benefit.

'Perhaps its for a high ranking officials when they visit.' thought Doro but that didn't make sense either as this planet wasn't important enough to warrant having any officials or executives and he was sure the plant itself hadn't been operational or producing anything for years.

x-x

As the crewmen scoured the suite, one of the crew named Vox, made his way into what he believed was the bedroom. While looking through everything that had been thrown around by the explosion and collapse of the tower, he noticed a small opening in the wall. The explosion must have shorted the locking mechanism for the hidden alcove and just opened it part of the way. He forced the panel open and greedily looked to see what he had found.

Everything in the hidden compartment had been shoved to one side but he sifted through to find anything of value. He came across several items that looked like they could be worth something: a few old scrolls and tomes, an object shaped like a pyramid that fit in his hand, another object shaped like a cube that also fit in his hand, and several small locked boxes.

The boxes looked the most interesting as they were in containers that could take a beating and he couldn't get them open. If a person hides something in a secret compartment and then locks it away in a container, it must be worth something.

Unsure of what items were valuable and what weren't, he decided just to take everything. Once the crew were done scrounging through the building and debris field, Doro flew the ship back to the meeting place for the arms shipment. They may have found some expensive items in the building but he wasn't going to miss his shipment. If there was one thing that he learned doing business and smuggling with shady and dangerous people, it was that you don't keep them waiting or lose their shipments.

x-x

Five days later

The ship is supposed to be near the Moddell System

Actual whereabouts, unkown

x-x

Doro's eyes opened as he heard the unmistakable sound of blaster fire. He got up from his bed in the captains cabin and quickly retrieved his heavy blaster pistol that he kept on the nightstand. His grogginess was quickly gone and he moved to the side of his cabin door and smacked the panel. The door opened almost instantly.

While not exposing himself, he aimed the weapon ahead of him and peered around the doorway and into the adjacent hallway. If there was blaster fire, there was no way he was going to just run out into hallway. Moving into the archway of the door, he peered down the hallway. He couldn't see anyone. Had they been boarded?

'Pirates or raiders, maybe.' he thought. They might be after his cargo as it was worth a hefty sum of credits. He couldn't hear much and there were no further sounds of a firefight, so he moved out of the doorway and crept silently down the hallway. He stayed to one side so he could use the bulkheads and walls for cover. Passing by the crew cabins, he found the doors open and the beds vacant.

He finally made it to the ships lounge and peered around the corner with his blaster aimed out in front of him. What he saw shocked and puzzled him enough that he paused. He saw Vox standing in the middle of the lounge while holding another one of the crew up in the air by the neck with just one of his arms. The man he was holding was turning blue and Vox seemed to be smiling maliciously at the sight.

Stepping out from the hallway, Doro said, "VOX, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!"

Vox turned towards him but the mans ordinary green eyes were replaced with a sulfuric yellow that showed nothing but madness. With a twitch of his arm, Vox snapped the man's neck and then tossed him clear across the room. The dead crewman smacked into the inner hull with a terrible sounding thud.

'What the hell's going on.' Doro thought as he had just seen Vox throw another person across the room which was an incredible show of strength that he knew Vox wasn't capable of.

Vox moved at Doro and the captain fired a shot at the mans chest. The blaster bolt hit and caused Vox to halt for a second. It was then that Doro noticed that Vox already had several blaster burns on his chest. The deranged crewman had already been shot more than once and most were fatal wounds.

Vox seemed rather unfazed by the shot. He looked down and smiled, then looked back at Doro and charged him again. 'Oh shit!' Doro thought and fired as many shots as he could. He wasn't really concentrating on aiming as he was too terrified of the situation to think straight.

The pair collided and fell to the floor. For a moment nothing happened but then Doro shoved Vox's body off of him. He stared at the body as if it were going to come back to life. Two of his shots had hit Vox in the head but he wasn't going to take any chances.

Keeping his blaster trained on Vox's head, he used his free arm to help pull his body towards the wall to get off the ground. He wasn't injured but he wasn't going to take his eyes off of Vox's body. Once he was standing and steady, he debating about what to do. While looking at his presumably dead crewman, Doro finally noticed the necklace that Vox was wearing.

He decided that it must have been part of what they scavenged from the planet where they got the guns several days ago. The necklace was actually glowing slightly but began to fade. Just looking at it however was giving him the creeps. 'Whatever that necklace is, its bad news and I want it off my ship.' he thought. Walking forward to Vox's body, he grabbed one of the legs and dragged the corpse to one of the escape pods.

Locking the body in the pod made him feel much safer. Two of his crewman were already dead but two were also unaccounted for so he began searched the ship for the remaining crew. He hoped they were still alive.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case. He soon found them both dead in other parts of the ship. One in the cargo bay and one near an escape pod. Doro moved their bodies into another escape pod as he really didn't have any other place to put them. The infirmary only had a single bed.

Sitting down at a table in the lounge, Doro looked around the room, possibly expecting something else to jump out at him but settled into the seat and tried to think about what to do next. He put his arms on the table and used them to rest his head on. Truly he had no idea what to do next.

His entire crew was dead and his adrenaline was just now wearing off, so the realization was just starting to hit him. 'What the hell happened to Vox? What was with that necklace. Are the rest of the things were took from that destroyed building just as bad?' Doro wondered. He had heard many different tales from spacers of strange things happening during space travel. Finding weird objects with strange powers was a part of several stories that he heard but he always just played those stories off as tall tales.

Obviously now he knew different. He would have to get rid of all the items they salvaged, just to be sure. He also would make sure not to touch them in any way. Getting up from the table, he headed to the escape pod and jettisoned the one that Vox was in. The ship was equipped with more pods then they actually needed, so it wasn't a loss. Since they were still at hyperspace, whatever the hell that necklace was would never be able to get back to realspace and never plague him again.

Doro debated on whether or not to jettison the other pod as well. He knew that crew rather well and those four were some of the best he ever had. He decided to wait until he got to the shadow port on Sarafur, which was the planet that they were heading to with the guns shipment. Sarafur was just one of the many names for the planet. It was in the Moddell sector and specifically used by gunrunners as a stopping point and hiding area.

'The ship should be there by now.' he idly thought and headed to the cockpit. He rounded the corner of the hallway and noticed that the door the cockpit was shut. 'That's odd.' he thought and tried to open the door by pressing the adjacent control panel. The door didn't open. This was a definite problem as there was no one else on the ship but him and it didn't make sense that the door would be locked.

Ripping open the control panel, Doro tried to figure out what was wrong. It seemed that the door was locked from the inside but that didn't make any sense. The only other possibility was that someone had tampered with the locking mechanism on the inside to lock when the door was shut. Cursing, Doro tried to everything he could to get the door to unlock but it didn't work.

Heading for the machine room, he searched for the fusion cutter.

x-x

Once he had finished cutting out a a portion of the door, Doro slammed his shoulder up against it and forced the portion of door he had cut to fall inwards where it slammed onto the floor. The cockpit was big enough that the door didn't hinder him from getting in. He jumped in the pilots seat and first determined what the status of the ship was. He looked over all the instrumentation and performed a diagnostic, the ship was fine but they were running low on fuel.

'It shouldn't be a problem though, the ship should be close to our destination and we can refuel there.' Doro thought as he went to check the navigational computer to make sure they were still on course. He looked at the screen and thought perhaps he was reading it wrong. He checked it again but couldn't believe what he was seeing. The ship had already passed their destination. It had then continued on and was now well into the Unknown Region of space.

'What the hell?' was the only thought running through his mind.

x-x

Doro spent over an hour checking the navigational computer to determine if it was working correctly. It was working fine. He then checked all navigational logs to determine how in five days they could have traveled so far. The trip to Sarafur along their specific route should have taken no less than five days and yet the ship had traveled more than one and a half times that distance in the same amount of time.

Looking through the logs he saw numerous course corrections that he knew weren't made by him. The course that they actually traveled to Sarafur was far different than the course they usually took and the one he had plotted five days ago. It turned out that the new route was much faster and they actually reached Sarafur over a day ago but didn't stop. It was obvious that the culprit was Vox, especially with what happened earlier. The man had obviously been possessed by something and then altered the ships course.

Instead of stopping at their intended destination, a new course had been plotted to somewhere else but Doro had no idea where the ship was now going. Was it just a random course that led to nothing or was there something at the end of that course? He didn't know which was worse.

The Unknown Region was how it sounded. It wasn't mapped and no on really knew what was there. The main reason why no one ever went there was due to a hyperspace disturbance that spanned the border of Known Space and the Unknown Region. It made travel extremely difficult, time consuming, and dangerous, so few ever tried.

The region would be like trying to plot a course through an unknown maze, the ship would have to keep stopping and changing course and it was difficult to say what was really out there. A ship could fly too close to something and be destroyed. It was dangerous and spacers stayed away from it. There could be entire civilizations living in secret out in that area of space or nothing at all. No one knew for sure.

Staying away, however, wasn't an option as he was already traveling in it. The real problem that Doro discovered was that he didn't have enough fuel to make it back to Known Space. They had enough fuel to reach Sarafur and although they had gotten there faster, the ship only had a specific amount of fuel left and it had already passed the point of no return.

The navigational system was also locked for whatever destination they were heading. The ship was jumping through hyperspace and stopping whenever it encountered an obstacle. It would then readjust coordinates and jump back into hyperspace. Basically it was moving on a preset autopilot and while Doro knew a great deal about his ship, he never tried to mess with the navigational computer in such a way. He was locked out from something that Vox had most likely done and he couldn't change course. The best that he could do was shut down the hyperdrive but that meant that he would just be stuck in uncharted space.

Since the fuel was low, that meant that it was only a matter of time before the ship's power was shut down, which included life-support. It was a situation that he never wanted to find himself in, nor did any spacer for that matter. The most that he could hope for was that the ship would stop at a habitable planet before jumping again and he would be able to get off the ship in one of the remaining escape pods.

He didn't want to admit it, but this was the only option that he had.

Doro packed everything that he could into one of the escape pods. He didn't bother touching any more of the items they had found. He only had to wait a few hours for the ship to exit hyperspace again and he scanned the surrounding area for a habitable planet using the sensors in the escape pod. He was lucky that there was one habitable planet in a nearby system that he could reach. Hitting the jettison button, he was launched away from his ship along with a second escape pod with his other three crew members in it.

As the pods moved away from the ship, he looked at it one last time through the window on the pod before it reentered hyperspace.

x-x

With the ship, deeper in the Unknown Region

x-x

The ship followed the plotted course for some time after Doro had left the ship. It had just come out of hyperspace as it had encountered a gravity well, which turned out to be an entire solar system. It tried to make another jump to hyperspace but the system encountered an error as it didn't have the necessary fuel or power to make another jump. Slowly, the ship drifted towards one of the planets in the system and was caught by its gravitational field.

It was a stormy night in Konohagakure no Sato. The raining was heavy and lightning flashed across the sky with loud thunder following each flash. Ninja were advised not to patrol in the village or on the wall because of the danger of being struck by lightning. They stayed in the guard posts along the walls but they weren't really paying attention to what was happening outside.

Not a single person in the village noticed what looked like a shooting star that night. It fell from the sky but was mostly obscured by the clouds and rain. The thunder also masked its impact. The ships computer registered a crash. The escape pods had already been jettisoned so it shut down every system in order to conserve power remaining power and automatically activated the ships emergency beacon.

x-x

Seven years later, **Current year is 43 BBY **

During this time skip:

50 BBY - Darth Sidiious Takes Maul to the Jedi temple to watch the jedi, it is one of Maul's earliest memories

48 BBY - Uzumaki Naruto is born, so at this current time he's five years old

46 BBY - Padme Amidala born

x-x

A five year old Naruto peaked around the corner of a building to check and see if the coast was clear. He was wearing black shorts and a white shirt with a red spiral. He only saw a few people walking down the darkened streets, which was good for him. He tried his best to keep to the shadows and stay out of sight as he looked for anywhere that would be safe to hide. Despite being treated nicely by a select few individuals, the majority of the village greatly disliked him and he had no idea why.

For years he had wanted to know why the villagers looked at him like they did and why he was so hated in the village. Just recently he had resolved to stop crying over it. He started putting up a fake smile when walking around the village and declaring how he was going to be Hokage when he would hear their whispers. He wanted to show the entire village that they were wrong about him. He smiled until his face hurt but it never made him happy and he proclaimed things until his throat was dry but it never made him feel any stronger or that he had accomplished anything.

It was during a visit to the Hokage's office that he was informed of the existence of other villages and was shown a map of the Elemental Nations. From that point onward, he had gotten in his head that perhaps there was a nicer place outside his current village, where people did not give him such looks. Expanding on this thought, he began exploring the village, going out further and further from his apartment towards the tall village walls. They were a barrier that he was not allowed to cross as evident when he tried and was taken back to the Hokage tower. What laid beyond the wall, he wasn't sure but the fact was that some were allowed through and people were constantly entering or exiting, while he could not, was something he found very strange. Why would they prevent some people such as himself from leaving while allowing others?

This made him all the more curious about what was beyond the imposing rock. Reaching one of gates to leave the village, Naruto slowed his pace and tried not to be seen. Looking around, he noticed that very few people were in the area and the gate guards seemed to be sleeping. He thought about the situation and decided to go for it. He would probably be safer outside the village than inside and he could come back in the morning. Despite never actually leaving the village before, he got up from his spot and ran for the gate. Some people saw him but few paid any attention as he ran. Making it to the gates, he ran straight through them and kept running down the dirt path.

He wasn't sure where he was going but he knew that for the time being, the unknown would be better than what he was leaving behind in the village.

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Eventually he decided that he couldn't go too far away from the village as he might never be able to find his way back, so he cut into the forest and tried to keep the village walls or even the Hokage Monument in view. Making his way through the trees, he tried to stay far enough away from the village that he didn't have to worry about getting spotted by a guard on the wall.

Naruto stopped every now and then as he looked for a place to hunker down and ride out the rest of the day. He wanted some kind of shelter but he'd only found trees and prickly brush so far. It was interesting to be outside of the village but he thought it would be different. He thought that the trees would be different or the grass and plants but they were all the same. It was a little disappointing and he wished to see something exotic or at least more interesting than constant green.

After an unknown amount of time, he slowed down to a very slow walk. He wasn't tired but he did notice that he couldn't see the village wall anymore. He would have thought more about it if he hadn't of tripped over a root.

His little stumble proved far worse then he thought it would as he was standing near the top a steep slope and didn't even know it was there. He ended up rolling end over end down the slope. Through what little he could see between interchanging hard ground and sky, he found that the slope had a drop-off to it. Panicking, he managed to reach out and snag part of a bush to stop him from falling.

Looking down from his precarious position, Naruto saw about a twenty foot drop to the surface of a lake that was beneath him. It wouldn't have been so bad, however he had no idea how to swim. The bush was still holding his weight so he tried to pull himself up with it but it started to give so he stopped. He then tried to grab the ledge but years of erosion had left it mostly dry and loose soil so he couldn't get a firm grip to pull himself up. Everything he touched just kept on crumbling. Naruto then tried to get some traction on the soil with his feet but it was rather sheer and had no foot holds. His movements did however cause the bush he was grabbing on, to snap and he plummeted to the water.

Naruto yelled out before he hit the water. The cold water was a shock to his system and the height of the fall caused him to sink down into the lake several feet. He had fallen in back first but his body twisted upside down. He was about to start struggling when he saw something. He couldn't see the bottom of the lake but in the darkness a blinking light stood out in sharp contrast. It was red and flashed intermittently. The light immediately caught and held his attention, so much so that he forgot about the situation he was in until he felt the need to breath.

Taking his attention away from the light, Naruto struggled to get to the surface. He kicked and flailed his arms until he finally started showing results and moving towards the surface. He was only able to get a single ragged breath before he went back under the surface. Realizing how difficult it was to try and stay on the surface, Naruto attempted to move himself closer to the wall face. He called for help several times while struggled to stay above the surface but no one could hear him. He expended quite a bit of energy to get to the wall but it was worth it as the surface at that level was rocky and had enough roughness to it for him to grab on and pull his head above the water surface.

After taking many deep breaths of air, Naruto shimmied across the rock face while still in the water until he made it to the opposite side of the lake which was mostly trees. Pulling himself onto the grassy shore he panted and laid there for a while to catch his breath. Despite the traumatic experience, he couldn't help but think that about that flashing light. He wanted to know what it was. Only one obstacle was in his path though, he needed to learn how to swim.

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The next day several porcelain masked ninja found Naruto outside of the village and brought him to the Hokage. Naruto relayed his story to the Sandaime that he wanted to see what was beyond the wall, though he left out the light, and asked if he could learn how to swim saying that he never wanted to experience such a thing again.

The Hokage was glad that the boy was alright and though angry at the gate guards. Far to young to learn chakra control and water walking, the Sandaime promised to get Naruto a teacher to learn the basics of swimming later in the week, as long as the boy promised to stay inside the village. He was glad that Naruto hadn't been too affected by the experience. Similar experiences with drowning usually left a child with a fear of water in general.

Naruto was thrilled about the swimming practice but his mind was still on the flashing light. In that moment he had no idea how much it would change the rest of his life.

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	2. Chapter 2

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

**44 BBY – Current Year**

AN: I put a link to a picture of the ship in my profile, so everyone can see what the starship actually looks like.

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Chapter II: The Ship

A few weeks after the previous chapter

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Naruto managed to sneak out of the village again. It wasn't really as hard as he thought it would be. He imagined that the gate guards would ask questions or something but the ninja sitting in the booth at the gate really didn't care.

Making his way back to where the ANBU had found him, Naruto again found the lake that he had fallen into several weeks earlier. He had spent nearly all his free time since then learning to swim and practicing. He even practiced holding his breath in his tub. After initially learning how to properly swim, he then practiced diving as he would need to dive down pretty far to determine exactly what the blinking red light was. He wasn't sure how deep the lake was but he prepared as best as he could for this moment.

Taking off his clothes, he was left in a pair of bright orange swimming trunks. Looking over the area, he found it looked very different from what he had remembered. He decided to swim over to the cliff that he had fallen off of, rather than try and jump off of it again. It took a while to get adjusted to the water as it wasn't very warm but he managed. He had brought a glow stick with him so that he could see better when he was diving. It was currently in his pocket.

Getting in position near where he had fallen off the cliff weeks previously he tried to prepare himself for his dive and began a few breathing exercises while keeping his legs moving and himself above the surface. A few memories of his previous near-death experience went through his mind but he tried to put them behind him. He really wanted to find out what was causing that light. There were many different lights in Konoha but why would someone put one way out here, outside of the village, and in a lake? There were so many questions that he just couldn't get out of his head and he believed they would never leave until he finally found the answers our for himself. There was a good chance that whatever he would find was going to be a disappointment or that he would dive down and the light would be gone but he was still determined to try.

Taking two quick breaths in and out, he took one last breath in before he went under. His plan was to circle the area until he caught sight of the light. If he didn't see it then he would have to start diving down randomly to find out if whatever he saw was still at the bottom of the lake.

It actually didn't take long for Naruto to spot what he was after. It turned out that the light was still working perfectly and he could see it just as well as before. Naruto swam towards the blinking light but he had some trouble judging just how far away it was. Before he had reached it, he was already out of breath and had to surface.

Once reaching the surface, he took another quick few breaths and dove in again. This time he was determined to find what was there. Diving as best as he could, he neared the light and was finally able to make out what it was. What he found confused him. It was a long piece of metal that was sticking up off of what he assumed was the lake bed. The light was affixed to the metal on a small offshoot from the main rod. He inspected it as best as he could before he needed to get back to the surface for air.

Naruto floated on the surface of the water while he contemplated what he had found. It was a blinking light and it was underwater, but he didn't actually know what it was a part of and what it was doing there. The bottom of a lake seemed like such a weird place to put a light and he questioned why was it blinking in the first place. All the lights that he knew didn't blink unless they needed to be replaced. The rod that it was affixed to seemed familiar in some way but he really couldn't place it.

Naruto took another couple of breaths before diving down in the water again. This time he would find out where the rod was coming from. Swimming farther than he had before, Naruto ignored the light and grabbed the metal rod, allowing him to pull himself deeper then he had gotten before. Reaching the bottom of the lake, he took his free hand and tried to dig into the mud only to find that it was less than an inch thick and his hand encountered a very hard surface. Pushing the mud away he uncovered more of the surface. The rod was attached to this surface but Naruto was unable to gather any more information as he had to get more air.

Diving back down again, he tried to determine just how far this hard surface extended and used his glow rod to help him see. At least two hours of diving later, Naruto discovered that the surface that the light was attached to was completely metal and was rather large. It was somewhere around twenty to thirty meters long and had various interesting features along the surface. It had a big dish, a large pronged device, and several different shapes and irregularities. One side had several cylinders attached to it and Naruto had no idea what they did or what any of it did for that matter.

He couldn't believe that he had found something so cool.

Naruto had never seen so much metal in one place before and the fact that it was all part of a single object was incredibly to him. 'How in the world could someone have forged it?' was a thought that kept going through his head. Other questions soon followed. 'What was it for? What did it do? Did it belong to the village or somebody else? What was it doing in the water?' were just some of those questions.

Those questions however came to a halt on his final dive when he found glass at one end. There were several large pieces of glass and Naruto could even see inside. Whatever the object was, it looked hollow. He could see several seats inside but only darkness beyond that. He could also see a flashing red light on the inside that was the same color as the one on the metal rod.

The main question that went through Naruto's mind now was, 'How do I get inside?'

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Naruto made his way back to Konoha before it got dark. He hadn't told anyone about what he had found and he didn't want anyone to find out about it. It was rather difficult to keep a secret like that when he wanted to blurt it out to everyone but he had his reasons. If it was a discovery then it would be his and his alone. He just had to find out what it was that he had discovered and if it was something of importance. He really hoped that it wasn't something that everyone already knew about.

Siting down at his dining room table, he took out his pencils and some paper and tried to draw whatever it was that he had found. The drawing came out looking like a gardening spade with cylinders attached to the handle but from what he had seen, that was somewhat accurate.

He wasn't sure what mysteries would be revealed by putting down what he had found on paper but it gave him a better understanding of where everything was and how it looked from a birds eye view. It was obvious at some point when he was diving that Konoha didn't have anything like what he had found. It was like some type of solid metal tube or something. 'Maybe a house.' as it was definitely bigger than his apartment. 'But why were those chairs facing the window?' he thought as it still didn't make much sense to him.

He picked up one of his chairs and brought it into the bedroom. Placing it facing towards the balcony he sat in the chair and stared out of the open balcony. It was a slightly similar setup as the object had. 'What would this accomplish?' he wondered. The object was underwater so there was no view or really anything to see. The chairs were all facing forward so it wasn't some kind of meeting room.

The only conclusion that he could come up with was that the object was not meant to be underwater but rather somewhere with a view. He thought about it being a boat but he had never heard of one that was completely made of metal, that didn't have a sail, or that couldn't float. A pretty useless boat it must have been and why would a large boat be doing in a lake that was miles from the ocean. He just couldn't think of anything else that it could be that made any sense.

He could have stopped in to see Hokage-jiji about it but he wasn't sure he wanted to. It was something that he wanted to figure out by himself and he didn't want anyone to know yet. If they knew, they might try to take it away from him or claim credit for finding it. It was painfully obvious that few people in the village liked him. They gave him cold glares, all the time. If whatever it was that he had found was valuable, they might claim that he hadn't found it or didn't deserve it.

Naruto always had trouble with money because most places would charge him more than what the items were worth but if he made a lot of money off this discovery, then he could buy whatever he wanted. In around a year he would be joining the academy and he would need all the basic ninja supplies and academy supplies, in addition to anything else that would help him and his ninja career.

He was finally getting tired so he decided to get ready for bed. Naruto thought about everything that had happened that day as he tried to fall asleep. Its not that he wasn't tired but his mind just kept coming up with different scenarios about the object. What it could be, what it could bring him, and how his life might change for the better because of it.

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The next day Naruto slept in, mostly because he had so much trouble falling asleep. The only thing that he had thought of while trying to fall asleep was that, 'Whatever the object was, it was made for people to be inside it.' Based on that thought, he came to a logical conclusion from thinking of his apartment, 'It must have a door for them to enter and exit.'

When he finally did get up, he cursed as he had nearly wasted the entire morning and he had a lot of work to do. He had to reinspect the entire object and look for a door or some kind of opening. He didn't want to try and break the glass because then all the water would fill into the object. However, if there was a door, then water would fill into it anyway, so he kept that as Plan B.

He quickly got dressed and ate his usual three bowls of ramen. Making his way out of the village, he headed back to the lake.

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Naruto had inspected most of the ship without finding what he was looking for. He didn't really know what kind of door there would be and since he hadn't found any knobs or any evidence of a door, perhaps he had been mistaken. However, even with this doubt he was still determined to find something and continued his search.

Most transport ships of that size had several different openings, that Naruto had no idea about. They had two docking rings on either side of the ship, an access ramp, and possibly a freight elevator or even a ceiling/top hatch. The docking rings didn't look like any opening Naruto had ever seen so he paid them no attention and he wouldn't have been able to open them anyway. The access ramp was on the underside of the ship, along with the fright elevator so he wouldn't have been able to even see them or get gain entry through them. .

Naruto finished inspecting the backside of the object. He had thoroughly looked at the large cylinders to see if they had an opening but the object was completely solid and nothing on it would give. After going back to the surface for air, he started inspecting the spade part of the ship when he found a raised circle of metal. A metal band was raised several inches above the area around it while the center of the circle was lower and completely smooth and flat. He took notice of it because the area in the circle had a seam running down the middle. He tried to grab or get his fingers into the seam in the metal but he couldn't. Grabbing onto the raised ring of metal to keep himself from floating back to the surface, his finger depressed some kind of button.

The seam in the metal opened immediately and Naruto was sucked inside the now open circle along with the water around him.

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Everything was pitch black and Naruto couldn't tell whether he was upside-down or not. He was panicking and he was reaching the point when he needed air. Extending his arms outward, he groped in the dark and tried to feel his way around but found that he was in some kind of tube. He tried the ends of the tube but the opening he had come through was shut and the both ends were solid. He was trapped.

His eyesight slowly adjusted to the dark, only to confirm what he already knew. The tube was only about three feet wide and completely filled with water. He found where he had come through and frantically looked for a switch or some kind of button to let him out and back to the surface for air.

He however stopped when a faint blue light filled the tube. Turning his body, he saw that it was emanating from a small square on the wall. Not a moment later, a strange noise filled the tube. Naruto tried to determine where it was coming from but couldn't.

He was surprised and thankful when the water in the tube started to lower. Naruto quickly swam to the top of the water which was slowly dropping and took a much needed breath of air. The tube continued to drain until the water was gone and Naruto was left drenched but alive and sitting on the floor of the tube breathing heavily. When it was finished, the blue light turned off and almost instantaneously, part of the tube opened. Naruto stared out from the tube into blackness.

He was hesitant to move from the tube and waited for a unknown amount of time to see if anything else happened. Everything was quite and both inside and outside of the tube. Naruto shivered as he was still wearing just his swim trunks and still drenched while sitting on a cold metal floor. He decided that he would have to exit the tube and try to find a blanket or else he might freeze. Even his enhanced night vision had trouble seeing very far ahead of him. Everything was pitch black and he could make out only a few feet outside of the tube.

Getting up, he stepped forward to the opening and peered out. He couldn't see that much farther ahead of him and really couldn't make any shapes out in the dark. The air outside smelled rather stale. Naruto started shivering and decided that he had to do something. He took one step outside the tube and instantly something happened.

It started with a low hum and then lights started blinking before they fully turned on. Naruto jumped back into the tube. His senses were completely alert and his heart was racing. 'Was someone there? They must have heard him and turned the lights on? Was he in trouble?' were several of the thoughts going through his mind.

However, nothing happened. He waited as long as he could but nothing else happened. No voices, no other sounds besides a low hum of the lights and no footsteps. Peering out again he looked around the now illuminated room. It had many containers of varying size. Most of them were knocked over but some were still stacked. Several were opened and some contents strewn around the floor. He also noticed a metal device on the far side of the room but he had no idea what it was. It looked like it had a seat on it and handlebars.

The room was large and had two opening that lead into darkness as only the lights in the room he was in had turned on. 'Is anyone here? Why did the lights turn on?' he wondered but he didn't want to shout out because he could be trespassing.

After making sure that no one was around, he walked out of the tube and more thoroughly examined the room. The walls were metal, the ceiling was metal with various pipes and wiring, and the floor was metal too. It all seemed so strange to him. Picking one of the directions to go in, he stepped up to the opening and peeked into the partial darkness. He could make out what appeared to be a hallway but he couldn't see very far as the darkness shrouded most of it but he could make out a faint red blinking in the darkness. Remember the windows and what he had seen through them, he believed that this was that blinking light.

He moved into the hallway without thinking about it and the lights again turned on as soon as he went through the entryway. He was startled again and waited for a moment but nothing else happened. Deciding to continue, he slowly walked down the hallway and stayed to one side so that he could try and hide if needed. He also kept looking back the way that he came to make sure that he wasn't being followed.

He didn't have to go far before coming across two metal doors and a ladder. One side of the hallway had a ladder and a door while the other had just one door. He looked down and up the ladder and saw something but he wasn't sure exactly what it looked like. It seemed to lead to a small room but it was too dark to tell.

Going beyond that, he came to another pair of rooms on either side of the hallway. The one side had seating and a large table with chairs while the other just had some more storage. Moving along, Naruto eventually came to an intersection. Both directions lead to something but his attention was drawn to the blinking light ahead which now brighter than it had been.

He continued forward until he came to an odd door. It looked uneven and a large and thick piece of metal was lying on the floor. Something on the wall next to the door had been ripped open and exposed several wires. He entered the final room along the hallway and just like the other rooms, the lights came on.

Just like he saw from the outside while looking through the windows, there were several chairs. Two were facing forward towards the window while two others were positioned at an angle and faced some of the window. Moving over to the chair with the blinking light he examined what was there. Besides many different switches and buttons and a bunch of other stuff which he couldn't identify, there was one button that had the red blinking light above it. Without really thinking, Naruto reached out and pushed the button beneath the light. It turned the light off and nothing else happened. 'That was disappointing.' he thought and shivered again.

Walking out of the room he decided to explore the intersection. He chose one direction and followed it to four doors, two of which were open. Looking inside he could see alcoves for bunk beds in both rooms. Each room apparently was for two people and had a desk, what he assumed were closets or lockers, and a door to possibly a bathroom. Naruto moved into the room and ignored the light turning on as he went right for the blankets on one of the beds. He wrapped himself in them and tried to regain his warmth.

After what Naruto believed to be an hour. He had warmed up enough to stop shivering and find something to wear. Naruto got out of the bed and rifled through the closets. He found some socks and put them on but the boots he found were much too big so he put on a second pair of socks over the first pair. He borrowed a shirt and put that on and didn't bother looking for pants. The shirt was long enough that it nearly went down to his knees and almost covered up his swim trunks.

Exiting that room, he went to examine the other rooms. It seemed that only two had ever been used and the other two he went in, after figuring out how to open the doors, seemed to be used for storage. He left this area and went back to the main hallway and the intersection. Going down the hallway that he didn't take earlier, he found two rooms that were much larger than the others. They each had a larger desk, a sitting area and a bed. Naruto didn't look through what was there because he wasn't sure if anyone was currently living there or not. Upon examination, one room was rather messy and it looked more empty than any of the others. The closet was empty and things were strewn about as if someone left in a hurry.

Making his way back down the hallway he went to the two doors and the ladder. One door turned out to lead to a bathroom and he climbed up and down the ladder to find a chair with some handles and a screen. He really didn't know what they did so he left them alone.

Naruto went to the panel on the other door and pushed the button to open it. No sooner did it open then he saw something and qiocl;u hid along the wall of the hallway and out of sight. When nothing happened, he peered back in and saw what he did the first time, the outline of a person and a table. The person wasn't moving and looked to have their head bowed.

Not taking his eyes off the person, he stuck his hand into the room and moved it around, working on the theory that the lights turned on when someone walked in. The lights hummed to life and revealed what looked like a piece of metal armor. It was gray in color and had a helmet and everything. The 'table' was longer than it was wide and there was a glass tube on one side of the room with many cords and cables running to it from an open panel on one of the walls. He saw several instruments and devices which he did not recognize as well as boxes that filled up the room. Naruto calmed down as he looked closely at the 'armor'. It had thin arms and legs which Naruto found odd for a piece of armor and made him wondered how a person could properly wear it with those pieces attached the way they were. It also had a strange mask with a tube coming from it.

He stared at it for a while before he decided that it was too weird and he didn't want to look at it anymore. He shut the door and decided to stay away from that room and finish exploring the rest of the object. Walking down the hallway to where he first entered though that tube, this time, he went in the other direction that he didn't choose. He found it slightly disappointing that it didn't go very far. The opposite end of the hallway led to a couple of storage rooms, one room that had many seats but was empty, three doors that wouldn't open and seemingly led out into the water, and a single large room that had several devices and reminded him of the large cylinders that he had seen while swimming around outside.

He went back to the room with the table in it and sat down in one of the chairs. Thinking about everything, he came to several conclusions. The first conclusion was that no one was there. The second was that he still didn't know exactly what the object was. It seemed to be some kind of capsule-like home but he still couldn't think of a purpose for it. The third conclusion was that it didn't appear as if anyone had been there for a while. The air smelled 'old' and it seemed that someone who had been there had left, possibly in a hurry. The fourth and final conclusion was that since he discovered it and whoever had owned it had possibly abandoned it, then it now belonged to him.

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Seeing as he believed that the 'object' was now his, he set about looking through everything on it in detail. He started going through all the containers that he could find in the large storage room. He found several different devices which he could not identify, clothing, what looked like survival kits, many different packages with writing and labels that he couldn't read, and what he thought were medical supplies or something of that nature.

He did find a few interesting things though and put them aside in a separate pile for him to further inspect later and take with him. Naruto looked through the room farthest from the glass and chair room but only found what appeared to be tools. Passing by and ignoring the really strange room he went to the bedrooms again. He looked at the smaller sets of rooms first. The less used rooms had some storage but none it was very interesting. It wasn't until he got to the used bedrooms that he found the interesting stuff.

An assortment of weapons were part of the contents of the closets as well as several dirty magazines and clothing. The weapons were mostly knives but a few had some kind of handled metal device. Naruto assumed they were weapons as they were placed in holsters that were attached to a belt. He had no idea how it worked though but wanted to find out.

Before Naruto could fatally shoot himself with one of the blasters, his gaze shifted completely as he noticed a few 'trinkets' at the bottom of one of the closets. They were partially buried under some clothes but a shine of metal caught his eye and he put the device he was holding down and went to look at the new objects.

Removing the clothes, he found a few books, some boxes, and two oddly shaped objects. He ignored the books and went right to the objects. The first was a cube that had metal on the edges and the same metal design on each side with blue glass filling in the rest of each side. He thought it looked like a piece of stained glass and inspected it thoroughly The second was a pyramid that was nowhere near as nice as the first shape, so he didn't touch it. It had two types of metal with different etchings and symbols carved into it.

The three other items that he had found were metal boxes. He opened one to find that it was empty, which was rather disappointing. He tossed the box over his shoulder and went on to the next one.

The second box was larger and more rectangular than the other two but locked so he couldn't get it open. There didn't appear to be a keyhole but several small buttons with unrecognizable symbols on each. Naruto thought it could have been a type of combination lock or something but he wasn't sure.

The third box was open like the first box but it was far from empty. Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the gold necklace that the box contained. It was some type of golden ornament on a gold chain. He lifted it into the air to inspect it and found that it was a little heavy and smiled at how much money he might be able to get from it, especially if it was solid gold. He had heard stories about treasured in buried chests and now he had found some.

Naruto picked up the necklace from the box and put it around his neck. It was rather heavy but that just made him think of the larger stacks of Ryo that it would bring him. He bundled all of the other smaller items together in a blanket so they would be easy to carry and started going through all the other rooms.

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An hour or so later, Naruto had packed up several things that he had wanted to take with him. He was however confused as to how he would get them out of the ship without ruining them in the water. It was during this contemplation that he first noticed that he wasn't feeling very well. He ignored it at the time because he had just found a backpack that would hold all of the items that he wanted to take with him and it actually looked to seal shut and possibly be watertight.

While he was happy at his discovery, the feeling of illness made itself known again. It started as a headache, which he seldom got, about half an hour before but he didn't pay it any attention. He noticed that he was feeling muscle aches while he was packing all of the things into the backpack. It was when he was putting the pyramid shaped object into the backpack that he stopped as he felt warmth run down his top lip. Naruto wiped his nose and found that he was bleeding. He had nose bleeds before but never this much blood and it usually involved him picking his nose beforehand. Naruto was rather confused as to what was happening.

It was only then did he realize how dizzy he felt. Having no idea what was going on, Naruto started to panic. When he tried to stop the blood flow from his nose, he felt warmth coming from beneath his eyes. Checking his cheeks, he found blood there as well. Why were his eyes now bleeding?

Naruto fell to one knee as he started coughing and felt pain in his chest. He covered his mouth but when he removed his hand, he noticed that there was blood on it too. He was hyperventilating now but had no idea what he could or should do. For the most part, he froze. As his symptoms got worse, he suddenly had the feeling that the necklace was causing this.

Despite having no idea where that thought came from, Naruto still followed it. He took off the necklace which now felt rather hot and threw it away. Once it was removed, he did feel slightly better but he was still bleeding and coughing up blood. It now seemed to be coming out of his ears too.

Another thought came to him, which was to go to the room that he hadn't wanted to go back to. For some reason he had the feeling that he might be saved if he went there. Bracing himself against the wall, he stumbled down hallway to the room. He managed to make it to the door and hit the button on the panel to open the door.

He stumbled into the room but managed to grab the table to keep himself from falling. The only word he could get out was, "Help," before he collapsed to the floor. He let go of the pyramid shaped object when he fell and ti landed on the floor near the droid. Had he not been losing consciousness, he would have been surprised by the fact that he had still been holding it.

A moment later, the photoreceptors of the medical droid lit up. It found an injured boy on the ground and quickly went to work.

x-x

The disembodied spirit of Darth Plagueis watched as the medical droid placed the child into the bacta tank. He appeared as a dark apparition above his holocron. After being killed by his apprentice, his spirit had not gone over to the other side. His research and experiments into cheating death had allowed his spirit to remain in the world of the living after the death of his physical body. He had quickly analyzed the situation and attached himself to his holocron, which he had a connection with and which was hidden away in a secret alcove in his chambers. He quickly found that he had very limited abilities but could affect the physical world with his Force powers.

After the reactor was destroyed he had no idea how long he would have to wait until he would be found. He knew about the minor weapons smuggling operations on his planet but didn't know someone was there and were quick to arrive. He purposely unlocked the secret panel which hid some of his most secret possessions so that his holocron would be found as he was not able to move the holocron that he was now attached to.

Though he had no idea how he would accomplish it, Plagueis had begun plotting revenge against his apprentice for killing him and completely disrupting his work only a few minutes after the death of his body. His recent breakthrough on midi-chlorian manipulation was almost forgotten in his anger.

He hadn't counted on the scavengers breaking open the locked boxes that he had. They were locked for a reason as the contents were rather powerful and dangerous, even to himself. At the time he had no way to stop them as he had only recently been a spirit and had no control over his form. The crewman had opened the first box and put on the necklace that it contained and then opened the second and found its golden contents. The human had quickly hid the boxes and items to sell later and keep the money for himself but the effects of the necklace he was wearing were already starting to take their effect.

From what Plagueis had been able to discover, the necklace was for use in rituals and designed to enhance the dark side connection of its wearer. He had discovered it years before but hadn't had much time to study it. The effects that it had on a being that wasn't aligned with the dark side were immediate conversion. However, the effects on a being that wasn't even force sensitive were usually complete madness and conversion to the dark side.

The later had occurred in this case and the effects were stronger than Plagueis thought they would be. He had never worn the necklace as he could not determine if it would be dangerous for him to wear it or not. Many ancient Sith amulets were made for a single user and prevented others from using them. The method of prevention ranged from a curse, conversion to the dark side in the case of a lightside user, a plague, instant death, and possible possession if the amulet still had the essence of its creator.

Given these possibilities, Plagueis had decided to never wear the necklace until he was sure he could use if effectively and safely. The crew member was not able to handle the surge of the dark side Force energies and nearly killed everyone on board while setting the ship on some unknown course. At that point, Plagueis had been unable to act as the only remaining crew was the captain and he would have had to come into contact with the holocron in order to be possessed by him.

Instead, the captain had packed everything that he could into an escape pod and abandoned the ship. For the next seven years, Plagueis was trapped in the ship and left to ponder his own thoughts. During that time, he had realized that revenge against Sidious would give him nothing and that what had happened to him was not unique in the Rule of Two. He had become too immersed in his own work and not paid enough attention to the doings of his apprentice. He had strayed from the goals of the Sith in order to further his own research. Looking back, he was surprised that Sidious waited as long as he did before killing him. He was still angry about his apprentice not actually facing him but rather killing him in his sleep.

For those seven, he had waited in the tomb-like ship for someone to find him. The probability of being found was incredibly slim though. The ship was deep in the Unknown Region, it could have crashed on any number of planets, and the number of habitable worlds with intelligent life was probably incredibly scarce in that region of the galaxy. It seemed an incredibly strange series of events that had lead him to the planet he was marooned on. The odds of every being found were astronomical and yet he had been found. A small boy had found the ship and managed, with a little help, to get aboard.

Plagueis had two options for leaving, he could possess or convince the boy to take his holocron outside or he could get to the medical droid and use a Force ability called mechu-deru to reprogram it to follow his commands. Seeing as he didn't want to scare the boy away, he had hidden his presence from being sensed and hidden his spirit from being seen.

Having seven years to discovery all that he could do while in spirit form, he found that he could not move very far from his holocron and thus could not get to the droid to reprogram it. He needed someone or something to move his holocron.

The child turned out not to be the brightest star in the galaxy and obviously the boy's planet possessed only rudimentary technology at best, as the ship was so alien to him. Before the boy had a chance to accidentally kill himself with the blaster he was pointing at his own face, Plagueis had intervened and attracted the child's attention to the holocrons.

Unfortunately, like the crew-member, the boy was more interested in the boxes and hadn't touched his holocron. While the first necklace had been dangerous to some, the golden necklace was dangerous to everyone that touched or wore it. With Plagueis's limited ability to use the force in his current situation he was unable to stop the boy from putting on the necklace. After that, he calculated that it was just a matter of minutes before he would die a most horrible death.

The plan therefore changed to having the boy to take his holocron to the medical droid. Surprisingly, it took nearly an hour for the child to finally succumb to the effects of the necklace. Far longer than he anticipated.

Only the person that created the necklace could actually where it. Everyone else who tried was slowly killed as their body was destroyed from the inside out. Plagueis was fortunate that the boy had grabbed his holocron before completely succumbing to the effects of the necklace.

He quickly found that a language barrier existed between them but he was able to plant suggestions in the child's mind to remove the necklace and go to the infirmary. Despite his holocron being on the floor, Plagueis was close enough to the medical droid to be able to activate it and alter its programming to get it to take him away from the ship.

He would have initiated his plan but his curiosity and the scientist in him had gotten the better of him and he wanted to know how the child was able to survive exposure to the necklace for so long. Plagueis did feel something odd about the boy when he had touched his holocron but he just passed it off as the boy having extremely low force sensitivity. Now however he wasn't so sure though.

Using his force ability, he manipulated the droid to take a blood sample. The droid had then gone about taking standard measures to heal and save the boy. When the scavengers had raided his facility, they took everything that he had in his infirmary, which included the droid, medical supplies, bacta tank, and even instruments. Therefore, the infirmary now had a blood scanner that could determine the boys midi-chlorian count to satisfy his curiosity.

He had no doubt that the boy would die as no one had ever survived wearing the necklace and the boy had worn it for so long that the damage must have been extensive to his body and cells. The droid still followed its standard programing and hooked up a transfusion as well as several other IV's to try and stabilize the boy, then it had put him into the bacta tank. The bacta was doing its job of repairing his body but with the blood loss and damage to organs, should have been impossible for a human to survive.

Once the droid was finished with its work, which Plagueis allowed because he was patent, it took the sample of blood and ran it through the scanner. It only took a few seconds to scan for just about everything that would be present in the boys blood. The results were finished and the droid said in a robotic voice, "No midi-chlorians found."

x-x

Plagueis was confused for a moment. What the droid just told him was impossible. 'The device must be malfunctioning.' he thought as that was the obvious answer. Midi-chlorians were present in the cells of all life and it was believed that they were needed for life to even exist. Values per cell could range from less than 2,000 per cell which wasn't uncommon for some humanoids. An amount of about 2,500 per cell was considered average for humanoids and with this amount they were not Force sensitive. A being with a count of around 5,000 was sensitive to the Force and beings with between 5,000 and less than 20,000 where able to both detect and use the Force.

The boy was admittedly near death but that should have no bearing on his midi-chlorian count. He told the droid to get another sample and test again. The droid followed his wishes but the results came up the same. Plagueis had the droid look through everything else in the room to see if there was another device that could do the test. The droid couldn't find anything else.

Getting an idea, Plagueis had the droid test some of the blood packets that were taken from his infirmary. He only stocked blood from beings that had higher midi-chlorian counts and even had blood from a Jedi that he had come across and killed. That blood was what the boy was currently getting so the droid tested several other packets and came back with the expected readings for each packet.

The only conclusions that Plagueis could come up with to explain the phenomenon was that either, the boy didn't have any midi-chlorians, which was impossible, or that something in his blood was interfering with the readings. The scan however didn't detect any anomalies besides some different antibodies in the blood which would be normal for a different planet.

Plagueis ordered another sample taken so that he could look at it on the microscope that was also taken from his infirmary. The droid complied and took the sample. Magnifying the sample to incredible levels gave a view of a part of the cell that wasn't normally seen. While midi-chlorians were incredibly small, technology could still see them.

The magnification of the sample was brought up on the screen and Plagueis saw something that he didn't expect. What he saw was an absence of midi-chlorians. The boys cells didn't have any. The cell should have several thousand and they should be visible at this magnification but no matter where the viewer moved in the cells, there just weren't any of the organisms present.

Plagueis stared at the monitor and looked in confusion. Everything that he knew about midi-chlorians had just been questioned. What he was seeing wasn't supposed to be possible. He told the droid to reduce the magnification so that he could look at more of an entire cell. He stared at the viewer and saw something that he just didn't expect. The cell seemed to have some kind of vein like structure in it that was glowing a light blue and emanated from a small node in the middle of the cell. It stretched the entire length of the cell. He had the droid reduce the magnification again so that he could look at multiple cells and noticed that they were all the same.

Deep in thought, Plagueis had an idea. He asked the droid for a tissue sample this time. What he saw was rather interesting. The tissue sample was very standard as it had several layers of cells all bundled together. However, each cell had a node as well as a vein that went out of the cell and seemed to merge with the veins from the other cells to form a larger vein.

From this, Plageuis began to build a hypothesis about what he was seeing. He knew that the Force was an energy field that surrounded and penetrated all things. A high concentration of midi-chlorians gave a being the ability to detect and manipulate this energy field. From what he felt from the boy and what he was seeing on the monitor, the cells of his body seemed to have their own energy field and produced their own energy that traveled through the body in pathways or veins that combined with each other to form larger veins. He was positive that they might form an even larger pathway that seemed to mimic the bodies circulatory system, similar to capillaries and veins for blood to travel through. Since nearly every cell was linked or in contact with the energy field, the energy probably circulated through the body similar to the blood. The energy could possibly even control or regulate the functions of the body.

It was an amazing phenomenon that he would never have thought existed. More than anything, he wanted to study and learn about what he was seeing on the monitor. Was the energy field and energy different from the Force? Could it be harnessed and manipulated like the Force? If so, what kind of abilities developed from it? Did other people have this or was the boy special in some way? He wanted to know.

He had myriad of questions that he wanted answered. This boy and perhaps even this uncharted planet had turned out to be far more interesting than he ever would have thought. Of course, that all depended on if he survived. Otherwise he would have to find someone else. Turning to the boy, he ordered the droid to focus all of its efforts on trying to save his life.

Amazingly enough, after a few more minutes of treatment from the droid, the monitors indicated that his condition was actually stabilizing. The boy had lost a large amount of blood due to severe internal bleeding and yet, without even using up a third of the blood transfusion bag, he was already on his way to making a recovery. Plagueis knew that even with bacta and a blood transfusion, this type of regeneration would take several times longer than it had. His organs didn't fail, his body didn't bleed out, and despite the damage, it seemed he would make a full recovery.

Plagueis was determined to find out all he could about what he had just seen and since the boy wasn't going anywhere for a while, he would have time to look through the boy's mind in order to find some answers and satisfy some of his questions and burning curiosity. He would also need to establish communication and perhaps learn the local language.

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	3. Chapter 3

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

Thank you for your reviews and interest in my story.

x-x

**44 BBY – Current Year**

Chapter III: Introductions

Continuation of the previous chapter

x-x

Plageuis continued to plan a strategy for what to do. He had always been a planner and never jumped into anything without thinking it out. Most of the thoughts that went through his head concerned the blonde boy in the bacta tank in front of him. It had been minutes since he discovered that the boy had no midi-chlorians and since then he had run every test that he could with the instruments that he had.

The boys recovery rate was phenomenal. So far, there was no hint of infection and despite having several of his organs damaged, they were repairing themselves with the aid of the bacta. The boy was fast on his way to recovery from wounds and damaged that would have killed others. The only thing he could find wrong with the boy was some malnutrition.

Plagueis determined that the boy had several differences compared with regular humans. His body was stronger and had the potential to gain immense strength due to differences in the muscle tissue. His joints were far stronger and durable, meaning that he could survive immense falls and land without a problem. His nervous system was superior as was his hand-eye coordination and he could probably react faster than a normal human.

The reasoning for these differences most likely had to do with whatever energy and energy field that his body was producing. He thought he felt something off about the boy when he first felt him and it was actually the boy's energy field which wasn't repelling the energy field of the Force but was actually a barrier to it and prevented it from entering the boy's body.

It was similar to a person wearing a rain coat while walking through a rainstorm and never getting wet. The coat wasn't forcing the water away from the body but was a barrier that inhibited it from getting the person wet. The boys energy was exiting his body through various regulatory points along the pathway and creating the energy field which kept the energy field of the Force away from him. This created a small buildup of the Force on the barrier which had lead to him believing that it was minor Force sensitivity. If had tried to sense beyond the barrier, he would have found a void in the Force. Plagueis found it difficult to actually sense the boy's energy as it was similar to the Force but different enough that he had to try rather hard to sense it and he deduced that his current proximity to the boy also played a factor.

Plagueis's thoughts then turned to what he would do after the boy woke up. He would have to determine everything that he could about the boy while asleep and probe his mind before making a decision. If possible, he wanted to learn as much as possible about the energy the boy had and would offer his own knowledge about the ship and possibly universe in exchange. The boy obviously had no need to learn the Force as his body couldn't use it it but he was incredibly curious about the starship and would probably either tell Plagueis everything that he wanted to know or acquire this information for him. However, the boy was still rather young and it was definitely possible that he didn't know much about the energy that his body produced.

Moving towards the bacta tank, Plagueis extended his arm. It phased through the tube as he was a spirit and no longer had a physical body. He had to concentrate in order for his hand to become solid again and make physical contact with the boy's head. Using his abilities in draining knowledge and reading thoughts, Plagueis searched the boy's mind to find the information that he is looking for. While using these techniques, he began to feel a pulling sensation. Initially he tried to resist but the pull got stronger and he found it difficult to concentrate on searching for the information he wanted, while also resisting the unknown force.

Giving into his curiosity, Plagueis stopped resisting the pull.

x-x

A moment later, Plagueis found himself in an underground tunnel system or sewer. No longer an apparition, he discovered that he had a complete body and feet to move. The sewer had several inches of water and he was instantly aware that he wasn't alone. For a brief moment, he wondered if what he was feeling was the boy but it felt different. 'Where I am?' were his thoughts as he knew that this wasn't the boy's mind.

Gliding through the water and towards the disturbance that he felt, he passed many dark passageways off the main corridor that he was on. Following the disturbance, he made a turn off the main route and entered a very large room. Before him was a large golden gate with many bars which stretched up to the darkened ceiling high above. The water extended into the cage and Plagueis was aware that he was being watched. One large red eye was open in the cage and the slit red pupil was watching him.

He couldn't make out just what the eye was attached to as the darkness in the cage shrouded whatever was watching him. Not knowing anything about the creature before him or why exactly it was caged inside of the boy he asked it a question, "Where am I?"

Plagueis wasn't sure if he would get a response to his question but a moment later, a deep voice responded in an unfamiliar language.

Surprised, Plagueis took a moment to determined what he should do. Since the creature was able to talk, it would be beneficial to find out everything that it knew. However, he would first need to solve the language barrier. He could have used his abilities on the creature but thought better of it as he knew nothing about it or what it was capable of. Plagueis could clearly feel its malevolence and power which greatly surpassed his own, and anything that he had ever encountered before. It was a good idea not to anger it until he knew more.

Walking out of the room, Plagueis looked down the directions that he could take, he used the Force to make a decision and went in the direction that he didn't come from. He was looking for the boy's mind but that room obviously wasn't it. He surmised that this was some type of representation of the boy's body and therefore he had to follow the pathways to get to the mind. Normally the techniques that he used didn't involve anything like what he was experiencing. He usually probed the mind while staying in his own body/spirit and not having his consciousness pulled into the being he was probing. Then again, the boy wasn't connected to the Force and had a unique energy produced by his own body, so there were bound to be differences.

Plagueis walked through the sewer until he found the correct passage that he was looking for. He stepped into the darkness of the passageway. Emerging into another room, he found a small ledge and a very large body of water in front of him. Inside of the water was what he was looking for. A set of stair led right into the water so he walked down them.

Plagueis found that he didn't need to breath and the water offered almost no resistance to him. He walked forward and got closer to the very large brain that the force told him was here. It was the representation of all the boy's knowledge and thoughts and had several large scrolls inserted into it. All Plagueis needed to do was place his hand on it and find the information that he wanted.

x-x

Plagueis once again entered the room with the cage. The eye once again opened to stare at him and he again asked his question but this time in the same language as the creature and boy used, "Where is this place?"

After hearing a brief chuckling from the create, it responded with, "_Inside of the seal._"

Plagueis was confused by this as he didn't know what the creature meant by 'seal' but he didn't let it bother him as he would find out eventually. "What exactly are you? I can't see anything except your eye but I'm quite sure I've never seen anything similar to you." admitted Plagueis as he remained honest until such time as he would need to tell a lie or hold information back.

The creature chuckled again and said, "_I could ask you the very same question. You don't look or feel like the humans I've seen. __**I am the Kyuubi no Kitsune**__._" and an outline of the creature was revealed when it manipulated its own energy which poured off its body in a deep red color.

Plagueis was curious about the name as it sounded more like a title but the display of power was the most intriguing aspect of their exchange. The sheer hatred and malice that poured off the creature was astounding. 'It isn't even displaying the full power available to it.' he realized but wasn't going to show any signs that he was intimidated. From what he could tell with the Force, the beast was rather intelligent and he might be able to subdue it with the force while it was in its cage but he knew he couldn't fight it if it was not in the cage. 'It would be best to talk with it before trying anything else.' he reasoned.

Plagueis tried to categorize the creature from things that he had heard about but nothing compared. It seemed to be composed of the same energy the boy had but it was infinitely more powerful and possessed a sharp mind from what Plagueis could determine with the Force. If Plagueis didn't know any better, he would have thought that it was a being composed entirely of the dark side.

"I am known as Darth Plagueis, Lord of the Sith. I'm not exactly from around these parts, so I have never heard of you before. I would like to know about you and hear anything that you would care to talk about. Especially concerning this planet and the power that its people, as well as you yourself, possess." said Plagueis.

x-x

A few minutes earlier, inside of the seal

x-x

The Kyuubi opened one of its eyes to see who had come to visit him. He didn't think it was his container as he could feel great malice and hatred coming from the figure but he knew it wasn't Uchiha Madara or anyone else that he had ever encountered before. The figure entered the room with the cage and then spoke in an unknown language.

The Kyuubi answered with, "_Speak some sense or leave_." in a dull voice. It was rather curious though as it never expected anyone to enter the seal for quite some time to come and wondered why did they speak another language? The strangest part was that this person also didn't seem to have chakra but possessed something else.

The man left and went out of the seal into the boy's mind. The Kyuubi was slightly concerned as if the boy died then he would die. He had already felt his jailer nearly die from some unknown attack. He thought perhaps the man could have been responsible but was unsure. There wasn't anything he could do as his jailer had yet to access any of his chakra and the seal was as solid as when it was first placed. He just hoped that his runt of a jailer wouldn't get himself killed by doing something stupid. It was embarrassing enough to have such a child as his container.

After a period of time, the man returned but this time spoke in words that the Kyuubi could understand. They conversed for quite some time. Hours passed while they spoke of many different topics. The Kyuubi had been interested to know about the galaxy and all of the other planets and species that inhabited it. He rather enjoyed it when he was told by Plagueis that he had seen or heard of no other being that could rival his power in the galaxy.

In turn, the Kyuubi provided information about the boy and about chakra. He told Plagueis about what it could do, how it was made, and about the ninjas that used it. The 'seal' was mentioned and fuinjutsu, along with information about the boy's parents. Plagueis had been unable to find much about this knowledge while looking through the boy's mind, so this information was very valuable.

Plagueis left after his most immediate questions were answered but said that he would return to talk again. The Kyuubi was actually looking forward to it.

x-x

Back in the ship

x-x

Opening his eyes, Plagueis found himself back in his spirit form. He idly noticed that the blood transfusion bag was just as full as when he had left and asked the droid about it. To his surprise, the droid responded that it was the same bag that he started with. Asking the droid again, this time about how long he had been in contact with the boy, the droid responded that he touched the boys head for only a few seconds.

'I spent hours talking with the vulpine creature, yet only seconds passed out here. How interesting.' he thought as his mind starting working on how he could use this to his advantage. He also noticed that although he was inside the boy's mind, his body there still retained his connection to the force. 'It probably had something to do with my spirit being in contact with the boy.' He believed that the barrier the boys energy field created wasn't very powerful and could be pierced by the Force, given some coaxing, but under normal circumstances wouldn't.

If he was going to get back to the rest of the galaxy or at least some form of civilization, he would need several things to happen and a good amount of preparation. Plagueis wanted to study this planet, as well as its mysteries, as much as possible but he really didn't have the equipment or resources to do this. Therefore he would have to get back to the known galaxy and acquire such resources.

He had a ship but it didn't have any fuel, at least not enough to even get him off the planet. More fuel would have to be created or another power source obtained. The level of technology that the planet possessed was rather primitive and it would be exceedingly difficult to find any power source that would be able to power the ship. Plagueis just hoped that the fuel wasn't something incredibly exotic like hypermatter.

It was also possible that the crash had damaged the ship in some way. Everything would have to be thoroughly checked. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he would need help. Someone would have to work on getting the fuel or alternative power source and determine if anything was damaged on the ship. Plagueis would also need someone to pilot the ship as he couldn't do it and a medical droid wasn't suited for that kind of task.

The boy in the bacta tank could provide what he needed. He wouldn't really be an apprentice but more like an assistant, servant, or pawn. He would need to teach the boy though, which could take a while, and in mean time he could have the boy bring him more information about 'chakra' and 'jutsu'. An arrangement could easily be made with seemingly mutually beneficial terms.

From what Plagueis could tell from the boy's mind, he was desperate to be noticed and acknowledged by anyone and everyone around him. He also had much hatred for the villagers but had fixated the dream of trying to get them to acknowledge him and becoming the leader of the village. The boy had chosen all the wrong reasons to do this. He had no idea what would be in store for him in running a village of any size and it was a foolish dream of a child seeking attention. Even with the determination that the boy had, deep down he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to do it. The boy buried all of these doubts, anger and hatred but it couldn't be gotten rid of and was there fore Plagueis to find.

It would be rather easy for him to play on those fears and hatred. He could turn the boy into his servant and against the village that hated him. Plagueis had all the information that he needed to do it. The Kyuubi creature had been most helpful, as were the boy's own memories. It seemed as though the Force had provided him with all that he needed to solve the problems that he was facing. If only the boy could have been a little smarter.

x-x

Inside of Naruto's body

x-x

As new blood flowed into Naruto's veins, his body had decided that it was foreign, as the cells had no chakra, and therefore could be dangerous. So it sought to neutralize the incoming cells. The cells, which were full of midi-chlorians, were destroyed one by one. Instead of just dying though, the remains of the cells were recycled to help the body.

While midi-chlorians were not transferable to another person and force sensitivity couldn't be acquired through a blood transfusion, Naruto's body didn't know that or cared as it started using the leftover cell mass to repair its damaged areas. Chakra poured into the damaged areas and went to work repairing them. The midi-chlorians present in the cells were attracted to the chakra, specifically the chakra network and they were either placed into damaged cells or 'hitched' a ride on the chakra pathways and followed them to new cells that were undamaged. Apparently the midi-chlorians liked there new home but they were unable to feel a connection with the force so they lied dormant.

More blood had been transferred into Naruto as the monitors indicated that the initial amount wasn't enough and his red blood cell count was still rather low. As more foreign blood entered his body, the same process happened until every cell in his body had midi-chlorians in them. At some point, the process stopped though. It was as if the midi-chlorians had decided that they didn't want a higher concentration in the cells they were in, also the jedi blood that was being used had run out and the blood another force sensitive was being used. Perhaps the midi-chlorians from the jedi just didn't want to share their cells with other midi-chlorians from someone else.

This process would ultimately leave Naruto with somewhere around nine thousand midi-chlorians per cell in his body which was that of a jedi who had average force sensitivity. When the midi-chlorians first entered his cells, they were not able to feel the force due to the barrier caused by the energy field produced by the boys body. However, that all changed when Plagueis made physical contact with the boy.

When Plagueis entered the boy's mindscape, he was able to use the Force because he brought it through the barrier. While the barrier was able to stop the Force from entering Naruto's body it was by no means a brick wall. It wasn't very rigid or sturdy at all. Plageuis's trip into Naruto's seal and mind, created an opening in that barrier.

The midi-chlorians weren't able to bring the Force to them because all of the Force energy that entered was being used by Plagueis but once he was finished, a brief opening in the barrier was left. The opening started closing but it was enough for the midi-chlorians that were in the cells to feel the Force and pull it to them. As more midi-chlorians entered and became part of Naruto's body, more Force flowed through the hole in the barrier, and the midi-chlorians were able to alter the barrier to allow the Force to enter without being hindered.

It would take several hours for this entire process to finish. After that time had passed, Naruto would be able to feel and manipulate the Force without problems when he woke up. The Force now would naturally flow through his body. Just like anyone else from the rest of the known galaxy.

x-x

Plagueis had been silently plotting his next steps for over an hour. The problem he faced was that he needed the boys help but he was a Sith and wasn't going to admit that he needed anyone's help. He determined what he was going to talk about with the boy and what things to say in order to bring the boy over to his side. The only obstacle that he could think of was that the boy was rather superstitious in that he was terribly afraid of ghosts.

Plagueis was a spirit but had the exact look of a classic ghost. The effect was only worsened by the fact that he wasn't human. He was a Muun, so he couldn't show his face at all until after explaining things and would need to remain cloaked. From looking through his memories, Plagueis knew that the boy had never even considered the thought that the stars in the sky were part of other systems with planets and different species. Possibly no one from his planet had that thought either. It was a lot to take in but with everything combined together, it was definitely enough to scare the boy off. He didn't want the boy to run screaming off the ship and never return, or worse, run screaming off the ship and bring others back. The last thing that Plagueis wanted was to be used or have his holocron destroyed as it was the only thing keeping him in this world. His Force powers were limited at best and he really didn't have a good way to defend himself.

The powers of Sith spirits always varied. It depended on many factors which included: the power of the person before they died, how much anger they held onto, and the location where they were at. If they were in an area strong in the dark-side then the spirits would be stronger. Plagueis was not in a favorable position at all.

He would have to use the holocron to his advantage. The hologram it produced was an image of the upper portion of his body and would allow him to speak through it while his spirit watched from the shadows and stayed out of sight. Plagueis had no doubt in his mind that the activated holocron would catch the boy's attention and interest.

It was during this contemplation that he began to feel something. He didn't even register it at first because he was so deep in thought but as it grew, he finally took notice of it. Turning to the bacta tank, he felt with the Force and found something rather strange. The boy's energy field was no longer impeding the force. 'That doesn't make any sense.' he thought and cautiously approached the tank.

The boy was still unconscious but he could feel the Force moving through him and yet the other energy was still there as well. Curious, he told the droid to collect another blood sample and perform another Midi-chlorian count.

The droid confirmed Plagueis's suspicions when it told him that the blood tested at an average of nine thousand midi-chlorians per cell. 'The boy goes from no midi-chlorians to nine thousand in a matter of hours. I would say that it was impossible but I've had a great many impossibilities happen today. Now I have something else to consider.' he thought as he stared at the tank.

If the boy was able to use the Force, then he could make him his Apprentice. However, it was against the rules of the Sith though as Sidious had killed him in the right of ascension and was now a Master of the Sith and would train his own Apprentice. The Rule of Two didn't necessarily account for a situation like this though. 'I would have to gain more of the boy's trust and loyalty if I was to teach him the ways of the Force as well as just teaching him about technology. It would also be better as he could protect the ship and himself with the Force, especially since I know little of using 'chakra'. Perhaps he won't be my Apprentice but maybe a Sith Acolyte or something along those lines. I wouldn't teach him enough to be a true Apprentice. I am very curious to see what he would be capable of with the Force and this other power that he has.' decided Plagueis and he made his decision, he would train the boy.

x-x

Naruto's eyes opened to look up at a strange light fixture that he had never seen before. He looked around and found himself in the room that he told himself he would never go back into. The suit of armor was gone. He sat up and examined himself as memories of what happened flooded back to him.

He quickly checked his nose, eyes, and ears but no blood was present. There wasn't even any dried blood either. He felt a little strange and he had a bad headache. Thinking perhaps it had all been a dream, he got off the table and his stomach growled. How long had it been since he had eaten?

As he left the infirmary, he never stopped to think how he had gotten on the table in the first place as he had fallen on the floor. Food was the only thing he had on his mind now. Walking into the hallway, he was about to go back to the tube that he had come through so he could get back home when he noticed a light down the hallway. The light was in the area with the table and seats but the room lights weren't on.

Cautiously, Naruto walked down the hallway and the lights in the room turned on with his movement but this no longer surprised him. He looked at the table and saw that the pyramid object that he had earlier was sitting on the table and it was glowing red. Above the object, the image of a person was detailed in the red light. The individual was cloaked and Naruto could barely make out his chin, let alone the rest of his face. There was no way to determine what he actually looked like or skin tone because the hologram was just a shade of red. The image was only ten or so inches high and the figure seemed to be staring at him.

Naruto was incredibly curious as he had never seen anything like what the pyramid was doing. The hologram sat still as Naruto slowly approached. Before Naruto reached the table, its spoke, "Greetings young one." it said in a dull nasally voice.

Naruto jumped when he heard the voice and looked around the room until his eyes came back to the hologram. He didn't know what to think about the device, it seemed similar to his television but it didn't have a screen and was red. He then began to wonder how it managed to get out here when he was sure he left it somewhere else.

"Yes, I am talking to you from this device and no, I am not some type of recording." Naruto for his part just stared at the device.

"How.." Naruto started but he was interrupted by the voice, "At this point it would be a waste of time to explain it to you as you don't have any grasp on technology, especially something so advanced as this. You should just talk to me like I was any normal person as I can see and hear you as well as you can see and hear me." stated the voice and the image barely moved.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked while not taking his eyes away from the device. He was rather suspicious of it and afraid of what was going on.

"Ahh...yes. Your customs are to for me to introduce myself and then you reciprocate. My name is Darth Plageuis, Lord of the Sith." it stated.

Naruto stared at the device for a second as he didn't know what 'reciprocate' meant or what the man's title meant so he just gave his name as well, "Uzumaki Naruto. Future Hokage"

The image didn't move but Plagueis tried not to roll his eyes at the response. "Well Naruto, it seems that you have stumbled onto something..."

"I KNEW IT WAS IMPORTANT!" Naruto yelled in triumph and Plagueis's image tried to remain calm.

"Actually it isn't and it does belong to me." he stated and the boy quieted down immediately.

"You probably thought that this ship was worth something but I'm afraid to tell you that it isn't something that can be sold since it wouldn't have a price. It is an interesting discovery but you can't sell it to anyone because it belongs to me. If you told anyone, they might try and steal it from me, especially the government of your village. They would probably keep it a secret and take everything that I have for themselves." stated Plagueis.

Naruto was sure whether he wanted to believe what the image said or not. Would the Old Man really take this away from Plagueis and keep everything a secret? He didn't think so but wasn't sure. Naruto did have a question about something the man had said.

"Wait, you said ship? So it is a boat?" asked Naruto confused.

"No, this ship is far more advanced than a simple boat. It's meant for something much more amazing than that." said Plagueis.

"So what is it, what does it do, can I see it in action?" asked Naruto all at once.

Plagueis didn't allow the image to show his inner smirk and said, "I'm afraid not. You see, it isn't working right now and would need to be fixed first."

"And its not worth anything?"

"No, I'm afraid not and I'm not selling it. Besides, its far to heavy to remove from the lake bed anyway and no one else would even know what to do with it."

"What about that golden necklace?" Naruto protested.

"You mean the one that nearly killed you?" which caused Naruto to instantly quiet in shock and Plagueis continued, "Yes the memories that you have are true. You nearly died from putting it on. That necklace has a very powerful and deadly curse associated with it and if it wasn't for me than you would have died. I acquired it some time ago and tried to put it away safely in those boxes but evidently it wasn't safe enough." he stated.

"Um..thanks, I guess and I'm sorry." stated Naruto while looking away from the image and down at the floor.

Plagueis merely nodded his head. "Its alright, no harm done." He stated as he was first trying to build up some trust between them and make sure that Naruto wouldn't tell anyone about the ship as he was playing it off as being rather worthless. It wasn't a lie though. No one in his village would be able to use the ship and they might not even be able to get it out of the lake, much less back to the village for study.

"I was wondering...would you like to learn more about this ship and its workings? I could teach you." inquired Plagueis.

Naruto's eyes widened at the statement, 'He would teach me something?'

"You'd teach me?!" Naruto blurted out.

"Yes...of course I would be willing to teach you. After all, you did discover this ship and took the time to learn to swim and investigate it to get here. Its the least I could do. However, you would have to keep this as our little secret. I wouldn't want anyone else to find out. They might get jealous or not think you deserve to learn what I can teach you. I've seen the way they look at you in the village. You definitely don't deserve it." stated Plagueis in the most fake sincere voice that he could.

Naruto was surprised to hear about the offer and saddened when Plagueis mentioned the villagers and his treatment in the village, 'Would they really stop me from coming here to learn?' Nartuo never even stopped to think of how it was that Plagueis knew about the villagers and the way they treat him.

Plagueis could see that he was slowly winning over the boy and he had plenty of ammunition left, "No one deserves to be treated like that, especially for something that they didn't do and that wasn't even their fault."

Naruto instantly looked up at the statement, 'He knows why they hate me?!'

"WHY!? Why do they all look down on me and treat me the way they do? Tell Me?! Yelled Naruto desperately as he had wanted to know for years.

"Ohhh...you mean you don't know? They never told you?" Plagueis asked in as surprised and concerned a voice as he could manage.

"They?!" was Naruto's response as he didn't understand why it was a plural.

"Yes...the whole village has a reason why they hate you so much, but I'm surprised they never bothered to even tell you. Not even the Hokage told you about it?" asked Plageuis with fake shock.

"The Old Man knows too?!"

"How terrible...the man you trusted the most didn't want to tell you why the entire village hates you. I suppose he had his reasons though. It's his fault why they all know in the first place." stated Plagueis.

Naruto was about to say something when the words died in his mouth. 'The Old Man knew all along and he just lied to me over and over again. Why is it his fault that the village knows?' thought Naruto but he wanted to know why the villagers hated him first. That question had been eating away at him for years.

"Why do they hate me? TELL ME?!" Naruto yelled but the end part came out as more of an order. Plagueis was slightly taken by surprise as the boy had actually used the Force in his words to make them an order and it would have actually coerced a civilian to tell him what he wanted to know. It didn't work on Plagueis though but it was still interesting. He could feel the anger building in the boy and knew exactly how to bring it to the surface.

"You see..." started Plagueis and he continued to explain the details of the sealing, the Kyuubi, and even showed him the seal on his stomach for proof. He had gotten the information straight from the source and a little bit more. The vulpine was aware of a few things that went on outside of the seal. It was aware that the Hokage had given a speech concerning the sealing of it into the boy because of all the hatred and malice that had been directed at its container on that night. It knew exactly what the Hokage had said and the reaction from the village.

Plagueis explained everything about the sealing to Naruto as best as he could. He himself had barely learned about only a few hours ago but had no difficulty explaining it to a child. The nuances still alluded him but the boy didn't need such exact details at the moment. After the explanation on the sealing, he retold what the Kyuubi had told him about the Sandaime telling the entire village about the sealing.

"Why?" Naruto said at the end of the speech and Plagues could tell that the single word was grasping for many different answers.

"I'm afraid he just doesn't trust you enough. The Hokage must not think you can keep a secret like that and just lied to make you stop questioning it. I'm not sure why he told all the villagers about the sealing, it seems rather a imbecilic thing to do to a child. As for the villagers, I think that has to do with the Hokage trying to keep them quite to cover up for his mistake. I'm not completely positive on that though but it does make sense. Whatever it is, it certainly doesn't stop them from treating you like dirt or prevent them from hurting you. And this burden that you were forced to bear certainly doesn't give them the right to treat you so horribly." stated Plagueis in a kind tone.

'No, it doesn't.' thought Naruto as he had many close calls with the villagers at the time of his birthday. In general, the majority of the village had treated him horribly. He was incredibly saddened by what he was told but he was also angry. If the villagers knew that it wasn't his fault, then why did they hate him so much? He didn't choose to have the Kyuubi sealed inside of him. It was all the Yondaime's doing, yet they praised him for doing it. It wasn't fair and it pissed him off.

As much as Plagueis wanted the boys anger to come to the surface and fester, he had other business to take care of as well. "Regardless, I would still be willing to teach you what I know about this ship. Unlike the village and Hokage, your burden doesn't bother me. I might even teach you more than that. I happen to know of very special abilities that aren't possessed by just anyone. I can tell that you have the gift and I could teach you how to use those abilities if you would help me in return?" suggested Plagueis.

"What would I have to help you with!" asked Naruto as he was very interested in learning jutsu and if this guy, or whatever the heck he was, was offering to teach him then he wanted to know what he had to do.

"Well...as I said before, this ship is rather damaged and I would need some help repairing it. That is where the knowledge that I wanted to teach you about the ship comes in. I would teach you about it and then you might be able to help me. I would even be willing teach you about the abilities that I know. How does that sound?" asked Plagueis in a serious voice.

"So, you'd teach me about jutsu and stuff?" asked Naruto and Plagueis responded, "I'm afraid not. I really don't know much about chakra or jutsu. What I'm willing to teach you is different from these things but very unique in its own way. I can guarantee that no one in the village has ever seen or knows about what I can teach. It would be something of your very own.

Of course you would have to keep this a secret between us. If people found out about you learning something that they know nothing about, they would be incredibly jealous. I doubt that anyone would want you to know something so unique. They would probably demand that someone else be taught, someone who was more deserving in their eyes. You shouldn't mention it to the Hokage either, as I'm not sure if he would want you learning from me either."

"Would these abilities make me powerful?" asked Naruto seriously.

"Yes, you could become quite powerful from learning and using what I can teach you. You could even still learn chakra and jutsu as well. You'd be able to have something that no one else did." said Plageuis. He could already see that the boy would agree to his terms. The trust that had once been with the Hokage had now been moved to him and he could already feel the boy's loyalty changing. With some time, he would be able to mold the boy to be the perfect servant and then he would be able to get back to civilization and get the resources necessary to study this planet and its people.

Plagueis didn't have to worry about time though as he had all the time in the world. If needed, he could always increase the boys lifespan with his midi-chlorian manipulation. It was possible that he could be stuck here for a long time. It all depended on the damage to the ship and acquiring/making a fuel source.

It would normally take years or even decades to teach the Naruto what he needed to know but Plagueis had already been thinking about that. When he was in the boy's mind, there was a strange time difference and perhaps he could use that to his advantage. He had to teach Naruto about language, technology, how to think properly, how to use the Force, and how to fight. He would also have to remove the frivolous notions of becoming the leader of the village and remove the boys boasting and loudness. Most of the emotions had to go as well. He would teach Naruto how to harness and wield his emotions and not let them overpower him. Naruto would also need to be taught to think like a Sith. It was obvious that Naruto's mind would need a great deal of time and effort to get him up to where Plagueis felt a servant of his should be. It just might be possible though and Plagueis was very interested in trying. He wouldn't make the same mistakes that he did with Sidious.

Until he would be able to properly study this planet, he would have to settle for training Naruto and learning all that he could from him. The ship might not be the best place to stay as the power was dwindling and it would be difficult for Naruto to keep sneaking out of the village. The ship wasn't flat on the bottom of the lake either and was at a slight angle which made it less ideal for most physical exercises and teaching. Also, someone was bound to get suspicious about where Naruto was always going when he went outside the village. The ship had to be kept hidden and safe but his holocron was first priority.

Please Review

(AN: I chose nine thousand midi-chlorians per cell because of several reasons. It made sense that the blood of a jedi would only give him so many midi-chlorians as they are present in the whole body and not just the blood. So if the jedi whose blood Naruto received had a high amount, then it would only translate to a lower amount to Naruto since it was only blood and not all of the cells. I really didn't want Naruto to have an insane amount of midi-chlorians like I've read in some stories because it seems like a bit much and he has still has his large amount of chakra as well. I have several different ideas planned that will make Naruto far more powerful than what just a low count of midi-chlorians would imply, so he will still be powerful and able to hold his own against jedi/sith and ninja.

As for Force abilities, Naruto will have many force abilities but he won't have every force ability.

I was thinking that he would have lightning and earth affinities as his primary and secondary affinity but also have him learn how to use the other three affinities as well. He will learn or steal many different jutsu and even have kinjutsu at his disposal. I thought that since being a Sith that he would want as much power as possible which means learning all of the affinities and as many jutsu as possible.)


	4. Chapter 4

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

**43 BBY – Current Year**

x-x

Chapter IV: Beginnings

Over one year has passed since the previous chapter

x-x

He missed and couldn't believe it. He actually missed most of the target. That wasn't supposed to happen at least not to him.

A six year old Uchiha Sasuke stood a good distance away from one of the academy trainings posts and was frowning at it. He threw all six of his shuriken at once like he always did, he made the same dramatic pose like he always did, and he expected to see the same results as he always had. However, three shuriken hadn't even hit the post, another two had hit but barely, and the final shuriken hit the post but didn't imbed into it.

He continued to stare and frown but it quickly turned into a glare. He ignored the cries of his fan girls as they tried to console him because he didn't completely hit the target. Despite trying to drown out the noise, he could still hear them shouting that he would get it next time.

'I don't miss.' he thought. 'I'm an Uchiha and we don't miss.' After all that practicing, he had done so poorly. He couldn't believe it. 'Was there something wrong with the shuriken?' he thought. The day was sunny and there was no wind to speak of, so it couldn't have been environmental factors. 'It must have been something wrong with the shuriken.' he convinced himself. When he threw the kunai, he might have to aim more carefully if there was something with them wrong too.

Standing about fifteen feet away was the group of boys in the class. They were all separated from the girls by at least ten feet and standing quietly while they waited for their turn. Among them was Uzumaki Naruto who, if one could see his face, had the biggest shit-eating grin. He could hardly contain his own laughter at what he had done.

It was just a simple manipulation of the Force. Using a very basic application of Force push to change the trajectory of the shuriken. He had to be subtle enough that he didn't move the weapons too much. He had used his right hand and faced it towards where Sasuke was aiming but kept the hand at his side. All he had to do was get the timing right and concentrate on what he wanted to accomplish. The use of his hand was more to focus on the area and objects that he wanted to affect and as a conduit for the force to go through. He had to make sure that no one saw him doing something strange though so he didn't reach out his hand to better use the technique.

Naruto was wearing a dark gray jacket that was unzipped and open which showed that he had on a black high collared shirt that mostly covered his face. The hood of the jacked was also up and it shadow most of his face. He had black pants on, the standard ninja footwear, and black fingerless gloves. He was glad he had the hood and high collar as the other boys might wonder why he was trying so hard not to laugh if they saw him. He actually had to bite his lip to keep breaking out in chuckles.

Naruto regained his composure however. He would like to have said that he was able to overcome the urge to laugh but the real reason was that Sasuke was preparing to throw his kunai. He needed to get ready and focused.

Sasuke placed all six kunai between his fingers and prepared for his throw. Most other students threw one at a time but he like to show off. However, he didn't like to let others know that he liked to show off. He looked at the target and steadied his breathing. A moment later he threw. The kunai flew to the target as he took his famous dramatic pose (its the pose where his head is down and arms back, sticking in air and forming a 'V'). He waited only a moment to hear the results, which were a series of clangs and a dull thud.

He nearly fell over in shock, and standing not too far away, Naruto nearly doubled over while holding his sides and trying not to laugh out loud.

Sasuke looked up a moment later to see a single kunai sticking in the post, the rest were on the ground around the post. 'What happened? It doesn't make any sense.' he thought. A few of the other boys snickered and Naruto desperately tried not to laugh out loud.

Sasuke stared at the target in both anger and confusion. The chunin instructor, a Funeno Daikoku, came up to Sasuke and asked if he was feeling alright, which made Naruto nearly lose it. The chunin then suggested that perhaps Sasuke should have tried throwing them one at a time and not all at once to which Sasuke scowled but reached into his ninja pouch and took out another kunai. He tossed it at the target with a smirk but it hit the ring of the only kunai imbedded in the target and bounced off.

Now thoroughly embarrassed, Sasuke left the throwing area and went back to the boys lineup.

'I didn't do anything on that last one.' thought Naruto as he tried not to laugh out loud again. He managed to get over his laughter, until he saw who was coming up to throw next. It was Inuzuka Kiba.

'And now to add salt to the wound.' Naruto thought with a devious smirk, that also couldn't be seen.

Kiba took his position and started throwing his shuriken one by one. To his astonishment, and everyone else's for that matter, they all hit the target post. It took Kiba a second to realize what he had done before he started shouting in triumph. Many of the girls booed him as they thought it was some type of fluke that he had beaten Sasuke.

The now confident and smirking Kiba took out his kunai and managed to get each of them to hit the target as well. While the girls and Kiba shouted again, Sasuke was grinding his teeth together as he couldn't believe that someone had managed to beat him. He was an Uchiha and they were supposed to be the best. He had always felt inferior to his brother but there was no way he was going to be inferior to anyone in this class.

"Maybe you should take a few pointers from Kiba, eh Sasuke." said a disembodied voice and the other boys laughed. Although none of them had thought of it at the time, they didn't know who had said it and no one would have recognized the voice if they were paying attention.

x-x

A lot had happened since he had found that starship just over one year ago. Plagueis had introduced Naruto to his spirit form and after the boy awoke from screaming and fainting, he had assured Naruto that he wasn't a real ghost and had no intention of haunting him. After that was over, Naruto took Plagueis's holocron in a backpack that Naruto had found in the ship and they went around Konoha to look for a place to set up a base or training area.

Any area that was in the open or near even low traffic was completely out of the question. They investigated the Hokage mountain, as it contained many emergency shelters in case the village was attacked. Most of the shelters were suitable for training but if the village were attacked, then the area would be discovered and the village could be attacked at any moment. There was no room that was secluded from the other areas in the shelters.

Plagueis was looking for an area that was no longer used and not even widely known about. They managed to find only one such area inside of the village, which was the backside of the faces on the monument. Though they didn't know it, when the faces were created, the area where the face would go was hollowed out with earth jutsu to provide the materials for form the face. The faces weren't actually carved but created with earth jutsu. This left hollow areas behind the faces that few were aware of and where no one went or used.

Naruto already possessed a routine of going up to the top of the Hokage monument heads and watching over the village, so few would think twice if they saw him walking up there. There were several buildings on the top of the monument but they were set back from the edge a good distance and tree cover was around. It took a while but they had found the entrance way into the space behind the faces. It was normally locked but a small usage of the Force from Plagueis was all it took to gain access.

Plagueis had found the area to be well suited for what he had in mind. There were many rocks of different sizes strewn on the floor that could be used and the area was very flat. It was also secluded and from examining the area, he could tell that no one had come there for some time. The four faces of the mountain provided four separate rooms to put whatever they wanted in. Seeing that it would be difficult to move everything that Plagueis had wanted taken out of the ship because of the water, they went shopping.

When Plagueis had been speaking to the Kyuubi, he had used a bit of his mind tricks and persuasion on it to have it divulge more information than it normally would have for an 'intruder' in the boy's mindscape. Initially, Plagueis had tried to talk with the creature but the Kyuubi had been very tight lipped about answering his questions. As time went on in the mindscape, and with the application of a few Force abilities, the Kyuubi unknowingly revealed more and more to him.

Information about the boy and his parents, information on the sealing, and a good amount concerning Chakra and ninja in general were all revealed to Plagueis. It may have been a powerful creature and filled with an incredible amount of hate, but its mind wasn't very strong willed, nor were its mental defenses against his subtle use of the Force. Plagueis was very skilled at manipulation and mind control tricks, so it wasn't very hard for him. Once he found out that the large creature was trapped, he could have tried to take more information but was content for that moment. It would be best not to anger the creature and hamper what he had established.

Some of what he had learned during that long talk was the reason that they were headed to one of the many ninja supply stores in Konoha. Naruto had been very apprehensive about entering any of the stores but Plagueis had assured him that everything would be fine. Naruto was still wearing the backpack with the holocron in it, so Plagueis could talk with the boy through telepathy and he had taught Naruto to not verbally reply when other were around. Eventually Naruto would be able to reply to him with his own telepathy and they would find better accommodations than carrying his holocron around in a large backpack.

Naruto had nervously entered the store and the person at the counter had instantly recognized him. The man was about to do something when he stopped and had a dazed look on his face. Naruto had felt something but he wasn't sure what had happened. Plagueis told him to take the opportunity and look through the isles.

The owner just stood behind the counter with a dumb smile on his face while Naruto shopped. Plagueis examined the variety of weapons that ninja used. Really they had been here to purchase several storage scrolls but why waste the opportunity. They picked out several sets of weapons, the storage scrolls they were originally after, and standard ninja pouches. Sets of new clothing were chosen, in colors that did not involve orange, and Plagueis told Naruto to look at the swords.

Eventually, the boy would wield a lightsaber but that was many years off. Plagueis did have an idea which they could try in a couple of years when Naruto became more advanced in the Force, but for now, they looked for something normal. The store had a small selection of blades and of different quality.

While Naruto was amazed at the variety, as he had never been inside of a weapons shop before, Plagueis was systematically narrowing down the choices. The katana was obviously too long for the boy and even in years to come it still would be. The sword which bore the label wakizashi could have been right for him, as well as the ninjato. The tanto's were a little too small and while there were several other blades, they were too unique and couldn't be used with the sword styles that Plagueis was going to teach him. After narrowing down the choices, Plagueis informed Naruto of the options and the blonde chose the straight-bladed ninjato.

They took the merchandise to the counter where the still smiling owner stood. The man totaled up the the amount and before Naruto could ask Plagueis how they would pay for it all with the money he bought, the owner knocked off over seventy percent off the price. As Naruto packed up his new equipment he had asked, "How did you do that?" to Plagueis who responded, "Weak minds can be easily confused or bent to the will others. That which you saw, wasn't very difficult to perform."

"Will you teach me that?" Naruto asked and Plagueis responded, "Yes, in time I will teach you that and more." It was mostly a lie though, as Plagueis wouldn't be teaching Naruto mind control or Force subjugation but just the regular mind tricks. Naruto smiled at the statement as he packed the rest in to the backpack and sealed the sword into one of the scrolls. It wouldn't do for him to walk the streets displaying a weapon.

It took a while for the confusion to wear off and the owner to stop selling things at ridiculously low prices to anyone that walked in.

The next day, Naruto became a student of Plagueis and he was to call him Master from that day forward. Master Plagueis had immediately started teaching Naruto, getting him to first feel his two powers and tell the difference between the two. Naruto practiced basic manipulation of the Force and they experimented with Chakra. This actually lead to several discoveries.

While trying to use his powers, his connection to the Force and Chakra were like oil and water. They always stayed separate and it wasn't possible to combine them into one power. However, when he channeled the Force, he used also channeled some of his Chakra without knowing it and the opposite also happened, when he channeled only Chakra a little of the Force was channeled as well. Naruto was completely oblivious to what was going on but Plagueis could feel it happening and was very intrigued. It proved that Naruto might be able to control them simultaneously, perhaps with very interesting results.

Plagueis wasn't sure exactly how Chakra could help Naruto's Force powers but he had several ideas on how the Force could be used to augment jutsu. He was eager to find out in the coming years. Naruto would first need to acquire and learn jutsu but that wasn't exactly a problem in a village full of ninja. If they couldn't get jutsu through regular means, then they would buy it, steal it, or take it from the minds of others. Plagueis had long ago learned patience from his own master but he was having difficulty reigning in his thoughts and curiosity on the matter of Chakra, jutsu, and their interaction with the Force.

Training had resumed for Naruto after the slight digress from Plagueis's schedule in which he taught Naruto to start feeling for and trying to use both powers at once. It was important to investigate such a discovery but Plagueis knew he would have plenty of time for that later and as much as he was interested, he had to control his emotions and feelings. He still had plans to set in motion and a new student to train. They had a lot of ground to cover, especially when it came to Naruto's mind.

Plagueis had started having Naruto meditate while holding his holocron. Touching the holocron would allow Plagueis to have a better connection with Naruto when they entered his mindscape. With a little experimentation, Plagueis found that the difference between the boy's mind and the outside world was close to a factor of sixty. Sixty seconds on the inside for every one second that passed on the outside. It was almost equivalent to an hour of study for every minute that passed on the outside.

Naruto wasn't anywhere near a genius but Plagueis's thoughts on intelligence were that, unless a person had some kind of illness or mental handicap, they could learn anything. It would just take varying amounts of time from person to person and the willingness of the individual to learn. Therefore, he was sure that Naruto could learn everything that he planned to teach him. While Plagueis would not teach him all the Force Powers that were at his own disposal when he still had his body, he would make sure that Naruto had a powerful mind and enough abilities to get by. He would teach the boy how to protect his mind and how to think more like a Sith and then move on to Force powers.

The problem that the boy currently had wasn't really stupidity. It was that he was so focused on the village and becoming Hokage that he didn't care about anything else. He didn't care about reading or learning or listening. He also got bored rather easily. In truth, he didn't care about anything that wouldn't help him on his way to becoming Hokage. However, Naruto didn't actually know what things would help him be Hokage. No one had ever explained something like that to him. He'd focused on such a far away goal that he couldn't see the steps and path to get there. The effect made it seem like the boy was at a much lower intelligence because he was oblivious to many things that happened around him and even some basic knowledge was not known to him. Not having anyone to properly teach him was another inhibitor. The boy lacked basic interactions with others and was easy to manipulate.

The only focus that the boy had for training was that he had to train his body. Naruto had no plans to ever train his mind or even read a single book. He only knew that he needed to train and become stronger, but he had no idea how to train himself and how to become stronger. No one had ever explained that to him either and if they had, he probably didn't realize that it was important and disregarded it. The strongest person wasn't the most intelligent or the one that was the most physically strong or powerful. It took a blend of intelligence, physical abilities, and power to make a person stronger than others.

On an average day, Plagueis would spend around three hours inside of Naruto's mindscape teaching him basic knowledge. It may not have seemed that much but three hours on the outside was equivalent to nearly eight days on the inside of the boy's mind. Plagueis started teaching Naruto how to read and write in Galactic Basic Standard as well as the basics of mathematics, science, engineering, the history of the galaxy, history of the jedi and sith, information about the Force, and teaching him about the starship.

It was a great deal of information but Plagueis had eight day increments to teach Naruto these things. Plagueis was aware of how much time it would take to teach Naruto everything that a Sith acolyte should know but with the mindscape training, he would have all the time he needed.

The only thing that Plagueis valued more than his research was his own knowledge. His master had even called him Plagueis the Wise because of his vast knowledge on so many subjects. He was a firm believer that knowledge was power and was always trying to learn more about the galaxy and the Force. Therefore he had much more knowledge than most Jedi or Sith on just about any topic and was planning to teach Naruto as much as he thought the boy would need in order to further his plans.

Back in the real world, Plagueis spent the remaining hours of the day working on Naruto's physical training and Force training. Plagueis was teaching him a martial arts style known as Teras Kasi which was Basic for 'Steel Hand' and was an old style that was developed by a group of people to specifically fight the Jedi. What better style for a Sith than one which was specifically created and adapted over thousands of years to fight Jedi? The style was specifically made for speed and anticipation of strikes and included teachings for the user to be able to close off their mind from mind trick or other mental based attacks.

Plagueis started Naruto on an intense training regiment for his body but quickly found himself making revisions. He had assumed what he thought Naruto's physical aptitude and abilities would be but was wrong in his assumption. Plagueis had worked Sidious into the ground while training his student but Naruto had far more stamina and recovery abilities than what he was used to and a regiment that he deemed as hard, barely winded the boy. He also found that he had to keep increasing the regiment as Naruto kept growing accustomed to the current level of training. Despite the problems, Plagueis was very pleased with the discovery. In a few years, he believed that Naruto would easily be able to outlast almost any opponent that he faced in the galaxy.

Using the ninjato, Plagueis had started teaching Naruto the basics of several Sith styles of lightsaber combat. The ninjato was a perfect substitute as it was a straight blade and was the perfect length for Naruto to use. Eventually, Plagueis might also teach Naruto several of the Jedi styles so he could better combat them if they ever encountered a Jedi in the future.

Starting out with just basic manipulation of the Force, Naruto started showing great aptitude for telekinesis. In just a few short months, he was already pushing and pulling objects and he could make several objects float in the air around him while meditating or doing a hand stand. Naruto had very good control over the Force but he lacked that good control over his Chakra. Plagueis had also worked on stealth and trying to hide both of Naruto's signatures. It appeared that ninja weren't able to sense the fact that Naruto had any other power besides his Chakra, or at least they hadn't come across a ninja that could sense it.

Plagueis had decided that he wouldn't teach Naruto in the same way that he taught Sidious. Sidious was taught to hate Plagueis and he had taken away everything that his student enjoyed as well as making him face all his fears while also teaching Sidious to control and harness his emotions. The same training wouldn't be done with Naruto as Plagueis didn't want his acolyte to gain too much power and destroy him like Sidious had tried to do. Therefore, he had settled for gaining the boy's trust and loyalty while still working on controlling and harnessing emotions and removing his fears but to a lesser degree. Plagueis had no real attachment to the boy but he was an interesting subject to study and teach. He wouldn't make the same mistakes that he did with Sidious.

To better travel and keep an eye on his acolyte, Plagueis had Naruto get a storage seal tattooed on the skin on the underside of his right forearm. Plagueis then had Naruto seal his holocron into it when Naruto was going out of their hiding area or out of his apartment. That way, Plageuis could stay with his acolyte and observe everything that happened while still keeping in contact. Unless the skin that the seal was on was destroyed, Plagueis would remain safely inside of the seal and Naruto wouldn't have to carry around a pyramidal shape object wherever he went. Plagueis also had Naruto get a customized bracers to wear over his arms to better protect the seal. They were made for someone who was a few years older than Naruto but neither was planning to get into any fights in the mean time.

While sealed in the storage seal, Plagueis's holocron was technically always in contact with Naruto allowed Plagueis to access the mindscape as Naruto if holding the holocron. Plagueis could also have his spirit move inside and outside of the seal at will. Now Plagueis was far more mobile as he had Naruto to take him wherever he wanted to go. He also had the same influence outside of the seal as he did when someone was near his holocron.

x-x

After a year of learning and training, Naruto found that he was already ahead of the students at the academy. He had learned two of the basic three academy jutsu while the others in his class hadn't even started learning them yet. It seemed however that he was unable to perform the third standard academy jutsu, the bunshin no jutsu.

Plagueis believed that it was a result of Naruto not having enough control over his Chakra and the fact that the amount of Chakra that Naruto had, kept increasing at a much faster rate than anyone else in his class. After much work and meditation, Naruto had been able to create one clone but not anymore than that and he would overload the jutsu creating multiple flimsy clones or ones that looked dead. Plagueis planned on finding something else that the boy could use as they learned from the academy teachings that there were multiple clone jutsus that were more advanced.

Plagueis had been very interested in the substitution jutsu as well as the transformation jutsu. The Force had similar techniques to the Henge but they weren't nearly as easy and simple to use as the Chakra based technique. The substitution jutsu, however, was far more interesting to Plagueis as apparently it could allow someone to change places with a nearby object and escape death or even change places with another person. Such a technique would be incredibly useful to have and he wished something similar could be done with the Force.

That such techniques were considered to be at the lowest level when they could be so useful and easy to use was rather fascinating to Plagueis. The similarities were also interesting as two of the basic academy jutsu had mirroring techniques with Force users. He was now even more interested to further his knowledge of ninjutsu and perhaps discover what other similarities there were. Plagueis still wasn't even sure how Chakra was produced or affected the body as the explanation given during the academy had been rather basic and didn't explain anything that was actually taking place inside of the body.

Besides those findings, the academy had become rather boring unless the chunin teacher was lecturing about new topics that didn't involve history. Naruto had already read through all of the academy materials that the students were provided and on his Master's order, had even broken into the academy to find other information and materials to learn from. He didn't end up finding very much though but learned it all anyway.

A visit to the Konoha library didn't turn up anything of interest as the village apparently separated the civilian and shinobi materials. After some investigation, they had found out where the ninja library was. Interestingly enough it was in the Hokage mountain and not far from their hideout. Naruto ventured up the long staircase to the archives but was stopped by a guard at the entrance. Apparently you needed to have clearance from the Hokage or the required ninja rank to get in. Plagueis hadn't tried to gain access by using any mindtricks on the guard because he could feel if other people were inside and wasn't sure if he could trick all of them before someone noticed and wondered what was going on. It was too risky at the moment. The only other places that he might be able to get jutsu were from the ninja clans or the Hokage but Plagueis wasn't about to have Naruto go trespassing and stealing jutsu from them.

Naruto had already asked as many questions as he could during class time in the academy. The instructor eventually had told him that he couldn't ask anymore questions, especially ones that were so far ahead of the class lessons. Most of the questions were ones that Plagueis wanted answered but the information that the instructor was currently teaching was so far behind what Plagueis really wanted to know that the instructor wouldn't interrupt the lesson to answer the advanced questions.

For the most part, Naruto was completely ignored by the chunin teacher in favor of another student who the teacher was positive were more gifted. That student had yet to really show much potential that would garner such a declaration and Plagueis believed it was just because of the clan that boy was from. In fact, Naruto was actually at the top of the class but was purposely being ignored by the instructor in favor of Uchiha Sasuke. While Plagueis would admit that the Uchiha was talented, the boy had a penchant for showing off and wasn't doing as well as Naruto in all of the academy subjects.

The academy situation was a problem because that meant that they would have to wait for several years in order to gain more knowledge and instruction on Chakra and jutsu. While Plagueis was patient, Naruto had already exhausted all of the knowledge that the academy was willing to provide to someone at his level. In the future, Naruto would be able to either break into the places that had the information they wanted or gain access to them through rank.

Since Naruto was already learning at a very accelerated rate, it wouldn't be long before he completely outstripped his classmates and students ahead of his grade level as well. Plagueis had thought that Naruto would be noticed as an outstanding student and arrangements would be made to have him moved into a higher grade to not hold him back. Apparently he was wrong as the chunin instructor was a rather weak minded fool that held the Uchiha clan in very high regard.

Instead of waiting patiently, Plagueis decided to act.

x-x

Naruto sat in his regular seat at the academy. The room was empty as class had ended several minutes ago. Standing across from Naruto, was his chunin instructor Funeno Daikoku and he wasn't looking very happy. Naruto had purposely gotten into trouble by creating a disruption during class and had insulted Uchiha Sasuke. He knew exactly what buttons to press to antagonize Sasuke, as well as Daikoku, and nearly started a fight between himself and Sasuke. Daikoku broke up the fight and told Naruto that he had to wait after class so he could speak to him about his detention.

Daikoku walked up the the desk that Naruto was sitting behind and before he could go on a tirade about how terrible it was that Naruto had insulted the noble Uchiha clan, Plagueis struck. Plagueis's spirit form came up from the floor behind Daikoku and before the chunin even knew that something was wrong, Plagueis's hand extended forward and grasped the chunin's head.

Any words that the instructor had to say were stopped and his eyes became unfocused. Naruto wasn't exactly sure what his Master was doing to the chunin but he really didn't care. Minutes elapsed until the man's eyes became focused again. Plagueis took the short moment of confusion and disorientation that the chunin experienced to sink back into the floor. Daikoku looked around and noticed Naruto. He smiled and said with a cheery voice, "That will be all and don't let it happen again, young man."

The man then walked out of the room and headed down the hallway. Naruto raised an eyebrow at the chunin's actions and said in his mind, 'What did you do to him, Master?'

Plagueis's voice came back clearly in Naruto head, "I just made a few arrangements. Now come, let us go back to your house and wait to be summoned."

Naruto was confused and Plagueis sensed his confusion but did not elaborate and Naruto knew not to question his master as all would be revealed in time. He packed up his materials and left for his apartment. Naruto didn't know who would summon him, as the only person that would do something like that was the Hokage. 'Was that were Daikoku went?' he wondered.

x-x

Hokage Tower, twenty minutes later

x-x

Daikoku had headed straight for the Hokage Tower after leaving the academy. He knew exactly what the problem with Naruto was and exactly how to solve it. Stopping at the Hokage's secretary, he managed to get an appointment to see the Hokage and only had to wait ten or so minutes. The secretary informed him that the Hokage was now free and he walked up to the double doors and knocked.

"Enter." came a voice inside and Daikoku stepped inside the office.

He greeted the Hokage and sat down in a chair in front of the old wooden desk. The Sandaime was rather curious about why the teacher had visited him. He hoped it wasn't about Naruto as he was already busy enough and didn't need anymore of the boy's pranks. Although, now that he thought about it, he hadn't heard about Naruto pranking anyone for a while.

"What exactly did you need to see me about, Funeno-san?" asked the Hokage while he smoked his pipe. He didn't mind a break from his paperwork and only hoped it was good news.

"Hokage-sama, I came to here to talk to you about one of my students. Uzumaki Naruto." stated Daikoku seriously.

The Sandaime repressed a frown and a heavy sigh. 'I knew it.' he though and wondered just what Naruto had gotten himself into. "And what exactly has Naruto-kun done this time?" asked the Hokage and blew out some smoke away from the chunin in front of him.

"Lately he has been acting out in class and I believe I know the reason for it." stated Daikoku and the Sandaime raised an eyebrow. He knew exactly why Naruto always acted out but was curious as to why Daikoku would bring it up.

"I believe that Uzumaki-san is not suited for my class..." stated Daikoku and the Hokage had to suppress a groan as he had thought that he picked a teacher that wouldn't be discriminating against Naruto, but before he could say anything, the chunin continued, "...I think he needs to be moved up a grade." finished the chunin.

To say that the Sandaime was surprised was an understatement. His pipe nearly fell out of his mouth. Several thoughts went through his head as he studied the instructor before him, 'Is he trying to get Naruto out of his class by moving him forward in grade because he knows that I won't let Naruto be kicked out the academy? Does he plan on putting Naruto into a grade that he isn't ready for to discourage the boy from being a ninja?'

The Hokage asked, "I suppose you have good reasoning for this change? Its highly unusual to have students graduate early or move up in grade during peacetime."

"Yes, I understand but I believe that the boy is more advanced than the other children in his grade. He really doesn't seem to care much about the lessons. I've also noticed him acting out and distracting the other students, possibly because he's bored." said Daikoku.

The Sandaime just looked at the man in front of him strangely and wondered if it was a good idea to have him teaching at the academy. 'Naruto, more advanced than the other students?' he questioned as it really wasn't something that he had ever considered. Most of the other students came from clans and were actually heirs or heiresses to those clans which meant they had training as well as better education than most. The Sandaime never would have expected a teacher to come and tell him something like that about Naruto.

He had always known Naruto to be rather...slow and having a very short attention span. It made him wonder about the teacher and why he would think such a thing. Naruto had always acted out and tried to get attention and his limited attention span was obviously causing him to get bored in class but to be bored because he was more advanced than the other students?

Before the Sandaime could say anything, Daikoku continued, "He has also started asking very advanced questions during class which are well ahead of what I am currently teaching. I actually had to stop him from asking questions because I just wouldn't be able to stick to my lesson plan if I answered all of them. As of this moment, Uzumaki-san is the top student in the class and his grades speak for themselves." said Daikoku and he handed his grading sheets to the Hokage for him to look over.

The Sandaime sifted through the grading sheets for this year and he noticed that Naruto had scored at the top of the class in nearly every subject. The Sandaime wasn't able to keep the surprise off his face. Naruto's grades weren't perfect but they were close and better than the rest of the class which was saying something as it had so many sons and daughters of clan heads.

'Is he really that much more advanced?' he thought and he remembered that Daikoku had taught Uchiha Itachi while the boy was briefly in the academy, so it was possible that the man knew what he was talking about when it came to a gifted student. Naruto wasn't anywhere near as gifted as Itachi but he was definitely ahead of the class if the chunin before him and the documents were anything to go by. A student that wasn't learning anything because they already knew the information might act out, get bored, and even distract other students, that was certainly true.

The Hokage thought over what had been presented to him. From what he was seeing, it appeared that Naruto was far more gifted than he had originally thought. He thought perhaps that the files had been doctored and that the chunin had it out for Naruto but that didn't seem to be the case as the instructor seemed genuinely interested in Naruto's development. The Sandaime also didn't want to hold Naruto back if he was excelling in his lessons and surpassing all of the children of the ninja clan heads in Konoha.

It was peacetime in the village but that didn't mean that he couldn't skip Naruto ahead a grade. It required the recommendation from the teacher, the Hokage's own approval, and the agreement of the child or guardian of the child. It was unusual but if Naruto was willing to get advanced to the next grade before the other students in his class then he would agree.

Naruto could always be put back in the same class if things didn't work out. The Hokage considered Daikoku's recommendation but he would need to talk with Naruto first, so he sent one of his ANBU to get Naruto.

x-x

It appeared as though his master's plan was in motion as Naruto made his way to the Hokage tower. He wasn't sure what exactly was going on yet, but he was slowly piecing it together from what he knew. This could be some kind of test from his master and he intended to figure out as much of it as possible before everything was revealed.

Plagueis wasn't forthcoming at all with any details concerning what he had done to the chunin instructor and what was currently going to happen. It was a lesson and he was trying to teach Naruto to make conclusions off the details provided and by using the Force. So far Naruto knew the plan involved the academy teacher and the Sandaime. Naruto's first thought was that his master would get the teacher replaced with one who would answer all of his questions. This theory didn't seem correct though as there could have been numerous ways to get the teacher fired and they didn't involve needing to speak to the Hokage.

Naruto hadn't had much interaction with the Hokage since he had met his Master. He had met with the Hokage to discuss his entrance to the academy but only a handful of times after that. Plagueis had instructed Naruto on the best choice of words to talk to the Hokage and Naruto had put up the best mask that he could. It wasn't wise for the Hokage of the village to see a change in Naruto's personality or notice anything strange. The Sandaime also didn't have much time to talk with Naruto as he had been rather busy with village business, especially with the Uchiha clan.

Unknowingly, this had worked in Plagueis's favor as it gave him valuable time to bring Naruto over to his side.

x-x

Naruto entered the office and sat in one of the chairs in front of the desk. The Sandaime hadn't seen Naruto for a while and was curious about his change in clothing. Daikoku had informed him that Naruto had become more serious during the months that he had been an academy student. It wasn't until he got bored that he started goofing off and distracting the rest of the class.

The clothing certainly made Naruto appear as a ninja and much more professional, despite that he was a first year academy student. The Sandaime was curious as to what brought up this change but perhaps the realization of being a ninja had set in a little early for him. Most academy students don't realize what they were getting into until after they graduate. They still had whimsical notions of what ninja are and think the profession is full of adventure. The reality was that they were child soldiers and the profession would be dangerous and difficult no matter how long they had been doing it.

Few students ever grasped this until after they were put through the chunin exams or went on a mission that was more dangerous than it was ranked. Many never grasped it as they dropped out or failed to graduate and were never really aware of how their belief differed from reality.

The boy sitting before the Sandaime was very different from the boy that he remembered the previous year. 'Something must have changed.' the Sandaime thought as he tried to think of what it could have been. He hadn't seen much of Naruto since before he had joined the academy. The only thing that he knew which happened was when he left the village and nearly drowned in a nearby lake.

It definitely could have been a life-changing experience. The Sandaime originally thought that Naruto was fine as he hadn't developed a fear of water and was even eager to learn to swim and get over that experience. 'Perhaps it did affect him but in a different way. He could be taking his life more seriously now that he has had a near-death experience.' thought the Sandaime. As to why Naruto was wearing darker clothing and mostly covering his face, the Sandaime didn't quite know.

"Well, you've certainly altered your wardrobe." said the Sandaime as he broke the brief silence.

"Isn't this what a ninja is supposed to look like?" responded Naruto and the Sandaime chuckled slightly. He was thinking that Naruto had probably taken the looks that other ninja had and put them all together. The high collar shirt was reminiscent of the Uchiha clan, while the jacket from the Aburame clan. He couldn't peg down the rest to a specific clan or ninja but it was definitely a ninja-look that the boy achieved.

"I had an interesting conversation with you teacher, Funeno-san, just an hour ago or so. Do you know what he wanted to talk about?" asked the Sandaime as he was curious whether Naruto might know something or if Daikoku had told him anything.

"I'm not in trouble, am I?" asked Naruto with a slight bit of curiosity. The Sandaime gave a small smile and replied, "No you aren't in trouble. He came to tell me that you are at the top of your class and excelling at nearly all your subjects. He had nothing but good things to say about you."

"During class he only ever has good things to say about Sasuke." Naruto blurted out and he could feel a mental nudge from his master as that had not been a very good thing to say. Plagueis wasn't going to actually talk to him as that might divert Naruto's attention. The last thing they wanted was for the Hokage to think that Naruto was hearing voices.

The Sandaime nodded at the response from Naruto and thought about why that was. 'It could be that he doesn't want to alienate himself by supporting Naruto. It does seem strange that he would favor one student and not the student that deserved it.' thought the Sandaime and he picked back up the grading sheet.

Uchiha Sasuke wasn't first in the class or even second when considering overall scores. He was actually in third place with Aburame Shino and Yamanaka Ino tied for second place. The coveted rookie of the year title was given to the top student in the class but it was weighted more heavily with practical ninja subjects counting more than the theoretical. Considering the weighting factor, Naruto was still first place with Sasuke and Ino tied for second and Shino in third place. Naruto definitely had a small gap between himself and the other top students in the class.

Looking back to Naruto, he noted that the boy was more patient than he had known him to be but still wasn't able to sit still in the seat. "How are you doing in the academy? What I mean to say is, do you find the subjects and material rather easy?" asked the Sandaime seriously.

Naruto thought about what was said for a second and started figuring out why he was really there. Plagueis stayed silent as he waited for Naruto to put everything together. "Well...its kinda boring. I've already gone over all of the material for the rest of the year and I've tried to ask questions about more advanced stuff but the teacher won't answer them anymore. I tried to find some more information at the library but they didn't have anything and I couldn't get into the ninja library." said Naruto absentmindedly.

The Sandaime thought about this and was surprised that Naruto had tried to find more information about being a ninja. He didn't think that the boy had ever set foot in the library but apparently he was wrong. Thinking it over, the Sandaime concluded from both the teacher and the student that Naruto was more advanced than the other students in the class. It didn't seem right to hold him back if he wasn't learning anything as he didn't want Naruto to get discouraged at a young age.

"I know you've only been in the academy for a couple of months, but how would you feel about skipping ahead a grade. You would be given all the materials but would have to catch up to the rest of the class because they would be ahead of you. What do you think, would you like to skip ahead?" the Sandaime asked.

Naruto just smiled behind his collar. It seemed that this year was going to be more interesting than he had originally thought.

x-x

Plagueis smiled inside of his seal on Naruto's arm. His mind control on the weak minded chunin had worked. He might have to do the same thing in the coming years to get Naruto out of the academy faster but they would work on that when the time came. From the information that they had gathered, the ninja library was only open to ninja chunin rank or higher and even at that rank, a chunin could only look at so much in the library.

Even if Naruto skipped ahead a few grades, they would still have trouble getting what they wanted. Another option could come along, but Plagueis wasn't willing to wait for something that may never happen. The best way to start getting and learning about jutsu was to get Naruto out of the academy. The missions that ninja went on could provide many opportunities to gather more information and techniques, especially since they would be outside of the village and away from the majority of prying eyes.

From what they had found out during lectures at the academy, ninja typically worked in a four man group with one ninja that was the leader and higher in rank than the others. This wasn't always true for other missions but it was the standard for genin squads. This meant that instead of an entire village, they would only have to worry about a few pairs of eyes.

Plagueis was also thinking about other methods for Naruto to gain more knowledge and also fighting experience. He had come across one but it would be several years before he could be sure that Naruto would survive. He also had plans for Naruto to create a personal weapon of his own. The ninjato wasn't a bad weapon but it could only take so much damage and fighting before it wore out. There was also the problem of finding fuel or a new power source for the ship and making sure it wasn't damaged. Not to mention that it was still at the bottom of a lake.

These plans were all in the future though. For now, they wouldn't attract too much attention and learn what they could from the academy while Plagueis continued to train Naruto's mind and body.

Please Review


	5. Chapter 5

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

**41 BBY – Current Year**

x-x

Chapter V: Progress, it has its price

Two years have passed since the previous chapter, Naruto is eight years old

x-x

Sitting in a tree and spying through a set of third floor windows, was an eight year old Naruto. He could see that the first exam was just about to end. The genin that didn't make the exam were filing out of the academy as they wouldn't be able to proceed to the next stage of the chunin exams. Naruto was gathering information because his Master wanted him to infiltrate into the second stage of the chunin exams. He was wearing a larger coat than he wore two years prior but, other than that, had on the same clothing style as before.

The second stage of the chunin exams was a battle between teams in training ground forty-four, which was also known as the Forest of Death. Plagueis wanted Naruto to sneak into the exams in order to obtain a scroll from one of the genin teams that was trying to pass. Each team was given single scroll of a set and they needed to get one of each scrolls to pass the exam. They had five days in the forest to do this and they couldn't open the scrolls.

Naruto knew that his master was testing him to determine through a real-life situation where Naruto's skills were at. The test was also a chance to gain valuable information and fighting experience. Although the participants in the exams were all genin, they still had many different jutsu and techniques that could be useful. His master had recently taught him a Force ability that could be used to take knowledge from another person. All Naruto would have to do was find a genin squad that might have jutsu and defeat them. If he killed them, he wouldn't be able to gain much knowledge from them so he had to knock them out and keep them alive. He planned to use stealth and cunning over power to defeat three genin.

That was the reason why Naruto was spying on the participants. He wanted to determine which ones would be a good target and might have jutsu that he could use, as well as get an idea of weaknesses. It never hurt to gain as much information as possible. Master Plagueis was still back at the hideout as this was something that Naruto would accomplish on his own. Naruto would take his Master's holocron with him into the forest by placing it in the seal on his arm, but Plagueis would only intervene if his student was about to die.

Naruto's attention was diverted from the genin, when a flying ball of cloth smashed into the academy windows. Naruto blinked as he stared through his goggles and wondered what was going on until a woman was revealed and the cloth turned out to be a large sign. He stopped himself from sweat-dropping at the sight and pushed his goggles up to rest on his forehead. There was no other information that he could gather, as the exam was over.

Naruto was actually quite a good distance away from the academy and was using a pair of goggles that he himself had created. They were an interesting piece of technology that he had crafted from a very large pair of electrobinoculars that were in the spaceship. He had taken the binoculars apart, to find out how they worked, and then combined the technology with a pair of smaller and lighter goggles to make something that was better than both. They were light and easy to use while being just as good as the electrobinoculars; with the same vision and magnification power. With a little modification to the power source, he had made them powered by a Chakra battery which were commonly sold in ninja villages and converted Chakra from the user into electricity.

He had found the original electrobinoculars far too heavy and bulky for his use, so he created his own pair using all of the knowledge and teachings that he had learned from Master Plagueis. Naruto had asked his Master why the binoculars were so heavy and large if the technology of the galaxy was so advanced. Plagueis responded that they were large because they had to accommodate numerous species and if they made them too small, then the company wouldn't be able to sell them to so many customers. As for the weight, he explained that they were incredibly durable and that people didn't buy something unless it was a little heavy as it could be a knock-off brand or just rather cheap. Naruto had accepted the explanation but still thought it was odd. Technology was supposed to get smaller and lighter, not the other way around. He was very satisfied with his new goggles though.

He was just about to leave his spot in the trees and prepare for tonight, when he both felt something and saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was a Konoha genin sitting against a fence a little ways away from the academy. He was talking with a jonin, possibly his sensei, and had probably just failed the exam. The boy looked rather down and Naruto really didn't care but something the jonin said had gotten quite a rise out of the genin. Naruto could feel the boy's emotions through the Force. He felt elation, surprise, and hope.

Now curious, Naruto pulled his goggles back down and focused on the scene. The goggles didn't have any kind of function to tell what they were saying and Naruto couldn't read lips but in this case he didn't have to. Using the Force he was able to concentrate on the area that he wanted and hear the conversation as it wasn't that far away. A normal ninja wouldn't have been able to hear what they were saying, but Naruto was far from normal.

He listened closely as the jonin told the genin about an alternate method for passing the chunin exams. It involved stealing an object and scroll from the Hokage tower. Naruto was now very interested in this conversation as he could tell that the jonin was lying and manipulating his own student. Not only did the student believe him but he was ready to steal those objects from the Hokage to prove himself. 'How pathetic.' Naruto thought and he couldn't believe someone could fall for that simple trick.

Naruto was supposed to go back to his apartment to prepare and then stop at the hideout and take his Master's holocron with him. However, this new information was too good to pass up and he made a change in plans. Instead of heading for his apartment, he headed straight for the hideout and did his best to make sure that no one was following him.

x-x

Since his student left to gather information for his test that night, Plagueis had been in deep contemplation. His thoughts ranged from his current situation, his student, and the future. Unfortunately, his current situation hadn't changed very much in the past three years. He was out of the starship though and learning all that he could about ninja and the mysterious energy known as Chakra.

By sending Naruto into the Forest of Death to retrieve a scroll from a genin team, Plagueis planned to see just what kind of level that his student was at. It was difficult to tell as he, without a body, was unable to test his student himself. It could be incredibly dangerous since Naruto would have to go after a squad of genin and not individuals. That was one of the reasons why Plagueis would go with him. He would be there to protect his investment but not to give any advice to his student. Naruto would have to come up with a plan because they both knew that he might not be able to face three genin at once, especially if their teamwork was good.

In the past two years, Naruto had continued to grow at an impressive rate. Sidious had been a prodigy and Plagueis had trained him to the fullest but Naruto was absorbing everything that he taught and progressing through sheer willpower and hard work. Plagueis still held back on his training of Naruto though as he didn't want to violate the Rule of Two but his curiosity kept getting the better of him and he found himself teaching Naruto a little bit more than he should have.

During his seven year isolation on the ship, while under the lake, Plagueis had ample time for introspection. He examined why he had died and the events that probably lead to it. What he found was that during his time as a Sith Lord, he had moved away from the main goal of the Sith, which was galactic conquest. He had also stopped monitoring his Apprentice and that led to giving Sidious more than enough time to plot against him. Plagueis had focused more on his research and knowledge than the proper goals of a Sith Lord. He had strayed from the teachings of the Rule of Two and through the historic method of ascension, Sidious had taken his place.

Plagueis still felt angry about how it had happened and had plotted revenge for a time. He thought he had put those feelings behind him but as he saw his current student progressing and realized the potential the boy could have, he found himself thinking about getting revenge on his former apprentice and using Naruto to do it.

His body was, for the most part, destroyed. Sidious had used Force Lighting on his corpse for a prolonged period and probably destroyed any hope of recovering any usable DNA. Cloning was difficult as it was outlawed in the Republic and required great knowledge in order to successfully make a clone. It was also very difficult to create a clone of a force sensitive person as it could result in mental instability but Plagueis wasn't worried about that since he only sought to create an 'empty' clone or just a body for his spirit to inhabit. He knew that without any usable DNA, he wouldn't be able to create his original body and may have to use some other body. That brought its own problems as a different body might not be able to contain his spirit as well as his original body would. The body could break down over time and he would be forced to transfer into a new body over and over again.

Possession was out of the question in the long run as that had an even shorter time span than using a different clone body than his original. Cloning was the best prospect for what he was thinking about. It was problematic but still better than his current position. It would take a while to gather the needed resources and technology but it could be possible. They would first have to get off this planet and back into the galaxy in order to make any such plans fruitful.

As Naruto became more knowledgeable from his teachings, they were able to go back to the ship and work on diagnosing the possible problems that the ship had and looking into the fuel problem. From what Naruto could tell from the ships computer and his own inspection, the bottom of the hull had several micro-cracks from impact and would need to be fixed. The ship could still fly and travel without the fixes. However, there existed the possibility that the forces exerted on the ship from acceleration and space/atmospheric travel, could cause those fractures to expand and propagate, which could lead to catastrophic failure of the hull. It wasn't something that Plagueis was willing to risk.

In order to fix the micro-cracking, the ship would need to be removed from the lake and repair work performed on the underneath of the ship. They would need some place to keep the ship until that time and they would need to move the ship away from the ninja village without anyone noticing. It was a difficult task, not impossible, but difficult. They would need to move a thirty meter long ship, that didn't have any fuel, out of a lake while less than half a mile away was a ninja village as well as patrols in the area. As of yet, Plagueis wasn't completely sure how to do it.

The fuel that the ship used was not something exotic like hypermatter. The ship was actually powered by a chemical reaction that produced enough energy in the reaction chamber to power the ship The reaction required the mixing of two complex chemicals that formed a very energetic reaction in the reactor chamber of the ship. One chemical was already present in the reactor and the other was fed to the reactor in a stead amount to propagate the reaction. The chemicals were rather complex but it was possible that the planet had the required resources and technology to properly create them. Plagueis wasn't exactly sure what the chemicals were called but the ships computer contained the chemical composition for each so they would just need to recreate those chemicals.

The raw resources would have to be found which might not be that hard but they would have to experiment with combining those chemicals to find the correct ratio and formula. Then, larger amounts of the chemicals would have to be manufactured. So they would need a lab as well as a place to create the chemicals. That was also difficult but not impossible. At the moment, Plagueis was still at a loss concerning how they would go about fixing these problems but he had a feeling that if they waited, opportunities would come. In the mean time, he would continue to train Naruto and increase the blonde's knowledge so that they would be able to act at a moments notice when an opportunity did show up.

Naruto had actually been far more interested in the teachings that Sidious disliked. Sidious hated to learn about droids or any kind of machine and wasn't interested in any devices besides his lighstaber. Naruto liked to tinker with just about anything he could get his hands on. Plagueis had to keep him away from the medical droid and the ship, otherwise Naruto would have already taken the droid apart or tried to examine sensitive systems of the ship.

Sidious also didn't care much about history, whether it was the history of the Sith or just the galaxy in general. If Sidious didn't see any value in it and for his future plans, then it didn't concern him. Only the holocrons and Sith texts that Plagueis had collected and inherited were of interest to Sidious and only for the power that they could provide.

Naruto, however, was incredibly interested in the every bit of history that Plagueis was willing to share with him. He spent hours inside of his mindscaspe listening to his master talk about the galaxy. It didn't really matter what it was that Plagueis talked about because Naruto enjoyed listening to all of it. The blonde did have a certain fondness of information concerning Darth Revan as well as the Jedi Revan. They were the same being but two different people with completely different goals and thoughts. Revan was once a Jedi but fell to the dark side and after losing his memory, came back to the light side of the Force. Naruto cared nothing for his own history that was taught at the academy, only the history about the galaxy that his Master taught him.

Naruto was also interested in the ancient civilizations such as the Rakatans and the Gree. Plagueis knew more about Rakatans than most other people in the galaxy. The Republic had erased all knowledge of the ancient civilization that had once ruled most of the galaxy. The Rakatan's were a Force sensitive species of amphibian humanoids that developed Force powered technologies to explore the galaxy. It was even possible that they created the hyperdrive technology that was still used thousands of years later. They used this technology to conquer and enslave parts of the galaxy. The Rakatans weren't able to visit anywhere they wanted as the unique Force-powered technology could only visit planets that were strong in the Force. Little was known about the exact reasons for the species extinction or near extinction. At some point, they were apparently no longer able to use the Force and lost all the planets they had conquered. By the time Lord Bane, the founder of the current Sith line, had visited their home planet one thousand years ago, the species was gone.

Naruto found it very interesting that the Rakatan hyperdrive was later modified and used by humans to explore the universe. They used a different power source for the device and were able to go just about anywhere in their starships. He also learned how people of different species had slowly populated most of the galaxy. It was likely that one of those ships had made it to his own planet and somehow ninja and chakra came about, though neither Plagueis or Naruto had any idea how that had happened.

The Gree were another ancient civilization, only they were still around but had lost most of their technology. They were a race of gray cephalopods with six tentacle like arms. Gree technology was created as a piece of art as much as a piece of technology and it took great practice and training to use most of their incredibly technology. Unfortunately, over the many millennium that they existed, the people who had this knowledge, failed to pass it on to the next generation and they eventually had no idea how to use most of their amazing technology. No one else could use it either and despite trying to use it, they never were able to rediscover how to operate them. Naruto found just about everything that his Master told him about the galaxy fascinating and he couldn't wait to one day see it firsthand.

Besides training Naruto's mind, Plagueis had also guided Naruto's Force training, physical training, swordsmanship, and working with Chakra. While inside several of the chunin teacher's minds, Plagueis had gotten a hold of different methods to train Naruto's chakra control and had the blonde work on all of them. Naruto had yet to gain many powerful jutsu and only had the academy three as well as the few other E-rank and D-rank jutsu that were available at the academy. Naruto had learned all of them and was desperate for some elemental jutsu.

He had only spent a cumulative three years in the academy but had been skipped ahead a grade three separate times. During one school year he had been skipped ahead twice. He was already in his fifth year of study and only had a single year left before he graduated. Unfortunately, what he learned at the academy really wasn't enough to satisfy either Master or student. Both wanted to learn much more about jutsu but didn't have a very good way to gain this knowledge. They would have to wait another year before Naruto could leave the academy. In the mean time, Plagueis had started teaching Naruto the basics of Sith Alchemy.

Sith Alchemy was an ancient practice that involved numerous different methods of augmenting or creating objects and altering living beings. Applications for Sith Alchemy could be strengthening and augmenting weapons and armor, genetically enhancing different species and making it easier to control them, or even creating objects and potions with unique functions, such as the amulet that Naruto had encountered years before. This practice was far older than the beginnings of the modern Sith Order and dated back to the original Sith species thousands of years in the past. Over that time, it had been perfected to be an incredible science that was useful to those that were able to wield it. Alchemy required more knowledge than Force ability so it was something that Naruto could definitely learn in time.

Plagueis doubted that Naruto would ever be able to use the more biological aspects of Sith Alchemy but he believed that Naruto might benefit from learning about how to create objects or augment weapons and armor. One of the plans that Plagueis had was to have Naruto create a weapon for himself using Sith Alchemy. Unfortunately, the exact methods to create ancient Sith swords had been lost over time, especially after both Sith and Jedi had switched to lightsabers.

While the forging methods had been lost, the augmentation information had not. The scrolls and books that had been taken from Plagueis's quarters by the gun runners were all on the topics of Sith Alchemy and its uses. The midi-chlorian manipulation that Plagueis had been working on before his death was also connected to Sith Alchemy. Plagueis had also been studying several amulets in his spare time in order to perhaps create his own. Sith amulets had many different powers that they could be imbued with. Some were for healing, protection, understanding languages, and helping to channel the darkside.

Plagueis had searched for several examples and found three. He hadn't actually touched two of them because he could tell that they had been cursed in some manner using Sith Magic which was a very different practice altogether. The third necklace that Plagueis had, which was not opened by the gun runner and remained in its sealed box, was for understanding the ancient Sith language. Plagueis had found it decades before and it had helped him understand everything that was written in the scrolls until he eventually taught himself how to read and write in ancient Sith. Plagueis had already started teaching Naruto how to read, talk, and write in the ancient Sith language.

Over the course of his life, Plagueis had become a master of many aspects of Sith Alchemy and with his knowledge, he planned to teach Naruto what he would need to know to augment a weapon with alchemy. Normally it would have been a problem, since the method of forging a Sith sword had been lost, but that was where the second holocron came into play.

The second holocron that Plagueis had with him was actually an ancient jedi holocron. He had found it and kept it while trying to access its information. Most of it was still not accessible to him because he was not aligned with the light side of the Force but he was able to access information about creating a jedi sword. Before the jedi used lightsabers, they actually forged swords using metal, a furnace, and the Force. They had the same connection to those blades as they did lightsabers and the blades were similar to those made by the Sith. Eventually both sides stopped using swords in favor of lightsabers but Plagueis always had a fascination with the archaic and at one point had wanted to make a Sith sword or at least something similar to it. That was why he held onto the jedi holocron, despite it not providing any other useful information to him since.

He would have Naruto use the Jedi forging methods and the augmentation properties of Sith Alchemy to create his own weapon. Most swords created using the methods of the Jedi were nearly indestructible and could even block a lightsaber. It would definitely be a good weapon for Naruto to have, at least until he had the materials to create a lightsaber. Plagueis had spent several months going over all the information that Naruto would need to know in order to create his own sword and it wouldn't be very long until he would be able to try and create one. The village had many furnaces that could be used and Naruto didn't require that much knowledge of forging a weapon, as he would use the Force to guide him. They had been debating about what metals to make the blade out of and even what extra features, if any that the blade should have.

Naruto had wanted take apart one of the vibro-blades that was on the ship and use the vibration technology to make his sword sharper and perhaps make it powered with Chakra. Plagueis had suggested some metal off the ship as well as the Chakra Metal that ninja used in some of their weapons. It would cost quite a bit of money so Naruto had been saving up to buy the metal and buy the use of the furnace. It was better than using mind tricks as people would ask where Naruto got the sword from but he could just answer that he had made it himself. They might ask how but no one could force him to answer. The technique to create the weapon could be considered as something that Naruto invented himself and that would mean that he was protected from answering questions about it because it was similar to jutsu creation. If someone created a new technique then they were under no obligation to tell anyone about it and were protected as if they had a patent on the technique.

It was at that point in his thought process that he felt his student approaching their hideout.

x-x

Naruto entered the hideout and knelt on one leg before his masters holocron which was sitting on top of a pedestal made from the stone in the hideout.

"Master, during my spying on the exam participants, I came across something and thought I should tell you." spoke Naruto with his head down slightly. Plagueis's spirit form appeared above the holocron.

"Tell me." stated Plagueis as he was rather interested in what this development could be. Naruto didn't go against his orders unless he felt it was important.

Naruto lifted his head and looked at his Master's projection, "During my spying I came across a jonin that was consoling his genin student on his failure to pass the exams. He spoke to his student about an alternate method to pass which involved stealing several items from the Hokage Tower. One of which was a sword and the other a scroll. The jonin mentioned that the sword belonged to the Nidaime and I think it could be the Raijin. Nothing was mentioned about the scroll or what it contained. Everything he spoke about the test was a lie but the other information he gave, about the items and their location, seemed truthful." stated Naruto and he could feel a small amount of surprise and interest coming from his Master's spirit.

Plagueis's thoughts were already moving through possible scenarios to get the sword. Ever since he had heard the swords existence from one of the lectures at the academy, he had been interested in it. It wasn't everyday that a sword with a blade made from pure electrical energy was mentioned on such a low technology planet. Plagueis was instantly curious about it and had Naruto ask several questions about the blade during class. Unfortunately, it seemed that most ninja only knew basic information about the blade and nothing specific. They knew about the electrical energy and who had used the blade in the past but really nothing more. It was also known that the blade was somewhere in the Hokage tower but that was it.

Naruto had heard not only the location of the blade, but a plot by a ninja of the village to use his own student to steal it for him. The scroll that came with it could be important as well but it could also be something that wouldn't be important to them. The problem was to what to do about the information that Naruto had brought. Plagueis obviously wanted the blade but they would need to get it in a way that didn't implicate them in anyway and made others take the fall. They would need to hide all involvement in the theft which could be difficult as ninja could track scent as well as Chakra.

They knew exactly what time that the boy would be stealing the Raijin and scroll. Naruto could wait until after the theft and then intercept the thief, he could also wait until later on and intercept the thief and his sensei together, or he could do something completely different. There was also an opportunity with the jonin sensei as he should know many different ninja techniques as well as have at least one or two nature affinities and have worked on the training for those affinities. If Naruto could incapacitate the jonin then they could gain valuable information from someone that was a traitor and was expendable.

Plagueis did find it odd that a genin would be able to get into what should be a very secure facility but the directions had been simple enough and the jonin had provided his student with the patrol schedule and where the traps were located.

The only thing left to do was to decide on a course of action.

x-x

Naruto arrived an hour before the genin was supposed to get through the ninja patrols and take the two items. Naruto planned to get to them before the genin could. He didn't know if the genin would be able to get the items and if he couldn't then they would be placed under better security, so it was best to use the information provided by the jonin to get there first and make sure he was able to acquire the sword.

Getting past the guards was far easier than either Naruto or Plagueis imagined it would be. Naruto was trying to suppress his Chakra and even using his Force powers to help suppress it. He was also using a very basic jutsu to actively eliminate any scent trail that he might leave behind.

Naruto silently made his way down the shadowed hallways of the Hokage tower. He could sense where the guards were as Plagueis had taught him how to properly sense ninja with the Force. It was difficult to learn but Naruto was able to accomplish it. The trick was to sense a void in the Force which corresponded to a ninja whose Chakra was preventing the Force from entering his body. The patrols were moving exactly how the jonin had said the would. Naruto found the room and the door wasn't even locked.

Entering the dark room, he knew where the traps were and made sure not to set them off. The room was some kind of library or study as it had bookshelves on most of the walls and a desk in one corner. He went to the wall that a secret room was supposedly behind and which held the items they were after. Naruto found the hidden mechanism and triggered it. A part of the wall swung open to reveal the room and Naruto made sure to not set off any of the alarms at the opening. A handle to a weapon was sitting in a display case along with a scroll. Naruto stared at the handle at it reminded him of something that his Master had described to him many times.

Over the shared link, Naruto asked, 'Master, is that a lightsaber?' but he received no answer as Plagueis's mind was a jumble of thoughts concerning this new development. Naruto was about to say something else when he felt his Master urge him to complete what they were here to do.

Before he left, Naruto pasted an exploding tag to the wall at the entrance of the library room. He had timed how long it took him to get past the guards, into the building, and into the secret room. Ninja were always punctual and that would work to his advantage.

x-x

Naruto walked down the street while wearing a dark cloak. The cloak was a survival cloak from the ship. He decided to use it to further hide his features while stealing form the Hokage tower. Naruto was traveling to an apartment building. The specific room that he was looking for belonged to Rokusho Aoi who was the jonin that wanted his genin student to steal the items from the Hokage tower.

As Naruto went through a shadowed area, he emerged in the henge of the genin that Aoi had convinced would become a chunin upon successfully taking the items he held. That genin was named Morino Idate, though Naruto didn't actually know that. It was still twenty minutes or more before Idate was supposed to infiltrate the Hokage tower so Naruto had plenty of time for what he needed to accomplish.

Walking into the apartment building, he headed for a specific apartment. The henged Naruto found the correct apartment and knocked. It took a moment before Aoi answered the door and came face to face with his student who was supposed to be stealing a scroll and sword for him in just a little while. Aoi was of average height with green spikey hair and blue eyes. He was rather surprised to see his Idate at his home when he opened the door.

'Did he back out? Has he figured out the test was a fake?' Aoi thought as his arm went for a kunai behind the door. If his student wasn't going to steal for him then he would have to silence his student and make sure no one could find out about his treachery until it was too late.

Before Aoi got the chance to get to the kunai, Idate held up his hand as if to say 'stop' and Aoi was launched back against a wall in his small apartment. His blurred vision no longer saw his student standing in the doorway but that of a cloaked figure reminiscent of an ANBU but with no porcelain mask. Aoi tried to get up and went for his weapons. He had no idea what was going on but something had gone wrong and he needed to get out of here.

The cloaked figure stepped into the apartment and held up his hand again in a gripping motion. In an instant, Aoi couldn't move his body. His hand still had several kunai in it that he had been about to throw. It was as if some unseen force was holding him in place and not letting him move at all. He couldn't even breathe or call out for help and it was slowly squeezing him harder.

The cloaked figure walked towards him and the apartment door closed behind him without any help. While still immobilized, Aoi tried everything that he could think of to break loose. He thought perhaps he was in a genjutsu but when he tried to dispel it, nothing happened. Though he was a jonin, he was terrified at this point and thought he was going to be killed.

He watched helplessly as the figure stopped just a foot away from him. He couldn't see any eyes as the cloak shadowed the face. The figures other hand lifted up and went to Aoi's head. As soon as it made contact, Aoi felt pain and everything started going black.

x-x

Naruto exited the apartment building out into an alley and made his way to his own apartment building. Looking at his watch he noticed that he was a little early and had to wait for the right time. A minute passed before Naruto made a single handseal and in the distance he could hear the faint sound of an explosion.

He walked up the stairs of the building his apartment was on top of and unlocked his front door. The explosion was timed to coincide with the moment that Aoi's genin would have entered the Hokage tower and found the same secret room that Naruto had. At some point between getting the secret room open and realizing the that the items he was supposed to acquire were all ready gone, Naruto detonated the tag. It was very unlikely that the blast would have killed the genin since Naruto was rather sure of the timing. It was just to alert all the ninja in the area that something had happened in the Hokage tower.

They would all come running and find a genin in a restricted area and two items missing. Naruto had thought about stealing more items from the tower but he only had information on the layout and traps set in the room that Aoi had talked about. It was possible that he could have been caught if he had ventured elsewhere. It would take some time to interrogate the gennin and find out what he was doing there and what was going on. After that, ninja would be sent to find Rokusho Aoi and reach a dead end.

Naruto took off the cloak and hid it, along with the sword, scroll, and several other items taken from the jonin's apartment, inside of a secret compartment that he had created in his apartment. It already had had several other items that he didn't want anyone to find if they searched his home. He had thought of going back to the hideout but if anyone saw him near the Hokage tower, they would no doubt question him. Naruto had no idea what was involved with a ninja interrogation and wasn't eager to find out.

x-x

The Sandaime sat behind his desk as two men entered the room. One of them was Morino Ibiki, older brother of the genin that had been caught not twenty minutes earlier and a high ranking member of the ANBU Torture Interrogation Division. The second was Yamanaka Inoichi, the head of the ANBU Torture and Interrogation Division. It was technically a conflict of interest to have Ibiki work on a case concerning his own family member but the man was known for being a professional no matter what the circumstances were.

"Were the items recovered?" asked the Hokage as he wanted answers concerning who had stolen a priceless artifact that had belonged to the Nidaime.

Inoichi stepped forward and said, "The items were not recovered Hokage-sama. I have confirmed with a mindwalk that Morino Idate was told by his jonin sensei that he could pass the chunin exams through alternate means. His sensei, Rokusho Aoi, told him where the Raijin and scroll were and how to get to them. Idate then infiltrated this building and attempted to steal the items, only to find that they were already gone."

"Then he was supposed to throw us off the trail giving Rokusho-san more time to escape?" asked the Hokage as he believed that Aoi had taken the items earlier and created a distraction in order to buy himself time to leave the village with the sword and scroll.

"I'm afraid not. The ANBU found Rokusho-san in his apartment unconscious. It appeared as though there was a struggle but there were no signs of forced entry to the apartment and no one seems to have heard anything out of the ordinary. The Raijin and scroll were not found at the scene and there was no evidence that Rokusho-san ever had them in his possession. Its possible that Rokushio-san knew his attacker and allowed him entry to his apartment or the attacker entered through other means.

Rokusho-san looked as though he was ready to go on a mission, but he wasn't scheduled for one. His bank account was emptied the day before but we didn't find any money in the apartment or on his person. We took him back to HQ to delve deeper into the theft and what his involvement really was. Upon further investigation, with a mindwalk, I was unable to find anything further." stated Inoichi seriously. The Hokage raised an eyebrow as it wasn't often that Inoichi wasn't able to find anything. Unless Rokusho was dead then he should have been able to find something.

Inoichi saw the confusion and elaborated, "I attempted to enter his mind but found nothing."

"Nothing?" the Sandaime asked in a confused voice.

"Yes Hokage-sama. I entered his mind and found nothing. No memories and no information of any kind." stated Inoichi and the Sandaime could tell that the findings had surprised the clan head.

"So his memories are gone? What would cause that?" the Sandaime asked while trying to think of any techniques that he had heard or come across that could do something like that.

"I'm not completely sure. While my clan does have knowledge of how to extract information, we don't have many techniques that can implant or erase memories. I can think of one forbidden technique that would completely erase a person's memories but this would cause debilitating damage to the brain and leave the subject comatose. In this case, Rokusho-san is completely fine, apart from having no memories. He can still function and could relearn all that he has lost. I don't really see him as an enemy of the village anymore." said Inoichi.

The Sandaime thought about what had happened and said, "Do you have any other information to report? Did the search teams find anything?"

"No Hokage-sama. I really don't have much else to say. From what we can tell, no one entered or left the village and we had several teams search the surrounding area for any signs of a fleeing person but found nothing. It's obvious that there was a third person that Rokusho-san may have been working with but we can find no evidence of anyone else. Idate-san has no knowledge of another person, just his sensei." finished Inoichi.

The Sandaime sighed as a memento of his sensei was now gone. The Raijin was a rather famous sword but hadn't been used for decades. He was angry that it had been stolen but even angrier that whoever it was that stole it, had eluded everyone in the village. Not only that, but there was no one to punish for the theft. No one could be placed in the bingo book since they had no information about who attacked Rokusho. Morino Idate was only guilty of trusting his sensei and Rokusho Aoi was no longer in his right mind or even had a mind anymore. It was a dead end.

x-x

Any plans for Naruto secretly entering the chunin exams were put on hold for another time. The sword, scroll, and all the information obtained from Rokusho Aoi's mind were far more important than anything else during the following day. It was a weekend so Naruto didn't have school and could spend most of his time in their hideout.

Plagueis had been left sealed on Naruto's arm and had spent the night sifting through all of the information that Naruto had ripped from the jonin's head. Drain Knowledge was a Force technique that Plagueis had taught Naruto specifically for what it had been used it for the previous day. Naruto had taken bits and pieces of a variety of different topics. For those who had not mastered the technique, it is very possible to destroy the memories of the subject it is used on. In this case, it was done on purpose to hide any involvement with the theft.

Aoi wasn't a ninjutsu user but did know the basics for learning water nature affinity. Naruto was eager to start learning, unfortunately the jonin didn't know any water jutsu. He also knew very little about genjutsu, nothing more about the illusions than what Naruto had learned in the academy. Aoi had mainly used weapons and poison. The poison knowledge was valuable to Naruto as he now knew how to prepare several different types of poison from local plants. Besides that knowledge, Aoi knew several things about Konoha itself that neither Naruto or his master were aware of. The village apparently had a barrier surrounding it to detect anyone entering through any means other than the village gates. Plagueis was rather interested in the barrier system as he had never seen anything like it that didn't involve sophisticated sensor equipment that could be fooled. The barrier didn't have many weaknesses to it and Aoi knew the password to get through it. Now Naruto knew that password.

All in all, Naruto had learned many useful things from the jonin but was left wondering something. He simply couldn't determine how Rokusho Aoi had been promoted to jonin. The man wasn't really that dangerous or powerful and had very little in the way of ninjutsu, genjutsu, or even taijutsu. The only thing the man could use were weapons and poison. Somehow that had been enough to get him promoted. Naruto and Plagueis had envisioned jonin ninja as being very powerful and proficient in most ninja skills but it turned out that not all of them were. It made them rethink their previous notions and plans to take jutsu from the Konoha Ninja Library as it didn't seem that difficult anymore.

Furthermore, Naruto had managed to break into a building that was supposed to be one of the most secure in the village and stole two items from it without being caught. The traps that Naruto had bypassed weren't that difficult to notice or get around. After analyzing what they had found the previous day, they would have to reconsider several old plans that they the previous believed were too difficult to accomplish. They would definitely have to wait though as the village would be on high alert for a while.

Most of the day was spent with Plagueis having Naruto examine the sword in detail and activate it to see what it could do. The weapon sounded and activated like a lightsaber but the blade was made from electrical energy. Oddly, the blade seemed solid and could cut but only slightly better than a normal sword. It could also discharge the energy it held when coming in contact with someone but it really wasn't that powerful of a discharge and probably would only stun a ninja for a short time. Naruto was only stunned for a brief moment. A civilian would most likely be knocked out by the discharge though. Naruto couldn't examine most of the blade because he couldn't find a way to open it up and see what was inside. Whatever was inside the blade and causing it to create the electrical energy was sealed inside and unless he wanted to break the handle and risk breaking the sword, he wasn't going to be able to examine it any further.

From preliminary investigation, Naruto concluded that the sword had a few interesting features but wasn't nearly as good as what Plagueis told him a lightsaber was. The cutting ability wasn't that impressive but Plagueis thought that perhaps Naruto didn't know how to properly use the blade to its full potential. Plagueis could feel that Naruto's Chakra was being used to power the blade and it was possible that the Chakra going into the blade could be manipulated to produce better results.

Unfortunately, as Plagueis explained to Naruto, the blade wasn't very useful to them at this point in time. Naruto couldn't be seen using it and since they couldn't find out how it worked, another blade couldn't be created and it would be too suspicious if Naruto did create something similar. They would have to work on the discovery at a later date, preferably when they had the equipment to examine the inside of the device without damaging it.

The scroll Naruto stole seemed to have the same problem, he couldn't open it. It was sealed in some way and he just hoped that it wasn't a blood seal which might involve blood from the Nidaime, who had been dead for nearly fifty years. Plagueis, however, had a way around that. He touched the scroll and focused on using a Force power called Pyschometry, which was a rare ability that allowed someone to touch an object and see what events surrounded the object. This power would allow Plagueis to actually experience the events surrounding the object as if he was there with his own senses and feel what others felt who used the object. Plagueis had tried to use the same power on the Raijin but only found images of the Nidaime Hokage using the weapon and he couldn't view anything past that to see who had created the weapon and how. That probably meant that the sword was very old and had been used by many different people before the Nidaime had ever started using it.

Plagueis was by no means a master of Pyschometry but he could get some images and feelings concerning the scroll and Raijin. The scroll was much easier to 'see' as only three people had ever come into contact with it (The Nidaime, the Sandaime, and Naruto) and it wasn't created that long ago. The contact with the scroll from Naruto and the Sandaime was minimal, so it was easier to see the other person who came into contact with it. The scroll had been written by the Nidaime and contained all of his water jutsu. It was supposed to be presented, along with the Raijin, to a ninja of Konoha that showed a similar talent and affinity for water that the Nidaime Hokage possessed. Since the man's death, nearly fifty years prior, no one had ever shown the same skills for water jutsu that the Nidaime had and thus the scroll and sword had never been passed down to someone else. Along with witnessing the creation of the scroll, Plagueis could also see the set of handseals that was required to open the lock on the scroll.

Naruto went through the required handseals and the scroll opened. Looking through the long list, Naruto found every water jutsu that the Nidaime Hokage had ever used or invented. Naruto had a broad smile on his face as he could now start training to use water nature chakra with the information from Aoi's mind and he had a list of powerful jutsu to go along with it.

x-x

One week later, walking through the back alleys of the village

x-x

While Naruto had spent most of his free time working on learning water manipulation by making a dry leaf become soaked, he was also learning how ancient Jedi created their swords. It was outlined in the his Master's texts that were in the ship. Most of the information on the holocron was locked by the objects gatekeeper and because Naruto was considered a Sith, it would not let him learn anything further. Plagueis had managed to unlock certain information from the holocron but nothing more than the methods for forging a sword.

The process was relatively easy and Naruto found himself questioning whether or not it was correct. Apparently all he needed was the desired metal to make the sword from, a furnace, and the Force. When going through the ritual that the holocron outlined, he only needed to use and feel the Force in order to create his own unique weapon. Naruto was surprised that he didn't actually need to know anything about forging weaponry as the Force was supposed to guide him through the process.

Considering how much it cost to get the chakra metal and the fact that he would have to pay to use someones furnace, Naruto was thankful that he managed to get some extra metal from the starship. He could have made the entire sword from the metal he had from the starship but the swords of the past were made of rare metals that Naruto didn't have access to. To compensate for that, he would use Sith Alchemy to combine the properties of many different metals together. While Chakra metal was strong it was no where near as strong as the metals from the starship. However, the Chakra metal would enhance any chakra put into it and allow the metal to use nature chakra. The metal from the starship mostly came from the cockpit door which had been cut open and was now just a useless slab of metal.

The Jedi ritual for creating a sword required a single alloy, which would be the combined metal that Naruto was going to create. The forging of the metal would create a blade that was incredibly durable, razor sharp, and able to block lightsabers. Naruto also had a Sith ritual that could be used to make the blade even stronger, help it retain its edge, and even act as a focusing point for his dark side powers and perhaps even amplify them. The single blade would be a merging of several different methods and rituals to create a very unique weapon for Naruto. Plagueis was rather interested in what the outcome would be. He had never seen a Sith sword before but had read many different texts concerning them.

Naruto only had enough money for the Chakra metal and to use the furnace so he would only have a single attempt until he managed to get more money. He was rather nervous as he had never performed any kind of ritual before or forged a weapon. Plagueis would be there to give him pointers and monitor the process but only Naruto would be able to perform the rituals as it had to be his channeling of the Force into the metal that would craft the blade and apparently form some kind of bond with him. Plagueis had no idea what the addition of Chakra and Chakra metal into the process might do or what the final result would be. This would be the first time in possibly several thousand years that a sword would be created using the methods that he had discovered in the scrolls and the holocron. The jedi had completely stopped using swords almost four thousand years ago and the Sith perhaps even a little longer. Not only could Plagueis witness the creation of the blade but he would be guiding its creation.

The weapons shop that Naruto had chosen to forge his sword in was the Higarashi Weapon's shop and was supposed to be one of the best in the village. Naruto entered the shop and had all the required materials with him in scrolls. Plagueis's holocron was sealed in his arm and he also had the other holocron sealed in a separate scroll in one of his ninja pouches. Naruto went straight to the counter so he could speak to the owner of the shop.

x-x

Tenten had a slow day at her families shop. Nothing really interesting had happened as she usually liked to help customers choose the weapons and supplies that was right for their needs despite her being only nine. She had been working at the store for a couple of years and had grown up surrounded by weapons and basic ninja supplies of every variety.

She was attending the counter and flipping through a supply catalog while her father was in the back of the building working at the furnace. Their shop did sell generic ninja items but they also made their own weapons to sell to ninja clients in the village. Some people wanted better gear and weapons than the regular ninja items and their shop could supply them.

While turning the next page in her catalog, the bell at the door rang to announce that a customer had entered. Tenten wasn't able to give the customer her standard greeting as the words had died in her throat. She had instantly recognized the boy that had walked into her families store. It was the same boy that had been skipped ahead a grade into her class. He had stayed in her grade for less than a year before he left the class.

Tenten really didn't know that much about him. He was always quiet during class, had no friends, and didn't try to make any friends. The only time she had heard him speak was when asked questions during lecture and he really liked to ask a lot of questions. Tenten later found out that the reason he had left her class was because he had been skipped ahead another grade. She couldn't understand why he had been skipped ahead as Hyuuga Neji was also in her grade and was considered a genius of his clan yet he was never offered the chance to skip grades too. No one seemed to know any information about Uzumaki Naruto, which was the boy's name and the most detailed information she knew about him.

Anyone that she talked to was tight lipped about anything that concerned the boy. Even her father wasn't willing to tell her much about him, thought she could tell that he knew something.

As the boy walked to the counter, his hood and high collar obscured most of his face. There was always something unnerving about the boy and it made Tenten shiver as the boy looked at her. Tenten was about to say something when the boy spoke first, "I'd like to speak to the owner of this establishment."

The tone of the voice was probably made to sound friendly but it was dull and there was an underlying tone of command in it. Tenten was actually rather thankful that she didn't have to speak to him and called for her father. She then stepped back and away from the counter as her father came into the main shop from the back room and walked to the counter.

"My name is Togaru and I own this shop. What is it that I can do for you?" asked the man in a serious voice. He knew who the shadowed figure was but he wasn't going to turn away a paying customer.

"I would like to use your furnace for the rest of the afternoon." said Naruto and Togaru raised an eyebrow at the request. He had numerous requests for specialty weapons and customization but no one had ever asked to use his furnace.

"If its a weapon you want, I can make just about anything." stated Togaru but Naruto wasn't interested.

"The weapon is one that I will make myself, I simply need to use your furnace..." and before Togaru could object or say anything, Naruto continued, "...and I'm willing to pay." with that said, Naruto took out a stack of Ryo from his jacket and placed it on the counter.

Togaru looked at the money on the table. It was a good amount but he wasn't sure. He didn't let anyone else touch his tools but before he could make his concerns known, Naruto spoke again, "I brought my own tools, I just need your furnace for the afternoon and a few simple materials."

Togaru thought about it. His tools were very important to him but since the boy wasn't going to use them, then it shouldn't be much of a problem. 'A boy that young and with no experience making weapons shouldn't be able to make anything. I wonder what he plans on doing?' questioned Togaru.

"Exactly why do you need my furnace again?" asked Togaru and Naruto refrained from rolling his eyes. "I want to make a weapon and I don't need any help, just a few materials and the use of the furnace."

"Metal will cost a little bit more than you have on the table." stated Togaru and Naruto responded, "I already have the metal, I just need a crucible and some materials for the handle as well as a sheath."

To say that Togaru was curious was now an understatement. Even Tenten, who was still standing off to the side and watching the negotiation was very curious about what the boy planned on making. With no prior experience or skills at forging anything, the weapon would most likely be a failure and Tenten couldn't see any tools or metal on the boy's person.

A moment of silence ensued as Naruto and Togaru just looked at each other from across the counter-top. It was finally ended when Togaru spoke, "You can use my furnace and a crucible but if anything gets damaged, you're paying for it. You can come to me about handle materials and a sheath after you've made whatever it is your going to make." stated Togaru as he took the stack of bills off the table and counted it to see how much it really was.

Naruto nodded and proceeded to go to the back room. Togaru was still wary about this deal but it was a good amount of money and the boy said he only needed the afternoon. It was worth the risk and unless the boy destroyed his furnace, which was highly unlikely, he would make quite a profit tonight. If anything did happen, he could always go to the Hokage.

Naruto shut the door behind him and went to work. He laid out his storage scrolls with the metal, tools, and vibration technology in them and unsealed the first two. A crucible would be used to combine the two chunks of metal that he had together and make them into one single metal with Sith Alchemy. He would then perform the required Sith rituals for amplifying the metal and use the Jedi forging method to create the sword. After the sword was complete he would add in the vibration technology to it, make the handle, and get a sheath for it.

Taking the metals, he placed them into the crucible. With some chanting in the ancient Sith language, the process began and he placed the crucible into the furnace which would begin the melt the metal. The metal from the ship was far stronger and resilient but the ritual would make it easier to melt. Naruto removed the crucible from the furnace several times to continue the ritual until the metals melted. He poured the Force into the crucible and even some of his Chakra when he put it in and took it out of the furnace.

The molten metal underwent one last ritual session and Naruto then added his own blood into the crucible. The combining ritual had been completed and needed to sit in the furnace for a little while longer.

After that was over, Naruto removed the molten metal and poured it into a rectangular mold. The mold would give it a basic shape before it spent time in the furnace and was shaped. After the metal had cooled in the mold, Naruto removed it and put it in a solution of water and his own blood to further cool.

The slab of metal was removed and Naruto proceeded to the forging part of the process. The Jedi ritual began with saying a few phrases in an ancient language that he had memorized and simultaneously adding the Force to metal. Despite Naruto never shaping or forging a blade, the ritual would help him along and the Force would guide him along the way. Naruto had to mediate with the metal for a given amount of time and create a bond with the metal before he made it into a sword.

Naruto had used the Force to force air into the furnace and make if much hotter than normal. The rituals he used also seemed to enhance the flame. He placed the metal bar into the furnace and let it sit for a while. The bar was removed from the furnace and shaped with a hammer that Naruto had brought from the ship. The Force and some Chakra were imbued into the hammer and the metal bar through the tongs Naruto was holding it steady with. Naruto let the Force guide him to shaping his blade. He wasn't sure exactly what blade would be created as he was so deep in concentration that he really didn't notice anything around him or the metal he was working with. Even when Plagueis tried to talk with him, he got no response in return. At several points during the forging process, either Togaru or Tenten would open the door and peak through the slit to see what Naruto was up to. Thankfully, the Sith Alchemy was already over when they had done this as it would be strange if they heard him chanting in an unknown language.

Plagueis watched enraptured as Naruto continued to shape the blade for hours. The room was filled with the rhythm of hammering and the heat of the furnace. His student seemed to be in a trance and focused solely on his task. Plagueis was able to glean very little from Naruto's mind as it seemed rather blank at the moment. The only thing Naruto was thinking about was the jedi ritual that they had been going over for the past week. Interestingly, the hammering was more than just shaping the blade as it seemed to push the Force into the blade and let the Force work on refining the shape and giving the blade an edge.

With just a few more sessions of heat and hammering, the sword was done. Naruto put it in the solution of water and blood to cool. He sat down and blinked several times as he had finally come back to reality. From what the holocron said, the blade wouldn't need sharpening and should even come out being so polished that a person could see their reflection in it. Naruto took a pair of tongs and removed it from the water.

The sword that came out was rather interesting. The metal appeared to be completely blood red while the areas near the cutting edge darkened and hardened until it was black. The sword was a ninjato but had half of the back edge of the sword sharpened as well, so it wasn't a completely double sided sword and featured the standard tip of a ninjato. Naruto and Plagueis took time examining the entire blade. It had no tools marks or imperfections and Naruto could see his reflection in the blood red metal. He tested the edge of the blade and found that it was razor sharp. His finger barely made any contact with the edge and now sported a nice cut. When Naruto had finished examining his work, he went to the scroll with the vibration equipment in it.

Unsealing the scroll, Naruto attached the technology to the tang of the blade and made sure that it was positioned exactly how it had been on the vibro-blade he had taken it from. Naruto had altered this piece of vibration technology to work off of his Chakra instead of the battery that it normally had. Once he placed the guard and handle on the blade, no one would know that it was even there. The guard was a piece of metal that he had cut off from the rest before he had started using the furnace. He fitted the guard onto the blade and went to talk with Togaru.

Naruto made sure to cover the blade with something so that neither the owner nor his daughter would see the strange technology that was fitted to the handle. The handle of the blade would be covered with wood that had been grown with Chakra being fed to the tree. Togaru showed Naruto how to properly make the handle from an example that he had started earlier that day. Naruto carved out enough room for the handles to fit over the vibration technology and then proceeded to wrap the blade with black ray skin. Once everything was in place he revealed the sword to the others at the shop. He wasn't sure why he did it. Perhaps it was to satisfy their curiosity and so they wouldn't ask questions or maybe it was just his own hubris at creating such a weapon.

The owner was shocked and his daughter was gaping. They had never seen a sword quite like the one that Naruto had made. Several questions were asked, but Naruto merely answered that it was his own creation and therefore he didn't have to tell anyone how he had made it. The owner eyed Naruto wearily as he left the shop and his daughter was determined to find out more about the blade and how a boy with no training could make one of the most interesting swords she had ever seen.

(AN: I placed a simple picture in my profile of the blade. Its made with MS paint so don't get your hopes up, its not a work of art or anything like that.)

Naruto hadn't made a sheath for his blade as he just accepted a sheath that Togaru had already created. It would give his weapon the appearance of being ordinary to those who had yet to see it and perhaps give him the element of surprise. Naruto made iFt to his apartment before he promptly passed out on his bed. He hadn't realized how tired he had been until he was already walking home. It had taken him hours to make the blade but to Naruto it seemed far shorter. The time had passed so quickly during the actual forging because he was so deeply entranced in his work.

He would have to test the blade in the morning and find out what it could do. Both he and his master were eager to see what the combination of Sith and Jedi methods could produce.

Please Review


	6. Chapter 6

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

POLL RESULTS

I might keep the poll open for another chapter, despite Plasma having a large lead, as there were several late entries such as swift, dust, and magnetism sub-elements. Its unlikely that another element could beat plasma at this point but there is a chance.

Plasma (suggested by Hollow-Inuyasha) – 30 votes

Storm (suggested by FFwatchdog) – 17 votes

Ice (suggested by axellon2008) – 16 votes

Crystal/diamond (suggested by Ffwatchdog) – 13 Votes

No sub-element – 7 votes

Magnetism (suggested by DarknessKen) – 7 votes

Swift (suggested by Fury074) – 4 votes

Dust (suggested by Draco Kamikaze) – 3 votes

Thank you to all who voted.

**40.5 BBY – Current Year**

x-x

Chapter VI: What it takes to get the team you want

Half a year has passed since the previous chapter, Naruto is eight and a half years old

x-x

Dodging several thrown projectiles, Naruto attempted to charge but was once again forced to back off because of the cloth that kept trying to ensnare him. It was a rather annoying jutsu that the kunoichi he was fighting kept using.

The cloth followed Naruto's movement and he substituted himself with a log to evaded the fabric. He evaluated the situation from above in one of the many tall trees in the forest of death. The kunoichi soon found him though and with a flick of her wrist, the cloth sent the log that she had captured hurtling towards him. With a quick and easy swipe of his red ninjato, the log was cut neatly in two and both pieces missed him.

Naruto stared down at the Suna kunoichi while she stared up at him. She now knew that the sword he carried was far deadlier than it should have been. Naruto hadn't expected this much trouble since he had already managed to take a scroll from one genin team today. He only needed a single scroll to pass his Master's test but it had been easy so he continued in search of another. Both the kunoichi's teammates were already incapacitated but she was still fighting strong with her cloth techniques. She was perhaps a few years older than Naruto and with two red markings on her cheeks.

They both eyed each other as both waited for the other to make a move. Naruto really didn't want to kill the girl standing on the forest floor. He had yet to use any of his Force abilities as he didn't want anyone to know that he had them unless if was necessary. Taking information from opponents was one thing but he couldn't modify memory. Naruto wasn't even allowed to be in the forest of death because he still had six months to go at the academy before he could become a genin.

His illegal entry into the chunin exams was not something that he wanted anyone in the village to find out about so he couldn't get captured by the kunoichi. He was brought out of his thoughts when the girl acted first and threw two kunai with explosive tag at his perch on the tree. Naruto jumped out the way and had to maneuver himself in midair to dodge the length of fabric that came after him. It hit the a nearby branch and actually sliced into it which made Naruto's eyes widen. 'I didn't know she could sharpen and harden the fabric with chakra in addition to manipulating it to move after me.' he realized as he controlled his fall to the ground.

The moment Naruto touched the ground, he sprang forward at his opponent who unrolled more of her cloth from the roll that she kept with her. Naruto swung and cut the cloth several times which stopped it from snaring him and let him get in closer to fight better. However the kunoichi was smart and kept her distance from him.

Switching tactics, Naruto went through the available list of ninjutsu at his disposal. He did have a few lower ranking water jutsu that he had learned from the Nidaime's scroll. Since getting the scroll, he had mastered the water nature transformation exercises that he had taken from Rokusho Aoi and had time to learn several D-rank and C-rank water jutsu. He hadn't had a chance to start using the larger and more powerful techniques as he had taken time to experiment with the affinity to see what he could do with it. He also didn't have any area secluded enough that he could practice the larger jutsu without attracting attention to himself.

Naruto returned his sword to the sheath over his right shoulder and went through several hand seals. 'Water Release: Violent Water Wave,' he said in a whisper and shot an expanding wave of water out of his mouth at his opponent. Though the kunoichi was able to escape the attack, her cloth was drenched and she saw that her opponent was charging her.

Naruto moved in with his sword just after the jutsu had finished, to attack at close range. The drenched cloth was much slower and wouldn't be able to catch him. Naruto dodged the cloth but when he was nearly at his opponent, another roll of cloth shot out from a second roll that she revealed. Naruto was too close to dodge and not fast enough to do anything as the cloth wrapped around him.

The kunoichi acted quickly and placed a sealing tag on the bundle of cloth. She watched as the seal took affect but her eyes widened. The bundle of cloth deflated and water pooled out of her cloth. 'Water clone' were her thoughts just as she was hit from behind and knocked out.

Naruto stood behind the fallen kunoichi. He had used the jutsu as a distraction to hide while a water clone had moved in to get captured or defeat the kunoichi. Naruto stared at the down kunoichi and decided against invading her mind and taking her techniques. 'I would have no use for them.' he told himself and he had no plans on finishing her off. He would just look for a scroll and search the minds of her teammates for jutsu and other techniques.

Before Naruto could carry out his plans though, he felt three people approaching. He quickly analyzed the situation and noticed a puddle of water from his jutsu and water clone. Naruto smiled as he had an idea.

x-x

Three Ame genin landed on a branch nearby and surveyed the forest floor below. They spotted three downed ninja and the kunoichi of the group. All three of them were shinobi and were in the forest trying to gather a second scroll. They were on their own, with no supervision or monitoring of any kind.

They approached the unconscious kunoichi cautiously and checked for a pulse. They found one and debated what to do next. It wasn't very often that they came across a pretty girl in the forest. They couldn't decide exactly what to do though and started arguing in hushed voices.

About seven feet away, a small rippled formed on a large puddle of water. A hooded head emerged, followed slowly by a body. Naruto had yet to use this technique in a surprise attack but it looked like today was the day. The jutsu allowed for a ninja to hide in a body of water, escaping detection and notice. The water could be the ocean, a lake, river, stream, or even something like a very shallow puddle. The depth didn't matter, so long as the surface area was large enough for a person to stand on then the jutsu could be used.

It was similar to to an Iwa jutsu that allowed a person to hide amongst the rocks without being seen. As Naruto emerged, no water clung to him and he didn't make a sound. He was suppressing his chakra and once fully emerged, his hand moved to his sword. The three Ame ninja hadn't noticed him at all.

x-x

Naruto emerged from the forest of death and hopped the fence surrounding it with a Force jump. The chunin guard that area of the perimeter was about to say something when Naruto waved his hand and said, "You didn't see anything, continue monitoring the perimeter."

The chunin repeated in a daze, "I didn't see anything. I'll continue monitoring the perimeter." and Naruto sprinted away from the training ground and back to the village.

Naruto's thoughts were a jumble and concerned the information that he had taken from the ninja he had encountered in the forest of death. He also idly wondered if the Suna kunoichi would be able to complete the exam. He had left her team's scroll alone and left them the Ame ninja's scroll too. He had gotten a few jutsu off the Ame ninja and even learned some basic training techniques in earth nature transformation. He was content to leave things the way they were: with the Ame ninja beaten senseless, tied together, and left in an area of the Forest of Death that had much more death than forest.

Naruto already had the scroll that he had taken from the first team he encountered and that was enough to pass his master's test. 'That was an interesting performance.' said a very familiar voice in Naruto's head. It was at that point that Naruto remembered that his Master was sealed in the storage seal on his forearm and had seen the entire test.

'How so, Master?' Naruto asked with some hesitance and nervousness, while still making his way back to the village at top speed.

'You had an opportunity to gain three scrolls, yet you didn't. Instead you helped a group of ninja that you defeated. Was it out of pity that you did it? Or perhaps it was the girl?' inquired Plagueis.

'I saw no need to kill her. It wouldn't have helped me in anyway.' stated Naruto.

'True. but you also left her teammates perfectly fine, gave them the scrolls they needed to pass, and even protected her from another team. I was also surprised to see that you left those Ame ninja to a rather horrible death. That area you left dumped them in was the territory of those extremely large bears and you left them rather bloody.' said Plagueis to his student.

Naruto searched his thoughts and feelings about what he had done during the test and he really couldn't give a very good answer as to why he did it. He couldn't just leave the kunoichi alone in the woods, nor could he let the Ame team do what they had planned on doing. He also wasn't sure why he had helped them pass the exam. It wasn't something that a Sith would do and it would leave the Suna team with questions about who he was and why he helped after fighting them.

'Your feelings betray you my student. You let your emotions take control of you and influence your decisions. You must control your emotions and not let them rule you. The galaxy is not a forgiving or kind place. Despite your strange method of completing the rules of the test, you did procure one scroll which was what the test entailed. Your surprise attacks and strategy for all three fights were well planned and executed, though you never fought to your fullest and made it life or death.

I would normally say that your overall performance in the test was average but since you gained a few more jutsu, perhaps it was slightly above average.' stated Plagueis. He could feel the conflict in his student but not any fear or regret. Despite rigorous training, Naruto still possessed a set of morals that were not fitting for a Sith. Then again, Plagueis wasn't teaching Naruto in the same manner that he had taught Sidious, so this was the outcome of not completely removing those flaws and emotions from his acolyte.

With Sidious, the student and master dynamics were of fear, hatred, and forced loyalty. With Naruto it was more about earned trust and loyalty. Plagueis had payed attention to the boy, told him things no one else would tell him, and had given him training and knowledge when no one else cared. In return, Naruto would help Plagueis in his endeavors, not because he was forced to but because he wanted to.

Despite knowing his acolyte for four years and even having access to his mind, Plagueis still found it difficult to tell what Naruto would do next. He would not have guessed or predicted that his student would leave the Ame ninja to die and help the Suna ninja to such a degree. On one hand, the boy could be rather ruthless and on the other, he could be kind and generous. These opposites could never exist for a Sith and should not exist as it was the masters job to remove those weaknesses. He found it most interesting that Naruto could be rather ruthless while protecting someone that he didn't know or had just met. The dark side of the Force was influencing Naruto but not as much as it should have been and as it did with other Sith.

A Sith with no control over their emotions could be a very dangerous to anyone, but Naruto did possess some control and still held onto his own morals while using the dark side of the force. Plagueis was interested to see what would become of his acolyte in the coming years and once they were back in the known galaxy. There had been a select few Sith in the past that had held onto their attachments while still being a Sith and using the dark side of the Force. It required great will power and strong attachments in order to stave off the effects of the dark side of the Force. Usually a Sith would cast off these connections and perhaps even kill those they were close with in order to turn completely to the dark side. Plagueis wasn't sure that Naruto would ever turn completely to the dark side of the Force as the boy kept many attachments and wouldn't let go of them. Naruto still had a diminished desire to become Hokage and even help the village, despite Plagueis' efforts to move him away from that dream.

'Then again, perhaps it was the human element in the test. Usually these tests would be done on remote locations and the Sith student would be pitted against creatures as well as assassin droids.' That was how Plagueis was tested and how he tested Sidious. Naruto would have no trouble destroying assassin droids but did have concerns taking the life of a living being.

Tests such as the one Naruto went through, didn't usually involve fighting living beings at the age Naruto was at. The more advanced tests that were given to a Sith student involved living beings, which was either fighting a strong opponent(s) or an assassination. They were administered sometime in the teen to young adult years, but Naruto was advancing in the practical aspects of a Sith much faster than anyone his age should have been. It was because of this and other reasons that Plagueis would be using one of those more advanced tests in a few months and was interested to see what would happen. He had a feeling through the Force, that the success of the test would help create the opportunities they had been waiting for.

x-x

Over five months later (a few days before the academy exam for graduation)

Naruto is now nine and the current year is 40 BBY

At the secret hideout

x-x

Naruto was kneeling in front of his master's holocron. Plagueis had been working on a plan for team placement for some time now and apparently he was now going to reveal it to Naruto.

"As you know, the academy graduation exam is in a weeks time. You have been doing slightly worse in your academy classes to put you out of the top spot in the class. When I looked into the chunin teacher's minds, I saw that the rookie of the year is usually placed with the lowest academy member and the smartest female ninja. I don't want you to be placed on a team like this as it would not help you. From meditating, I have felt through the Force that it would be better to place you on a different team, one that is not in the academy." said Plagueis as he began to reveal his plans.

A month ago, Plagueis had him break into the records room in the Hokage tower in order to look through the current genin teams of the village. 'This must be the reason for that information gathering mission. So Master intends for me to be placed on a current genin team? How will that work out, none of them had openings?' realized Naruto as he searched through his memories of the different genin teams his Master had him look through.

Plagueis could feel through their connection that Naruto was already piecing together his plan but the boy lacked one detail. "The current genin teams of the village do not have any openings. So you will have to create an opening." stated Plagueis with finality and Naruto's eyes widened as he put together what his master was referring to.

He would have to assassinate a genin of the village in order to create an opening for himself.

x-x

Naruto spent most of the next day following one of the two possible targets. Both were on the same genin team along with a third genin. The whole team ranged from six to ten years older than him and had been genin for around five to seven years. The two teammates that Naruto was shadowing were not very gifted ninja. Both were nineteen years old and had taken the chunin exam several times, failing each time. The final member of the group was four years younger at fifteen and had taken the genin exam fewer times while graduated the academy at an earlier age than his teammates. Plagueis didn't want Naruto to go after the smarter and more proficient genin as that would be more detrimental to the team. Instead he was going after the lesser members as it would be easier and allow Naruto to integrate onto the team faster.

While Plagueis had chosen the team and the two genin, Naruto had to make the decisions of which one he was going to kill and how he would go about doing it. From what he could tell from their files, each genin had a specific skill that was known to them which wasn't a nature jutsu. They didn't have any family in or outside the village. The only member that did have family was the member of the team that Plagueis had not chosen.

At the end of the day, Naruto sat down in the hideout to meditate on the possibilities of which person he would kill. It was a difficult prospect as he had never directly killed anyone before and was conflicted about it. He would wait until a few days before the exam so that the Hokage was faced with making the team decisions at the academy as well as filling in someone to take the place of the genin he would kill. Having both on his mind at the same time would likely cause Hokage to think about filling in the incomplete genin squad with a fresh genin. Naruto would be a likely candidate as he had moved up through the academy and was gifted beyond the other students. They were using Naruto's trouble with creating the clone technique as a cover for the slight drop in his grades. The Sandaime was a man of tradition and would no doubt keep the same team formation for the rookie of the year. That would leave Naruto as the odd person out because he was still very gifted and the class had one more student than it should have because Naruto skipped ahead so many grades.

There was the chance that the Sandaime wouldn't put Naruto on the more experienced team but that was unavoidable unless they tried to persuade the Sandaime which was out of the question. The man may have been old but they weren't going to try and trick him. Mind tricks only worked on the weak minded and weak willed so it was likely they wouldn't work on the veteran Hokage.

The plan was risky, as Naruto would have to kill a genin and make sure to not leave any evidence or get caught in the act. There was no one to partially pin the blame on this time as neither genin had any close ties with the village, family, or really any enemies. Plagueis also wouldn't let Naruto do what he had done the last time and erase the person's memory, Naruto had to kill this time.

Naruto was having trouble dealing with the fact that he would have to kill someone without the assurance that the death would help his team placement. The other times his actions had lead to the deaths of others were for a very good reason and it wasn't actually him personally doing the killing. This situation was very different. It was a test from his master and he didn't want to fail.

The two genin he was to choose from were rather different and it was difficult to decide one over the other. Naruto was far more interested in the special technique of one of the genin more than the other. However if he was let on that team, he couldn't let them know that he knew the technique of their deceased teammate. That would lead to questions he didn't have answers to. This lead Naruto to choosing based on which person was less beneficial for the team. When he thought about it that way, one of the genin stood out as the person that was the weaker link.

x-x

The following night, Naruto once again walked the shadowy streets of Konoha in his black all-weather cloak from the starship. He hadn't worn it since he had stolen the Raijin and the scroll. It was currently pouring in the village and most people were either indoors or in some kind of shelter. Few ninja were outside during lightning storms as they carried so much metal with them and often jumped across the tops of buildings to travel through the village. Naruto moved soundlessly through the alleyways of the village. He had memorized them years ago and knew the best route to get to the apartment that he was going to.

It wasn't long before Naruto spotted the apartment complex he was after. Pulling down his goggles, he searched for the floor that he was after and found the target's apartment. The light was on which wasn't that strange as it wasn't that late. He wasn't sure whether it was better to sneak in after the genin was asleep or just the direct approach and go in now. He thought to ask his Master whose holocron was sealed on his arm but this was supposed to be his test and he wasn't going to fail or ask for help.

Naruto didn't really like to wait, despite his master telling him that he needed more patience so he decided to go now. He would rather get what he had come there to do over with and not wait. He could feel his target in the apartment on the fourth floor and he made his way into the building. He could tell when the lighting would strike so he hid in the shadows during those strikes. The alleys were dark enough for him to walk without being seen but the lightning illuminated everything. He also suppressed his chakra so no one would detect him. It took a couple of minutes to move through the shadowy areas to the building that he wanted while making sure that he was hidden from the flash of the lightning and he couldn't be spotted by anyone.

Naruto wasn't about to try and get access to the apartment from the outside, though he had thought about it. There were too many variables and he would have to get in through the window which was too difficult. He did have another option and it was an interesting discovery with one of his water jutsu.

Naruto made his way to the side entrance of the apartment building. It was locked but he didn't need a key. With a wave of his hand, the door unlocked and opened for him. He walked through and it shut soundlessly behind him and locked itself. He looked at his cloak and noticed the amount of water that he had on it.

With a few handseals, the water that was on his clothes fell the the floor and collected in a small puddle. Naruto pulled out a half full bottle of water from his cloak. He bend down and using his chakra, gathered the water into a perfect sphere in his hand. Naruto then used his chakra to siphon the water into the bottle, leaving it almost full. He had gotten rather good with his water manipulation.

Naruto put the bottle back in his cloak as he would need it later and then made his way through the building. He couldn't feel anyone but tried to keep his chakra suppressed regardless. He came out of a service entrance or janitorial area and into the main entrance area for the building. Passing by a group of mailboxes, he found the staircase. No one was in the staircase or about to use it, so he silently walked to the fourth floor.

When he got to the fourth floor, Naruto opened the door and walked into the hallway. There were many apartments on this level and Naruto knew the one he wanted and the best way to get into it. He reached back into his cloak and pulled out the water bottle. He bent down and gentlly poured it to the floor so it made a good sized puddle that was just right for what he needed to do with it.

Naruto stood up, pocketed the bottle and gently stepped onto the puddle. With a few handseals, he sank into the puddle. It was a simple jutsu that he had used before but while using it he had discovered something.

Naruto used the Force and the puddle began to move down the hallway. It was the simultaneous use of the Force and Chakra for the jutsu that created an interesting affect. Normally the jutsu was just used to hide in any body of water and move through it but the smaller the body of water, the less you could move around. So with just a puddle, Naruto was stationary while in the puddle. With the Force, however, he could now move the puddle. The water jutsu allowed for someone to hide not only themselves but their Chakra as well. Only a Chakra sensor could even detect his presence while he was using that jutsu.

The puddle moved down the hallway and approached the door of his target. Naruto was able to use the puddle to bypass the door entirely as he could slip in the small space between the bottom of the door and the floor. Before he went into the apartment, Naruto stopped the puddle and used the Force to sense the genin. Apparently he was in the kitchen and eating dinner or a snack. Naruto quickly moved the puddle into the apartment and hid in the kitchen. The apartment was rather nice and better than Naruto's. He knew that some ninja apartments in the village were just a single room but this one wasn't.

The genin wasn't paying attention so Naruto moved the puddle underneath the table. He knew the genin hadn't spotted him at all so he slowly moved around behind the genin's chair. The puddle was positioned directly behind the genin sitting in the char.

Ninja could be very sensitive to the presence of others besides just Chakra. The more experienced the ninja, the more they could feel objects coming or someone approaching them. It was really a combination of several senses that gave this extra feeling. The last time he had entered an apartment and attacked a ninja, he had been rather lucky that no one had heard the scuffle and that he managed to stop the ninja from shouting or attacking him. This time he would be more careful and learn from his previous mistakes. The puddle didn't even leave a wetness or trail behind as it passed over the surfaces in the hallway and apartment.

Naruto moved out of the puddle at a slow pace so as not to alert the genin in front of him. The light was situated above the table so he would not cast a shadow. His head, then neck, and finally the rest of his body emerged out of the puddle. Before the gennin even knew that something was wrong. Naruto's hand reached forward and grabbed his head. The glasses wearing gennin froze, everything started going black, and he felt pain but was unable to scream. Naruto had gotten better with the Drain Knowledge technique and quickly searched for any information that might be interesting.

It was as he first thought, the genin really didn't have jutsu that would be useful to him, especially the one that he was known for which was called the soft physique modification technique. Through a medical procedure, it allowed him to dislocate all his joints and fit into tight spaces while using Chakra to stretch, twist, and contort any part of his body. It was interesting but of no use to Naruto. While looking through information about the genin's teammates, he found something much more interesting than he thought he would. It appeared that the genin, along with his two teammates, were all spies for Orochimaru of the Sannin.

Naruto and even Plagueis hadn't expected this turn of events. Plagueis had just selected a genin team that weren't very good but also had taken the chunin exams before. Because the team was only average, there was more of a chance that a fresh genin would be put on their team and since they had already taken the chunin exams, there was a good chance that they would take it again in a short amount of time.

Neither suspected that the team would all be spies for a missing-nin, save for the jonin sensei. It appeared that the jonin wasn't a spy or knew about his genin team being spies. Tsurugi Misumi, the genin Naruto had chosen, was the weaker genin in the group but the other genin he could have chosen wasn't that much stronger. It turned out that the final group member was at least jonin level and also worked far more closely with Orochimaru than the other two.

Naruto asked his Master for instructions as he was no longer sure what to do. Plagueis thought about the predicament and the possible outcomes that could arise. It might be more dangerous for Naruto to be on a team like this but it could also lead to more opportunities and since the other two members were spies and one of them hiding his true skills, it might be easier for Naruto to hide his true skills as well. Naruto also had information about them so it could be used to his advantage if the other members discovered anything about him. Finding out more about Orochimaru might be worth it as well.

They knew little about the Sannin and only what was told in class. According to Misumi's mind, Orochimaru planned to gather and learn all the jutsu in the world. The snake sennin was also creating his own hidden village in a country bordering Fire Country. They also learned of a small base that he had in Sea Country where a scientist was working on creating the ultimate underwater warrior. Misumi only knew so much of the snake sennin's plans and power-base, however the other teammate, Yakushi Kabuto, knew much more. The more they found out about Orochimaru through the mind of the genin, the more Plagueis thought that the man was the Chakra equivalent of a Sith. Orochimaru possessed many of the same aspirations of a Sith and he quickly became a person of interest to Plagueis.

Coming back to the situation at hand. It was risky but worth it to continue and try to become part of the genin squad. Naruto had just about finished going through all of the memories on jutsu, the genin squad, spying on the village, and Orochimaru. There was nothing more that could be gained from the genin sitting at the table.

'Continue with the test my student.' said Plagueis over the connection and Naruto nodded though was still unsure about committing the act.

Naruto used Force Grip to keep Misumi in the chair and from talking. It wasn't necessarily needed as the genin was still going in and out of consciousness from the Drain Knowledge used on his mind. Reaching up over his right shoulder, Naruto grasped the handle of his ninjato and pulled it from its sheath. He steadied himself and tried to keep his hand from shaking while gripping his sword. A slight buzz or hum came from the sword as Naruto put some chakra into the handle to activate the vibration technology. He hesitated for only a moment, then with a single horizontal swing it was over.

Naruto sheathed his sword and stared at the body in front of him. With the Force grip, the body had been sitting perfectly still in the chair. The sword gave no resistance and the head actually stayed on the neck. The only indication that the person in front of him was dead was a few thin lines of blood from the neck and the lack of life signs that he could sense through the Force. Everything in the room was quiet and Naruto wasn't sure why the body hadn't fallen, why the head hadn't come off, or why the wound wasn't bleeding profusely. It was rather eery and the scene as well as his actions made him feel very sick

'I think your use of Force Grip when killing him caused his body to seize up and stay that way. You should leave the area immediately. There is nothing else that can be gained here.' stated Plageuis and Naruto came back to reality. He went through handseals and sunk back into the puddle and then moved back the way he came.

Naruto siphoned the water from the puddle back into the bottle and went down the stairs. He checked to make sure that no one was there and left through the same door he entered. Moving through the alleyways, Naruto made his way back to his house and took a long path to do it. He was already using a technique to hide his scent but he had just killed a genin of the village so he had to be sure. 'The rain would wash everything away.' Naruto thought.

His eyes widened slightly at that thought and Naruto went through the same set of handseals as he did in the apartment building. He slipped into one of the many puddles that had formed from the rainstorm then used the Force to move away from the crime scene and back to his apartment through the puddles of Konoha.

x-x

The next day, Apartment building of Tsurugi Misumi

x-x

The Sandaime entered a fourth floor apartment that was now the scene of a murder. Without the Uchiha Military Police, the village had to use ANBU in order to take care of any problems inside the village involving ninja. From what little details the Sandaime had, a genin had been murdered in his apartment and apparently the death was rather strange.

This was actually the first murder in the village since the Uchiha clan had been wiped out. Unless the suspicious death of Uchiha Shisui was counted, it had been years since a murder took place in Konoha. The Sandaime was asked by Morino Ibiki to come down and take a look.

The Sandaime looked around at the apartment out of habit from years of being a ninja. He examined the room before walking to Ibiki at the table. The apartment was small but had everything that one person needs, a kitchen/dining area, bathroom, and bedroom.

Nothing seemed out of place in the room and the only thing that the Sandaime noted that was strange was the body that Ibiki was standing next to. The body was sitting in the chair and staring straight forward as if the person wasn't really dead. The Sandaime noted some blood and bruising around the neck but no real marks were present.

"Report." requested the Sandaime.

"The genin is Tsurugi Misumi, age nineteen. We found no signs of forced entry and the body is exactly how it was found by a member of his genin squad. We're checking their alibi's now. From what we can tell, the time of death was late last night from a single attack to the neck. No fingerprints, no tracks, no scent, no witnesses, no noises, and nothing has been touched or taken as far as we can tell."

The Sandaime sighed as he inspected the genin. It was rather sad to see any of his ninja die but the state of the ninja before him seemed to make the situation much more depressing. This genin wasn't noteworthy but he cared about all his ninja, the skillful or the ones never made it past genin. "You said a single wound to the neck?" asked the Sandaime as he could see some blood and bruising but not really enough to warrant death, he supposed the attack must have broken the neck or severed the spine.

Ibiki nodded and put his hand on the bodies head. Grabbing the hair, he lifted up and the head just came right off the neck with ease. The Sandaime stared at the wound as it was more extensive than he originally thought. 'Such a clean cut and the head didn't come off the neck.' he thought as his mind went through techniques which he knew or heard of that could have done something like this. Ibiki set the head back down on the neck.

"Was he restrained in some way or was the body held in place until rigor set in?" asked the Sandaime and Ibiki answered, "Not that we can find."

"What do you think could do something like this?" asked the Sandaime curiously as he wanted Ibiki's opinion.

"The only things I can think of are wind or lightning jutsu. It would have to have been a very sharp technique that did this, far sharper than any blade. It was such a clean cut that barely any blood escaped the wound. All of the bleeding was internal around the neck area. It must have been fast, a single swing or single technique. I don't know many lightning techniques that could do this except very advanced vibration of a special blade and I don't know of anyone that knows that kind of technique in the village. As for wind jutsu, they are far more likely for something like this. It could have been a jutsu but there was no damaged to the apartment which suggests a blade. The blade must have been chakra metal as I don't know as a kunai infused with wind chakra could do this. I don't know many people who can use wind chakra like that. Also there is no blood spatter anywhere. Only a few people in the village are skilled enough to do something like this with wind chakra." stated Ibiki and the Sandaime knew the list as well. His son Asuma was on it. As well as his old teammate Danzo. However he couldn't believe that either of those men would want to kill this genin.

"Can you put together a list of suspects?" the Sandaime asked and Ibiki nodded. The Sandaime left the room with a heavy sigh. He really didn't like where this case was headed. He knew Asuma was innocent and wouldn't do something like this but Danzo was another story. He knew Danzo would be capable of something like this but he doubted the man would actually do it himself. That left a short list of suspects that could use wind nature chakra or could use lightning nature chakra.

The problem was that the Sandaime didn't think that anyone on that list would have committed this crime.

x-x

Two days later, Academy Graduation

x-x

Naruto sat in his seat with his forehead protector tied around his arm. He still had his goggles on his forehead and he wasn't about to replace his invention with a piece of engraved metal. Naruto would have to wait until the following day in order to learn what team he had been placed on and couldn't help but wonder if there was anything he could do to convince the Sandaime to put him with the team he had created an empty spot on. Everything he did a few days ago would have been pointless if the Sandaime didn't put him on that team. Naruto hadn't been the rookie of the year and had come in second place which was exactly what he was supposed to do.

He had spent the previous day going over with his master everything that they had learned from Tsurugi about Orochimaru. It was a good amount of information. Unfortunately none of it helped them at this point in time. Plagueis wasn't about to work with another 'Sith' or help him. The laboratory in Sea Country was interesting but not really useful. However the scientist there might be skilled enough to help their plans if he was knowledgeable about chemistry. They still needed to make fuel or find an alternative source and it would depend on how skilled the man was. Kabuto was interesting as well. He was far stronger than anyone in the village would guess and possessed incredibly knowledge of biology and medicine but was also completely loyal to Orochimaru.

Naruto couldn't stop thinking about what had happened earlier in the week, The death of genin at his hands was still in his memories. Plagueis thought it may have been unwise to use the sword on the genin but what was done was done. Naruto had heard several people talk about the sword that he had created in a weapons store but it was mostly academy students that talked about it. Unfortunately he couldn't do much about the store owner and his daughter. The Sith didn't really possess any memory modification techniques, as least not that Naruto knew. What had happened to Rokusho Aoi was a side-effect of delving too deeply into someones mind, which was the erasing of memories. It happened with those who had not mastered the technique or tried to go too far. Naruto had purposely done it to Aoi and he had no control over which memories were erased or how much was erased. He also couldn't use any mind tricks because they are really only good for a quick usage and not for several hours of use. Even if he had done something to modify their memories, they would have wondered what happened to the whole afternoon.

Naruto was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard the sounds of everyone packing up to leave. The class was over. It was difficult to concentrate in the room because everyone was celebrating and he kept partially reading the minds of the people near him. It wasn't really mind reading as he just gleaned brief bits of information, feelings, or emotions from the people around him. It could be rather disorienting if he didn't block them out. He was still learning to control it and had difficulty when so many people were around him and experiencing strong emotions and thoughts.

Naruto left the class last and walked down the hall to leave. He passed several people and heard bits and pieces of what they were currently thinking about. It wasn't until one white haired chunin passed Naruto that he heard a thought that caught his full attention. 'Ororchimaru.' It was just a single word but it caused Naruto to forget everything else around him.

Naruto turned to look at the man whose mind he had heard the thought from. He was a chunin with straight white hair but Naruto didn't know his name and he had never seen the man at the academy before. He could feel some anger and frustration coming from the man along with a sense of reverence for the name he was thinking about. Naruto knew most of the teachers as he had been in many classes in his years at the academy but he never had this chunin for a teacher. He couldn't help by wonder why the chunin would be thinking about Orochimaru.

'Follow him.' ordered Plagueis and Naruto complied. He turned around and pushed his way through the rest of the student traffic while not losing the man's signature. He finally got through the crowd and followed the chunin to the teachers lounge.

Naruto couldn't stand outside the teachers lounge because it would look suspicious so he ducked into a nearby classroom. The classroom was empty and Naruto sat down on one the benches while opening a random scroll from his bag. If anyone came in, they would just think he was reading. Using Force Listen, he was able to hear exactly what was being said in the room.

x-x

"So you're teaching at the academy now, Mizuki?" asked Iruka as he was happy to see his long time friend. Both Iruka and Mizuki had become chunin together but Iruka had stopped doing missions in favor of teaching full-time several years ago while Mizuki still wanted to strive for jonin rank.

Mizuki put on a fake smile to cover his distaste for his 'friend' and said, "It looks like it. Maybe we'll be teaching the same class as I'm only an assistant right now."

The only reason he had come back to academy was due to suspicious circumstances on his last mission. Mizuki wasn't satisfied with being an academy teacher and wanted to increase his rank. He was willing to do anything to rise in the village and become more powerful.

In his last mission, one of his comrades had gotten injured and Mizuki had killed him so as not to slow the team down and complete the mission. The body was eventually recovered and the death was ruled as suspicious so Mizuki had been suspended from missions and was under investigation. It wasn't the first time something like that had happened on a mission and it was enough to get people, including the Hokage, suspicious of his actions and mission record.

The whole situation pissed him off as he felt that he had done the right thing. He wasn't going to tell anyone that. The only thing he could do until the suspension was lifted was to teach at the academy or do missions inside the village. While he hated the academy, the students, and Iruka, he would rather work there than be stuck on meaningless task around the village.

In Mizuki's mind, he wasn't going to be bound by morals and teamwork like the other idiots of Konoha and was willing to do anything and sacrifice anything to achieve his goals. That was the reason that he was noticed by Orochimaru on his last mission. The snake sennin had apparently been in the area and seen Mizuki kill his teammate. Orochimaru was impressed with Mizuki and had given him the key to power. Mizuki had yet to figure out what the 'key' was exactly as it was just a few piece of paper with a formula and symbol on it. It would take time to figure out what it was but he had plenty of time with his suspension.

Believing that Orochimaru was the only person who could understand him and would give him the power that he sought. Mizuki had started to plan on what to do with the power he could gain but no matter what it was, he knew it probably wouldn't be enough for him. That meant that he would have to think about getting more power. The only person Mizuki could see giving it to him was of course Orochimaru.

Unfortunately, Mizuki knew that the snake sennin wouldn't just give him more power. He would need to give Orochimaru something in return. It didn't take Mizuki long to figure out what might interest a man like Orochimaru as he knew the only thing in the entire village that would interest the snake sennin was the forbidden Scroll of Seals.

Mizuki had no idea how he would get the scroll and be able to leave the village but he had plenty of time to think about it.

x-x

Naruto listened to the conversation between the two teachers for almost half an hour. They conversed about various topics, none of which interested him. Mizuki didn't say anything further about Orochimaru but did talk about how he was suspended from active duty due to suspicious circumstances on his last mission. Naruto could pick up on several emotions that Mizuki was feeling during the conservation. The first and foremost was that Mizuki hated Iruka and was only talking to him because he would be working at the academy for the foreseeable future.

If Naruto was in the room, he may have been able to pick up on more of the man's thoughts. That was out of the question though as he couldn't go into the teachers lounge and couldn't pick up on those thoughts through a wall. Naruto was starting to think that perhaps it had just been a stray thought that he had sensed, but then why had the teacher thought about the name with such reverence? The anger and frustration could be explained as not being directed at Orochimaru but at the situation with the academy and investigation.

The more Naruto thought back to what he had felt at the time, the more he thought that Mizuki held the snake sennin in higher regards than anyone in the village. It seemed very strange as nearly the entire village felt the exact opposite for Orochimaru. The only people that Naruto encountered that felt similar as Mizuki were the genin team of spies that were working for Orochimaru.

That brought up the thought that perhaps Mizuki was a spy as well. Perhaps the investigation was due to the Hokage believing that Mizuki had ties to Orochimaru. That thought didn't fit with what he knew from the genin team though. From the memories of Musumi, Naruto didn't find any evidence of another spy in the village or any information on Mizuki. It was possible that Musumi was just not informed about such things as the genin was rather low on the spying and information totem pole when it came to Orochimaru. Yakushi Kabuto was much higher than anyone else so it was possible that the lower spies working for Orochimaru didn't know about Mizuki.

'What should we do, Master?' asked Naruto through their connection.

'I don't believe that this Mizuki is a spy. It is possible that Orochimaru still has followers in the village that aren't actually aligned with him or have contact with him. However, the teacher may have more knowledge about Orochimaru than the genin spy so it would be beneficial to search his mind. It wouldn't be wise to leave another dead body and we should wait for a while before acting. You will be paying Mizuki a visit soon and will be searching his mind then destroying his memories like Rokusho Aoi. The information obtained could be valuable.' concluded Plagueis.

Please Review


	7. Chapter 7

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

x-x

**40 BBY – Current Year**

Chapter VII: New team and new opportunities

Continuation of the previous chapter

x-x

To say that Kabuto was nervous was an understatement. He had just learned of his teammate's death and while he didn't care that Tsurugi Musumi was dead he did wonder why and by whom. Kabuto had been a spy for Sasori and picked to spy on Orochimaru as well as Konohagakure. The Snake Sennin noticed the seal in Kabuto's head and removed it very early on. For that and many other reasons, Kabuto had faithfully served Orochimaru and had great respect for the Sennin.

With his adopted father being such an influential person at the hospital and Kabuto himself being a practicing but low level medical-nin, he had access to areas of the hospital which included the morgue. Kabuto had spent several hours thoroughly examining Musumi's body for evidence and to hopefully determine how and why his teammate was killed. As a spy, he was always worried about being found out, however he was good enough to fool his father, his jonin sensei, the Hokage, and even the entire village. The only one he hadn't been able to fool was Orochimaru.

This murder concerned him as he needed to find out if there was a chance that his secret had been discovered by someone. Even if it was a small chance he desperately needed to be certain that no one knew about him. Musumi's only wound aroused Kabuto's curiosity as if he didn't know any better, he would have thought it was created by his master's Kusanagi blade. The cut was incredibly clean and left little damage to the surrounding tissue. Kabuto also examined Musumi's head. Even if the body was dead, a cacophony of information could still be learned by a skilled medical-nin or even a hunter-nin.

Kabuto could have learned what jutsu Musumi liked to use, what his elemental affinity was, if he had more than one affinity, and even what weapons Musumi liked to use. It was all there in the muscles, tissue, skin, and chakra pathways. A person just needed to be skilled enough to determine and recognize it. And Kabuto was just that skilled.

It was when he examined the head that Kabuto found something that he didn't expect. From what he could tell, it appeared as though the memory area of Musumi's brain had been accessed or damaged in some way. There was no physical damage but he could tell that something was off about it. 'Could someone have accessed his mind? What would they have been after in the first place? Was he in danger of being discovered? Did someone already know about him being a spy?' were some of the thoughts that went through his head as he analyzed the situation. He would need to prepare for any outcome and would need to remain calm. The one thing that he couldn't figure out was who had done something like this. As far as Kabuto was concerned, Musumi was an idiot that would never achieve the rank of chunin.

'Who would want to kill Musumi and who would want to go through his mind? He has nothing of value.' thought Kabuto as he tried to come up with answers. It didn't really make any sense. Musumi was just a genin and wouldn't know any secrets about the village or about anything useful in general. The only thing that he would know about was his genin team being spies for Orochimaru.

Paranoia was already starting to set in and Kabuto knew he would have to start double checking to make sure he wasn't being followed or watched. The only thing that Kabuto knew for certain was that whoever had done it, they weren't under orders from the Hokage as the Sandaime would never murder a genin.

If the Sandaime knew Musumi was a spy then he would have been captured and interrogated and not killed. He also knew that his still living teammate, Akado Yoroi wasn't responsible. That led Kabuto to thinking that it may have been someone that didn't take orders from the Hokage.

He thought perhaps it could have been Shimura Danzo or one of his 'Foundation' ninja that he still had. Despite being told by the Hokage to stop all covert operations and disband his Root ANBU, Danzo hadn't done anything of the sort. He had just gotten better at hiding the evidence of his actions from the village and Hokage. His Foundation had been responsible for numerous assassinations and missions outside of the village.

Orochimaru had even helped Danzo implant cells of the Shodai into an arm after he had left the village. Kabuto knew about this because he had helped his Master work with the Shodai's cells. 'Would Danzo try to get more information on Orochimaru-sama by targeting his spies in the village?' thought Kabuto as he adjusted his glasses again and he wasn't sure about the answer. He didn't know how Danzo would have found out about one of Orochimaru's spies in the first place.

It was a mystery and he didn't have enough evidence to make any conclusions. For now he wouldn't do anything except keep observing, continue his work for Orochimaru, and watch his back.

x-x

Sandaime's Office

x-x

The Sandaime sighed as he looked over the class list of the recently graduated academy students. He was having a hard time fitting Naruto into a group. The boy could fit with several groups and yet he felt they probably wouldn't work out. Naruto hadn't been the rookie of the year because he had been struggling with the clone jutsu despite having nearly perfect grades in every other subject and even performed the other academy jutsu perfectly. His grades had dropped just enough though to keep him out of the first spot in the class.

The Sandaime always stuck to tradition and put the top student along with the smartest kunoichi and the lowest student on a single team. That had been his team when he taught the Sannin but Naruto wouldn't be in that team and had to be placed elsewhere. The other problem with the teams was that they had one extra student because Naruto had skipped grades the previous year. This left an odd person out. The Sandaime was about to look through the list again when he remembered that there was an opening on an active genin team.

The Sandaime didn't have any waiting genin's to replace the missing member of that team but he could put an academy student for that position. While Naruto's grades may have dropped a little, he was still a very gifted student. The genin team in questions was really just a support team. They had been genin for a while but didn't go on very difficult or highly ranked missions. They had also failed to make it past the second stage of any chunin exam that they had taken. It was probably a very good team for a student that was skipped ahead several grades and that was difficult to place on any new genin squad.

The Sandaime looked over the skills of the remaining genin on the squad. Both were over five years older than Naruto but they didn't seem to be going anywhere in terms of rank or development of new skills. Yakushi Kabuto seemed to have average or slightly above average medical training however if he wanted to be on the medical-nin squad then he would have to at least be chunin rank. Akado Yoroi only seemed to have a single jutsu that he relied on which was the ability to drain someone's chakra on contact. It wasn't the first time the Sandaime had seen an ability like that but Yoroi hadn't progress beyond that skill or learn any other techniques in order to become stronger. Because of this, the young man would most likely never achieve the rank of chunin.

'It might be a good team for an academy student with no friends in his graduating class. They won't have very difficult missions and they don't try for the chunin exams every year so Naruto will have plenty of time to get adjusted to a new team before even thinking about taking the exam.' thought the Sandaime. 'The jonin also fits as I know him to be a very level headed person who won't judge Naruto because of his burden and would probably be better than many of the other jonin testing academy students this year.'

x-x

Naruto sat in the academy while the instructor gave his final lecture and congratulations to the students for passing the exam and moving on to genin. Naruto tuned the man out though as he started thinking about short term goals of himself as well as his Master.

He had obtained several jutsu from the Ame ninja but found out that genjutsu really wasn't something he was good at. Most of the problem was his chakra control and not his aptitude. He had been interested in genjutsu in the academy but would have to work on his chakra control before he would be able to look into it again. Naruto had also tried to find a way to create genjutsu with the Force as his Master told him it was possible but that he wasn't getting very far on his own developing Force Illusions.

Mizuki was an interest to his master and finding out what the man knew about the snake sannin was a priority but would wait for now. He couldn't go leaving another ninja of the village without any memories so soon after killing a genin, however he wasn't sure anyone would be able to link those together. The village would likely be on higher alert for a short period after the assassination so he would have to wait for a little while before considering anything.

He also had to keep his sword from being noticed as anything more than a normal ninjato, which was difficult to do with the color of the blade. 'It may not have been such a good idea to kill that genin with my sword or let it be seen by the weapons store owner and his daughter.' thought Naruto as he hadn't really thought about that at the time. He was more concerned with other matters and not thinking ahead or considering the effects of his actions. Plagueis had commented on the lack of secretiveness when evaluating his test and told him to have more tact in the future.

Now he was left with a slight problem. He doubted that anyone would be able to figure out that it had been his blade that had done the deed but it did have a sharp edge, even without the vibrations, that it could easily draw attention to it. 'Perhaps I should use my regular ninjato that I used to practice with. At least for a little while, and then switch back.' thought Naruto. He wouldn't need it for a while because he would most likely be doing D-rank missions in the near future.

Recently he had heard a few students talking about a blade that he had created at a local weapons shop but it was still just rumor among academy students and he hadn't heard any of the villagers or ninja talking about it. It was a risk though as the shop owners daughter was in the academy and did like to talk about weapons but no one knew much beyond the fact that it looked unique. It was when people saw him using it or started to question its qualities that he would become nervous.

Naruto came out of his thoughts as the chunin teacher finished his speech and started going through the genin teams. Naruto listened for his name but he hadn't heard it. It wasn't until the very end of the list that his name was spoken, "Uzumaki Naruto. You will be placed on a existing genin team, Team Shinjiro." With that said, the genin were left to sit and wait for their new jonin sensei to collect them.

Naruto could hardly keep the smile off his mostly hidden face. He had been placed on the team that he wanted. While he kept up the smile and waited to be taken to his new team, a part of him was relieved. Killing the genin hadn't been for nothing and everything had worked out how his Master had planned it, despite inadvertently discovered a genin team of spies working for a missing nin.

The man Naruto had been waiting for entered and he waited to be called before he got up to go with his new squad captain and sensei.

"Uzumaki Naruto." the man stated and Naruto got up to follow. He made sure he didn't instinctively get up to go with the jonin whose face he had memorized, as that would have raised questions as to how he even knew who the man was.

x-x

"It must be a little problematic to be placed on a team you've never met before. I suppose you would have rather been on a team with your friends." said Toshihiko Shinjiro, Naruto's new sensei.

"I don't have any friends." stated Naruto as they continued to walk to meet the other team members at their usual meeting spot.

'I suppose that makes sense...' Shinjiro thought, '….he's been moved through the academy and skipped ahead so he probably wasn't able to make many friends in his classes. Hopefully he'll be able to fit in with Kabuto and Yoroi.'

Getting over the loss of a teammate was never easy and replacing that teammate would be difficult on the the rest of the team as well as the replacement. Shinjiro wanted to make the transition to a new team member as easy as possible for his team while working Naruto into the team dynamics. Naruto's file didn't tell him that much about where the boy's skills might be but he could tell that Naruto was at least decent in ninjutsu and above the rest of his older classmates in taijutsu. He would need to find out everything that Naruto could do so he could work on formations and strategies for the team.

First however, Naruto would need to meet the rest of the team.

x-x

"I can't believe you talked me into this again." stated Neji as he walked the streets with his classmate Tenten.

"It didn't take that much convincing, this time or the first time." Tenten replied with a slight smile and Neji frowned at the answer as it was correct.

This was the second time that the duo 'conducted activities' related to Uzumaki Naruto. The first time was a few days earlier in order to find out where the boy lived and other information about his habits. Both academy students were interested in Naruto for different reasons though.

Tenten was only concerned with the sword and scoffed at Neji's accusations that she was being obsessive about it. Ever since the afternoon that a boy had come into her families store and created such a unique and amazing sword, she had 'focused' on learning more.

It should not have been possible for the boy to create such a weapon in that amount of time. She had been learning to wield and create weapons for years and she knew it wasn't possible for her to create something as amazing as the boy had. She also knew that even her father couldn't have created something like it. Once she had seen the sword, she knew that it stood apart from all other swords that she had ever seen before.

This left a plethora of questions that she wanted answered. How did a novice at sword making create such a weapon? What was the sword made from, as the metal had a distinct color that was different than anything she had ever seen? Where did he learn to create swords? What process did he use and what tools were used? The sheer number of questions that she wanted answered had been bugging her since she had first seen the sword. She wanted to know and it was important to her. If her family could make more of those weapons then they would get a lot more business and she also wanted her own unique sword. She would settle for him making her a sword if she couldn't get him to teach her how to make one.

Unfortunately, while Tenten was not a shy girl and spoke her mind, she didn't know how to approach the boy and get what she wanted. He was always the odd person in the class and didn't speak to anyone except questions for the teacher to answer. Naruto mostly ignored everyone else around him. After leaving her grade she had trouble finding him as he disappeared right after class was over and arrived at the academy without anyone noticing. It was also Tenten's experience that techniques for making swords weren't shared with anyone else besides an apprentice or family, so it was unlikely that he would answer most of her questions.

The curiosity about the sword itself had been reaching a boiling point in her and she just wanted to see it again. She wanted to inspect it and touch it. Tenten wanted to learn all she could from it. The image of the blade laying on the counter in her families shop had been imprinted on her mind since he had showed them the blade to get the right size sheath for it. It wasn't just that she wanted to see it, she _had_ to see it again.

The strangest part was that Naruto didn't wear the sword and she hadn't seen it at all since he first created it. It was never with him when she did see him which meant that he must leave it at home and that was where Neji came in. Trying to follow the boy home hadn't produced any results as he seemed to know that he was being followed or just always made sure he wasn't tailed. She needed to find where the sword was while making sure she wasn't caught and Neji's dojutsu would enable that.

Neji however wasn't interested in the sword or Naruto either, at least he wouldn't admit to it, he just wanted answers to the questions that had been plaguing him. Neji had grown up and developed specific beliefs but Uzumaki Naruto was an anomaly and countered those beliefs. Fate decided everything in Neji's opinion and no one could escape that.

Uzumaki Naruto was an orphan and didn't belong to any clan. The boy was poor and lived on his own in a dilapidated apartment. With no clan and no one to help him, the boy should have been at the bottom of the class or no better than average in the academy. He shouldn't have gotten any training or help and his fate should have been mediocrity in the academy. His grades and skills should have been among those of the civilian children and yet those things were not true.

Uzumaki Naruto was skipped ahead three grades, surpassing the children of all the clan heads in the village. Several of the students and even a few teachers considered him a prodigy and perhaps the best of his generation. Now the boy had just graduated at the age of nine from the ninja academy. None of it made any sense to Neji.

Neji was considered a genius and the best Hyuuga to come in several generations. He excelled at jyuuken and the gentle fist style which was acknowledged by everyone in his clan, main house or branch house. Fate had determined that and it was Neji's fate to succeed at the academy and in his ninja career. It was therefore difficult for him to understand how Uzumaki Naruto was performing above everyone else when he clearly shouldn't be.

The only explanation for this was that somehow Naruto was cheating or being helped. It was frowned upon for any ninja of the village to help or provide lessons to an academy student if they weren't a teacher at the academy. Someone must be helping him and Neji wasn't about to sit idly by while this happened. Fate could not be changed and Naruto's fate was obvious to him. Neji agreed to go along with Tenten in order to discover what was really going on and then he would expose it and put Naruto back in his place. No one can escape their destiny and Neji would make sure of that.

While both had followed Naruto before, they weren't following him this time. Neji had used his byakugan to make sure that Naruto wasn't near his apartment as Tenten was dead set on seeing the sword again and 'touching' it. Neji was more interesting in searching for evidence and closely examining the apartment to find out what was really going on. They would have to sneak into the apartment to get to it and while it was illegal, they both determined that they had sufficient reasons to do it.

They knew that Naruto had been placed on a genin team and would be away from his apartment for a while which would give them some time to get inside and look around.

x-x

Naruto sat at a training ground on a log as the other members of his new team introduced themselves. He was listening to what they were saying but also analyzing them and reviewing what else he knew about them. He idly wondered if either of them knew about the kyuubi which was an interesting thought. They wouldn't have even been out of the academy when the village was attacked and the kyuubi was sealed so they may or may not have been privy to that information.

Akado Yoroi had just finished telling Naruto about his dreams for the future and Kabuto's introduction was next. The white haired genin first adjusted his glasses while giving Naruto a small smile before he started. "My name is Yakushi Kabuto..." but the remainder of Kabuto's speech was lost when Naruto felt something. It took a second to identify what it was when he realized that the security seals on his apartment had gone off.

'Who would break into my apartment?' he thought as he continued to partially listen to Kabuto's introduction. He wasn't going to interrupt as there was nothing important inside his apartment that wasn't well hidden. If the other seals went off on one of his hiding spots inside the apartment then he would be concerned.

Naruto's eyes widened and his hear beat quickened as a moment later the seals on his main hiding spot activated. 'How the hell did they find it so quickly?' he questioned as it was a village full of ninja but he was sure that his hiding spots would fool anyone who wasn't specifically looking for a hidden area. At this point Naruto was starting to have trouble sitting still as Kabuto finished his introduction.

'Who the hell is in my apartment?' he wanted to know and moment later he knew his answer. He was again taken by surprise when he had the sudden feeling that someone had taken his sword from the hiding spot and was holding it. Naruto also received a few images of who was holding his sword. 'I never knew I had this kind of connection with my sword.' he thought as no one else had ever come into physical contact with the blade besides himself.

He was broken from his thoughts to give his own introduction to his new teammates and decided to wait before getting back to his apartment. He knew who was there now and what they were doing. If they did steal from him then he would know exactly where to go. He would delay for the team meeting to be over which shouldn't take that long and then would see what was going on.

x-x

"Its just as amazing as I remembered it!" Tenten said contently with her eyes fixed to the sheathed ninjato.

"It's still in the sheath, and aren't you becoming a bit obsessed over it?" Neji questions with a shake of his head.

"You're one to talk. How much time do you spend on your hair and looking at it in a mirror? Then again I suppose you would know all about obsession." chided Tenten as she set the blade down on the table in the kitchen and Neji merely frowned at her.

Neji had easily found the secret compartment in the wall in the kitchen with his Byakugan though neither had noticed the seals that they had tripped. While Tenten stared at the sword in awe, Neji continued to examine the apartment.

'There was a black cloak in the hiding place along with several scrolls.' he remembered and went to the hiding place to examine them. He removed the cloak to get to the scrolls underneath. There were six of them and they were all the same size and color. He tried to open them but was unable to as they were sealed shut and he also couldn't look into them with his dojutsu to read what was inside. Putting them back where he found them, he noticed several other hiding places with his byakugan but nothing of note was there except money and a few more scrolls.

The scrolls were rather suspicious as they were sealed shut with perhaps a blood seal which was advanced for any academy student or genin. 'What would be in the scrolls that he would need to seal them shut and then hide them?' questioned Neji as he continued to analyze the rest of the apartment which was rather standard. He found nothing else that was out of place or suspicious. Neji deactivated his byakugan upon hearing the 'oohs' and 'ahhs' of his fellow classmate as she removed the ninjato from the sheath. He moved over to the table to get a better look at the sword that had captivated the thoughts of his classmate for some time. It was rather unique and he could see what had caught her interest as a weapons expert.

Tenten removed the blade from the sheath and examined it in every way she could. It was exactly how she remembered it. The red blade with black edges and a black handle. She picked up the blade and examined the balance and weight. Oddly she thought it was rather heavy for a blade of its size but the balance was perfect. She then pulled out a small magnifying glass and examined every inch of the polished blade. Amazingly enough, it was perfect and didn't have a single fault or mark. 'That doesn't make any sense. Every blade has tool marks or some kind of imperfection.' noted Tenten curiously and her findings made her wonder more and more about the process that was used to make it.

She looked up and at Neji, then smiled. It was disconcerting for Neji as he really didn't like the smile and apparently had good reason as a moment later Tenten plucked out one strand of his perfect hair. Neji flinched and gave a glare but was curious to see what she would do. Tenten used to hair to test the sharpness of the blade.

She positioned the sword with the blade facing up and gently touched a part of the strand of hair against the blade. It effortlessly cut and she was rather impressed. Although Neji was slightly put off by the display, it was his perfect hair after all. Tenten then decided to use the nail of her thumb to test the sharpness.

"Why if you just used my hair are you now using your thumb nail?" asked Neji.

"Using a hair isn't really a test of sharpness." replied Tenten.

"Then why did you pluck one out of my head and use?" asked Neji while narrowing his eyes.

Tenten merely shrugged while smiling, "I was presented with an opportunity and I took it. Turns out Hyuuga hair is not better than everyone else's hair." The answer made Neji twitch with anger as he had lost a perfectly good hair for nothing but he didn't comment further as Tenten started her 'real' test.

The nail of her thumb was easily cut. In fact if she hadn't been so cautious about it, she probably would be bleeding right now or would have taken a part of the tip of her thumb off. 'I've never seen a sword this sharp. How in the world did he sharpen it so finely and to such a razor edge? I wonder how strong it is?' she thought but was brought out of her thoughts by Neji who was still periodically activating his eyes and looking out for the apartment owner to come back.

"Tenten, he's coming back." stated Neji with his byakugan active.

Tenten's eyes widened and she rushed to put the blade back in the sheath, then put it back in the hiding place. She replaced the piece of wall that hid the secret compartment and then both students got out of the apartment. They may not have known how to tree walk yet but they could still jump and fall good distances without any harm.

They stopped rushing when they were a good distance away from the apartment. They both looked at each other and Neji was the first to speak. "Did you put sword back right where you found it?"

"Yes I put it back on the black cloak where it was when we opened the hidden compartment." replied Tenten with a sigh. The last thing either wanted was to be caught. Neji nodded and they started heading their separate ways.

It wasn't until Neji was nearing the Hyuuga compound that he had a thought. While the scrolls were suspicious, there was something else that he had overlooked until Tenten had mentioned it. 'I can understand that the scrolls were put in the hiding places to keep them from being found but why was there a black cloak? The cloak should have been in the closet. Why would someone want to hide a cloak?'

Unfortunately he didn't have an answer.

x-x

Naruto entered his apartment with caution. He knew that the girl from the weapons shop had been there but as he got close enough to his apartment, he could feel that someone else was with her. It took only a few moments to identify the person from his memories of different people that he had come into contact with. It was a Hyuuga boy from one of his previous classes. A branch member if he was not mistaken.

He now knew why his hiding places had been discovered so easily as it was due to the dojutsu possessed by the Hyuuga clan. Naruto was still paranoid so he first examined the entire apartment for traps before he started looking in all his hiding places to see if anything was taken.

He sat down in a chair at his kitchen table and set his sword down on the table in front of him. Nothing had been taken but he could tell that the scrolls in his main hiding place had been looked at. He was fortunate that he had placed seals on them to keep them from being opened but he was unable to tell if one or both of the intruders had been interested in the scrolls. It wouldn't have been good to have academy students find copied water jutsu from the Nidaime Hokage as he had copied the jutsu from the main scroll which was at the hideout inside the Hokage mountain with the Raijin. He used those scrolls to learn the jutsu from so that he was separated from the stolen scroll in case the hideout was ever found.

Naruto had a hard time believing that Hyuuga Neji would have agreed to help break into his apartment. 'He must have had some kind of reason or curiosity in order to come here and not only look through my entire apartment but act as a lookout.' believed Naruto and he wondered what those reasons were. He didn't take Neji as the kind of person who would help out another academy student. The Hyuuga boy believed they were all beneath him.

Looking at his sword, Naruto found himself experiencing many different feelings that he would normally have had tight control over He felt rather angry, frustrated and even affraid. Searching his feelings he found that he was not angry about his apartment being broken into or his hiding places found. He was feeling these emotions because someone had done something to his property, his sword. It seemed that he had more of a bond and was more attached to the sword than even he was aware. It would explain the images that he saw of the girl examining his ninjato and that he knew someone else was holding it.

The real question was what would he do now? There was no way he was going to leave his sword in his apartment or put it anywhere else. He knew that the girl, Tenten he believed her name was, had tried to follow him several times but apparently her interest in the blade was such that she was now bringing in a Hyuuga to help her get access to it.

Naruto had been wary of using his sword and wanted to use another for a period of time but now he was positive that he couldn't let his sword out of his sight or off his person. It was his sword and only he would use it and not some other person. His teammates already knew from his introduction that he was interested in kenjutsu but he would have to hide its special properties from them. It might be difficult in the case of the ever observant Kabuto, but he didn't want to be parted from his weapon again.

Plagueis was silent as his student thought about his created weapon. He was interested to see that Naruto and the sword did share some type of bond and that the boy was rather possessive of it. Naruto didn't act like that with any other object so it must also be because of the forging process or rituals involved in the blades creation. Feeling with the Force, Plagueis could already feel the sword taking on a slight aura of the dark side of the Force. He was interested to see what would become of this.

x-x

'Stupid D-rank missions.' thought Naruto angrily as his team was coming back to the Hokage tower after spending a portion of the day weeding a garden. Naruto had learned how bad the missions were from draining minds but it was even worse when experiencing them firsthand.

It had been several weeks since Naruto joined his new squad and since then they had done nothing but team training, formations, and crappy missions. It was mind-numbingly boring but the team actually managed to get along just fine. Naruto had never imagined himself getting along with any of his teammates no matter what team he was paired with and it was ironic considering they were spies and he himself had committed numerous crimes against the village. They were all actually guilty of treason, though no one knew about it or had the evidence to convict them.

From working on his team, Naruto had noticed several things about genin the in the village. There didn't seem to be many people that actually took genin seriously. Not the villagers and not even the other higher ranking ninja of the village. It also seemed very dependent on age. Between the age of thirteen to sixteen was the range for genin that were more likely to be taken seriously. Kabuto was already at the end of the that range while Yoroi had passed it and Naruto himself had yet to reach it.

Genin that were younger and older than the range were taken less seriously as younger genin were seen as being physically weaker and the older genin were seen as being not very competent because they weren't able to become progress in rank to chunin. Naruto found it interesting that people didn't see his team as competent or powerful, especially when it came to Kabuto. The glasses wearing genin was nearing the higher limit on the age range but no one seemed to take Kabuto seriously. From what Naruto knew from stolen memories, Kabuto was at least on the same level as their sensei, possibly stronger.

Naruto wondered how a jonin sensei could not notice something out of the ordinary on his own team but he supposed it was due to the whole team being spies and covering for each other. Naruto was beginning to see just how the team had managed to escape any notice for so many years. He was also starting to question whether he wanted to achieve a higher rank anymore.

It was good to be underestimated and everyone seemed to do that for most genin. Chunin ninja were able to access the ninja library but given the lax security, he might be able to break into it and get anything he wanted. Chunin were also restricted out of certain sections of the library that only special jonin and higher ranks were allowed in to view. Naruto didn't know how long it might take to reach the rank of chunin or special jonin so he would have to think about it.

Plagueis had little to say about the matter as he wanted his student to make these decisions and stated that while both choices would lead to different outcomes, in terms of rank, and struggles for Naruto, they would achieve the same goals of learning more jutsu and techniques.

Naruto would have to meditate on this decision in his free time.

x-x

Several weeks had passed since the murder of a genin in the village. Over that time, no new information or even a suspect had been found. From stealthy excursions into the village during several times of the day, Naruto found that the security in the village had lessened back to where it had been several months before. Naruto took this as a sign to start tailing and observing Mizuki.

The records of ninja were unfortunately held in Konoha Ninja Library which Naruto didn't have access to but would one day get into, one way or another. He therefore didn't have much information on Mizuki. Naruto already knew that the chunin was under investigation but no one was following him or even keeping an eye on him. It seemed that the village wasn't very concerned with the suspicious actions of Mizuki or they just didn't have the manpower to keep a close eye on him.

Naruto was searching the man's apartment while the chunin was teaching at the academy but found nothing of interest. Like Rokusho Aoi, Mizuki tended to favor weapons over any jutsu or at least didn't have any scrolls of ninjutsu or genjutsu in his apartment. This lead Naruto to wonder why Mizuki wasn't working on learning any techniques from the library or at least learning nature manipulation. It seemed odd that Mizuki wouldn't try to learn any jutsu as Naruto had the strong feeling that the chunin was obsessed with getting power and prestige in the village. 'Why wouldn't he start learning everything that he could with his access to the ninja library? What kind of person is obsessed with power, but won't take full advantage of what is available to him?' Naruto questioned as he left Mizuki's apartment just the way he found it. It was Plagueis that answered as he had seen this many times before.

'He is the kind of person who doesn't want to work for power or for prestige. He wants things given to him and everything to be easy. He won't work for power and is a narcissist so he believes he is better than everyone else and should be noticed above others. Its possible that he is interested in Orochimaru because of the man's power and prestige. He probably wants the same and was thinking about how to get it when you gleaned those thoughts from him. If he really is that interested in Orochimaru then he must have some information about him. Aoi and Musumi didn't have very much information and one of them was even a spy for the man. Mizuki is older than both and could have more knowledge that they know nothing about. Even if he doesn't know much, he could be used for other things.' suggested Plagueis but he didn't elaborate much and wanted Naruto to figure out what he might be implying.

Naruto thought about what his master had said while walking away from Mizuki's apartment and making his way back to his own. He made sure no one had seen him as he ducked down the back alleyways of the village. 'What could Mizuki be used for? He's a teacher at the academy, but he doesn't have access to anything that I haven't already stolen from there. Lets see...he's chunin in rank...' and it was at that point that Naruto had realized what his sensei was thinking.

x-x

Umino Iruka walked to Mizuki's apartment and rang the bell.

Mizuki walked to the door and looked through the peep hole. His face darkened at the sight of his long time 'friend' and before he opened the door to see what Iruka wanted, he had to put on the facade that he had been using for years. 'What is he doing here? I see him enough at the academy as it is.' thought Mizuki with some anger.

"Iruka, what are you doing here?" Mizuki asked with a smile and as nice a tone as he could fake.

"I thought we could go over the class notes and homework." stated Iruka with a similarly fake smile and tone.

"We already went over them for the rest of the week." state Mizuki as he was slightly puzzled. Iruka faltered for only a second before stating, "I meant for next week."

Mizuki twitched at this but didn't think it that odd. Iruka liked to keep up with all the classwork and often asked his opinion on what they were teaching the students. Mizuki didn't give a damn but had to keep up appearances so he invited Iruka inside his apartment.

Iruka already knew where everything was and walked to the dining room table in the kitchen. Mizuki walked over and for a moment found it strange as they had sat in the living room area the last time Iruka had come over but didn't think much of it at the time.

Iruka was about to open the scrolls that he brought with him, when he asked, "Do you have any tea?" and the question made Mizuki twitch again. "Sure, I'll go get us some." said Mizuki in a sickly sweet voice. Iruka didn't unroll any of the scrolls but got up and walked towards Mizuki. "What kind of tea do you have?" asked Iruka as his face darkened slightly and he performed a single seal.

"You know perfectly w..." but Mizuki never got a chance to finish as Iruka's chakra glowing hand came into contact with his shoulder. Mizuki immediately felt his strength leave him and before he could attack or do much of anything, he had already slumped down to his knees.

'What the hell! He's draining my chakra?' thought Mizuki as he looked up at the 'friend' he always disliked and wondered why he was doing this. He tried to reach for a kunai or break contact with Iruka's hand but it was no use. His chakra reserves had always been low and it was one of the reasons why he hadn't spent much time learning ninjutsu.

As more chakra left his body, his hand which had managed to reach a kunai loosened and the metal weapon fell to the floor. His vision was swimming and his body felt completely useless. Mizuki's eyes started to close and he completely collapsed to the ground unconscious.

Iruka smiled slightly and was enveloped in smoke as the henge was released and revealed Naruto in his black cloak.

Naruto knew better than to try mind tricks out on Kabuto but it turned out that Yoroi was rather susceptible to them and it wasn't hard to trick him into giving Naruto his chakra draining technique. Naruto bargained for a low level water jutsu just to make him think that it had been a fair trade. He also added the thought that it would be a good idea not to tell anyone about the exchange. The technique proved to be very useful and this was the first chance he had to test it against someone.

Moving quickly, Naruto dragged Mizuki out of the kitchen and into the living room. He tied the man up and then placed his hand on the chunin's head. Activating his Drain Knowledge technique, he started looking through the chunin's mind for the information that he was after and anything else that might be useful.

Naruto sifted through the memories to find many things that were strange to him. He found that Mizuki was jealous of Iruka ever since they were children. Mizuki was loved by a woman that Iruka had feelings for but he himself felt nothing for her and just used their relationship to hurt Iruka. During a mission, Mizuki had killed a teammate who was injured to not slow down the rest and complete the mission and that was the reason why he was being investigated.

Right after that memory, was when he found what he was after. Mizuki had actually encountered Orochimaru. They had talked and Orochimaru had given Mizuki something. It was a piece of paper with some kind of formula and picture on it that would apparently give him power. Once he found the memories of Orochimaru, he searched for anything else concerning the snake sannin.

It took a little bit of digging but he did find small bits of information. Mizuki had idolized Orochimaru and wanted as much power from the man as he could get. He was still working out what exactly the piece of paper that was given to him was and Naruto as well as Plagueis were rather interested in it. They also learned that Mizuki planned to take a scroll from the Hokage to give to Orochimaru for more power. The chunin had yet to figure out how to take the scroll but he had been working on finding out where exactly it was in the Hokage tower and how it was guarded.

Beyond that, Mizuki had little information on Orochimaru. He barely knew why the snake sannin had even left the village in the first place and even believed that the man had been wrongly accused and ostracized from the village.

Both Naruto and Plagueis were primarily interested in the piece of paper and the Scroll of Seals. Mizuki no longer had the sheet of paper which had a formula and picture on it but had gotten a tattoo placed on his arm that had all of the information, then he destroyed the paper. They also found out from Mizuki's mind that the scroll he thought about taking contained all of the forbidden jutsu in the village and they now knew its existence as well its general location but no information about what traps might be protecting it.

Naruto had finished with his searching of Mizuki's mind and made sure to destroy all of the man's memories. He had only wanted to find out some information about Orochimaru but had gotten far more than he originally sought. He could tell that his master wanted the scroll and the information on the tattoo in addition to the other plans that they had.

Naruto didn't stop to think very long though. He now had more things to accomplish in the same amount of time. He went to one of the scrolls that he had brought with him and copied down all the information he had just taken concerning the formula and the image that were on the paper Orochimaru had given Mizuki. He didn't know what it all meant and neither had Mizuki but it would be something to figure out in the future.

After that was done, Naruto went back to his original plan. He picked up the scrolls and left he apartment. Mizuki would be unconscious for some time as he had a bad case of chakra depletion.

x-x

Mizuki walked up the long staircase to the Konoha Ninja Library. He showed his ninja identification to the guard at the door to the library and was allowed entrance into the building. The disguised Naruto was instantly aware of the camera's and even the ninja librarians that were looking at him.

Mizuki may be under investigation but he wasn't forbidden from being in the library and had access to it because of his rank. Unfortunately since he wasn't a special jonin or jonin, he only had limited access to the resources present there.

Both he and Plagueis looked through the books and scrolls on the walls and ranked the ones that they each were more interested in. They had limited time and wouldn't be able to look at everything in the library. Mizuki would only be unconscious for a day or so but since it was the weekend, no one would come looking for him, at least Naruto hoped that no one would. Mizuki didn't have many people that normally came to see him and aside from possibly Iruka, few people that he socialized with.

With a short mental debate, both Plagueis and Naruto decided which information would be the most helpful to copy down and learn in the time that they had. A moment later, Naruto started looking through the scrolls on nature chakra and manipulation. He quickly copied the information down onto the scrolls that he brought with him.

They had agreed to look at all the jutsu they could but Plagueis wanted to look more into the fuinjutsu area of the library which was untouched by nearly everyone that came into there. Naruto questioned the reasoning but said nothing to Plagueis as his Master knew what he was doing and Naruto trusted his judgment. The library also had information on the ninja of the village but they didn't want to draw too much attention, so they stayed away from that section.

Naruto spent several hours in the disguise of Mizuki and sitting at one of the tables in the library while copying down and memorizing the information that he read in the scrolls and books that he looked at. He also found what his master was looking for in the fuinjutsu section which was seals concerning security. After Naruto's apartment had been broken into, Plagueis decided that the hideout in the Hokage mountain needed its security increased to prevent anyone from finding the stolen items that they had hidden there and from gaining any access to it at all.

The Sith did have Runes which were a part of Sith Magic and consisted of a series of symbols that could be placed on surfaces to produce various effects of the Force. Plagueis was interested in seeing what ninja fuinjutsu could do compared to Sith Runes. He had been rather interested after examining the storage seals and having his holocron sealed into one on his student's arm. From what Naruto found, fuinjutsu was easier to apply as Sith Runes had to be etched or carved into a surface whereas fuinjutsu was a combination of ink and blood that could be applied much easier and faster.

It seemed each style had its own advantages and disadvantages too. Fuinjutsu could be used for sealing an area and barriers whereas the Sith Runes could be used to make people overlook or to better hide an area as well as protecting a surface from damage. Plagueis believed that the best security that could be provided was a combination of both styles and he had waited on adding Sith Runes to the hideout until he had learned all that fuinjutsu was capable of.

Sith Runes were one of the reasons why Plagueis's private quarters had survived the explosion of the reactor after his apprentice killed him so many years ago. Otherwise, his holocron and other items would have been destroyed in the explosion.

x-x

Naruto had quite a bit of work to still finish as he left the ninja library when it closed later that afternoon. He still had to figure out how to take the Scroll of Seals without getting caught as he had less information about its location than he did when he took the Raijin and the scroll left by the Nidaime.

'I have to memorize the patrols and figure out when its best to infiltrate the Hokage tower again.' thought Naruto with a weary sigh as he had been looking through and copying scrolls and books for hours.

He wasn't planning to infiltrate tonight as there were too many possibilities of making a mistake because he was so tired. Mizuki would only stay unconscious for less than a day so he would have to drain more of the chunin's chakra in the morning to make sure that he didn't wake up. The chunin was still part of the overall plan and needed him to remain in his apartment until everything was over.

x-x

Later that night, the sky was dark and the stars were out but Naruto's attention was elsewhere.

Sitting in a vantage point on a tree that was growing out of the side of the Hokage monument, Naruto looked through his goggles and monitored the activity in and around the Hokage monument, which included the Hokage tower and adjacent buildings. His life sensing ability had enough range that he could feel everyone inside the building from where he was and was watching for ninja patrols on the outside.

He was still tired but was trying his best to focus on what was happening beneath him. Both Master and student were very interested in finding out and learning what was in the scroll as even Mizuki didn't know anything that was in it, just what kind of techniques were supposedly in it. Kinjutsu were something that Plagueis was very interested as they seemed to be the more dark side of Chakra techniques and he was interested to see what these techniques entailed and what they could do with them. While he would most likely never be able to use Chakra, his student would be able to use the techniques on his behalf and for their benefit.

Another patrol moved through the area and did a sweep of the outside of the building while the ninja inside the building walked around the halls. Naruto made another note of it and the time that it occurred. 'Konoha ninja are rather punctual when it comes to patrolling but at the same time very predictable and complacent.' thought Naruto as he knew that even though he planned to steal the scroll the following night, the patrols would still follow the same schedule, possibly for the rest of the week. Besides watching for the patrols, Naruto also looked for any gaps where they patrolled and looked all over the outside of the buildings. If anything went wrong, he would know the best place to hide and make an escape.

His mind wandered to the other tasks he had to do in the next week. Naruto planned to spend a good portion of the following week learning and adding all the seals he found and Sith Runes to the hideout and even some to his apartment. He had not underestimated the ninja of the village but it seemed he had underestimated the curiosity of his former classmates. He now had to contend with a byakugan which would be difficult as he couldn't feel that he was being watched by the dojutsu. It was a problems that couldn't be completely solved.

While looking through the fuinjutsu in the library, Naruto did find a couple that could be used to hide an area from the dojutsu but he couldn't hide himself if someone saw him going to his secret hiding places in his apartment or his hideout in the Hokage mountain. 'I don't have anything that can fool those eyes from seeing me whenever they want, and I can't even tell I'm being watched.' thought Naruto with a scowl as it could hinder his plans if he was caught or even if someone saw him doing something illegal or suspicious.

It all started with his sword and now he wanted to make sure that no one found anything else about him or his activities in the village.

x-x

The following night, Naruto made his way to the Hokage tower. He had spent the day planning everything out and would have Mizuki take the majority of the blame for the theft just like Rokusho Aoi had. Mizuki had been drained of chakra again, not all of his chakra but enough to keep him unconscious for the rest of the day and most of the night.

Naruto soundlessly slipped through the village and idly wondered how many more times he would have to do something like this. He was barely out the academy and was already regularly committing treason. He cared nothing for the village, at least he told himself that, but he couldn't help but wonder how long he could get away with this without someone starting to catch on or without making a mistake.

It seemed that every time he had these 'activities', it lead to something else being revealed or discovered in the village. Naruto had been spying on the chunin examinees and found out about the Raijin and Nidaime's scroll, eliminating a genin to take his spot on a team lead to him learning about spies of Orochimaru in the village and a few of the snake sennin's activities, and now while trying to find information about Orochimaru from Mizuki had lead to learning of the Scroll of Seals and the mysterious formula and image. This provided opportunities but also threatened to get him caught or discovered. When would he finally be able to let things calm down before he got caught.

'This isn't what I should be thinking about.' Naruto chided himself as he focused back on the task at hand. 'I'll have to lay low for a long while after this and not do anything else inside the village.' he thought as outside the village was a different matter entirely.

Naruto eventually donned a henge of Mizuki and entered the Hokage tower through one of the windows on the second floor of the building. He ended up in a records room. Closing his eyes, he felt for the life signatures of people in the building and found they were exactly where they had been the previous day. Glancing at his watch, he knew he had about ten minutes until another patrol came by and the guards inside the tower had a slightly different schedule.

Moving stealthily down the halls, Naruto looked for any traps, cameras, and now that he knew what to look for, he also looked for fuinjutsu security seals. From what Mizuki knew, the Scroll of Sealing was kept in a special area that ninja could only access with the Hokage's permission. The only person that Naruto really had to worry about was the Sandaime as he lived in the Hokage tower and slept near the room Naruto was heading to.

When he was stealing the Raijin, Naruto didn't worry that much as that sword had been kept on a different floor so it wasn't that much of an issue. Now however, he would be much closer to the Hokage than he planned on and it appeared that the Sandaime was up late trying to finish his paperwork. That also hadn't been a problem the last time he was in the building but Naruto had also gotten better at suppressing his chakra and stealth in general. He was also under a henge and hiding his scent. He wasn't sure how well he could outrun ninja if he was caught but he did have a plan if anything went bad.

Ascending a staircase and waiting for a chunin guard to pass by, Naruto moved down a new hallway and arrived at the room he wanted. Checking as best as he could for fuinjutsu, he didn't find anything and used the Force to sense if the door was booby-trapped. It wasn't so he forced the lock and opened the door, quietly entered the room.

Moving in the dark, Naruto looked through the room and cursed. 'This entire damn rooms filled with scrolls!' he thought and it made him want to yell out in frustration. He had no idea what else was in the room, only the Scroll of Seals, and if he had known, he would have better prepared. Mizuki also didn't know what the Scroll of Seals looked like and it was the only one he was after. The only thing the chunin did know was that it was a really large scroll. 'That information is no longer relevant.' thought an agitated Naruto as he examined several shelves of big scrolls. None of them were even labeled.

Angry and frustrated, Naruto started frantically searching for what he was after. He wanted a specific scroll and he wasn't about to start stuffing every scroll he could find into his pockets as he had no idea what was in them and no time to find out. His pockets also weren't that big.

Naruto ignored several shelves of smaller scrolls, which were within his reach, out of his mind and focused only on the big scrolls. He did know that the Scroll of Seals contained all of the forbidden jutsu of the village, so he partially opened and glanced at nearly every scroll on the shelves until he saw something that was promising.

'Shadow Clone Jutsu. B-ranked Kinjutsu. This jutsu is forbidden to...' and he stopped reading that entry to look at the next one. The next jutsu was also labeled as a kinjutsu so he grabbed the scroll and rushed to the door of the room while he put the strap on the scroll over his shoulder. He never noticed that as soon as he took the large scroll off the shelf, a sealing array was activated.

Naruto exited the room and checked for life signs as he glanced at his watch. 'Shit, I took too long...' and he stopped as he felt ninja behind him and coming up the staircase ahead of him. 'Did I trip something?' he thought before glancing back to see a frowning Hokage.

Turning to the way he was heading before he stopped, Naruto saw two chunin come out of the staircase door and two ANBU come running down the hall.

'Fuck! Time for the escape plan.' Naruto thought at he ran forward at the four ninja ahead of him. There was no way he would charge the Hokage and he watched as the ninja tensed and reached for weapons.

Instead of fighting them though, Naruto smashed into a nearby door and forcibly entered the random room. He stopped as soon as he entered and started frantically making handseals for a jutsu that he had only managed to practice on. His practice however was on a much smaller scale and in his bathroom tub.

He could feel the ninja converging on the room while two of them ran to go outside the building to make sure he didn't jump out the window in the room and escape. It only took a few seconds but Naruto was stressed and it felt like his handseals were taking forever.

He finally completed the ninjutsu and said in Mizuki's voice 'Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave' and he spewed out water out of his mouth which filled the room.

x-x

The ninja came to a halt at the door that the intruder ran into as water started rushing out the small gap in the bottom of the door. A moment later, the door burst open and a torrent of water flooded the hallway. The Sandaime felt the jutsu building up and had already gone through handseals for an earth wall which he used to stop and deflect most of the water away from his ninja.

The ANBU that were outside would likely apprehend the intruder which the Sandaime recognized as a chunin named Mizuki. He only knew the man because of the recent suspicious circumstances on his recent mission and Ibiki was looking into him.

x-x

The water destroyed a window of the Hokage tower and gushed out of the tower while taking Naruto with it. Naruto went through more seals to create a water clone of Mizuki with the scroll strapped to his back but without a ninja vest. Naruto then reached into his ninja pouch to retrieve a scroll and unraveled it while he landed on the ground below. He released the contents to the water clone which caught the ninja vest and put it on while running towards the real Mizuki's apartment.

The ANBU arrived a moment later to give chase to the clone and didn't see the disguised Naruto as he had already sunk into the standing water to hide himself. He would wait as he could feel many other ninja heading towards the Hokage tower and they would no doubt be sent to follow the intruder which would give him an opening to escape.

x-x

The water clone ran through the village on a obstacle course for the two following ANBU. The water clone jutsu had a tenth of the originals chakra and had little intelligence but they could still move fast. The ANBU were starting to catch up but the clone moved through the village with ease while they were slowed down trying to apprehend it and retrieve the scroll without damaging it.

By the time the clone made it to the apartment building and went through the front entrance, the ANBU were nearly on top of it and had already thrown several projectiles to stop the thief.

The clone made it up the staircase to Mizuki's apartment and ran inside the apartment while locking the door behind it. The clone then took off the vest, threw it on the bed in the bedroom and entered the connected bathroom. Not bothering to shut the door behind it, the clone stepped into the tub and ended the technique, turning back into water which started flowing down the drain.

A moment later, the ANBU broke into the apartment and found a unconscious Mizuki on the floor. They were stopped long enough by finding the thief that by the time they got to searching the bathroom of the apartment to look for the scroll, the tub was already empty.

x-x

Hokage's office

x-x

"What do you mean you didn't find the scroll?" demanded the Hokage to a group of his ANBU. It had only been half an hour since the theft and now his ninja were telling him that despite apprehending the thief, they were unable to locate the stolen scroll.

"We chased chunin Mizuki back to his apartment. We found him unconscious from chakra depletion but the scroll was gone. He didn't drop it on the way to the building because he had it while we were chasing him and we are searching the entire apartment building and surrounding area for anyone suspicious or anywhere that the scroll could be hidden." replied Crow of the ANBU forces.

'I can't believe this.' thought a frustrated Sandaime as he rubbed the side of his face and forehead. "Where is he now!" demanded the Sandaime and it was Crow that replied, "We took him straight to interrogation."

"Was there evidence of anyone else being involved?" inquired the Sandaime.

"The tracking teams didn't find any other scents at the tower or at the apartment but they tracked Mizuki's trail from the tower to the apartment. We know he was the one who took the scroll but we aren't sure if he was working with someone else or acted alone." answered Crow.

The Sandaime nodded at the answer and thought about the situation. 'A chunin managed to get into the tower and take the forbidden scroll.' he thought and then continued, 'He then used at least a B-ranked water jutsu to create a diversion to help him escape but his file says that he doesn't know any water jutsu, have a water affinity, or know anything higher than low ranked ninjutsu for that matter.'

'So, he used most of his chakra to escape and managed to get back to his apartment before passing out from chakra exhaustion, but that doesn't explain where the scroll is. Perhaps Ibiki and Inoichi will have more luck.' he thought with some hope. The theft of the Scroll of Sealing was no light matter as that scroll had incredibly powerful and contained the most dangerous jutsu of the village. He hoped that the interrogation department would find out why the chunin did it and where the scroll was. It was likely that the chunin was working with someone and the village was currently on lock-down to prevent anyone from entering or leaving.

The Sandaime only had to wait ten or fifteen minutes before Inoichi entered the room to give his report.

"We weren't able to get anything from chunin Mizuki, Sandaime-sama." Inoichi stated with a small bit of shame in his voice but while keeping eye contact with the Sandaime.

"Did he kill himself?" asked the Sandaime as that was common for prisoners who might have information or don't want to go through torture and interrogation.

"No, Sandaime-sama. He is perfectly healthy besides the chakra exhaustion but...he has no memories." stated Inoichi seriously and he knew the Sandaime would get what he was telling him.

'So its happened again. Something else was stolen and we still don't have any leads on who is doing it, and another ninja of Konoha either had some part in the theft or was framed.' thought the Sandaime and heavily sighed after his ninja had left his office. 'How is it that someone can keep getting away with this in a village full of ninja?'

x-x

Naruto sat in his bed at his apartment and stared at the ceiling. He had already dropped the scroll off at the hideout and was slowly calming down from the adrenaline that had been flowing through him from his activities earlier in the night.

'I was almost caught tonight.' was the thought that kept going through his mind. He had made a plan just in case he was caught and it had worked perfectly but that wasn't exactly the point. Naruto was more concerned that his luck was going to run out.

It was true that both he and Plagueis wanted the scroll and after removing Mizuki's memories it presented a perfect opportunity. He could possibly have waited or made a different plan but he pushed forward and that was what almost got him caught.

Despite the situation being over, he still had many things to do and many different problems that he had to watch out for. The hideout needed to be secured and made nearly impenetrable from people and dojutsu. It would take some time to make sure that the area was safe as it now held three items that he had taken from the village and at any point, if a Hyuuga used their dojutsu or a person went into the area behind the faces of the Hokages, they would find evidence of someone living there and the stolen items.

Naruto was rather stressed out by that. He could technically be caught at any moment and he already had several people following him on an unrelated matter but he had to make sure they didn't find anything that was incriminating. He knew that perhaps the girl student could be bought off but he wasn't sure about the Hyuuga. He had to make sure that he wasn't followed or if he was, that he didn't reveal the hideout or anything else that would raise questions.

As it was, he was now looking forward to spending more time outside of the village on missions and less time near the items that he had stolen and inside the village that he disliked.

Please Review


	8. Chapter 8

N: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

I forgot to post the Poll Results in the last chapter so here they are.

POLL RESULTS

WINNER: Plasma (suggested by Hollow-Inuyasha) – 41 votes

Storm (suggested by FFwatchdog) – 22 votes

Ice (suggested by axellon2008) – 18 votes

Crystal/diamond (suggested by Ffwatchdog) – 16 Votes

No sub-element – 10 votes

Magnetism (suggested by DarknessKen) – 10 votes

Swift (suggested by Fury074) – 9 votes

Dust (suggested by Draco Kamikaze) – 5 votes

Thank you to all who voted.

x-x

**38 BBY – Current Year (Naruto is eleven years old)**

Chapter VIII: Plans moving forward

x-x

"I _**spy**_ with my little eye...something...purple." stated Naruto with a hidden smile.

"It wouldn't happen to be myself or Yoroi-san again...would it Naruto-kun?" stated Kabuto with a nervous chuckled while adjusting his glasses. Both he and Yoroi were the only ones wearing purple for at least a mile since they were on the road and heading back to the village from a mission.

"Wow, Kabuto-san! Your really good at this game." stated Naruto with fake awe.

"Well I am rather observant." quipped Kabuto with a fake smile.

This was by no means the first time that Naruto had insinuated or suggested in one way or another that Kabuto and Yoroi could be spies. It wasn't always subtle either. Like when Naruto found out about Kabuto's ninja info cards and suggested that some of the information on them might be classified and Kabuto probably shouldn't even know it and that a spy for another village would really want to get his/her hands on cards like that. It didn't really matter what Naruto said as their sensei still remained as clueless as ever concerning his genin.

Kabuto however was well aware that Naruto knew something about him but was rather curious as Naruto had never openly admitted anything and never bothered to alert anyone that his teammates were spies. Kabuto found it strange and he would never openly admit that he was a spy nor had he tried to silence Naruto in anyway. Kabuto also knew some things about Naruto and never admitted them either. It was an interesting stalemate and dynamic as neither made any moves to admit what they knew and just continued the charade.

Naruto was rather enjoying messing with his two teammates again. Neither could really do anything about it and didn't want to risk revealing anything. They were both still ranked as genin while it had been a year since Naruto had been promoted to chunin at the chunin exams. Naruto tried to get the other members of his team promoted as well but Kabuto opted out after the second exam and Yoroi failed to be selected for chunin rank during the final stage of the exams. From what he could tell, Kabuto seemed to have another purpose for staying a genin and he felt that it had to do with the ninja info cards and information that the silver haired genin was constantly gathering.

After much meditation, Naruto had decided that it would be worth it to strive for promotion instead of staying a genin. He had examined the reasons for both sides of the problem at length. The conclusion Naruto came to was that he had more reason to get a promoted to chunin than stay as a genin.

Naruto found that it would likely look more suspicious if he, who had been rushed through the academy, had not been promoted to chunin in a short amount of time. People, especially the Hokage, might think it strange that such a promising academy student had been unable to reach chunin a few years after becoming a genin. The other reason that he wanted to get promoted had to do with what he had found in the ninja library. Since 'raiding' the archives in the guise of Mizuki, Naruto discovered how useful fuinjutsu could be as well as the rest of the information in the library. After looking through the scrolls he copied and sifting through his memories of what he read and saw, he came to realization. Despite spending hours in the library, he had barely scratched the surface concerning the information that was available to the rank of chunin.

Rather than disguise himself as another chunin or go through another charade while risking being caught, he instead decided to push for promotion and now wore the vest of a chunin. He had forgone the high collared shirt as it didn't mesh with the vest and instead had a hood sewn onto his vest as well as used white bandages and tied them around his neck and the bottom portion of his face. The bandages didn't cover the area around his mouth which was left open for using jutsu. He had also sealed his sword in a storage seal on the forearm that was typically used for holding his master's holocron and a second ninjato was attached to the back of his vest. It looked exactly like the ninjato he had made but was not. Naruto used the fake to fool people and unsealed his real ninjato when he had to. He wanted people to see the imitation of his real sword on his back and notice that there was nothing special about, which would lead them to think that any rumors about it were false.

As the team reached the top of a small hill in the road, Konoha was revealed to them in the distance. Naruto's eyes went directly to the Hokage monument but he wasn't looking at the faces. He was looking through them, to the hideout that only he knew was there. Naruto often found himself glancing at the monument and his thoughts would always wander to the stolen items that were hidden there. On some level, the knowledge always made him uneasy and paranoid about being caught. However, it was unlikely that it would be discovered considering the security and modifications to the hideout that he had made with his Master's help.

With the new seal information and following his Masters teaching and instructions, he had fortified the hideout with a combination of fuinjutsu and Sith runes. The entrance to the hideout was hidden with a Force illusion that was created with the runes. While Naruto found he had little ability in genjutsu, with help from his Plagueis, he started learning how to make illusions with the help of Sith runes and was even working on using the ability to copy the effects of genjutsu that he knew of but couldn't use.

With the entrance hidden, he had also placed a barrier seal over it to prevent anyone from entering, if they got past the illusion, and detection seals so that he would know if anyone was near the main entrance to his hideout. The inside of the hideout had several other traps and the entire room had been reinforced with Sith runes to make the walls stronger and fuinjutsu had been used to prevent noise and chakra from being sensed by someone outside the room. A barrier was put on the noses of the Kage to, on the off chance that someone thought of it, enter his hideout through the noses of the former and current Kage.

With all the modifications he had made, Naruto was confident that a Hyuuga would not be able to see into his hideout and it would be hidden from them. Even if someone entered it, he used another application of Sith runes to produce a second Force illusion inside of the hideout and make anyone think it was just an empty space.

From the Scroll of Seals, Naruto had added two more additions to the hideout. He added an extra trap to the entrance way and also used a powerful earth jutsu to create a second entrance to the hideout. The jutsu was made for the quick creation of bunkers and required a very large amount of chakra to use as well as a single fuinjutsu seal. Naruto used the technique to create a vertical shaft that went down into the rock of the mountain and to just below the level of the village. It then traveled to the building where his apartment was and he created a hidden entrance so that he wouldn't have to keep going to the Hokage monument to access his hideout.

He would only have to enter the hidden tunnel and walk directly there, unimpeded and unnoticed. Naruto actually went by the area anyway because the staircase to his apartment was on the inside of the building and the entrance to the secret tunnel was placed in the stairwell.

The earth jutsu he used to create the tunnel pushed the rock away and compacted it to form solid walls while engraving a unique design on the surfaces of the tunnel that was the same as the seal used in the jutsu. The fuinjutsu was used to start the tunneling process and consisted of a rectangular seal that was placed on a smooth surface and it set the dimensions of the bunker system to be created. The design of the seal was engraved onto the walls as the jutsu worked and served to help keep the shape of the tunnel system being created. The user could also create rooms of different sizes besides just tunnels and even create multiple levels. The technique drained chakra based on how elaborate and big the bunker was so a person could easily try to create something too large and drain themselves of Chakra. The technique was not slow but it was also not fast and Naruto didn't try to see exactly what he could do with the technique. He just created what he needed.

The entrance in the stairwell was hidden with another illusion to make it appear as a solid wall and a person could even touch it and feel a solid surface as part of the illusion. Naruto wasn't sure if a dojutsu could pierce the illusions he was using for his hideout as he had read in in the academy that they could do that but this wasn't a genjutsu, it was Force illusion, so he wasn't sure. He did know that few people would look in the stairwell of his building for an entrance to a secret hideout. Naruto walked to that very entrance now as his team entered the village and went their separate ways while the jonin sensei went to the Hokage tower to brief the Sandaime on the mission and fill out a mission report.

'A lot has changed since I stole the Scroll of Seals.' Naruto mused while he walked to his apartment. He had found an incredible array of jutsu in the forbidden scroll and now had access to many powerful techniques. Many of the jutsu in the scroll involved the sacrifice of a person or the user but the rest more than made up for that. It contained barriers and ninjutsu that did not have nature affinities tied to them. Naruto also found several fuinjutsu seals that were explained in detail which included a cursed seal, a memory seal, and his own seal that was on his stomach and held back the kyuubi.

Apparently a cursed seal was any piece of fuinjutsu that was placed on an individual that spread across or was placed on their body and could have varied affects. Naruto read through the different applications and knew that he would have to develop one of his own. The memory seal was supposed to be able to seal off certain memories or all of person's memories. It was something that Naruto was very interested in as it would be much better than what he was currently using for memory removal, which removed everything and left nothing. However it could be removed by a person with enough sealing knowledge and experience but Naruto had a few ideas about that.

His own seal was certainly of interest to him and he learned about the existence of a 'key' that went with his seal but he had no idea who had this extra piece of fuinjutsu and it worried him knowing that someone else had it.

Probably the most interesting discovery had been the shadow clone jutsu which was by far the best clone jutsu that Naruto had ever encountered. He had mastered it in an hour and could already make numerous perfect clones of himself to use to help his plans while he worked on something else. He had already used them to work on the hideout and put all of the Sith runes in place. Naruto also learned the other corresponding jutsu that went with the normal shadow clone jutsu which included: the clone explosion jutsu, the shuriken shadow clone technique, earth release shadow clone, and the lightning release shadow clone.

Naruto entered the stairwell of his building and created a shadow clone that was inside of the illusion that covered the new entrance to his hideout. Without missing a beat, the shadow clone substituted itself for the real Naruto without producing any smoke and the real Naruto continued walking into his hideout while the shadow clone proceeded up the staircase to go to his apartment. If anyone was watching he hoped the illusion would conceal the switch between himself and the clone but he had no real way of knowing that it was successful. Naruto hadn't been caught yet so he had a feeling it was working as he walked down the tunnel to the vertical shaft in the Hokage mountain.

Naruto walked on into the darkness until he reached the vertical shaft. He never bothered to put any lighting in the tunnel as he could easily move in the dark. For a brief moment he crouched down and a wind picked up around him. Given that the shaft was small, he had figured out a better way than climbing it, it was also more fun. Using Force jump he propelled himself up and then a burst of wind around him increased his speed. There was no way he could add something like an elevator as he just didn't have the materials to do it and wasn't going to frivolously spend money when he could do something else.

After copying scrolls from the ninja library in the guise of Mizuki, Naruto had found out a great deal of information about how to train in using chakra natures and after he had been promoted to chunin, he was allowed to purchase the special paper that allowed him to figure out what his affinities were. Previously, he had just been learning what he could get his hands on and wasn't concerned with which affinity he had. Once he used the chakra paper, he found that he had an affinity for wind and water.

From that test, he knew that wind must be his primary affinity but he wasn't sure if water was his secondary affinity or he had an affinity for water because of his training to learn the Nidaime's water jutsu. Everyone had a primary affinity and it was the chakra nature that their chakra was naturally attuned to and could learn to use the easiest. Some people even developed a secondary affinity or even a third affinity that worked the same way. Naruto's affinity for water, however, was not a secondary affinity but a developed affinity for water jutsu. He had used water chakra nature so much that his body developed an affinity for it but it was not natural like his primary affinity. A person could have up to three natural affinities and could develop the reset through training and using jutsu for those specific chakra natures. The natural affinity or affinities would always be better than the developed ones. Jutsu of the natural affinity would be easier to use and consume less chakra while jutsu with developed affinities would consume the same amount as each other but more than the natural affinity.

Naruto never really bothered with it before because he was interested in learning all of the chakra affinities and using jutsu from all five. He had more than enough chakra so it didn't matter how much the jutsu consumed or whether it was a natural or developed affinity. Since he had the proper training techniques for learning to manipulate each of the elements, he had started learning all of them. From that point, he had almost mastered all five chakra natures. The only chakra nature that was giving him problems was fire which was taking him much longer than the others had. Before Naruto started that training, he already had learned some earth manipulation and had mastered the water manipulation. It had taken a long time but on a suggestion from Master Plagueis, Naruto used his shadow clones to speed up the process and work on training in multiple things at once.

Nearing the top of the shaft, Naruto slowed himself down and just came out of the opening in the floor, landing gracefully on the ground of his hideout. Moving into another room of hideout he removed a few scrolls from his person and placed them into the slots in the alcove he had created from the rocky walls of the hideout. With earth manipulation, he had expanded his hideout to accommodate rooms giving him a place to sleep if he needed it as well as storage.

The scrolls on this wall contained sums of money that he had 'acquired' during several of his missions. He didn't steal from the clients but if he was raiding a bandit camp then some of the loot might go missing and no one would know. He also gambled on several occasions while his team stayed in a village with a casino. Things like that happened a lot on the missions he was a part of but no one had ever noticed, though he suspected that Kabuto knew of the stealing but the glasses wearing spy had never said anything or alerted anyone to Naruto's transgressions.

Naruto wasn't completely sure how much money was enough but at some point he had the feeling that he would need a lot of money to fix and refuel the ship. He couldn't convince everyone using his mind tricks and some items he might need couldn't be purchased locally.

Those scrolls also had materials that he had picked up which included chakra metal that he planned for a few more weapons. He already had his sword but the new weapons he had in mind would be very different from a sword.

Moving to another alcove, he looked through the scrolls there and selected two of them. They were vital for his Master's and his own plans so he would need to take them on his next mission. The results of his extra activities during his next mission would determine what course he would take to get off of the planet and into the galaxy that he wanted to see.

Naruto already knew what his next mission would be as the Hokage had informed him before he leaving for the mission he just returned from. He would be performing standard border patrol along with a few other ninja. They would patrol along the Southeastern border of Fire country which hardly received any notice because it didn't border with any countries with hidden villages like the Northern and Eastern borders of Fire Country did. This was exactly what Naruto had been waiting for and he went to the final scroll alcove to find a slightly larger scroll that fit on the small of his back.

Naruto smiled as he had waited so long to test the item in the scroll and now he would finally have his chance. And it was exactly what he needed to complete his next task in the constraints that he had.

x-x

Several days later, southern area of Fire Country

x-x

Minutes passed at a very slow rate as Naruto tried to wait patiently for the right moment. He was currently on lookout for a given time period of the night. The group he was with consisted of several chunin and a jonin. Naruto was woken up from his sleep to take the next watch and now he was impatiently waiting until he knew that the ninja he was with were all asleep before he started his real mission.

'Every minute that passes gives me less time to complete what I came here for.' thought Naruto as he was rather irritated and decided to try and meditate. Ten minutes later the ninja that had woken Naruto up for lookout duty was fast asleep and Naruto began his mission. With a single handseal, he created a shadow clone to stay behind while he ran off in the direction of the ocean.

Hopping from tree to tree, Naruto raced to get to the ocean as soon as possible so that he could use his alternative mode of transportation. It took almost half an hour to reach the ocean from where his patrol was camping for the night. Once he was on the shore, he pulled the medium sized scroll from his back and set it on the ground, then opened it.

The scroll just contained a large storage seal and he released the seal. After the smoke had cleared, Naruto reached down and activated the power source on the speeder bike and the repulsorlift in the vehicle quickly activated causing it to jump off the ground a couple of feet and stay there as if it was suspended or propped up by something. Naruto jumped on the bike and then smiled before pushing the throttle and seeing what the bike could do.

x-x

Naruto could hardly get the smile off his face as he traveled at incredible speeds over the ocean. It was dark and he was far enough out from the shore that he didn't have to worry about people spotting him and few boats were out at night. The only problem he was having was that the bike was so fast that his long journey was made rather short. He was traveling over two hundred miles in less than half an hour and the return trip would be just as short. It was a shame that he didn't have time to really figure out what this bike could do or take it for more of a joy ride. His lookout shift was only three hours long and that was the window of opportunity that he had to be back by in order to replace his shadow clone before waking someone for the next shift.

He was headed to Sea Country, specifically to Jiro island where Orochimaru had a secret base and laboratory which was run by a man named Amachi. While Naruto had great knowledge of many of the sciences what he didn't know was whether the two substances that he was bringing with him were possible to recreate with the technology and resources of his planet. He knew a great deal about technology and materials in the greater galaxy but his information was stunted when it concerned his own planet.

What Naruto needed was a person that had knowledge of what this planet had and could determine if both substances could be reproduced and then mass produced. Both chemicals were paramount in getting the ship operational and having enough power to venture off the planet and through hyperspace. If they couldn't be recreated then he would have to find something else or come up with another solution. As of yet, he didn't have solid backup plans but he wasn't sure what other options Master Plagueis might have.

Naruto flipped his goggles down as he approached what he thought was the main island of Sea Country. Zooming in the with goggles, he changed course, headed for one of the outlying islands that he believed to be Jiro Island which would have the hidden laboratory that he was after.

Slowing the speeder bike down, Naruto moved to a small inlet which provided cover from any prying eyes. The laboratory had two entrances, one under the water and the other hidden in the rocks and riddled with traps. Naruto got off his speeder, turned off the power and repulsorlift, then sealed it back up in the scroll.

Jumping from rock to rock, he made way to the main entrance of the complex. He wasn't planning to just ask Amachi or bargain with him for what he wanted done, he had something else in mind.

x-x

Inside the facility

x-x

Amachi sat at his laboratory table in his main workspace. He was currently working on the first set of samples for his newest underwater super soldier formula. It was right before he looked through the lens of the microscope that he once again checked the cameras.

He was a paranoid person by nature and made it a habit of always checking, multiple times a day, that his facility was secure. It was one of the reasons that he had moved the feeds from the camera system as well as the security monitoring alarms into his work area. The first few years he had been in this secret laboratory he had gotten fed up with constantly walking back and forth from his lab to the security room.

No sooner had he looked at the monitors then he noticed the camera on the main entrance showed nothing but static. That camera had gone down before though, so he wasn't that concerned as the salt water tended to corrode everything overtime and the cameras just didn't last in that area of the complex. When he was about to turn back to his microscope the camera came back on but the second camera on his system went to static at the same moment.

Amachi's eyes widened at this and he temporarily forgot the project that he was working on to give his full attention to the camera monitors and the alarm system which had yet to trip. While watching the monitors, the third camera, which was inside of the facility and covering the door went down as well. With a rapidly beating heart, Amachi left his worktable and sat down in front of the monitors.

He didn't have to wait long before the second camera came back on and then the fourth camera went out. Now in a panic, Amachi activated the traps inside of the facility that required power and went to get his ninja supplies. It was currently just himself in the complex complex but numerous traps littered the hallways that led to this part of the facility. 'If someone has entered, then they will be in for quite a surprise.' He thought with a reassuring chuckle as if it really was a person, none of the alarms or traps had been set off yet and he convinced himself that they would protect him and that it might just be a glitch in the system.

Minutes passed and Amachi's eyes were glued to the monitors as camera after camera went off and then came back on moments later. 'It must be someone moving through the compound but...but how is it that the camera's aren't able to get anything?' he questioned to himself as it didn't make sense that the camera's would temporarily go out and come back on. He knew of no technique that could possibly do this.

As the camera's continued the strange progression, Amachi noticed that none of the traps had been triggered and even the alarm system hadn't been tripped. 'Who could be that familiar with the security to enter and proceed with such impunity?' he wondered and his hands started shaking while a few beads of sweat formed on his forhead.

Ever closer the unknown figure proceeded and never once was Amachi able to see who it was on the screens. Eventually, the camera right outside the laboratory went out and Amachi listened to what was happening. The door to this part of the facility was like a vault door, built to stop most ninjutsu and even exploding tags. Walking closer to the entrance he looked at the door and sighed as who ever it was must not have been able to get through.

No sooner had he thought that, then the crank on the vault door started spinning on its own without anyone there to turn it. The uneasiness and fright quickly returned as the door was unlocked from the outside and swung open.

The entrance was shrouded in shadow as Amachi watched with quick breaths as he tried to figure out who might be there and why the door had swung open by itself. A figure stepped through the shadow and while Amachi may still have been afraid of him, he was almost happy to see Orochimaru.

Orochimaru walked through the vault door and chuckled at the frightened and wide eyed Amachi, "Kukukukuku. You almost seem happy to see me Amachi." stated Orochimaru.

"I had no idea it was you Orochimaru-sama, you definitely took me by surprise. You usually don't enter the facility in such a way and I thought it might be an intruder. I had no idea you were making an unscheduled visit." stated Amachi in relief from the ordeal but nervous about what the snake sennin was doing there.

"I was in area and had a few samples for you to analyze." stated Orochimaru and he reached into his ninja pouch to retrieve two small scrolls.

"Are they organic samples?" asked Amachi as he took the scrolls and brought them to an empty work table. Unrolling the scrolls he unsealed two vials. One had a clear viscous liquid and the other had a greenish liquid.

"No they are not organic. I wish to know as much about them as possible and know if they can be reproduced. You have one week." stated Orochimaru in a serious voice and Amachi gulped slightly but nodded. He would have to put aside his current work but he was also interested in what the chemical substances that Orochimaru had brought him were.

Stepping over to his equipment, he started up the machines that he would need and when he turned around, the vault door was shut and Orochimaru was nowhere to be seen. Looking over to the monitors he noticed nothing out of the ordinary but didn't think anything of it as Orochimaru was a very powerful ninja and could come and go as he pleased from his own hidden facility.

x-x

Orochimaru emerged from a outcropping of rock like he was a part of the rock itself and was engulfed by smoke a moment later to reveal Naruto. He moved to the scroll attached above his ninja pouches and removed it to unseal the speeder bike.

It was a plan that he had come up with ever since he heard about his upcoming patrol mission. The only person Amachi would do something like that for, without question, was Orochimaru. Naruto didn't actually know how Orochimaru entered or exited the facility and how he got into contact with Amachi. Figuring that Orochimaru was a person that liked to manipulate as well as play with his pawns, he decided to put Amachi on edge and scare him enough that he would think Naruto was the real Orochimaru and would be less likely to question anything. He knew some information about the facility and enough information from Musumi's and Mizuki's memories to know how Orochimaru sounded and acted as well as what he looked like.

Naruto needed Amachi to work on analyzing and figure out if it was possible to recreate the two substances. One sample was the main fuel that was needed to create the powerful reaction in the ship's reactor. The other sample was a substance that he had found which he believed could fix the micro fractures on the ships hull. It was an emergency sealant used for hull repairs which was called spatch-cote. It was only made for quick fixes until proper repairs could be created but Naruto only needed to get from his planet to a planet in the known galaxy. From there he could secure another ship. He planned to use it to coat the areas of the hull that were damaged in the crash.

This was the best option that he and his Master could come up with given the technology that they had available. Unfortunately, even if the hull could be fixed, they still needed to make more fuel and Naruto hoped that it was possible. The only thing he could do was wait for a week, until his patrol came back to the area they were currently in, so he could travel back to Sea Country.

Naruto made it back before the shift change and replaced his shadow clone. When the agreed upon time came up, he switched with another chunin and then went to bed.

x-x

A week later, around the same area of Fire Country

x-x

Making his way back to the facility, Naruto entered in a much quicker and stealthy manner like he had exited the last time. He was very curious to see what Amachi had found out about the substances he had given the scientist. The results of the analysis would change his and his Master's future plans and determine when they would be getting off of the planet. Naruto didn't let the possibility of not ever getting off the planet cross his mind as he was dead set on seeing the rest of the galaxy.

In the guise of Orochimaru, Naruto entered the main part of the lab. Amachi was working on something and Naruto's eyes wandered to the security monitors. He didn't notice anything in most of them but nearly the last monitor had a girl tied down to a table somewhere in the facility. Naruto's eyes widened at this as he wondered what Amachi would be doing kidnapping a young girl.

"Amachi." Orochimaru said in an even voice and couldn't keep the smile off his face when Amachi jumped in his seat and turned around to find the sennin right behind him.

"S-sorry Orochimaru-sama, you startled me. I wasn't sure when to expect you." Amachi said nervously and went to retrieve the samples that had been given to him the previous week as well as two manilla folders which Naruto assumed contained the results of the testing.

"I analyzed the two samples as you requested. The first sample..." and Amachi held up the vial containing the ship fuel, "...is like nothing I have seen before. I don't think it can be replicated at all. Frankly I can't recognize some of its composition. May I ask where you acquired it?" questioned Amachi and the response he got was, "No you may not." And Naruto had to keep the scowl off his face at the news about the fuel.

Frowning slightly, Amachi continued, "The second sample can be replicated and I could see several uses for it. It stays in an incredibly viscous state until it is exposed to the air then it begins to expand slightly and eventually hardens to an incredible degree. Again, I've never seen anything quite like it." stated Amachi while examining the vial again at the curious substance.

Naruto was relieved that at least one of the substances was viable and now he had a way to patch the hull of the ship. It wasn't a permanent solution and he would have to create a large amount of the sealant for the entire bottom hull but it would be sufficient until he could either get the ship properly repaired or get a new ship instead.

Orochimaru reached out and took the samples from Amachi and before Naruto could do anything else, he spoke, "Since you're already here...I would like to tell you that my research is progressing." stated Amachi with a smile and Naruto managed to keep in character.

"I suppose that is why you have kidnapped the girl?" inquired Orochimaru with a slight glance at the monitoring device. Amachi nodded and said, "Yes, exactly. I haven't injected her with the serum yet, but this time I think the test will be a success, not like the last subject that expired shortly after injection. I've corrected the problems but if something does happen I can always dissect her to find out what went wrong."

Amachi turned around to get some of his notes or something to show Orochimaru and Naruto looked at the man in front of him and then back to the monitor. His eyes narrowed and he no longer believed Amachi could be of any use to him.

x-x

Naruto reached a secluded place on the main island of Sea Country and once again unsealed the speeder bike from the scroll. The girl was now in the local hospital and Amachi's corpse would likely wash ashore some time the next day or perhaps that night. Naruto blinked and tried to focus and ignore the headache. He had taken a large amount of information from Amachi before he killed him and was still trying to sort through it which could be difficult depending on how much information was taken. He now knew exactly what he would need to produce the sealant for repairing the ship and now he would only need the money and equipment to do it. Unfortunately he couldn't use much of the medical knowledge he had taken from Amachi, given that his chakra control wasn't good enough. However, the information he wanted to know about technology and materials on this planet that were available to him was very useful.

The problem was the power source for the ship. The fuel was no longer an option and he would now have to remove the reactor assembly from the ship and replace it with something else. The ship required a large amount of power to be able to use the hyperdrive and he wasn't sure how he would be able to find something else that could produce that kind of power. 'The ships reactor easily produces orders of magnitude more power than all of Konoha requires on a yearly basis. I can't replace it with just anything. It needs to be something that produces an incredible amount of power. If I can't find it then I'll just have to build it.' thought Naruto and he sighed as he knew that building a reactor that would meet his power requirements would be incredibly difficult using the limited supplies and resources of this planet. A small smile did cross his face as he thought about what kind of reactor he could make, what he would need to make it, and the challenge it would be.

x-x

Nearly a month later

x-x

Kabuto walked to the usual meeting place for his team but his mind was definitely elsewhere. He kept in touch with Orochimaru as well as a few other spies working for the snake sennin through coded correspondence in the medical journals that he regularly received. From the last message that he just got, Kabuto learned Amachi was found dead almost a month ago. The scientists body had apparently washed up on the main island of Sea Country but it took so long to reach Kabuto because no one could identify the body. From an autopsy report done in the local hospital, the man had apparently drowned.

This was of great concern to Kabuto because Amachi hardly ever left his lab and a scientist working on creating the perfect underwater super soldier was not likely to drown. 'Unless his own creation had killed him.' thought Kabuto but that was unlikely as he had no report of Amachi having any success. It had only been found that Amachi was missing when the agent who frequently brought supplies to the hidden facility found it abandoned and began trying to find out what happened.

The equipment was missing and all the research, which initially had lead the agent to believe that Amachi had run off. If it were not for the fact that he had been dead for several weeks by that point, then Sound ninja would be actively searching for the man. Numerous questions were going through Kabuto's head. What had happened? How was the hidden facility discovered? Who was behind it? Where was the research? Was Orochimaru-sama's spy network in danger and was there a leak? Is my cover in danger?

Unfortunately, none of the questions he had could be answered at this point. Kabuto doubted even Orochimaru had the answers to all of these questions. The most important question at this point was who had found out about the facility? 'It was well hidden and had been for over a decade.' Kabuto thought. The list of people who could have found it was small. Akatsuki was on that list, as well as Jiraiya, and perhaps a few others. However, that didn't explain why Amachi was killed and the research missing. Kabuto doubted that Akatsuki, at least what he knew of the group, would be interested in Amachi's research. 'They would have been after information about Orochimaru-sama's whereabouts. They wouldn't have made his death look like an accident or been concerned with the research. For Jiraiya it would also be the same.' he thought and that left a very short list and the possibility of an unknown third party or possibly hidden village.

As Kabuto's mind worked, he wondered if this could have had anything to do with Musumi's death. 'The man's mind was accessed after all.' he thought. Could someone have found out about the base and then waited to take it? That also seemed unlikely as if they knew about the hideout, they would have acted immediately and not waited several years.'

Danzo was still a possibility as the man did have the resources to do it. Kabuto was positive that if the old war-hawk had a chance, he wouldn't hesitate to kill Orochimaru, try to destroy any link between them, or perhaps steal research. However that wouldn't explain why he would kill Amachi as the man could be valuable to him.

Arriving at the meeting spot, Kabuto sat down and continued to go over the possibilities while waiting for the jonin sensei to arrive. He didn't take much note of Naruto who was sitting not very far away.

This was not the first time that Naruto had heard the name of Danzo in the thoughts of certain people in the village. A few years ago, Naruto gleaned the name from the Sandaime's thoughts and this was the second time that he had felt Kabuto thinking about Danzo as well. Naruto hadn't been very concerned the first time Kabuto thought of it, which was when they first became a team. The name had no meaning to him at the time and he couldn't gather what meaning it had to Kabuto either as several other names appeared in the man's thoughts along with that one.

After Naruto had felt the Sandaime thinking about 'Danzo', he had started looking into it to find out who this 'Danzo' was and why both the Sandaime and Kabuto were thinking about the same person. Unfortunately, his search turned up very little. It wasn't until he stumbled upon the name in the older records section of the archives library that he found some mention.

Apparently Shimura Danzo was a former ninja of the village and was currently retired. Naruto found scarce information about the man but just from the picture alone, he could tell that there was something else going on. He felt it through the Force and Plagueis had told him to try and dig deeper.

The most that he had managed to find out was that Danzo was now a member of the village elders but he wasn't really an adviser to the Sandaime. However he did go to all of the ninja council meetings. It was odd because Naruto really couldn't find a reason for Danzo to be at those meetings as no other retired ninja attended the council meeting and it would seem whatever reason was hidden from nearly everyone that wasn't on the council or perhaps old enough to know. This was a problem but not something that he couldn't figure out. It seemed that Danzo was definitely a person that worked from the shadows and since so few people had ever heard of him, despite holding enough status in the village to be on the ninja council, that meant that there was much more to it than just being a veteran ninja. Plagueis had told him to look into it when possible but focus on their real priorities.

Naruto turned his head and looked towards the approaching sensei. A few moments later, the Jonin sensei arrived and they went to the Hokage tower to get a mission. The team still met occasionally as Naruto only had a few mission and duties as part of his rank so he still did missions and worked with his original team.

The real priority that Naruto had now was not looking into shady figures in the village, but getting money, a large amount of money. It would be difficult as he couldn't draw attention to himself. The question was, where could he get such an amount of money and how much would he need?

Once he had the money, he could purchase the proper equipment for his needs, as building a reactor would be rather difficult. From talking with Plagueis, they had decided that building a fusion generator would be the best idea. The ship already had a small fusion generator that was for emergency power. Based on looking over the device and the combined knowledge and ideas from of both Master and student, they believed that a larger fusion generator could be created that would be enough to power the propulsion and other vital systems of the ship.

A starships main power consumption was the engines. The weapons did need power but most ship weapons were not that draining and neither were any of the other systems. It was the engines and hyperdrive that were the most power consuming. The hyperdrive actually needed less power than the engines when they were being used but they still needed to actually lift off from the planet and get into space so enough energy had to be generated from the reactor to at least achieve orbit with the engines.

Naruto had already thought up a way to get the ship out of the lake and it wouldn't alert the village nor would it require him to use the Force to try and lift it completely out of the lake. He only needed to lift the ship to the surface for what he had in mind.

x-x

Later that day

x-x

Naruto looked up and down the street his team was currently walking along in Tanzaku Gai. They were heading to deliver a scroll to a simple merchant and would likely spend the night in the village. This wasn't the first time he had been in this particular village. The last time his team had been here he was thrown out of every casino and back room gambling place in the village. They all suspected him of cheating but couldn't prove anything. The fact was that he was just lucky and had too many other abilities to not win so much. He didn't even have to try to get mental images of other player's cards or determine what the next card in a deck might be. It didn't matter what the game was either, he won so easily that he always got thrown out eventually. A henge also wouldn't work for long and he had even tried to purposely lose once in a while but ended up winning too much in the end. Whereas most found it difficult to win at gambling, Naruto found it difficult not to win.

He had therefore stopped trying to get money through gambling. Stealing wasn't really getting him anywhere though. He was only able to steal small amounts and he knew that he would need more than he could get through these methods and much more money than he could get from being a ninja of Konoha. Naruto had thought about stealing money from a wealthy individual but no one living in or around Konoha had that much money and stealing from multiple people or doing anything else to bring attention to him would be a bad idea. The village may be prospering but it wasn't full of wealthy people and neither was Tanzaku Gai or any of the other villages in Fire Country, save perhaps the capitol.

'What we need is a someone that we can easily manipulate that has a great deal of money. We won't need to steal, blackmail, or threaten them. I already have something in mind.' said Plagueis through their connection and Naruto mentally acknowledged what his Master was saying.

'I suppose all I need to do is ask around and find a few names.' thought Naruto and he knew that they would have a little free time later that night to spend in the town after the mission was completed. He knew it shouldn't be too hard to find a few names that could be useful to them.

x-x

Later that night

x-x

The man dropped to the ground and Naruto's shadow clone dragged him to the alley wall and leaned the man against it, then put an empty bottle from the trash in the man's hand. Anyone passing by would just think the man passed out from drinking. The man would wake up with a headache and think he had a hangover.

After making sure that his sensei and teammates weren't following him, Naruto had headed out on his information gathering mission. This was actually the fourth person whose mind Naruto had looked through. He had started out talking to a few drunken merchants and asking questions that would bring to their minds a very greedy person with more money than they could ever need and they would associate a name with that person which Naruto could glean from their minds.

After getting a few names that way, he decided to look in further detail in the minds of a few local criminals to find names from them. What Plagueis really wanted was a rich and unsavory person that was already involved in illegal dealings. The former Sith Lord reasoned that a person with illegal dealings, that had yet to be caught, would definitely know how to acquire what they wanted without gaining too much attention or making anyone curious. Naruto had agreed with his Master's reasoning and sifted through the names he got from both parties until he found crossovers. The name Gatou came up with several of the criminals and several of the merchants.

Apparently the man owned a shipping company, and not just any shipping company, but the largest on the planet. The man had apparently gotten to such a status through buying out and bullying the other shipping companies as well as using his legitimate business for illegal contraband shipments. He also hadn't been caught or even implicated in any wrong doing and held high regards with the normal public while being known well by criminals. From what he found out, Gatou was currently in Wave Country which the merchants found rather funny as Wave wasn't known for anything except fishing and only had a small port. They seemed to think that Gatou was going senile for even going there as that the county had no foreseeable value to someone of Gatou's wealth.

The information greatly intrigued both Master and student as it promised everything they were after and more. Greedy, owned a shipping company, involvement in illegal activities while not being caught, and was currently isolated. Plagueis was very interested in what a person like Gatou was doing in a country like Wave and had already come up with several theories which he didn't share with his student as he wanted Naruto to come up with his own reasons.

It might be a little while before he would have enough time to get to Wave Country as his duties as chunin were demanding and didn't leave him with large blocks of time in which to sneak off from the village or while on a mission. Naruto had contemplated riding his speeder bike above the trees to get there faster but he could be spotted by a patrol. He would have to be patient and wait for a break in his duties to head off to the small group of islands that made up Wave Country.

Please Review

AN: The bunker creation jutsu has the same results as Orochimaru's hideout when, in Shippuden canon, Team Seven chase Orochimaru and Kabuto back to their hideout to find Sasuke. It produces the same type of design on all the surfaces of the bunker system and can create rooms. I thought that since Orochimaru apparently had several bases, that it would need a powerful or elaborate earth jutsu to be able to create them as fast as possible and it would seem that something that large might be labeled as a kinjutsu.

AN: I did think about creating some kind of chakra powered generator to power the ship but everything that I thought of really didn't seem viable or practical to me. Even small starships need an incredible amount of power that wouldn't come close with anything I could think of on Naruto's planet or that could be created with Chakra. I did think of the Bijuu but discarded the idea.


	9. Chapter 9

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

**x-x**

**38 BBY – Current Year (Naruto is still eleven years old)**

Chapter IX:

x-x

Plagueis looked around from his vantage point in the hideout at all of the Naruto's that were in the room and working on a variety of projects. The shadow clones were divided up into groups and each group was working on a specific technique. One group was working on chakra flow and putting it into a weapon. Another group was doing various chakra control techniques for medical ninjas from information obtained from Amachi's mind. Several giant shuriken were being telekenetically moved around one area of the hideout by at least three clones. Each clone was controlling two shuriken at once in preparation for a pair of new weapon that another Naruto was designing. The last group of clones were reading through a large number of scrolls that were copied from the library.

So far, their plans for getting back to the known galaxy were coming along faster than Plagueis had anticipated. For the most part, he had stepped aside to give Naruto more leeway in making decisions and gave him occasional tasks to test him as well as advice. As long as the ship remained safe then everything would be fine and he made sure that nothing major had happened to impede them. Plagueis expected far more complications and bigger mistakes by his student but nothing had been a set back for them. Naruto made plenty of mistakes but all of them were minor and he had learned from them.

It was a tactic that he used when teaching Sidious. He would normally severely punish failure and mistakes but he was far more lenient with Naruto than Sidious. Plagueis was also unable to do much with his current condition and punishment was out of the question anyway. The last thing he needed was his newest student plotting against him. Plagueis could also tell that there would come times in the future where Naruto would be on his own or separated from him and it was best to make sure that he could plan and work separately but for the same goal.

Turning his attention to the real Naruto, who was meditating nearby and coordinating the clones, Plagueis had many thoughts concerning the 'ninja' of this planet. From the information and observations that he and his student had gathered, Plagueis found himself with many more questions than answers. He was still trying to figure out how Chakra worked and changed the world around a ninja as well as influenced the body.

While jedi could make themselves faster with Force run, ninja seemed to become just as faster or faster and sustain it for longer while also possessing far more stamina than he believed humanly possible. Plagueis still wasn't sure just how strong they could become either. He had Naruto undergo many different training methods that even included attaching weights to his arms and legs but it never seemed to produce a cut off. Naruto just kept adjusting to the weight and getting stronger. It made Plagueis question whether there was a limit. From what he learned at the academy, the Yondaime was apparently so fast that he became a yellow blur of motion and Senju Tsunade could destroy rocks and buildings with a single punch with her chakra enhanced strength. It made him wonder where the physical limits of the body stopped and chakra took over to augment and produce the desired results. How fast and how strong could a ninja be without using any chakra?

Strength on that level was something that a jedi could never do. They couldn't enhance their strength with the Force. They could augment the body for a brief period but Plagueis had never heard of a jedi using the Force to increase their physical strength to lift heavy objects. This was something that he had recently starting working on with Naruto and a group of clones in another room of the hideout had already been allocated to that task. Plagueis found it very interesting that the more he found out about Chakra, the more he questioned what was possible with the Force.

The jutsu from the Scroll of Seals were incredibly interesting and Plagueis was impressed with how many different 'kinjutsu' that ninja had developed. At this point, Naruto had only learned the jutsu that they would need or that they both wanted to investigate. They had only managed to examine a portion of all the techniques that the scroll had to offer.

Fuinjutsu was also something that greatly interested him as it was slightly similar to Sith runes. They could both do incredible things but their appeared to be little overlap between the two. Sith runes couldn't seal objects into a temporary pocket dimension to hold them there until called back by unsealing the item. Such a simple technique used by ninja everyday was still hard to grasp for Plagueis. It was so archaic with the paper and ink, yet on the other hand it was an incredibly advanced dimensional and time-space technique that was made completely simple and for everyday use. It wasn't even technology but created from simple materials and some chakra, yet it trumped anything that the rest of the galaxy possessed for storage purposes. The whole process intrigued Plagueis to an incredible degree as it pulled together several of his interests. The more they discovered about fuinjutsu, the more interested Plagueis became.

Medical ninjutsu was another interesting discovery, especially when Naruto absorbed the knowledge from Amachi. Plagueis was intrigued at how Chakra could be used to heal as it was more advanced than what could be done with the Force. Healing with the Force could be rather tricky and only a few were able to use any healing techniques and they didn't seem as versatile as with Chakra.

Looking toward a nearby clone Plagueis watched as that Naruto looked over the maps and memorized anything that might b useful for his journey to Wave Country to find Gatou of Gatou Shipping Incorporated. The plan was rather simple and made even easier by Gatou himself. The billionaire shipping tycoon had isolated himself on a country that had no ninja and only a small population. The country itself was barely noticeable on a map and Plagueis had a feeling that he knew why the rich man was there in the first place.

The reason for the planning was the lack of information about the location they were headed. The mission itself didn't require a large amount of planning but it was always good to have a backup plan and escape route if things went bad. The escape route was rather obvious as the ocean would provide Naruto all the cover he would need with the ninjutsu that he possessed. While most countries had detailed maps, Wave Country was barely marked on most maps that Naruto could get his hands on and a detailed map of the Wave was impossible to find in Konoha. The best that Naruto could do was a map that detailed the eastern region of Fire Country and that had the most detailed view of Wave that could be found. Only a single town in Wave Country was marked with a dot and it didn't have a name. Wave didn't appear to be rocky and seemed mostly flat. On the best map they had, Naruto counted around twenty islands that were all very close to each other and on the other maps he had looked at so far, it was always drawn as a single island instead of multiple islands that were close together.

Plagueis noted a change in his real student meditating near him and knew that his student had just received information from one of his clones and now the process of absorbing all the collective training would begin. Naruto assumed a meditative position and one by one, each group stopped what they were doing and disappeared in plumes of white smoke.

Although Naruto had his eyes shut, Plagueis could see the rapid eye movement as the effects of Force Comprehension did its work. The Force ability was used to absorb and interpret large amounts of information in a short amount of time by speeding up the person's neural processes. A caveat of this technique was that the user had to have some knowledge of whatever they were comprehending and they couldn't absorb knowledge they knew nothing about. However, since Naruto was absorbing the knowledge directly from his clones, that problem was avoided because his clones were him and therefore he could learn anything using this method.

The process was finished and Naruto opened his eyes and they quickly refocused on the hideout he was sitting in. Naruto went to get up but wavered and collapsed back to the ground. He was still conscious but disoriented. Plagueis merely shook his head as his student should have known by then that the mental fatigue from his shadow clones would take a little while to wear off. The first time it happened, Naruto had used a very large amount of clones and had them dispel all at once. He was unconscious for three hours and that was the reason why Plagueis had imposed a limit on how many clones could be created at once.

Naruto had gotten a short break from missions and would be taking Plagueis to Wave Country the following day. He would be leaving a shadow clone in the village but it wouldn't last for more than a few days so there was a small window of opportunity for completing the mission.

x-x

Nearing Wave Country, two days later

x-x

Naruto arrived at the coast exactly where he had planned. Standing on the shore, he instantly noticed the bridge that stretched a portion of the distance from Wave Country to Fire Country. 'That wasn't on the map or in anything that I heard about.' Naruto thought and Plagueis added, 'This country seems to be so far off everyone's radar that they don't have regular contact with it or really care what happens. This should help us.'

Naruto agreed with his master's thoughts and proceeded to move out past the waves of the shore and to steadier waters. Once there he was quickly swallowed by the water. Why run on top of the water when he could move unseen by traveling through it.

While Naruto moved through the water, he never saw a small boat that had just disembarked from Fire Country for Wave Country. Two people were on board. The taller one carried a very large sword on his back.

x-x

It took only a few minutes while in the main town of Wave Country to find where Gatou lived. The shipping mogul lived near the docks in a large mansion that was well guarded. Gatou apparently built numerous warehouses and enlarged the port in Wave to accommodate his larger ships. Naruto bypassed all of the workers and hired guards as he made his way into Gatou's compound.

The mansion was rather easy to break into as it had many rooms and all but a few were currently occupied, nor did it seem that they were ever occupied. Naruto felt the life-signs in the area and made his way to the only group of them in the building. Walking up to the door of what he thought was the study, Naruto waved his arm at the two samurai standing guard at the door and said, "I have an appointment. Stand aside." and both guards put their swords back fully in their sheaths and replied "You have an appointment, we'll let you pass." and Naruto did just that but not before saying, "I was never here and you should both take your lunch break."

Walking into the room, Naruto immediately caught Gatou's attention, "Who the hell ar..." but he was silenced by Naruto's use of Force Grip. Whiling holding the frightened man with one hand, Naruto moved to him and then reached out his other hand to begin the first part of the plan.

x-x

"This appears to be the place, Zabuza-sama." stated Haku while they both looked at the compound in front of them. Zabuza merely grumbled a response. This was the only job that he could secure that would provide protection form the hunter-nin of Kiri. It was isolated and considering how few people ever came to the country, they likely wouldn't encounter another ninja. He and Haku had come to make the final arrangements with the client and the Demon Brothers would follow shortly.

They were expected and walked through the gate. Both ninja kept their eyes out for any sign of trouble or a double-cross which could be very commonplace to a missing-nin for hire. Nothing was out of the ordinary until they passed two Samura that walked out of the front door of the mansion. Neither swordsman seemed to be really paying attention and just walked right past Zabuza and Haku without really noticing.

Zabuza was instantly on guard as he knew that something was wrong. His first thought was that the guards had been put under a genjutsu since they seemed rather unresponsive and he glanced at Haku. She nodded and they both got their weapons out as they moved inside the mansion with haste.

It was still possible that it was a double-cross or a trap but it was even more likely that it was an assassination of their client.

x-x

'Someones coming.' stated Plagueis through their link and Naruto opened his eyes and abruptly stopped the drain knowledge technique. It had only been a few moments since he started and someone was coming? It didn't make sense and using his own sense, Naruto found two signatures that were almost on top of him. He briefly wondered how he had missed their presence but he remembered that his master's sense was lessened because of his condition and he himself was distracted with the technique. 'It looks like we will have to do things a little differently, Master.' Naruto said over the link.

A moment later the door burst open and two Kiri ninja entered. Naruto removed his hand from Gatou as the standoff started. The ninja looked at him and Gatou and he stared at them. Before Gatou became lucid again, he knocked out the short man and had to dodge several senbon the next moment. With a large burst of smoke that concealed part of him and Gatou, Naruto stood with his sword unsealed but instead of staying to fight, he jumped out the window.

The larger ninja ran after Naruto while the shorter masked one checked Gatou's vitals to make sure he was alright, then left through the broken window as well. In the chaos of the situation, neither Kiri ninja payed much attention to the metal pyramid-shaped object that sat on Gatou's lap.

x-x

Naruto ran on the roofs of the warehouses through the dock area. From the bingo book, he believed he recognized the ninja chasing him as one of the seven swordsman of Kiri. Naruto had never fought such a strong opponent before as the man was listed either at A or S-rank in the bingo book and he couldn't help but wonder how he would manage against him. He had yet to face such a strong opponent in any combat situation.

As part of the escape plan if things should go south, Naruto changed direction heading away from the warehouses and to the ocean. If anything happened, he would make sure that he could get away. He frowned however when he realized that the other ninja was catching up fast but that also meant that his Master would be able to complete the mission.

x-x

Before Gatou woke up and after making sure that the ninja were gone, Plagueis's spirit form came out of the holocron. This was not something that he had expected his apprentice to do but it also presented an opportunity and meant that he could have a larger role in their plans. Concentrating for a moment, Plagueis's spirit condensed and then swiftly moved into Gatou's body.

Said man woke up in a silent scream before he passed out again. Originally the plan had been for Plagueis to use his mind control on the shipping magnate and Naruto would occasionally visit Wave to give Gatou further instructions and orders. That way Naruto could remain in Konoha and no one would ever notice he had been gone. Draining the man's knowledge would also give them all the information they needed on Gatou's operations.

Plans change though, and now Plagueis was going through the process of possessing Gatou. It wasn't transfer of essence but merely his spirit overriding control of the man's body and pushing aside Gatou's mind and will for full control. Plagueis wasn't sure how long it would last until the body started failing from the strain as he had never tried to possess any before, especially not someone without midi-chlorians. He had been curious for quite some time to see if possession was possible on someone of Naruto's planet by a Force user like himself; considering the differences in energy and the fact that chakra repelled the Force on some level. Plagueis had been hesitant to try it on someone in Konoha, especially a ninja with larger chakra reserves, and risk being discovered or have another unexplained death in the village.

However Gatou wasn't a ninja and only had civilian amounts of chakra that were never used and Plagueis could inhabit the body while not effecting his already limited Force power that he had in his current form. He would have to channel the Force from his spirit, through Gatou's body, but it was possible. Checking the progress, Gatou's mind was being pushed asdie to make room for his own and it seemed the process would be successful.

'This should work out nicely. After the process is complete I will need to set up communication with Naruto and deal with the two kiri ninja.' thought Plagueis as he started looking through Gatou's memories to figure out everything he would need to know in order to impersonate the short man and take over the shipping company as well as the criminal activities.

x-x

Naruto jumped to avoid the thrown zanbato as it spun past him and embedded itself into the wooden pier of the dock. Zabuza's figure appeared in a burst of speed and stood watching Naruto from the handle of his sword. They were each sizing the other up, Naruto on the surface of the ocean and Zabuza on his sword. Naruto ignored the killing intent coming from the swordsman and could feel the second Kiri ninja hiding in the piers. He thought that they were waiting for him to let his guard down or see if he was affected by the killing intent so he made a seal under his cloak and created a water clone under the water and it swam over the second person's location.

Zabuza stared at the short cloaked assassin and wondered not only who he was but how he was able to shrug off the killing intent being projected onto him. He would have thought the brat was around ten years old but the he didn't seem that afraid of facing him. The heartbeat was slightly elevated but not terrified and besides being noticeably tense, Zabuza could find no other signs that the ninja in front of him was afraid or not prepared for a fight. He also noticed the interesting sword that the boy had and wondered if he could even wield it properly.

Naruto watched Zabuza and took an opening stance of the Form VI of lightsaber combat which was called Niman. Both hands were on his ninjato that was held in front of him with the blade downward at the water. Naruto found that he always moved toward that style of swordsmanship more than any other style that was taught to him by his master. It had no strengths but no weaknesses either and was created to be used with two swords/lighsabers which is eventually what Naruto wanted to wield. He couldn't give up on his ninjato but he also wanted a lightsaber so Plagueis had started working more on Niman which was a combination of four of the other styles of lightsaber combat.

Zabuza raised an eyebrow at the stance and jumped down to the waters surface while taking his sword with him and putting it on his back. Forming a single handseal, he said, 'hidden mist technique.' Naruto watched as mist came over the water and then enveloped the entire area of the harbor that they were in. Perhaps it was arrogant but he wanted to test his abilities with his sword as this was the first real chance that he had since its forging to face off against an experienced swordsman. He could have used the Force to surprise his opponent and possibly even finish the fight but despite the risk, he wanted to fight with his sword as much as possible to test himself.

Naruto didn't move from his stance and instead felt as well as listened to his surroundings. Using his ability to sense life-signs through the Force, he could tell exactly where Zabuza was. The opposing swordsman didn't seem to be moving either and Naruto wondered why.

A moment later his hearing picked up an attack heading straight for him and he ducked as a familiar zanbato emerged from the mist. Naruto struck back and moved under the man's guard to to cut him in half. His ears were greeted with splashing water and he realized that he was facing water clones, which explained why he couldn't sense them with his life-signs ability as they didn't have any and were just water and chakra.

Naruto killed several more water clones in the same fashion and noticed that the real Zabuza was on the move towards him. Closing his eyes, as they were currently useless to him in the thick mist, Naruto focused using his Force Sense and basic Farsight techniques taught to him by his master. Naruto quickly dodged Zabuza's swing but found upon retaliating, that his opponent was able to equally anticipate and block his attacks. Zabuza was both faster and stronger than him, but Naruto was able to keep from getting killed or maimed because of his master's training and his small size.

After being pushed back and narrowly avoiding strikes from Zabuza and from a waiting water clone, Naruto created a few water clones of his own to distract his opponent. he used this time to work on a different strategy. Zabuza had the advantage in blade length but that could be changed. Putting chakra in the vibration components of his blade, Naruto went back on the offensive.

Cleaving through another water clone, Naruto was forced to dodged as Zabuza swung to decapitate him. He quickly ducked under the slice but stuck his sword up, perpendicular to the water to catch Zabuza's sword on the swing. A horrible sound of grinding metal followed and he was thrown back by the force of the man's blow but was rewarded when he heard a 'plop' sound in the water which indicated that his strategy had worked, Zabuza's sword was now much shorter.

x-x

Zabuza wince slightly at the sound of the blades grinding against each other and was about to wonder what had happened before he noticed that upon completing his swing, his blade felt lighter. The realization didn't hit him until he heard the sound of something dropping into the water. Retreating slightly, he moved into an area where the mist wasn't nearly as strong and examined his blade.

'SON OF A BITCH!' he mentally raged when he saw that the top third of his blade was missing and he noted several notches on the rest of the blade from the battle. 'How the hell did that happen!?' he questioned but then thought perhaps his opponents blade was destroyed as well.

Of course at that very moment Naruto emerged from the thicker fog and Zabuza could clearly see his undamaged sword and it seemed to be sparking with lightning.

x-x

Naruto cautiously followed his opponent through the thick fog and into an area of the edge of the technique. His opponent was standing in front of him and when Zabuza looked at his sword and the feeling of the surrounding area changed. It became far more oppressive than it had been and Naruto could see a visible 'demon' appear over Zabuza that was directed at him.

Naruto had never felt such killing intent before and froze where he stood. This was much worse than what Zabuza had produced before and it felt like a weight was pressing down on him. He opened his eyes and could only watch as Zabuza charged at him with his zanbato readied for a bisecting swing. The figure of a demon above Zabuza never dissipated and Naruto couldn't understand what it was he was seeing. Genjutsu, some other kind of illusion, or was it all in his head? If he could figure out what it was, then he might be able to break the technique that was being used against him.

As Zabuza neared him, Naruto felt like he wasn't going to be able to live past that moment, but then something happened. He felt a sharp pain travel through his hand and up the arm that was holding his sword. The pain brought him back to the battle and he narrowly ducked under the blade that sliced the air over his head. Naruto however wasn't prepared for the follow up low kick that sent him skipping and then skidding across the water to a stop in the thicker fog. Managing to keep himself on top of the water, Naruto was back on his feet and aware of his surroundings as well as the pain in his chest from the kick.

A moment later, Zabuza pressed his advantage and tried to create an opening to finish Naruto off or deal any blow that he could.

Naruto was getting more and more angry as the fight continued. He still couldn't believe that he froze. It if wasn't for whatever his sword did, then he would have died. 'All the training and I nearly died in the beginning minutes of my first real battle.' he thought while evading the heavy and fast strikes of his opponent. Naruto had yet to use any offensive Force powers but he wasn't thinking about that. He wasn't about to die there as he would fail his master and ruin their plans and his dream of seeing the galaxy.

Channeling his anger, Naruto tried to hold his ground as best as he could. Zabuza still had many advantages over him except when it came to weapons. Naruto now knew for a fact that his sword was much better than his opponents. With successive attacks, he was making cuts and notches in Zabuza's blade and had already taken another sliver off the end. It was at that point that Zabuza started becoming more defensive as he was losing more of his sword to Naruto's ninjato and stopped his advance while retreating back. Naruto didn't think it was odd and pressed Zabuza even more.

Zabuza jumped back and increased the distance between them but Naruto wasn't about to let him use any handseals and using the Force, he pulled Zabuza towards him with the intent of cutting him in half with his blade.

Zabuza was surprised when he was yanked forward by an unseen force and was unable to block as the ninja cut through his blade and body. It was at the point where Naruto finished the swing that Zabuza's body turned into water and he heard something from behind him. "Water prison technique."

Water came up from beneath Naruto and formed a spherical prison around him. The water was much harder than normal and filled with Zabuza's chakra so it prevented him from escaping. Placing his hand into the sphere to keep it stable, Zabuza was about to gloat when he heard someone behind him.

Quickly jumping into the air, Zabuza was shocked when he saw the same technique that he had just used, try to capture him. The boy he had captured, turn to water as the clone and sphere of water lost consistency. Zabuza didn't jump very far and just enough to escape the technique. He had been using the technique for years and knew that it did leave the user open so as soon as he landed on the water surface, he charged his opponent.

Naruto was still standing where he had been and holding the handle of his sword in his teeth with his hands in the final handseal for the prison technique. Rather than trying to dodge the charging former Kiri ninja, he did something that Zabuza didn't except and jumped into his own water prison technique. No sooner than he was inside, then Zabuza's blade clanged against the steel like water.

'Clever little brat.' Zabuza thought and considered what he should do next. He wished he knew some lightning jutsu but that was not the case and had to think of another option or he would just wait until the boy ran out of air or chakra and was forced to end the technique.

Siting inside his protective sphere, Naruto considered his options. Looking to his sword he noticed for the first time that it was sparking with electricity which was odd considering he wasn't touching it, it was suspended in the water next to him, and he hadn't been channeling lightning chakra into it. The strangest part was that the short sparks of lightning weren't spreading that far through the conductive water or electrocuting him.

Deciding to investigate this later, Naruto continued thinking of his next move while he noticed that Zabuza was patiently waiting outside the sphere for him to come out for air. Despite the mouth coverings on the man, he could tell that Zabuza was smirking. Sifting through possible next moves, Naruto's mind came up with a plan seconds later and he went into action.

Standing outside the sphere, Zabuza smiled as he thought the boy had backed himself into a corner or sphere, so to speak. He wondered what would be the next move as he noticed the boy who was in deep concentration and then his eyes widened when the cloaked boy went through handseals and he had a foreboding feeling. 'Two techniques at once?' he thought and wondered how it was possible or what training the boy must have gone through to be able to perform a new technique while still holding the original.

Zabuza didn't recognize the sequence of handseals for the technique but could tell because of the bird handseal at the end that it was likely a water jutsu. The effects of the jutsu took hold when water not only started to gather from the surrounding air but it was pulled forth from below and created a large vortex around the sphere of water. Zabuza didn't know exactly what was going on but he knew to move away from the technique as fast as possible.

'Water release: water shockwave.' thought Naruto inside the techniques and water gushed out from the top of the vortex creating a huge wave a that chased after Zabuza.

'SHIT!' Zabuza thought as he glanced back to see a gigantic wave of water chasing him. He wasn't able to outrun the technique and even if he had gone under the water, he still would have been taken by the effects of the large wave. The wave crashed into the docks and Zabuza managed to latched himself onto one of the wooden piers holding up the docks. Underwater, he watched as many of the other piers gave way under the power of the wave but his post held and he wasn't washed away across the harbor.

A few moments later the water subsided, leaving a good portion of that area of the docks destroyed. Bruised but not too badly harmed Zabuza moved out of that part of the docks as he dodged the falling timber from the still collapsing sections. His fog had lifted as it started dissipating when he used the water prison technique. 'The brat's gone.' he thought but experience told him differently. The large water technique must have been a distraction to hide and perhaps even lower his guard by making him think his opponent had left the area.

The water was still agitated from the technique and Zabuza's hearing was unable to find any sound of the boy he had been fighting. Looking down below, he sent some chakra into the water to see if anything was down there. It was similar to using sonar but he didn't find the brat swimming underneath him.

"I know your still here." stated Zabuza to his surroundings but the sound of the choppy waves was the only response.

In an instant, Zabuza swung behind himself with the flat side of his blade and was rewarded with a thud and the weight of striking someone. Naruto grunted in pain and was thrown back by the hit. He tumbled and then skidded to a stop on the surface of the water near the collapsed area of docks.

Naruto used a brief medical jutsu underneath his cloak on his arm and side of his chest to see what was wrong. He didn't have the chakra control to treat the problem but he could still use the basic medical ninjutsu. The diagnosis was that his arm was broken and his ribs were bruised. If he had been struck any higher on his body with the flat side of the blade, then he might have been knocked unconscious with that hit.

Naruto tried not to let the pain get to him or show that he was injured to his opponent but he could instantly tell that Zabuza already knew how injured he was, 'I guess this isn't the first time he's bludgeoned someone with his sword.'

Zabuza smiled and chuckled at his opponent. For a young brat, the kid had some amazing skill and training. His swordsmanship was excellent and his jutsu was certainly more advanced than nearly anyone else in his age-group would be. This had been the best fight he had in a while and much more interesting than fighting hunter-nin from Kiri. He thought about stopping the fight as it wasn't often he came across someone of this skill and at such a young age but a part of him wanted to see how the brat would fight with an injury. The cloaked brat didn't seem like the type to just run away.

With one arm gone, both fighters knew that Naruto was at a greater disadvantage as he had only been able to stand up to Zabuza with both hands on his sword when he was fighting. Zabuza decided to take the fight to his injured opponent and charged.

Naruto knew he didn't have time to go through handseals with his broken arm. Zabuza was not that injured from the ninjutsu he used, but was noticeably slower in his charge. Preparing for the attack, Naruto grit his teach and put his sword up in a defensive stance of Niman but noticed again that the blade was sparking with electricity but more than before. 'Its as if its telling me something,' he thought.

Zabuza was soon on top of him and Naruto braced himself with the Force and chakra to withstand whatever attack but something happened which he hadn't counted on. His sword reacted and released two arcs of lightning that struck Zabuza in the chest. The missing-nin was pushed back a good distance from Naruto and the effect was likely compounded by the fact that Zabuza was still wet from Naruto's ninjutsu.

Naruto stared at the effect and his sword as Zabuza cursed and got up from the attack. 'I didn't use lightning nature chakra, which means that was Force lightning. But I don't know how to use Force lightning.' he thought and he searched his feelings for an answer. He hadn't channeled lightning through the sword or used Force lightning, the sword itself had produced the Force lightning.

It made sense as this was the first time he had used the sword in an extended battle and he really didn't know what all it could or could not do. Unfortunately he didn't have time to further examine the situation as Zabuza was now up and looking rather pissed as well as smoking and singed from the lightning.

Instead of attacking with his sword again, Zabuza started quickly going through handseals and Naruto put his sword handle in his mouth again while trying to produce seals with his broken arm. He managed to get the seals created but he was much slower than Zabuza.

Interestingly enough, both produced the same technique at nearly the same time and Zabuza was surprised because Naruto had used far fewer seals and yet had managed the same water dragon technique. Zabuza noted that Naruto's dragon was also bigger and was surprised a second time when it managed to push back his water dragon. Dodging, Zabuza got out of the way of the striking water dragon but it coiled and lashed out striking Zabuza and sending him into the destroyed docks.

Naruto let go of the sword handle in his mouth, caught it with the hand of his good arm, and charged toward his downed foe. This would likely be the end of the battle and he could go back to his Master before heading back to Konoha.

Naruto was nearly at the downed Zabuza when he felt an attack coming and tried to dodge. He was unable to dodge it completely though and several senbon pierced his body. Three in his leg and two in his broken arm. He grimaced at the pain and remembered the hunter-nin that was traveling with Zabuza. Evidently his water clone had been destroyed and now he stood facing the new ninja.

His arm was more useless then it had been as now he was having trouble bending it and knew from looking at the location of the senbon that it would be useless unless he removed them and waited for it to heal. 'I won't be able to use ninjutsu now, I'll just have to rely on the Force then.' he thought and studied his new opponent.

Instead of fighting, the hunter-nin went and helped Zabuza up while keeping his or her eyes on him. Naruto thought the fight would continue but a voiced stopped the fight.

"You might as well stop. I've seen what you can do Zabuza, there is no reason to go any further." stated 'Gatou' from the top of the undamaged area of the docks.

"Furthering the fight would only destroy more of my docks. Come, we have much to discus and you can leave." stated Gatou while looking at Naruto and secretly giving him instructions through their mental connection.

Gatou walked off and was followed by the two Kiri missing-nin. Zabuza was being supported by the other ninja. Plagueis had successfully possessed Gatou and given Naruto the instructions on what to do before leaving. He had been told to go back to Konoha and given instructions to build something. Naruto smiled slightly as the impromptu plan had been a success but he was disappointed that the fight had ended. Even against a fresh opponent he thought he still might have had a chance to win.

Pulling out the senbon, he then sealed his sword into the storage seal on the working arm. Naruto had one task to do before heading back to Fire Country as he was still working with a limited time period to complete this mission and needed to get back to the village before he was discovered missing. Before leaving Wave, he went to one of the many warehouses that had been built in the new docking area. His master told him where it was and what to look for inside it. It wouldn't take long as he only needed a few of the items inside so he pulled out an empty storage scroll.

x-x

Back at Gatou's mansion

x-x

"Any chance you can inform us what's going on? Otherwise I might just leave." threatened an aggravated Zabuza as he didn't like being in the dark about something. Gatou seemed perfectly fine for a man that was likely about to be killed by an assassin and Zabuza wanted to know what was going on and who the brat he just fought was and if he worked for Gatou.

"That was simply a test. Ninja are so hard to trust that I had to know you wouldn't back out of the deal or try to take advantage of the situation. It was also to test your skills. Rumors about strength and prowess in battle tend to get exaggerated and I wanted to make sure you're as good as I've been told." stated 'Gatou' while walking down the hall of his mansion to his study. He didn't seem fazed by Zabuza's anger or killing intent at all or was good at not showing it.

"So you pitted me against someone just to test me. What would have happened if I killed the little brat?" inquired Zabuza and he received a curt answer from Gatou, "Then I wouldn't have had to pay him."

Zabuza frowned slightly and he wanted to know more about the cloaked kid that was apparently on Gatou's payroll. Before he could say anything Gatou said, "We can discuss your employment later. Dinner is at six in the dining room, it would be best for you to come. You can stay in any room in the south wing." and with that Gatou entered his study and shut the door behind him leaving both Zabuza and Haku standing there.

Looking at the door, Zabuza narrowed his eyes but left with Haku to find a room. Gatou wasn't exactly how he heard him mentioned, which was a greedy and cowardly bastard. The short man seemed very calculating and manipulative. There would be time to get more answers later and he intended to find out more about his new employer and the boy that worked for him.

x-x

Plagueis entered his study and looked into the mirror on the wall. His frown turned to disgust at the reflection that looked back at him. This body was nothing like his original. His Muun body was tall, long-limbed, and graceful while this body he was possessing was short, stubby, and unbalanced. The features reminded him of an Ugnaught which was a pig-like humanoid and the thought made him cringe slightly.

Going to his new desk, he started getting his papers and files in order. He didn't have time to look at anything earlier as he wanted to make sure his student survived the encounter with the two ninja. He knew that Naruto would likely fight and not try to get away as it had been some time since the boy had a battle. Plagueis had arrived just in time to see Naruto's sword discharge Force lightning.

It was disappointing that he had missed most of the battle due to the body of Gatou having such stubby legs and being so out of shape. However, seeing the swords ability more than made up for it. The ability he witnessed was one that he had heard of which could be associated with Sith swords. During a battle, the sword would absorb the energy and conflict which caused it to build up a charge that could be released as Force lightning. Plagueis had been wondering for some time if the sword possessed any ability beyond what he already knew about it.

Naruto had yet to show any ability in Force lightning so it was a valuable power for the sword to have. Getting up and browsing through the nearby filing cabinets, Plagueis looked for all of the information on Gatou's business and holdings. He had access to the man's memory but Gatou didn't remember everything and Plagueis was filling in the gaps and looking through the company records, holdings, and accounts.

His students idea to possess Gatou was much better than just using mind control, although Plagueis was still less than thrilled with the body. With control of the entire business, Plagueis could gather, build, or create all that they would need to further their plans. He could also look into other interests that he had with Gatou's money. In short, he could now accomplish all of his secondary goals that he had come up with that didn't involve his student.

Before that, the main task he had to accomplish now was to setup communications with his student. Unfortunately, communicating with Naruto from Wave to Konoha was too far for him using their connection and telepathy. Usually distance didn't matter with the Force but that didn't account for his limited abilities as a spirit since, without a body that possessed midi-chlorians, his Force power diminished greatly the farther a person was away from his spirit or holocron.

Possessing a body allowed him to separate from his holocron but even then his Force ability diminished the farther he got from his holocron in his new body. This meant that he needed an alternative way to communicate with Naruto and had come up with just the method while heading to the docks earlier.

Finding the correct papers in the drawers of his desk, Plagueis pulled them out and started looking through them. He needed to familiarize himself with the operations of his new company as well as connections with the world of crime. Looking over to his desk, he frowned at the placement of his holocron. The device was sitting on top of his desk where he had left it earlier and though he was loath to admit it, the metal pyramid made an excellent paper weight and was more inconspicuous that way.

He frowned slightly at the thought and the fact that Naruto had to return to Konoha before someone noticed he was missing. He would need his student to place a storage seal on his new body the next time he visited Wave and then seal the holocron into it. In the meantime he would leave it on the desk as it was less noticeable there. It would look strange for Gatou to carry around the metal object with him wherever he went so he would not stray too far from the mansion or the holocron on his desk. Fortunately he had recently acquired a large group of pawns and even with limited Force ability, he could get them to do anything he required.

x-x

Back in Konoha, two days later

x-x

Naruto sat in the hideout behind the Hokage faces and unsealed the scroll he filled while in Wave Country. When the smoke dissipated, several devices and piece of technology were revealed. Naruto had taken a radio, computer, camera, television and a few other things that he would need. He was currently in his workshop area of the hideout where he kept his tools and pieces of technology from the ship as well as items that he had found on the planet. He already 'procured' a good sized satellite dish at an earlier point and now he could use it in something.

Getting his tools out, Naruto started disassembling the larger pieces he had taken from the warehouse, which had been full of crates to ship to different parts of the elemental nations. Naruto started meditating while he went through the boring tasks of taking everything apart. He removed the outer casings of the larger hardware and then took everything apart piece by piece. It took a little while but he used that time to think about what had happened since Wave Country.

His arm was healed and he had regained full use of it. Earlier he had examined both his memories and his sword to figure out what happened. He couldn't use Force lightning with it whenever he wanted and he assumed it had to do with the fighting with Zabuza as that was the most he had ever fought at one time with his sword. It had also been two days without any contact from his master. That was the reason he was in such a rush to disassemble the pieces before him and create a communications device to contact his master. He believed that in Wave Country, his master was likely building a very similar device.

Naruto once thought that he was alone in village. He only had a few people such as the Hokage and the Ichiraku's to talk to and even then it was limited as he couldn't spend all day with them. When he met his Master, things had changed. It was true that he no longer talked with the Hokage very much or the Ichiraku's but he always had his master with him or close by. Despite losing people to talk or be near, he had a single person that he was even more close to and that offered him more than he could ever imagine. Since the time he first discovered the ship, his ties with the village had been all but severed. It didn't really phase him which it probably should have since he used to dream of being the Hokage. However, when compared to the thought of seeing a galaxy he once knew nothing about, the title of Hokage seemed trivial at best. Plagueis knew everything about him and was always there when he needed help or guidance. He also told him everything that Naruto had wanted to know and which no one else wanted to tell him. That he was aware of, Master Plagueis had never lied to him, which was more than he could say for the rest of the village.

Thus he had never been truly alone, that is, until now. His master was miles away and they hadn't been in contact for several days. Now he was completely alone for the first time in his life. Even when the villagers hated him and looked at him like they did, it didn't compare to the crushing loneliness that he had always felt. That had gone away when his master found him.

'No it didn't go away completely, it got pushed aside but it was still there and now its back.' thought Naruto as he let his hands remove the last components from the computer and start on the television.

In the past few years he had a lot to deal with. The stolen items that he kept hidden, not making a mistake or getting caught while furthering their plans, and living a secret life known by no one but his Master. Through it all, Plagueis was always there for him. His Master had taught him so many different things and needed his help. No one else in the village really needed him or wanted his help and for that, Naruto was grateful. Even if he was being used to help further his Master's plans, someone was finally paying complete attention to him and didn't care about the Kyuubi. The village didn't need him or want him and never stopped giving him those looks.

Naruto had never been truly able to control all his emotions or feelings, he just put on a mask and hid everything. He was the student of a Sith Lord and he himself was a Sith so he should act like one. His master was counting on him and he finished disassembling everything. Examining all of the parts that he had, Naruto started work on putting together a makeshift communication device. He would use a small power generator that was on the ship to power the device. Normally the generator was used to charge up power cells or other items but it would more than serve his purpose.

The stress and loneliness seemed magnified now that he was alone. His Master had been training him for this by giving him numerous choices and letting him make his own decisions but Naruto hated the loneliness. Just sitting alone in the hideout was starting to get to him and he dove back into his work. He had most of the device assembled and was putting on the camera and attaching the monitor so that they could see and talk with each other. Naruto would use the satellite dish to amplify the signal and he had to make sure that the village wouldn't be able to pick it up.

He idly wondered if he should find others or at least someone else to talk to now that his Master was gone. He had given up several chances to form new bonds with people in the village, most of which were at the academy. There were people all around him when he was in the village but he didn't want anything to do with most of them. It was hard considering what he had done in the village. He heard people couldn't be friends if they kept secrets from each other. Ironically the closest people he had to friends were his two genin teammates and they were spies for another village. It was a sad thought but completely true.

"Perhaps I can find people in the galaxy. Its so big, I doubt I would be alone forever. Now that I think about it, perhaps I can still find people like that here.' he thought. It was just him and his Master right now but would it always remain that way? Eventually he would leave the village and perhaps people outside of Konoha and Fire Country would be different and he could make friends. The thought brought a sad smile to his face. It was at that point that he finished connecting all of the wires and turned on the generator. The screen flickered and he adjusted the dish and the signal to be the same as the one his Master was using. He wasn't sure how long it would take for Plagueis to create a similar device in Wave Country.

Naruto pushed down all of his useless emotions inside himself that he had started letting loose while working on the device. He pushed them so far down that his Master probably couldn't feel them and perhaps he himself couldn't feel them either. Naruto, like he had been training to do, used emotions when he needed them and he had been learning to wield them along with the dark side of the Force to great effect. There was no need for many of the emotions that he still had though, but he did still have them so he merely hid them as best as he could considering that didn't seem capable of getting rid of them entirely. It was a weakness that could be exploited by an enemy that was adept with the Force which was why he hid them. Once he was done, his features became an emotionless mask and his eyes looked alert, cold, and uncaring.

He would only need to wait for his master's transmission and he wouldn't be alone anymore. He had a feeling his Master had much to tell him and there would likely be updates to their plans and further planning to be done. Naruto idly wondered if his master had seen his fight and if he was proud or thought Naruto did well against such a foe. Pushing those thoughts aside, he started working on the plans for his new weapons and wondered when he would get the chance to make them considering what happened the last time he used a furnace in the village. He also had the plans for the fusion reactor for the ship nearby. Lists of all the parts and materials they would need as well as machinery were nearby as well but he still didn't know where they would start working on the reactor.

Wave Country didn't seem like a very secure or safe place. It was isolated, which was something they needed, but it was so close to Konoha that even a single ninja mission to that country could get them discovered. The place looked rather destitute when Naruto was there, he could feel the sadness of the people that he passed while getting information on Gatou's whereabouts and it was not a place he wanted to return to. He still had some trouble keeping out the thoughts and emotions of others when he was in a crowded area where strong emotions were present.

Naruto looked around at the hideout and thought that he might miss the rocky lair that he had helped discover, expand, and fortify.

Please Review


	10. Chapter 10

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

**x-x**

**37 BBY – Current Year (Naruto is twelve)**

Chapter X:

x-x

Plagueis sat in a comfortable black chair behind his wooden desk. The body he was possessing was beginning to show signs of the possession. He had to wear glasses to hide the sulfuric yellow eyes that Gatou now possessed but the body was holding out and there was no degradation yet. He thought perhaps he could last for another year or perhaps longer. He had heard of possessions that had lasted months and ones that had lasted for years, but this wasn't a body that had midi-chlorians so he wasn't sure how long before he would need his student to carry his holocron again or find another body.

The pudgy hands of Gatou absently touched the storage seal on his arm where his holocron was kept as he waited for his student, who was likely moments from arriving in Wave. They had been in contact with each other over the communication system for several months now. Naruto was coming in person now to talk about their future plans as well as other things.

Tensions had risen with the inhabitants of Wave and Plagueis could feel that in the near future, something would happen. He knew that his host's life would be in danger as it was only a matter of time before there was a revolt of some kind in the country. Before he possessed Gatou, the short man had bullied the people of Wave into submission. There had even been a public execution and numerous beatings.

The main village of Wave was destitute and the only hope that they had was the bridge that was being constructed from the main island to Fire Country. Interestingly enough, Gatou had been secretly helping along the construction of the bridge, despite the fact that it could destroy his monopoly and hold on the country. The reason for this was that the man planned to kill all the workers before the bridge was completed and then complete the bridge with his own workers, name the bridge after himself, and then make everyone pay a heavy toll for its use.

Gatou had planned to use the bridge to transport numerous contraband into Fire Country and then into the remaining elemental countries. The contraband would be shipped to Wave Country from outside areas that were less strict on shipping. The contraband included drugs, weapons, and anything else that was banned and that Gatou could profit from. The reason for acquiring Wave had been to use it as an unrestricted port and storage area since restrictions and checking of ships for contraband had become much more common at ports in the larger elemental countries and it was hindering Gatou's smuggling.

Plagueis cared little for the bridge or Gatou's plans and had done nothing to further instigate the villagers but he hadn't done anything to help them either. After much meditation he came to the conclusion that the situation could work to his advantage and could be used to test a few of the kinjutsu that had been acquired from the Scroll of Seals.

Plagueis had already purchased and gathered a large amount of the materials, resources, and machinery that would be required for repairing the ship but lacked a good staging area. Wave Country could not provide what they needed for the next stage of the plan. The country was of fisherman and had no trained workforce or anyone that could be of much help to him. The ground of the country had a very high water table and was rather marshy which limited the use of an underground structures for hiding the ship and creating what they needed. Using his new found wealth and possessed body, Plagueis had started looking for a good location for a hidden facility for the ship and in order to work in private.

Gatou didn't have a spy network or really any kind of information network but he had made numerous connections in organized crime. Money was not a problem and Plagueis had found a very intriguing place to set up their operations. It was very isolated from the rest of the elemental countries, it had a dictator that was apparently low on money, and from what he found out, it was more technologically advanced than any other country.

He had already talked to the dictator of the country to set up arrangements for moving there and providing money in exchange for sanctuary, privacy, resources, and manpower. While the fusion reactor would be built by Naruto and himself, the substance that would seal the hull of the ship would need to be created and it required the building and operation of a small chemical plant. Further talks between himself and the dictator would proceed in the coming months and Plagueis would move his operations from Wave to the new country.

In addition to his search for a staging area, he had also started using Gatou's money to find other information and items. Plagueis started looking for any stories or tales of how ninja came to be or how they came to the planet. No one on the planet knew of the rest of the galaxy besides himself and Naruto but that didn't mean that he wouldn't find some old tales or creation stories about something that resembled a star ship.

As of yet he had found very little. It was obvious to him that some kind of colony ship brought humans to this planet, probably several thousand years ago. There were too many colony ships that had left the known galaxy in search of a better planet over the years to know when it had set out or where it had come from. In the time since then, the humans of the planet probably forgot about technology and the rest of the galaxy. However, he found no mention or knowledge of the existence of a ship. That could have meant many things. It could mean that the ship left and headed back to the known galaxy or that it was destroyed, crashed or perhaps that it was just forgotten about.

Plagueis had found information concerning the Sage of Six Paths which was a mythical or perhaps a real person that first discovered the secrets of chakra and taught others. He had been interested to know more and perhaps when this person, if they were real, existed. Time periods for when the person existed ranged from between five hundred to nearly a thousand years previously. The oldest records that Plagueis could find on any subject were around six hundred years old which was likely due to the state of the ninja of the lands. They had been warring between villages for a hundred years and between clans for longer than that. Such fighting usually left gaps or destroyed an entire history of people, especially if they could only record it on paper scrolls. Paper just didn't last very long unless it was kept in the optimal environment which was more than could be expected.

Plagueis had also looked for information on the Biju and discovered more knowledge than Naruto had learned in the academy but not enough knowledge to be that useful. He found only a few people in history had been able to control the tailed beasts and they possessed special powers to do it or were jinchuuriki but it was unknown exactly how they controlled the beast sealed within them. He did find that the tailed beasts had been split up among the larger ninja villages and knew that they were either sealed in an item or inside of a person. The only way it seemed that Naruto would ever be able to control the creature sealed in him was with some kind of special bloodline that he didn't possess.

From meeting the beast inside the seal, Plagueis knew that the Kyuubi was sentient and very intelligent. Naruto didn't possess any ability with mind control beyond persuasion and mind tricks so it wasn't likely that he would be able to control the creature with the abilities he had. While Plagueis could control the minds of others, he wasn't sure that in his current state he could ever control the Kyuubi. The only thing that could be done concerning the vulpine creature was to leave it in it's cage and let the seal hold it back. Plagueis had no idea what using the creatures chakra would do to Naruto or how it would affect his Force powers. It was possible that the chakra would stop him from using the Force at all considering how powerful it was and how it would likely repel the Force.

Despite the restrictions on rank, Naruto had already looked through the jonin section more than once but there was quite a bit of information in that section and it would take more than a few brief break-ins to collect everything. Naruto was already trying for the special jonin rank and would take the exams during the next chunin exams which was in six months.

Their plans had been furthered with the take-over of Gatou Shipping but in the interest of taking advantage of an opportunity, Plagueis wanted Naruto to get all of the information that Konoha could offer. Konoha was the only storehouse of knowledge that they could get their hands on at the moment. The other villages were out of the question because of issues with distance and the fact that breaking into another village would be infinitely harder than stealing from Konoha.

Getting up from his chair, Plagueis walked to one of the large windows in his office and continued to think of the current situation while staring at the ocean view.

The only other 'storehouses' of knowledge that they currently had available to them were people. Several people in the village were well noted for knowing a cacophony of techniques such as the Sandaime, Jiraiya of the Sennin, and Hatake Kakashi. Orochimaru was also one of these storehouses, and probably the most appealing because of his ambition to collect and learn all of the jutsu in the world, but he was no longer a part of the village.

In order to access these other repositories of ninja knowledge, they would need either luck or to create a situation where it would be possible. This was exceedingly difficult however as each person on that list was not to be taken lightly. Plagueis knew it was improbable that Naruto would ever encounter a situation where the drain knowledge technique could be used on the Sandaime without ANBU forces coming down on him. Jiraiya was just as unlikely as that person was never near the village and hadn't been for years. That left Hatake Kakashi as the only person of the group that could be put into a situation where he could be captured or knocked out and information could be taken from him.

Plagueis knew that the situation in Wave could be used to their advantage in order to lure the copy ninja to a trap and access the supposedly thousand jutsu that the man had apparently copied with his sharingan during his lifetime. The eye itself was also of interest to him and although he could take the eye, it would be just as easy to get a small tissue sample without alerting the owner that anything was wrong.

Looking into the reflection on the glass window, Plagueis both heard and saw the door to his study open and the cloaked figure of Naruto enter.

x-x

In Konoha, Shimura Estate

x-x

Shimura Danzo sat at the desk in his study while he looked over different reports on many different topics that concerned the Leaf Village. His right eye was exposed as he read the reports and the red eye did its job to copy all of the information so that he could remember it later. It was one of the many advantages that the dojutsu granted him.

His mind traveled on a particular train of thought as he looked through all of the information on his desk and sifted through all that he knew pertaining to Uzumaki Naruto. He hadn't always been keeping such close tabs on the container of the Kyuubi. It wasn't until the boy started moving through the academy at an accelerated pace that Danzo had become more interested. While he did want the container trained into a weapon he would not make any moves until he was Hokage.

His current thoughts on the Kyuubi container had started out very differently when the information first came to him, and at that time he had no idea where it would lead his suspicions. His Root forces had been secretly looking for the Raijin and the Nidaime's scroll since it was stolen. They hadn't been looking for the actual object as he didn't have that kind of manpower but they had been looking for any rumor or mention of the legendary blade. A sword so unique and flashy easily caught anyone's attention and people would talk. The current user of the blade should have been passed around by word of mouth but in all the years since the blade had been taken, nothing about it had ever reached his ears.

It was never mentioned and no one seemed to be carrying it or using it. That fact was rather odd considering just what the blade was. It was possible that whoever had taken the blade had taken it to be part of some private collection and that was what Danzo had believed at the time.

Some time after that incident, a genin was killed in the village. The crime was obviously the work of a professional as no evidence of any kind had been left at the scene and many things about the crime were suspicious. The Sandaime had never managed to figure out just what had happened but his mind worked differently than Hiruzen's did.

Murder or assassination was only performed for specific reasons. It could be frivolous emotions like jealousy, hatred, love, or even for revenge. It could have been just a mission hired by someone that wanted the genin dead or because of a cover-up. However none of these reasons made any sense. The genin was a nobody in the village and would likely have remained a genin for life. He had no hobbies, no enemies, only basic techniques, never been on any important mission, never angered anyone, had no connections in the village, and knew nothing that would have been any importance to anyone. Only the final reason for killing someone made any sense if the incident was not some random event by a disturbed individual.

That reason was personal gain.

While the teammates didn't gain anything, or the sensei, or any other ninja in the village, one person gained from the death of Tsurugi Misumi and that was the academy student that took his place on the team. Uzumaki Naruto was placed in the open slot right out the academy and within a year was already a chunin while working on better missions with a more experienced team. From what he knew, the boy was ready to take the special jonin exams and would when the next chunin exams came around in six months.

It was only a theory at the time and he had dismissed it as purely conjecture and grasping for a connection that wasn't there. It was equally likely that it was luck that had gotten the container that position, but a lack of other killings since then had left the theory as plausible and with the other information he put together since then, the theory has become a likely truth.

Not long after the genin's death, the Scroll of Seals was stolen right from under the Hokage's nose. The person what was likely to blame for the theft was left without any memories or the scroll which was also what had happened when the Raijin and scroll were stolen years before. A jutsu that was capable of erasing all memories from an individual could be very useful and according to his Root ninja Fu, who had been a very accomplished member of the Yamanaka clan, it was not something that was very easy to do and even his clan didn't possess a jutsu that could perform those effects while leaving the person's brain unharmed.

Similar to the Raijin, his Root ANBU had investigated outside the village for any mention of the scrolls but again found none. No one had claimed responsibility or gloated over the theft. It didn't really make sense as he knew there should have been some mention of the scroll. A logical explanation for the lack of any information on the theft of both scrolls and the sword was that they had never actually left the village. Whoever had stolen them hadn't left the village because they were a part of it and were examining or keeping the stolen items. It took time to come to this conclusion though and by that time the container had already been a chunin for more than a year.

He wouldn't have suspected Uzumaki Naruto if it hadn't been for his earlier suspicions concerning the death of the genin. 'It makes sense that a person wanting to push forward in rank, would want the items that were stolen for themselves.' had been his thoughts on the matter and he had copies made of all the boy's records to look through for any anomalies. He still received regular updates on the boy's missions and any mention of Uzumaki Naruto was quickly brought to his attention.

He looked through record after record and did find several things. While in the academy, the chunin instructors had sent letters to the Hokage which were followed with meetings. The letters were almost exactly the same word for word concerning the boy's academic success and the recommendation that Uzumaki Naruto should be skipped ahead a grade. Once was not suspicious but happening three times, with nearly the same reasoning and wording, was.

Looking through the dates he had also discovered a dip in grades around the time of the first incident in the village. Skipping ahead, he had found an even larger dip in grades when the genin was murdered. The dip was large enough to push Uzumaki out of the head of the class. It also meant that the boy wasn't placed in the standard group for the rookie of the year which the Sandaime always favored.

These occurrences were good enough for him, so he placed his best sensor to secretly keep tabs on the boy to confirm those suspicions. Due to having many other missions for the foundation, Fu had not been able to keep a constant tab on the container and Uzumaki also went on many different missions outside of the village that his Root member could not safely follow.

For the last six months, Fu had been giving his weekly reports from his observations. The Root ANBU reported initial trouble early into those six months as he was spotted following the container and had to back off to a safe distance. Apparently the container possessed a keen sensing ability that Fu was not sure about. It didn't seem to depend on chakra and had a limited distance. This also meant that no other person besides Fu could keep proper tabs on the boy without getting caught. Normally a sensor could sense another sensor but that was not the case. Fu was able to sense that he had been sensed but not that Uzumaki was a chakra sensor. He also reported that the boy's chakra felt 'strange' which was the only way that he could put it. Each person's chakra felt different which was how people could tell others apart but Uzumaki's felt slightly different from everyone else.

It took several months for Fu to be able to find anything incriminating. When Fu reported that the container was able to create shadow clones, that had been the all the information that he had needed to know that his theory was correct. The only thing he wasn't sure about was how the boy had erased the minds of the two ninja of the village and operated so carefully while seemingly untrained in such matters.

Fu also learned that two genin, one of them Hyuuga, were also periodically keeping tabs on the boy. Fu reported that the girl was interested in the boy's sword or that was what he overheard while eavesdropping on the pair.

He had been rather interested to hear Fu's report that the container had created a unique sword that stood above other swords and the kunoichi that mentioned this was the daughter of a weapons shop owner so the information could be credible. The sword was supposed to be 'insanely sharp' and amazingly crafted. While this was not that incriminating, it fit perfectly with the reports from the investigation into the death of the genin.

Since then, Fu had also observed that the boy was up to something and also that something was strange about the building that he lived in. When the boy entered the stairwell to his building, Fu reported that something happened but he couldn't be completely sure what it was. The only explanation he had given was the the container's chakra flickered for a brief moment in his stairwell and he also used a jutsu but Fu couldn't be sure which one.

The most recent development was just two days prior. The container had created a shadow clone to stay in the village while he himself had left and no mission had been given to him. Fu had immediately reported this and he told his subordinate to follow the boy and he had sent Sai along with Fu so that he could received regular updates. So far, he had found out from Sai's ink birds that they were following the container east and heading for Wave Country or the ocean.

He was very curious as to what the jinchuuriki of the village was doing leaving the village and where exactly he was headed. The only problem that he was having was what would he do with the information. He couldn't go to Sarutobi about it as that would reveal his illegal operations to the Hokage. The situation required a great deal of thought. A few of his other operations were put on hold so that he could focus entirely on this problem. 'What exactly is the Kyuubi container up to?'

x-x

Back to Wave Country

x-x

Naruto entered his Master's study and sat in the chair across the desk. He didn't have to wait long for the short man to look away from the window and focus on him. Using the Force, he could feel that Plagueis had a good deal to talk about with him and was trying to choose his words.

"Now that we have come to this stage of our plans, I feel you have waited long enough and it is time to reveal to you the entirety of my plans." stated Plagueis in Galactic Standard Basic which they often used to talk to each other. Moving away from the window, he started walking around the desk. Naruto was rather confused as he wasn't completely sure what his master was talking about.

Sensing his confusion, Plagueis continued, "My plans are far larger than just fixing the ship and returning to the galaxy, my student. Did you ever even wonder how or why I ended up on this planet?" he questioned and Naruto searched his thoughts and feelings for an answer.

"I never actually thought about it, Master." confessed Naruto after a short period and Plagueis nodded as he had already known that would be the answer. Naruto knew that he had lost his body and bits and pieces of information about his history from stories of his home-world and of the Sith. His student was very trusting and had never really questioned him about his motives or background. Naruto had only ever questioned him about what the galaxy was like and practically nothing about his own past. He knew that his student, while curious and inquisitive, was far more interested in training, learning, and the galaxy than what had led him to the planet.

"Perhaps I should start at the beginning..." and he paused for dramatic effect, "...I learned from my own master decades ago. He taught me everything that I know and then he passed on. I in turn looked for my own student and found one such student to be my apprentice." sensing Naruto's confusion he mentioned, "You were not the first student that I taught, you are the second. I taught my first student everything that I knew and shared with him all of my knowledge that he was interested in. You are very different from him, different tastes, different upbringing, and ultimately a very different student. After his training had been completed, he helped me to complete the ambitions of myself and the Sith who came before me of the order, which was to conquer the galaxy." Plagueis revealed and could feel the shock and surprise in his student.

"You will see when we get to the known galaxy that it is not always civilized. Crime, corruption, piracy, slavery, and many other problems are rampant through even the more civilized systems. As Sith, we seek to conquer the galaxy in order to bring order and peace to every planet. The current Republic that has been in place for nearly a thousand years is growing more corrupt everyday and isn't able to police its own borders or protect its people from threats. Even the Jedi are unable to do this." explained Plagueis and he could feel the understanding in his student.

"Plans of these can be very slow and take a very long time to complete. Many before me were unable to further the goals of our order. As you know, I enjoy learning and furthering my knowledge in any field. The more I became entrenched in my research the less I noticed changes in my apprentice. Therefore it came as a surprise that after completing my newest discovery in midi-chlorian manipulation, he murdered me in my sleep." Stated Plagueis as he competed his circumnavigation around Naruto and his desk. The shock this time was palpable and he could feel the anger in his student concerning what had happened.

"My apprentice destroyed my body and left while setting the reactor in my research building to overload. It was fortunate that my holocron was saved due to my implementation of Sith Runes in the area of my personal quarters and research area. The destroyed building was shortly after found by gun runners that were nearby and detected the explosion. They took my holocron along with several other items that I kept in a secret compartment in my quarters and continued their smuggling operations. I did not make any contact with them as I was still in the process or attaching myself to my holocron and did not count on one of them opening one of the sealed cases I kept the necklaces in. He was slowly possessed by the necklace and set an unknown course into the navigational computer. He then started attacking the crew. One of the crew killed him but was unable to stop the ship from continuing its course or making it back to the known galaxy as by that time, the ship was terribly off course. The ship was abandoned and it ended up running out of fuel in this system by chance. And that is how I came to be on this planet." finished Plagueis and he waited for his student to absorb all of the information he had just given him.

Naruto just sat quietly in his chair as he reviewed everything his master had just told him. To him, it was an incredible story. Naruto had never asked what had happened and thought it was because he didn't necessarily care about it at the time and didn't want to say or do anything to upset his Master. Plagueis had offered him things no one else had and he wasn't willing to cause conflict between them or inquire into his Master's past. He had only ever been concerned with fixing the ship and getting into the galaxy. Looking up from staring at the desk in front of him, Naruto looked questioningly at his teacher and wondered what else he was going to tell him.

Noticing his student had taken everything in, he continued once again, "During my time here on this planet I never expected to encounter such an interesting power and people such as these ninja, nor did I expect to take another student but I don't regret doing so. As I did tell you, I would like to go back to the known galaxy in order to obtain the proper supplies and equipment to study Chakra and your people but there is far more that I would like to do. I cannot seem to forgive or forget what my apprentice did and I still have one project that I left unattended back in the known galaxy which I will need to check on."

Naruto thought about what his Master had told him and wasn't sure how he fit in. 'I don't have any skill with experiments or research and really can't help Master Plagueis. I've never really thought about what I might do once I arrive in the galaxy. I've only thought about going there and seeing what there was to see. What more use can I be to him?' Naruto thought and didn't like where it was headed. Would he no longer be useful to his master?

"Therefore while I am working on finding a new body for myself and my research, I will need you to help me look into what my former apprentice is up to. Its unlikely but by now Sidious could be ruling a portion of the galaxy or at least setting up his own plans for taking over the galaxy. I will need you to work on pulling together resources and gathering intelligence until the time is right. My former apprentice is very gifted and does receive Force visions so we must not alert him to my continued existence or your existence until the time is right.

Sidious has no doubt gathered power and probably has an apprentice of his own that is older than you and has more training. He may also have gathered other forces that have been used by the Sith in the past. It is best to stay in the shadows for now until we know more about what he is planning and what plans are already set in motion. It is also possible that we will need to start gathering other people as well before we leave. Having a few more ninja might be helpful in the beginning and perhaps the method with which you managed to develop Force powers can be determined in time and the process completed with others.

Now, what were you going to tell me when you walked through the door? I could sense you had something else that you wanted to discus." finished Plagueis sitting in the chair and looking directly as his student with his sunglasses off to reveal his sulfuric eyes.

Naruto had to think about what he wanted to discus when he first walked into the room as so much had happened and been revealed since then. Remembering the information he had wanted to tell his master, Naruto began giving the abridged version, "I believe something will be happening in the village during the upcoming chunin exams."

Plagueis, or rather Gatou, raised an eyebrow at this as it might disrupt their plans. Originally, Naruto would stay in the village until he became a special jonin to get everything out of the library that he could. The examination to test if he was ready for the new ranking was scheduled to take place during the break between the second and third segments of the chunin exams. Naruto, as part of his chunin duties, would be a part of the chunin exams. They planned for Naruto to sneak out of the village during the chunin exam finals after getting everything from the library and perhaps even taking a look in the Hokage tower for other information, as the Hokage and most of the village would be distracted with the exams.

Questioning his apprentice, Plagueis asked, "How did you come by this information?"

"I gleaned the information from Kabuto and Yoroi when we met for our last team meeting. They were getting another genin to take the chunin exams with but their thoughts were concerning something that was supposed to happen during the exams besides the three stages. Orochimaru was also mentioned in their thoughts but I wasn't able to get anything specific." Naruto curtly informed Plagueis.

Plagueis sat back in the chair, closed his eyes, and briefly thought about the new development. It would be important to determine what exactly was going to happen as it could help or perhaps even hinder their plans. They planned for Naruto to leave the village without getting placed in the bingo books or having ninja come after him. To do this, he would use the kinjutsu in the scroll of seals to fake his death but as of yet, they didn't have a situation where Naruto might be killed by someone or something. This new development could provide what they had been looking for.

"Investigate and see if we can use it to our advantage, but don't get involved with Orochimaru if that person does make an appearance." ordered Plagueis as he was doubtful if Naruto could fight against such an opponent and knew his student might try and get into a fight he wasn't ready for. Though Naruto hadn't been using everything he had against Zabuza during their fight, Orochimaru was on a different level and even Plagueis didn't know exactly what kind of jutsu or methods the snake sennin employed when fighting. They only had what the bingo book said which was very little and it wasn't advisable to face such an opponent without detailed and reliable information. He also wouldn't be there to help his student if something happened.

"To the Northeast is the warehouse that contains all of our supplies and equipment that will need to be moved to the new hideout. It all needs to be sealed in scrolls for travel. The ship that I will be taking is docked nearby. You can put the scrolls on board. I have also procured the supplies that you wanted and constructed the item we talked about." stated Plagueis and Naruto nodded. Plagueis could feel the boy's anxiousness to go but there was still one thing to take care of first.

"In the mean time there is still much to do in Wave before I leave. You must return in a few months to further our plans. I will inform you then what will be happening and contact you when the time is right." stated Plagueis and with the conversation over, Naruto left to go to the warehouse.

x-x

Hiding out of what Fu had determined was Uzumaki Naruto's sensor range, Sai had already drawn several ink mice that had traveled the distance to the mansion. They were waiting for the return of the ink creations. Fu knew Naruto had entered into the mansion and was meeting with someone else. They didn't know exactly who the second person was and would have to find out later but he did know that it was a civilian and not another ninja.

By the time the mice came back, Naruto was already on the move and the ink creatures lost consistency on a blank scroll that Sai had. The ink formed into words of a conversation that was recorded by the creatures, but oddly it was all gibberish as if the two people had been speaking in a different language.

Fu frowned as he hadn't been able to get any closer than the distance they were at unless he wanted to alert the target. For some reason Sai's technique didn't work except for only a few words that were recognizable. These words included: Orochimaru, Kabuto, and Yoroi. Whatever the conversation had been between Uzumaki Naruto and the owner of the mansion was lost to them except for those words.

Deciding it wasn't a complete loss, Fu had Sai sent a message back to Danzo before they followed Naruto deeper into Wave Country.

x-x

"Zabuza-sama, the boy came back again. He doesn't seem to be heading to Fire County but somewhere else in Wave this time." reported Haku to her master. She had been keeping a lookout for the cloaked boy as Zabuza was very curious as to what the boy did for Gatou in Fire Country and what the short business tycoon was really up to. At one point he thought the man was going to take over the country but that no longer seemed the case.

"Follow him and see what he's up to." ordered Zabuza and Haku complied.

Glancing at the doorway his tool had just left, he wondered just what he had gotten himself into when he signed on for. They were safe from hunter-nin, the job wasn't difficult, and they were payed very well, but Gatou was nothing like he had anticipated. The short man seemed to have plans within plans about everything and he wondered what would happen by the time his contract was up.

x-x

Due to the size of Wave Country, it didn't take Naruto long to reach the hidden warehouse and small dock that his Master had built. They were well hidden from the ocean and few people from Wave Country went out to the islands that were the farthest from Fire country.

Moving to the warehouse, Naruto glanced at the yacht that was docked nearby and then quickly made shadow clones to perform the needed tasks. His Master had provided all of the storage scrolls he would need and his clones would just have to seal up all the items in the warehouse. The clones opened the warehouse door and Naruto's eyes widened at the amount of crates and other supplies in the warehouse.

While the clones went to work sealing up the large items into the sealing scrolls, Naruto went to the opposite end of the warehouse. He smiled at as he looked over the items that he had asked his Master to procure. After seeing the demon brothers, he had wanted a mask like they had which were rather difficult for Konoha ninja to acquire given that they were not sold in Fire Country. He wouldn't wear the mask all the time though as it could detract from his ninjutsu that were used by means of the mouth which accounted for a large portion of the ninjutsu that he knew. His master had also gotten him different types of wrist launchers for senbon and arm guards that he could later modify however he wanted or needed. Several weapons were also there that he knew his Master had found interesting, like the kusarigama, a medium sized folding fan from Suna, and an assortment of ninja pouches filled with supplies. The last items were blocks of chakra metal that were purchased at quite an expense and would be used to make his newest weapons.

Pulling out his own scrolls, Naruto had a shadow clone seal up the new items he had received while taking some of the chakra metal. He unsealed his tools and pieces of metal from the cockpit door of the ship that he had taken years previously. Walking over to the largest item that his master had gotten him, Naruto smiled as he looked at the furnace. While still requiring wood as a fuel source, the furnace would let him create his new weapons in secrecy.

One of his clones started bringing in wood that was freshly cut from outside and Naruto worked on starting the furnace. He could use the Force to increase the heat to what he needed and he had set aside the whole day to work on his new weapons as he had gotten a few days off from missions in Konoha.

x-x

Fu and Sai followed the Kyuubi container at a safe distance until he stopped. Neither Root ninja could see what Naruto was doing as they were far enough away from him that they couldn't physically see him through the thick groves of the area. Pulling out his scroll, Sai penned several mice and after the jutsu was finished, they scurried off in the direction that Naruto was in.

x-x

Naruto had already melted both metals that he would be using for his new weapons. They would be altered with alchemy in a similar fashion to how he made his sword. He wasn't sure if his newest set of twin weapons would have the same kind of bond with him that his sword did or similar abilities as his sword because they weren't swords and he wasn't sure if all of the Sith rituals would work exactly the same or not. He would have some kind of bond with the weapons but perhaps not on the same level as with his ninjato which was made the Jedi forging rituals .

Over the course of several hours, various things happened in the warehouse. His shadow clones slowly sealed and stored all of the items in the warehouse until it was empty save for the original Naruto, the furnace, and the tools he was using. Naruto progressed through most of the rituals he was using. The metals were combined with Sith Alchemy to create a single alloy which was then shaped with his tools and the Force. Naruto let himself be guided by the Force to create the unique objects and was oblivious to all other things around him. He never even noticed that his shadow clones had dispersed.

With each strike of the hammer and heating, the weapon took shape. As one weapon neared completion, the other was still just a fused hunk of metal and the same process would have to be used a second time to forge it as well. The piece of metal he started working on first had taken a donut or ring shape with four fins or teeth, one in each of the cardinal directions on the circular piece of metal. The entire width was less than in inch thick while the width of the ring was about four or five inches thick.

The diameter of the weapon was about two feet which was slightly smaller than a giant shuriken or windmill shuriken but enough that he was satisfied with how it was turning out. He had created the donut shape because that was how his Master had described the discblade to him and also because the altered metal became rather heavy and it was much lighter to create a donut shape than make it solid like a giant shuriken that only had a small hand hold in the center. Naruto also had to create the ring for the handle and two pieces to attach the ring in the center of the donut hole.

The metal itself was also turning red just like his blade did and as he created the razor sharp edge around the discblade, the edge darkened to black as well. As the first disc was finished, he created the ring and attachments for it and then put the pieces together. Examining the finished weapon he smiled and couldn't wait to show Master Plagueis.

Setting the first discblade aside, he reached for the other chunk of alloy and noticed that the heat of the furnace was dying. After a quick handseal, a shadow clone appeared and went off to get more wood while the original put the metal into the crucible and put it into the fire so it would start heating and melt again. Naruto was feeling tired but he wasn't about to let it stop him from creating the second discblade.

His eyes widened when he felt the false hunter-nin outside the warehouse. 'She must have arrive when I started working on combining the metals. I was so caught up I didn't even feel her.' he thought and he wasn't that concerned about it. The girl would likely report to Zabuza but the information would stop there. Who was Zabuza going to tell?

His clones hadn't noticed her because they didn't have any Force power being that they were not flesh and blood and created completely from chakra. Thus they didn't possess his life sensing ability and were not able to sense the girl who was currently on the roof of the building.

x-x

Fu and Sai had waited patiently for many hours to determine just what the jinchuuriki was doing. Coming out to Wave Country raised numerous questions, then a meeting in a mansion with an unknown person. Sitting in the trees and waiting nearly sixty meters away from a warehouse they weren't able to see what was going on while said jinchuuriki made an unknown item in a forge was definitely not what either thought they would be doing.

They couldn't go back to Danzo without knowing exactly what the jinchuuriki was making and they had been sending regular reports with Sai's messenger ink birds while several other ink creatures went to see the warehouse and find out what was happening. So far they had not been able to retrieve much information.

Everything in the warehouse had been sealed in scrolls and stored on a nearby ship but they didn't know exactly what items had been in the warehouse. The ship was close enough to the warehouse that they couldn't go without risking detection. Fu wanted to unseal a few of the scrolls and find out what was inside but he didn't dare get that close. There was also another person watching the jinchuuriki. Fu could feel a person that was much closer to the warehouse then they were and he wondered if Naruto could feel the person as well. Nothing about the mission was making any sense. Why come all the way our here? Was the jinchuuriki selling village secrets or working for someone? What was being made with the furnace? Who was the other person following the target?

Sai had sent an ink creation to view the other person following the target. If the picture that was drawn from Sai's ink creature was any indication, a Kiri hunter-nin was following the Kyuubi container. That made Fu even more confused as he couldn't figure out what Kiri would want in Wave Country or why they would be monitoring the Konoha jinchuuriki.

x-x

Haku sat on top of the warehouse and occasionally scaled the side of the building to look into the window to see what the boy was doing. She was very curious but also very bored. She had been in the area for several hours and it didn't look like the boy was completely done making whatever weapons or items he was forging. She had already spent time collecting some herbs and watching as the clones filled up the boat with scrolls of sealed items from the now empty warehouse.

She sighed as she watched the horizon. If she had known it would take this long and get this boring, she would have brought something to do. Deciding to pass the time by exploring more of the surrounding area again, she jumped off the warehouse in a different direction than she had already explored and glanced back at the building when she noticed something odd.

It was a white and black mouse that was sitting on the edge of one of the warehouse windows and appeared to be looking inside. The mouse was odd because it was outlined in black ink, almost like a drawing and looked fake. The mouse hadn't noticed her but was transfixed on what was happening in the warehouse.

Haku narrowed her eyes at the pseudo creature and wondered who had created it? There weren't any people in Wave besides herself, her master, the demon brothers, and the boy so it must be someone from outside the country. 'Are they spying on just the boy or Gatou as well?' she though.

Technically it didn't really matter as if they had found out that Zabuza was in the country, the information might reach someone that it shouldn't. She decided to let the boy take care of the situation, as she didn't want to be spotted either, so she tossed a senbon at the mouse.

x-x

Naruto's attention was instantly averted from his furnace to the sound of breaking glass. He grabbed his finished discblade and moved to the nearby window where he heard the sound. A small portion of the bottom pane was broken and along with the broken glass on the floor was a senbon and ink. From his life signs ability he could tell that the fake hunter-nin had probably thrown the senbon but where did the ink come from?

He had a bad feeling about the situation and ran to the door of the warehouse. His hands went into a single handsign and he created nine shadow clones that, along with himself mixed in, dispersed into the surrounding area.

x-x

"My mouse has been destroyed." Sai stated with in a monotone and Fu quickly realized that they had been spotted. "We need to leave." he stated and they both jumped into the trees and back the way they had come hours earlier.

Fu could feel the hunter-nin staying still in a hiding spot away from the warehouse while multiple clones of the jinchuuriki headed in every direction. He couldn't tell which of the clones was the real one and motioned to Sai that they needed a better method of retreat.

x-x

The real Naruto looked up as his eyes spotted motion through the breaks in the canopy of the trees. He pulled down his goggles and saw a large white bird, with a thick black outline to its shape, take flight with two people on its back. He didn't recognize either person on the creature and jumped to the top of the trees to take action.

He reached the highest point on the tree he was on and then hurled his new discblade. The spinning blade moved towards the bird and he adjusted the trajectory and speed using his telekinesis. The bird was moving fast in the direction of Fire Country but his discblade was catching up. Naruto didn't know was how well he could control the blade to hit the target or how far away the blade got before he would start to lose control of it. This was his first time using the real thing as he had only ever practiced in limited spaces with a giant shuriken.

x-x

Fu's eyes widened as he grabbed Sai and jumped off the bird before it was destroyed by some kind of large shuriken. There was no time to have Sai maneuver the bird as the weapon had come out of the sky above them. The shuriken tore through the bird with no resistance and as the pair of Root ninja fell, it came back a second time. Fu pushed against Sai which separated them enough enough that the shuriken flew through the space created between them. Both ninja fell into the trees below with a crash and the shuriken returned to its owner.

Fu stood on shaky legs as he got up from the fall. Nothing was broken but he had been bruised rather badly by the tree branches that he smashed through. Putting his hands into the ram seal, he sensed the surrounding area for the jinchuuriki. 'He's coming for us. I need to get to Sai and get out of here.'

Sai's signature was easy for him to find and he raced in that direction. He knew he couldn't get back to Fire Country with the container on his tail. While Uzumaki Naruto was only a chunin, his chakra reserves were higher than nearly everyone else in the village and he couldn't outrun someone like that over the water between the two countries nor on foot through the trees. It was over a day's journey back to the village, the container would outlast him and catch up. He needed Sai's jutsu to get back to Konoha.

'What kind of weapon can be guided from such a far distance without using any chakra? It had no wire attached to it and yet it was controlled enough to not only hit the bird, but come back a second time while we were falling.' he thought. Fu surmised that the weapon was whatever had been created in the furnace in the warehouse and knew Dazno would want to get one or want know everything about it. The weapon barely made a sound as it traveled and was better than any other tool he knew of for such distanced combat. Only his experience had let him evade it and save both of them.

The Jinchuuriki was closing fast but Sai was just up ahead. Coming to a stop on a branch, Fu looked down to see Sai sitting and waiting for him but by the way the boy was holding his arm Fu could tell it was likely broken. He was relieved to see that Sai had his scroll out and was already drawing another bird for them; though struggling as the broken arm was his writing arm.

Uzumaki was almost on top of them when Sai completed the jutsu and they were getting on the bird when something caught Fu's eye when he glanced into the direction the jinchuuriki was coming from. A reddish black object had emerged from between the gap in the trees and was heading right for them. It made little noise as it flew right at them and cut into the newly formed ink bird before they could take off.

The bird dissolved into ink beneath them and both were left standing on the ink covered ground. The shuriken curved back into the forest surrounding them and was caught by the cloaked figure that had just landed on the branch of a tree nearby. The figure said nothing but just looked them over, probably trying to determine who they were and what affiliation they had

Fu faltered for a brief moment as he wasn't sure what to do. He was unsure if any of his clan techniques would work on a jinchuuriki or whether he should even try to use them. This mission was never meant to include direct combat but he looked to Sai who was standing behind him with his scroll open and saw his counterpart had already finished drawing a few ink animals. A small nod was given and Sai used the jutsu which sent multiple ink tigers at the cloaked figure. Fu prepared to use his mind switch jutsu even though he wasn't sure it would work.

Naruto didn't stay still but slashed with the discblade to destroy two of the tigers and dodged the others while charging in to attack the two unknown ninja. Fu used the moment to execute his jutsu but instead of moving his mind into the boy's and taking over the body, his mind hit a solid barrier and bounced back to him. Disoriented for a moment, he was left open when Naruto struck him with the flat side of the discblade with a thud that sent Fu to the ground.

The moment Fu's jutsu failed, Sai put down his scroll, unsheathed his tanto with his working arm, and attacked. Naruto dodged the swing and kicked Sai in the abdomen. He wasn't trying to kill either ninja as he wanted information from them but if it came to it, he would kill one and spare the other.

While Sai recovered, Naruto delivered a swift blow to Fu that knocked him unconscious. Swinging the discblade again, Naruto destroyed the final ink tigers that had come up behind him and then knocked away a volley of shuriken from the second ninja. He stared at Sai and frowned. Using the Force, he pulled Sai toward him and cut the boy in half with the discblade but instead of blood, the body bled ink and then dispersed into a puddle of the black liquid.

Looking toward the ground, Naruto put his hand out and the ground broke upward under his Force power until the real Sai was pulled out form under the ground. Before the surprised dark haired boy had time to do anything, Naruto's chop had hit the boy in the neck and knocked him out as well.

A moment later, several of the shadow clones he created back at the warehouse arrived and tied the two unknown shinobi up for him. They jumped off toward his Master's mansion while the real Naruto went back to the warehouse. He still had a second discblade to create and his Master would decide what should be done with them as well as figure out who they were and what they were up to.

x-x

Back at Gatou's/Plageuis's mansion

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Plagueis stared at the two tied up ninja before him. Both had chakra suppressing seals placed on them and weren't going anywhere. He had already gone through both of their minds, the older one's being far more difficult to access than the younger. The knowledge had been very informative. The older ninja, whose code name was 'Fu', had been following and keeping tabs on his student for several months.

The man who Naruto had been looking into, Danzo, had apparently turned the tables on his student and was getting far closer than anyone else at figuring out their secrets. It was an interesting turn of events and he was still thinking on what he should do. The two ninja before him couldn't be killed as that would cause much more problems for them and attract far more attention from Danzo. Although damage had already been done since they had come so far and seen so much. They had found out that Naruto left the village periodically and had some kind of connection with a mysterious person in a mansion and was creating something in Wave Country. The girl Haku had been seen but Zabuza had not been which was good.

Messages had already been sent and that couldn't be fixed but those messages barely scratched the surface of what was really happening and what Naruto was really involved in. The two ninja before him were also an opportunity. Plagueis now knew far more about Danzo than Danzo knew about him and his student. The location of the Root ANBU Headquarters as well as detailed information about its members was now known to him. 'This Danzo does a good job of working in the shadows and keeping those from suspecting him but his results leave something to be desired.' he thought as apparently Danzo had sent his Root ANBU on numerous missions in order to protect the village but most of those ended in failure.

However, the man's continued interest in his student might get them discovered or at least part of their plans discovered. With the new information and with the two sitting in front of him, Plagueis believed that he could hinder Danzo's efforts. The older ninja in front of him was the primary person involved with spying on Naruto and if he controlled that person, then Naruto wouldn't need to worry about being discovered doing something incriminating. The younger ninja was of little use to him but if both didn't return too it would cause Danzo to look much harder at what Naruto was up to, which was something that they didn't need.

Despite Danzo knowing about Naruto's trip to Wave Country, there was nothing the man could personally do about it. He couldn't go to the Hokage to tell the village leader about Naruto without admitting to treason. The Hokage would want to know where the information came from and proof which Danzo couldn't provide without admitting that he still had a secret group of ninja that worked behind the Hokage's back and were not under his authority. Whatever information that Danzo had and whatever educated guesses the man could make concerning what Naruto was up to was only useful if someone else could prove it. The real problem was that Danzo might be able to get someone else to start looking into Naruto or would act on his own as he knew from Fu's memories that Danzo wanted to turn his student into an emotionless weapon.

As of that moment, he had no idea what Danzo would do with the information that had been acquired on Naruto. That was the real problem and situation that had to be dealt with. Danzo apparently had obtained a sharingan eye that could hypnotize people to his will. That meant that just about anyone in Konoha could be under his control or at least put under his control. The eye wasn't nearly as versatile as his own mind control techniques though, and Danzo's eye could only be used once per day on a specific person concerning a specific matter.

Looking to the two unconscious ninja, Plagueis came up with his own plan on how to deal with the situation. He would use his own mind control technique on them and have both of them spy on Danzo as well as having the older one provide limited or false information on Naruto's activities in the village. Using his mind control he could have them create a story to tell Danzo about what had happened since their last report. If Danzo kept getting more curious or made plans to do something, then Naruto would have to act. He didn't know if his student could face an opponent like Danzo as he had no idea what the man's techniques and abilities were. None of his own ninja had seen him fight or train so it was possible that Danzo was completely out of shape as a ninja or that he was just as dangerous or more dangerous than Zabuza.

In any case, the decision over what to do with Danzo would have to wait but Plagueis was interested in learning more about the sharingan and gaining Danzo's knowledge. The old warhawk was now high on his list of people to use Drain Knowledge on, probably just below Hatake Kakashi, who was the first name on that list. The thought reminded him about his coming plans concerning Wave Country which would take place in a few months. He would need to meditate further on that plan and figure out the exact details.

Getting up out of his seat, Plagueis went to the two ninja and began the process of putting both under his control and giving them detailed instructions. The process would be completed by the time Naruto came back later that night with his finished discblades, which he was very interested to see.

x-x

Konoha, Two days later

x-x

When Naruto returned to Konoha, he wasn't sure what to expect. He had been caught and on some level he thought perhaps ANBU would be waiting to take him to the Hokage. He was under a henge like he always used and had used a mind-trick on the guard to not ask any questions and let him enter without seeing any identification.

Two days earlier he had returned to his Master's study to find that the two ninja were gone. He had asked where they were and Plagueis had told him they returned to Konoha. He was surprised at first but his master knew what he was doing so he didn't question it. Plagueis informed him that both were under his control and had been working for Danzo as well as spying on him for quite some time. He was informed about the existence of Root and that something might have to be done in the future.

With the mind control, the two Root ninja would only report to Danzo what Plagueis had told them to report and leave out all other details. They would also be used to spy on Danzo to keep their plans and activities safe. Naruto left shortly after that and knew he would be returning in a few months to help his Master leave Wave Country.

Naruto wanted to go with his Master to the new hideout but he still had too many things to take care of in Konoha. He needed to prepare the ship for travel. There was still a great deal of knowledge to acquire from the ninja library. He now had to watch out for Danzo and anyone else that was trying to find out information on him. As a chunin he had to work on the upcoming chunin exams all the while getting everything ready to leave, and making sure he wasn't caught in the process. It was a long list of tasks ranging in difficulty and it was definitely going to keep him busy for the next six months.

His eyes once again looked to the Hokage Monument faces where his hideout was. A lot had happened this week and he was still trying to take it all in. He still couldn't believe that he had never wondered or asked what Plagueis planned to do once they left the planet or how the ship had come to crash on the planet. He had been so focused on the goals that his Master talked about, he never considered the motivation and reason behind them. Besides exploring the galaxy, he hadn't contemplated much about what he wanted to do once they left.

He couldn't help but wonder what his Master's other student was like. 'Why did he betray Master Plagueis? Why does he refer to his first student as an apprentice and not refer to me the same way?' Those were both things that he thought about as he walked towards his apartment.

Making the usual switch, his real self headed to the hideout while his clone headed to the apartment. After traveling through the secret entrance to the hideout, Naruto walked into his workshop area and unsealed all of the new items that he had gotten. He didn't feel like working on creating or modifying something at the moment and went over to another room that had all of the jutsu that he had collection.

He had nearly mastered the five elements and knew quite a few jutsu but he wasn't that interested in learning any more at the moment. It seemed like he never needed all of the jutsu that he knew or even a quarter of all the jutsu he knew but given time he would learn all of the jutsu he had amassed. Even if he never ended up using all of them it was useful to know them just in case he found himself in a situation where they would be useful to him. His vision quickly passed over the scrolls that he had stolen and his eyes stopped at the cube holocron that was sitting with some of the scrolls. It was the jedi holocron that he couldn't access and he always wondered what secrets it contained that he could never obtain.

There were a few Force powers that he was working on but again he didn't feel like working on that now. He thought about making a trip to the ship but he wasn't willing to risk it being discovered. It was quite surprising to him when he discovered that he was being followed and especially when Plagueis revealed that he was followed by one person off and on for a whole month without him knowing. The reason for this was due to his large chakra reserves. They were so large that he couldn't suppress them completely and a trained sensor could apparently find him very easily.

It was irritating to know that he was so easy to find and follow. His life-signs ability had a short range of only a hundred feet or so and was nothing compared to the distance that an experienced chakra sensor could achieve which was more than a kilometer. The problem could only be solved in one of two ways, or at least those were the only solutions he could come up with. The first solution was to work exclusively on training to suppress his chakra to such a degree that he could escape detection. That was a difficult solution as even using the Force to try and suppress his chakra as much as he could, did not fully suppress it. The second solution was to find an alternative method to suppressing his chakra. He had a feeling he could figure out how to accomplish complete suppression of his chakra by using fuinjutsu and he set about looking through the scrolls he had with fuinjutsu information that were copied from the library.

Even if his chakra was completely suppressed, he could still use the Force and his weapons to fight. Once he got off the planet, he really wouldn't need to worry about his chakra that much as Force sensitive individuals couldn't normally sense chakra. Plagueis theorized that a Jedi could sense the presence of a regular ninja because of the void created from the chakra acting as a barrier to the Force but not the chakra itself unless specifically trained and attuned to sense it. A jedi that could sense life-signs would be able to sense a ninja but they wouldn't feel that different from any other person in the galaxy. Naruto's chakra allowed the Force to flow through him so he wasn't a void in the Force like every other ninja. Plagueis could sense when chakra was used or if a jutsu was being used but he could not pinpoint a person or find someone based on their chakra. Of course even that marginal ability to detect chakra was after numerous years of being around Naruto. It was possible that no Jedi or Sith would ever be able to find him based on sensing his chakra. It was because of this that he didn't feel it was necessary to work on suppressing it because it wouldn't be very useful when he left the planet and possibly would never need to worry about suppressing his chakra ever again.

Please Review

**AN: I put a link to a picture of what Naruto's discblades look like in my profile as well as a link to the wookieepedia site so everyone can see what the original discblades look like.**

_The following are Responses to Reviewers Newboy, Nick, and coldblue_

**Reviewer**: Newboy

As the possesion will not last to long before Gato's body breaks down what will plagueis do then, steal all of Gato's accounts, or perhaps take control of his whole empire. Also what about Zabuza and Haku, as long as he has naruto do all the talking and not reveal himself, they could still theoretically work for plagueis. Zabuza probably would not mind as long as he gets paid good. Also they have more freedom in opporating outside Konoha, which would be usefull.

**Response:** I'm not sure how long the possession will last. Its very different from what Orochimaru does, in that Plagueis did not destroy Gatou's soul and move in. I guess it is similar to how the Yamanaka use the body switch technique. Gatou is still there, as is his soul, he has just been pushed aside and no longer has any control of his body so the possession might last for a while. I thought about having Zabuza and Haku continue on in the story but I'm not sure about it. Gatou does need someone to protect him where the next hideout is but I'm not sure what Zabuza will do. In canon he was building up money to take back kiri but I have no idea how much money he had or if the money Gatou was providing would be enough. They are also getting more curious and if Gatou took them with him, they might try to find out too much.

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**Reviewer**: Newboy

One thing I am curious about is will plagueis tell naruto about his parents. If he wants to completly ensure narutos loyalty he should tell him before someone else does. Someone else telling naruto when plagueis would not is the one thing I can think of that might break naruto's loyalty away from plagueis.

**Response: **I don't think he will tell Naruto because he can't determine how Naruto might react to the news. I could see a sith Naruto reacting rather badly to that news and perhaps doing something that would put their plans in jeopardy. Plagueis would only lose Naruto's loyalty if Naruto found out that he knew and didn't tell him. The only person who knows that information about Plagueis is the Kyuubi. I do plan for Naruto to find out but I haven't decided how he will react.

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**Reviewer**: Newboy

I like how the dialogue is for the chapters. At this point there does not need to be much characer interaction as naruto does not have anyone to interact with. Perhaps later when he leaves the planet there can be more interaction, but at this point little dialogue between characters is a good thing. Besides, the dialogue between naruto and Plagueis is perfect.

**Response:** I had one person wonder why I didn't have more dialogue and your review perfectly answered that question. Thank you.

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**Reviewer**: Nick

"He already 'procured' a good sized satellite dish at an earlier point and now he could use it in something."

You do realize that a satellite dish implies there is a man-made satellite orbiting the planet. At no point in the Naruto series does it even suggest that there might be anything man-made (or anything at all, for that matter) outside the elemental nations, much less outside the planet they're part of. So tell me, who would get an idea to solve a problem that doesn't exist?

In other words; no satellites means no satellite dishes.

**Response**: A satellite dish is a rather generic term when talking about any type of dish like that. I suppose the correct term for what I mentioned would be a parabolic antenna but who really cares or wants to get that technical about terminology, besides you that is. Satellite dishes/parabolic antenna are used in microwave radio transmission to send communications on the surface of our planet. There doesn't need to be a satellite in space and I was just using the term because everyone knows what it is and what it looks like. If I used 'parabolic antenna', it just doesn't give the same image as 'satellite dish'. Satellite dishes/parabolic antenna are used on Naruto's planet and are even shown in the manga. They were shown when the five daimyo's talked with each with other to decide what to do about akatsuki and I would also guess are also used for regular television broadcasts or something and not exclusively by the daimyo. So there are dishes that look just like satellite dishes that don't use satellites. They do exist, I was merely using a term that was a better description and gave a better image to the reader. So what if I implied something like that, its not like it was a huge error to the story like you make it out to be. If you look on Narutopedia, they even use the term 'satellite dish' to describe the parabolic antenna shown in the manga, so its not just me. Next time you want to critique something in my story, let it be an actual problem with the story and not something as pointless as terminology.

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**Reviewer**: coldblue

Will Naruto make another swprd? How man other styles swordmen ship form the Jedi/Seth? Will Naruto get close to Zabuza and Haku? Will there be FemHaku and will she be paired with Naruto or will there be no pairing?

**Response: **He won't make another sword but I do have plans for him to make a lightsaber, eventually. I think he might start working out a style for himself from the jedi styles. I don't know much about whether the Sith have their own styles as they mostly create their own unique style so I thought about Naruto doing that. I haven't decided about Zabuza and Haku. I already have a femhaku pairing in another one of my stories and I don't really feel that I want to have it in two of my three stories. I think their might be pairing but I haven't decided what that pairing will be but I am open to suggestions and have had several. At some point I might get around to making a poll about it.


	11. Chapter 11

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

**x-x**

**36.7 BBY – Current Year (Naruto is twelve)**

Chapter XI:

x-x

A person with a bag over his head was dragged down the hall by two ninja in dark cloaks. Both had unique headbands with the symbol of Kirigakure etched into them and each had a breather mask and one arm that had a gauntlet with clawed fingers. Only their free hands were holding the struggling and tied man as they might have poisoned him with the claws.

Down the hall they dragged the man by his arms until they reached a set of doors. One of the pair let go of the hostage they had kidnapped and opened the doors, while the other dragged the person into the room. The man was placed into a kneeling position and the bag on his head was removed.

Tazuna looked around at the dark room he was in. Red satin curtains were covering the windows and he looked to the short man standing in front of him with sunglasses on. The man motioned to the two ninja and said, "Gozu, Meizu, leave us." and both brothers left through the door they had just entered.

Despite having his hands tied, Tazuna attempted to stand and attack the man who he had hated for nearly half a decade. However an unknown force prevented him from standing. They looked at each other, Tazuna glaring and Gatou with no readable expression. Something wasn't really sitting right with Tazuna and it concerned the man before him. Gatou was acting differently. He remembered the man with a slightly different voice and not so composed or calm but more arrogant.

"I suppose you want to know what you are here for?" inquired Gatou.

"Your going to kill me." stated Tazuna and he was rather certain of that fact.

"Kill you?" questioned Gatou, "Why would I do a thing like that. Not when I have a use for you." Gatou finished and stepped forward while extending his hand and placing it on Tazuna's head.

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Five days later

x-x

Naruto sat on the right-hand side of the Sandaime while filling out and going over all of the paper work concerning the missions. It was one of the most boring jobs in the village but he was there for a reason. The Sandaime was in the process of handing out as well as examining new missions that were arriving. Anyone could request a mission and while some came personally to make the request, many more missions were sent in scrolls. These missions had to be examined, filed by rank and importance, and then would make their way to the Hokage for decisions on whom to send to complete each mission.

Not every mission that was sent was given proper consideration. Some were given preference because they came from the Fire Daimyo or a previous client while others were not considered at all because of past problems with the client.

Although he didn't want to be there, his Master had given him instructions on a secondary objective before moving to the new base. Naruto was to wait for a specific prospective client to show up and then do everything in his power to insure that his Master's plan proceeded smoothly and without failure. He had waited the entire morning, took a break for a ramen lunch, and then waited most of the afternoon before the doors to the room opened and the correct man stepped in. Unfortunately for Naruto, that man was holding a bottle of liquor and already seemed rather tipsy. He refrained from having his eye twitch at the possible problems that could come from this dilemma.

"So you'd like to request a C-rank mission, Tazuna-san?" inquired the Sandaime as he looked at the forms in front of him that had just been filled out. The handwriting was rather sloppy so he wanted to be sure he had everything correct.

"Thas right, an R-rank mission." Tazuna slurred slightly.

It was difficult to not think about hurting the man in front of him as Naruto tried to sit calmly. The Sandaime was a little amused as it had been a long time since someone had come in to request a mission while being intoxicated. He thought perhaps he should wait until the following day but perhaps now was the right time as he could ensure that nothing else would happen on the mission as he had never had a client from Wave Country before.

"So, as I understand it, this is just a simple protection mission from bandits and the like, until you get back to Wave Country?" asked the Sandaime.

"Nope. I mean yes." responded Tazuna while nodding his head.

"You also put down that you specifically wanted Hatake Kakashi to take on the mission?"

"Who?" Tazuna responded back and the Sandaime raised an eyebrow at the man.

'One job. This idiot had one job to do and he's messing it up.' thought Naruto and he difficulty keeping his anger in check. Deciding to postpone the plan until the subject was back in his right mind again, Naruto spoke up, "Perhaps we should wait until Tazuna-san is...no longer so impaired so he can properly request a mission. He could be fit in tomorrow morning after he has slept and before he starts drinking again, so that he can properly answer questions."

The Sandaime nodded and told Unimo Iruka, who was sitting on opposite Naruto on the Sandaime's other side, to fill in Tazuna for the morning. The man was led out of the building to a local hotel to stay the night and sober up.

After a few more hours of working, everyone else was dismissed. Naruto left the Hokage tower knowing he would have to come back in the morning to make sure everything went smoothly, and although he would rather do anything else but that job, he had little choice in the matter.

'It seems the mind control and specifically the placement of suggestions in the subject has less than desired results when the subject gets inebriated.' Naruto noted. It wasn't as if Tazuna had started spilling secrets about Gatou or what they were up to. The suggestions were still there, as even while drunk, the man had filled out the correct forms in the correct way and put everything down he was supposed to. In a way it did make sense as even if the subject was under their control, with an impaired mind they had difficulty acting on the suggestions and orders they had been given . Even when questioned, he did come up with some of the right answers but they needed to be coaxed out of him.

The following morning would likely bring more success. Naruto walked to his apartment and then he would go to the hideout and contact his Master to inform him of the setback. They had already set up a method for Naruto to leave the village for an extended period of time without anyone noticing. The extra time was needed to further whatever plans his Master had for leaving Wave Country. He wasn't sure exactly what his master had in mind but would help in any way that he could.

x-x

Tazuna came in the following morning and answered all of the questions that the Sandaime asked with no problems. The man told the Sandaime that he wanted Hatake Kakashi because someone had told him that they man was the villages best and he wanted the best to protect him. The Sandaime did inquire a little farther but Tazuna produced satisfactory answers.

Naruto waited until right before lunch for Team Seven to show up. They were supposed to be there for a mission several hours earlier but were late.

x-x

After knocking, Kakashi was allowed to enter the mission room and his genin followed him. They were the only genin that he had ever passed and had been a team for several months. He did wish that the members got along a little better. Sasuke would never open up to his teammates and Sakura was only interested in Sasuke and not in being a ninja. The final member of their team was Shin who was an interesting boy with a sense of humor. The boy was added at the last minute to the list of graduating genin. He didn't exactly know where Shin had come from, as the boy was added by the Village Elders from a program that was no longer used, specifically Root.

While he had initial concerns, Shin did not act like the emotionless ninja that Root ANBU were trained to be. The boy still had emotions and was a good fit for his team. He had yet to find any evidence that the boy was reporting to anyone but it was likely that the elders chose the boy to be placed on his team to keep tabs on the last Uchiha.

His lone eye looked at the Sandaime, Iruka, and then onto the other person sitting in the room. The boy very much reminded him of his sensei, except for the marks on his face that identified him as the container of the Kyuubi. A small part of him wished that he had at least some role in the boy's life but he was always busy with ANBU. From what he heard, the boy had accelerated through the academy and would soon take the special jonin exam. He had also heard that ANBU had an interest in him but were waiting to for a little while longer before inviting him.

The Uchiha massacre had made most people in the village question how young was too young for advancement. Primarily it was the civilians that questioned it but some ninja also had concerns. No one was really sure why Itachi had killed his family but some believed that the boy had been promoted too fast and had not been ready for the work or for missions. It was likely that it was one of the reasons why it had taken so long for Naruto to be allowed to take the special jonin test and why ANBU was holding off on recruiting him.

Looking to the boy, he could see a coldness and uncaring in the blue eyes. The emotionless face betrayed very little and the boy appeared to be studying him just as much as he was studying the boy. Naruto's eyes narrowed with a slight glare but before Kakashi could figure out why, he was brought out of his thoughts when the Sandaime began speaking.

"You have been requested for a mission, Kakashi. Its one of the simpler C-ranks, so I was wondering if you believed your genin ready to take on a harder mission?" inquired the Sandaime while holding the mission scroll that he had just approved earlier in the morning.

Kakashi looked at his group and could read their postures, expressions, and feelings like an open book. Sasuke wanted the higher ranking mission no matter what it entailed, Shin was excited about leaving the village on a mission, and Sakura felt that Sasuke deserved a higher ranking mission.

"I believe they're ready for a C-rank." Kakashi said and the Sandaime smiled and nodded. With a word to the door near the desk, the client entered with another bottle of liquor in hand, but Naruto's thoughts were elsewhere.

He was still trying to figure out the very brief feelings from Kakashi when the man looked at him. There was regret and sadness mixed with several other feelings. That was not something that he was used to nor received from more than a handful of people in his lifetime. He couldn't read very much of man's thoughts because the genin that surrounded him were all thinking so many different thoughts and had such strong emotions. By comparison, the emotions from Kakashi were much muted and it was difficult to glean much of anything form the man. It was also possible that Kakashi had a very closed and protected mind like many other people he had encountered in the village, such as the Hokage sitting next to him. Naruto only managed to pick up on emotions from those people and not thoughts.

The question remained of, 'What did the man regret?' and he couldn't be sure at that point. Coming back to the situation at hand, the client walked out of the room with Team Seven. It was just about break time for lunch so the Sandaime and Iruka started leaving while he continued a little bit of busy work. The plan was going perfectly so far. He just needed to complete the final part of it. Moving to the pile of mission scrolls, he found the one that had just come in the previous day.

The mission was rather easy and the client had requested just a single ninja. What Konoha didn't know, and he did know, was that the mission was requested by his Master and was completely fake. Plagueis had created the mission to give him an excuse to leave the village to complete their plans. It stated in the scroll that the mission would take almost two weeks to complete and he was going to use his current position to secure the mission for himself by placing it on the very bottom of the pile, despite the mission being marked as 'Urgent'.

When they were done for the day, the mission would be 'found' and someone would have to perform the mission. He would put his own name forward, as by that time, the Sandaime would want to quit for the day and a good number of the available ninja would already have assignments. Naruto would only need to give a mission report when he returned from Wave Country concerning the fake mission and not have to worry about being discovered or having an absence in the village.

x-x

After informing his Master that everything was proceeding as planned, Naruto left early the next morning on his mission,. Plagueis in turn gave him additional instructions to be completed before arriving in Wave.

As he walked down the path towards the coast of Fire Country, he kept what senses he had open for the individuals he was looking for and also thought about what his Master might be planning and what he knew or could guess about it. It was apparently training in skills that he would need and he was to use the Force to help him discover what his master might be up to.

He already knew what they wanted with Hatake Kakashi but he didn't know what Plagueis wanted with the two individuals he was going to pick up.

He also didn't know what his Master needed with the Sith text that he was carrying with him in a scroll and that he had retrieved from the hideout. 'What's in those texts that he would need?' was the main question that was going through his head. He knew the texts contained information on several topics such as: Sith alchemy, Sith spawn, the creation of weapons, and a few other minor topics.

The only answer that he could come up with was that his Master wanted to use the texts to create a Sith spawn. Plagueis would be traveling to a new location and no one could be trusted there at this point. His Master would need some kind of protection because Zabuza had not wanted to extend his contract and Plagueis wasn't sure he could control the man with his limited powers. That meant that someone else would have to protect his Master during the time before he traveled to Snow Country which would likely be a couple of months. Gatou had practically owned Wave Country and had numerous bandits, thugs, to order around so it wasn't a problem but Snow Country was owned by someone else and they had nothing there.

It made sense to make sure that his Master was protected from a double-cross while in a new location. Gatou's samurai were of no help and if Zabuza didn't want to continue employment, then that left the two individuals that he was currently going after and could feel just in the range of life-sense ability.

x-x

Gozu and Meizu were submerged in a puddle on the road from Konoha to the Fire Country coast. No matter what help Tazuna was able to acquire, they would still have the element of surprise. With a civilian client with them, whoever Konoha sent would have to travel down that dirt road and they had arrived earlier in the morning to wait because they couldn't be sure when Tazuna and the ninja would pass by. They had been waiting over an hour before they could finally hear someone coming down the road.

Unfortunately, it only sounded like a single person and unless Tazuna was unable to get ninja, it was likely that this wasn't the person they were waiting for.

"You can come out Gozu and Meizu, I know you're there." stated Naruto to the puddle while standing a good distance away.

The puddle didn't move but he could feel the confusion and alarm from the brothers within. In a burst of speed, both quickly jumped out of the puddle and stood across from him as the puddle quickly evaporated.

They both looked at the cloaked figure and did recognize the description from what Zabuza and Haku had said. It was likely that this person also worked for Gatou but they didn't let their guard down. From what Zabuza had said, the boy had fought and nearly defeated him, so it was unlikely that they could face him by themselves.

"I'm guessing that Zabuza sent both of you to take care of Tazuna?" Naruto stated rhetorically. He didn't receive a response, only surprise but continued, "Plans change however. Tazuna has managed to get Hatake Kakashi to protect him. Neither of you will be able to beat him but he'll likely be here in a half an hour so your welcome to try."

Both brothers glanced at each other about the information and then looked back at him. He could tell that they were worried and continued, "Zabuza does not wish to continue his contract with my Master, however, there are positions for you both, if you want them."

Again they looked at each and both nodded in agreement. They wanted to know more and Naruto knew that the situation was going to work in his favor.

"What's the offer?" stated one of the demon brothers and they both eagerly waited the response.

"My Master is wiling to offer both money and power in exchange for your services. You can either take the deal or wait here for Hatake-san and continue with your mission." stated Naruto and he could feel the brothers thinking it over. If they were smart, they would realize that they couldn't take on a jonin of Kakashi's level but if they didn't, he would just have to persuade them.

"What kind of power?" the other brother asked.

Naruto smirked slightly, "Something you can't get anywhere else and that would give both of you a great advantage over anyone you faced." he said and although he didn't know what exactly his Master had in mind, he knew enough to make the offer enticing.

The Demon Brother's nodded and they followed Naruto back to Wave Country.

About half an hour later, Team Seven and their new client walked down the very street that they had just talked on and continued on to Wave Country.

x-x

A day later

x-x

"Your ninja duo failed Zabuza." stated Gatou with little emotion as Plagueis lied to the man. Zabuza and his apprentice had been moved into a nearby tree house that had been constructed. Plagueis had done it mostly to try and keep Zabuza out of his affairs as the former member of the Seven Swordsman was getting too curious about what he was doing.

"It isn't a big deal. I'll just go myself and take care of it. Whoever it was who defeated the demon brothers won't last long against me." stated Zabuza from his seat across from the standing Gatou.

"Well, seeing as you're going to personally take care of it, I want you to capture the ninja that Tazuna hired to protect him." stated Gatou and Zabuza raised a nonexistent eyebrow. 'What would he want with captured ninja?' he thought but Gatou gave nothing away and his true plans or intentions were still not known to him.

"Fine, but it will cost extra." demanded Zabuza as he wanted to see how much the little man wanted whoever Tazuna had hired.

"Just make sure it gets done this time." stated Gatou and he left with his two samurai.

Zabuza and the masked Haku watched him leave and neither could figure out what the man's real intentions were. Despite working for the short billionaire for several months, they were no closer in determining what his real goals were. It wasn't really his business to spy on his client but he wanted to know, especially about the cloaked boy.

Haku had told him her observations on the weapon that the boy had made, which was a shuriken that he used right after creating it and to great effect. The two people spying on the boy also intrigued him and now Gatou wanted him to capture several ninja from Konoha.

No matter how much he thought about it, none of the plans really made sense. Was Gatou trying to take hostages for a ransom or to put forth demands or perhaps get some information? If so, he was glad to be leaving the short man's service as he didn't want to get involved with a hidden village or any hostage nonsense that Gatou may be planning. It shouldn't be that difficult to capture a team of Konoha ninja and then he would make sure to leave before anything else happened.

x-x

Naruto walked through the double doors and into his Master's study followed by the Demon Brothers. He stood in front of the desk and then knelt on one leg. "I have done as you have asked, Master."

The chair turned to reveal Gatou but the glasses were off, revealing his sulfuric yellow eyes and darkened skin around the eyes. Both brothers stared as they had never seen Gatou without his glasses and by what they could feel coming from the short man, it made sense why the boy would call him 'Master'. It wasn't power radiating from the business man but a dark presence that filled the room and sent chills up their spine.

"Good. We should head to the warehouse where the ceremony shall take place." stated Plagueis and he got up from the chair and walked towards his student. Naruto didn't move but wanted to ask the question that had been on his mind.

"Master, just what from the information in the texts do you intend to use on these two?"

Plagueis stopped walking and small smirk tugged on his lips, "I was thinking one of the more interesting rituals that I have yet to try and is rather fitting with the title they go by. It will take some preparation but I think that the results will be more than adequate." stated Plageuis.

'Does it matter that they do not possess the Force?' inquired Naruto through telepathy as it was something that had occurred to him as he traveled the distance from Konoha to Wave. Neither brother had any midi-chlorians, so he wondered if any process from the texts would work.

Plagueis responded, 'I'm not really that sure, but the creation of a Sith spawn does not necessarily require it as we will merely be altering their bodies with the dark-side of the Force. Its possible that their chakra could be used instead to provide the abilities granted by the ritual, but we shall see.'

Naruto nodded and stood while following his master to the doorway and out to the docks. He could feel the fear and uneasiness come from the Demon Brothers but he followed his Master's orders. If the process worked, then neither brother would be complaining about the outcome. Plagueis couldn't use any ninja abilities so they would have to take a boat to the isolated warehouse that had been constructed and was where Naruto had created his discblades.

x-x

Nothing out of the ordinary had happened since they left Konoha. Looking over to his students, Kakashi could actually see them getting more and more bored as time went on.

No bandits, no unnecessary stops, no delays, and not a single problem, yet he still felt that there was something amiss. His skills and instincts had been honed during the Third Ninja War and in ANBU after that and he could tell that the client was hiding something from them. What exactly that information was, he couldn't determine. He had thought about asking the man or perhaps hinting at something but they weren't supposed to interrogate the client and he thought by the way Tazuna was so nervous when they first started out, that something would have happened already.

This was their second day traveling and they were nearly at the shore. It would take at least a couple of hours to reach the coast of Fire Country and a little more time to cross the ocean to Wave. Tazuna said that he knew someone that could take them across the gap between the countries and that they wouldn't have to pay to get across.

The mission was turning out to be a very simple C-rank and while that wasn't a bad thing, he had hoped that it would give him a chance to test his genin. At least a few bandits crossing their paths or perhaps a surprise attack by bandits wouldn't be a bad thing and would give him a chance to gauge his students. Often genin would freeze during their first real conflict and it was best to get that over with under the best conditions possible.

At this rate though, he still wasn't sure if this mission would provide what he was looking for.

x-x

They hadn't taken a very fast boat so it took a little while to reach the warehouse on the farthest point of Wave Country. The brothers were very curious about what would happen but their desire for power and money outweighed any of their concerns. Traveling with Zabuza had not been very productive for them and this new opportunity was too good to pass up. If Zabuza didn't want to continue working for good pay under one of the richest men on the planet, then why should they continue working under him?

The boat pulled up the small dock next to the yacht that had been docked there for some time. All occupants of the boat got out and walked into the empty warehouse. The furnace had been sealed into a storage scroll and packed onto the boat so there were only a few leftover tables and empty crates in the warehouse. The brothers were getting a little worried as there wasn't anything there but Naruto stepped forward and started performing what his Master had telepathically commanded him to do.

Naruto started by unsealing all of the needed supplies from his scrolls. Plagueis walked over and opened the book to the correct page. Naruto glanced over and read the ancient Sith language to find out that his master planned to turn both brothers into Smoke demons.

Plagueis read through the text again and told the brothers to get comfortable as it would take a while to set up. He then ordered Naruto to create several shadow clones and had them start creating the Sith Runes on the concrete floor of the warehouse that would be required for the ritual. The clones channeled lightning chakra into kunai as it was the most efficient tool and chakra nature to work with and would carve the concrete the best.

The correct symbols were slowly carved out creating one large circle and three smaller ones. The real Naruto went to the text and began memorizing everything that needed to be said. One of the circles was for Naruto to stand in and the other two were for the Demon Brothers. Once the symbols were complete, everyone sat in the correct circles and the process was started.

The ritual began with Naruto chanting in the ancient Sith language for several minutes while the demon brothers waited. He then began channeling the Force into the runes around them. The etched runes which were originally the same color as the concrete, started to blacken and then glow red hot. Smoke started to emanate from the runes, with more coming from the ones around the Demon Brothers. The smoke began as gray and then changed to purple and slowly darkened. The purplish-black smoke began to gather into two small orbs, one over each of the brothers. Both looked up at the strange phenomenon and started to think they should get out of here.

They didn't know what was going to happen but this was not something that they expected. It seemed like Gatou and the boy were using some kind of kinjutsu on them. Despite wanting to get away from the smoldering symbols and the gathering smoke, both found themselves rooted to the spot.

Naruto continued to chant with his eyes closed as Plagueis watched the ritual from outside the circle of runes. A good amount of time passed as the ritual was slowly completed by his student. This was the first time in probably hundreds of years that the ritual was being used and he was immensely curious of the results. It was possible that the ritual would fail as he had no idea what effects would occur when the individuals it was used on didn't have the Force and had Chakra instead. It could completely fail, it could create something completely abnormal from the smoke demon it was supposed to create, or it could create something better.

He watched intently as his student completed the chanting and then unsealed his ninjato. Taking the weapon, Naruto touched the blade to his palm to draw out some blood for the ritual. 'That will bind them to him as his servants.' Plagueis thought and he knew that he would rather have the new Sith spawn as his own servants, rather than his students, but he only had a temporary body with none of his own blood and his spirit was not strong enough to complete the ritual.

Instead of the blood dripping to the ground from Naruto's palm, it did the reverse and dripped upward from the wound. The blood split up in the air and equal drops went into the two separate orbs of smoke. Once the blood touched the smoke, each orb rippled and and when the last of the blood that had floated to the orbs entered, both orbs burst apart, releasing the smoke within.

It looked as if the smoke would start spreading across the area like a smoke bomb, but it suddenly stopped expanding and all moved in one direction. The smoke plumes poured into the respective demon brother that it belonged to. It went in through their eyes, breathing mask, and ears while both brothers screamed in agony as their bodies were invaded by the dark purple smoke.

Naruto opened his eyes and watched the transformation occur before him. The exposed skin of the demon brothers, which wasn't very much to begin with, started to blacken followed by their clothes. The process was completed when both brothers were completely blackened and they both went silent. The color changed to the same dark purple as the smoke and both student and master watched with anticipation. After a brief period of time, the unmoving brother stirred and their eyes opened to reveal a glowing red instead of a sclera or iris.

Naruto readied himself just in case the process hadn't worked and he needed to kill them but they made no move. Instead, the dark purple color faded away to reveal the demon brothers how they were originally. Their eyes even went back to normal Thinking that he had messed something up, Naruto got up and went to the text. Both brothers came back from a daze moments later and looked around.

"How much longer is this going to take?" asked Gozu and his brother crossed his arms in boredom and annoyance. Naruto stopped looking through the text and turned to them, 'They can't remember anything of what just happened? They can also talk which is not something that the text said was possible with smoke demons. Did the process completely fail and nothing changed at all?' he speculated.

Plagueis walked over the Demon Brothers to better examine them and said, "The process is already over. What is the last thing you remember?"

Both brothers looked at each other surprised and turned back, "The seals were placed, we sat down and then you got back up again." stated Meizu and his brother nodded in agreement.

Naruto walked over to the two and wondered what was going on. If something had happened to them, then the results were not obvious and it appeared as though nothing had happened at all. Pulling out one of his kunai, Naruto tossed it to the closest brother which was Gozu and said, "Cut your hand with the kunai." Gozu stared at him but obeyed and palmed the kunai into his clawed hand and cut a small area on his other palm. Meizu, Naruto, and Plagueis all watched as the cut produced a small amount of dark purple smoke and no blood. The wound was sealed shut by the smoke a moment later with no evidence of a wound.

Everyone stared at the hand and Gozu said, "It didn't even hurt." and then he impaled his hand with the kunai. Holding up the impaled hand, he just stared at it, like everyone else did. It didn't hurt him at all, yet most of the kunai blade was sticking out the back of his hand. Removing the object, purple smoke again came out and the hole from the kunai was reformed by the smoke. The hole was sealed which left a dark purple area of skin for a brief moment before it turned back into the same skin tone as the rest of his hand.

Turning to his brother, Gozu threw kunai at Meizu. It struck Meizu in the shoulder and passed through the shoulder with ease to continue on until it imbedded itself into the wall of the warehouse. The wound on Meizu was reformed by the smoke that the edges of the wound turned into and in mere moments, his body had reformed into its original shape and showed no evidence of any damage.

"You had no idea that would work, did you?" questioned Meizu with rage and punched his brother in the face which sent Gozu flying farther than any of the others thought the punch would. Gozu hit the ground and skidded but got up right afterward. He rubbed his breathing mask that was smoking and reforming to its original shape, but seemed perfectly fine. "Your punch didn't even hurt." he stated with some surprise.

"It seems the process was definitely a success after all." stated Plagueis and everyone turned to him. "I have some business to attend to back at my mansion, so I'll be taking the boat." and then he looked to Naruto and said specifically to him, "Stay here and determine what the process has caused and the limits of the new abilities of the Smoke Demon Brothers. I need to know what they can or cannot do and after that there is something else that needs to be prepared. Come to see me about it after you're done." and with that Plagueis left the warehouse.

Naruto was left watching his Master leave while the demon brothers punched each other stupid and wondered what was so important that his master had to get back to before leaving for Snow Country.

x-x

The crossing to Wave Country had been very quite but it wasn't because there was nothing to talk about. The man steering the boat had told them to be quite, otherwise they would get caught and Kakashi was getting an idea about what the mission was really about.

'Tazuna must have hired us not to protect him from bandits but to get rid of bandits in Wave Country.' were Kakashi's thoughts on the new developments and it made sense to him. Tazuna was worried the whole way back to Wave and it must be that the bandits had either taken control of Wave or were terrorizing it and rather than pay to get rid of the bandits, Tazuna had payed for a cheaper protection mission until he got back home. It was likely that they would get attacked before they completed the mission and would be forced to protect Tazuna from whatever bandits the village was being troubled by.

It was an interesting plan to lower the payment of a mission by not giving out the actual details, forcing them to complete the normally higher paying mission in order to complete their assigned mission. Tazuna was likely leading them to or at least where they would be attacked or come across bandits. Perhaps he was even taking them directly to the bandit's camp. They would have to fight the bandits as part of the their mission to protect the client. The other possibility was that they were being lead into an ambush by Tazuna and he put his book away and payed full attention to his surroundings. He didn't like being lied to and would be having a long discussion with Tazuna after this was over.

x-x

Plagueis arrived back at his mansion sometime later. He was curious to see what new abilities the brothers possessed but he had other things to take care of as well. Zabuza was likely facing off against the Konoha ninja and then he would have to look through the copy-nin's mind to determined if his guess was correct.

Several years previously, he had gone through the minds of school teachers in order to get them to skip his student ahead a grade. While putting the mind control and suggestions in place, he had also taken a brief look through the knowledge of the chunin teachers he was temporarily subjugating. During one of those looks, he had stumbled across the information that Hatake Kakashi was the student of the Yondaime Hokage.

He had put the information away for future reference and now that information was useful to him. The problem with the Konoha jonin was that he believed that the man knew about the Yondaime being Naruto's father.

Years ago he had meditated on the prospect of what to do with the information concerning Naruto's parents and the answer he had come up with was that the knowledge was too damaging for Naruto and he could not gauge what the boy's response would be. His plans were in the fledgling stages at that time and it was better to keep the information to himself. If anything ever destroyed the trust between master and student or if Naruto decided at some point that he no longer wanted what Plagueis was offering, he had something left to get the boy back on his side and away from the village. That had never happened though. Naruto had never shown any intention of betraying him or not going along with training and numerous 'tests' that he had imposed. Therefore, the information was never useful to him. Now however, that information changed from being a precaution to a liability.

It was obvious that once Naruto got back, he would use Drain Knowledge on the captured Hatake. It was also obvious that his student might discover that information, if Kakashi even knew it. The part that wasn't obvious to him was that if that information was there, what would his student do when he learned it?

Guessing what Naruto would do next was never easy. The boy's mind seemed to work differently that his own mind. At the time when he originally discovered this information, he wasn't about to see his plans destroyed because of his new student plotting revenge. Now was no different and perhaps an even worse time to tell Naruto about his parents. The boy would react negatively to the news, that was a given.

The news could send Naruto over the edge and cause him to completely embrace the dark-side of the Force which was not something that his student had done yet. Naruto could use the dark-side of the Force to great effect but he had yet to take the 'plunge' completely over to the dark-side.

In that state, Naruto might attack anyone that he felt kept the information from him, including his own Master, especially if the boy discovered that he had known the truth for years. The furious Naruto may also access the Kyuubi's chakra and Plagueis was still unsure what effects or problems it could cause. It was a problem with no real solution that could destroy all that had been accomplished up until that point.

Naruto could always lash out at Konoha which would ruin their plans as the boy might be captured or even killed if he started attacking those that might know the secret and had kept it form him, like the Hokage. It was a difficult line to walk and he could tell that Naruto was already getting suspicious of his actions.

'However, there is nothing that can be done about that.' he thought and he knew that there was no good way to give Naruto the information that he was keeping from him. If there was, he would already have given it to Naruto as the boy had been nothing but loyal.

'As long as it doesn't ruin our plans for getting back to the galaxy, I could care less if he came back and bombarded the village from orbit.' he thought because as long as Naruto got all of the information that they wanted from the village, it served no more use to them.

Now came the waiting game and he wondered how Zabuza was fairing against the copy ninja.

x-x

Looking through the slightly refracted image of his team through the water, Kakashi watched horrified as all three of his genin, and the client, were hit with senbon from someone in the bushes. Of all of his failures, this was the worst and he was helpless to do anything as he watched the genin fall to the ground.

He had no idea that Tazuna was running from missing-nin, especially someone with a reputation and ranking like Zabuza. There was no way for him to know about the missing-nin but he blamed himself anyway. It was his fault for not questioning the client any further about his suspicions. He was running out of air, but he didn't notice. His mind was just concentrating on the thoughts of how he had let his team down.

The technique Zabuza was using ended but before Kakashi could do anything, he was knocked out with several senbon as well.

The Kiri swordsman created several water clones to carry the people that he had captured to the specified warehouse. He had no idea what Gatou wanted with them but it didn't really matter as that was what the client wanted and that was what he would do. The warehouse had apparently been prepared before hand with an area that had cages set up and Gatou had acquired chakra seals that Zabuza placed on the captives.

Walking out of the warehouse after depositing the captured individuals, he thought over the situation in his mind. Nothing about it really made sense and he couldn't figure out what Gatou wanted with captive Konoha ninja. In any case, he'd have Haku watch the warehouse and see what happened while he informed Gatou that he had successfully captured the group.

x-x

Walking as briskly as the short stubby legs would take him, Plagueis entered the warehouse with the captured ninja. He only had a short period in which to work until his student got back from working with the demon brothers.

Setting the small case he brought with him down on a nearby crate, he pulled out the medical supplies that he would need to get the sample from Kakashi's left eye. Pulling out the syringe, he removed the forehead protector and pulled open the eye lid. Using the small needle, he took enough of a tissue sample to recreate the eye later and he put the foreheard protector back the way he found it.

Storing the sample in the case he brought, Plagueis then went about the process of examining Kakashi's memories. He needed to find out what the man knew. It was possible that Kakashi knew nothing about Naruto being the Yondaime's son or that it was buried rather deeply and that if Naruto went through the man's memories for jutsu and techniques, he would never find it.

Unfortunately, he found exactly what he surmised would be there. Kakashi knew everything and the information was not buried very deeply so his student would likely find it if he used Drain Knowledge on the man. Plageuis took all of the other information that they would be interested in and left the caged area of the warehouse to think.

Of the four people in the cages, he only needed one to live in the worst case scenario and that was the boy from Root and who reported to Danzo. The rest weren't needed to fulfill that task. However, the fewer people that were killed, the less of an investigation there would be by other Konoha ninja to find out how the last Uchiha or one of the best jonin in the village were killed on a simple C-ranked mission.

The situation presented a difficult problem. If done the right way, however, he might be able to take care of another problem.

Since the two Root members were sent back to Konoha under his mind control. One team had been sent back to Wave on a fact finding mission to determine who lived in the mansion and owned the warehouse that Naruto had been in. Danzo knew about the meeting in the mansion, the warehouse, and the construction of something in the warehouse from earlier messages that they could not stop because they didn't know someone was following Naruto at that point in time. The second mission could not be stopped without raising further suspicion, so Danzo now knew that Naruto had talked with Gatou of Gatou Shipping and was doing something in one of the tycoon's warehouses. Beyond that, there was only what Danzo could piece together by himself with bits and pieces of the knowledge available or by guesswork.

Plagueis half-expected Danzo to send someone to question, interrogate or perhaps even kidnap him but that hadn't happened, which meant that Danzo must not have very much information or was a very cautious person. However, it was only a matter of time before Danzo got curious enough to get more information and so Plagueis had come up with an idea. In order to keep their plans in Konoha and to stop Danzo from getting more information, Gatou had to 'die'. He would very much have liked to take a new host but the current one was too important as he needed it for the negotiations in Snow Country.

With the death of Gatou being known to Konoha, especially Danzo, no further information could be determined about Naruto without going directly to the source. From what he knew of Danzo, the man wouldn't make such a bold move or make any such actions while the Sandaime was Hokage. This meant that Naruto would be free to continue with their plans in Konoha and would give them a chance to test a kinjutsu from the scroll of seals.

The only problem now was what he should do about Kakashi. Tazuna and the others were not a big deal as they could either be killed or just left alive and would not hinder his plans. Kakashi on the other hand could hinder his plans.

He could kill the man right at that very moment but then Naruto would become more suspicious of his actions. His original plans were to let the ninja go after getting the information so he could have a audience of witnesses from Konoha for his 'death', but would that still be the best decision to make?

Unfortunately he didn't have time to meditate so he had to choose from the options he could come up with on the spot. He quickly determined that killing Kakashi was out as the man would make for a better witness and the act would make his student more suspicious. The information in Kakashi's head could be blocked or at least a mental block could be placed in the man's mind to stop Naruto from going to deep and finding the truth. He could also transfer the knowledge that he had already taken from Kakashi, directly to his student, which was not always a good option to learn something because inputting knowledge directly into someone's head in that manner had the potential to cause brain damage and other problems.

Despite the risks, the second option seemed best as Naruto might discover the mental barrier that he placed and try to break it. The technique involved taking specific knowledge and implanting it into another person's mind. The knowledge could not be memories as they were far more difficult to implant or alter and usually resulted in destroying a persons mind. Using this method, he could send certain knowledge taken from Kakashi to his student and make sure that Kakashi and the rest of the individuals in the cell escaped for his other plans. The Force technique was difficult to perform and could only transfer direct knowledge of a subject, in this case jutsu from Kakashi, into Naruto's mind.

Coming to the decision, Gatou made sure that the jonin would be able to get himself free from captivity before leaving the warehouse and heading back to the mansion. It was important that Kakashi escape rather soon and before Naruto came back. This would set the stage for the next confrontation between Kakashi and Zabuza where he could betray his hired missing-nin and make sure to have a convincing death so he could escape to Snow Country without Danzo or anyone else knowing he was still alive.

From one of the windows on the warehouse, Haku watched as the client made sure that the ninja could escape and then left the warehouse. She had seen Gatou take the sample from the Konoha jonin's eye and also do something very strange to the man, which involved just placing his hand on the jonin's head. She needed to get back to report to Zabuza about the strange behavior and the sabotaging that Gatou did to ensure the Konoha ninja escaped.

x-x

Naruto returned to mansion along with the demons brothers but only he went to see Plagueis and report on his findings concerning the success of the ritual. He didn't need to knock as Plagueis gave him a mental 'enter' and he walked through the double doors of the study.

Plagueis looked up from his papers and told Naruto to sit down in one of the chairs in front of his desk. Sitting down, Naruto began his report, "Master, it seems the ritual was a success but with a few added side-effects and difference from what the results are supposed to be."

Plagueis responded with intrigue, "What sort of differences and side-effects?"

"It seems that they do not have to stay in smoke form like the text says. The color is also different from the standard red and is as we both saw, a dark purple smoke. They appear to have the ability to switch into a smoke form and change between looking normal and looking completely dark purple. The can change into a plume of smoke and move around a room, while also reforming at will.

They can still both use chakra just as well as they could before the ritual. It seems that the clothing that they wear and accessories are also made of smoke and they can add or remove items and those items will go with them. So they still have ninja tools in their pouches and when they form into smoke, the items somehow go with them without hindering their smoke abilities and when they become solid again, they can reach into their ninja pouches and remove the tools.

Likely they can get into anything that isn't airtight by turning into smoke and traveling into it. They can turn completely to a plume of smoke and travel around at similar speeds to what they normally could when not in smoke form. They are immune to physical attacks and most weapons but I did find limits to their abilities.

No regular weapon can harm them but one that is imbued with the Force can hurt them. Force abilities can also affect them but only to a degree. I used Force Grip on them but they turned into smoke and slipped through my grasp. I believe ninjutsu will also affect them to some degree but I really can't be sure without resorting to the chance of possibly hurting or killing them to find out. They do appear to be rather susceptible to water jutsu and were unable to form into smoke while inside of the hidden mist jutsu.

Beyond that, I wasn't able to test any farther. They still have the ability to speak which the text stated would be taken away from them. I also don't know whether they can consume the body of another person as it is written but I do know that they are under my control." stated Naruto as he concluded his report.

Plagueis took in everything that was said and was curious to test and see the abilities that Naruto described. There was one thing he did want to clarify, "How do you know that they are under your control?"

"I made them use their metal chain as a jump-rope. They just did it without complaining or questioning me. I watched them both jump that shuriken chain over and over for several minutes." replied Naruto and Plagueis could feel the amusement coming from the boy.

Moving on to other subjects, Plagueis put together his thoughts to inform his student about the Konoha ninja without raising too much suspicion. "Zabuza was able to successfully capture the Konoha ninja but I'm afraid they have likely already woken up and escaped, which was my plan from the beginning." stated Plagueis and added the last part when he felt Naruto was about to question why he would let them escape.

"What about the information I was supposed to get from Kakashi?" stated Naruto and Plagueis replied, "I was able to use Drain Knowledge on the man right after he was brought in by Zabuza. I can give you all of the information that I took from him. I thought perhaps you might take a while with the demon brothers and that I should insure that the information was acquired. As for your concerns over why I let him go, it involves my plans for leaving Wave Country." stated Plagueis and he put in a short pause before continuing, "Because of the meddling of Danzo, a connection between us has been discovered, not between you and me but between you and Gatou. I still need Gatou in order to further our plans in Snow Country but I also need to get rid of him, or at least make Danzo believe he is gone."

Naruto could guess where this was going and asked, "Is this why you had me memorize that kinjutsu in the scroll of seals?"

Plagueis merely nodded his affirmation and said, "I already have the person picked out but we need to control the situation. At some point I have to inform Zabuza that the Konoha ninja have escaped and that something will need to be done about them. I also don't know how well the kinjutsu will work. It hints at not keeping the disguise active after the technique has ended and the body dead so we need to be sure before planning to use it later on in the chunin exams."

x-x

Escaping from the warehouse wasn't very difficult. The guards put in charge of watching them were rather inept and he was able to get out of the bindings that held him to free his genin and the client. He was relieved to find that his genin were all alive and were just put into a false-death state. None of them were in any shape to fight but they had managed to get back to Tazuna's home, only to demand answers from the man about what was going on.

They found out about the problems in Wave caused by Gatou but Kakashi was still confused as to why they had been captured and not killed. Momochi Zabuza was not known for taking prisoners or leaving people alive at all. The best explanation that he could come up with was that Gatou didn't want to kill any Konoha ninja and possibly bring the rest of the village down on him but that didn't make much sense as it didn't explain what Gatou would have done with them. Why capture when it was easier and made more sense to just kill them?

Tazuna didn't have any answers for them on that subject and was just thankful to be alive. Kakashi informed him about how the mission would be increasing in rank and the fact that they should have just dropped the mission because they had been lied to and it was likely more than genin could handle. However, they had no place to go for the mean time. Being put into a death-like state with senbon took a few days to completely recover from.

Zabuza on the other hand was not injured or hindered in any way and could come after them again at any point in time. The question that none of them knew was when he would show up again.

x-x

Based on what Haku had told him and what Gatou himself had just come to tell him, Zabuza was thoroughly confused. Nothing about what was going on made any sense, no matter how he looked at it. Gatou was trying to take over the country, at least what was what he originally thought but now he was no longer sure. 'Why let the Konoha ninja go?' he thought and it really pissed him off.

Everything Gatou seemed to be doing was contrary to what he thought the man should be doing or what he thought the business man would do. There were so many secrets and different agenda's going on with the short man that it was difficult to tell what he was really up to. What did Gatou really want with Wave Country? What was the man planning with the Konoha ninja? He couldn't help but feel that he was a disposable pawn or was being used for something much bigger. Gatou had told him to be prepared to attack the Konoha ninja and the bridge builder again in a few days time and it made him wonder why they should wait.

He thought about just asking Gatou what was going on. Marching right into the man's study and demanding answers but he also disliked the thought. He had made a contract and until the man showed signs of actually breaking that contract or double-crossing him, he would not act and would wait to see what unfolded. He was getting payed quite a bit of money to just sit and wait around and he needed that money to complete his ambitions.

x-x

Two days later

x-x

Standing at the head of a small boat heading towards the unfinished bridge, Plagueis flexed his hand and marveled at how much control he had using the kinjutsu. Naruto had performed the jutsu on one of his samurai and supplied the chakra to hold the jutsu up to make things as convincing as possible. The samurai's body was being controlled by him from quite a distance and no one could tell that it wasn't really Gatou's body.

His death would need to convince the Konoha ninja and the people of Wave, but he knew that Zabuza was getting more and more suspicious of what he was up to. Zabuza wasn't stupid and it was possible that he would continue looking for answers even after 'Gatou' was dead by his own hands. This had already been taken care of and they would be able to convince even Zabuza that he was dead.

As they neared the bridge, he could see a dense fog covering a portion of the bridge near the uncompleted end. The boat pulled up alongside the end of the bridge and he could see the real Naruto sticking to the side of one of the pillars and waiting for him. Just in case things didn't go the way they had planned, his student was to finish the job and then return to Konoha to complete the rest of their plans.

Climbing up the ladder with the rest of the bandits that he hired, he got in position and had Naruto use the Force to disperse some of the fog and get the attention of his executioner.

x-x

The sound of a metal 'clang' filled the still mist once again as Zabuza and Kakashi fought a very sedate battle. In the beginning of the fight, Kakashi wasn't sure why they weren't fighting all out and he first thought it was to lure him into a false sense of security or to get him to let his guard down but none of those things happened as the battle progressed. He noted that it was as if Zabuza was not trying to wear himself out and fighting with no real intent to finish the battle, only to prolong it.

Did Zabuza know something he didn't? The more the fight progressed, the more he believed that something else was really going on. He had tried to get to his students that were fighting the masked hunter-nin but he wasn't able to get near the ice dome. What worried Kakashi was that the only time ninja would fight in this manner was likely when they were buying time for reinforcements to arrive but he knew that Zabuza could fight on his level, so why would the Kiri ninja even need reinforcements and where would he get them from? He was sure that the hunter-nin could likely hold off or perhaps even defeat his genin and even fight himself near equal footing.

Whatever Zabuza had been waiting for finally arrived when the mist started to be pushed back and revealed a large contingent of bandits with what Kakashi assumed was Gatou at the lead. The fighting stopped for a second as everyone on the bridge stared at the bandits and Gatou. Haku's ice mirrors melted and she took her place by Gatou's side.

Kakashi looked back between the new arrivals and Zabuza and could see the tension between the two, 'So these aren't reinforcements, Zabuza is being double-crossed by Gatou and he suspected it.' he thought and went to see about his genin while not letting his guard down.

"So you never intended to pay me." stated Zabuza as he hefted his zanbato and prepared to attack.

Gatou smiled and chuckled at the ninja in front of him. "I asked you to renew the contract, but you refused. Its better to kill you now then worry about you telling anyone about me. This all could have been avoided." and he paused before stating, "The person who brings me the demon's head will get payed double."

As both Zabuza and the bandits charged forward, Gatou walked in the opposite direction to the end of the bridge. The short man seemed confident of his victory, despite the screams coming from the group of bandits behind him.

Cutting his way through the bandits, Zabuza broke through the last of them and charged. Gatou looked back and his yellow eyes widened as he let out a cry for help and started running the last distance to the ladder and boat. As Zabuza closed, he readied his zanbato to take the businessman's head clean off.

Reaching the end of the dock, Plagueis turned around and felt the body freeze at the sight of the charging Zabauza. The man had a visible aura around him of some kind of blue demon and he tried to determined what kind of ability it was.

"No one double-crosses me and lives." stated Zabuza as his sword cleaved off the head of Gatou and the head went off the end of the bridge, followed shortly by the falling corpse.

x-x

Several miles away on a boat

x-x

Plagueis opened the eyes of the real Gatou and smirked slightly at the completion of his plan. It wasn't often that he got to act or play a role as part of being a Sith and he was an avid fan and supporter of the arts. The performance should have the desired effect and keep both himself and his student from being discovered.

Zabuza may have suspected that he was up to something but the former Kiri ninja didn't even know his plans to move to Snow Country or that he was still alive so whatever he suspected would die with the fake body of Gatou. Getting up from his seat in his cabin of the boat, he walked out of the room and to the front of the boat to look at the ocean. He never actually thought he would take such a craft across a large body of water. Going from one island of Wave to another was rather different than traveling across the open ocean. He had flown starships and other space craft across the known and even unknown galaxy but was never ferried across an ocean by such an archaic boat before. It didn't have a high tech generator or advanced propulsion system but a mere motor and propeller. It also didn't have any kind of technology for dampening the rocking motion of the waves or sensors of any kind and if a storm approached, they would have to ride it out.

While most people of the galaxy would have been completely put off by the boat and accommodations, he was not. He found the experience interesting and as much as a Sith Lord could, he was looking forward to the long journey across an ocean that would normally take mere minutes with the more advanced technology that used to be readily available to him.

Snow Country was many miles to the Northeast and there was much to do once they arrived. The demon brothers were with him and they would need to unseal all of the items in the scrolls on the ship. He would need to meet with Doto, the dictator of the country, and set up agreements and accommodations but he doubted that would be a problem. Although Gatou may be dead, most of the money the mogul had was transferred into other accounts that he still had access to and the one thing Snow Country needed was money and he could provide it. The only foreseeable problems were that Doto might try and double-cross him to take his money but he already had plans to put a stop to that.

The dictator of Snow Country thought he was a mere businessman with no chakra or abilities of any kind, but he was far more than that and now so were the demon brothers. The best thing to do once they got there was to put Dotou under his control.

x-x

Naruto examined the body that was once disguised as his master. The scroll stated that the technique would end after the person who the jutsu was performed on was killed but it didn't specifically state that the person would go back to their original form, which was that of one the samurai that was working for his master.

It was unfortunate that the ability of the technique was not lasting, meaning that the original body of the samurai was before him and not a copy of Gatou's. 'I suppose I'll have to work on my medical techniques to prepare for the chunin exams and what I have planned.' he thought and went about destroying the body.

By this point, his Master was likely several miles away on the ocean and he was stuck with the clean up duty until he left to get back to Konoha. He just had to turn in the mission report for the fake mission and no one would know that he had spent the entire time in Wave Country.

A part of him was thankful that his Master hadn't just made him kill everyone that was involved in the events of Wave Country. He had nothing against Zabuza or the hunter-nin and didn't want to kill them, though he did want to fight Zabuza again and perhaps the hunter-nin too.

He was still curious as to why his master had used drain knowledge on Kakashi instead of just knocking the jonin out and waiting for him to arrive. It didn't make much sense to him. He had still been given the information by his Master which was not a very pleasant experience. Having information forced into his head was far more painful than he would have thought. In the end he had gotten all of the techniques and jutsu that they had been after but he still wasn't sure why it had been necessary.

According to what Plagueis said, the technique of implanting knowledge into another being was rather dangerous. A person could forcibly give another person knowledge of a language or how to use a piece of technology but apparently not the memories that went along with it. He had just learned of the technique itself as this was the first time Plagueis had shown it to him.

He had questioned why Plagueis hadn't just used the same technique when he was learning Basic and learning how to read the language of the Sith species but his master told him that the technique wasn't to be used for teaching in that manor. It could be used for a transfer of knowledge one time and it was best to wait long periods of time before using it again because it was so unsafe. On some level he was thankful that his master had not used the technique to teach him about the galaxy as he didn't want to feel pain like that again but it still made him wonder why Plagueis had used it in the first place.

'Was he just showing me the technique or was there something else behind him using it on me?' and that was something that he had been asking himself. He trusted Plagueis and his master didn't always reveal everything to him or the reasons why he did things a certain way. It was likely that this was just another one of those times.

It was unfortunate that the technique couldn't safely be used on memories as it would have been useful to implant his memories of stealing village items into both Mizuki and Ao years earlier instead of just erasing their minds as it would have completely pinned the blame on both. Perhaps he could look into it for the future.

Regardless of his suspicions about what his Master might be up to, it seemed that it wouldn't be long before he was in Snow Country building the reactor and preparing the ship for takeoff. He idly wondered if Zabuza had found the gift that he left behind yet. 'It shouldn't be that hard to find, especially since I could feel his confusion and skepticism earlier.'

x-x

Moving through the trees, Zabuza and Haku made their way to the warehouse that was on the edge of Wave Country that Gatou had built. Zabuza was suspicious of everything that had happened a few hours before and he wanted to check on the ship that Haku told him about a few months ago.

They had agreed to stop fighting with the Konoha ninja because the client was dead and the contract was void so they had no reason to go after Tazuna or do anything else in Wave. Zabuza was surprised when Kakashi told him that they had until Team Seven returned to Konoha before someone would find out that he had been hiding in Wave Country.

He had gone over everything that had happened and things still weren't adding up. 'Gatou wasn't stupid and I don't think he would have actually thought he could face me with only a few bandits.' he thought but that also assumed that he was fighting against Kakashi as hard as he could which didn't happen. He had conserved as much chakra and stamina as possible during the battle to make sure that they weren't double-crossed, which he had started suspecting after Gatou helped the Konoha ninja to escape.

It made him wonder what Gatou was really after when he had taken a tissue sample of Kakashi's dojutsu. Why would a shipping mogul want to have samples of bloodlines? The thing he needed to check right now was to see if the boat was still docked at the pier by the secret warehouse. If the boat was gone then he wasn't sure what to believe anymore.

Running across the water to the last island in the chain, Haku lead him to the area where the warehouse and dock were. They came to a stop at the area only to find no warehouse and a dock with no ship. The area where the warehouse used to be was easy to find as it was now a large area of dried mud with two items sitting in the very middle. One was a large brief case and the other was a scroll sitting on top of it.

Stopping Haku from going any closer, Zabuza created a water clone to investigate the objects while both stood a good distance away. If someone did want them dead, then it could easily be a trap. Then again, he still didn't know what was really going on.

The clone opened up the case and showed the contents to both real ninja, it was filled with money, 'Likely the exact amount we were owed for our services.' thought Zabuza and he wasn't sure why he knew that but it just seemed to fit the strange situation they were in. The clone opened the scroll and also further examined the contents of the case to look for any traps or explosive notes but found none.

Walking over, the clone handed the letter to Zabuza. Beginning to read read the letter, his eyes widened as he recognized that it was to him and that the writing style as that of Gozu. 'What the hell?!' he thought and continued reading:

Zabuza,

By now you've found the money that our new client left for your services while in Wave Country. It should be the amount you agreed upon. We got a better offer from the cloaked brat and started working for him. To bad you didn't want to extend your contract, the perks are way better than the original deal with Gatou.

Gozu and Meizu

P.S.

We never really liked you

Zabuza stared at the letter and then gave it over to Haku who also read the letter and tilted her head slightly to the side as she looked at it. "What does this mean Zabuza-sama?" she asked as she tried to piece together all of the events that she had witnessed as Zabuza did the same.

They had found out information about Gatou before meeting him and the man turned out to be different from what they had heard. They first met him after the cloaked boy seemingly attacked him but that had been written off as a test. 'What if it wasn't a test?' thought Zabuza and wondered if the cloaked brat was behind everything that had happened in Wave Country. 'Could he have controlled Gatou the entire time we were here?' he thought and it made sense.

Gatou's strange behavior and everything else that had happened could all have been the result of the cloaked assassin that they knew little about. 'The brat obviously must have stolen everything that Gatou had and put it in the boat. He was controlling Gatou the entire time! Not only that, but he made sure to get the shorty killed to make sure that no one could find out about the theft.' It did make sense in way but it left one question and that was, 'Who was the cloaked brat?'

He didn't have an answer for that and didn't know the brats name or any identifying characteristics about him besides his height, a general description of clothing, and the sword. What was worse was that even if he knew it to be true, who else could he possibly convince that it was true. No one would believe a story like that. 'Some kid out of no where with unknown powers took control of one of the richest men in the world and bled him dry. Then he managed to get away with it.' he concluded and he and Haku were the only witnesses or people that actually knew what had happened. The Konoha ninja knew nothing of the brat.

It was rather scary that he could be used so easily by someone so young and it seemed the demon brothers were now with that same person. Frankly, he was glad to be rid of them and wondered how long they would last under their new employer or if the brat was even the real employer or just worked for someone else. The entire situation gave him a headache.

Looking to the briefcase of money he made a decision, "I don't know if we'll ever find out what really happened here and I don't really want to know. Let's just take the money and go." stated Zabuza and he grabbed the briefcase while Haku followed behind him as they headed for the main harbor in Wave to get on a ship.

x-x

Weeks later, Konoha

x-x

Kakashi just finished going over the mission report to the Sandaime. They stayed in Wave a few weeks longer until the bridge was completed and then they headed back to Konoha. Zabuza had disappeared after the fight and Kakashi didn't really care where the man was headed. The mission had been upgraded to an A-rank and Wave Country was able to pay them because of an anonymous donation of money to the village.

The Sandaime dismissed him and Kakashi left the office. Putting the file onto the stack on his desk, the Sandaime went about finishing up the rest of the work he had to do.

A little while later, the secretary came in and took the files away. She sorted them into the stack of files that were going to the archives to be stored among the other mission reports and other ninja files of the village as well as the ninja library.

x-x

Sweating profusely, Izumo and Kotetsu each carried a very heavy stack of files up the long staircase to the ninja archives and ninja library which were both together in the Hokage Mountain. It was a hot day and they actually wished they were still on gate duty instead. Being messenger boys for the Hokage was a common job for them.

They were let into archives and walked past Uzumaki Naruto who was sitting in at one of the many tables and copying information from a library scroll to one he had brought with him. Naruto glanced up briefly but gave no indication that he had really noticed them or cared. They proceeded through the library section and into one of the many filing rooms.

The stacks were set down and they went to work filing everything into where it was supposed to go.

x-x

A couple hours later, both chunins emerged from the filing room and walked past Naruto again to leave. They also walked past a cloaked ANBU that headed to same file room the two chunin had just left. Sifting through the filing cabinets, the ANBU found the correct file Danzo-sama wanted and copied its contents.

x-x

Root Headquarters

x-x

A file was placed in front of him by one of his Root ANBU and he peered through its contents with his right eye exposed to memorize everything. Technically he could have just gone to the archives himself and looked at the file there but he didn't want to be seen entering the archives or looking at the mission report. He had already received Shin's report on the mission and wanted to see the written mission report submitted by Kakashi, which would likely have more information that may not have been known to the young Root ninja.

The mission seemed normal enough and the only thing that stood out was the fact that Team Seven was not killed by Momochi Zabuza but rather captured. However, he considered that Gatou wasn't completely foolish and knew that if he had killed Konoha ninja, then the village would not sit by idly. It was one thing for ninja to be killed on duty by other ninja or accidents but having an entire genin team killed by a greedy businessman was not something that the village would stand for. When Kakashi and his team didn't return or send any message concerning the status of the mission, more ninja would be sent after them and that would bring far more attention to Wave Country than Gatou likely wanted.

His own unsanctioned missions to Wave Country revealed that the Kyuubi container had secretly traveled to Wave Country several times in a six month period and that the boy was visiting Gatou. It was unclear what the two talked about as the scroll Sai had sent him was gibberish except for a few names, which were the boy's genin teammates and also Orochimaru's. That one name in the conversation set off alarm bells for him and he tried to find some kind of connection between Orochimaru and Gatou or Orochimaru and Uzumaki Naruto.

The search had come up empty and his men could find nothing connecting those names together. He had also checked the genin mentioned and did find that they had failed the chunin exams an exorbitant amount of times and it made him suspicious about those two genin. He would have Shin look into it in the next chunin exams, which they would all likely be participating in.

Any information about what Uzumaki was doing with Gatou was now lost as the shipping tycoon had been killed by Momochi Zabuza. The mission file also mentioned a fake hunter-nin which was likely the person that Sai spotted following the Kyuubi container.

Nothing about the situation made much sense and the only people who could give him more information were unobtainable. He couldn't have the jinchuuriki interrogated or questioned and he wasn't foolish enough to send his ninja after Momochi Zabuza and a Hyouton user. If the former Kiri ninja could evade or kill hunter-nin for so long then his Root ANBU would likely not stand a chance against the silent killing skills of Zabuza.

He considered trying to have Fu search the jinchuuriki's mind but that could be very dangerous as it was not known if a person could mind-walk in the mind of a Jinchuuriki and he wasn't willing to risk losing Fu to find out. This left only one option, which was to continue surveillance on the Kyuubi container in hopes that something else would be discovered. Something would turn up eventually and he would find some answers about what the boy was doing in Wave Country and meeting with Gatou.

Please Review

Responses to reviews from newboy and redhand

**Reviewer:** newboy

As a continuation of my prevoious review, personally I hope that naruto can have his shadow clones use the force as they could obviously speed up his training in the force. It might be possible, for shadow clones while they are created by chakra, the bodies are real physical copies, so perhaps a portion of the midiclorians are copied as well, not enough to be useful in a fight perhaps, but useful enough for training purposes. That is my thought on the matter.

**Response:** I saw the error and I don't think I can give shadow clones force abilities. It would make Naruto way to powerful because he could create an army of force users and do something crazy since they could all combine their powers because they are essentially the same person. I was thinking that they couldn't use the Force because they are created entirely from chakra and even though it mimics the body perfectly, you can't really create midi-chlorians or chakra representations on midi-chlorians. I just don't see that working out.

**Reviewer**: newboy

One other question I have, but one that does not need to be answered right away is what plagueis intends to do when he finds out how naruto developed force powers. Will he complete the process by doing the same thing to others or by completing it in naruto? I only ask because I don't think plagueis would want to give another ninja force powers and train them. In his current position trying to look after another student to make sure he or she would not betray him would be impossible. He knows that naruto is loyal, he cannot be certain about another force user he might train, especially given the sith obsession with power.

**Response**: I don't think that the process can be completed with Naruto. I suppose its similar to how a person that is given a blood transfusion from a jedi, can't become force sensitive. Naruto's midi-chlorians are there to stay and the number can no longer be changed. I was thinking it would be a one time deal and so he will never be able to get more midi-chlorians. The midi-chlorians that he has are all from one person and they likely wouldn't want to mix with midi-chlorians from another person. Plagueis will find out how the process happened and it will likely be done with the ninja that will be traveling with him. I think Naruto might end up training the other Force-ninja because he has the ability to form force bonds with others and they will work with him. He hasn't shown the ability yet because he has never tried to really make friends. Its also likely that the people he takes with him will not be trained in the ways of the darkside like he was. I could see Naruto just giving them basic instruction in certain Force abilities that are used by both sides.

**Reviewer:** Redhand

Awesome story, a great blending of Naruto and SW. I must say, I'm very much looking forward to when Naruto makes it into the wider galaxy, and begins his mission against Sidious. I'd love to see Naruto infiltrate/interact with the Rebel Alliance to gain information on Sidious, perhaps even assume the guise of a rebel agent/spy for Mon Mothma or Leia, and/or work with Han & Luck on strike missions.

Then again, perhaps trying to infiltrate Imperial intelligence would be a good way of understanding Sidious' resources and goals. Maybe even cross paths with Mara Jade? Or just play everyone against each other as a triple agent.

But I guess all that depends on the era and how much time has passed since Plagueis died, lots of potential during Clone Wars era too.  
I'm really looking forward to more!

**Response: **I was thinking more along the lines of the clone wars era because I know more about and the things that happened during that time frame.


	12. Chapter 12

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

**x-x**

**36.6 BBY – Current Year (Naruto is twelve and one month has passed since the last chapter)**

Chapter XII: Chunin Exams

x-x

Stretching and pulling at the collar of his new pair of clothes, an annoyed Naruto thought, 'Why do these uniforms have to be so tight at the collar and so cumbersome. I don't even see why chunin examiners need to wear these things anyway.'

Standing in front of the mirror, Naruto looked over his new gray uniform that he had to purchase with his own money for use in the chunin exams. It was obvious that he would never wear it again and it seemed rather stupid to have a uniform that was only used for one purpose. Most the uniforms of this type were used by the intelligence and interrogations department of Konoha but the chunin helping with the exams were supposed to wear them because Morino Ibiki demanded it of them.

Frowning, Naruto walked away from the mirror as he couldn't stand to look at the dull uniform clothing anymore. He'd take his black cloak and something comfortable underneath it any day.

Staring at the clock, he resisted the urge to smash it as he still had over an hour before he needed to be at the academy to prepare for the exam. He would be working on the first part of the examine as a 'spotter' for cheating students and then he would work a shift on the second exam patrolling the fence to the Forest of Death.

Neither were duties that he wanted but he needed something during the second exam and the best way to get it was to be assigned to patrol the fence for contestants that tried to leave the designated area. He had specifically asked for that assignment as it was better than being on-call to be summoned by the opened scrolls when genin passed the second exam.

Laying on his bed, he waited for enough time to pass while he reviewed the plans he had created, and that his Master had revised, in his head. To get what he wanted during the second exam, it was best to be on patrol and then switch with one of his clones to enter the forest. After he had what he wanted, he needed to make the proper alterations. In a week, he had to take the special jonin exam which involved a series of tests to determine his proficiency. He had been sponsored for the test by the jonin sensei of his first squad.

He also needed to find out what exactly was going to be happening during the chunin exam as he had been unable to find anything else out from indirect means and needed a more direct approach to gather the information. Kabuto was the best target for this but Yoroi would likely be easier, however the mask wearing man might not have the detailed information that Kabuto did.

During the time between his final trip to Wave Country and the exam, he had worked on learning the jutsu that his Master had taken from Hatake Kakashi. It turned out that the copy ninja really knew almost a thousand jutsu and it would take quite a while to learn them all so Naruto had written them all down in a large scroll before he started forgetting any. Currently he was looking at a jutsu of the Yondaime Hokage which was called the rasengan. He currently didn't have the time to start the technique but should be able to get to it after the exams.

Staring up at the ceiling, he wondered what his Master was up to in Snow Country.

x-x

Looking over the device once again, Plagueis was no less intrigued then when he had first encountered it a few weeks ago. In fact the more he found out about it, the more interested he became in it and knew that his student would want several in order to figure out how they worked and probably make use of them.

He had been in a private meeting with Kazahana Doto, the leader of Snow Country, discussing further negotiations. The man was getting more greedy and wanted more money for his continued assistance but it didn't matter at the time and Plagueis agreed to everything that the man said. As Doto was distracted with extorting money from his business partner, he never noticed the dark purple smoke streams that slowly moved into the room through the air ducts. Two streams of smoke moved across the floor heading for Doto.

A string of smoke formed to connect the two smoke plumes and they began to solidify behind Doto. The string of smoke was thrown at the dictator and it solidified into the chain that connected the demon brothers gauntlets. Doto was distracted enough, and the attack was quiet enough, that the man didn't notice anything until the chain was already solidified and wrapped around his body.

Plagueis had believed that he had the advantage but then Doto smiled and with something other than strength, broke the chain imprisoning him. The broken chain turned back to smoke and Doto attacked Plagueis. Sith Lord reacted by using Force push. With his diminished state, the attack wasn't enough to knock Doto back but did nearly topple the man over.

Before Doto could do anything else, demon brothers got over their surprise and grabbed Doto while holding him down for their master. Plagueis cautiously approached the subdued man and used the Force to determine what was going on. From what he could tell, the normal chakra field emanating from the man was being modified and even amplified to form almost a personal shield around him. He hadn't noticed if before because he wasn't looking for anything out of the ordinary and the device seemed to be very passive until it was used.

Touching his hand to Doto's head, Plagueis drained the man's knowledge and put the man's mind under his control. Once he had everything that he needed, the demon brothers knocked the man out and went about removing the dark blue armor that was under the man's loose clothing.

Plagueis examined the device and went over what information he had extracted from Doto's head. It was a very advanced piece of technology that was called chakra armor. Doto didn't have a very good grasp of how it worked or what went into making it, only that it cost a great deal of money and was apparently going to help the leader of Snow Country take over the world. At least that was what the dictator envisioned for the device if it wasn't so costly to make or he had the money to make it feasible.

Doto's armor was supposedly a prototype and more advanced than the other chakra armor devices he had given to his subordinates.

Since then, Plagueis had been using his mind control on Doto and also went to the actual scientists behind the devices creation. An entire research and development lab existed in Doto's huge mansion. There, many different scientists not only created and developed the chakra armor but all of the other higher level technology that Snow Country had. While many of the other projects that the scientists were working on were not that impressive technology wise, the chakra armor was a technological marvel.

From what Plagueis knew, the majority of the known galaxy had completely stopped using personal shielding devices. Trying to find one was extremely difficult and they drained a power source extremely fast. There were also other factors such as radiation that was produced from them. However, thousands of years earlier, personal shielding was much more common. From what he had read in stolen military records, it appeared that the technology had stagnated during the time of peace and had been lost entirely. The device was therefore very unique, even though it relied on chakra and not another power source.

Plagueis had yet to inform his student about it as he knew that once he did, Naruto would likely have arrived in the country a day later to get his hands on such a device. They still had plans that needed to be taken care of in Konoha and he couldn't distract his student with something so tempting as the chakra armor. Danzo was likely still trying to figure out what was going on with the village jinchuuriki and it wouldn't be wise for Naruto to leave the village for an extended period of time again, especially during the busy time around the chunin exams.

Once their plans were completed, and his student had arrived in Snow Country without complication, then he would inform the boy of the device.

After taking control of the country, Plagueis had begun working on mass production of the sealant needed for the ships hull. It would need quite a bit of the substance and the sealant itself required multiple chemical processes and the creation of a small chemical factory. He projected that it would take a few months to complete that task.

Production of fuel for the fusion reaction would take more time. Considering that it didn't take more than week to get from the known galaxy to their current position in the unknown galaxy, the amount of fuel required was small but they needed isotopes of Hydrogen in order to create the reaction that would fuel the ship. Based upon his own knowledge and how easy it was to control all of the scientists that Doto had, Plagueis believed that it would only take half a year for everything to be completed.

Naruto's shadow clones would come in very handy and once the boy arrived in the country, the new reactor could be created. Gatou's money, as well as Doto's technology and workforce, had greatly accelerated his initial estimates on how long it would take to leave the planet. Without any complication, he foresaw that they would be leaving the planet and heading back to the known galaxy before his student turned thirteen.

x-x

When the smoke cleared, Naruto stood along with twelve other chunin and Morino Ibiki in the testing room for the first stage of the chunin exam. Looking over the faces of the participants, he noted that he been with most of the Konoha ninja at one point or another during his years at the academy. He spotted Kabuto and Yoroi, as well as someone he didn't expect to see as their teammate, which was the pale skinned boy that was spying on him in Wave Country. He believed his name to be Sai.

Naruto watched the boy talk with another ninja on one of the rookie teams and they seemed to know each other. 'Danzo suspects my former teammates of something?' he guessed as the possible reasoning behind the boy being in the exams. He did know that on one of the messages Danzo received were the names of his former teammates along with Orochimaru, so it was possible that the boy was sent to spy on them. He hadn't gotten any message about it from either mind controlled Root ANBU which likely meant that whatever the boy was doing, didn't involve him and only his former teammates.

Ibiki made a speech that Naruto didn't listen to and then the genin were given random numbers and split up around the classroom. As the students were finding their seats, Naruto moved to the seat he would be occupying for the exam, which was along the window. The room had two columns of desks with numerous rows and a walkway in-between. He had a view of a good portion of the room but for the exam he was only concerned with two rows of desks that were along the window side of the room. He would determine if or how the genin in those rows were cheating and deduct points from them based on how many times they were caught by him.

The test started while he was thinking and he was instantly aware of a few genin that were contemplating cheating. With the test atmosphere, the instructions, the stress, and the questions of the test, he could get a much better read on those near him because their minds were so preoccupied with other things. From his own experience in the exams, it would take a few minutes for the majority of them to figure out the real purpose of the test and then most would make their move.

The only problem with the system was that he could only dock two points when he caught certain people cheating and that was all the points that he could dock. A few competitors only used one method of cheating and although they were rather obvious with it, he couldn't take off more points if they used that method to cheat for the entire exams. He already noted that two Hyuuga had started using their byakugan to cheat. They would likely use it for the entire exam and though it was blatantly obvious they were using it, if he was the chunin observing them, he could only deduct two points for the cheating.

His attention moved back to his own rows and he frowned at the bun haired girls sitting in them. It was the same girl that had repeatedly tried to get information on his sword and had broken into his apartment. Since that time, no other attempts had been made on his apartment and he believed this was due to him always carrying the sword on his person from that point on.

He noted that she had managed to place a complicated mirror system in a depression on the ceiling and, using wires, she was moving the mirrors to get the answers from the reflections of other peoples papers. He deducted two points but he couldn't deduct anymore unless she did something else. Focusing on the other people in his designated area, he started taking off points for the other cheaters.

As time passed during the exam, he managed to kick out quite a few people from his rows. The two rows originally held eighteen people and he had managed to take that down to seven. The remaining genin were safe from his influence though and he really couldn't take anymore points from them. He had already taken an extra two points from the bun haired girl for helping out her teammate but that was the extent of what he could do.

Looking to the kunoichi in question, he noticed that she was looking at him. Glancing in the direction she indicated, he saw that her mirrors were angled so that he could see something that was being reflected off of the back of her paper.

It read, "Can I see your sword after the exam?" and Naruto frowned at the sender that was looking at him expectantly. Explicitly shaking his head no, the girl looked sad and wrote something else, "Please?"

Twitching slightly, Naruto's eyes narrowed and he again shook his head.

x-x

Looking over the test takers, Ibiki's eyes darted to specific people in the exam and he observed them cheating. It wasn't until his eyes came upon a bun haired girl that he stopped. Focusing on the scene, he watched as one of the participants engaged in a hidden conversation with one of his chunin. He noted that the two rows that the chunin was monitoring were mostly empty and more genin had been eliminated in those rows that any other set in the room.

Deciding that his chunin wasn't slacking off, he allowed the conversation to continue. He never had a participant try and seduce an examiner before. It was something that he would have to look into in the future and perhaps plan for. Most of the chunin in the room were much older than most of the present genin, though a few genin were even older than his chunin. It wasn't often that the chunin proctoring knew the genin taking the exam.

He had genin try to bribe examiners but none ever succeeded. This was a new tactic as genin kunoichi were never given seduction missions. Looking between the two, he assumed that the girl was asking for answers or perhaps to have her deductions removed. He couldn't actually see the mirror reflection that was being used but those were the obvious conclusions from the situation.

x-x

Naruto once again shook his head and continued to try not to attack the girl for wanting to see his sword. He really couldn't do anything about it. Points could not be deducted because she wasn't cheating, merely trying to coerce him into letting her see his sword. His hand almost instinctively went up to the blade that was attached to his back but he remembered that it was just the fake. Looking to his arm that was mostly covered by his gray sleeve, he could see that the blade was still in the storage seal.

He raised his head to look back at the kunoichi and saw that she had written another message, "Just for five minutes." He rolled his eyes at the message as he knew that if he even let her near his sword, which he wouldn't, she would run away with it.

Trying to calm down, he took several deep breaths. Just the thought of knowing that someone was planning to steal his sword made him rather angry and he hadn't noticed how much until the lights above him started flickering. Getting his emotions under control, he once again shook his head and this time tried to ignore the girl in favor of focusing on the remaining few people in his area.

Frustrated at her lack of success and the fact that the indirect target of her obsession was ignoring her, Tenten decided to try a different approach. Searching through her ninja pouch, she retrieved one of the mirrors she had brought with her and tried to get the right angle to catch the sun. The test was during the afternoon and the sun was not yet setting but low enough on the horizon that its rays came in through the window.

Getting the correct angle, she reflected the sun back at the boys face while holding the mirror at the level of her seat.

Squinting because of the bright light that was blinding him, Naruto's attention was again taken back to the girl. 'I should have done something about her a while ago.' he thought and frowned at the girl that was trying to blind him with the glare off her mirror.

She was rewarded with success a moment later when a shuriken smashed the mirror and embedded into the bench she was sitting on. She now had the angered chunin's attention again and wrote another note on the back of her paper.

While people had heard the smashing mirror, most had no idea where it came from and disregarded it in favor of the test a moment later. He had manipulated the shuriken to fly below the height of the desks so that no one would see it and had it curve at the last moment to smash the mirror. Wishing that he had the authority to fail the genin, he glared at the girl who was writing something on her paper again.

She finished a moment later and angled the mirrors for him to read, "I'll give you something in return." and when he looked to the girl she seductively winked.

Trying to fight the blush creeping up on his face, he failed, 'Damn it!' he cursed inside his head and the window behind him cracked under his unknowing use of the Force to vent his anger and embarrassment at the situation. The worst part was that he was in the uniform and didn't have his hood or any mask, so the blush on his cheeks was there for everyone to see.

The cracking of the window glass also brought some attention to himself from those sitting near him, both chunin and genin. 'This just keeps getting worse.' he thought and the lights starting flickering again. Hearing some chuckling, he looked to the chunin sitting next to him and realized that the man could likely read the mirror and had seen it.

Naruto glared at the man. A moment later, two of the legs of the chair the man was sitting in broke and the surprised chunin yelled while crashing to the floor.

Looking back to the girl, he glared at her for making fun of him.

Tenten looked back at her paper and decided perhaps that it wasn't a good idea to antagonize the boy anymore. She didn't know how the window or chair broke but the killing intent coming off the boy as well as the flickering of the lights made her rethink her strategy.

It was at that point that Ibiki spoke up. Forty-five minutes had elapsed and it was time for the final question.

x-x

The exam had finished and the next examiner had come to take the genin. Naruto was quick to leave and take up his duties patrolling the area surrounding the Forest of Death. He had used his spare time during the first exam to figure out the best candidates that he was looking for. He required someone that was nearly his height and weight and there were only a few to choose from that fit the criteria.

He removed the Konoha ninja from his selection process as most didn't fit his criteria or were the heir's of a clan and a disappearance would not go unnoticed or without an investigation. There were several others to choose from and he found three that fit what he was looking for. He just needed to find them during the exam and wait. The forest might end up killing them anyway but he needed a specific death. The use of his weapons were out and it would be best to have it be as natural as possible for his purposes.

While the genin were getting scrolls for the exams, he proceeded to switch himself with a shadow clone and entered the examination area. He knew that he had to stay completely hidden from view and used an earth jutsu to sink into the ground. From what intelligence that he had, a Hyuuga could not look through the ground or other objects unless they were specifically focusing on them. It seemed few Hyuuga ever looked beneath them as he had tried it out several times on the Hyuuga boy that had followed him on several occasions. He had once even moved himself directly beneath the Hyuuga while the byakugan was active and the boy never saw him.

Considering that there were two Hyuuga in the exam, it would be best if he didn't get noticed while moving through the forest and completing his goals. At least one of them had his chakra memorized so if he was seen by Hyuuga Neji, he would be recognized.

He had kept his clothing the same and wasn't using his cloak as if he was spotted it was best to be in his uniform so he at least had a weak excuse. He could tell people that part of a genin team asked for his help to find their missing teammate in the forest, which was a viable reason that a patrolling chunin could enter the exam area.

Naruto's head emerged from behind the fence and he looked at the genin that had just finished getting their scrolls. He would follow one of his targets at a time and see if he could create a situation, or the situation would create itself, to get the resulting death that he wanted.

x-x

Several hours later

x-x

Following the first genin led to nothing of interest as the genin's team were easily defeated and killed by some kind of leaches that fell from the trees. Wounds such as that were not what he was looking for, so he went about finding the second target.

Moving through the ground and sensing with his life-signs ability, he slowly searched through the forest. The method he was using was annoying but it ensured that he wouldn't be caught doing anything he wasn't supposed to be doing. Sensing movement, he stopped and focused on listening and feeling through the ground.

He could feel a genin moving through the area above him. From what he could tell, the genin was on the same team as his second target. The genin was all alone and he could feel the fear, anxiety, and stress coming from him. Along with those feelings came the realization that his teammates were likely dead. The boy moved on in search of a way out of the terrible forest and Naruto proceeded in the direction that they boy came from.

Mentally sending a message to his patrolling shadow clone, the clone moved to where the genin would likely exit the forest. Moving out of the ground, Naruto sped through the trees in search of the other genin on the team. It was much faster above ground and he now had an excuse to be in the forest.

x-x

Holding the earth scroll and running for her life, the redhead looked back once more at the gigantic bear that was chasing her. It was catching up to her and the thoughts of her approaching death filled her mind. She was likely going to die here and be eaten by the bear.

One of her teammates was likely already dead and she was separated from the other one. Ever since their sensei had sponsored them for the chunin exams, she knew it was a bad idea. Her skills were not that of a chunin and neither were her teammates but one other genin team from the Hidden Grass village were going and they were supposed to meet up with them to ensure finalists in the exam.

They couldn't find them and now she was going to die. She had already tried screaming for help but the area they were in was huge and no one had heard her or they just didn't want to get involved with the giant bear chasing her.

Jumping over large roots, her foot slipped on moss. She fell to the forest floor and her glasses came off during the impact. Cursing, she frantically searched for them as the sounds of the bear grew closer. Without her glasses all she could see was a blurry world with little detail. Her hands passed over the sparse grass and leaves for the glasses that she desperately needed.

It was too late though, as the bear was just behind her and had caught up. Trying to get up, she stumbled and fell back to the ground. In a panic, she tried to put as much distance between herself and the bear and crawled as far as she could until she ran into a hard surface. Turning around she saw the blurry brown of a tree trunk and looked back to the lumbering shape of what she knew was the bear.

She couldn't move and her voice left her as the growling bear came closer. The heavy breathing and growl of the creature was all she could hear. Tears filled her eyes and she wished she was somewhere else, anywhere else. Her fear was overriding all of her other senses, including her chakra sensor ability which would have been telling her that someone was headed her way.

x-x

Naruto moved in search of the genin he was after. If the boy was dead and the manner of death was acceptable for his needs, then his search would be over and he could work on completing the secondary objectives. He really didn't want to have to kill a genin that he had never met before in order to complete the plans that he and his Master had come up with. However, he would kill one of them if it came to it.

Pushing his sensor range as far as he could, he detected a very large animal and a single person. Moving towards that direction, he landed on a branch and inspected the scene.

'One large bear and one kunoichi. Not the person I was after.' he concluded. A moment later he was assaulted by the feelings of the girl he was looking at. The mission was supposed to come first but he could feel everything that the girl was feeling and he couldn't leave her to die. Gathering and compacting kinetic energy into his hand, he jumped down to the forest floor below. He had a new Force technique that he had been waiting to try out and this was the perfect time.

x-x

Most people think that a person's life flashes before their eyes in the moments before death, but all that flashed through Karin's eyes was the blurry image of a huge bear as it's mouth lunged to eat her.

She was moments from death when a gray figure entered her distorted vision. The bear slowed and her attention moved to the gray object. It took but a moment to figure out that it was a person and she could feel the chakra emanating from them. 'Someone's helping me.' she thought. She watched and felt as the person used something against the bear.

x-x

Landing on the ground, Naruto looked at the bear with a smirk as it noticed him. 'Kinetite.' he thought and moved his arm back then pushed forward with all his strength. He even added some wind chakra to help propel the condensed ball of kinetic energy at the target. The ball struck the shoulder and neck of the bear and sent the animal sideways while lifting it off of its front paws. The bear thudded to the ground and remained breathing but unmoving.

Naruto inspected the animal for a minute and wondered what would have happened if he had used the technique at its most powerful. He only used it at around half of its potential power to see what kind of damage it could do. He had a feeling that if he used it at full strength then the bear's neck and shoulder would have been pulverized.

The technique itself was still something he was working on as he didn't have a place to properly use it and test its limits. He already had a few modifications that he wanted to make to it and could see altering it into a new technique as well. The wind chakra was just to speed up its delivery. Normally the ball was just thrown and with initial testing, he knew that most ninja could dodge the slow speed of the throw. Therefore he had worked on trying to push the ball with his strength and wind chakra to propel it forward faster than throwing it could accomplish.

'The results are quite good. This might become one of my new favorites.' he thought and smiled a rather sinister smile. Turning around he looked at the girl behind him, she was looking in his direction but with her eyes closed.

x-x

After the bear was knocked out, Karin finally found and put on her glasses to look upon her savior. The boy had walked over to look at the bear and she frowned. It wasn't that she wasn't happy about being saved but something was wrong. She had been focusing on her sensor ability when the boy attacked the bear and everything seemed off. Whatever technique he used wasn't chakra, it was something else. She didn't actually see the technique as she had only just found her glasses but it was very strange to her.

The boy himself was strange as well. In addition to his incredibly large chakra reserves, he had something else that seemed to be flowing into him and out of him. What exactly it was, she had no idea, but when he had formed the attack, some of the other stuff entering his body was used to help form it. She stared at the boy to see if she could figure anything else out but she couldn't find anything. Closing her eyes, she focused on sensing as best as she could. In addition to the boys chakra, he also had something else flowing into and out of his body. It was not something she had ever felt before and it felt slightly dark.

Focusing more on the boy, she felt his emotions and could tell that he was hiding or suppressing all of his emotions while only showing indifference or coldness as well as some hatred. Opening her eyes, she noted that the boy was staring at her curiously and she could feel something happening. She looked into his cold blue eyes and not thinking before she spoke, she blurted out the question she had been holding in, "What kind of technique was that? You didn't even use chakra, you used something else."

x-x

Naruto stared at the girl with as impassive a face as he could, but on the inside he was rather shocked at what she had said. His mind went through many possibilities, however he searched his feeling and found the explanation he was after, 'She can feel me using the Force.' he thought amazed but he wasn't sure what to do about it. Should he kill her and not let her tell anyone else? Should he destroy her memory?

Those options were not something he really wanted to do. From what he could tell, the girl was a chakra sensor but he needed to find out more.

"What exactly did you feel?" he questioned seriously and he could feel the girl getting more afraid.

'Shit, why did I say anything?' Karin thought as her eyes glanced around for a way out of the situation. She could feel the surprise and the anger in the person standing before her. She didn't actually know what it was that she had felt but the moment she said something, she was positive that it was something she shouldn't know about and it was possible that he was going to kill her.

As if reading her mind, the boy stated, "The more you tell me about what you felt, the more likely you are of getting out of this situation unharmed."

Karin was frozen on the spot and knew that he was telling the truth and that what she did next could decide whether she lived or died. The statement was not a lie so she confessed everything, "When you attacked I could feel you gathering something inside your body and moving it to your hand but it wasn't chakra. You didn't use chakra but something very different. Even now I can feel it moving through you but I don't know what it is or where it comes from."

The explanation she gave was an odd one and it made Naruto stop and think. On the one hand, the girl seemed to be able to feel the Force, yet she didn't confess to feeling it all around her and apparently only when it moved through his body. While the Force had moved into his hand through his body, it had also moved from the surrounding area. The girl seemed to only be able to feel the Force that was moving through his body. 'Without any midi-chlorians, she shouldn't be able to feel the Force and yet she can, but only in my body and not in the surroundings. Is it possible that the Force that enters my body somehow changes or causes her to be able to feel it?' he wondered and the question was difficult to answer.

To his knowledge, no one had been able to feel him using the Force. Even the accomplished chakra sensor working for Danzo was only able to sense that something was different about him. The Yamanaka couldn't tell what it was though. However, the girl in front of him was very different. She appeared to have a unique sensing ability. That alone made her valuable as he himself had no ability to sense chakra and limited ability to suppress it. It was possible that her chakra sensing range was larger than his life-sense range. Furthermore, chakra sensors usually had good chakra control and didn't develop a sensing ability until an older age.

'To complete the plan to get me out of this village, I could use someone with good chakra control and she could learn to use medical ninjutsu much better than I could likely use it. If her chakra sensing ability turns out to have a larger range than my ability, then she would also be useful. Master Plagueis might also be interested in her ability to sense the Force moving through me.' he concluded and made a decision.

"You'll be coming with me." he said and waited a brief moment before continuing, "We need to find your other teammate and complete another task before leaving the training ground. As long as you don't say anything or speak to anyone about anything that has happened, besides me stopping the bear from getting you, nothing will happen to you." stated Naruto in a serious voice and Karin could only nod. She could tell that he hadn't lied to her and with the other dangers in the forest, it was best to stick with him. Survival was her priority right now and she went with the mysterious Konoha ninja that had saved her.

x-x

Traveling through the forest on the path that the bear took was rather easy. It left prints, scratches, and broken branches in its wake that made it simple for anyone to follow. From what Karin told him, her teammate was injured when they were first attacked by the bear. She had only a basic idea of where the body might be but she was positive that he was dead as his chakra had faded until she couldn't feel it anymore.

Eventually they came upon the spot and Karin held back while Naruto inspected the corpse. Looking over the body, he deduced from Amachi's knowledge and Karin's details what must have happened.

'The bear swung and hit him, sending him into the tree. He hit at least one branch on the way down before landing awkwardly on the ground. The body has multiple broken bones, fractured skull, and other related injuries from the hit and the fall. No signs of damage from the claws. I can definitely use this.' he thought and pulled out a scroll to seal the body into.

That was the best that he could hope for. Ideally he wanted a body that had been hit by a jutsu or killed by ninja tools but one that suffered a fall from a great height was usable. He just needed to preserve the body until he could work on it later.

Once the body was sealed, they continued on as there was still one thing left to do. The next target he had to go after before heading to the tower was either Kabuto or Yoroi. He needed information about the attack on the village and one of those two would likely have what he wanted. He knew from past experiences that both liked to split up while moving in the forest of death and with a new teammate, it was more likely that he would find Kabuto alone than Yoroi alone.

x-x

Karin followed the boy through the trees and it seemed that the forest wasn't nearly as scary or dangerous as it had been with her team. She was on the lookout for chakra signatures as they determined that her ability had a longer range than the ability that Naruto had. She still wasn't sure what ability in sensing the boy possessed or what other abilities he was granted by his secondary energy, but she wasn't going to ask.

Upon further examination with her sensing ability, she also felt a very malicious chakra inside of him but it was dormant and contained in some way. It scared her but there was nothing she could do at the moment. She was positive that she wouldn't survive on her own and wasn't sure where in the Forest of Death they were.

She was brought out of her thoughts by a commotion up ahead. Stopping on the branch she was on. Naruto looked at her and she explained, "There is a battle up ahead."

Naruto looked at her for a second and then looked ahead of them. She knew that he likely couldn't feel it and looked back at her for more details. "One of them is very powerful while the other is not. Neither feels like a genin." she elaborated for him.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto sighed as neither ninja was likely to be the two he was after. While Kabuto did have more chakra than a genin, who would the glasses wearing ninja be fighting that had that much chakra? He wasn't sure but decided to check it out anyway.

x-x

Stabbing the kunai through her hand and into the hand of her former sensei, Anko forced the fingers of his other hand into a specific seal and prepared to use the kinjutsu that would end both of their lives. Stopping when she heard his voice come from behind her, she turned to see her unharmed sensei and looked back to see the one she had pinned to the trunk of the tree turn to mud.

Frustrated, she pulled the kunai from her hand and threw it at the man that had ruined her life and abandoned her.

Chuckling, Orochmaru caught the kunai between his two fingers and let it dropped to the branch below where it stuck into the wood with a dull thunk. Moving forward he proceeded to put his hands into a seal and made his former apprentice double over in pain.

He started talking about how he had marked the Uchiha and then stopped when he felt something.

x-x

Naruto looked at the scene that was playing out not to far away from where he and Karin were crouched in the foliage of the tree. It seemed Orochimaru was in the exam, or at least doing something in the Forest of Death. His master had given him explicit instructions not to try and fight the snake sennin and he was holding to those orders, though he did want to go and fight.

He had only just gotten there and heard the tail end of the sennin admitting to have attacked someone but he didn't catch the name of the person. The talking stopped a moment later and it wasn't until the man turned to where they were sitting and chuckled that he knew he had been spotted. 'He must be able to sense my chakra.' thought Naruto and he cursed at the fact that his high reserves had once again made him easy to detect.

"Kukukuku...it seems we have a visitor." stated Orochimaru while looking in his direction and Naruto frowned as the man had only used 'visitor' and not visitors which meant that he either didn't consider Karin a threat, or the girl was able to completely hide her chakra signature. Believing it was the later, Naruto left the area he was hiding in. He didn't need to tell Karin to stay where she was as the girl was scared beyond measure at seeing the examiner so easily defeated. She may not know who the person was but she must have felt from his tainted chakra that he was not someone to mess with.

Naruto appeared in a burst of speed on a branch of a tree that was not very far away. He stared at Orochimaru and the man was not intimidated or the least bit threatened by his presence. It made him want to disobey his master's orders but he stayed put.

"As I was just about to say, before we were interrupted, you are not stop the exams prematurely. Three from my village are also taking the exams, and I'm going to enjoy watching. If you try to end that enjoyment, the leaf village will be finished.." he concluded and started melding into the tree.

It was difficult to stand and be ignored by someone but he didn't attack, even when given the opportunity while the man was melding into the tree. He had caught several stray thoughts during the short conversation and from the image of the musical note, he knew that the ones Orochimaru was talking about were the sound ninja. 'They might have the knowledge that I seek as well.' and he filed the information away for later. If by some chance he couldn't find Kabuto or Yoroi, he would go after the sound ninja.

Disappointed at his Master's orders, he jumped to the branch and helped Mitarashi Anko stand.

"What the hell are you doing here? I ordered everyone to stay put and only the ANBU should have followed me. Do you want to get yourself killed?" demanded Anko and Naruto merely replied, "A genin came to edge of the forest and gave up. One of his teammates was possibly dead, the other lost, and he was carrying their scroll. I went in search of the lost genin as there is no way they can finish the exam on their own if their teammate had already forfeited by exiting the exam area."

Anko gave him a serious look and tried to tell if the statement was the truth or a lie. Before she could figure out which, Naruto motioned to the area he came from and a redheaded girl about his age stood up. She was rather disheveled and afraid so it gave credence to his story. It was a rule that if member of a team did forfeit than the chunin patrol could help their team. It was unorthodox to actually enter the forest and find genin but it wasn't against the rules.

"Fine, just take me to the tower." she demanded and Naruto frowned as she leaned on him for support and they headed for the tower. He still needed to complete the rest of his mission but it looked like that would have to wait.

x-x

They arrived at the tower a few hours later and Anko was taken to one of the waiting rooms for the chunin staff at the tower. Naruto took Karin to one of the rooms that were for the participants in the exam and then went back into the forest while leaving a clone to stay put in the tower.

He thought about going after the sound ninja but it was more likely that Kabuto or Yoroi had the information that he was after. Supposedly he was going after the other wayward genin, who no one besides himself and Karin knew was already dead. He was told by the other chunin and the examiner that he was an idiot for going out and searching for the other genin but he just ignored them because it was all just an excuse anyway.

He hadn't questioned the fuinjutsu that was causing Anko pain but he knew that it was likely the cursed seal that he knew Orochimaru to use. He had obtained bits and pieces of information from Amachi and the genin who he had replaced as part of Kabuto's team, but this was the first time actually seeing it. He had taken a sample of Anko's blood for his Master while carrying her back. He also knew that there existed a possibility that Orochimaru had given someone else a cursed seal during the exam. He had only overheard part of the conversation with Anko but knew that the snake sennin had given a gift to someone and believed it was likely the cursed seal.

Plagueis was interested in any information on the snake sennin's cursed seal and what it did. If the opportunity to find out more about the cursed seal presented itself, he was supposed to take it.

Getting his thoughts back on the task at hand, he continued searching through the forest. He had a lot of ground to cover and without Karin traveling with him, his sensing range was again limited.

x-x

It took the entire night, the morning, and most of the afternoon t to finally find one of his former teammates. He came across Kabuto after the man had finished off a group of genin from Hidden Waterfall. From the fading life signs of the genin, it was only a few moments before they would die.

He had never followed Kabuto during the previous chunin exam he had participated in. Their team had split up and he had been promoted to chunin in that exam. The gray haired teen adjusted his glasses while placing the newly pilfered scroll into his pouch. Naruto observed his former teammate and thought about what he should do.

He could attack right at that moment, after Kabuto had fought the genin but he doubted that the teen was tired from what was likely a short battle. He could also wait until nightfall and attack when his teammate was the most unguarded. That seemed like the best plan as even with what he knew about Kabuto, he still wasn't completely sure about his teammates exact skill level and he also didn't know how good at sensing others Kabuto was. It was possible that he had already been spotted by his former teammate, despite having suppressed his chakra to the best of his abilities.

Deciding to wait, he held back as Kabuto moved off in a direction and then followed him. He had no idea where Kabuto was heading but he would follow at a safe distance.

x-x

Hours later, Kabuto had settled down for a brief rest in the roots of a tree. Several traps had been placed at the entrance but Naruto moved past them using an earth jutsu. He wasn't sure how aware Kabuto was, so he cautiously approached and prepared himself for anything. It would normally be best to send a clone first but they were not able to use the Force so it would likely get destroyed or tip off the target before it could accomplish anything.

He wasn't after killing Kabuto but he would take the man's knowledge and find out what was happening during the chunin exams. In order to properly plan his escape from the village, he needed the details of what was happening during the chunin exams. Kabuto, as an important spy to Orochimaru, would likely know all of the plans.

As he neared the resting Kabuto, the Force was telling him that something was wrong. He stopped his movement through the soil and emerged just enough to look at the sleeping genin. Kabuto was still a good distance away as he was just outside the cave-like area that Kabuto was in. Nothing appeared amiss but the Force told him different.

Emerging completely from the ground, he entered the roots and outstretched his hand enough to use Force grip on the sleeping Kabuto. The technique worked and he was about to close the distance when he felt something happening. The life-signs he was sensing for Kabuto were moving towards him, but they were coming from below him.

Moving back, he wasn't fast enough to escape the hand that shot out of the ground and grabbed one of his ankles. He recognized the technique as chakra scalpels and felt the pain or several tendons in his ankle being severed.

Cursing, Naruto formed a kinetite in his hand and threw it at the ground near the disembodied hands. The attack smashed into the ground and the soil underneath the tree roots exploded. Naruto was released and he managed to hop and then jump to a safe distance. It would be a while before his leg was healed.

If he had thrown the attack where the head of Kabuto was, then he likely would have killed the spy but that wasn't what he was after. He had thrown it just a short distance away. 'The body was just a fake and the real Kabuto was waiting underground.' he thought and cursed at the late realization. He wasn't sure if the concussive force of the blast he released had knocked Kabuto out or not. He could still feel the gray haired genin's life-signs but he couldn't tell if the teen was conscious or not.

The trap had definitely worked to some degree as his left leg was useless and his mobility had been greatly decreased. Hobbling towards the tree roots, he looked at the area once the dirt and dust had settled. The area was now a crater but he couldn't see Kabuto. His opponent made no movements and the life-signs didn't fluctuate. Frowning he went through a few handseals and said, "Doton: Retsudo Tensho (earth release: tearing earth turning palm)" and the ground beneath him started to up-heave and churn.

Force to flee his position, Kabuto jumped out from the ground to avoid being crushed. He landed a good distance away and turned to see his opponent for the first time. He wasn't sure if he had been followed or not, so he had set a trap just in case. The tables had been turned on him though.

A line of blood was coming from his mouth and forehead while his glowing green hand was placed on his ribs. Whatever attack had been used against him was powerful and if it had been used close enough to him, he was sure it could have either fractured his skull or broken his neck.

His opponent was wrapped in a dark hooded cloak with two long sleeves and appeared to be rather young. The cloak was open in the front but he could only make out a common ninja vest that could be purchased anywhere. Most of the large and small villages had unique vests but this was very generic. The face couldn't be seen because of the darkness of their surroundings and the shadow from the hood.

They stared at each other for a brief period. Naruto was trying to give time for his leg to heal but Kabuto's ribs were not that serious and the teen charged forward with his hands glowing. Naruto knew of the technique but was not able to move as he would have liked with the leg injury.

Naruto ducked under the strike and lashed out with a punch. Kabuto dodged and was about to strike a vital area with his chakra scalpels when he was hit full force in the face. Knocked back, Kabuto recovered and looked at his opponent, 'I dodged the punch, yet I was still hit.' he thought unsure of what was going on.

Before Kabuto could do anything, his opponent raised his hand and he was yanked forward. Naruto charged up a weaker kinetite and threw it into Kabuto's abdomen before he could be attacked with the chakra scalpels. His opponent was thrown back and smacked into one of the large roots in the area.

Coughing up blood, Kabuto tried to stand but he was lifted off his feet by an unknown source. Being choked in the air, he reached for his shuriken and threw several at the cloaked figure. He was promptly dropped to the ground where he tried to catch his breath and he heard his shuriken being deflected.

Moving to get away from the fight he was about to use the handseals for the body flicker technique when he was stopped in his tracks again by another the unseen force. Unable to move or turn around, he was helpless as he heard the figure slowly limped forward. A hand was placed on his head and everything went blank.

Searching for any useful information, Naruto went through his former teammates mind. He determined that Kabuto was originally a spy for someone else and found out about a group called Akatsuki but not very much about the group itself or what its goals were. He learned about Kabuto working for Orochimaru and all of the testing and experiments that they performed.

Those memories were of interest to Naruto and he knew they would also be of interest to his Master. He looked through everything concerning Orochimaru and then got to the most recent memories. Strategies and plans for attacking Konoha surfaced as well as an agreement with Suna and the presence of another jinchuuriki.

Taking his hand off Kabuto's head, Naruto absorbed all of the information he had taken and then looked for ways to use it to his advantage. It seemed Kabuto had a great deal more knowledge and experience in science and medicine than Naruto originally thought. The existence of a group called Akatsuki was disturbing but Kabuto knew little about the group itself or their motives so he wasn't very concerned about it and filed it away for later.

He would have to tell Plagueis about it later but now he needed to do something about the body. Kabuto was still alive and he didn't want to leave any loose ends so it would be best to kill the spy in front of him. He didn't necessarily want to kill Kabuto though. His teammate of several years was the closest person he had to a friend and he really didn't care about the teen being a spy or working for Orochimaru. The village didn't mean anything to him either and its possible destruction didn't really concern him. By that time, he would already have all of the information from the village that he could get and be leaving it.

It obviously wouldn't be hard to kill Kabuto but something was leading him away from that choice.

He had never received any kind of vision or even very solid guidance from the Force. His connection with the Force wasn't very strong because of his lower midi-chlorian count as well as the interaction with his chakra, so he couldn't 'hear' the Force as well as others could. However, he did receive occasional guidance on when he should or should not do something but right now he wasn't sure what the Force was telling him.

Instead of killing Kabuto, he pulled out his fuinjutsu supplies and went to work. Years ago he may not have been able to do something about a person's memory, besides completely erasing it, but with the information in the scroll of seals, he now had more options available to him.

x-x

Several hours later, Kabuto awoke to find himself alone in the forest. Getting up, he felt incredible pain and wondered what had happened to him. His memory was not helpful and anything that happened since the beginning of the second exam was just blank to him. Checking over his body with a diagnostic jutsu, he found that he did have more than one head injury and thought perhaps it could explain his memory loss.

The other injuries were consistent with a fight but who or what he had been fighting with was no longer around. Checking his ninja pouch, he found that he didn't have any scrolls. Had he been knocked out by a competitor? It seemed very unlikely and yet he had been unconscious in the forest for an unknown amount of time. He didn't even know how much time had passed since the beginning of the second exam.

Once he was finished healing his body, he went off in search of a genin team to get a scroll from and to complete his surveillance on Uchiha Sasuke. He needed to finish the report that Orochimaru had asked of him.

x-x

Naruto returned to the tower and thought about what he had learned. He wasn't sure if the seals would remain undiscovered on Kabuto or not. They were meant to lock away recent memories and he had made sure to injure Kabuto in the right area of the head to make it seem like it could have been some short term memory loss. It wasn't the best plan and if the seals were discovered then they could likely be removed. He had also placed a few tracking seals to monitor where Kabuto was during the next month or so.

His shadow clone reported that Karin had spent much of the time in her room. The only people to talk to were chunin and the genin that had finished the exam the fastest and she really didn't like the Suna ninja. He had to make sure that she didn't talk. He wasn't so sure how the girl would take to being forced to stay in the space behind the Hokage monument faces but it was either that or kill her and she was too valuable to kill at this point.

It would be quite an interesting conversation that he would be having with his Master when he got back to the hideout.

x-x

The following day

x-x

"Where are you taking me?! I have rights!" yelled Karin as she was taken down a long dark hallway. Naruto had already escorted her back from the Forest of Death and rather than letting her go, he had taken her to his hideout.

"STOP KIDNAPPING ME!" she yelled and tried to get off his shoulder. He was carrying her to an unknown location and they had already walked straight through a wall which turned out to be a fake. The whole situation was freaking her out but there was little she could do. She tried punching his back or trying to wiggle out of his grasp but nothing seemed to work.

Her hands were tied and the only information that she had managed to get out of the boy that had kidnapped her was that she was useful to him. 'What the hell does that even mean.' she wondered and wished someone from her village would save her from the crazed and powerful Konoha ninja.

Naruto reached the end of the long hallway and prepared for the ascent up the shaft. He set Karin down and then put his arm around her midsection.

"Just what do you think..." she started to say but was cut off when the wind picked up and then Naruto jumped.

She had the feeling of flying before they slowed and exited out of a square hole in the ground and landed on a flat rock floor. Before she was able to properly look around at the large cave they were in, she was pulled towards a separate area.

Passing through an arch with many strange symbols on it, they entered a room filled with scrolls and other items. Looking around, it seemed like everything had been carved from the solid rock walls and she was quiet as she took everything in.

Naruto pulled a desk into the center of the odd room and then pulled the chair over as well. Taking Karin to the desk, he forced her to sit down and then removed the bindings on her hands. He left her in the chair while going to get several books and scrolls off of the shelves and out of the alcoves in the room. Finding the specific texts and scrolls that he needed, Naruto walked back and set them on the desk.

"This is unlawful restraint." she stated with her arms crossed and glaring at him.

Naruto started back at her and replied, "Ohh...you know the technical term for it. Too bad that information won't help you any." and he went to get some more scrolls and books.

She cursed him out in her head and looked over the items he had just brought to the table. She noted that they were all medical texts and scrolls. It seemed very odd to kidnap her and bring her to a secret location, only to provide her with study materials. 'Unless he plans to do something to me.' she thought and shivered.

She contemplated running away.

"Don't even think about trying to run away. The exits are full of traps and you won't get far before you are killed." Naruto stated from the wall she jumped in her seat, 'How did he...' but her thoughts were cut off.

"I feel what others are feeling and can even read thoughts." he said and came back with another stack.

Karin glared even harder and he replied, "Just because you wish bad things upon me won't make them happen."

Frowning, Karin decided to ask a few questions. "You can't really expect to keep me here forever. Someone from my village will want to know where I am." and she smiled at the logic while adjusting her glasses.

"Not if they think you're dead." responded Naruto and Karin gawked at him but then fired back, "Why would they think that?!" but she already had a good idea of the answer and his lack of response just confirmed her suspicions, 'He told my teammate I was killed. I wonder if he knows that I have no one waiting for me back in my village or that would miss me?' she wondered.

"But what about your village's ninja? They know I'm alive." she remembered.

"Yes, and they think you traveled back to Grass Country with your teammate." stated Naruto as he found the last remaining scrolls and Karin wanted to slam her head on the desk.

"What's all this?" Karin asked while gesturing to the books in front of her.

"This is all the information that you will be learning from in the next month." stated Naruto in a calm and serious voice.

'The next month?! He expects me to learn all this? How long is he going to keep me here?' she though and she asked hesitantly, "What happens in a month?"

"We'll be leaving and going somewhere else." Naruto answered.

She was slightly confused by him including her in the answer and wondered just what he wanted with her or if he would even tell her. Looking at the stacks of books and scrolls with irritation she asked, "What if I don't want to learn?"

"You can either learn the information from the books and scrolls or...I could force the knowledge into your head." answered Naruto.

"T-that doesn't sound too bad." she countered but was slightly afraid of what exactly it entailed.

"The process is exceedingly painful and there is the chance that if I don't do it right, you could suffer brain damage." he informed her and she promptly grabbed one of the books, opened it, and began reading.

x-x

Pushing a button on the communication device, Naruto waited for a response from his Master. He didn't know how long it would take to get a response so he started working on a few things in the mean time. He had left a shadow clone to monitor the girl, Karin, and help if she needed it.

Pulling out a map of Konoha, he started marking off the invasion plans and where things would occur. Orochimaru planned to use one of his summons but have the Suna ninja summon it right outside a certain portion of the walls of the village. At the same time, several teams of Sound ninja would come out of hiding at the stadium and try to capture or kill all of the people in the stands.

The best chance he had of completing his plans was to request guard duty on the wall of the village, specifically in the place where the summons would attack. By that time he would likely have passed his special jonin exam and have the ability to choose where he was stationed. It might be difficult to pull off but he felt he could do it.

While everyone was busy with the finals of the chunin exams, he would have his shadow clones working as fast as possible to finish getting everything he could from Konoha. After that he would leave the village to finish setting up the seals on the ship and then head for Snow Country. At least that was what the current plan was. It was likely that within a months time it would change slightly and depending on any other problems encountered as well as what his Master wanted.

The sound of a beeping brought him out of his planning and he moved to the communications device. Turning on the monitor, the body Plagueis was still possessing filled the screen. Speaking in Galactic Basic, he began the report, "I have completed the mission, my Master."

"Good. What have you learned?" asked Plagueis in the slightly altered voice of Gatou.

"I was able to sift through Kabuto's thoughts and discovered what will be happening. Both Hidden Sound and Hidden Sand will be attacking Konoha during the finals of the chunin exam. Orochimaru is the leader of Hidden Sound and has quite a few low level ninja following him. They will attack the village with a large snake summons and I plan to acquire a guard position on the section of wall where the initial attack will take place. The body has been acquired and it died of injuries associated with blunt trauma and falling from a significant height." stated Naruto and he could see his Master listening and going through all of the information.

"I sense something else. What exactly did you do that might disrupt our plans?" questioned Plagueis and Naruto hesitated for only a moment to get his thoughts in order.

"...I...encountered someone during the exam. I stopped her from being killed by a large bear in the Forest of Death. There were complications however as she was able to sense me using the Force." explained Naruto and he could feel the surprise coming from his Master, even if the possessed body didn't show it.

"Sense, how?" inquired Plagueis.

"She could feel the Force flowing through me but not feel the Force itself in her surroundings. It may have something to do with how it interacts with my chakra that caused her to sense it but I am not sure. I contemplated eliminating her but she proved to have useful abilities as well." said Naruto.

"Explain?" demanded Plagueis but Naruto couldn't feel any anger coming from his Master, merely curiosity.

"Her ability to sense chakra far exceeds the range of my own sensing ability and she is also able to suppress her chakra completely. Her control is much better than my own and I have her working on medical ninjutsu so she can make the necessary changes to the body. It is likely that within a month she will be skilled enough to perform the jutsu and eliminate any problems that could have occurred because of my lack of chakra control." he admitted with some reluctance.

Plagueis thought over the situation and considered everything that he had been told. The girl's ability to sense the Force inside of his student was interesting and it could prove a theory that he had been considering, which was that the Force entering his students body was altered slightly by the energy field of chakra that it passed through. He didn't believe that the alteration was significant and was still unsure about the hypothesis. The other abilities the girl possessed could prove very useful and as long as there were no problems, then she could be a valuable asset to their efforts.

"You made a rash decision that was more influenced by your emotions than your logic. You should not have helped her unless the Force guided you to intervene. However I can see the benefit of your actions. Make sure there are no problems and that she doesn't speak to anyone or find out too much until we can guarantee her assistance. What else?" asked Plagueis.

"I encountered Orochimaru in the forest but I did not engage. I found out more about the cursed seal from Kabuto and acquired two samples of a person with an earlier version of it. Kabuto also proved to be more than I originally thought and has been heavily involved in Orochimaru's experiments and research. He is a much more skilled medic-nin and scientist than Amachi and has worked on a variety of projects that you might find interesting. I will have to share the information with you when I come to where you are.

The snake sennin seems to have come up with a technique that has some similarities with the transfer essence technique that you have told me about. I also discovered that the cursed seal has an original carrier that it is based on. It is some type of bloodline and the exact means by which the curse seal works has been taken from this person. He is kept in a secure prison facility near Orochimaru's base in Sound Country, which used to be Rice Country." finished Naruto and Plagueis was silent for a long time before speaking.

"What of Kabuto?" inquired Plagueis and he noted that he student hesitated with the answer.

"I wasn't sure what to do. The Force wasn't providing me any guidance and you never gave me any instructions to kill Kabuto, so I let him live. I did use the memory seal on him and placed several tracking seals on his person." replied Naruto.

"I will have to meditate on all of this new information. The plans that you are finalizing could change before the month is finished. I will be in contact with you once I have thought all this over." finished Plagueis and Naruto bowed slightly as his master nodded and the transmission ended. Naruto turned off the monitor and went back to work.

There was still much to be done before he would be able to travel to Snow Country. Looking up and sensing the life-signs of the only other person that had ever been in his hideout, he wasn't sure how this was going to work out.

Please Review


	13. Chapter 13

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

**x-x**

**36.6 BBY – Current Year (Naruto is twelve and one week has passed since the last chapter)**

Chapter XIII: A month and then the war

x-x

Standing in the alley right beside a store, Naruto tried to calm his nerves. A week had passed since the second part of the chunin exam had ended and it had been a _very_ long week for him.

He managed to get his promotion to special jonin which didn't actually involve that much as he only had to show mastery over one element and that he had skills above chunin level. There was no long or involved test for the special jonin ranking. He had a choice whether to try for full jonin or just special jonin and he chose the latter as either one could get him access to the information in the library that he was after and the special jonin rank was easier to attain.

He also had to deal with Karin for an entire week, which was terrible. It seemed he couldn't go an hour without a complaint about something. She complained about the hideout, where she had to sleep, that she wasn't getting enough sunlight, how bad it was to be stuck inside all of the time, and then came the list of demands. She wanted clothes, shoes, and had specific dietary requirements. He also couldn't just let her continue to use the same pair of clothing that she had. Because of her supposed death, her belongings had been taken by her teammates and sensei back to Kusagakure so she only had the clothing she was wearing.

Unfortunately he did need her help and acquiesced to these requests. He went out to get her all the things she needed. Of course the clothes he found weren't good enough and the shoes he found apparently didn't fit properly. It angered him greatly and to stop the complaining he had foolishly endangered himself and let her leave the hideout so she could buy the items herself. Her glasses had also been damaged during the chunin exams and needed replacement. This wasn't something he could do

She was currently in the store that he was standing near. She was still within his range and he had placed a seal on her tongue to keep her from talking about him or anything related to him as well as being kidnapped. However, this did not mean that he could trust her not to run away. He was also listening to make sure that she didn't say anything she wasn't supposed to or try to gain the attention of anyone else.

Karin was needed for his plans and he couldn't let her run away or bring unwanted attention to himself so close to the completion of his and Plagueis's plans.

The only good news he had this week, in relation to her, was her progress with medical ninjutsu. Karin had progressed very far for just a weeks worth of training. It made sense as her chakra control was much better than his and she already had a good knowledge of the human body. With her entire time spent learning from the information he had, it wouldn't be long before she could be good enough to alter the corpse.

He had a few shadow clones stationed at different areas to make sure that if she tried to run, that she would be caught and not get very far. They had already been to three other places to shop and Karin had yet to try and say anything or try to run but he was not about to let his guard down.

His Force Listening picked up her voice inside the store and he thought she might be talking with an employee but he realized it was much worse. He clearly recognized the voice she was conversing with.

'No...no...no...no...NO! Anyone but her!' he thought and considered running into the store to retrieve Karin.

x-x

"Thanks for the help...um..." Karin paused for a second as she hadn't actually caught the name of the girl that had been helping her shop for kunoichi clothing.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, my names Tenten." replied the bun haired girl.

"I haven't seen you are here before." said Tenten and Karin froze slightly at the statement. Neither noticed that the lights had started flickering.

"Well I'm still in the academy." Karin quickly lied as it would explain her lack of forehead protector.

"Well that makes sense. Hopefully we'll see each other again but I'm pretty busy with my team." Tenten replied. She didn't have many friends that were kunoichi and mostly just her teammates so it might be nice to talk with someone that seemed to be more concerned with being a kunoichi than anything else. Most of the kunoichi in her class were only concerned over how they looked or boys more than about training.

"I'd like that," said Karin and some of the displays by the window started rattling or vibrating as if they were being shaken by an minor earthquake but everything else seemed fine and no one really noticed. "Maybe we could meet up gain later in the week?" inquired Karin to her new friend.

The glass on the window formed cracks.

"Sure how about lunch tomorrow at the restaurant across the street?" asked Tenten and the window shattered.

They both looked over at the now broken window but looked back a moment later. 'That seems to be happening a lot recently.' Tenten thought.

"Tomorrow sounds great, I'll meet you there at noon." said Karin and some of the clothing near near the display window caught on fire.

x-x

Still standing outside, Naruto had developed a twitch as he tried to reign in his emotions. He couldn't believe that out of all the people Karin could have met while shopping at the few stores they went to, that somehow she would run in Tenten. 'No matter what I do, as long as I'm in the village, she just keeps getting closer to me and my sword.' he thought.

He was distracted enough while contemplating Tenten's death that he didn't notice Karin approach him until she standing next to him and staring at him.

"Oi, I'm back we can head back now." said Karin in a dull voice as she knew that he would chase her down if she tried to run. He has was special jonin now and she was still just a genin. He also had those extra powers and she stood no chance against him.

"Fine. Where's the leftover money?" asked Naruto as he had given her a good amount and more than enough to buy what she needed.

"Ahh...I sorta...kinda...spent it all." said Karin while not looking at him. They were walking away from most public areas but she felt she was safe in terms of any reprisal.

Naruto took a deep breath and continued walking. He wasn't going to respond to what she had said and just let it go.

As they passed through the less crowded areas of the village, Karin decided to ask a question, "Have you noticed weird things happening in the village for no apparent reason. While I was talking to Tenten, the window of the shop..." but she stopped talking when several garbage cans mysteriously tipped over in a nearby alley for no apparent reason. Feeling the movement of the unknown energy in the boy beside her, she realized what it was that had been causing it and decided to drop the subject.

x-x

Hideout behind Hokage faces

x-x

"You're not going to lunch with that girl tomorrow." Naruto stated and Karin frowned.

"Why not!" Karin demanded. She didn't have any friends and despite being a captive, she wanted at least some freedom and not having to be stuck in the rocky prison all the time.

"Because I said so." replied Naruto with finality but Karin wasn't about to give up.

"Is it because you have something going on with that Tenten girl." she commented with a giggle and she stopped a moment later when she felt the killing intent radiating off of him.

"Don't... ever...say that again." he said seriously and Karin frowned while trying not to show that she was scared of him.

'I can still read your thoughts.' came Naruto's voice in her head and she jumped slightly and then scowled at him.

"I don't get it, she seems harmless." stated Karin as she thought about her brief interactions with the bun haired girl.

"She's far from harmless." responded Naruto and he tried not to touch the seal on his hand that held his sword.

"What is she stalking you or something?" commented Karin and look Naruto responded, "Yes you could say that she is."

A moment of silence passed before Karin spoke again, "Just let me out for lunch, you can't keep me locked up in here forever."

"Sure I can." he said.

"Oh come on. I'll stop bugging you for a few days." said offered and Naruto contemplated this.

'Stupid empathy.' he thought as he could feel Karin's emotions and feelings on the subject and had trouble getting them out of his head.

"I'll think about it. I have to go on patrol in the village." he said and left the room.

She felt him leave a shadow clone to work on something as he always did when he left the hideout. The clone would check in on her and make sure she didn't try to get away or wasn't trying to subvert his creators plans in anyway.

Once she felt him leave the hideout, she smiled at her victory. The ability to read her mind appeared to be a double edged sword. From trial and error, she found that he couldn't read all of her thoughts and only certain things that she happened to be thinking about or feeling at the time. After several days, she managed to use this to her advantage.

While having a very serious demeanor and being in control of his emotions, Naruto still had those emotions and with the right state of mind, she found that she could influence him because of it. It wasn't that much of an influence but if she managed to make it seem like it was something that she really needed, then she could get it out of him. It was the main reason why she had been able to go on her shopping trip.

Picking up all of her bags, she took them to her room. She didn't have much in the way of items, really just a bed, but it was better than nothing. Her current situation wasn't that great but she'd rather make the most of it. No one in her hidden village had ever thought she was very useful and although she had no idea what he had planned, she was definitely getting something out of it. All the texts and information that she had access to was more than she had ever seen in her life. It only kept getting bigger with each trip that Naruto made to the library.

With his incredibly high chakra reserves, he had no talent being a chakra sensor or using techniques that required extremely fine chakra control. This meant that she likely wouldn't be replaced anytime soon. It wasn't that much to hold onto or keep herself going but it was something.

She only had an extremely small apartment in Kusagakure, had no family, lived on what little money she received for the missions that her team did, and had no access to anything near the amount of information that Naruto had stockpiled. Her mind had gone through many different 'what ifs' in the past week but she still couldn't determine if her life in Kusa was better or worse than her current situation.

'Next week I'll try to get some furniture to put my clothes in.' she thought and went back to the room with the desk and medical texts in it.

Naruto had already created a water basin and put fish in it that she could use for her medical ninjutsu. It was best to keep her progress going. The more useful she was, the less likely he would be to think about getting rid of her or trying to find a replacement.

x-x

Moving over the tops of the buildings, Naruto went to his duty station in the village. He had a shadow clone go to the library to continue copying down all of the information that it could. So far, no one had said anything about his constant trips to the library or his copying down all the information. He had used persuasion tricks to help him not get noticed by the guards and librarians but he was still paranoid because of apparently how easy it was to follow him, which had been demonstrated by Danzo and the chakra sensor working for him.

Making his way around the villages hot springs area and to the western wall of the village, where he would be on patrol and guard duty in one of the watch towers on the village wall, he noted a figure crouched at the wall of the woman's hot springs. Stopping, he decided to stop the person from peeping.

He was early anyway and could take the time to stop a pervert from peeping on the women side of the hot springs.

He landed a little ways away from the giggling man. Staring at the man, he noted that the profile looked familiar. Searching his memory, he determined that the person greatly resembled Jiraiya of the Sannin. He couldn't actually see the face to confirm it but the clothing and hair appeared to be the man's, however it could just be any old pervert that dressed funny and had spiky white hair.

Confused on what to do, he took time out to think about the situation. It was possible that one of the Sannin was in front of him. If the man was Jiriaya then he was completely focused on peeping and not paying any attention to his surroundings at all. 'I very much doubt one of the Sennin would let their guard down this much.' he thought and started walking to the man.

It obviously wasn't Jiriaya and most likely the pervert just had a strong resemblance to the man. Naruto walked up the man and decided to clear his throat and get the man's attention, letting him know that he had been caught. He wanted to use one of techniques on the man but refrained.

"Quite down brat, I'm trying to get some research done here." stated the man while jotting a few things down on a notepad and his head turned just enough that Naruto could see half of his face.

It was definitely Jiriaya of the Sannin.

Naruto was again confused at what he should do. According to his master, Orochimaru was too much for him to handle and Jiraiya was likely also on that level, but here the man was in front of him with his guard down while peeping on the woman's hot springs.

The situation didn't make sense. A man of that level should not be so easily distracted and vulnerable. He was a veteran ninja, legendary in status, and had been through wars and countless battles. Yet crouched in front of him was that same man, giggling while looking through a small peep hole, and writing down notes as well as small sketches.

Nearly a minute went by as Naruto stood several feet behind the man and thought about his next move. It was likely that as soon as he made a movement or showed any sign of aggression, that the Sennin would move to counter almost instantly and he wouldn't stand a chance against the man.

'I could just use Force grip and then use drain knowledge, but what if he manages to get away somehow?' he questioned and thought perhaps it wouldn't work. 'The moment I try something is the moment he'll counter or substitute himself with a log. With experience like his, he might even be one or two steps ahead and already be suspected me of plotting something.' he thought and struggled with indecision. Even with his advantages and a surprise attack with the Force, he might not be able to defeat the man in front of him. It could all have just been an act and Jiraiya could be toying with him.

"Look buddy if you're waiting for your turn, its gonna be a long wait. You might as well find another peep hole." Said Jiraiya and he waved Naruto off dismissively.

Naruto's stern face turned into a scowl at the statement. He didn't like being shrugged or waved off as nothing or as being insignificant in the eyes of someone else. The same thing happened with Orochimaru and he wasn't taken seriously at all by the man. The only reason he hadn't attacked Orochimaru was because of his Master's orders.

'Fuck it.' he thought. His master never told him not to attack Jiraiya only Orochimaru and he wasn't going to have another powerful ninja shrug him off.

Using Force grip on the man, he chopped the man in the back of the man's neck. The hit was delivered to the exact area that would cause instant unconsciousness. Jiriaya didn't move at all under the Force grip and when Naruto released the technique the pervert fell over, seemingly unconscious.

Naruto waited a good minute for something to happen. He expected the body to go up in smoke or the attack to fail and the man to get back up. He checked for genjutsu but it didn't seem like he was being influenced by one. After the minute mark had elapsed, he came to the conclusion that nothing else was going to happen. One of the legendary Sannin was at his feet and had been knocked out while peeping on the woman's hot springs. There was no battle and it was one of the easiest fights he ever had, or likely would ever have.

'I wonder if Master Plagueis would believe me if I told him what happened? I wonder if any ninja would believe me for that matter?' Naruto questioned. Looking around he noted that the area was still devoid of people. They were at the back of the hot springs and no one really came this way as the entrance was on the other side.

Despite the entire situation still seeming ludicrous at best, he grabbed one of Jiraiya's legs and dragged the man near the open hot springs water that was flowing nearby. Using the Force and the hidden mist technique, he created a cocoon of steam around him and the body.

Creating a few shadow clones, they left the steam area and went to hide in a few nearby trees. If anyone came by he would be alerted to their presence through his connection to the shadow clones. He did this because while he used the drain knowledge technique, he had difficulty focusing on his surroundings. His shadow clones would keep anyone from finding out what he was doing.

Jiraiya never got a good look at him but just in case the man could sense chakra, he would have to make sure that he didn't go near the man again and wasn't late for his duty shift, so he created another clone to report for duty at the wall.

Crouching down, he made sure that Jiraiya was definitely out cold and would be for a while. He hadn't actually thought of it before as he was still somewhat in shock over the situation. Putting his hand on the man's head, he started looking through the memories in search of techniques and anything useful.

He spent a minute pushing past all of the peeping, 'research', and book writing before he got something interesting that was rather recent. The name 'Akatsuki' was in the man's mind. He had first heard the group from Kabuto's mind and perhaps now he would find out a little bit more. Looking for any information he found that Orochimaru was a part of the group, which he already knew, but he did find further information about what they were interested in.

From what Jiraiya had found out, the group was very interested in Bijuu, specifically the jinchuuriki. Naruto looked deeper but didn't manage to find out what exactly it is that they wanted with jinchuuriki. This was of interest to him and he would have to talk with Plagueis about it later.

Delving to other memories, he started finding out about all the techniques that Jiriaya knew and sifted through the ones he already had to find one that were new to him. He did find a couple unique fire jutsu, a hair extending jutsu, information on fuinjutsu, and a few other unique techniques but not the treasure trove he was looking for and that his Master had gotten from Kakashi.

Most of the jutsu Jiraiya knew were ones that he had already found in the library. It was disappointing but unavoidable. Kakashi had so many unique jutsu because he had copied them with his sharingan and Jiraiya only knew the jutsu that he had mastered himself.

Furthering his search, he found information on the toad summons which wasn't that helpful but one thing did stand out. It was called natural energy and was gathered to form sage chakra and then to use senjutsu. That was extremely interesting and the more he found out about it from the man's memories, the more he knew that his Master would be very pleased. Whatever the energy was, it seemed to differed from chakra and the Force. He was now very interested in it and its usage as it might be something he could eventually learn.

Putting that information aside after he got all he could, he continued. Images of the Yondaime came to the surface and he looked through them with some interest. There was little about the Yondaime's hiraishin jutsu as Jiraiya had never seen the exact workings of it and only the final jutsu and a brief explanation on what it did.

Those memories were interesting but not helpful at all. It wasn't until he came across something else that he stopped for a moment. It was buried rather deeply but he was able to get at it. Jiraiya was sitting in a house talking with the Yondaime and a pregnant women walked in.

He stopped for a moment as he looked at the memory. He'd never heard about the Yondaime having a wife and by the time he refocused on the memory, the women was speaking. She said that the baby would be called Naruto.

The technique ended at that moment as Naruto had lost all control over his emotions and the Force he was channeling. He stood still and stared down at the ground for quite some time. His mind finally started working again and he pieced together what he knew and searched his feelings.

He wondered if the information he always sought as a child had always been so easy to figure out or was he just not willing to realize that his father was the Yondaime. The knowledge made him feel empty inside both because he had never realized it and because no one had ever told him or gave him any indication of who they were. He had questions, so many questions, and wanted answers.

It wasn't hard to get those answers though as they seemed to slip into place. People knew who his parents were, they just didn't tell him. More than just Jiraiya knew. The Sandaime must have known and perhaps even the ninja council. They knew and they chose not to tell him. They chose to let him wonder and keep him ignorant of it. They chose to lie to him.

Where was his mother and who was she? Why had his father sealed the Kyuubi into him? Why did the Sandaime let the villagers treat him so horribly? Why did everyone keep so many important things from him. Those were the questions that he wanted answers to.

The emptiness was replaced by a sick feeling and soon all he felt was anger. The rage boiled inside of him and came to the surface. He stood and kept his head down while his canine teeth lengthened and his finger nails turned to claws. His hair got longer and became more wild. His whiskers darkened and widened and his eyes turned from blue to orange and the pupil became a slit.

He wasn't really thinking or feeling anything but the rage inside of him. The questions and other thoughts were replaced with a blinding rage. Red chakra began to bubble on the surface of his body and the stone beneath him started cracking. His hands curled into fists and blood started dripping from where his claws pierced his own palms. Instead of dropping to the ground, the blood floated upward from the darkside of the Force he was channeling.

Not a moment later, several shadow clones tried to dog pile him. They knew what was happening and tried to stop him from using any of the Kyuubi's chakra as it could alert the entire village. The real Naruto didn't care though and wasn't even thinking about such things. He easily killed the shadow clones and then focused on the man still unconscious at his feet.

Barely thinking straight with the bloodlust and hatred that he was being consumed by and wanting nothing more than to kill everything that had wronged him, he decided he would kill the man. Then he would go after the Sandaime and the council and kill anyone that got in his way. These people had taken things from him and kept everything from him that was important.

Forming a dark ball of energy in his hand, he sneered at the unconscious Jiriaya beneath him.

x-x

Back at the Hideout

x-x

The destruction of the shadow clones not only caused an inflow of information into the creator, but also the remaining shadow clones that Naruto had created.

The clone in the hideout immediately stopped what it was doing and ran to the wall that had several fuinjutsu scrolls. The particular scroll it grabbed was one that was supposed to be used when the village was attacked but it would now serve a different purpose.

With the scroll in hand, it ran to one of the larger rooms in the hideout that was empty and primarily used for training. Unrolling the already created scroll, the clone added chakra to it.

x-x

At the same moment at the village wall

x-x

The clones eyes widened and it started thinking about what it needed to do and what the situation was. He wasn't sure what would happen but it was best to stay where it was. The creator likely wouldn't be coming to relieve it from duty and it was also possible that ANBU would be coming to find and subdue him if anyone felt the release of the Kyuubi's chakra.

He only hoped that the creator would stop channeling the Kyuubi's chakra before the entire village felt it and ninja came after him.

x-x

At the same moment at the library

x-x

'Shit', thought the clone in the library and it looked around for anyone watching. This part of the library was mostly deserted but it got up and went to an area where no one could see. Putting its hand into the ram seal, it created a henge around itself.

It was merely a contingency in case something happened because of the creators usage of the kyuubi's chakra. The entire plan could be in danger and if anyone had felt the Kyuubi's chakra being used, then they would immediately start searching for him.

The clone emerged looking like a random jonin and sat back down at the table to finish what it was doing. If it needed to, if could use an earth jutsu and move through the walls of the mountain and get back to the hideout.

x-x

Back at the hideout

x-x

A plume of smoke erupted above the scroll and the clone felt the creator be summoned back to the hideout. It could feel the powerful chakra radiating off its creator but it wasn't sure what to do. Putting a good amount of distance between them, it tried to ensure that it wouldn't be destroyed like the other clones had been at the hot springs.

Before the smoke had cleared, an explosion occurred where the real Naruto was standing and sent debris and dust around the room.

The smoke and dust finally cleared to reveal a confused and very primal looking Naruto. The foul chakra was still radiating off him but it had stopped emanating off of his body and he was merely channeling it now. He searched around for the person he had been trying to kill and was confused where he was. The man he had been trying to kill was gone and the area was different.

The shadow clone was still hiding and wasn't going to let itself be seen but it had to do something. Going through a few hand seals and touching the floor, the solid rock of the training area turned into a muddy swamp and the real Naruto started sinking in it.

Unable to get out of the mud the real Naruto started struggling which only caused him to sink faster. The clone stayed where it was and stopped the technique when its creator had sunk enough into the floor. The floor hardened and the real Naruto was left stuck.

His breathing came in deep breaths as he tried to get out of the now solid floor that he was stuck up to his waist in. The floor started to crack but he eventually stopped trying.

The disappearance of the man he was trying to kill caused a good of portion of the anger and blood lust that was causing his rampage to subside. He was able to come back to his senses enough to start trying to push back the extra emotions and the chakra that was being forced upon him.

With the inclusion of the floor making him sink, he perceived danger and his mind started focusing on where he was and what he was doing. As he finally came to his sense and could focus on what was happening, he finally realized where he was. With great effort, the remaining Kyuubi chakra was suppressed and pushed back into the seal. His eyes, finger nails, and other changes to his body went back to normal.

Naruto was left partially trapped in the floor and completely confused as to what had just happened. His body was shaking slightly, he was sweating, his breathing was ragged, and his mind was a jumble of images and feelings that were hard to figure out.

'What the hell happened?' he wondered and tried to piece together everything. He could clearly remember certain parts, like finding and subduing Jiriaya, and then using the drain knowledge technique on the man, but after that things got hazy and the memories were fragmented.

He was safe inside his hideout and saw his clone emerge from hiding. He could also feel Karin watching from the entry way of the training area. Closing his eyes, he thought back to what had happened.

'I started searching through Jiriaya's mind.' he remembered and continued to search his memories. Everything he found in the man's mind started coming back to him. The techniques, the fuinjutsu, Akatsuki, the sage chakra, and then he came up what had set him off. The information he found had been so sudden and unexpected that there was no way he could prepared himself from him and he lost all control of himself.

He still felt anger at what he had found out but he was able to control his feelings this time. He thought back to the images of his mother and found the single image he had of her in his mind very calming. Getting his breathing back to normal, he went through several handseals and got himself out of the floor. He could think back and deal with the discovered information later, now it was time to think about damage control.

"Do you have any idea how bad the situation is?" he asked his clone and the clone simply shook its head no.

'Damn it!' Naruto thought as he could have potentially ruined the entire plan.

x-x

The Sandaime and multiple ANBU reached the location of the disturbance and found an odd sight. Jiriaya was unconscious on the ground and there appeared to be damage to the stone surface near him. His first thought was that Jiriaya had fell from some height and was knocked out but he quickly pushed that aside as not being true, despite how clumsy he knew his student could be. There was no way for someone to fall from anything in the area and make that kind of damage to the stone. It was either caused by a jutsu or something else.

He had been working on paperwork when he clearly felt the chakra of the Kyuubi being used or what he thought was the Kyuubi. It felt familiar to the chakra from over a decade previously but it also felt different. Not a moment later, he called his ANBU and rushed to the area he felt it. Other people probably felt it too and he wanted to determine the situation before causing any panic in the village.

From the duty roster, Naruto was supposed to be at the village wall on guard duty for next couple of weeks. He was heading one of the watch towers along the wall as his first assignment under the rank of special jonin. Normally he would have gotten a mission outside the village but the chunin exams finals were approaching and that meant that Konoha ninja were mostly pulled back to the village to help plan the event and get everything prepared.

The disturbance came from the hot springs, which he did find odd, but regardless of the location he rushed as fast as he could from the Hokage tower. He still had trouble determining if it came from the Kyuubi or not. The chakra source had disappeared only seconds after he felt it and the area didn't have much residual chakra left in it.

Getting back to task at hand, he ordered one ANBU to take a look at Jiraiya, then ordered the rest to scout the area and to find Uzumaki Naruto. No one was around and the only people that were in the area where the ones in the hot springs building but they likely wouldn't be of any help. He had to wonder just what Jiraiya was doing here. Well, he didn't have to wonder what his student was doing at the hot springs with a notepad, but he did wonder what the man was doing in the village. It had been years since Jiraiya had made any visit to Konoha.

'Is it possible that Jiraiya was involved?' he questioned but would have to wait for any answers.

He looked to the ANBU for an update and the man stated, "He's just unconscious. I've got some smelling salts in my pack." and the ninja went pull out the item from one of his ninja pouches.

'Hopefully I'll get some answers out of him about what's going on.' he thought as the salts were put under Jiraiya's nose.

x-x

Sitting in his home, Danzo glanced out the open window with his sharingan revealed. He felt the disturbance and from what little chakra went into the air, as well as what he could tell with his own sensing ability, he determined that it was the Kyuubi's chakra. His sharingan recognized the Kyuubi's chakra but something about it felt strange and very different from what he remembered.

He couldn't go to the disturbance and also couldn't send any of his men to investigate, so he re-bandaged his eye and headed for the Hokage tower. There would undoubtedly be a meeting concerning what was happening and he was very interested in finding out what was going on.

If something happened to the seal or the container was somehow channeling or being influence by the Kyuubi, it could provide an opportunity for him.

x-x

Sitting in a meditative stance in the hideout, the real Naruto started thinking of what he should do. He was safe while in his hideout and if he left he might be picked up by the ANBU and taken to the Hokage. It all depended on how much of the Kyuubi's chakra he had released and who felt it. Unfortunately he had no idea how much had been released. It was possible that no one had felt it or that the entire village felt had and anywhere in-between was also a possibility.

The best thing he could do was sit and wait. His shadow clone had likely made it to the village wall before his duty shift started and so he had a weak alibi. As long as no one discovered that it was a clone and not the real person that showed up for duty, he might be able to escape being arrested or detained.

The shadow clones he created did have the seal on them and it was visible when channeling chakra to his stomach and the clone at the wall was created before he used the Kyuubi's chakra. So it was possible that the clone could prove his innocence.

However, this still left the fact that people may have felt the Kyuubi's chakra. If several people had felt and recognized it, then it would create a situation that he couldn't completely explain or deal with.

For now he would just have to wait. The worst possible scenario was that the village found out he was up to something and he stayed in his hideout until the chunin exam finals without using the arrangement he had been working on. The plan for the genin corpse relied on the fact that he was still a Konoha ninja and other certain circumstances. It wouldn't work for any other plan. Unless he managed to find a new body to use, he would likely be labeled as a missing-nin. While it wasn't that big of a problem, it had the potential to cause problems later on and ruin his Master plans.

Coming out of his meditation he said to the person watching, "Get back to your training, Karin."

The girl froze and then frowned from behind the wall where she was hiding. Her chakra had been completely suppressed and yet he had still sensed her.

She was incredibly curious as to what was happening and what the foul chakra was that she felt. She had been scared for her life earlier but now it seemed that whatever happened was over. From her sensing ability, she knew that the chakra came from within him and had been there since before they first met in the forest. Something had changed though and now it seemed that a miniscule amount of that chakra was leaking out into his body at a regular rate.

This concerned her and she would look for any changes later on to see if the new chakra was somehow influencing him. She thought about telling him but was unsure about what to do. Despite what was going on, she felt that it was best to go back and work on her medical ninjutsu.

x-x

Jiraiya's explanation of what happened only served to further confuse him. Someone had knocked out Jiraiya and then moved his body. His student never got a look at his attacker and it was just completely embarrassing that someone he trained could be caught so unaware while 'researching' at the women's hot springs.

He almost wished Jiraiya hadn't remembered anything at all and had been only passing through the area. It was just shameful to have his student confess with the ANBU still in the area that he had been taken completely by surprise while peeping at the women's bath.

The only problem now was to put together how Naruto was involved with all of this. 'Did he attack Jiraiya and why was the Kyuubi's chakra released?' he questioned but they would remain unanswered until the boy was found.

Picking up the movement of his ANBU, he turned to see an ANBU captain and two of his subordinates quickly appear near him.

"Sandaime-sama, we have found Uzumaki Naruto and he is being escorted to the tower." reported the captain in the white cloak while his two black cloaked subordinates stayed silent.

"Where was he and what is his condition?" demanded the Sandaime and ANBU was quick to respond, "We found him at his post at the eastern western watch tower. From witnesses of the other ninja stationed in the tower, he reported early for duty and has been there since."

The Sandaime developed a contemplative look as he stared off towards the protective wall that circled the village. 'If Naruto reported to his duty station early, then how he could he have also released the Kyuubi's chakra in the hot springs area of the village? There is quite some distance between them.' he noted.

The western guard/watch tower was one of several stations along the top of the village wall. If there were witnesses that said Naruto arrived early to his station, then it made him wonder how Naruto could have been in two places at once? Another matter that he hadn't considered until that very moment also occurred to him.

In the twelve years that Naruto had been alive and the four years since he had become a ninja, no one had ever told him that he carried the Kyuubi sealed inside of him.'This is going to be a delicate matter.' the Sandaime thought and sighed. He waved off the ANBU and headed back to the Hokage tower with Jiraiya following.

x-x

By the time the Sandaime had gotten back to the Hokage tower, the village elders as well as a few of the clan heads were already there, while the rest were presumably on the way. Yamanaka Inoichi was a chakra sensor and had easily detected the large disturbance near the hot springs and rushed to the Hokage tower for orders. The head ANBU and the jonin commander in the village had been notified as well.

The Sandaime wanted to keep anyone else from finding out about what had happened, but it seemed that the private meeting he wanted to have with Naruto would have to wait. Going to the council meeting room, the Sandaime briefed the other members once they had arrived and Jiraiya sat in on the meeting.

The Inuzuka dogs had alerted the entire clan that something was wrong much in the same way the Aburame's kikachu alerted them. Akimichi clan head was alerted by his friends both have positions on the council. The Hyuuga clan head was alerted by other members of his clan who were chakra sensors. When the members finally assembled, the Sandaime brought them up to speed with what was going on and everything that he knew up to that point.

x-x

Sitting on a bench down the hall from the meeting room, Naruto sat silently as he contemplated what to do. His clone was surrounded by four ANBU members but he wasn't concerned with them.

Currently, his real body was still sitting in the hideout and meditating but through his connection with his clone, he had 'possessed' it. He could speak and act through the clone while remaining safe no matter what decision was made. It was not something he had performed under such circumstances before as he had just toyed around with the technique but now it was getting a trial run.

With the technique, he could actually channel the Force through his clone, despite the individual clone not being able to use the Force. It was something to do with the 'possession' or whatever it was that he was doing that allowed him to use the clone as if he was really there. His Force powers however were diminished from those he possessed in his real boy. In a way it was slightly similar to what his master was doing with Gatou's body. He had yet to try and take control of multiple clones, but now that he finally realized how useful the technique was, he would have to find time to practice with it.

Using his Force listening ability, he could hear what was going on in the meeting room and what was being said. As the meeting progressed, he found out everything that they knew and started quickly thinking up ways to keep himself from being caught. He still had at least a weeks worth of work left to do in the library and getting caught would only make things harder.

Thinking through the possible choices, he tried to find the best choice that would not get him arrested, or at least not get his clone arrested. Being put under heavy surveillance was a better alternative to putting the village on lock-down while everyone systematically searched for him once his clone dispelled. Even with all the precautions he had taken with the hideout, it was still possible that someone could find it if they were looking.

He was broken from his thoughts when the door to the council meeting room was opened and he was told to enter.

x-x

All eyes were on him as he walked into the room and sat down at the chair that was indicated. Naruto sat down in a seat across from all the clan heads at a wooden oval table. The room looked like every other room in the Hokage tower except it had no windows.

He glanced around the table and took in all the faces. His face was neutral and he tried his best to make himself come off as being confused more than nervous. He also tried not to look at Jiraiya, who was leaning against one of the walls. He didn't want to gave away any indication that he recognized the man.

Controlling his emotions was proving to be extremely difficult though, as he had to keep his anger in check despite what he was feeling towards many of the members of the room. Most of them had in some way conspired to keep his identity and parents from him for as long as possible. Danzo specifically knew things about him that he didn't want anyone else to find out about.

They made him an orphan with no ancestry that the Yondaime had chose as a sacrifice, but he was so much more. The people before him were also content with leaving him with nothing about his parents or what he held sealed inside of him. Being lied to was something he hated but not as much as being shrugged off or considered not important. In one way or another, the occupants of the seats at the table had been doing one or both of those things to him all his life.

He wanted nothing more than to attack them but this was a clone body and even if he had the element of surprise, with everyone else in the room, and considering their skills, he stood no chance at following through with any of the thoughts he was burying in his head.

He would have to let it go for now, but perhaps later on he would get revenge.

The room remained silent as the doors were shut and the ANBU guarding him remained and stood behind him, looming over and ready to strike. They were ready to kill him should he make any wrong move but he really couldn't care. This wasn't his body and no matter the outcome of the meeting, he would make sure he got away and finished his Master's plans.

The first person to speak in the room was the Sandaime, "We've called you here to answer a few questions for us concerning your day. There has been an unexplained disturbances within the village and we're questioning everyone that may have been involved directly or indirectly. Could you explain to us your day so far, from the beginning?" the Sandaime asked in a calm tone but Naruto knew he was fishing for answers and knew little of what really happened.

None of the people before him had any idea what had really happened less than an hour ago and he intended to keep them in the dark as much or as long as possible. Even if they suspected him of something, it was better than ruining the final parts of the plan and not getting the information from the library.

"I woke up at around seven, got dressed in my uniform, and ate breakfast. Then I went to my assigned station of one of the western watch towers. Shortly afterward, the ANBU came to bring me here." stated Naruto and he waited to see what they would ask next.

There was little change in the council members. A few were scrutinizing him for lies but he had been trained by his master to lie in front of anyone. He had even been trained to lie and escape scrutiny from analyzing machines or even jedi. The members of the council found nothing wrong with the statement, so the Sandaime pressed on.

"Did anything out of the ordinary happen on your way to your duty station or at any point before the ANBU came to get you?" questioned the Sandaime a little more seriously.

"I went straight to my post. I didn't stop to look at anything along the way." stated Naruto.

The members of the council stared at him and he merely stared back. A silence passed before Naruto broke it, "If you don't believe me, couldn't you just have a Yamanaka do a mind-walk or something." he said and watched as he got several reactions.

He inwardly smiled as he knew that a mind walk on a jinchuuriki had never been done and the council wouldn't consider it. No one had ever told him about the Kyuubi and now he could use it against them. Waiting for a response, he got one from the Sandaime, "I don't think that will be necessary."

"Did something happen that I should know about?" questioned Naruto in as innocent a voice as he could and he waited for an answer. He eventually got one from the Sandaime, "No, that will be all."

Getting up, the ANBU opened the doors and let him leave while following him.

The room was silent as everyone took in everything that was said. The Sandaime sighed and it was Shikaku that spoke first, "I think he did something and is guilty but I can't prove anything. What exactly it was that he did." stated Shikaku as he thought through as many possibilities as he could.

"I don't know really know what he would be hiding. While releasing some of the Kyuubi's chakra is of great concern, it isn't exactly a crime. We still have no idea why or how he did it. We also don't know how Jiraiya was involved with all of this." stated Aburame Shibi and with that he looked over to the white haired man who had a serious look on his face.

"Do you think its possible that he knows about the Seal and the Kyuubi?" said Inoichi as he put out the question to the room. None of the council members answered the question they all thought through the possibilities.

"You haven't told him about the seal and the Kyuubi!?" Jiraiya blurted out at Sandaime.

The Sandaime sighed again. Nothing was making any sense. 'Why did Naruto attack Jiraiya or release some the Kyuubi's chakra?' he wondered and then thought, 'What else has he been keeping from me?'

He wanted to wait as long as possible to tell Naruto about the Kyuubi. Had Naruto somehow found out and was experimenting with the seal? The question bothered him greatly and he knew he would have to tell Naruto about the seal and get Jiraiya to examine it and see if there is anything wrong.

The conversation between the council members continued for several more minutes. The entire time Danzo was sitting quietly and taking in everything that he had heard. He was making his own conclusions.

x-x

Naruto sat outside with the ANBU escort close by and waited for the meeting to finish. He had a good idea what was going to happen next from the conversion going on in the room.

They believed he was lying and then he would be taken to the Sandaime's office where the Kyuubi would be explained to him and the seal examined, likely by Jiraiya. Then they would determine what was going on and that he had been responsible for the release of chakra.

From their minds, he could tell that most of the members on the council had not felt the release of chakra themselves and could not be sure it even came from the Kyuubi but they were inclined to believe that it was.

The one thing that they hadn't counted on was that he still had something up his sleeve. He had managed to learn quite a bit from Jiraiya's memories about the seal that had been placed on him and could use his current situation to further confound the council.

The plan for leaving the village wasn't fool proof and any number of problems could occur, such as what he was currently dealing with. However, even if the plan to leave the village failed, by the time someone realized what had happened, he would be long gone and with no trail to follow. That was the most important part of the plan, that he didn't leave any trail for anyone to follow. Even if he was discovered to be alive, no one would have any idea where to look for him. Snow Country was well over a hundred miles from Konoha and across the sea. Once he made it there, who would think to look for him on that island?

The only thing he needed to do was make sure that he was on the wall when the battle started. Everything else would fall into place after. This meant that he would have to make sure that he didn't get arrested and could still be at his posting. Even if he was under ANBU watch, he could still work with that.

To make sure this happened, he would need to have a discussion with the Hokage and give a good enough performance that they might believe that he didn't know about the Kyuubi beforehand. Unfortunately that meant having a heartfelt discussion with the Sandaime, which was something he dreaded.

x-x

Sandaime's office

x-x

With the discussion over, Jiraiya started examining the seal on his stomach. He had played ignorant of the seal as well as he could and knew that both men still had their doubts about him. Fortunately what Jiraiya was about to find would help him greatly.

With the release of the Kyuubi's chakra, the seal on his stomach would have loosened or cracked slightly and allowed him some access to the Kyuubi's chakra. Apparently the Yondaime wanted him to be able to learn to use the Kyuubi's chakra at some point or that was what Jiraiya thought. Looking at the seal, it should show that it has been loosened but only those that know what they are looking for can see it.

What Jiraiya and the Sandaime didn't know was that this wasn't his real body. It was his shadow clone, and the clone was created before he used the Kyuubi's chakra. This meant that the seal on the clones body was still perfectly intact and showed no signs of loosening or any kind of damage. It was still perfect as the day it was created. The real seal on his real body would show these signs but the clones did not.

Jiraiya stared at the seal once again and tried to find any evidence that the boy in front of him had been using the Kyuubi's chakra. From what he could tell, the seal was still fine and the Kyuubi completely locked away.

'This doesn't make any sense. Sensei swears he felt the Kyuubi but the seals completely intact.' Jiraiya thought and questioned whether it was the Kyuubi's chakra that had been felt.

Someone had managed to sneak up and get the drop on him, at least that was how he saw it. He was perfectly fine though, aside from a headache, and the Kyuubi's chakra, or at least what some people thought was it's chakra, had been released inside the village.

If the seal was intact, then how could the boy in front of him, who was never told about the Kyuubi, release some of its chakra? He had no answer for this. Once the seal was loosened, it could only be tightened back up by the key.

'The key!' he thought and he glanced at the boy quickly. His mind went through many different theories and suspicions but ultimately he cast them aside. It wouldn't have been possible for the boy to have gotten access to the key that went with the seal.

It was attached to a toad summons which was currently inside of him and they boy did not sign the toad contract or even know about the key in the first place. He would definitely check once the boy left but he was sure the key was still safe.

'Then that leaves no explanation for the release of chakra and someone knocking me out.' he thought and put the boys shirt back down. The seal was fine and showed no evidence of weakening or any sign that the Kyuubi's chakra had ever passed into the boy's body.

The situation they were left with provided more questions than answers.

x-x

Putting back on his jonin vest, Naruto thought about what he had just learned. The key to his seal was apparently with Jiraiya and he had no way to access to it at all. It was also attached to a summoning animal. He hadn't found this out during his search through the man's mind but he had been prematurely stopped by what he had found.

'If I had known that before and hadn't lost my control, I could have had the key or at least tried to get it.' he thought as he left the office and went back to his apartment.

There didn't seem to be the opportunity for another chance to get it and he couldn't very well attack the man again. Jiraiya wouldn't be so careless again and would be on his guard. 'Especially not with my new ANBU escort that will likely be following me around for days if not weeks.' he thought as he barely managed to feel with his diminished Force powers the life-signs of a squad of ANBU that were following him.

He needed to get back to his apartment and switch with a fresh clone. While he was technically off the hook, he decided not to leave the hideout again until the chunin exam finals. Anything he needed, he could send out clones for.

x-x

Walking out of the Hokage tower, Danzo headed for his home. The Sandaime had come back and told the council about the seal being completely intact. It was a surprise as he hadn't counted on the container being so resourceful and covering his tracks.

He knew more about what was going on than anyone else in the council and was forming conclusions about what had happened before they brought the boy in to question him. He also wasn't willing to share his thoughts with any of the council members.

With the boy's ability to read minds, it was obvious to him that Jiraiya's mind had been read in some way and information accessed. It was rather ridiculous that a ninja deemed as 'legendary' could be caught so off-guard and unaware but he tried to put that out of his mind and focus on the more important things.

The only aspect of the situation he was still working out was the release of the Kyuubi's chakra. The seal he couldn't be sure about because he had never been able to see the complete sealing method used but he wondered why the boy had done it.

'Was he testing something and it went wrong or did he just completely lose control over his emotions?' he wondered.

With the ability to read minds, he knew that the answer was in Jiraiya's mind. Something there had lead the boy to accidentally release or to try and access some of the Kyuubi's chakra. His mind searched for the possible answers to that question.

What would set off such a calm and calculating person that seemed to have excellent control over their emotions? This was the question he was trying to answer.

The boy gave nothing away during the meeting, showed no sign of lying, and while many council members suspected something, they couldn't prove anything. They couldn't prove that the boy was associated with the release of chakra or attacking Jiraiya. The Sandaime's view was not to detain anyone unless there was proof of guilt which in his opinion was a foolish method.

The thought eventually came to him when he went through all of the things that Jiraiya might know that would affect the container. The answer was the boy's parents.

'So he likely knows who his parents are.' mused Danzo. He wasn't sure if knowing that information was good or bad but it didn't bode well for the village.

He knew he would have to think on this information and what actions to take concerning it.

Please Review

AN: it took so long to update because the chapter kept getting longer and longer that I had to split it up. Hopefully I can finish chapter 14 in a couple of days and post that as well.


	14. Chapter 14

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

**x-x**

**36.6 BBY – Current Year (Naruto is twelve and two week has passed since the last chapter, so there is one week before the chunin exam finals)**

Chapter XIV: Leaving

x-x

Two weeks had passed since the incident at the hot springs. Naruto's clones took care of all of his duties and other needs while he stayed in the hideout. His clones performing his duties were being followed and monitored by ANBU twenty four hours a day. He knew this because Karin had sensed them.

It wasn't that difficult to constantly switch out the clone when it got low on chakra but there was always the chance that something could happen and one of his clones would get dispelled. He was lucky that he was being kept in the village and on guard duty so the clones were in no danger of being dispelled

Getting the information from the library was done at night now. He would send a clone that would use an earth jutsu to move through the rock of the Hokage mountain and enter the library when it was closed. He learned enough about the security measures and the patrols to not get caught but couldn't send more than one clone without the risk of getting noticed.

Currently he was focusing on getting everything ready for leaving the hideout. He was removing and sealing all of the scrolls and information that he had into two large scrolls that he would seal on his body. He planned to leave everything else how it was in the hideout, except for the Sith runes, so he had the hideout to use later on.

Karin was had just finished enough of her training to perform the necessary changes to the corpse in order to make the face look like him. While Karin was doing that, he would be placing the seal on the corpse. They would also have to modify his hospital records which would have to be stolen from the hospital and altered before the chunin exam finals. With these changes to the body and what he had planned for his 'death', he would likely fool the entire village into thinking that he was dead.

There would likely still be people that would suspect him of something, such as Danzo, but even if the corpse was discovered as not being his, he would be long gone by that time.

Getting out the scroll with the body, he would have Karin start working on it later that day, however there was something he had to do first.

He had ANBU, Jiraiya, the Sandaime and his viewing orb, and even a member of Danzo's Root ANBU tailing him nearly all the time. Unfortunately he needed to get supplies as well as do things within the village. The protection of the hideout stopped the viewing orb from finding his real body but he had a feeling that the Hokage was watching in on his shadow clone from time to time.

This was a problem because his clones probably couldn't escape the notice of everyone that was after him, which meant that he couldn't use them effectively to finish the plan in the next week. With the number of methods and sensors that were monitoring him, he had to be more careful than ever. He was working on something to help him escape chakra sensor detection but it was still a work in progress and he could only delegate the work to a clone while he dealt with the many other problems that he had been experiencing.

The only thing that he had going for himself was that none of the people that were after him had ever seen, met, or knew anything about Karin.

She could move through the village without question. Should she be caught, he could easily falsify anything that they needed to make her appear to be a current academy student and even a member of the village. He could place fake records of her in the archives, put the same files inside the ninja academy file room, and he could always 'persuade' a chunin teacher to acknowledge the fact that Karin was his student. This could all be done extremely quickly because of the closeness of the academy and the archives to his hideout. He would only need to send a clone using a rock jutsu to get to these locations.

This plan seemed feasible to him and he intended to implement it. In preparation and as a test, he had let Karin go to lunch with Tenten two weeks ago. The decision was foolish but he needed to test her loyalty and determine if she could be trusted to act semi-independently inside the village and perform the needed tasks.

Waiting for her to return to the meeting place he had designated, which was the main entrance to the hideout at the top of the Hokage monument, she had returned without incident and told him that she would be meeting Tenten for lunch again in a couple of days.

He let the lunch meetings go because he needed Karin to help him with much more than he originally planned. Letting her have some freedom would give him leverage to get her to go on a mission for him and work on the corpse. It was a compromise and done to get her to cooperate. Forcing her to do things may only go so far before she tried to subvert his plans.

He had talked with his Master the previous week but had mentioned nothing about the events that had happened at the hot springs. Right before the transmission, he had a foreboding feeling through the Force concerning what he was going to talk about with his Master. He wasn't sure where it came from but it was enough to worry him and rethink what he had been going to inform Plagueis about.

He pushed the memories and information as deep as he could before contacting his Master and giving Plagueis an update of his progress. He informed him that things were still proceeding but he was having trouble because Jiraiya had showed up in the village and Danzo was getting more suspicious. He also mentioned nothing about the Kyuubi, his parents, or using the drain knowledge technique on Jiraiya. He still wasn't sure his Master would even believe the story of knocking the legendary ninja out while the man was peeping on the woman's hot springs. Even he himself still had trouble believing it.

Currently he was walking to the room that Karin was practicing medical ninjutsu in.

He watched what she was doing for a few moments before he said anything. Karin was just finishing up an exercise with one of the fish he provided and would move on to more advanced training soon. This would be enough for his purposes and he watched as she healed a fish that he had purposefully injured.

Medic-nin needed real training on real injuries in order to become better and he couldn't let her go to the hospital or get any experience on real people, except for himself, but he wasn't about to let her use any medical ninjutsu on him. It wasn't that he didn't think her skill was good enough but that he still didn't trust her completely nor really trust anyone to heal him besides the medical droid and bacta tank on the ship.

Once Karin finished, he spoke, "Since you've completed the exercise, I have something else for you to do."

Karin looked up a little startled as she was so focused on the task that he she didn't feel him enter the room or standing near her. "What kind of exercise is it?" she asked and was eager to learn anything he could offer.

"It won't be an exercise per say. You will be going out into the village and procuring something for me." stated Naruto and he felt and watched for her reaction.

Her eyes widened at what he said and she thought about what it could be. It was good that he was willing to trust her more and give her a bigger role in whatever he was planning. She was very curious what his plans actually were as it had never been explained to her and succeeding in some kind of mission would only put her on his good side.

"So...what is it?" she questioned and he proceeded to tell her about the short mission.

Karin absorbed the information he was telling her about breaking into the hospital and procuring his medical records. He pulled out plans for the building that were taken from the archives as well as a village map and made sure she knew where she was going.

She watched as he pulled out what looked like a fuinjutsu brush and then formed a handseal she had come to recognize as the one that created his clones. The clone stood next to him as the smoke cleared and then it performed the henge and turned itself into a small metal pyramid like object. She watched in curiosity as she wondered what he would do and then he said something.

"Let me see your arm."

x-x

Calmly, or as calmly as possible under the conditions she was in, Karin walked through the village and towards the Konoha hospital. The building was several stories tall and it was now in her view as she casually walked to it.

She was under a henge to make her look like a nurse and one of the hospitals regular staff. From the information that Naruto had told her, she would be sneaking in through one of the back entrances of the hospital and making her way to the records room.

Getting into the hospital wouldn't be that hard as it really wasn't a very secure building. There were many ninja in the building but the majority were either visitors or patients. Few ninja seemed to be patrolling the building and she could feel them as well as evade them with her sensor abilities.

Watching over one of the service entrances, she waited for an opening and then went in to pick the lock on the door. With the door opened, she made her way through the maintenance area of the hospital and to the stairwell. The main records room was on the middle floor of the building so as to be better accessible to all floors.

Stopping in the stairwell before she entered the correct floor, she sensed the entire floor for chakra signatures that belonged to ninja. She only detected a few signatures that were larger than a civilian but it was hard to tell whether they belonged to ninja or just medical-nin.

Once the hallway was clear, she entered through the stairwell door and closed it behind her without making much noise. Casually walking down the hall, she headed to where Naruto indicated the records room was.

Passing several locked rooms, she eventually came to the correct room. Reaching out, she checked the door and found it locked which she already assumed it would be. Kneeling down, she pulled out her lock picking tools and went to work on the door.

It didn't take very long before the lock clicked to tell her that the door was open and she proceeded to enter the room. Looking around at the numerous filing cabinets, she thought about where to start first and realized that she didn't know one key piece of information.

'My surname is Uzumaki.' stated a disembodied voice from inside her head.

Karin jumped slightly at the intrusion of the voice into her thoughts but then calmed down and absently touched her arm that had the seal on it. When Naruto had created the storage seal on her arm, she had no idea what his thought process was when he sealed a henged clone into it. She thought perhaps he was sending backup for her but it was really so that he could extend whatever thought projecting abilities he had and communicate with her while they were separated.

She had questioned whether it was necessary and suggested a wireless radio but he told her that their conversation could be picked up by other radios that the ANBU used.

Opening file drawers until she came upon the U's, she quickly skimmed the names until she found what she was looking for. Pulling it out, she noticed that it was rather thin. Putting the file under her arm, she closed the drawer to the cabinet and made her way out of the room. Before she left, she sensed the floor she was on and found a ninja or medical-nin walking down the long hallway right towards her. Panicking, she looked around the room for somewhere to hide as she wouldn't be able to leave the room without being spotted and she couldn't be sure that her henge of a random nurse would be able to pass scrutiny in a place where everyone knew each other. She looked everywhere in the room but found nothing.

'Stop panicking.' came Naruto's voice in her head and she calmed down slightly, 'If you can't find a hiding place then you'll just have to make one.'

x-x

A shadow appeared, blocking the light of the slit at the bottom of the door. The handle turned and the door opened to reveal a nurse. The nurse walked in rather frustrated as someone had again forgotten to lock the records room door and then proceeded to organize the files she was carrying into the correct cabinets. It took a few minutes to finish and once she was done, she headed back to the door of the room. Along the short path to the door, she noted a filing cabinet that was much shorter than the rest. She stopped to look at it briefly as she wondered if it had been there when she was in the room earlier that day. She continued walking to the door a moment later and ignored the small oddity as she had other work to do. Closing the door on her way out, she headed back to tend to her patients.

A moment elapsed before the filing cabinet the nurse had been looking at went up in smoke. The smoke cleared to reveal a crouched and relieved Karin. Before she stood up, she sensed the chakra signatures in the area to make sure no one else was coming and that the coast was clear.

She exhaled when she found no one in the immediate area and left the records room with the file in hand. Closing the door soundlessly behind her, she moved quickly back the way she came and exited the hospital.

x-x

Karin handed the file to Naruto and waited with her arms crossed as he leafed through the pages. Sifting through his own medical records, which he had never looked at before, he glanced at all of the information and numbers just in case there was something he missed or didn't know about himself.

A good portion of the file needed to be altered because it was too difficult to change the body to match the file. The last physical he had indicated that he was a few inches shorter and actually a little heavier then the corpse he had acquired but that physical had been months ago so all he needed to alter was the blood type and a few other parts of his records. Besides that, the corpses face needed to be changed to match his.

Pulling out the scroll with the corpse in it, he motioned to an earthen operating table nearby that he had created while Karin was getting the file.

Karin walked to it and watched with some interest as Naruto set down a scroll on the flat rock surface and then proceeded to unroll it. What she didn't know was that it contained the corpse of her teammate that had been preserved inside the scroll for about a month.

They had a short window in which to alter the body and Naruto wanted it as 'fresh' as possible so he had used a special preservation scroll. The bodies time of death could be determined by a medical examiner but with careful planning and preservation, the bodies time of death would nearly fit with his supposed death when the battle started. There was unfortunately some error but it couldn't be helped and was unavoidable for his plans.

Putting his hands in the ram seal he unsealed the scroll. Karin leaned forward to see what it was and when the smoke cleared she screamed and then fainted.

Frowning Naruto sighed and then sealed back up the body since Karin obviously wouldn't be doing anything until she gained consciousness.

'Perhaps I should have warned her first?' Naruto wondered and small smile formed on his face.

x-x

Karin regained consciousness several minutes later and Naruto explained to her everything that he wanted her to do to the corpse before he unsealed it again.

The operation proceeded better than expected. While still squeamish about working on the body of her former teammate, Karin managed to create an exact replica of Naruto's face. Everything was finished in less time than Naruto thought it would take. He spent several minutes inspecting the body and the seal he had placed before he determined that it was as good a replica as it could be. The body was then sealed up.

While Karin was changing the face and he was applying the seal to the stomach, one of his clones had gone about altering the medical records to reflect the new body before him.

Once everything was completed, Karin was sent back to the hospital to put his records back. He would only need to wait a few more days before the chunin exam finals and then he would be able to leave the village.

x-x

Plagueis' eyes once again moved over a group of scientists that were now working for him. He inspected what they were working on and moved on to another area of the facility.

He currently had several groups of Snow Country scientists working on multiple projects for him. One group was making several chakra armor devices based on Dotou's advanced prototype. He added in a bit of his own knowledge to the devices but with the facilities and resources he had, he wasn't able to do much to the devices or make them much better than the original design.

Another group was finishing up synthesizing the ship sealant in another part of Dotou's castle. A small chemical factory had been constructed with the materials brought to the island that Naruto had sealed onto the boat. Production of the sealant would begin shortly.

The final group was working on analyzing a strange device in the mountains that Dotou was interested in. The dictator was positive that the device was a weapon but upon inspection and testing, it turned out that the notion was mistaken and the device built by Dotou's brother was not a weapon. It was actually some type of climate control device that required a specialized key to activate. The device itself was not yet completed but Plagueis managed to get his hands on detailed plans for it from records as well as from what the scientists had put together.

The device was supposed to drastically alter the snow covered island and keep it stuck in a single season of the year. He, as well as the scientists, were still not completely sure of how the device worked as despite his vast knowledge, he could not completely determine how several key components function from just a set of blueprints, though he could guess. Accessing these components for further study would require dismantling portions of the device as the plans did not explain what they did or how they functioned. In order to get a better idea, he would either have to dismantle the entire device, find the key and activate it for study, or construct his own similar device.

He currently had other things to worry about though and needed most of the scientists for other endeavors, so the he would have to wait and perhaps construct a device once they were back in the known galaxy. It wasn't a big loss however as he currently had no need for a climate control device but it was something of interest and he would look into it at a later date.

His last transmission with his student was also still stuck in his thoughts. He had the feeling that Naruto was keeping information from him but wasn't sure what that information was. His thoughts were filled with notions of what that information could be and he had thoroughly analyzed each possibility. They ranged from his student being influenced by the kunoichi that was now working for them, to his student plotting against him. It seemed more likely that Naruto was being influenced by the redheaded girl than plotting against him but he had no way to be sure. He planned to investigate into the matter once his student arrived in Snow Country.

x-x

The morning of the chunin exam finals arrived and Naruto hadn't slept at all the night before. He spent most of the night meditating and going over everything that he would be doing and what would be happening.

The plan had been adjusted slightly as Karin could now be trusted and so she was given a larger part in the days events. He already sent the girl outside of the village with all of her possessions in a single scroll attached at the back of her waist and with exact instructions on what she was supposed to do as well as when she was to do it.

Now all that was left was to complete the final stage of the plan and leave the village. It was a shame that he never managed to find his parents house or any other information on where they had lived or where any of their possessions were. That kind of information was likely only in the minds of a select few individuals in the entire village and it was possible that only the Hokage knew, so he wasn't able to get it. It was unfortunate but before the battle was over that day, he would have much more information to make up for it.

Sitting safely inside the top entrance to his hideout, he created several shadow clones that would be needed later when Orochimaru's surprise attack started. He had a very large scroll next to him which he would use in a little while and he had a shadow clone heading to his duty station at the outer wall that had the scroll with the corpse in it. He would wait as long as possible before releasing the preserved corpse inside the scroll and taking control over it in order to fake his death.

According to Kabuto's memories, Orochimaru would give a signal which would alert the Suna forces outside of the wall to summon a large snake summon that had been provided for them. That signal would also start an attack in the stadium and with both events happening, it would give him plenty of time and a good enough distraction for what he had planned.

Waiting was problematic but it was inevitable and he sat down in a meditative position to better control the clone heading toward the wall.

x-x

Sitting with a frown on her face, Karin absently adjusted her glasses while waiting for the exact moment to use the scroll next to her. She wasn't completely sure what she was doing by this large lake or what the special scroll she had been given would do, but she knew that when the exact time came, she was to add chakra to it.

Glancing at the new and expensive watch, she smiled slightly at the gift she had been given. Part of her knew that it was only given to her for this specific task but she liked it nonetheless. It was disconcerting though that all of her other possessions managed to fit in a single scroll that she was carrying with her. It did have numerous storage seals in it but the scroll itself was so small. She still hadn't been completely informed on what was going to happen but she definitely knew that they were leaving the village and that it would be attacked in some way by an outside force.

She was glad that she wouldn't be inside the village when the attack that Naruto had mentioned would be occurring but she did have some concern for her friend Tenten. They were getting along well but she hadn't been told about the attack early enough to warn her friend about it and she couldn't help but wonder if Tenten would be alright. There was no telling how destructive the battle would be and she had no idea if the village would survive or not. Part of her wanted to stay in the village as she found it much nicer than her previous one but that was not her decision.

Her mind moved from those thoughts to her current location. Something told her that the lake wasn't randomly chosen by Naruto and that it had some significance to him. However, she had no idea what that significance was.

x-x

While the noise from the beginning match filled the stadium and part of the village, Danzo's Root ANBU headquarters heard none of the fighting or celebration. In his underground location, Danzo sat at his desk in his small spartan office and once again viewed through the many reports that he had at his disposal and that had been collected over the course of several years. He was sure that all of the files in front of him concerned the Kyuubi container and was just finishing drawing possible conclusions from them.

His red eye looked through all of the documents and he reviewed everything he had. He needed to make a decision and the chunin exam finals, when most of the village was distracted, would be an opportune time to perform any unsanctioned and illegal action.

The only decision that he had made was that he could no longer take the 'wait and see' approach as he felt he could not gain any more information from monitoring the jinchuuriki.

The information seemed to begin with the memory erasing of a jonin, followed by the assassination of a genin, and then the memory erasing of a chunin. From what he could tell, the container had discovered two plots to steal items from the village and had intercepted or used the two ninja as scapegoats and walked away with three items of great value to the village. He also knew that the genin had been killed in order to get a spot on a seasoned genin team and achieve a higher ninja rank at a faster pace during peacetime in the village.

Though these events were of concern, the events after that were what he was focusing on. After Uzumaki Naruto had been placed on the genin team with Yakushi Kabuto and Akado Yoroi was of interest to him. At the end of the second stage of the chunin exams, both genin were determined to be spies for Orochimaru.

This was the second time that he had come across the Sannin's name in relation to the Kyuubi container and this greatly concerned him. From what he could tell, there was no evidence that the container was ever involved with Orochimaru until joining that genin team. 'Uzumaki most likely read the mind of the genin that he replaced and found out that the entire genin team were spies for Orochimaru. However, he said nothing and was put on the team without any problems and never once tried to implicate either genin as spies.' Danzo concluded from the information he had.

When followed to Wave Country, Orochimaru's name came up again in a 'coded' talk with the deceased shipping mogul Gatou. This information put several theories into his mind that the Kyuubi container started working for Orochimaru and that Gatou was also connected to the Sannin. Orochimaru had stayed well hidden and having someone like Gatou with his shipping business would definitely have helped the Sannin stay hidden and move things without anyone noticing.

However, other recent events had disproved this theory. While Kabuto had escaped and then later tried to kill Uchiha Sasuke, Akado Yoroi had not escaped and was captured by Sai. Interrogation was only able to get a small amount of information out of the genin spy before he was killed between interrogation sessions in the Intelligence and Interrogations Division's building. The death was made to look like a suicide but everyone suspected that someone infiltrated the secure building and assassinated the genin.

The entire ninja council had been worried that both genin being spies meant that the container was also a spy, but Yoroi did reveal that his former teammate was not a spy or had any connection with Orochimaru. This information contradicted his earlier assumptions. Other information taken from the genin hinted that Orochimaru was planning something during the chunin exam finals but the genin was not informed of what that something was. The village was now on high alert but no one knew what would happen or what Orochimaru was planning and only the ninja council knew the full details of this information.

The theory he had now was that the container was working by himself and for his own interests.

He liked this theory much less than his previous one as it implied that the container had somehow learned to read minds by himself without any help or was somehow being influenced by the Bijuu sealed inside. There was no evidence that the boy was influenced or had ever used the Kyuubi's chakra but the incident a month ago spoke differently. It also implied that the container was far more devious, skilled, and calculating than he originally assumed.

With such a confusing and troubling situation, the best that he could come up with was that Uzumaki Naruto was a very worthy opponent in terms of working from the shadows and had accomplished a great deal and grown very powerful without much scrutiny. This was a very problematic conclusion and was the reason that he could not simply 'wait and see'.

During the month break for the chunin exam finals, he done everything he could to learn more about the jinchuuriki and try to find any incriminating evidence. He had his own ninja try and keep tabs on the boy and his activities, looked through all the files he had, and tried to find any information from sources inside or outside the village. He called in favors with ANBU members that he had personally trained and the boys apartment had been thoroughly and illegally searched for any of the stolen items that the village was still looking for. Nothing was found except numerous empty hiding places created throughout the entire apartment.

This led Danzo to believe that the boy had a secret hiding place elsewhere for the stolen items. Without any idea where it could be and after a month of monitoring the container's activities without finding anything, he was forced to consider other possibilities and look for anything that stood out.

The patience required to be followed for over a month and not make a single mistake or do anything of note stuck out as something very odd. What little he had on the container suggested that the boy was impulsive and didn't like to wait. This was the complete opposite of the patient person that had only performed their duty for an entire month and had done nothing of note nor any extracurricular activity. The boy hadn't even trained in the training grounds for an entire month and he had trouble finding any information that the container had ever used the training grounds for personal training. This made little sense for a ninja of special jonin status that had risen through the ranks so quickly.

The notion of a small hiding place had therefore been changed to a larger hiding place that could accommodate room for a single person to train in. From Fu's monitoring, a discrepancy was noted in the early mornings with the amount of chakra that the boy had. Fu thought it was lower than what he had noted in the past when following the boy.

He now suspected that the boy was using shadow clones to perform his duties within the village. There was little chance of a clone being found out or dispelled while performing standard guard duty and with the boy's chakra reserves, the clones could last for a long time. This supported the idea of a large hiding place but didn't consider how the switch between real and fake was being made or where the shadow clones were coming from because they never seemed to go anywhere else but guard duty, out to eat, and the apartment building. This implied that the hiding place was at one of these locations and a seamless switch could be made between clone or original or a new clone could switch with an old one without anyone seeing.

Looking through the papers once again for anything that stood out, he also glanced at the plans for the buildings that the container passed on his routine trips from the apartment and finally noticed something. On one of Fu's early reports, he noted that a strange chakra disruption when the boy entered the stairwell that lead to his apartment. This had been noted on several reports but stopped occurring in more recent reports and Danzo's eyes narrowed as he pulled out the blueprints for the container's building.

It wasn't an apartment building but a storehouse that had an apartment on the roof. Finding the stairwell, Danzo found that it was completely closed off and no one from the outside, those following the container, could see inside. The container disappeared from view while in the stairwell and was only visible while entering or exiting it. That left many seconds unaccounted for and several floors of stairwell were a switch could be made. The building plans did not indicate any rooms right by the stairwell that could be used for such a hidden area but everything else fit.

Sitting back in his chair, Danzo thought about what he should now do with the knowledge that he had. The village had a rogue jinchuuriki that was erasing and reading the minds of ninja in the village, stealing village secrets, using the Kyuubi's chakra, and that had an unknown agenda. Something needed to be done and he decided to take both Fu and Torune with him.

x-x

The controlled clone was standing in the watchtower along the eastern wall of the village with the other ninja that were on guard duty. Looking out over the forest where he knew several hundred ninja were hiding and possibly looking back at him, the clone pulled out the scroll.

He needed to unseal the body as close to the attack as possible but he had no idea when exactly that was. There was no decided time like he had made with Karin but only a rough estimate. Using the Force, he made the motion of throwing something in a direction but didn't actually send anything flying.

The guards were all on their feet as they just had a strong feeling that something was happening in the direction that Naruto indicated. While the guards were all distracted, the clone unsealed the body and then used the dead soul technique on the corpse. The technique was quickly completed and the heart restarted which let him control the body. It stood and the clone dispelled. The control he was using on the shadow clone was switched with the corpse. The dead body stood and then walked over to see what the other ninja were looking at.

The Force technique he used had distracted the ninja enough that they were unaware of the noise he was making behind them and completely focused on the direction he indicated. Eventually they decided that whatever it was that had attracted their attention was no longer of interest or even important in the first place and went back to playing cards.

With the switch completed, Naruto controlled the corpse and waited for the attack to commence.

x-x

Despite having his eyes watching the fight between Uchiha Sasuke and Subaku no Gaara, the Sandaime's thoughts were elsewhere.

He was still not sure what was happening with Naruto or what the boy was up to. Nothing made sense and even though his ninja had been secretly monitoring the boy for nearly a month, they had not found anything notable or that would indicate Naruto had some kind of agenda.

Even Jiraiya had checked in on the boy from time to time and not found anything out of the ordinary. His apartment had been searched and everything that Naruto did was closely monitored but nothing came up.

He also acknowledged the fact that Naruto may know about the ANBU following him and made sure to not do anything suspicious. Something was definitely going on but he still could not determine what that something was or how Naruto was involved.

Another concern was Orochimaru as his former student was definitely planning something and he couldn't help but wonder if Naruto was somehow involved in his former student's plans for the village. With Naruto's former genin teammates turning out to both be spies for Orochimaru, anything was possible. The genin Yoroi had not given them much to go on before being assassinated, and it was still difficult to believe that the village could be so easily infiltrated by spies and that an assassination could occur in such a secure facility.

The likely culprit was Naruto's former teammate Yakushi Kabuto who was far more competent and skilled than any report or archived file revealed. The former Konoha genin had gotten past numerous Anbu with ease.

He was still questioning whether Naruto had any knowledge of either of his teammates being spies but it didn't seem that likely as even the Jonin sensei was oblivious to the genin's involvement in espionage for Orochimaru.

He desperately wished he could answer any of the questions and concerns that had been constantly on his mind in the last month but the answers continued to allude him as he looked down at the battle between the two boys.

x-x

Through what little Force connection he had in the revived and controlled body, Naruto could feel the tension starting to build which told him that something would happen soon. It seemed to swell from the forest and the arena as well as a few other places so he decided that the battle was imminent and he should start the plan.

The guard towers were placed at intervals along the top of the thick village wall and a person could walk between them. The area that Naruto needed to be was slightly off from the guard tower he was in. The snake summoning ritual was placed within a hundred feet or so from that general area and the snake would likely come right through the area.

Moving out of the tower, he started walking along the wall for a short distance. A few of the stationed ninja asked where he was going and he replied that he thought he saw something and was going to investigate.

Not twenty feet from tower, smoke started rising from the stadium and then right after that kunai peppered the watch tower he was just in. He maneuvered the corpse to dodge the kunai and didn't have to wait a few more seconds before smoke filled the section of forest in front of him. The smoke bulged out and a giant three headed snake emerged that charged the wall right where he was standing.

As it charged for his position he had to stop himself from trying to dodge it. He made it seem like he froze in shock and surprise at the coming summon. Only a moment passed before the snake reached the wall and instead of letting himself be hit, he used the Force to gently push the body away from the snake and fell off the wall as the snake slammed through it. The force of the snake's impact sent debris everywhere while he was falling and he was struck by the belly of the snake as it fell but used the Force to limit the amount of damage to the body. Despite being hit, the body was caught with the debris and ended up buried while the snake stopped for a moment to attack the ninja in the area.

Being conscious while your body was hit by a snake and then crushed under debris was a very strange experience and Naruto waited for a few more moments before stopping the technique. He made sure that the corpse was buried as deep as possible and would not be found until after the cleanup started.

With the rubble and the fighting, it could be days before that body was discovered. After that, it could take a few more days before it was properly identified depending on the damage done to it and the fact that the priority of the Konoha Hospital was for the living. With all of the injured people as a result of the battle, the hospital would be flooded with patients and everyone would be attending to them, including any doctors or examiners that normally work on autopsies.

The minimum amount of time before his body was discovered was at least several days. An autopsy would inevitably be done to make sure it was him as the council would call for it. The forged records would match up with the discovered body and everything would match. It would likely be determined from the autopsy that he was instantly killed when the summons broke through the wall and all of the other injures were caused right after death because of the debris.

No one had been left alive that had seen him die as the ninja in the watchtowers had all been killed by the kunai or the summon. Therefore, no one would be actively looking for his body until it was discovered that he was missing or the debris was cleaned up and the corpse was found. They had other priorities and he didn't have any friends or people that would be worried about him, save for perhaps the Sandaime.

It was likely that by the time the body was confirmed as his own, he would already be on his way to or in Snow Country.

x-x

A pair of blue eyes opened back in the top entrance to the hideout and Naruto turned to his shadow clones while pulling out the large scroll he had.

He unrolled the scroll and unsealed multiple smaller storage scrolls that were filled with empty storage seals and a few items that the clones would need for their mission. Each clone picked up a scroll and upon the mental command from the creator, they henged into Sound ninja and then used an earth technique to meld with the rock of the mountain and moved to complete their missions.

Naruto left the scroll where it was and then went about destroying the Sith runes on the entrance to the hideout as he had done with the runes inside of the hideout. He left most of the fuinjutsu but it wasn't a good idea to leave the Sith runes once he left because they could be discovered and it was not something he wanted anyone else to know about.

He then removed several small square pieces of parchment from his cloak. Each had a seal on it with the kanji for 'suppress'. Lifting up his shirt, he put one on his stomach and another on his chest, then stuck one on each of the upper parts of his arms. Forming the ram seal, he activated the seals and completely suppressed his chakra network.

Picking up the large and now empty scroll, he walked out of the entrance to the hideout and to the edge of the Hokage monument above the faces of the Hokage.

Looking over the village as he had done many times in the past, he had a good view the battle currently happening in the village. His eyes roamed the village walls and then peered at the stadium where a large dark purple barrier had been created.

Reaching up to his forehead, he pulled down his goggles and zoomed in on the area to see what was happening.

x-x

While battles took place over the village, groups of Naruto's clones went to three locations in the village. One group went to the Hokage tower to copy down any information or techniques that could be of use to him. The Hokage tower, specifically the Hokage's library and study had numerous books and other information that could definitely be useful to him. A second group went to the library to finish getting the information there. The final group went to infiltrate Root ANBU headquarters and take anything that they could find.

With Jiraiya's knowledge of seals, he had a few better methods for copying down information than just doing it by hand and each clone had the supplies to do it. He periodically checked in on his clones to supervise what information they were taking. He only had a limited amount of time before Karin acted on his instructions and wanted to get everything he could but the clones still needed to get back to his position.

He couldn't be seen, felt, or tracked leaving the village and while having so many ninja fighting in the village was a distraction, it also put him at risk of getting spotted, attacked, or caught. He found a much better way to leave the village that left no trail.

Unnoticed by him or his clones, Danzo was already making his way towards his apartment building.

x-x

Despite a battle going on near the village wall, Danzo and his two best Root ANBU, Fu and Torune, made their way to the building where the Kyuubi container's apartment was. Each member was being extremely cautious to not get caught or spotted by Konoha ninja but most of the battle was away from where they were.

Stopping at the entrance to the stairwell of the building, Danzo glanced over at Fu who sensed the area to make sure no one was was around and then pulled off the wrappings on his face to reveal the sharingan. They then proceeded to enter the stairwell which did not have a door but merely an open entrance.

They didn't have to go far before Danzo's eyes spotted a disturbance behind the staircase on the ground floor. The wall itself appeared slightly different than the rest of the walls and his eye picked up the small differences enough to know that an earth jutsu had been used to seal something up.

Pulling out a kunai, Danzo charged wind chakra into it and elongated the blade then slashed the wall. Putting the kunai back beneath his robes, he kicked the wall and sent the thin material inward and into an open area. It seemed to be an entrance that was covered over and the floor in the tunnel steadily went downhill.

Torune examined the area for traps but found none and so the three moved through the hole and into the tunnel, unsure of where it would lead them.

x-x

Naruto's head jerked in the direction of his apartment building as he knew that someone had destroyed the thin wall that he had put up to hide the tunnel to his hideout. He had removed the Sith runes and illusion earlier that morning. The only thing that he had left was the fuinjutsu that prevented chakra signatures from being felt outside of the hideout and a makeshift earthen wall.

His heartbeat increased slightly as he realized that someone was likely heading to his hideout and he had removed the defenses. It puzzled him how it had been discovered and he wondered who had found his secret entrance.

Glancing at his watch, he saw that he had a several minutes before his time was up. The clones were nearly finished and the group from the library were already on their way back. It would take a while for whoever it was to explore his hideout but that didn't mean that they wouldn't go to the top entrance, which was the original entrance to the space behind the Hokage's faces, and find him there.

His clones were also safe from detection as the fuinjutsu that prevented chakra from being felt inside the hideout would also prevent any chakra sensors inside the hideout from feeling chakra signatures outside of the hideout as well. It was a caveat of the fuinjutsu he chose to place in the hideout. It was easier to use than other seals and since he couldn't feel chakra anyway, there was no point in worrying about it.

Despite the fact that he could have relocated his current position, the area he was in was the best place to be as he could see everything that was happening and no one would look at the Hokage monument when the fight was elsewhere.

It might be close, but he contacted his clones and told them to hurry up. He wanted to leave before anyone found him. With his chakra sealed, he would have to fight with the Force only and he wasn't sure who he would be facing or if it was multiple ninja or not.

x-x

The three ninja moved silently through the black tunnel. The light had faded and they were going by Danzo's sharingan which could partially pierce the darkness of the tunnel. Fu told the others that he could no longer feel any chakra signatures from the village as something was blocking his sensing ability.

Though Danzo didn't want to admit it, he was very interested where the tunnel would lead. He originally thought the secret area was just a hole in the ground but this was definitely more extensive and well planned. He instantly noticed the jutsu that was used to create the tunnel as he had used the very same, though modified, jutsu when his Root headquarters was created. There also appeared to be some other fuinjutsu active in the tunnel as well.

"How far do you think we've traveled?" inquired Torune to the group and Fu answered, "A couple hundred feet, we may be nearly under the Hokage monument by now. I still can't feel anything from the outside."

Danzo stayed silent until he stopped walking, "We've reached a dead end." he stated and glanced around the pitch black area. He thought at first that it was another wall but his eye was able to see that the ceiling above them was open.

"What do we do now?" asked Fu and Danzo responded, "We go up."

x-x

The clones from the library returned and several hands came up from the ground to deposit scrolls at his feet. He didn't want to risk having one of his clones sensed anymore and couldn't seal the scrolls into his large scroll because he had sealed off his own chakra.

Improvising, he took out ninja wire and attached the small scrolls to the strap of the larger scroll like a bandolier. The situation annoyed him greatly and it wasn't the best solution but he could do little else without the possibility of alerting someone to where he was. Other people could be looking for him as well and they might find him if he unsealed his chakra.

The clones from the Hokage tower had just finished but the clones from the secret base would take slightly longer as it was deep in the ground and farther away than the other locations. Danzo had placed his base next to the Hokage mountain and nearly up against the village wall. The base had a passage out of the village and was still technically inside the village.

He glanced at his watch again to see that he only had a few minutes before Karin would act. Looking back over the village, he saw trees form inside the barrier that the Sandaime and Orochimaru were fighting in. This intrigued him but there was nothing he could do about it at the moment. Pulling down his goggles again, he tried to get a better look inside the purple barrier.

x-x

After running vertically for over two hundred feet, the three ninja emerged into a much lighter area. It was quite a large cave like area and they briefly wondered exactly where in the Hokage mountain they were before they turned around.

Looking at the wall behind them, they saw the reverse impression of the Hokage's faces. Danzo's eyes widened slightly as he realized just where he was and how extensive the hideout was. He signaled to both his ninja and they went about exploring the area for anything of importance.

It was possible that the room was filled with traps, contained a clone or more, or perhaps contained the hiding Kyuubi container. The last thing he wanted was a battle with a jinchuuriki that could access some of its bijuu's power. He knew that he did have the needed abilities, sharingan and mokuton, to suppress that power but he didn't want to have the confrontation get to that point.

He hoped to get the jump on the container but the hideout appeared completely empty. Evidently the size of the original cave had been increased and multiple smaller offshoots had been created for other rooms.

'Such an extensive area and right under the village's and Hokage's nose...or noses so to speak.' Danzo thought. He couldn't believe that the entire time the container had been hiding behind the faces of the Hokage monument and that no one had ever figured it out.

'Fu should have been able to sense the boy's chakra if he was hiding here, so he must have used something else to mask it.' he surmised and started examining the walls and fuinjutsu on them a little closer while his subordinates explored the rest of the area. They were under orders to find the container and then alert him first before engaging.

x-x

The clones from the tower had just given him the scrolls and now he was waiting on the clones from the secret base.

He could feel the life-signs of three individuals below him and wasn't completely sure he could defeat all three by himself without any of his chakra. He recognized one as Fu, the other as Danzo, but had no idea who the third one was. Danzou may have appeared as a crippled old man but Naruto knew otherwise and the other two would be difficult to face as well.

They had yet to make any motion to go to the top of the Hokage mountain and seemed to be exploring the area he had created behind the faces. This bought him some time but he wasn't sure which would happen fist; that Karin would activate the scroll, that his shadow clones would return, or that he would be confronted by the three ninja.

Trying to remain calm in the situation, he looked toward the finishing battle in the village. It seemed to be wrapping up as a giant toad had appeared to fight the snake summons and then he noticed the barrier coming down near the stadium.

He could see through his goggles that the Sandaime was on the ground and Orochimaru was jumping away. The snake sannin seemed to be having great difficulty moving his arms and Naruto was at a loss to what was causing it until he noticed the seal present on the exposed skin of the Hokage's stomach. It looked like his own seal and he remembered from the scroll of seal what the jutsu was that the Sandaime must have used.

'So he summoned a being that would remove the soul of his opponent.' he thought as he had been very suspicious of what the jutsu actually did. He had heard of the Shinigami but Plagueis had not believed in such a thing or that the jutsu worked that way.

From what he could tell, the jutsu didn't seem very powerful as Orochimaru was only not able to move his arms while the Sandaime seemed either dead or dying.

He watched the fleeing sannin with interest though. The man was practically being carried by the four guards that had created the barrier. Plagueis had told him that he couldn't face Orochimaru as he would likely be defeated but his Master's words were no longer true as it appeared that Orochimaru could not move his arms or hands. Not being able to use ninjutsu or fight with his arms would severely cripple his fighting ability and give a great advantage to any opponent.

He knew the location of Orochimaru's base in Sound Country from Kabuto's memories and the sannin was injured, possibly requiring a very long recuperation period. His instincts were telling him to follow the man back to Sound Country. With his chakra suppressing seals he could sneak up on Orochimaru to finish what the Sandaime started. The man's head was likely full of techniques and information that would be valuable to both he and Plagueis.

Coming back to reality, he made a decision about the situation and noted that the last of his clones were finished and heading back to him. Danzo and the other two ninja had also nearly finished going through his former hideout.

x-x

Fu and Torune returned but with nothing to show. Apparently the entire hideout was empty and everything that could be valuable had been removed. Quickly moving to the final path, which presumably was the exit, they headed down the darkening tunnel.

Fu could not detect the container because of the fuinjutsu but he could tell that the container had been inside the hideout not an hour before. The boy had such a large amount of chakra that he left traces wherever he went.

It appeared that the container was trying to leave the village during the battle. This was unacceptable to Danzo. The boy was a key piece in his plans for Konoha's conquest of the other villages and leaving the village would likely make the boy a target that other villages would want to get their hands on or perhaps that Madara would want to get his hands on.

The question was now, 'Where is the Kyuubi container?'

The fact that only a few moments ago the container had been inside the hideout, while he reported to duty hours ago and was in the midst of a battle, meant he was likely nearby and perhaps still inside the village. It also meant that they had been monitoring a clone. Fu should be able to find the boy if they got out of the hideout.

x-x

Naruto tried to calm his breathing as he felt the three ninja head to his location. 'Have they found me or are they just leaving the hideout to search?' he wondered but couldn't get an exact answer.

Glancing to his watch again, he noted that he only had less than a minute left.

At that moment, several hands came out of the ground and handed him scrolls. He decided to just hold onto the scrolls as he couldn't seal them anywhere and his body already had numerous ones attached to the strap of the large scroll on his shoulder.

The seconds counted down as the ninja reached the end of the entrance to his hideout. Looking again at the watch, he glared at it as it now indicated that several seconds had passed after the specific time he had given to Karin.

'What the hell is she doing?'

x-x

A beeping went off that caught the attention of several animals in the nearby forest. It also woke a redhead that was sleeping against a tree near the edge of the lake.

A bleary eyed Karin tried to find out what the beeping was and why it was disturbing her nap. It took a few moments to realize that it was coming from her watch and then her eyes widened as she saw that ten seconds had elapsed past the time she was given to use the scroll.

"Shit!" she yelled and looked frantically for the scroll that was still leaning on the tree she had been napping against.

Grabbing it, she opened the scroll and started pouring her chakra into it.

x-x

'I can't let them see me.' thought Naruto and he looked for anything that he could do to hide. There was no cover to hide behind and the only thing he could think of were the tops of the Hokage's heads which varied in height below the edge of the Hokage mountain. Jumping off the edge, he landed on the top of the Yondaime's head.

He couldn't use the tree climbing exercise so he couldn't get down the mountain unless he jumped and there was no guarantee that he wouldn't be seriously hurt if he couldn't brake or slow his fall with the Force.

x-x

Danzo and his two ninja exited the tunnel and found themselves on the top of the Hokage mountain. They quickly looked for any clues to where the jinchuuriki had gone. Fu informed him of the residual chakra in the area and his sharingan could pick a faint trace of the Kyuubi container's chakra but no real trail was left for them to follow.

Going on a hunch, Danzo walked to the edge of the Hokage mountain. For some reason he had the feeling that something was there.

He reached the edge but saw nothing but the tops of the heads of the Hokage faces.

x-x

The smoke cleared to reveal a glaring Naruto and Karin would not meet his gaze.

"You were late and I nearly got caught." he stated and she immediately started giving him different excuses ranging from the watch malfunctioning to his own watch being fast and numerous other explanations in between.

Naruto merely sighed and tossed all the scrolls to her so she could seal them up in the large scroll for easier travel. She was still far to useful for him to even think about killing her over falling asleep on the job.

Pulling out another scroll from his pouch, he had Karin open the contents. Confused, Karin watched as he started putting ink on a brush and drawing some piece of fuinjutsu on the parchment. When the drawing was complete, he handed the parchment to her and she accepted the still wet fuinjutsu.

"When I tell you, place this on the surface." said Naruto seriously and it took a moment for Karin to try and comprehend what he might be referring to but nothing came to mind. "What surface?" she questioned while looking around.

"You'll see in a moment." answered Naruto and he walked to the edge of the lake.

Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the object that he knew was still at the bottom of this particular lake. The Force flowed through him and the water surface began to bubble.

Karin starred at the new phenomenon on the surface of the lake and felt Naruto using that strange extra power that he had. 'So this lake was important but only for something in it.' she concluded and her eyes were fixated on the lake.

With both hands stretched out with open palm and fingers, Naruto concentrated as hard as he could on the object and making it rise to the surface. He would succeed and the seal would be placed on the hull of the ship as it was necessary for his plans and failure was not an option.

This was the only way he found to get the ship out of the water that didn't involve creating a gigantic thirty foot long or more storage scroll. He had only finished it a couple of weeks ago and was much more confident about the process now that he had most Jiraiya's seal knowledge in his head. He couldn't sneak out of the village or alert anyone to this location and hadn't visited the ship for months.

His efforts were rewarded with the sound of water churning and a large bulge forming on the surface. He couldn't see it as his eyes were closed in concentration but he knew it was happening.

The surface continued to bulge until the water gave way to reveal a muddy shape coming out of the water. Naruto stopped his progress as he only needed a small portion of the ship exposed for his plan. Waiting a brief moment he nearly dropped the ship as he realized that Karin was just standing there.

"Karin!" he yelled and she came back to her senses and remembered she was supposed to do something.

"Put it on that?" she questioned and received a nod of the head from Naruto.

As she ran across the lake surface, Naruto's arms started to shake from the exertion of holding the ship steady. He didn't have much time before he needed to let it go. He would have liked to use a shadow clone for this instead of Karin but he still couldn't let anyone feel his chakra signature because Danzo was likely actively searching for him and would definitely come after him.

Coming to the muddy object that was sticking out of the water, she noted that a very large shadow was beneath her and that whatever object it was, must be far larger than the little area that was showing. Stopping at the exposed site, she held the wet scroll in one hand and started scrapping off enough of the mud to find a hard and flat surface. She was greatly surprised that the surface underneath appeared to be completely made of metal.

Pushing the rest of the mud off the surface, she placed the parchment flat down and then added chakra to the paper to finish the seal. The moment the seal was set, she removed the parchment from the now set seal and the object started to sink back down.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto gently let the ship come to rest at the bottom of the lake once again. Falling to his knees he took in deep ragged breaths as the task had taken a great deal from him.

A few minutes passed before Karin spoke, "What was that thing?" she questioned as even from what little she saw of the object, it looked like nothing she had ever seen before.

"You'll find out soon enough." Naruto answered as he calmed his breathing and attempted to stand up on shaky knees. Pouting, Karin gave him a glare as she really wanted to know what it was. It was obviously important but she wondered why he was leaving it and what the fuinjutsu was for.

Naruto ignored the look and glanced in the direction he knew Sound Country to be. He should be heading to Snow Country at this point, but he wanted to go to Sound Country and had a feeling through the Force that this was what he should do. It would be best to get to Orochimaru's hideout before the man and entourage did in order to set traps or a surprise attack when they got back but that was unlikely to happen. Orochimaru had a lead on him and while the man couldn't use his arms, his legs didn't seem all that damaged and he had four ninja to help him back.

Though he had been told not to try and fight Orochimaru, his next step was to get to Sound Country as fast as possible.

"So where are we going?" asked Karin as she adjusted her glasses and then gathered her belongings.

"Sound Country for a brief period and then our final destination." responded Naruto and he jumped to the nearest tree.

Karin frowned slightly at the answer and what it would mean but followed him anyway. She was curious about what they were going to do and why his chakra was completely suppressed. The term he had used, 'final destination' wasn't giving her a very good feeling but she couldn't go back to Konoha as she never had any real business being there in the first place and wasn't a citizen but a former ninja from another village. Her best option was to keep following Naruto and her curiosity was already peaked over what had just happened.

x-x

A few hours later

x-x

The battle ended inside the village and Jiraiya had managed to stop the snake summon as well as the rampaging sand jinchuuriki. The first priority for the ninja was attending to the wounded but Danzo had already returned to his Root headquarters.

He was greeted by several of his ninja reporting that the hideout had been infiltrated and many documents and scrolls had been looked through or stolen. The news was troubling as not only was he sure that it was the jinchuuriki that was behind it but it meant that there had been a leak in information and the container was not only aware of him but his hideout and ninja as well. Even the Hokage didn't know about his operation or secret base, yet the container had managed to discover all of it without him knowing.

Fu had tried to find any other trace of the container's chakra signature but there was nothing within his range. He managed to pick up very faint traces in the Hokage tower, the ninja library, and confirmed that the boy was inside their base but no actual source of chakra was still in or around the village.

'He's been rather busy. While we were investigating him, he was helping himself to information and techniques.' thought Danzo as he sat at his desk in his room.

The disappearing act was extremely troubling as he wasn't sure how the container had managed it. 'Its possible he has another hiding place and is just waiting for a good chance to leave, or he managed to leave the village without anyone noticing during a battle.' were his current thoughts on the matter.

Looking through all that he knew, it seemed more likely that the container had already left. The boy was far more versatile and calculating than to stay in the village. He was now certain that the boy knew of the impending attack and had used everything to his advantage.

There were only a few places that the jinchuuriki might go outside of the village. Wave Country was at the top of the list as the boy had already been there and had some kind of dealings with Gatou before the man's death. A thought came to mind of what Fu and Sai had reported to him, that a ship had been hidden in Wave Country and ready to go at a moments notice. It was never determined if the ship belonged to Gatou and the container was definitely there loading it with supplies.

'So he may have had a ship prepared two months in advance.' he thought and summoned a few of his ninja. He needed to intercept the Kyuubi jinchuuriki before he got away in that boat.

Please Review


	15. Chapter 15

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

**x-x**

**36.5 BBY – Current Year **

Chapter XV: New additions

x-x

Naruto and Karin moved swiftly through the forest. It was nearly night and they had been traveling for hours towards Sound Country. If Naruto's calculations were correct, they were near the border and should be arriving at the Valley of the End rather soon. Karin had wanted to stop to take a break but Naruto refused and told her to keep going. Whenever he had not fulfilled Plagueis' expectations, he was always made to do extra work in terms of his training as a punishment.

Running nonstop to Sound Country was Karin's punishment for nearly getting him caught and falling asleep. Only if she passed out or collapsed would he help her and that would only be because he still needed her. He couldn't leave her behind but she didn't need to fight anyone once they got there and her skills as a fighter wouldn't be helpful to him anyway. Only her sensing skills would be needed for this mission.

His thoughts were on what he was going to explain to Plagueis once he got to Snow Country. He had defied his master's orders and was now heading off to Sound Country without telling or informing his Master of his current intentions. This was really the first time he was going against Plagueis's orders. He felt he didn't have time to contact Plagueis using the communication device and speed was of the essence to get to Sound Country. The rewards of this mission would be well worth any of his Master's anger.

He just needed to make sure that he could at least get there undetected. Arriving before Orochimaru was best, but he could still succeed if he arrived after.

x-x

Sitting behind his desk in Root headquarters, Danzo looked over all the reports he had concerning the infiltration of his well hidden base. Not even the Sandaime had ever found his secret base, yet somehow the Kyuubi container had managed to escape the village right when he was closing in and even manage to figure out where his base was and how to enter it without initially being detected.

There was no real loss to him or the base, but most of the jutsu that he had in the library of techniques that he had acquired for use by his ninja had been looked through. There was evidence that these techniques had all been copied. Concerned over this he had a few of his Root ninja, that he had been 'asked' to disband and turned over for ANBU assignment, discretely look into other areas of the village and find out all they could about any other problems.

Apparently someone had looked through the Hokage's study as well as the village library during the battle. After learning of this, it was obvious that the container had sought to take all the information possible from the village before leaving.

It had been just over a day since the battle end and there was still no sign of the boy. He had several of his ninja searching outside the village but nothing had turned up so far. He sent a few of his men to Wave but he likely wouldn't receive anything back from them for at least a couple more days.

The situation was frustrating and he tried not to let any of his emotions get in his way of determining what was really going on.

He still wondered how the boy had known so much about his base and where information was kept. To his knowledge, at no point had any of his ninja been compromised or unaccounted for which would leave time for the container to read their minds. The situation hinted that someone in his own forces was helping the boy which was something that should not be possible. There were no spies, double-agents, or disobedient members of the Foundation.

'So when did he find a chance to access the minds of one of my ninja?' he wondered and it was a very difficult question to answer.

x-x

After taking a short break at the Valley of the End, which Karin was thankful for and collapsed into a heap on the ground, they continued into Sound Country to where one of Orochimaru's hideouts was. The man had create numerous hideouts inside and outside of Sound Country but only a few in his organization were privy to where they were. They weren't that hard to make and Orochimaru likely had more hideouts than even Kabuto knew about.

Karin had yet to sense anyone but that didn't mean anything. Most of the Sound ninja had likely been killed in the battle so he didn't expect to find ninja patrolling or guards. It was just as likely that they were behind Orochimaru as it was that they were ahead of the man.

Pushing on, they moved further into Sound Country. It didn't take that long to reach Orochimaru's hideout from the border between Sound and Fire. They didn't encounter any border patrols from either Oto or Konoha. In fact, they didn't encounter any ninja forces at all.

'I wonder if he sent all of his ninja to fight in Konoha?' Naruto wondered as he searched to find the entrance to the underground hideout.

Naruto stopped on a branch and motioned for Karin to stop too. Karin immediately knew what he wanted and started focusing completely on her chakra sensing. She extended her range as far as she could. There was nothing on the surface around them but she felt several chakra signatures underneath the surface.

"Can you sense Orochimaru?" he asked her and she shook her head 'no' as she focused on looking for the signature that she had felt during their brief encounter with the Sannin in the Forest of Death.

'Excellent, we arrived before them.' he thought and jumped down to the ground. He proceeded to walk to the entrance of the nearby bunker with Karin following close behind.

As he walked, he actively looked for traps but his mind was also filled with possible plans to deal with the Sound Four and Kabuto. Ideally he needed to face Orochimaru alone and without interference by any of his underlings. Kabuto could be incredibly dangerous and he didn't have that much information on the Sound Four. Facing multiple opponents was not something he wanted.

Given that only a scant few chakra signatures were around, he could release the seals he had on his body and use fuinjutsu to set traps. It was possible that those signatures belonged to individuals that could sense chakra like Karin could, but he could deal with them. He just hoped he had enough time before Orochimaru and his group arrived.

x-x

Moving through the trees at a faster pace then they had been, the group of Orochimaru, Kabuto, and guards made their way to the main base in Sound Country. The trip was slow at first as two members of the Sound Four had to support Orochimaru until he was able to regain his strength.

Both of the Sannin's arms hung limp at his sides and he had a deep frown on his face. The entire trip back had been silent and everyone could tell that the battle with the Sandaime had not gone as the snake Sannin had planned.

He needed to get back to his hideout and see what Kabuto could do for his arms. He didn't completely know what was wrong with them as he only knew that part of his soul had been taken by the Shinigami but he had no idea what that really meant for his body or the rest of his soul. He had immediately lost all movement in his arms and the skin up to his shoulders had turned a brown-grey. It seemed that the skin was slowly dying despite his advanced healing ability and he needed to see what could be done and what treatments might reverse the process.

They were only a few miles away from the hideout and he was quite positive that no one would be following them. They left quite a few traps in their wake and Konoha wouldn't send out any forces to follow them as the village was much more important.

'Kukukukukuku' he silently chuckled. No matter what the Sandaime had done he would still survive and continue to further his goals.

x-x

Completing his preparations for Orochimaru and the Sound Four, Naruto went in search for the two chakra signatures in the facility that had not moved since they arrived. Karin guided him until he could feel the first individual with his own sensing ability. He quietly entered a room that the individual was in and examined his surroundings. It seemed he was in some kind of infirmary with numerous monitors but only a few beds.

There were many different devices and the single occupant of the room was resting on one of the beds with a number of instruments and monitoring devices attached to him.

Despite the face being covered by a cloth and respiratory system, he guessed that this person must be Kimimaro. From Kabuto's memories, he knew the man was ill but wondered if the disease had progressed. Silently he moved to the monitoring systems and examined the information.

It seemed that Kimimaro was definitely dying of a serious illness. Given what he knew about Kimimaro's blind and unwavering loyalty to Orochimaru, this would be no loss for him. Some people could not be swayed by any means, especially those as fanatical as he knew Kimimaro to be.

Moving to a nearby cabinet, he searched for what he wanted and procured a vile and syringe. He could tell that the ninja was still asleep and so he filled the syringe with the liquid and then inserted it into the IV that was connected to the patient. The entire time he made sure that the ailing ninja remained sleeping.

Before he left, he flipped off the monitoring systems as they would no longer be needed. He could get a sample after he had succeeded and completed what he came here to do.

He was about to ask Karin where the other chakra signature was when he felt a shift in her emotions and feelings. He didn't need for her to tell him what it meant. It seemed Orochimaru was nearing the hideout.

Quickly thinking about the situation, he decided that he wouldn't be able to seek out the last person. He quickly resealed his chakra so he had Karin unseal his sword from his arm and then went to get in position. The remaining signature was a variable and unknown in his plans but there was no other way. He would have to get by without determining who the last person was until the plan was finished.

x-x

The returning group split up as Orochimaru and Kabuto went to one of the laboratories. The Sound Four proceeded to go to their rooms and rest. They likely wouldn't be needed for a while and could do whatever they wanted until such time as they were needed or were forced to train.

Tayuya was the first to split off from the other three as her room was in a slightly different area than the rest of the group. She valued her privacy and didn't like any other member of the group. Opening her door, she reached for the light and flicked it on. The once dark chamber was illuminated to reveal her room, exactly how she left it. Moving over to bed, she collapsed on it and groaned over her exhaustion due to the length of their journey.

She never even noticed the piece of fuinjutsu on the back of her closed door.

x-x

At the same moment, the other members of the Sound Four were getting into their rooms which were slightly farther into the complex.

x-x

Sitting on a chair that resembled a throne of sorts, the pale figure of Orochimaru was bathed in the candle light around the room. Kabuto had just left to go and analyze several samples that were taken from his useless arms.

He glanced at the many items on the shelves of his room. There were numerous creatures in jars and then a glass container with his severed hand from his original body. It still bore the Akatsuki ring on it and he chucked at how the loss of that item would inconvenience that group when they started moving to achieve their goals.

It was at that moment that he idly noticed that he couldn't sense anyone. He couldn't feel Kabuto's chakra signature, those of the Sound Four, or Kimamaro's. This was rather odd as he should be able to feel them.

He frowned slightly at the realization.

x-x

Jirobo was the first to enter his room. He turned on the light and closed the door at the same time. He barely glanced at his room but became alerted when he heard a recognizable noise. Looking around he saw that most of the room was plastered with explosive notes. His eyes widened and he ran for the door a moment after each tag started to spark.

The door wouldn't open and he instantly realized what was plastered on his door. It was a five seal barrier tag which was a lower ranking barrier technique. The problem was that he had to remove the four associated tags, as well as the fifth tag he was looking at, in order to break the seal.

There was no time to find the four tags that were likely hidden throughout his room among the explosive tags. There was no way out. He was sealed inside a room filled with explosive tags which would contain the explosion.

x-x

As Tayuya was still sitting on her bed when she felt a slight tremor. Her eyes opened briefly but she ignored it and just thought, 'That fat ass probably just farted again.'

A small smile formed on her face and she chuckled before closing her eyes again and trying to relax.

x-x

The glass tubes and jars around Kabuto rattled slightly and he looked up from his work, curious to know what the tremor was.

x-x

Orochimaru was now fully alert. He stood from his chair and walked to the door that led to the hallway. He wasn't even halfway there before he felt an incoming attack but found he couldn't dodge. It was if he was being held in place by an unseen force.

x-x

She felt that perhaps she should turn the lights off and try to fall asleep but just didn't feel like getting up and turning off the lights.

It was at that point that she felt another two tremors in quick succession.

Sitting up fully alert, she looked to her door and noted for the first time that it had fuinjutsu placed on it. Her team was very familiar with forms of barriers and it took but a moment for her to recognize that she had been sealed in her room by a five seals barrier.

Her eyes widened and wondered how she had missed it. Moving to the door she attempted to force it open despite knowing that if the barrier was activated then it would not budge. 'What the hell!?' she thought confused over why this was happening. Were they under attack? Was it just some kind of stupid prank? The tremors however spoke towards the former. Someone had likely infiltrated their hideout and set traps but for what purpose she had no idea.

Thinking quickly she realized that the barrier may have been active before she entered her room. The door opened inward so someone could enter the room, but would be sealed inside once the door shut and the barrier was once again complete.

It was a very ingenious trap and she had never seen nor heard of the technique used in such a way, but she pushed those thoughts aside as she started looking through her room for the four accompanying tags. She opened the drawers of her desk and found one in the top drawer, then found one under her bed, another in her wardrobe, and the fourth and final one in her closet.

They needed to all be removed at the same moment and although she didn't have any type of clone jutsu that could do the job, she still had her three doki summons.

x-x

Orochimaru smirked despite the fact that his as his upper body had been cleanly severed from his lower body. He'd even lost both his hands in a single swipe. Without so much as a handseal, snakes appeared out of the cut areas on his upper and lower body. The snakes moved past each other, interlocking, and then forced all the pieces of his body back together.

A few snakes even emerged from his sleeves of his ruined arms and went after his mysterious attackers.

Naruto dodged to the side, neatly decapitated the snakes, and then turned back to his opponent who had moved back to create some distance between them.

Orochimaru examined his attacker to try and figure out who he was but he could get nothing as the short individual wore a dark cloak and a breather mask. There were no identifiable markings, however he could guess that the person was a boy and not very old.

"Kukukukuku, I must commend you on getting in here without my knowledge or detection. I suppose those tremors were you as well." stated the pale faced man and Naruto grit his teeth at the fact that he still wasn't being taken seriously.

"Not very talkative?" inquired the smiling Orochimaru and he watched curiously as his opponent channeled chakra into his sword.

With the wind chakra in the sword, Naruto flicked his wrist and sent the sword spinning at his foe. A moment later he briefly removed his mask and went through several handseals. Mud spewed from his mouth and covered the door that was the only entrance and exit to the room.

The mud quickly expanded to cover the entire door and then harden.

Orochimaru dodged the sword and charged at his opponent. His mouth bulged slightly as he called upon his Kusanagi but he was forced to dodge again as the spinning sword had apparently come back around.

Naruto moved through two more handseals and completed his next earth jutsu with a stamp of his foot. He then caught his sword and once again the two opponents stared down each other until Orochimaru stopped his charge as he began sinking into the floor.

He noted the smell coming from all the surfaces of the room and quickly recognized the jutsu. It was one of Jiraiya's earth jutsu that the fellow Sannin had used countless times. Yanking one foot out of the swamp, he put the correct amount of chakra to properly stay on the surface of the swamp.

'Not only did he bar the door but he turned the entire room, every surface, into a swamp to keep me from escaping. How interesting.' he thought and chuckled. This opponent was proving far more devious and knowledgeable than he previously thought. With the swamp on every surface, he wouldn't be able to use his leech of all creations technique and move through the floor should the battle not turn his way. It also completely changed the battlefield and strategies for fighting.

"Trapping yourself inside a room with a snake isn't very smart." he chided but his opponent continued to remain silent. His mind quickly went through the list of possible people that would want him dead. It was quite a long list but few names came up that would use a gifted child and not have any identifying marks. Shimura Danzo was high on that last. The calm demeanor and reserved attitude of the boy did fit standard Root training. If it was Danzo, he wondered how the old war hawk managed to acquire the boy.

"So Danzo finally found where I am and wants to silence me?" he goaded in the hopes of getting more information out of the assassin.

Naruto was slightly confused about question but he decided to just go with it. "Danzo-sama regrets that he won't be able to attend your funeral."

"I'm sure he does. Kukukukuku." Orochimaru chuckled in response but on the inside he was a little worried. He was trapped in a room with an unknown foe and couldn't use the majority of his jutsu.

He wondered where Kabuto or the rest of his forces were. Had the tremors he heard been their demise? It was possible but there were three tremors and he had five servants so he only needed to holdout until they arrived. Of course that was assuming that the he wouldn't be able to defeat the boy.

x-x

Kabuto cautiously made his way to the room where Orochimaru was. There were no additional noises or any other indication that something was wrong but his intuition told him otherwise. Shinobi could be incredibly stealthy and teams of ninja could be moving throughout the base at that very moment.

Reaching the door he noted the earth jutsu that had seeped through the cracks and knew that Orochimaru was in trouble. Someone must have infiltrated the compound and headed right for the injured Sannin The tremors he heard could have been due to a battle going on inside the room, but he couldn't hear anything else happening.

He didn't have any powerful jutsu that could get past the barricaded door or wall. Using explosive notes inside the hideout was more likely to bring part of the roof down, however the Sound Four would definitely be able to get inside.

Leaving Orochimaru, he ran to their rooms on the other side of the compound. He passed right by the hallway to Tayuya's shut door and went straight Jiroburo's room. The orange mohawk sporting teen was physically the strongest of the Sound Four and could get past the door in no time at all. He slowed down when he made it to the room and opened the door.

Kabuto was immediately overcome by smoke and the smell of burning flesh. He coughed quite a few times before he managed to look into the destroyed room to see the burnt and destroyed body of the ninja he was after.

His eyes widened as he realized what the tremors must have been. 'Someone set a trap for them.'

Running down the hall he came around the corner and he saw that the door to Sakon and Udon's room was also closed. They were probably dead as well. Farther down the hall he could see a body in the hallway outside of the door to Kidomaru's room and he ran to it.

Kidomaru had been the last to get to his room and after hearing strange sounds he had stopped at the entrance to his room with the door open. The moment he turned back to his room, the tags were already about to go off. His door was still open and his body was hit by the explosion. It sent him into the wall opposite the door to his room and he was still there but unconscious.

His body was badly burned but Kabuto realized that the ninja was still alive and started doing diagnostics on him. The jutsu told him that Kidomaru wouldn't make it beyond a few more minutes so he left him there and went to get Kimimaro out of the infirmary.

Despite near death, Kimimaro wouldn't sit idly while something was happening to Orochimaru and would definitely help him to get past the blocked door.

x-x

A few moments before

x-x

'No asshole is gonna trap me in my own fucking room,' thought Tayuya despite her present situation.

She had summoned two of her three Doki however they were so large that the two of them completely filled her room. One summon couldn't use its arms so she needed the remaining two to each pull off a fuinjutsu tag to remove the barrier. There was little space to move around in the now cramped room and she was being pushed against the door.

Her flute was out but she was having trouble using it given that she needed one hand to remove the seal but still needed to use the other to play the flute in order to get her summons to remove the tags.

Getting the fingers on the flute in position on the right holes to play the right notes, she propped one side of the flute on her knee and played the required notes. Simultaneously, the two summons pulled off the tags as she pulled off the main tag.

"Fucking finally, now I can get out of here." she said and then realized a problem.

'The fucking door opens inwards.' she remembered and she glared at the offenders that were keeping her from getting out.

Kicking her summons she yelled, "Unsummon, you stupid assholes!"

x-x

The two swords clanged against each other once again and once again Naruto cursed. Despite knowing a great deal about forms and style, he had little experience using his sword in open combat. He fought Zabuza but the man didn't really use much in the way of swordsmanship. Wielding a giant sword required more strength than swordsmanship skill and it wasn't as agile or fast as Orochimaru's sword was.

He was being pushed back by a psychopathic circus performer with a sword sticking out of his mouth and with no working arms. It was utterly ridiculous and showed just how inexperienced he was at using the forms he knew in combat. Beyond his shadow clones he had no one to spar with and the clones weren't that much help as they all fought the same as he did.

Fighting with an agile and experienced opponent that attacked with a sword coming from his mouth was not a confrontation he had ever prepared for.

Nonetheless, the fight raged on. He still had advantages but Orochimaru was not letting up on the attack enough for him to use the Force or any jutsu.

Orochimaru however was quite impressed with the brat he was facing. The boy appeared to have large chakra reserves and incredibly good stamina. The fight was progressing much better than the one he had with Sasuke. The brats sword was even able to stand up to his kusanagi whereas most weapons could not.

The outlook of the battle was rather equal, if not against him. The boy was good enough and he was disabled enough that he couldn't properly defend, so he needed to keep up a strong attack.

Parrying the Kusanagi, Naruto found an opening and shoved his hand forward and Force pushed Orochimaru into the wall which was still part of the swamp.

Orochimaru was incredibly surprised at the strange attack. There didn't seem to be any chakra or visible jutsu being used but he was still pushed back with incredible force. He realized too late that he had been pushed into the wall and was slowly sinking into it.

Moving to take advantage, Naruto sealed his sword into his hand and began making seals for a jutsu to finish the Snake Sannin off.

x-x

Kabuto made it to the infirmary only to find that Kimamaro had expired at some point before they returned. However he knew it was likely the result tampering and not a natural death as all of the monitors had been turned off. Kimimaro was fine when he left to help at the battle just a few days ago and the machines should have taken care of him until they returned.

'So all of the Sound Five are dead.' he realized and tried to think of something else to help him.

Sighing, he knew that he only had one more option available to him and it was not someone he could trust. The person he was thinking about was in a nearby room and was Orochimaru's newest acquisition.

x-x

With her door finally open, Tayuya went to check on the other members of the Sound Four. However, she could smell the burnt flesh and didn't need to go inside of Jirobo's room to know that he, and probably the other two, were dead.

What she couldn't figure out was why she was alive. Had whatever trap that was planted in her room not gone off? Was it mere luck that she was spared? The hideout didn't seem to be under attack and she couldn't hear anything going on which left her with many more unanswered questions.

Had this been set up by Kabuto or Orochimaru. Were the Sound Four of no more use to him? She decided that anything was a possibility and that she would trust no one.

Moving with caution through the hideout, she pulled out her flute and kept it ready.

x-x

Before Naruto could complete his jutsu, the blade Orochimaru was using extended far beyond what the normal reasoning should have allowed. Naruto watched as the blade headed right for him. He barely managed to unseal his sword and protect himself. The extending sword ground against his own as he tried to deflect it, but it still managed to cut into his shoulder and continue on until it stuck into the swampy wall on the other side of the room.

Looking at the now absurdly long blade Naruto wondered just how it had managed to do that. Glancing back at Orochimaru, he realized that the man was managing to pull himself out of the wall using the blade. Given it was stuck in the mud on the other side, Orochimaru was reducing the size of his blade but instead of the tip of the blade returning back to the handle, the handle was trying to get to the tip of the blade.

A second later, the man had managed to get himself unstuck from the wall. Once he was free, the blade reduced its length back to the handle and the man just chuckled as they were back to where they started the fight.

He wanted to curse at the turn of events and his loss of an advantage but he still had a few abilities up his sleeve and the combat between the two had caused his blade to start building up a charge. A little longer and he would be able to use Force Lightning.

Naruto ducked as Orochimaru extended his sword by about 4 meters and swung it at Naruto's head. He was then forced to jump as Orochimaru spun around and lowered the angle of sword.

'This is just getting ridiculous.' he thought and it appeared that Orochimaru was now weary of his abilities and perhaps taking the fight more seriously.

Orochimaru again went on the offensive with a serious of stabs where the blade length kept changing and forced Naruto to be completely on the defensive. He needed to get away from the situation and was able to get his hands in the cross shaped handseal while they were still on his sword handle, as he simultaneously dodged a strike for his opponent.

Seamlessly switching with the clone, he used Force Grip on his opponent from just a few feet away right after Orochimaru had dispelled the clone. Naruto lunged and decapitated his opponent, only for the man to turn to mud.

Cursing, Naruto turned and was kicked by Orochimaru into the wall. Captured by his own earth jutsu, Naruto attempted to get his body out of the quicksand like swamp while Orochimaru closed in.

"Kukukukuku, this has been quite an interesting battle and you have quite a few interesting jutsu." Orochimaru managed to say despite still having a sword and the head of a snake in his mouth.

"Its too bad Danzo found you first, you would have made an excellent addition to my forces and perhaps even an interesting container." he said and then angled his neck upward to slash Naruto with the sword.

Naruto's eyes widened at the imminent danger but he still had his sword. Force lightning arced out from the blade and struck Orochimaru in the chest, sending the Sannin to the other side of the room.

Once again sealing his sword, Naruto went through the seals to end the earth jutsu. Using kinetite he smashed part of the wall to free himself and then looked to his opponent. Orochimaru was having trouble getting up as he had sunk slightly into the floor before the earth jutsu had been ended. The sannin was also smoking slightly from the Force lightning.

'What kind of lightning jutsu was that?' the sannin questioned as he realized he was stuck in the hardened swamp.

Hearing an incoming attack, Orochimaru looked up to see a large wind enhanced shuriken coming at him. The Kusanagi was still in his mouth and he moved his head and neck to deflect the weapon. The blade extended but right when it was about make contact with the shuriken, the weapon spun and dodged the extended blade.

He still had time though and swung his head, and thereby the sword, back at the shuriken again. This time the spinning weapon was knocked off course. He was about to smirk and try to get himself out of his stuck position on the floor but he noted a second shuriken had appeared from inside the shadow of the first and his eyes widened.

Naruto smirked as his discblade impacted the ground and struck the sannin. Ideally he wanted to incapacitate the man but the fight proved much harder than he anticipated. Walking towards the man to confirm the kill, he stopped however as he felt life-signs moving towards him.

The ground underneath his feet up-heaved and he was hit by an emerging white object before he could do anything to defend himself. He was knocked back several meters and tumbled until he was on his hands and knees. In that short amount of time, a giant white snake fully emerged out of the hard floor.

"Kukukukuku, it appears you forced me into this form." stated the snake that vaguely resembled Orochimaru. It seemed to be made of hundreds of small white snakes that each formed the body and then a grotesque head.

Naruto froze for a brief moment as he looked upon the creature in front of him. He had seen a brief view of this form of Orochimaru in Kabuto's mind but it was viewed through a camera monitor and not in actual person. It looked a lot different.

Glancing over to one side of the room, Naruto called forth the discblade that had been deflected earlier.

The white snake charged at him in the exact same moment. Naruto dodged to escape being bitten and had to slice through several white snakes that came after him from the main body. His discblade reached his hand less than a second later and used it to slice into Orochimaru's neck but was smacked away by the tail of the white snake. He smashed into a set of shelves on the wall and many bottles fell off the broken shelves and smashed on the floor.

Orochimaru didn't wait for his opponent to recover and Naruto was forced to jump to the side as the the rest of the shelving, and part of the wall, were further damaged by Orochimaru's next attack. Naruto thrust his discblade into the wall to free up a hand, he charged a sphere of kinetite and threw it towards the snake.

He knew Orochimaru would dodge a direct attack so he aimed for the ground beneath the snake. The kinetite struck the ground the snake lost its balance.

Grabbing his discblade from the wall, Naruto swung his arm and released the blade on the disoriented snake.

Orochimaru was aware of the attack and moved to avoid it but Naruto managed to quickly divert the discblade to do as much damage as possible. However it only managed to cut through the back third or Orochimaru's snake body.

A chuckling Orochimaru just shrugged off the damage and sprung into action. The white snake moved to attack and quickly slithered up the wall and to the ceiling.

It twisted and tried to strike Naruto from different angles as it moved along the ceiling and he moved along the ground. Naruto continued to dodge and decapitate the secondary snakes with his sword. This wasn't the position he wanted to be in as it was only a matter of time before either Orochimaru ran out of snakes, he was bitten by one of the small snakes, or he was bitten by the main head.

Orochimaru was however thinking very differently. The boy he was facing had shown quite a bit of skill for one so young in addition to possessing quite a few interesting weapons and jutsu. Danzo had apparently trained the assassin very well and this provided him with quite the opportunity. His arms were useless and now he had left his old body. It would be difficult to get back into it and much easier to acquire a new one, it was nearly time to acquire a new body anyway.

Should he take over the boy's body he would not only be able to study the weapons that could stand up to the Kusangi but figure out the boy's strange abilities. 'Kukuku, its too good an opportunity to pass up.' he thought and switched tactics to try and incapacitate the boy. With the breather mask the boy was wearing, none of his volatile blood would be able to poison the boy through inhalation. His blood was a powerful paralytic when inhaled in its vapor form and it readily evaporated into the air but it did little for him in this situation.

He realized that he may have to sacrifice part of his body in order to catch his prey. Putting himself in danger, Orochimaru overextended himself on one of his strikes at the boy.

Naruto saw the mistake and attempted to capitalize on it. Putting wind chakra into his blade, he extended the length by several inches and went for a beheading slash.

Though not entirely prepared for the chakra flow technique, Orochimaru's neck was cut nearly through but he had managed to pull his tail closer to Naruto and a few of his white snakes latched onto the boys arm and leg.

Swinging his head back, Orochimaru headbutted the boy away from him and his snakes let go.

Naruto hit the ground and tumbled until he came to a stop. He attempted to get up but his left leg and arm were already going numb and he was having trouble moving them. The effect also seemed to be spreading to his shoulder and hip.

He turned back around just in time to see the open maw of the white snake swallow him whole.

x-x

Tayuya had already passed by the lab where Kabuto usually worked but found no one there. Thoughts kept going through her head about betrayal and she headed to where she thought Orochimaru would be. A part of her thought she should run but she wanted answers. She still had not encountered anyone nor found any evidence of an intruder in their hideout and this spoke towards a betrayal rather than attack.

The other three members of her group were no real loss as she never cared for them anyway. They were only a functioning group because they had to be and each one knew that their lives were drastically shortened by the cursed seal but they didn't really care. They were useful, were given great power, had a purpose and that was all that mattered to them.

Moving down the hallway towards one of the laboratories where she knew Orochimaru was likely to be, she stopped when she saw the mud that had leaked out of the door.

x-x

Inside a nearby room, Karin sat hiding in the darkness as she felt the hideout and suppressed her chakra. Naruto had told her to hide there until it was all over and although she wanted to be useful, she still agreed. The last thing she wanted was to fight someone like Orochimaru and not being able to feel what was going on in the sealed room Naruto was fighting in only made it worse.

She felt someone coming in her direction seconds ago and they just passed by her room. She had tensed but was now more relaxed as it seemed she hadn't bee found yet.

'I just hope that idiot wins.' she thought and didn't like being helpless. It reminded her of the when she was attacked by the bear in the forest. Hopefully the fight would be over soon as she could also feel Kabuto coming down the other end of the hall towards the room Naruto was fighting in and he had apparently brought the other person that was in the hideout when they arrived.

x-x

"I don't understand why you couldn't just blow the door down with explosive notes?" questioned the white haired boy as he moved with one of Orochimaru's lackeys to where the Snake Sannin was apparently being attacked. He didn't really care but he would do anything to get out of that stupid tank and move around.

It had only been a couple of weeks since he was captured by Orochimaru. The Snake Sannin apparently wanted to study his hydration ability. He was just hoping to use the current situation as a chance to escape.

"As I told you, the required amount of explosive notes needed to get past the earth jutsu could damage the ceiling and cause a collapse in the lab." responded Kabuto as he adjusted his glasses. Earth jutsu weren't that easy to get by and he knew that putting explosives on the wall and blocked doorway might be a better choice, however in either case the ceiling would come down in the hallway and completely block off the lab from him. Orochimaru had constructed the walls so that if they needed, the could be brought down with minimal effort to destroy the entire hideout and perhaps trap any unwanted guests inside.

"Not if you do it right." chided Suigetsu but Kabuto merely ignored the comment. He needed to help Orochimaru-sama as fast as possible and everywhere he turned there were setbacks to this goal.

Rounding the corner to enter the hallway he wanted, Kabuto stopped as he looked down the hallway and spotted someone, it was Tayuya. She was apparently alive, unlike the other members of the Sound Four.

"I see you managed to survive." stated Kabuto and he gave a smile but that was actually the wrong thing to say and do. From Tayuya's perspective it seemed as though Kabuto was behind the death of her teammates and trapping her inside her room to save for later. She was after all the only girl in the whole hideout.

"You rat-faced bastard!" Tayuya responded and pulled her flute to her mouth.

"Wow, what did you do to her?" questioned Suigetsu.

x-x

Naruto glanced around the new area he was in. It was dark and rather...fleshy. The walls, floor, and even the ceiling seemed to be made of pulsing flesh and he could feel that all around him was alive.

'Am I inside his stomach?' he wondered as he knew that ninja could create a dimension inside of their stomach to store items but this was a little different.

His eyes glanced away from his surroundings and focused on the grinning Sannin in front of him. The man was partially encased in the flesh substance and it was slowly moving up both their bodies. Naruto looked at the pink flesh moving up his torso and getting every closer to completely encapsulating him. He knew what likely was happening to him because of Kabuto's memories. Orochimaru was attempting to take over his body and devour his soul.

"Kukukuku, this dimension belongs to me and the process can't be stopped. I will soon take over your body and make it my new container." stated Orochimaru and he waited for an outburst or show of fear at the information he just gave out.

"You'll try." was the only response that Naruto gave and then he closed his eyes.

Orochimaru chuckled again and took this to mean that the boy was just spouting nonsense, however he was wrong.

x-x

Naruto opened his eyes to find himself inside of what he assumed was the seal. It seemed as though he was inside of a flooded starship. The walls, ceiling, and he guessed the flooring as well, were all metallic and he noted that they looked similar to the inside of the ship he found. Treading through the water, he headed for where he wanted to go. This was the first time he had ever been inside his seal but he had an idea of what to look for.

Eventually he found his way to the location of the cage that his master had described to him. Walking in he prepared himself as best as he could for the coming confrontation.

Naruto walked within twenty feet of the cage and stopped as a precautionary measure. A large eye opened that revealed a glowing red iris and slit pupil.

"**So my host finally comes for a visit. To what do I owe the occasion**." mocked the Kyuubi as its lone eye examined every part of him.

Naruto thought for a moment how best to ask for the needed power. He had not had any time nor wanted to access it after the incident at the hot springs but now he needed it..

"I want to take over someone's soul, are you willing to aid me?" inquired Naruto as he kept his eyes on the shadowed beast behind the golden bars.

"**HeheheheheheheHahahaha!**" the Kyuubi laughed maniacally and a small trail of red chakra came out from the bars and moved towards Naruto.

x-x

Orochimaru's smile only widened as the process was nearly complete, his new body was providing little resistance to the process until he felt something coming off the boy. It was something he instantly recognized as the chakra of a bijuu. His eyes widened when he looked to the boy and saw a pair of red glowing eyes looking back at him.

'The Kyuubi jinchuuriki!' he realized and knew it was too late. Once the jutsu was activated, it could not be stopped. One person had to take over the other. There was however no way for him to take over the body of a jinchuuriki because of the special connection between host and bijuu. In order to take over the body, he would also have to suppress the bijuu and that was not something he could do.

The process began reversing as the flesh covering the boy's body began to get burned off by the red chakra and the flesh on his own body continued to moved past his neck and moving over his head and face. He cursed out loud with his last breaths for the process to stop as his soul was devoured by the boy.

x-x

The giant white snake exploded sending parts of it all over the room. The only thing left in the wake of the explosion was Naruto with red chakra coming off him. The chakra soon subsided and he was left with a very slight but dull pain throughout his body.

It was possibly an aftereffect of using the Kyuubi's chakra but what caught his attention was not the pain but what else he could feel. Not only had parts of his body been damaged with the short usage of the chakra but he could feel and 'hear' something. It took a moment to realize that is was his midi-chlorian. They seemed to be in pain.

'Damn it!' he thought at the implications of what this might mean. The Kyuubi's chakra seemed to be hurting the midi-chlorians in addition to damaging his own cells and then repairing them. Had his initial usage of the Kyuubi's chakra done damage as well, but he just didn't realize it? Would prolonged usage of the Kyuubi's chakra produce even worse effects and perhaps even kill his midi-chlorians?

Though he didn't want to admit it, he was greatly worried by the possibility that the answer to either of those questions was 'Yes'. He knew that the Kyuubi's chakra could enhance his connection with the Force but could it also end up severing it if he used it too often or for too long and his midi-chlorians were injured or killed off?

What he wanted was to check his blood to find out if any damage had been done but he didn't have time for that right now. He needed to complete the rest of his plans and get back to Snow Country.

He still didn't know how Master Plagueis would react to his...'detour' but he had a feeling it wasn't going to be good unless he could bring back something that was worth it. Samples, experimental data, and the knowledge as well as skill of Kabuto may keep his master from getting angry. Though he couldn't be sure. There could be consequences to his actions but he still thought it would be worth it if he could acquire the jutsu and abilities of Orochimaru.

There was no way to know what the process he had just undergone would do to him. He had also been unable to steal the man's knowledge but those jutsu and techniques must be written down somewhere.

Searching the room, he quickly found his discblades and then noticed the sword Orochimaru had been using was lying on the floor a short distance away. Picking up the blade he noted it was lighter than his sword but despite it having such an amazing ability, he still liked his sword better.

Sealing the blade into a scroll he went to make an exit in the wall when he stepped on something. Glancing down at the floor, he saw it was blackened and shriveled left hand. He was going to ignore it but he noticed it had a ring on the pinky finger. Using the Force, so he didn't have to touch the hand, he removed the ring and floated it in the air to examine it.

The ring was rather plain but had the kanji for 'sky' or 'void' on it. That was all it seemed to have. He had of course learned his lesson from the necklace years ago and did not put the object on or touch it. For all he knew it would destroy his hand or perhaps poison him. He sealed the ring with the blade and could feel three people in the hallway outside the room. The seals he put up in the room blocked chakra from being felt but didn't block his life-sensing ability.

Karin was just down the hall and he decided to make an exit near the person that was supposed to be trapped in her room. 'She must have broken out of my trap.'

x-x

She hadn't been able to use her summons because of the narrow hallway but she had put both Kabuto and the other person in a genjutsu.

Tayuya was about to continue her attack when the wall beside her exploded outwards into the hallway. She was thrown into the opposite wall and covered her eyes from the dust. Peering through to the new hole in the wall, she could see a short figure standing in the opening. The dust soon cleared and Tayuya made to defend herself but stopped.

Held in the hand of the person standing before her was a head and she recognized it as that of Orochimaru in his white snake form. She had only seen it once when he made the Sound Four watch as he took over someones body and absorbed their soul. It was something she could never forget and now the head was right in front of her and severed.

She felt paralyzed by the thought that whoever this person was, he had beaten Orochimaru. Injured or not the Snake Sannin was not someone that was easy to kill by any means. Her focus moved from the head to the figure and she felt the person's killing intent.

Moving her flute to her mouth in order to defend herself, she tried to play her instrument but found she just couldn't play any notes. The person came closer to her and her hands began trembling.

'I can't breathe.' she thought.

'Fucking move!' she tried to urge her body but nothing was working. She couldn't inhale any breath to play her flute and her fingers refused to move to the proper holes on her instrument.

'Just move!' she pleaded as things started getting dark.

Naruto finally stood right in front of Tayuya and his hand moved to her head. Extending two fingers, he gently touched her forehead. The redhead's watched the fingers and once they touched her forehead, her eyes rolled back and she collapsed onto the floor in an unconscious heap. The flute rolled out of her hands and came to stop about a foot away.

Naruto glanced over to the other two that were down the hallway from him. They seemed to be recovering from a genjutsu and he had no idea who was standing next to Kabuto. It was obviously the last person that Karin had felt in the hideout but the memories he had from Kabuto contained no information on who the person was.

Karin appeared from a doorway down the hall and ran to him. He could feel that she was relieved that he had survived.

Kabuto watched the strange happenings just down the hall. He had no idea why Tayuya had collapsed or who the other redhead was. It wasn't until the cloaked figure turned that he was able to glimpse what had scared a member of the Sound Four.

Held in the cloaked figures hand was Orochimaru's severed head. His eyes widened and he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Suigetsu on the other hand saw the head and realized one thing. He was on the wrong side.

'This might be a good point to switch sides. The winning side looks to be standing over there, holding the head of the losing side.' he noted and decided to speak up.

"I just wanted to say before anything else happened that I'm a prisoner here." he said and took a few steps away from Kabuto.

The gray haired medical-nin gritted his teeth at the events and looked to the person standing down the hall. Naruto merely ignored the glaring Kabuto and turned to Karin. "Karin, catch." he said as he tossed her what was in his hand.

Karin caught the object before she realized what it was. "KYYYAAAAHHHHHH!" Karin screamed and threw the head down the hallway, back the way she had come from. "DON'T THROW CREEPY SEVERED HEADS AT ME!" she yelled in protest.

The gathered ninja watched Orochimaru's airborne head bounce twice upon impact with the floor, then continue its journey of denigration by rolling a little ways down the hallway.

"Karin...go pick up the head."

"No freakin way!"

"..."

"Can I at least have some gloves." she asked and grimaced as she looked at the skull.

"There's probably some in the lab." Naruto responded and Karin huffed while walking through the damaged wall to find some gloves.

Kabuto had enough of the scene and treatment of Orochimaru-sama's remains and attacked with his chakra scalpels. Suigetsu had no reason to attack so he just leaned against the wall and watched.

Naruto ducked under the swipes of Kabuto's chakra covered hands and one of his hands started glowing blue. Dodging several more deadly attacks, he reached out and grabbed Kabuto's wrist.

Kabuto quickly realized by his drop in chakra levels that his chakra was being drained by the hand. 'That's Yoroi's technique.' he realized and suddenly he knew who he was facing that was underneath the hood and breathing mask.

He tried to keep attacking but couldn't move.

Naruto slowly drained Kabuto as he held him in place with Force grip. He made sure to drain enough to render Kabuto unconscious due to chakra depletion. It would likely take several days before Kabuto would recover. It was a good thing that the memory seal he put on Kabuto hadn't been broken or found by Orochimaru yet, otherwise the fight would have been harder as Kabuto would have been much more cautious.

Looking up from the unconscious Kabuto, he stared at the unknown person that was still standing against the wall while Karin was putting on a pair of gloves she found. The Force was telling him that he should find out more about the person before making any decisions. If he couldn't use the boy then he would have to kill him to keep him from saying anything. No one would be taking credit for Orochimaru's death and it would be as if the Snake Sannin just disappeared.

"If you have any abilities that could be of use to me, it would be in your best interests to name them now. Otherwise..." and his words drifted off as he left the implied threat of death.

Suigetsu got the hint and he changed from a solid to a liquid in order to show off his hydration technique. "I can basically turn myself into water whenever I want for protection and to escape most attacks. I've also been trained to be the next generation of the Seven Swordsmen." stated Suigetsu.

Suigetsu stared at the person across from him and was greatly interested in knowing more and perhaps working for this person. Someone his own age who could defeat both Orochimaru and Kabuto was someone that might be interesting to work for. He also had nothing else to do and really no where else to go. He once had the dream of becoming a member of the Seven Swordsmen with his brother but after Mangetsu's recent passing and the swordsmen splitting up and most becoming missing-nin, he no longer had the same motivation.

Naruto thought about what he had just seen and decided that the person had abilities that were of interest to him. He knew how powerful and useful water jutsu could be and he also knew that this person could be of great value later on. After all, a lightsaber typically turned off when it was immersed or came into contact with water and blaster bolts or other common weapons of the galaxy would do little damage to the person before him.

"Uzumaki Naruto." he stated and waited for the other person to give his name. The Force was telling him that he could trust the person in front of him.

"Hozuki Suigetsu." replied the white haired boy.

"Ewwww, gross!" said Karin as she picked up the skull by the hair and kept it at arms length. Naruto pulled out a scroll and gave it to her to seal the head into.

Karin's eye twitched and she said, "You could have just sealed the head in the scroll in the first place."

"You're still being punished." responded Naruto and he heard Karin scream at him.

x-x

The next day

x-x

They had stayed the night in one of the rooms of the hideout while Naruto's clones searched the whole base and took anything which looked useful. He managed to get jutsu, samples, testing data and more. Orochimaru kept quite a store of jutsu scrolls which were now all his. He had even found a summoning scroll for the snakes.

The brief stay was otherwise uneventful and once morning came, they headed out.

"So where are we going?" questioned Suigetsu as they moved through the trees.

"Orochimaru's Northern hideout. Its where he keeps many of the people he experiments on. We're after a person called Juugo. Once we acquire this person or samples from his corpse, then we will need to catch a boat. " Naruto responded and left out information about his Master and the fact that they were ultimately heading to Snow Country.

Suigetsu was running with him while Karin was just behind them and bringing up the rear were two clones carrying Kabuto and Tayuya. Both of them were bound and had chakra suppressing tags on them. Tayuya's chakra had also been drained and he further drained Kabuto that morning.

Naruto wasn't completely sure what he was going to do with Juugo when they got there. The older boy was rather unstable and could attack them. He was feeling better after his fight with Orochimaru but he wasn't sure whether he could take Juugo alive. Technically he only needed samples from Juugo.

Having a live person would helpful when he finally faced his Master and discussed why he completely defied him and put them at risk of being found out. The more he thought about it, the more he was sure Plagueis would really be angry with him and he pushed those thoughts aside to focus. He was about to enter a prison full of cursed seal bearing inmates and possibly fight with the original carrier of the bloodline.

x-x

Danzo stood with the other council elders and clan heads as they looked down at the body on the metal table. They had all been told of the bodies discovery but needed to all confirm it for themselves so they had all personally come down to the morgue in the basement of the hospital.

On the table were the remains of a blond child that was incredibly injured, almost beyond recognition. The body had fallen and then been nearly crushed by debris. Workers and ninja had discovered the body along with a few others during the cleanup of the damaged areas of the village. Though most of the right side of the face was destroyed, the characteristic three dark markings were still present on the remains of the lefts side of the face.

This was not something that he had planned on or foreseen. He thought the boy would be discovered missing and he could convince everyone that the Kyuubi container had left the village. This new dilemma definitely changed things.

"Are you sure its him?" inquired elder Homura to the coroner.

"After performing all the standard verifications, comparing the results to his records, and double-checking my findings, I am sure that this is Uzumaki Naruto." replied the medical-nin examiner.

While the other council members were going over the situation in their mind, Danzo was thinking very differently. 'Well played, Uzumaki. I had no idea your plan included something this elaborate. I will have to change my plans but perhaps I can still convince them that the body is a fake.' he thought and had something in mind.

"What of the seal?" inquired Danzo to the rest of the room. As if on cue, the members of the room turned to the one member that was not part of the council and that had also been called to the room.

Standing just outside the doorway to the morgue was Jiraiya. He was still listening but part of his mind was stuck in the past at a single moment where something like this had happened before. It was when Tsunade's brother Nawaki was killed during the war. However there was no one here to morn for the boy that was on the table and Tsunade hadn't been in the village for years.

He let out a sigh and then entered the room. Trying to remain as professional as possible, he walked to the table and went to examine the seal on the boy's abdomen or what was left of the seal. It was incredibly difficult for him to look at the body.

His hands were shaking slightly as he pushed chakra into the boys abdomen and a faint seal formed on what was left of the skin. It was the same seal that he knew had been used by his deceased student. The others in the room all reacted instantly and started asking questions.

"So it is him then?

"Will the Kyuubi reform?"

"Are we in danger?"

However Jiriaya was still focused on the seal itself. While it was the seal his student had used, he wasn't that familiar with it and something seemed 'off' with it. He would have liked to stay and figure out what was giving him a strange feeling but he could not see any danger to the village. It seemed the seal had worked completely and the Kyuubi didn't appear to be coming back. Without any chakra to power the seal, the Kyuubi would have already escaped or at least someone would have felt something.

He told them everything was fine and they soon left. Danzo stayed for a brief moment longer than the rest but soon followed the others leaving Jiraiya in the room with the medical-nin.

What he needed to do now was find Tsunade so she could take over as Hokage. Then he would have time to get a closer examination of the seal and figure out what about it was bugging him. He was a fuinjutsu expert but this particular seal and the method used by his student were beyond his knowledge and abilities. He would need time to determine what about it was bothering him but he didn't have that time right at that moment.

Taking one last look at the boy on the table while medical-nin pulled the cover back over the body he felt terribly guilty and an incredible sadness washed over him. Naruto was the last piece of his student left in the world and now the boy was dead, along with almost everyone else he was close to.

However he still had thought of earlier events in his head and he wasn't sure what the boy had been involved in. He still remembered the attack on his person that happened before the end of the chunin exams and while they couldn't prove it was Naruto, he knew there was something off about the boy. Minato's child had been up to something but he had no proof and neither had the Sandaime.

Sighing, he then told to the medical-nin to keep the body as he needed to look at it again when he came back. He couldn't get the thought out of his head that he was forgetting something or that something was out of place and he just wasn't seeing it. Perhaps he would come back later before heading out. He had to pack and get together a lists of contacts that might know where Tsunade was.

x-x

"So what do we do with these two when we get inside?" questioned Karin as she felt around the Northern hideout to see who was inside or patrolling around the outside. They were in a rocky area of Northern Sound Country.

"What do you mean, we? I didn't see you do anything when the fighting happened at the snake's hideout. You just screamed and threw his head down the hallway." commented Suigetsu and he laughed when Karin smacked him in the head causing a splash and then it reformed.

"Its not like you did anything. Leaning against the wall trying to look cool. Moron!" Karin fired back after her failed attempt to hit him.

"Most likely we'll just shove them in one of the cells until we're done. It is a prison and there are empty cells. What did your sensing of the prison reveal, Karin?" questioned Naruto as he ignored the the childish antics of the two around him.

"I think I can feel at least twenty guards and around eighty prisoners inside. One seems to be isolated from the rest." she answered and adjusted her glasses.

'That must be Juugo.' Naruto thought and started going over the plan, "We only need to get to Juugo." he stated as he went through a map of the facility in his mind. He continued with a short briefing from Kabuto's limited knowledge of the facility and its layout. It was made larger than it needed to be which would work to their advantage.

Naruto went through a few handseals and then put his hands on the shoulder's of both Karin and Suigetsu. They were about to say something when they started sinking into the ground. Suigetsu was rather interested in the effect but Karin almost screamed before they sunk into the rock beneath them. The clones did the same and took the unconscious bodies of Tayuya and Kabuto with them.

The group moved through the rock and into one of the unused wings of the hideout. It was all prepared for prisoners with numerous cells that weren't in use yet but probably would be in the coming years due to Orochimaru's experimentation with the cursed seal and finding hosts. The group emerged from the floor and the two unconscious prisoners were placed in a holding cell.

Naruto put up a barrier tag on the cell to keep anyone from opening it besides him. It would take an incredible amount of force to get the cell open but he knew he wouldn't have to worry about anyone finding the two.

Near the cell was the hallway that connected the wing to the rest of the prison. He quickly examined the ceiling and then went through handseals for an earth jutsu to collapse the ceiling and walls of the hallway. The guards would hear the commotion and come to investigate. Since no one was using this part of the prison they likely wouldn't bother to fix it right away.

With the completion of the seals, the ground, walls, and ceiling of the hallway began cracking and breaking apart. A good sized section collapsed in on itself pulling rocks and other debris into the hallway that sealed everything up. Naruto used the Force to push the dust away from himself.

Using the same earth jutsu as before, he melded into the rock with Suigetsu and Karin. The small group moved through the surrounding rock and headed to another area of the prison, close to the cell where Juugo was.

x-x

Juugo panted as he calmed down from another fit of his bloodline. It had been much harder to control now that Kimimaro was sick and hadn't visited in a while. He worried for his only friend and hadn't heard any news for nearly a week. Orochimaru was supposed to be working on some plan, the exact details of which he hadn't been told to him but he knew it might take a while for it to finish.

He dragged his feet, which were each attached at the ankles to a chain and ball weight, to the side of his room and sat against the wall.

Sometimes he wished he could leave the prison but he knew what would happen if he lost control. It had happened many times before and the outcome was always the same. He would 'wake up' and be surrounded by bodies or covered in blood. It was best to stay there, where he had been for many years. Months had elapsed since his last visit outside of the facility and sometimes it was just hard not to want to break out.

Putting his arms on his knees he rested his head and wished for something better or to at least see his friend again.

x-x

A guard sat in front of the surveillance camera monitors and looked up as one lost the picture and went to static. He reached for his radio but the feed from the camera soon came back, however another camera went out that was right near the first one.

He closely watched the monitors for a few minutes until he decided that it was some kind of bug or glitch in the system. It seemed to be cycling through cameras in order. Shaking his head, he pulled the two-way radio to his mouth and instead inquired about the slight tremor that they had all felt a few minutes ago.

The voice of one of the other guards soon came back and told him it was nothing to worry about. Just a collapse in one of the unused areas of the prison.

Glancing back at the monitors he sighed and put his feet up on the desk while he reclined back. It was nothing to worry about.

x-x

The group of three moved swiftly through the areas of the prison where no one was around. Naruto was temporarily disabling the cameras to keep them from being found out while Karin led them to the lone chakra signature in this particular area of the facility.

Coming to an intersection in the hallway they turned left and Karin said, "He's halfway down the hallway."

It didn't take long to reach a huge steel door that looked more like the vault of a bank than the door to a prison cell. Karin looked at the door with some trepidation. From what Naruto had said, it was meant to keep someone in and not to keep others out.

Naruto could feel the person inside and it seemed that their arrival was at a good time. He couldn't feel anything sinister coming from the boy behind the door. The only problem he was having was whether he should keep Juugo alive or just acquire samples. Alive was much better but he found it difficult figuring out how he would convince the boy to come with him. The Force wasn't really telling him anything but that wasn't uncommon. The only thing he could sense was that the person behind the door was unstable and could be dangerous which was something that he already knew.

Suigetsu wanted to come with him but this was different. From Kabuto's memories he knew that Juugo wanted to stay in the cell out of fear of hurting anyone. Convincing him to leave the cell and travel with them seemed beyond difficult, however he might just be able to knock the boy out and kidnap him.

Lifting his hand up into the air, he used the Force and dealt with the locking mechanism on the door. The crank on the door began turning and he pulled open the door just a crack to see in.

x-x

Kabuto opened his eyes after he was sure that there was no one else around. He could tell he was tied up and he couldn't feel his chakra. He also couldn't find any of his hidden weapons that he normally had on him. Moving his body as best as he could, he attempted to sit up.

He instantly regretted the motions as his head was swimming and a pounding headache was quick to follow. Diagnosing himself, he realized he had symptoms of chakra depletion. Looking over his surroundings, he noted he was in one of Orochimaru's many cells but he couldn't be sure exactly where he was. Tayuya was still unconscious near him and seeing her made the memories of what had happened flood back to him.

"Naruto-kun." he said out loud and though he knew it to be true it still didn't seem right. Naruto was supposed to be in Konoha and he had no idea why the boy would come after him.

'Is he trying to take me back to Konoha?' he briefly wondered but threw the notion aside as foolish. Naruto may have been talented but he knew the boy lacked any loyalty to the village. He had even thought of trying to recruit Naruto to work with him and Orochimaru but it was too much of a risk.

Now he didn't know what to think. His Master was dead at the hands of the same boy that had taken him prisoner and that was his teammate for several years. The one thing he was certain of was that he would get revenge upon Naruto for killing Orochimaru. He was a patient person and would wait for the right moment.

Though he did wonder what Naruto had planned for him and Tayuya.

x-x

"Kimimaro?" Naruto repeated what Juugo had asked about. He knew who the person was but wasn't sure why Juugo was so interested in knowing about him.

"Ain't that the person you killed back at the hideout?" commented Suigetsu and Naruto instantly knew that was the wrong thing to have said.

"Karin, run to the end of the hallway." Naruto calmly said and Karin didn't need to ask what he was talking about as she could feel foul chakra pouring from the room.

A moment later the door was smashed open by an enraged and transforming Juugo.

x-x

The seven prisoners in the cell were quite as usual. There was nothing to talk about despite their incredible boredom. Each person in the room hated the others but they also had to live in the same cell. Though they had cursed seals and could eventually break through the bars holding them in the cell, none of them were able to control the transformation and it was more likely that they would kill each other first.

Once the seal was activated they transformed into mindless animals that did nothing but fight. The guards would also be there quickly and wouldn't hesitate to kill them. While they may have been harder to damage, things like poison could still be quite effective on them and the guards could use gas or any weapon coated in a myriad of poisons that Orochimaru had.

It was maddening to be stuck in a cell with people you didn't like and to have great power but couldn't use it to do what you wanted.

The boredom was lifted for a moment when they felt a slight tremor, but they just passed it off as another cave-in as one had happened earlier. The tremor however was followed by another. Then another and then another. With interest piqued, they tried to figure out where it was coming from as the tremors seemed increasingly closer or more powerful.

One of the prisoners walked up to the back wall of the cell and put his head up against it to hear. Nothing happened for a few moments but just as he was getting disinterested, the wall cracked and then exploded inward. Debris and dust flew into the cell and a cloaked figure came with it.

Naruto flew into the cell and hit the bars. His sword had left his hand and clattered to the floor with the debris and rock from the wall. Before he had a chance to do anything, a dark skinned and grotesque arm grabbed his throat and began strangling him.

Naruto's hand grabbed Juugo's forearm in an attempt to remove the hand that was about to break his neck or crush his throat. He could only choke as he tried to get air into his lungs.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" screamed an enraged and still transforming Juugo.

Moving his free hand, his sword levitated and then he flicked his wrist and the sword darted into Juugo's leg. With Juugo's attention diverted, Naruto formed a Kinetite in his hand smashed it into the chest of the orange haired teen trying to kill him.

Juugo was thrown back into the wall they just came through and holding up his hand, the sword returned to him through the dust.

Naruto fell to the floor wheezing and tried to get air into his lungs . Looking up at where Juugo was, his eyes widened and he lunged out of the way.

Juugo instantly came hurtling at the bars with his transformed arm seemingly propelling him like some kind of chakra powered rocket. The transforming teen smashed through the bars, completely distorting the metal and ripping it out of the floors, ceiling, and walls. The attack kept going and rammed into the adjacent cell on the other side of the hallway.

The prisoners watched for only a second before they began running out of the newly formed escape routes. Naruto acted quickly and used the Force to bend the already distorted bars around Juugo to make a cage of sorts. He knew it wouldn't last but it would buy him some time to think of something else to do.

It took a few moments of struggling for a roaring Juugo to free himself from the bars and the makeshift cage seemed to only enrage him more. Looking for the cloaked boy he was trying to kill he was immediately hit with a deluge of water and forced into the broken cell.

Naruto went through handseals and the water began taking shape into a spherical prison. Sticking his hand into the sphere he completed the jutsu and looked to see if it would hold. Juugo's transformation however continued and Naruto could tell he was still in danger.

Using his other hand, he formed a chidori and then rammed the chirping jutsu it into the sphere as soon as he removed his other hand. Without constant control over the sphere it would soon lose consistency but not before the lightning jutsu did its work.

The entire sphere ignited and Naruto was forced to stop the jutsu and jump into the ceiling a moment later to escape the electrified water that flooded the room. The effects of both jutsu soon faded and the created water began to quickly evaporate.

Naruto looked down at the twitching Juugo but the effects of his jutsu soon stopped and the orange pupils and black sclera looked right at him. Jumping off the ceiling and into the hallway, Naruto heard the ceiling he had just been on get smashed and he ran a little ways down the hallway in the hopes of putting distance between them. It was difficult to fight Orochimaru in an enclosed room but far more dangerous fighting a transforming Juugo in small cells and a hallway.

While moving, his hands went through two seals and he turned to fire a powerful gust of wind down the hallway that pushed the charging Juugo away from him. If he managed to subdue Juugo before he fully transformed then he might be able to take the teen alive.

x-x

"Outta the way!" yelled Suigetsu as he pushed his way through the fleeing prisoners that were running through the destroyed walls that had been left in the wake of the crazy kid's rampage.

Karin was somewhere around but he was more focused on doing something to help his new leader. He didn't have any weapons besides basic kunai and shuriken that had been provided for him and knew only a few jutsu that might help out.

It would be a shame for Naruto to die before he could find out what the boy was really up to and where they were heading afterward.

x-x

A siren started going off indicating that a prison break was occurring but Naruto ignored it as Juugo had his full attention. He ducked under the swing of an arm that was partially transformed into an axe and threw a punch. The deranged Juugo smiled as he dodged the punch but was hit full force a second later. Naruto followed up with multiple punches that all missed and yet they all managed to hit Juugo.

His projected fighting attacks were halted a moment later as Juugo got fed up with the attacks and jumped back to put distance between them.

As he was charging, Naruto tried to use Force grip and hold the boy in place but it proved exceedingly difficult as Juugo kept moving forward, albeit slowly.

He tried to stop the orange teen, but wasn't prepared when several vents formed on Juugo's back and a large burst of chakra broke the hold and sent the insane teen hurtling straight for him.

Naruto was hit hard by Juugo's fist and carried by the fist until Juugo slowed down. When Juugo stopped, Naruto's body continued backwards and he smashed into a wall. Juugo laughed manically and held out his hand towards the damaged area. His transformation continued across his body and his arm begun to change. Several large vents formed on the arm and then chakra began gathering at the ends of the vest.

Naruto was trying to get up from the wall he had nearly smashed through when he felt the attack. He looked up and saw the attack but knew he wouldn't be able to move.

Before it fired, Suigetsu rammed into Juugo's side. The arm's trajectory was changed, but a beam of highly concentrated chakra still blasted into the wall and ceiling of the hallway. The force of the attack and amount of chakra were incredible. It nearly brought the whole ceiling down on them.

Naruto tried to get up but found he just couldn't stand. Forming a cross shaped seal he created several shadow clones while Suigetsu was trying and failing to fight Juugo. The white haired boy kept getting hit but his hydration technique was keeping him safe. Juugo would destroy his head but it would reform a moment later.

Two clones picked Naruto up while the remaining one formed hand seals and spit out large amounts of mud. Twelve more Naruto clones were created from the mud and they rushed Juugo. The almost completely transformed teen only laughed and attacked them. The clones were destroyed but did not go up in smoke. Instead they turned into mud that began moving onto Juugo's' body. The clones dog-piled the orange teen and then reverted back to mud which started covering the rest of Juugo's body and then began hardening.

While the two clones dragged the real Naruto to Juugo, the remaining shadow clone performed another earth jutsu and spit more mud at Juugo to further encase him. The mud quickly hardened and Juugo struggled to move and break out.

The real Naruto was brought to the struggling Juugo as the mud began to crack and though he couldn't sense chakra very well the amount of chakra that Juugo seemed to be amassing beneath the mud was easily felt by him.

Naruto stuck out his hand and placed it on Juugo's head. Looking directly into the insane eyes, he focused on stopping the transformation with his Force powers. Juugo resisted him for a few moments and the mud prison nearly gave way but the teen stopped struggling. The transformation also stopped and then slowly began to recede. The dark skin gave way to the lighter skin underneath and the black sclera began changing back to white. The transformation receded across Juugo's face leaving the orange haired and orange eyed teen that Naruto had first met when he opened the door.

The looked at each other for a few moments before Juugo passed out. Naruto turned to Suigetsu who looked relieved and then said, "Find...Karin," with a wheeze in between the words before he collapse onto the ground.

'Ah damn it!' Suigetsu thought and proceeded to get Karin in the fastest method possible, "KARIN, GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!"

It didn't take long before he saw Karin running down the hallway.

She could tell that Naruto was in trouble and though she could do little during the fight, she knew she needed to stay safe until after the fight was over and therefore stayed a good distance away. She quickly knelt down while her hands turned green with medical chakra.

She started with the throat as it was the most serious injury. His throat was nearly crushed and he couldn't breathe. Her diagnostic jutsu indicated that Naruto's back was broken and several of his organs seemed to be damaged as well, but getting him breathing to an appreciable degree was her first priority.

While Karin worked, Suigetsu stood nearby as he could do nothing at this point. He didn't want to look at the scene so he looked elsewhere and spotted the sword Naruto was using. If they were attacked he would need something to defend them with and he also wanted to get a closer look at the sword.

He picked up the dusty blade and inspected it. It was heavier than he imagined it would be but well balanced. He brushed some of the dust off and was surprised to find a perfectly polished blade underneath. With all that had happened during the fight, he didn't' expect it to look so new and well kept.

He managed to take his eyes away from the blade to look for prisoners or guards as he walked back to the two group members and trapped Juugo. It was obvious that the prisoners and probably even the guards were terrified of Juugo and it was possible that they wouldn't even encounter anyone.

Breathing better, Naruto stared at the ceiling and was thankful when he started feeling a tingling sensation in his legs. He couldn't feel them earlier and it might take a little while before he would be able to walk properly again. However, he had managed to calm Juugo down.

He could have ended the fight earlier by killing Juugo but after all he saw, he just couldn't. Juugo was too interesting and he knew Plagueis would be interested as well. There was no telling what Juugo would do once he woke up or how the boy would react and he reminded himself to tie the boy up and put some chakra suppressing tags on him.

Now they just needed to collect everyone and leave. He wasn't looking forward to finding a boat that would take them to Snow Country.

'I really should have planned this out better. Now I have to smuggle six people aboard a ship, three of them hostages, for almost a week long journey to Snow Country. In addition to not being noticed or leaving a paper trail.' he thought and groaned at the situation he had managed to create for himself.

'Master Plagueis is gonna be pissed.'

x-x

A few hours later, back in Konoha

x-x

Peeking around the corner, Tenten looked down the hallway and didn't see anyway, so it looked safe to come out.

"You do realize that with my byakugan you needn't try to be so...sneaky?" questioned Neji with his arms folded across his chest and a questioning look.

Tenten scowled and complained, "I never get the chance to sneak around. We never get any infiltration missions."

"Is that why you're wearing that nurses outfit?...Your skirt seems a little short." commented Neji and Tenten turned to him with another scowl and then said, "Well I guess it must really be too short then, if you're noticing."

Neji's cheeks tinged pink but he scoffed and walked away.

The two proceeded to move through the hallways to the morgue. Neji still couldn't believe that he had agreed to accompany her to the morgue. For some reason news had spread quickly through the village about the death of Uzumaki Naruto and it was almost as if people were talking about Uzumaki's death more than the Sandaime's. They also didn't seem the least bit mournful.

It didn't make sense to him and no matter how he looked at it, there was something definitely strange about the boy. The only good news he had was that the boy was dead which only proved what he believed that you couldn't defy fate. Fate eventually caught up to those that tried.

His main reason for being there was to make sure that Tenten didn't get caught trying to steal the deceased boy's sword. She claimed she just wanted to look at it but he had a feeling it would end up coming with her when they left. Seemingly since her first encounter with the sword, he had noticed that she was practically obsessed with it and he had never known her to act like that with any other weapon. He knew he couldn't stop her from doing it and it wouldn't be good for his teammate to be caught while robbing the dead, but it wasn't as if the boy needed the sword anymore.

They went past the morgue as they were merely after the personal effects that were found with the body, so they made their way to an adjacent room that held these items. Naruto was an orphan so there was no one to collect them and Tenten couldn't let the sword wind up with anyone else.

Picking the lock on the door, Tenten opened the door and headed inside with Neji following. The room was filled with shelves and boxes. Each box was the same size and the label had the name as well as ninja ID number of the deceased. The boxes held the personal effects of the ninja on the label.

Searching the labels, she looked for the ninja she was after. Neji stayed at the door to make sure that no one was coming as he couldn't keep his byakugan on indefinitely.

It only took a minute for Tenten to find the right box and she pulled it off the shelf. Setting it on the floor she opened the box and instantly found what she was looking for. Grabbing the sword, her smile instantly faded as she picked up the blade.

Neji looked from the hallway back to his teammate as she was taking too long and had stopped. He then asked, "What's the matter? That's the sword isn't it?"

"No it isn't." she replied sadly and Neji walked away from his position at the door to see what she was talking about. It looked exactly like the sword she was always after and he didn't understand what the problem was.

Holding the sheath in one hand and grabbing the handle in the other, she unsheathed the blade by a few inches to confirm what she already knew. Instead of a red and black blade, it was just normal metal found on just about every other sword in the village. Neji looked over to see what she was frowning about and noted the difference in the blade.

"I noticed when I picked it up that the weight and balance were wrong." Tenten said in explanation.

"Maybe someone else switched it?" Neji suggested and decided they should get going.

Tenten looked at him but something didn't seem right about the suggestion. "I don't think so." she said and fully unsheathed the blade to get a closer look at it.

Sighing, Neji decided to humor her, "And why not?"

"If a person wanted to switch the blade, they could have used any ninjato, yet somehow they just happened to have one the exact same coloring and it was also one that was used? Also I can tell that the person that used this blade was probably around our age and it's well used. The wear on the handle fits my hand and unless the owner had small hands, it seems more likely that he did use it. No other person our age in the village uses a sword." she explained as her father sold most of the weapons in the village and only a select few ninja ever bought ninjato.

"It does seem strange, but why would Uzumaki-san use a blade like that when he had the other one?" questioned Neji.

"I don't know." replied Tenten and when she went to put the sword back, something else caught her eye. Pulling the weapons pouches from the box, she examined them as well. They were wrong. She looked at the other items and found that the shoes were wrong too. Sure they looked like normal ninja supplies but growing up in a ninja supply store she knew a great deal of information about them and what she found didn't make sense.

"Just what exactly are you two doing in here?" asked a voice and both genin turned around to find a man in the doorway. They didn't even notice or sense him at all. The man moved into what little light the room had and it didn't take long for both of them to realize that it was Jiraiya of the Sennin.

"Why are you looking through a deceased ninja's property?" he inquired and Neji could tell that they were in trouble.

"Its all wrong." Tenten blurted out in a state of confusion and panic.

Raising an eyebrow, Jiraiya decided he wanted to hear a little bit more and asked, "What's wrong?"

"The supplies." Tenten answered and Jiraiya frowned slightly but was slightly curious and wanted to find out where the girl's train of thought was headed, "And what's wrong with them?" he inquired as he could not see anything amiss.

"They weren't made in Konoha, they were all made in Grass Country." she replied and Jiraiya's eyes widened slightly.

Please Review


	16. Chapter 16

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

AN: Yes I know its been a while but I am still writing. I've lost some motivation for my other stories but not this one. Hopefully I'll get back in my zone and get out chapters faster. This one is extra long so enjoy!

**x-x**

**36.5 BBY – Current Year **

Chapter XVI: Moving forward

continuation from last chapter

x-x

"What do you mean they were made in Grass Country?" Jiraiya asked speculatively as he looked at the items she was holding.

"I mean what I say I mean. The pouches, supplies, and shoes were all made in Grass Country." replied Tenten with her hands on her hips and a glare.

"And how do you know this?" asked Jiraiya for clarification and ignored the glare of the thief.

"I grew up in a weapons shop. I know how to tell Konoha and Fire Country supplies from all the other villages." stated Tenten and she folder her arms across her chest.

Jiraiya's thoughts about possible punishment for the two thieves were quickly replaced with thoughts about the new information he just received. He knew that whenever an academy student graduated they were given a weapons pouch, shuriken pouch, and standard supplies as a graduation gift. These supplies were always made by the village or by Fire Country. No village or even ninja would ever purposefully purchase supplies from another village. It just wasn't done, unless they were a missing-nin.

The fact that Naruto was carrying these items from Grass Country was definitely giving him a bad feeling. 'The supplies were from another village and the sword was a fake.' he thought to himself as he built off this new information. If the supplies weren't correct and the sword was a fake, then what did that mean for the body?

Earlier he did find something wrong but at that point he couldn't figure out what, but now he was sure. 'The seal isn't the real thing either.' he realized. It was definitely the correct seal however what he didn't see before was that it wasn't his students seal. He could recognize his students work. 'Minato didn't make that seal, and if the seal was a fake that meant that the body was a fake too.' he put together and it made sense however it left him more questions.

Who was in the morgue? How did the examiner not discover the body was a fake? How did Grass Country factor into it? Where was Uzumaki Naruto?

He started with the question that seemed the most out of place which concerned how Grass Country was involved. In order to figure that out, he needed to determine where and when Naruto would have encountered anyone from Grass Country. The answer hit him immediately and he needed to get to the ninja archives to figure it all out and determine if his hunch was correct.

He was about to leave when he remembered that he still had two guilty genin standing before him. He could have turned them over to the ANBU but their illicit 'activities' had actually helped him and the information he might find out from what the girl had revealed to him would likely make up for what he caught them doing.

Despite this, he still didn't think they should just get off and decided to put them to work. The records room was a incredibly boring place and looking through all the files he needed was both time consuming and tedious. It would take a while to find the files and information that he needed if he just went by himself.

'Unless I had a few unpaid workers helping me out.' he thought and smiled at the two genin who both started to get a bad feeling about what would happen next.

x-x

Naruto leaned on Karin as she helped him walk through the facility to where he left Kabuto and Tayuya. He glanced over at Suigetsu, who was carrying the larger Juugo on his back and thought, 'This definitely didn't turn out how I thought it would.'

Now he had three prisoners and he would have to get them all to Snow Country without anyone seeing him or without leaving any trail or witnesses along the way. The best route to take was through Hot Springs and then trying to find a ship at a port along the coast. The problem he would have to overcome was that so few ships went to Snow Country. Only a couple of ships went there each month and even fewer came from a port that he could easily get access to.

Going through a country with a major hidden village was not a good idea. He might get stopped by border patrols and he had to take three prisoners with him. There were questions he wouldn't be able to answer about why he was carting three people when none of them were in any bingo book or had a bounty on their heads.

Of course any of his prisoners could cause trouble along the way which only added the possibility of problems.

'It was such a simple plan in the beginning. Why did I make it so complicated?'

"There's trouble up ahead." Karin said and Naruto created a few shadow clones to carry himself and Juugo. He looked to Suigetsu and the white haired boy grinned as he brandished the ninjato and ran ahead of the group.

x-x

Huffing, Tenten put a new stack of files onto the table that Jiraiya was sitting at. 'Slave labor.' she remarked to herself at their treatment by the Sannin. It was already late at night and she had to get up early for team training but now she was looking through files in the Ninja Archives.

Neji used his byakugan to examine the remaining file cabinets for the correct file tabs. He wasn't supposed to look in the actual files so he was just looking at the marked tabs for the correct labels and then he would inform Tenten of where the files were.

Jiraiya opened the newest manilla folder and looked through the information. So far he had looked through every mission file that Naruto had but the boy had never been near Grass Country and had never encountered any Grass ninja on any of his missions. Somewhere there was a connection to Grass Country or at least to Grass ninja and once he found that, he might be able to answer the other questions that he had.

'If it wasn't a mission then what was it?' he wondered and sat back in the chair as he pondered this question. He was interrupted in this thoughts when the girl cleared her voice and asked if that was all they had to do and if they could go home.

Jiraiya was about to respond when he had the answer, "The chunin exams." he said out loud and received questioning looks from both genin.

"Bring me every file that is from the most recent chunin exams." Jiraiya ordered and both genin grumbled while they got back to work finding the files with the help of the archivists.

From what he could remember from conversations with the Sandaime, Naruto had been one of many chunin staffing the exam before he was promoted. Grass Country usually participated in the Konoha exams and at some point during the exams, Naruto must have come into contact with Grass ninja.

There were always deaths during the second exam and it was likely that the body currently in the morgue could have been one of the chunin hopefuls from Grass Country. The two genin brought him more stacks of files and he quickly sifted through them to separate the files that were of no use to him.

He pulled out several reports that were made by Naruto as part of proper reporting during the course of the chunin exams. The reports were quite bland and he skimmed through them until he discovered that Naruto was patrolling the fence of the Forest of Death during the second exam. He stopped reading when he found a part that greatly interested him.

Apparently Naruto had come across a genin while outside the forest and the genin told him one of his teammates was dead while the other missing. Naruto then entered the forest of death to find the missing teammates.

It was quite odd as usually chunin patrolling the fence weren't supposed to interfere but it had been known to happen. What really peaked his curiosity was that the genin was from Grass Country. He examined the rest of the file and noted that Naruto reported the other two Grass genin as dead but no bodies were recovered. He read intently when he came to a part about encountering Orochimaru and the examine proctor, Mitarashi Anko.

He again stopped and thought, 'At least it doesn't appear that he even so much as spoke to Orochimaru, but perhaps its best to be sure.' Turning to Tenten he asked her to retrieve another file from the archivist concerning a report made by Mitarashi Anko about what happened in the forest and also had Neji get the report by the surviving Grass genin.

Whenever deaths occurred during the chunin exams, they had to have a short report made by the surviving member or members so that they had documentation of the death on file. Despite signing a waiver, it still helped to have extra documentation.

Jiraiya waited for his genin helpers to get back and Tenten was the first to come back with a file. Jiraiya opened the file and skimmed through it to where Anko wrote about her encounter with Orochimaru. He skipped areas of text that talked about eating dango as well as a long rant by Anko concerning how she wanted to kill her former sensei and what methods she planned to employ if she ever got the chance.

He finally came to the area he wanted and read through it. Then he read through it again just to make sure he was getting the facts correct.

Anko had mentioned running into Naruto which he already knew about, however she also mentioned that Naruto was traveling with someone else. A red-haired girl from the Hidden Grass village. His mind worked through possibilities to explain this and he had a good feeling that Anko's report was the one he should go by for what events really took place.

'Naruto encountered a Grass kunoichi and traveled with her through the forest. It's likely that the kunoichi was part of the genin team whose member he already ran into earlier. However, he reported the two members of the Grass team dead. Did something happen to the girl before he left the forest?' he wondered and didn't like where the train of thought was taking him.

If Naruto found one member of the Grass team then he may have also found the other as well. The body in the morgue had gear made in Grass Country and was definitely a boy, so the body they discovered may be the genin that was never recovered. He didn't like these thoughts but that was where his intuition and experience was taking him. He however still didn't know about the girl.

Neji arrived moments later with the file concerning the surviving grass genin and basic information on his teammates that were supposedly killed and not recovered from the forest. Jiraiya pushed all of the other files that were on the table away from him and focused on the new file.

Rather than looking at the statement that the surviving genin made, he searched for the information on the deceased genin which was also placed in the file. It was just basic information that was filled out when the ninja applied for the chunin exams and included a picture.

Jiraiya found the missing shinobi's profile first and looked at the boy's information. In terms of size, weight, and blood type, the deceased Grass genin was a match for the body in the morgue. He had a feeling that was what he would find and turning to the next set of information he focused on the picture of a red-haired kunoichi with a Grass forehead protector partially covered by her hair.

'So the girl was alive when Naruto ran into Anko, but he reported her dead to her surviving teammate and sensei. What happened to you, Karin?' he thought as he stared at the picture of the young kunoichi. Thoughts filled his head of Naruto perhaps killing the girl but they were stopped when Tenten's voice brought him out of this thoughts.

"Why are you looking at Karin's file?" she questioned and Jiraiya looked at her seriously.

'Does she know this girl from the exam? Did they talk to each other at some point?' he wondered and decided to ask a few questions and then break the news to the girl that her acquaintance was possibly dead.

"Do you know her?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yep, she's an academy student but I haven't seen her for almost a week. We hung out a couple of..." Tenten began but was interrupted by Jiraiya bombarding questions at her, "Academy student?! Just last week?!"

Tenten stood rather frozen at the strange change in Jiraiya's demeanor and wasn't sure what to say or why the Sannin was yelling at her.

Jiraiya calmed down for a second before beginning in a lighter tone, "You've seen this girl as soon as last week?"

"Yes. She's an academy student. We went shopping and out to lunch several times. She had a bunch of questions to ask about being a ninja and kunoichi." replied Tenten and she was getting a little worried and nervous about where the conversation was heading.

'An academy student?' thought Jiraiya as he went through the possibilities of this new information. The genin in front of him was positive that she had seen this girl and that she was a Konoha academy student. His mind went through scenarios of a Grass genin infiltrating the village with Naruto's help or of Naruto being a spy for Grass Country but none of those made any sense. The redhead didn't look like a spy and was likely too young to be on any infiltration mission.

The best explanation that he could come up with was that, for some unknown reason, Naruto had helped a Grass ninja defect to Konoha. However he just couldn't find a reason why Naruto would do something like that and he was sure that what Tenten said about the girl being in the academy was a lie. That left him wondering where the girl was now and why Naruto had helped her. Everything he knew about Naruto pointed to the boy being a complete loner but there must have been a reason for him sparing the girl.

Although Karin may be unaccounted for, the best source of information he had about her was the the kunoichi in front of him. The redhead may have been telling lies but sometimes there was truth in the lies that people told.

"What exactly did you and Karin talk about? Tell me everything." ordered Jiraiya and Tenten stood silent for a brief moment before firing back, "No! I want to know what's going on and how Karin is involved?"

Jiraiya sighed and decided that if he was going to get the information he wanted, he would have to reveal some. He motioned to the chair and Tenten sat down across from the table he was sitting at and Neji took a seat as well.

"The girl you know as Karin is not an academy student and is not even from the village. She is...or was...a former genin of the Hidden Grass village." stated Jiraiya and he put the photo in front of Tenten so she could see the partially covered Grass forehead protector. Tenten was speechless for almost half a minute and Jiraiya decided to give her time to get over the shock and betrayal.

"So who is she?" asked Tenten and she looked up from the picture.

"According to our records she entered the chunin exam like you did and has been dead for over a month." Jiraiya revealed and he could see the disbelief on the girls face.

"While in the forest, she came into contact with Naruto and while I don't know what happened, he apparently helped her to fake her death. I also have a strong suspicion that the body in the morgue may be one of her former teammates." he continued and was nearing the end of his explanation, "I need to know everything the two of you said and anything that could be of some help. I still don't know why she stayed in the village but I don't think she defected to the village. The village doesn't take in many ninja from other villages and if we did there would be a good reason. A bloodline or special ability that would benefit the village, and I'm just not seeing that here."

"Well maybe she joined the village and few people knew about it?" Tenten questioned as she tried grasp for an answer that put Karin in a good light.

'Sensei would have told me about something like that when we talked about Naruto. Whatever did happen, the only person that knew about it was Naruto.' Jiraiya thought which was how he knew that Karin wasn't a part of the village but he decided to humor the girl and sent Neji off to look for any records of a person that recently joined the village or the academy.

They waited for a while and Jiraiya searched through the other information in the files he had. Neji returned shortly with files on the new residents in the village and there were no new academy students or current academy students that were Karin. Tenten looked through all the files as she tried to find one for Karin but she didn't find one for her friend.

Jiraiya gave the girl a few moments as he waited for her to accept what he was telling her.

Tenten began talking less than a minute later, "We didn't talk about that much and I didn't mention anything that was sensitive to the village." she said and Jiraiya nodded as he knew she likely didn't know any village secrets that she could accidentally give away, however he needed more information on Karin.

"What did she tell you about herself?" Jiraiya questioned and waited for the answer.

"Well she said she was an academy student and looking to become a medic-nin." replied Tenten as she tried to remember anything that could have been important. Most of the information they talked about was related to being a ninja or the upcoming chunin exam finals.

'A medical-nin.' Jiraiya mused as he thought about what information he had and tried to fit it in. Looking in one of his piles, he pulled out Naruto's file and confirmed what he already thought he knew. There was no mention of any ability in medical ninjutsu and in order to alter a body to such a degree, it would have taken knowledge and skill which Naruto didn't seem to have.

'So he needed the girl to help him.' he put together and it did make some sense. He just wondered if Karin was still alive. 'Did he run away from the village with her?' he questioned and he couldn't think of an answer. He knew what he wanted to be the answer. He hoped the girl was still alive as everything that Naruto had done up to that point was not something that couldn't be undone. Even if Naruto had essentially become a missing-nin, as long as no one knew Naruto was still alive, then he could hopefully find the boy first.

He could still fix the situation. As long as the council didn't find out about it until he found Naruto, then everything would be fine and he could return Naruto to the village with few repercussions. Of course he needed to make sure that no one else found out that Naruto was still alive, and that meant he had to make sure that the two genin in front of him did not spill the beans to anyone.

'And I still have to find Tsunade.' he reminded himself and he would set off in search of her in the morning.

"You two can go now." he stated to the two genin and they were quite relieved as they got up and began walking to the door of archives.

"Oh, one more thing." said Jiraiya and both turned around to see him smiling.

"If either of you ever try something like you were planning tonight..." and he paused for a short break while keeping the smile, "...I'll transform you both into toads and you'll never be able to turn back into humans."

Both genin shivered slightly as the sentence ended with a healthy dose of killing intent. They were about to turn around when Jiraiya added, "I'll also know if you come even within 30 feet of the morgue and personal possessions room. Everything you learned tonight is an S-ranked secret and you aren't to discuss it with anyone."

The atmosphere instantly changed when he added the last sentence and the smile was replaced with such a serious look that both still stood there looking at him seconds after the statement was over.

x-x

Kabuto and Tayuya's heads turned to see what the noises were that came from farther down the hallway. It sounded like someone was moving rubble.

Tayuya had only just woken up and found herself tied up as well as gagged. She was rather angry at being near Kabuto and the fact that the white haired ninja was not gagged and she was. From their cell, they could see down the hallway and noticed that there was some debris at an intersection a short distance away.

Kabuto figured that it was likely Naruto coming back from wherever he had gone and attempted to once again free himself from his bonds. The endeavor was again futile and he knew that Naruto had thought about everything concerning his bonds and his possible escape. He figured this was likely because of all the time that they spent together on a team and had no idea that Naruto had a much better look into his head.

Glancing over at the struggling Tayuya, he knew that they wouldn't be able to do anything to get free in the near future. Tayuya still had her cursed seal but if her chakra was as drained as his was, then the seal would be little help. Pulling on the chakra in the seal while low on chakra would likely cause her to be taken over by the seal. While this would help him, it would kill her and he knew she wouldn't go for it, especially after she and the rest of the Sound Four had been explicitly told what would happen.

The removal work down the hallway continued and eventually they heard talking. However while he could hear the voices, none of them were Naruto and he couldn't hear Suigetsu either.

'That's may not good.' he realized as they were likely in one of Orochimaru's facilities and earlier the ground had shook numerous times. Kabuto's mind worked fast and he reasoned that this might be the prison facility in the North. If something happened in the facility, the prisoners would take any opportunity to escape and most of them had cursed seals.

He closed his eyes and focused on his hearing as he ignored Tayuya's muffled sounds as apparently she had realized that something was wrong as well. He was able to pick up several broken sentences from different people between the thuds and thumps of rocks and debris being moved.

"..just a little farther..."

"..I can't wait to get out of this hellhole.."

"Are you sure there is an exit this way..."

"The guards are way more concerned with other parts of the facility..."

'Oh crap.' Kabuto thought and he doubled his efforts to get free. He moved himself over to Tayuya so that they could help one another. The kunoichi had excellent hearing and likely heard more of the conversation than he did so she was just as panicked and desperate.

Quite possibly, a group of cursed seal experiments were headed their way and they were not only trapped in a cell but tied up and helpless. The subjects in the prison hated him and he knew what they would do to Tayuya.

As they struggled, the voices and noises got louder and louder until they heard, "Finally we're through."

Footsteps could be heard of at least 6 people crawling through the remaining debris and walking down the hallway. They frantically struggled in order to be able to defend themselves in some way against the coming group. The steps got louder until they were right in front of the cell.

"I thought you said nobody was in this part of the prison?" asked one as they looked at the two struggling figures on the floor.

The others crowded around the cell until one of them recognized Kabuto.

"Well, well, if it isn't Orochimaru's right hand boy-toy. Is this some kind of game that the two of you play?" and he laughed along with the others.

"It can't be. The snake bastard isn't interested in girls." stated another as they looked at Tayuya and she didn't like the look they had in their eyes.

"Since this is a prison break, we might as well help them out."

"Its payback time, Kabuto." stated another.

"Then maybe the girl can help us out a little too." said another suggestively and the rest of the group agreed.

The two helpless captives watched as one of the group started changing with the cursed seal and it seemed that he had much more control of it than most of the other prisoners. Moving up to the bars, he began to slowly bend them apart and try to break the barrier tag in order to get inside the cell.

x-x

"Finally I get to use this thing in action." said Suigetsu aloud as he raced down the hallway. He'd been holding the blade for several minutes and each minute that passed he wanted to use it more and more. He wanted to see what it could do and was itching to come across someone to use it on.

Coming to the corridor that Naruto had collapse, he smiled as Karin was right and someone had apparently come through there. Reaching the intersection in the hallway he kept his speed and ran up the side of the adjacent wall instead of slowing down to turn. A prisoner was standing right there and he smiled as he swung the blade from his position on the wall.

The red blade quickly passed through the man's neck and neatly decapitated him. Suigetsu flipped in the air and landed in the middle of the group as they just finished bending the bars enough to get at the prisoners inside.

With a quick smile at their shocked expressions, he swung the blade behind him and removed the legs of the mutated man standing behind him. Two men in front of him charged and he swung the blade while dodging their attacks. The blade efficiently removed several limbs and Suigetsu left them to bleed out as was his standard practice. He may come back to finish them off when he was done.

The four he attacked were helpless against his blade and even the partially transformed prisoners stood no chance as he removed another man's arm and then cleaved him in two.

It wasn't until he looked around for anyone else that he noticed that one of the prisoners had managed to get inside the cell and was holding the red-haired girl by the throat. He didn't want to stop as she meant nothing to him but he knew that Naruto had some purpose for her, so he stopped his assault right as the man with the hostage spoke.

"Come any close and I'll snap her neck." stated the prisoner.

"Yeah I kinda figured that by the way you were holding her and the panicked, desperate look in your eyes." Suigetsu said and then laughed.

The other prisoner that was still alive and outside the cell, charged Suigetsu and punched him in the face. The attack resulted in a splash of water and the reforming of Suigetsu's head. It was at that moment that Naruto, his clones, and Karin came around the corner and found the stalemate.

'Shit! What the hell am I going to do? The little bloodthirsty bastard has reinforcements.' thought the prisoner with his arm around Tayuya's neck.

Naruto removed himself from the clones back and walked, as best as he could, up to Suigetsu and the cell.

"Stay where you are!" the man demanded and the other prisoner stood his ground but was still wary of Suigetsu and the newcomer who seemed to be in chare.

Everyone ignored the muffled shouts of Tayuya as they faced each other in the stand-off. Naruto was the first to break the silence and speak. "I have no idea who you are and I don't really care. If you let the girl go, you can both leave alive."

Suigetsu frowned slightly at the declaration as he really wanted to finish them off.

The prisoner stared at the cloaked figure and just smiled as he knew he was in a good position to get something more. Then he looked over to Suigetsu, "Gimme that sword brat."

"Hell no!" responded Suigetsu and he looked down at the beautiful blade. There was no way he was giving it up.

"Give him the blade, Suigetsu." Naruto commanded and Suigetsu responded, "No way, its mine."

Naruto frowned and glared at Suigetsu. Using the Force, he spoke to him. 'May I remind you that the blade is not yours and is **mine**.' said Naruto into Suigetsu's mind.

The boy was momentarily startled at the voice in his head but quickly composed himself. 'Oh, yeah.' he remembered and wondered why he had thought the blade was his.

Though reluctant to part with it, Suigetsu took a moment to get one last look at the blade before he tossed it to the man. The blade parted from Suigetsu and spun perpendicular to the floor with the blade facing down and the handle pointing at the ceiling.

'You better not be giving him such a great blade.' Suigetsu said to himself but he had the feeling that Naruto did hear him.

As the blade neared the man, he stuck out his arm to catch it. It was then that Naruto acted, moving his hand underneath his cloak as he used the Force to control the blade.

The blade suddenly rotated so the point of the blade was facing the man, and then shot forward with far more speed than what Suigetsu's throw had given it. The prisoner was taken completely by surprise and the red blade pierced through his eye and out the back of his head before he had a chance to do anything. He fell over a moment later and Tayuya was left standing there with a shocked look on her face.

Kabuto looked on with interest as he had never seen the blade that Naruto was carrying, nor seen him use a sword in the way he just had. He wasn't even sure how Naruto had managed to move the blade like that. Orochimaru had been able to do something similar with the Kusanagi but that made the blade glow with his chakra and he saw nothing with his eyes that would indicate a chakra string, nor any jutsu.

The last remaining prisoner ran as fast as he could down the hallway in order to put as much distance between himself and the group as possible.

"Suigetsu, duck." Naruto said and smoke erupted as he unsealed a discblade. Suigetsu ducked as Naruto tossed the blade which chased after the last remaining prisoner.

The man looked back and saw the blade so he dropped to the floor. The shuriken like object flew over him and he got back up. Quickly glancing back at the brats he smiled as they didn't seen to be doing anything else to stop him. He started running and then turned back around only to see the same shuriken heading straight for him. There was no time to dodge and it sliced through his torso and separating him into two pieces.

"That was brutal." Suigetsu said with a smile and ducked to dodge the discblade as it returned to its owner. Naruto caught the discblade and then sealed it. He extended his hand out and his sword removed itself from the other prisoners head and flew handle first into his outstretched hand. He then sealed the sword as well.

"I gave them a chance to leave." stated Naruto and looked around at the group he was now taking with him. Seeing as Kabuto and Tayuya were both able to walk, he thought it might be best to have them walk and have someone, or his shadow clones, carry Juugo. There was still a lot of ground to cover before they made it to a boat, and then they had a long journey to Snow Country.

x-x

"Can you believe that?" Tenten questioned and didn't give Neji a chance to say anything before she cut him off.

"After all that he just tells us to go and then makes everything that we discovered an S-ranked secret. Can he really turn us into frogs?" she said and asked the last statement in a much lower whisper. They were both walking back to their homes from the archives in the Hokage monument.

"He's one of the Sennin, anything is possible. You do realize that since it is an S-ranked secret then we shouldn't be talking about it." stated Neji as he glanced around. They weren't talking that loud and it was nighttime in the village, so there was no one else around but he was still wary. He wasn't sure what his uncle was going to say about his long absence but he at least had an excuse given that everything that happened was now classified and he couldn't tell anyone. Despite Hiashi being a clan head and member of the ninja council, an S-ranked secret was still an S-ranked secret.

"I know how important an S-ranked secret is, but can you believe that Naruto faked his own death to leave the village. I don't even understand why someone would want to leave Konoha." Tenten admitted and was very perplexed by the whole situation. She had grown up in the village and couldn't understand why someone would want to leave it. Naruto seemed to be advancing in rank at a much faster pace than anyone else and likely would have become a very important person in the village. It didn't make sense to her why he would leave.

"I don't know what Uzumaki's reasons were for leaving but we shouldn't be talking about this in the open. We shouldn't even be talking about it period." replied Neji and Tenten frowned. She didn't want to admit it but Neji was right. She just wished that the deserter had left his sword behind.

The two stayed silent until they parted ways at the next intersection. Tenten headed back to her shop while Neji headed back to the Hyuuga clan compound.

A few moments passed before two figures emerged from the nearby shadows. One was taller than the other and both had hats and high collared trench coats hiding their features. The shorter one raised his head revealing a pair of fully formed sharingan. He looked around to make sure the area was now deserted and then glanced as his partner.

The taller figure raised his head enough so that a row of sharp, shark-like teeth could be seen and then he spoke, "Looks like the Jinchuuriki is still alive and already left the village."

"So it seems." spoke the shorter figure and then both moved back into the shadows. There was no point in staying in the village if the Jinchuuriki had already left days before. They had to report back to their leader as soon as possible concerning the new information.

x-x

Staring at the communication device once again, Plageuis's frown deepened. He was sitting inside his study or what used to be Doto's study. He received no communication from his student in the last day and half, despite trying to send several messages. The boy obviously wasn't in Snow Country and should have already communicated with him and been on his way there.

His mind filled with possibilities of what could have gone wrong. His student had never failed him but it was possible that Naruto had been discovered or captured. It was also possible that the boy had done something impulsive and without proper planning. He knew his student had already recruited one person as an acolyte or helper and he wondered if that person was somehow influencing Naruto.

All were possibilities and he didn't like any of them.

"Meizo." he commanded and the ninja in question quickly appeared from smoke that had come through the cracks in the closed door.

"Find Naruto." Plagueis commanded and the smoke ninja disappeared a second later. With his reduced Force connection he could not feel his student but he knew that since Naruto performed the ritual on the demon brothers, that they had a connection with him that would allow Meizo to find Naruto. Whatever was keeping his student from arriving in Snow Country and holding up the rest of his plans would be taken care of by Meizo.

Though Naruto had the best means of transportation, the speeder bike, Meizo's unique smoke demon abilities would allow him to travel across the ocean faster than any boat on the planet.

He would deal with Naruto once he found out what was going on.

x-x

One day later

x-x

A short streak of purple smoke moved swiftly over the ocean and landed on the shore of Wave Country. It formed back into Meizo and he looked around to make sure that no one had seen him. He was on one of the uninhabited islands of Wave but he still needed to make sure. He was still a missining-nin and old paranoid habits stuck with him.

It seemed that the closer he was to Naruto, the better he could pinpoint his location and what direction to head in. Closing his eyes, he settling on a single direction to continue traveling in.

Looking back at the ocean, he smiled as he was able to make a seven day journey by boat in just over a day. He and Gozu had spent all their spare time in Snow Country training. They both received training advice from Master Plagueis and had access to many copies of ninjutsu scrolls that went with Plagueis on the boat to Snow Country.

After quite a while staying at chunin rank, he now felt more confident that his abilities were now closer to special jonin and with his smoke abilities he could probably fight a jonin. Neither he nor Gozu had been able to determine just what kind of threshold they could take in terms of ninjutsu damage before they were actually hurt.

Genjutsu had no affect on them and normal weapons or physical attacks could not hurt them at all but Plagueis believed that a strong ninjutsu, above C-rank could actually hurt them despite their smoke abilities. They had yet to test this theory though as neither wanted to purposefully injure themselves.

Turning his attention to the direction he wanted, he began changing into smoke again and using his Smoke Travel technique to move across the remainder of the ocean and towards what he thought was Hot Springs Country.

Turning completely into smoke he was able to travel in a plume of smoke a short distance off of the surface and at a fast speed. He couldn't fly but from a jump he could smoke travel quite a distance vertically before he returned to the ground as if gravity took hold. At most he could smoke travel about twenty feet high before he could no longer sustain his height and was forced to come lower to the surface. However he could travel at a height of several feet above the surface for an incredible amount of time.

He didn't quite understand why this was, but he wasn't going to complain. Becoming nearly invulnerable to most damage wasn't something a person should complain about. Especially since he had yet to really find a major drawback to it. Through experiments, they did find that they were slightly susceptible to water and that it hindered there smoke abilities. Water prevented them from turning into smoke and made them stay solid but they weren't vulnerable to normal weapons even in that state. It was a weakness however and one that Plagueis told them to be wary of against a ninja with a water affinity.

Ironically, both he and Gozu had water affinities, but this also meant that they had a good understanding of what jutsu a water users was capable of and could plan accordingly.

He soon reached the shore of Hot Springs and moved West. Apparently that was where Naruto was.

x-x

Naruto sat leaning up against the wall of his earth jutsu as he looked over the group he was now traveling with. He had basically created a large dwelling with earth jutsu as his group would attract too much attention if they stayed at a hotel or inn. Looking at his watch, it was about time to wake up and head out again. He had knocked out both Kabuto and Tayuya in order to make sure that they did sleep and didn't wake up in the middle of the night to try and kill him or escape

They might be able to reach the coast by morning and then from there they needed to find a boat that would take them to Snow Country.

The benefits of his impulsive plan greatly outweighed the cons but he would likely have to prove such notions to Master Plagueis and explain his impulsive decisions. He had put off contacting him for quite a while and it was mostly out of urgency to get to Sound Country before Orochimaru but now he found himself not wanting to talk with Plagueis. He had a bad feeling what would happen if he did but also a bad feeling what would happen if he didn't.

He sighed at the no-win situation and decided to start waking everyone up.

Juugo had awoken after their fight and been much more stable than before. The teen would glance at him from time to time and he had a feeling that at some point they would need to talk. Tayuya had slightly pacified as well. She no longer tried to kick him every time he got within kicking distance. Kabuto just glared at him slightly and then would smile. He of course knew that Kabuto was probably the most dangerous person in the group of three he had taken with him, as the medical-nin was very calculative and patient.

If he slipped up, Kabuto would not hesitate to take advantage. He started waking up the two he could trust more, Karin and Suigetsu, first and would then wake up the others. The temporary building would need to be destroyed so that they didn't leave a trace behind.

x-x

Moving swiftly through the trees, they were making good time and would be at a port soon. Naruto had numerous clones forming a perimeter around the group to make sure that no one tried to escape.

Everything was going well until Karin spoke up, "Someone's coming!" she alerted him and the group stopped as the real Naruto moved to talk with Karin for more information. Her range was about half a kilometer when she wasn't focusing.

"How many and what can you tell me about them?" Naruto demanded as Karin stood still and focused on her sensing.

"Its just one but they're coming right for us and fast!" she responded and Naruto was about to unseal his sword and create a defensive formation when he felt the person in question. A smirk appeared on his face and he mentally ordered his clones to stand down. He knew exactly who was coming and was glad.

A cloaked figure sped out of the trees and landed right in front of the group. Karin moved backward at the sight of the intimidating figure but Suigetsu smiled and asked, "Meizu-sempai, what are you doing here?"

Meizu glanced at Suigetsu and chuckled, then looked back at Naruto, "Master Plagueis sent me to find you, Naruto-sama. He wants to know what is taking so long to get to Snow Country."

Naruto frowned at the statement while the others wanted to know more. He had yet to actually tell them where they were going or about Plagueis and he wanted to keep it that way for as long as he could. The less they knew, the less chance they could tell anyone else should they escape or be caught.

It was obvious though that it could no longer wait and so he signaled to the others that they were taking a break. Removing his large scroll from his back, he went about unrolling it to find the communication device that he had sealed into it.

Though just a short distance away, the others were very intent on finding out what was going on and just who 'Master Plagueis' was and why Naruto apparently needed to contact him.

Kabuto found it very strange that the ninja spoke with respect to Naruto but also respect to the other person. Despite what he had seen, Naruto was still only twelve and he could easily see the boy working for someone else, though he had no idea who that person was. He watched as Naruto unsealed something from the large scroll and wondered what the device was. It had a monitor and some kind of antenna. Though he was familiar with many pieces of technology, he had never seen something quite like what Naruto had.

The device seemed to have been put together from other electronic devices and didn't look like something that anyone could buy from a manufacturer or that was mass-produced. 'I wonder if he made it himself.' he thought but wasn't sure as he had never noticed Naruto being interested in any form of technology.

Naruto adjusted the device and the screen turned on to static as he answered the message and awaited for Plagueis to respond. The screen quickly changed to that of a person but it was hard to make out details from sitting so far away.

'Well if I can't make out the figure, I'll just listen in.' thought Kabuto as he and several listened to what was going on. However, while they could hear the conversation, it didn't really matter because both appeared to be speaking in another language.

From what he could tell, there was no hesitation and it seemed Naruto spoke the other language fluently. This was also strange as he had never heard of anyone speaking another language, ever. He didn't even know that there were other languages spoken in the Elemental Countries.

"There were some delays, Master." responded Naruto in Basic.

"How many delays?" demanded Plagueis as he could see through his student's vague response.

"Four." Naruto quickly responded and he looked intently at his Master to judge the man's response to the information. Keeping his thoughts to himself was difficult with Plagueis' yellow eyes boring into him.

"Four?" Plagueis repeated and he wanted to be furious and to choke his student through the communication device. "And you just decided this on a whim?" he questioned and Naruto could feel the restrained fury coming from his master.

"No, I had been thinking about it for a while. An opportunity presented itself and I took it."

Gato's body took a deep breath and then exhaled as Plagueis continuing staring at his student. Naruto had basically gone rogue and done whatever he wanted instead of coming to Snow Country. The chance of their discovery was probably greatly increased because of his student's actions..

'Is he realizing just what kind of power he has over me in my current condition? Perhaps he's testing me or my 'flexibility'.' Plagueis thought but had difficulty reading into Naruto's real intentions. Bringing in one person wasn't that big of a deal, especially if she was a sensor but now adding four more people.

It concerned him what Naruto might be planning or his reasoning. 'Is my student just going soft and unable to eliminate the loose ends? How can he trust four people he just met?'

"You had better have a good explanation for your actions by the time you get here. If not, then you'll deal with the extra baggage you've accumulated by yourself. Are we clear?" demanded Plagueis and Naruto responded, "Yes, my Master."

"There is a boat heading out from Hot Springs Country, which I assume is where you are. See that you make it in time. I'll arrange for transport. It isn't a shipping vessel though, so make sure that you don't cause problems and aren't discovered or reported.

"I understand, Master." acknowledged Naruto and he bowed slightly.

"I await your arrival. Don't keep me waiting any longer."

The transmission ended and Naruto was left with his thoughts while he absently continued to stare at the empty screen.

He had good reasoning for taking each of the four new people that were coming with them, however, while he could see the advantages, he wondered if Master Plagueis would see them as well. Turning to the group of four, he contemplated which were the least likely to be accepted by his Master.

Suigetsu seemed like the most likely to be accepted so he knew he didn't have to worry about him. Kabuto could go either way and so could Juugo. They could both be highly valuable or not interest Plagueis in the slightest.

However, Tayuya seemed like the least likely to be accepted. While she did have limited genjutsu ability, it all focused around her flute, which was currently in his possession. He was not aware of her having other genjutsu ability and without her flute she may not be very useful as it was a large liability to give it back to her. She did have a cursed seal but with Juugo and all of Orochimaru's research and notes, that really didn't matter.

Looking at the girl in question she sneered at him and his gaze.

'That isn't really helping.' he thought as he also acknowledged the fact that she was likely the biggest flight risk and hardest to deal with.

Kabuto was much more devious and would wait for a moment and Juugo seemed to be going along with everything for now, but Tayuya would try and escape the moment he took the seals off of her.

At least he had a whole weeks journey to Snow Country to figure out what he could do.

x-x

A cruise liner.

The only ship that would take them to Snow Country was a cruise liner.

No shipping vessels were headed to Snow for at least another week and now he had to worry about not causing any problems on a ship full of passengers. All the while, he had three ninja that wanted little to do with him and two of those three that were definitely plotting escape or to kill him.

'I have a headache.' Naruto thought and rubbed his temples. His clones spent about an hour making sure that none of his prisoners would be able to escape their rooms and that they were completely sealed in. He couldn't let any of them mingle with the rest of the passengers and they would be confined to two large suites that were connected by a shared wall and adjoining door. The suites were the most expensive and luxurious on the boat. Any meals would be through room-service and only Karin, Meizu, and Suigetsu would be allowed to leave.

To ensure this, he inked in explosive seals on Kabuto, Juugo, and Tayuya's bodies. Should they make it past his seals and escape the room, they would explode.

It was rather extreme but it was the best plan he could come up with.

x-x

Naruto wiped his mouth with his napkin as he ate with Juugo and Kabuto. Meizu and Suigetsu were out in other parts of the ship while he watched his two prisoners. Karin and Tayuya were in another suite. Tayuya may have hated him but he was quite sure she wouldn't do anything to Karin.

"Not very talkative." Kabuto stated as he ate his meal and stared down his captor across the nice wooden table.

"You can put the dinner knife back with the other silverware." stated Naruto as he focused on his meal and took another bite. Kabuto smiled, bemused at the statement and removed the steak knife from his sleeve, then placed it back on the table.

"Why did you kill Kimimaro?" blurted out Juugo as he stared at Naruto with a serious face.

"I had no other choice and it was the only humane thing to do." Naruto began and before Juugo could cut in he continued, "Kimimaro was dying of a disease and I could not help. Had I found him earlier perhaps something could have been done but he was terminally ill. Would you rather I left him there to slowly die. He was in pain and I ended it. He felt nothing and simply didn't wake up from a coma. I couldn't very well carry a dying person all the way to the Northern hideout. He needed those machines he was hooked up to and was therefore completely stationary. I honestly didn't even know the two of you were friends and even if I had saved him, he would have tried to kill me anyway. I would have ended up fighting him and he would have died that way instead of peacefully." Naruto elaborated and then continued his meal as he let Juugo digest the information.

Silence fell over the table as the occupants of the chairs continued to eat. It was at least a minute before Kabuto decided to ask a few questions about what he had witnessed the previous day. "Who were you talking with yesterday on that device?" he inquired of his captor.

"You'll be meeting him when we reach Snow Country." responded Naruto and smirked slightly at how he evaded the question and how it riled Kabuto up.

"Exactly what language were speaking yesterday?" Kabuto continued to push as he searched for some answers to sate his curiosity.

"You'll be learning it soon enough as well." was Naruto only response.

"We will?" questioned Juugo.

"Yes, it will be a necessity where we're going." answered Naruto.

"And where exactly is that?" questioned Kabuto as he knew that people in Snow Country didn't speak a different language and that meant that Snow Country wasn't the final destination and just a stopping point. Despite his anger at the death of Orochimaru, he was very curious about Naruto and what was going to happen to them. He knew everything he saw so far hinted at something but whether it was as big as his imagination played it out to be, he had no idea.

"Once we get to Snow Country and you are able to impress him, I will tell you everything you want to know."

"And just how interesting is this revelation that you have for us?" joked Kabuto as he smiled and adjusted his glasses.

"Life altering and something you could never have imagined." answered Naruto with a small smirk. Kabuto frowned as he hadn't found out anything but was now more curious than ever about what Naruto was really up to and who the person was that pulled his strings.

Juugo was similarly interested.

x-x

It was rather quiet in the girl's suite as Tayuya and Karin silently ate their food. Tayuya was not very happy about the additional seals on her and didn't like being confined to the suite. Despite being an incredibly appealing and extravagant prison, it was still a prison.

Between bites, the two redheads would give glances at the other but the conversation had only been one sided as Tayuya had not been in a talking mood so Karin had stopped trying.

Tayuya decided though that she wanted one question answered that had been bugging her for the entire trip, "Why do you go along with the pint-sized rat?"

Karin looked up at the girl across from her and the edge of her lips involuntarily moved as she found the title for Naruto rather amusing but she wasn't going to laugh out loud. She took a few moments to think about the question and how she might respond to it.

"Well, I suppose I follow him because no one had ever thought I was useful before. He was interested in me and saved my life. So far, going with him has been better than staying in my village. He's given me instruction and many scrolls on medical ninjutsu that I would never have been given or even had access to while I was still in Hidden Grass. I've never been able to be so useful before and I never had much of a purpose." Karin answered and the answer itself made Tayuya's eyes narrow.

Basically Karin had joined Naruto for nearly the same reasons that she had joined Orochimaru. No one had been the least bit interested in her when she was living on the streets but Orochimaru had been. He had given her instruction and power. She became useful and had a purpose. It may have had several downsides such as her body slowly deteriorating because of the cursed seal but it was better than what her life had been before.

x-x

Once he was done eating and Suigetsu and Meizu were back, Naruto moved to the adjoining room where Karin and Tayuya were staying.

Walking into the room, it didn't take long for the two girls to notice him and they both quieted down to see what he wanted. Noticing that they had finished, he asked Karin to leave so he could talk with Tayuya alone.

Once Karin was gone, the room was silent as the two looked at each other. Naruto could feel her apprehension and worry about what he was there for and decided to end the silence.

"Upon arriving in Snow Country, I will have to explain myself to my Master." Naruto began and he gave a brief pause before continuing to let this sink in.

'His Master!' Tayuya thought as she realized who he must have been talking to the other day on that communication device.

"I will have to explain why I deviated from his plans and why I brought back four people, especially since he never agreed to letting anyone join." Naruto continued and he gave another pause to let himself read Tayuya and determine what she was thinking.

'Join!? Join what?' she wondered and kept her eyes locked on him while her right arm moved to the knife she took from the silverware they were eating with. It was placed in the rope that was wrapped around her waist that all the Sound Four were required to where. She didn't like where the conversation was heading, or the fact that Karin had left the room.

"I will have to explain why I decided to let you live and take all four of you with me. Unfortunately for you, the others have a much higher chance of being accepted as part of the group by my Master. You only have genjutsu and they all require your flute. You're also not very trustworthy and I can't give that flute back to you until I can trust you. Do you see the problem?" he questioned and didn't move to check that the flute was still underneath his cloak where he had put it.

Though she was angry at being seen as unimportant she could see where he was going with the conversation. She would have to prove herself in order to continue living but she couldn't prove herself without her flute, which he couldn't give back to her because he couldn't trust her. Was he there to kill her then?

'I'm fucked no matter what.' she realized and her hand grabbed the handle of the concealed knife.

Naruto was about to tell her it was useless but she acted before he could say anything. The knife was flung at his head and he caught it with his hand before it touched him. Despite not having access to her chakra, Tayuya had rounded the table she was sitting at and was nearly on him before he Force pushed her away.

She grit her teeth as she impacted the wall and began trying to use her cursed seal to aid her. The seals on her chakra would prevent her from activating it as much as they could before they broke.

A pattern began emerging from a spot on her shoulder and the flowing black tattoos moved over her skin. Looking up and smirking, the smile soon faded as she found that Naruto was already standing in front of her. She tried to use her enhanced strength but she was too late and Naruto had already put his hand on her head.

Tayuya tried to fight back but found that she couldn't move and her cursed seal began receding back into the seal on her shoulder. 'Damn it!' she thought as she knew there was nothing more that could be done.

Naruto dragged her defeated form back to the table and put her back in the chair.

"As I was saying, seeing as my Master may not believe you have enough value to live, I will have to spend the trip teaching you as much as I can." stated Naruto and Tayuya's eyes widened with surprise.

'What the hell? This rat bastard is going to teach me?'

"I'd prefer it if you just called me Naruto and not 'rat bastard'." Naruto said and smirked at the girl's surprised look. Ignoring how he had managed to read her thoughts, she decided she wanted more information as to his motivations, so she demanded, "Why would you help me?"

"Because I made a choice by keeping you alive. I could have killed you with the other members of the Sound Four but I felt you have value. I must now prove that to my Master as I made the decision without his consent. If you fail to live up to his expectations or he does not see value in you then he will make me kill you myself." Naruto said with finality and Tayuya scowled at him.

She didn't want to be there and now only had a week to learn new techniques, which she knew was impossible in that short time span. In order to save her life from the whims of someone she had never met and never wanted to meet, she had to do something that was impossible.

'This fucking sucks ass.'

"And what the hell can you possible teach me in a weeks time?" she voiced her concerns over the deadline that was slowly waning.

"You'd be surprised at how much I can help you in a week. I was thinking I would spend the time working on genjutsu since it's your strongest area of expertise. You will need to learn genjutsu using handseals and not just your flute." stated Naruto and he pulled up a chair to sit across from her.

Deciding it might be best to just go along with it, and given that she really didn't have much of a choice, "Fine, you can spend the entire trip trying to help me not get killed by some asshole I don't eve know." Naruto didn't respond and ignored the name she had referred to Plagueis as.

"I suppose you must be quite proficient in genjutsu then." she inquired as she was slightly interested in getting more genjutsu.

"Nope. I can't even use genjutsu." confessed Naruto and he smirked underneath his hood.

"WHAT!?" Tayuya responded and grabbed a fork off the table to kill him with. Naruto grabbed her wrist, twisted her arm, and maneuvered her to the floor where she impacted with a thud.

"How the fuck you supposed to help me then? You might as well kill me, you stupid bastard?" she yelled into the carpeted floor and Naruto could feel her anguish and fear. Though the girl seemed very strong on the outside, he could tell that she was actually close to tears. Her situation was bleak and he thought about letting her go but he really couldn't given that she had seen his face and might tell someone. There was also no where else for her to go.

Konoha had her image in their bingo book and she had helped in the assassination of the Sandaime, as well as working directly for Orochimaru. The only thing she could hope for was to join one of the few small clans in Sound Country that were not under Orochimaru's control and even then, they wouldn't trust her. The only thing keeping her safe was Orochimaru and now that he was gone, there was nothing else and she knew that.

Using the Force to calm her down as he relaxed the knee he had on her back, he loosened his grip on her arm, and waited to begin speaking again until he knew she was properly listening.

"Despite that I am not able to use genjutsu, this does not mean that I can't help you. I know numerous genjutsu and have all the knowledge and theory behind them. I can teach them to you." he tried to assure her.

Despite the likelihood that in one weeks time she would learn next to nothing from him, she decided to take the small hope. If it didn't seem to be working out then she would put all her efforts into escape.

"Good..." Naruto said as he knew she had given in, "Now all you have to do is look into my eyes." he stated and stared into the brown eyes across from him.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Tayuya questioned as she saw no point in what he wanted to do and didn't even try to look him in the eye. 'Stare into his eyes? Does he really think that is going to do anything?'

Naruto stopped himself from rolling his eyes at her doubt but she finally relented and looked into his blue orbs. For several seconds nothing happened and she was about to start giving him a piece of her mind when she felt a tug and for a second everything went black.

x-x

Tayuya looked around her new surroundings and tried to figure out where the hell she was. One moment she was in the suite and the next in a hallway of metal that she couldn't recognize. The floor was also flooded with water that felt slightly cold.

There didn't appear to be any exit or at least pathway that would lead her to somewhere she thought would be safe. Her moment of thought soon passed when she jumped at the presence of someone next to her.

She quickly turned and came face to face with Naruto.

"Its best if you stay with me. You could be in danger if you wander off." he said and motioned for her to follow him down the cold metal hallway. Deciding that she certainly didn't want to get lost in...wherever it was she was now in, she followed close behind as Naruto walked down the hallway and then turned into one of the entryways to another room.

The room was quite large but empty. Naruto stopped once he had walked into the center of the room and then turned to Tayuya. "We're currently in my mind. In here the passage or perception of time is much different. I can spend hours teaching you what you need to know while only a small amount of time passes on the outside. This is how I plan to keep you alive. Do you wish to continue?" he explained and asked.

"Fine." she accepted and secretly thought that the genjutsu help could enable her to escape later on. Especially if her captor couldn't use genjutsu.

"Then lets begin."

x-x

Snow Country

x-x

Upon their arrival days later, Naruto and his group traveled from the harbor to the train station that was set up and from there they took the train to Doto's castle. Naruto spent a good portion of his time examining the train and all its aspects. Despite being low tech compared to what he would be working with later on, it was still incredibly interesting.

The others found the train ride interesting as well. The train was very extravagant with spacious and decorated interiors in the cabins. The most prevalent thoughts going through the passengers minds were that whoever Naruto was working for must be well connected or have deep pockets. The ride took several hours before they reached a castle. The train came to a stop at a small station that was built into the lower levels of the castle.

So far everything was going smoothly but he still had to have the much anticipated and dreaded conversation with Plagueis. He spent a good portion of his time on the boat trying to come up with the best reasoning why he should be allowed to take so many people with him and to integrate each of them into the group. They all basically brought something unique and that his Master likely would be interested in but he had to prove that.

Kabuto began to suspect that Naruto worked for Doto, who had appointed himself leader of Snow Country but this proven to be wrong when they passed the leader in one of the hallways of the castle. The man didn't even seem to notice they were there or acknowledge their presence and Naruto barely looked at the man.

The group continued on until they entered the large audience room with Doto's throne where Plagueis was sitting in Gatou's body. Gozu was standing next to him and looking out over the group.

'That's who he works for?!' a couple members of the group thought as they stared at the short and pudgy man in the chair. They couldn't believe that Naruto would work for someone like that. The man was obviously not a ninja and it eluded them what hold or influence that he could have over Naruto.

Plagueis got up from his seat and walked down the staircase of the tall pedestal that the throne was situated on. Once he reached the ground level, he viewed the people that Naruto had brought. He didn't get much of a briefing on who they were and what their abilities were as he wanted to wait on that and see them for himself firsthand.

He only recognized Kabuto and wasn't that surprised that Naruto had spared and brought the white haired teen with him. Despite his teachings and influence, he could tell that Naruto still formed some kind of bond with the teen during the time they spent on the same team.

Plagueis kept his frown to himself and didn't show any of the emotions he was feeling when looking upon the unwanted guests and his own student. He had given quite a bit of thought as to what to do with the guests and decided to make it a test for his student as well as the guests.

Naruto had already explained the detour concerning Orochimaru over the communication system to him while cruising to Snow Country. He was loath to admit that while his students actions were brash and not very well thought out, the end result was a success. Naruto was bringing back data, samples, and other items taken from the Snake Sannin that could be very valuable to him.

He could see some value in keeping a few extra people but certainly not all of them. The ship could only accommodate so many people and with the group in front of him, they were now reaching that limit.

"I will speak with you alone about your actions." Plagueis stated to Naruto and then he turned to Gozu and ordered, "Take them somewhere to sit and make sure to watch them. If any of them move then you know what to do."

Gozu nodded and both he and Meizu herded the others through an adjoining door.

Plagueis didn't look at Naruto again and walked to a different door that led to the study that he had taken over from Doto. Naruto quietly followed and shut the door behind him.

x-x

Naruto sat in one of the chairs that were placed before the desk and stared at his master.

Plagueis looked back and decided to start the conversation that had been on his mind for a whole week, "I don't recall any communications between us of you going off to Sound Country to fight Orochimaru. In fact, I distinctly remember telling you not to get involved with the Snake Sannin. Why is it that after years of following my orders and wishes to the letter, you just decide to completely ignore my orders and do whatever you wanted to do? I wasn't gone for that long. Elaborate for me, your reasons." he demanded and pulled off his tinted glasses to reveal the sulfuric yellow eyes.

Naruto also noted that Gatou's body seemed to be slightly worse off then when he last saw it, which he gathered as being due to the possession. The man had dark circles under his eyes and it seemed Gato had lost some weight.

"An opportunity presented itself that I hadn't counted on. I had to act fast and couldn't stop to communicate with you. During the battle, the Sandaime used the Shiki Fuin on Orochimaru." said Naruto and he could feel his Master's surprise and interest. They had both looked at the Scroll of Seals and seen that particular jutsu. The kinjutsu was obviously something that neither would use or considered using given the exchange involved but that did not prevent Plagueis from being interested in how it worked.

"And?" Plagueis questioned with interest.

"I believe that the Sandaime was only able to seal away Orochimaru's arms before dying. The skin was darkened and appeared to be dying off on both arms. They were completely useless and hung limp. He even needed to rely on his guards to get him out of the village. With both arms gone I knew he couldn't use the majority of jutsu he knew. I made a decision to reach Orochimaru's base before him and set a trap. Karin and I rushed as fast as we could to Sound Country and didn't stop until we made it to the bunker. We got there before Orochimaru and his group and were able to set a trap." said Naruto as he took a break to try and determine what his Master was thinking.

Plagueis mulled over the information as he sat silently in his chair. The situation may not have been as bad as he thought. 'Perhaps I shouldn't have waited to talk with him in person and had him explain this over the communication device.' he thought and pushed it aside as it was already done.

Naruto knew without Plagueis telling that he was then supposed to continue his explanation and so he did, "I set traps for three of Orochimaru's five guards. The fifth guard was terminally ill and seemed to far gone to do anything so I ended his life. Karin detected another person in the facility but I wasn't able to do anything about them as Orochimaru had just arrived. At that point I put my plan in motion. I removed those that I didn't think could be of use and then trapped Orochimaru inside his own lab and fought with him. During the fight he showed his true form, which was that of a white snake, and he attempted to take over my body." stated Naruto carefully and he waited for his Master to absorb everything before he continued. He was choosing his words carefully to make it seem like when he accessed the Kyuubi's chakra while fighting Orochimaru, that it was the first time he had ever done so.

Plagueis was growing more interested in the story as Naruto went on. His previous anger was fading as his methodical and knowledge-hungry side took slowly took over. He was curious about Orochimaru's technique to stave off death and switch bodies. Considering that he knew the real Naruto was sitting in front of him and not Orochimaru, he knew his student had dealt with the situation but he wondered how.

Naruto again knew when he should continue without any words being said, "I had to access the Kyuubi's chakra in order to prevent myself from being taken over by the technique." he stated and instantly saw the reaction on the face of Gatou as well as felt his Master's feelings. Oddly, he thought he felt worry coming off his Master.

'So he accessed it.' Plagueis thought and he tried to determine if anything about his student had changed. There was no doubt in his mind that accessing such power would prevent Naruto from being taken over by Orochimaru but he was concerned about repercussions of using that power. He wanted to make sure that the beast had no control over his student and hadn't done something.

"When you accessed it, what did you feel and did you notice anything out of the ordinary?" questioned Plagueis with curiosity.

"I felt great hatred and power surge through me. I was quite bloodthirsty and it was good that no one else was around, otherwise I might have attacked them as well. It even seemed to increase my connection to the darkside. However, it was incredibly difficult to control the power and the extra emotions that were not my own. I reversed the process on Orochimaru and devoured his soul. After that I was able to push the power back to where it came from, as I no longer needed it, but it was difficult. There is also something else." Naruto stated with some trepidation as he still didn't like to think about it.

Plagueis motioned for him to continue and he idly noted that most of Master's anger had subsided. 'It must be the new information I'm giving him.' Naruto surmised and had the feeling that his Master's research and learning more about the Kyuubi's interaction with the Force took precedence over his anger.

"It seems that the Kyuubi's chakra doesn't interact well with my midi-chlorians. I could feel them in pain after I recovered and even feel some of them dying just from a small usage. I likely won't be able to use the Kyuubi's chakra at all if I want to keep my Force powers." Naruto concluded and could feel that Plagueis was hanging off his every word.

Plagueis took in all the information and was quiet for at least several minutes. He hadn't even considered what the interaction between the Kyuubi and midi-chlorians would be. He knew something would happen because of the hatred that went along with the chakra but he hadn't expected there to be such a negative reaction.

He did have plans for trying to get Naruto to eventually master that power but he was also wary of that same power. It seemed now that he might not have to worry about it as his student likely wouldn't try using it again anytime soon for fear of losing the Force abilities he knew Naruto cherished.

After he thought through everything he actually found himself relieved. The scenario that he always dreaded ever since he found out about the prisoner that his student kept was that somehow Naruto would be consumed by the beast or perhaps completely consumed by the darkside. The last thing he wanted was to unleash an out of control Sith with that much power at his disposal into the galaxy.

All Sith wanted power but only the foolish Sith sought power without control, and the foolish were the most dangerous to everyone.

Getting back to the matter at hand, he remembered why he was sitting in his study with his student and his anger returned, though it was not as powerful as it once was. He still needed to discuss the individuals that Naruto brought back with him.

"I can understand you recruiting Karin as you reported that she could feel you using the Force as well as her being a chakra sensor. You even began teaching her medical ninjutsu which only furthers her value, however, I don't recall ever telling you to bring along four others or that there was a need for four others."

"They each have their value." Naruto countered and Plagueis held his anger in check as he wanted to hear what Naruto's explanation was.

"I admit that Suigetsu wasn't someone that I planned on bringing but he was there and displayed incredible abilities, so I decided to test his loyalty and he passed. He was trained as one of the Seven Swordsmen of Kirigakure and I think you will be interested with his water abilities." said Naruto as he gave a short break before continuing with his next argument, "You also told me how interested you were in the cursed seal that Orochimaru had. The blood of Mitarashi Anko that I sent you didn't prove very useful in your research did it?" Naruto questioned and Plagueis didn't argue the fact that it hadn't. He had tried to find out more information about what caused the mutations in the cursed seal but her blood did not tell him much.

"So I brought Juugo, the original carrier of the bloodline. Though I did have some problems in the beginning, I think he would prove incredibly useful for his abilities and your research."

"By problems, are you referring to the fact that he tried to kill you?" Plagueis guessed and knew from Naruto's surprise and sudden lapse in concentration that he was right.

"He has had problems controlling his abilities but I haven't had a problem in the past week and am confident that I can handle him should a situation occur. Meizo and Gozu would also be quite helpful should that kind of situation arise." Naruto added and then moved on to the next person he brought, "I thought Kabuto might be the most beneficial to you as has firsthand experience with most of the research that Orochimaru was working on and which I brought with me. Considering that you will be researching chakra, I thought it would be beneficial to have someone that could use chakra and that was experienced, helping you. In your current condition, I don't think Kabuto is even capable of hurting you. Perhaps he could hurt Gato's body but it looks as if may be nearing the end of its use." Naruto elaborated.

Plagueis held back his smirk at his students words. Evidently he had taught Naruto very well. Especially when it came to providing a short, logical, and well-reasoned explanation.

"Tayuya, the one with the long reddish hair, is quite adept at genjutsu and even uses a powerful variety that are sound based that she uses with a flute. She also has a summoning that I thought you might be interested in as well." finished Naruto.

"And why exactly did you think that we would need a person that can use genjutsu?" questioned Plagueis as Naruto's last explanation didn't seem as good as the other three.

"Because I can't use genjutsu. It was you that taught me to recognize and compensate for my weaknesses. Having a person that is able and well versed in genjutsu seemed like the best compensation for my lack of ability in that particular art. I may even be able to better train myself to resist them." contended Naruto. His face was serious and his mind guarded.

'Well played my student, though you never mentioned how trustworthy Kabuto and the genjutsu using girl were. Especially since they were former pawns of Orochimaru.' reasoned Plagueis. Despite being impressed that Naruto had managed to skillfully defend all those he brought with him, there were still details that had been purposefully left out. He had yet to see them for himself and had doubts about the last two, though he did have a plan to determine the loyalty of those that Naruto brought with him. In just a few moments he would put that plan into action.

"Exactly how much did you tell them about myself and the overall plan?" questioned Plagueis as it was definitely something to consider. Naruto should not have given any information like that away to anybody, not matter how much he trusted them.

"They know of your name as the person that I work for but that is it. I told them nothing about the ship or our plans. They are here because they wanted to come with me or because I made them come." answered Naruto and Plagueis wasn't very thrilled with that answer.

"I will have to see for myself about the abilities of the ones that you brought and should they not meet my expectations, then it will be up to you to rectify your mistake. You seem to put a great deal of faith in those that you just met. Did the Force tell you that you could trust them to this extent?" questioned Plagueis.

Naruto thought for a second about his Master's question. Truthfully, the Force had never told him whether or not he could trust all of the people he brought with him. He knew that at the moment he couldn't trust Kabuto or Tayuya, while Juugo was only slightly more trustworthy than they were. However, his feelings were that, given some time, they would be his allies.

"No, the Force did not tell me that, but I feel that they can and will be useful to us." replied Naruto and the answer confused Plagueis. There seemed to be no definitive basis for Naruto's statement and he questioned his students judgment on the four individuals, now more than ever.

'It's likely he just didn't want to have to kill them and so he brought them here and came up with excuses.' were his thoughts and he gave the signal to the two smoke demons. A little test would help prove if what Naruto said was plausible.

Naruto felt some kind of telepathic thought traveling from his master and going to a nearby room. It took him a few seconds to figure out what was happening but he quickly caught on.

x-x

Gozu and Meizu eyed the people they were ordered to watch but were secretly smirking behind their masks. Plagueis had given them special instructions to test the guests. They removed the chakra suppressing seals on each person and were each figuring out who might take advantage of the situation they would present. They had already placed bets.

The group was mostly silent with some talking and the brothers could feel the worry from all the members of the room, save for Suigetsu who was lounging on a couch. They were in a waiting room with several couches and seats but the two smoke demons were still standing and watching while the others remained seated.

At some point they would receive the signal and then intentionally let their guard down and see which of the group could actually be trusted and who was a liability. Should one of the group try to escape or attack them then they were to kill that person in the method that would instill the most fear in the remaining members, which was by devouring them.

As smoke demons they were able to use their smoke and encapsulate a person. They would then pull the person inside of their bodies where the captured individual would be devoured by the smoke. It was an effective means of getting rid of a body and didn't have much of an effect on them. They didn't taste the person or anything like that. They weren't even sure what really happened to the person or how the smoke was able to devour flesh and leave no trace of the person that was devoured.

What they did know was that they could do it and had on one occasion as Plagueis wanted to see if they could. If anything, the devouring made them temporarily stronger. The feeling faded but they did not feel any kind of hunger or pleasure for devouring another person which was actually something they were grateful for.

Both pairs of eyes widened slightly as they received the signal from Plagueis. Now they were just waiting to see who among the group was the least loyal to Naruto and would take the bait they would provide.

Meizu moved from his standing position to a painting that was on the wall and began inspecting it. His back was turned to the mostly silent group and he was the perfect target for an attack. Gozu moved to one of the chairs in the furnished room and sat down. He reclined and slouched in the chair while putting his arms behind his head to stretch.

Kabuto quickly glanced at the pair that were guarding them. He recognized them from the Kiri bingo book as the Demon Brothers. It was difficult to keep the smirk off his face as he knew that they were mere chunin and were a C-ranked threat in the bingo book. They would be no match for him.

'How foolish Naruto-kun. You went to such lengths to bring me here against my will and then do something so stupid as to remove our seals and leave these two in charge. Now I only have to decide what to do with the situation provided. Should I go after you and the civilian you work for or leave here and hunt you down another day?' wondered Kabuto as he debated his options. He remembered both fights that he had with Naruto and spent most of his time on the journey reviewing the fights and discerning what Naruto had used against him. This proved incredibly difficult however and he still wasn't sure what techniques Naruto could use, but he did have one trump card.

'Tayuya is probably the only other person that would follow me. Juugo has been warming up to the idea of being in the group, Suigetsu wants to be here, and that girl Karin just follows whatever Naruto says.' he thought and knew that with Tayuya he might have a much better chance since he knew Naruto couldn't use genjutsu and had difficulty breaking them.

'So revenge it is.' Kabuto decided and readied the kunai he had taken from Karin's pouch earlier that day. All he had to do was take care of the guards.

In one swift movement Kabuto lept from his seat, throwing the kunai he had at the lounging Gozu. The kunai struck the Kiri ninja in the eye just as Kabuto landed on the floor behind the couch he jumped over. Charging the second ninja, Kabuto's hand glowed with chakra for his scalpel technique and before Meizu could do anything, the hand passed over his throat. Meizu feigned choking noses and collapsed to the ground.

Gozu smiled broadly behind his mask from his seemingly dead position on the floor with the kunai still suck in his eye. Now Meizu owed him money because he was the first to be attacked and it was Kabuto that did it, so the amount of money doubled.

Kabuto adjusted his glasses and smirked at the remaining people in the room. They were still in their seats and hadn't moved from their positions. Suigetsu soon stood and yelled at Kabuto for killing the two but the taller white haired ninja ignored it. He glanced at Juugo to find the teen struggling to keep himself at the display which normally would not be the case as the old Juugo would have been losing control of his ability due to the killing and blood. The first redhead had her hands over her mouth in shock at what he had done while the second had an unreadable expression which he found odd.

"Are you coming Tayuya?" he asked but she didn't move from the couch.

"And what do you intend to do?" she questioned hesitantly.

"To kill our captors." he responded and she frowned at the statement.

"I don't have my flute, dipshit." she soon replied. To be honest, all the time she spent with Naruto over the week on the boat led to her one conclusion, he was better than Orochimaru. He was also not someone she wanted to go up against without her flute, even if she still had her cursed seal, and she wasn't sure she really wanted to kill him anymore. Her life was still in danger but there was a chance she would be fine and she was hesitant to act. Was it fear? She wasn't really sure what the feeling was but it kept her in her seat.

Kabuto frowned as it didn't look like Tayuya was going to help him. That meant that it was best just to leave. He knew that Akatsuki would be after Naruto and all he really had to do was get into contact with his former Master and inform the organization of Naruto's whereabouts.

With this in mind, he moved to the door but stopped when he heard laughing. He quickly turned to determine where the sound was coming from.

He stared at the figure on the floor that still had a kunai in its eye. The dead body was laughing at him. He looked to the body of the other missing-nin and saw the movement of the chest and heard the sound of laughter coming from it as well.

He stood completely still and watched as both bodies began moving and stood. He wasn't the only one surprised however, as everyone else in the room was watching as well. The bodies were soon standing. Meizu didn't move but Gozu took the kunai by the handle and slowly removed it from his eye. It was slowly enough that Kabuto couldn't see the smoke reform the eye and it just looked like the kunai was removed without a wound even being present. Gozu felt it added to the mystery and scare-factor.

"Holy shit! What have you been doing since leaving with Zabuza?" said Suigetsu and he was the only one to say anything.

Neither brother responded to Suigetsu but Gozu spoke to the room in general, "So just one. That's rather surprising. I thought it would be at least two. I win the bet brother, he's mine." Meizu didn't bother arguing.

Gozu proceeded to walk straight at Kabuto. He wasn't in a hurry and wanted to prolong the terror.

The closer Gozu got, the farther away Kabuto backtracked until he ran into the wall. Gozu just laughed and Kabuto's eyes narrowed. His hands surrounded with chakra and he attacked. He aimed for vital areas and Gozu didn't stop him or make any move to block the attacks. He now knew that the chakra scalpels could do little to harm him. They simply weren't powerful enough.

Strike after strike swiped at the intended targets and Kabuto eventually stopped just to see if it did anything. Gozu just laughed again and stretched out his arm. The hand and forearm changed into smoke and shot forward at Kabuto. The smoke was thick enough to latch onto Kabuto's arm and the white haired teen was unable to remove it from his arm.

Slowly, Kabuto was pulled forward toward Gozu. He tried to put chakra in his feet and stop himself from being pulled forward but that just resulted in his feet screeching on the floor as he continued to be pulled.

"You shouldn't have tried to betray the host's generosity. Now you'll be devoured." said Gozu as a few smoke tentacles came out of his chest and latched onto Kabuto's leg, thigh, and neck.

Kabuto was now only a few feet from Gozu and he tried in vain to attack the Kiri ninja but nothing worked. His punch with his free hand did nothing and his chakra scalpels still had no effect.

The others watched as Gozu let down his arm but the tentacles holding Kabuto still slowly pulled the teen closer. Kabuto's arm eventually came into contact with Gozu's chest and instead of touching it, Kabuto seemed to move into the chest as it turned purple and more thick smoke came out to envelop the hand and arm of Kabuto.

Kabuto's breath left him as his arm was enveloped by more smoke and it continued to move farther into the chest of Gozu. He was terrified and could no longer feel his arm. It was if it just wasn't there anymore. His head was pulled down as most of his forearm was lost to the torso of the monster in front of him. The smoke enveloping him continued to move to his neck and then up his face. Kabuto tried to use his free arm to push against Gozu and get his arm free but found his other hand trapped and also being pulled into Gozu's shoulder instead.

Kabuto heard screaming and soon realized that it was his own. He was shoulder deep in the man and his face was now only inches from the purple chest of Gozu and he wasn't stopping. The smoke that was enveloping him began moving into his mouth and his scream was silence.

x-x

"I was surprised the girl didn't move, did you have something to do with that?" Plagueis questioned as he sat with his student in the study. They could both feel what was going on in the room just down the hall.

Naruto grit his teeth but didn't respond to the question and Plagueis decided to ask another one, "Aren't you going to go and save him? You did spend the time and effort bringing him hear, despite knowing he would try to kill you for what you did to Orochimaru. All that trouble for nothing? What a loss." Plagueis commented and looked directly at Naruto while he said it.

"I knew he would try something eventually but I also knew I could handle it. He won't hate me forever and I thought the knowledge of the galaxy and what was out there might change his mind. If there is going to be a loss as a result of this, then it will be with your research." Naruto countered and didn't flinch or make any movement to get to the door to help Kabuto. If he was going to save Kabuto then it would not be by running to that room.

Plagueis waited until the last possible moment before giving a signal to Gozu to stop the devouring of Kabuto. Though he didn't want to admit it, Naruto did have a point. Kabuto could be incredibly useful to him. A medical-nin that had no qualms with experimenting on living or deceased subjects and was willing to learn new things would be invaluable. 'If only he wasn't such a liability, he truly could be as useful as Naruto thinks.' Plagueis thought and wanted to sigh.

It was still incredibly foolish to let someone like that live. Kabuto possessed a strong mind and would likely resist mind control or suggestion.

"Your actions were foolish and still are." Plagueis commented and he couldn't see the outcome of Naruto's decision or what it would lead to.

Harnessing his anger, Plagueis held Gatou's hand out with the fingers pointed at Naruto. Lightning arced off the fingers and struck Naruto in the chest. He toppled backward with the chair and landed flat on the cold floor. The pain soon subsided and Naruto was left on the floor while Plagueis stood and started speaking.

"Don't ever do something so foolish again. I don't spend time making detailed plans because I have time to spare. I do it because then I will have less to worry about and fewer things will go wrong. I expect you to follow my orders and to be informed before you rashly make so many decisions on your own. There are times to improvise but only when you don't have other options. You should have asked me first. I could have sent the Smoke Demons as backup. With the injuries he sustained, its likely Orochimaru wasn't going anywhere and we could have gotten more from him.

Going after Orochimaru with no help, against my wishes, and then recruiting people without even consulting me are not the best methods to keep this operation a secret. Soon we will be going into the galaxy and there is no room for such errors, lest we have the entire Jedi Order coming after us. I'm not even sure that right at this very moment ninja aren't learning of something that you did or your whereabouts and trying to figure out where you went." stated Plagueis while bearing down on Naruto.

The two continued to stare at each other from their positions for a few more moments before Plagueis left the room.

Naruto continued to lay on the floor for a few moments after his Master left. He wasn't angry at Plagueis. He had done many foolish things and possibly made several mistakes. He believed he was right though and when Plagueis evaluated the people he brought, he wouldn't have to kill any of them.

Standing, he brushed off his cloak which was still slightly smoking. The attack was more of a warning and meant as a lesson than something that would seriously hurt him.

He did however find out something very interesting. His Master did apparently have a weakness that he could exploit if he needed to in the future. Though he didn't have any plans to do anything drastic with that knowledge. He wasn't going to betray Plagueis like the apprentice he heard about, but he would be able to get his way.

Plagueis did spend quite a bit of time teaching him how best to exploit a weakness.

Please Review


	17. Chapter 17

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

AN: Another longer than average chapter

**x-x**

**36.5 BBY – Current Year **

Chapter XVII: Almost ready to leave when problems arise

The next day

x-x

Juugo looked up at the two in front of him as he tried to calm himself down. He was slightly nervous at the prospect of showing off his power to the man known as Plagueis. The nervousness came from the possibility of losing control of himself. The fits that he usually received had stopped ever since Naruto had suppressed his transformation, however that didn't mean that he hadn't had problems with his bloodline. Every once in a while he felt it starting to try to take over him but he had been able to keep it in check so far.

Despite Naruto being the reason why Kimimaro was gone, he didn't fight him or try to escape. This was mostly because he had nothing else and nowhere else to go. With the death of Orochimaru, it wouldn't have been very long before the prison facility was abandoned by the guards. Then he would have either been stuck in the cell to die or released and on his own with his bloodline acting up.

At least with Naruto he was around someone that he knew was able to control him. The cloaked blonde also wasn't scared of him and didn't care that he was potentially dangerous. Despite nearly killing the blonde, Naruto held nothing against him and neither did Suigetsu. The two demon brothers also didn't seem to care how dangerous he was and didn't keep their distance or were wary of him at all. However he could tell that the others were at least hesitant to be around him.

Despite that, it was...nice.

For a little over a week he had as close to a normal life as he had ever experienced. Something told him or at least he had the feeling that he could trust Naruto. True he had basically been kidnapped or forcibly transported to somewhere he had never been before, but it wasn't all that bad. He was no longer stuck in the cell with nothing to do and suffering from frequent bouts of temporary insanity. He was even able to go to places he had certainly never been before and experience snow for the first time.

Kimimaro was gone but in a way Naruto was right. His friend had been dying and he knew it. It was something that he would have to accept. A part of him wanted to be furious with Naruto but he had mixed feelings about the whole situation. He had a few moments on the boat when he thought about killing Naruto and his thoughts nearly triggered his bloodline but he had worked through it because there was a chance he could make a friend in the new group he was now a member in. Perhaps he could even have more than one friend, which was something that he never had before. Kimimaro had been his first and only friend.

He did accept the fact that he might be used as a test subject again. There would be needles and tests. Maybe a few individuals would become copies of himself but he had gotten used to that kind of treatment with Orochimaru. It wasn't new and he knew what to expect. Orochimaru promised him a cure or a way to suppress his abilities but after waiting and hearing nothing, he asked Kimimaro and found out the truth. Orochimaru had no intention of ever helping him get better or letting him have a normal life. He would have been in that cell for the rest of his life.

He just hoped he could finally be useful and accepted, which was really all he ever wanted. Maybe he could finally be rid of his curse or at least manage it better. Just in the previous week he had made great progress.

Plagueis glanced at the next person that his student had decided must go with them into the galaxy. So far the previous three he had no problem with the test. Despite the danger, he could see a use for Kabuto and he certainly liked the abilities and mindset of Suigetsu. Karin's test was a little bit different as only her sensing ability was tested to see if she could feel him using the Force and not just his student. The redhead passed and that was it.

Juugo, he felt, may not really be needed. He could just take samples from teen, however Naruto was adamant that having Juugo would be worth it. Plagueis gave an unseen signal and Gozu came out of the shadows to stand in front of Juugo.

"You'll be facing Gozu for this exercise. Its just a spar as I want to see what you are capable of, so you don't need to go all out." stated Plagueis in a reassuring voice but Naruto knew that the 'exercise' would involve a little bit more than just a simple spar as Plagueis was leading Juugo to believe. Gozu would likely be going at Juugo with the intent on injuring him.

While the others were trained to be ninja, Juugo was not. He only had extremely basic instruction and if it wasn't for his bloodline, he would not be able to defend himself at all. Naruto just hoped that Juugo didn't completely lose control again.

Naruto watched as Plagueis gave the signal to begin and Gozu charged Juugo. The Kiri ninja closed the distance between them and Juugo wasn't even able to dodge before he took a hit to the stomach.

Juugo's bloodline quickly activated as parts of his skin began darkening and his arm began changing. Plagueis watched intently as one arm, and then the other, began mutating before his eyes. The arm enlarged and darkened.

Despite several strikes, Juugo's punches did little to hurt the smoke demon and Gozu was able to dodge several of them. This only served to frustrate Juugo and his arm began to change again into the chakra powered jet arm that Naruto had seen firsthand.

Chakra flared out of the teens elbow and he shot off like a rocket. Gozu was caught by the punch and they both smashed into one of the walls of the empty dining room they were using.

The dust cleared from the impact and Juugo stood with his arm pinning a chuckling Gozu to the wall. The laughing only further enraged Juugo as he began losing control. His arm formed what looked like a piston and it pulled back and then smashed into the wall with incredible force, sending Gozu through the wall and into another room.

Juugo laughed maniacally until Gozu came out of the hole and delivered multiple punches to the orange haired teen. Juugo's other arm began changing as well and it formed what looked like an axe on the forearm. Gozu could have moved but decided not to and he was cut in half by the swung axe-arm.

Smoke came out of the severed abdomen and formed tendrils that linked together, pulling the two pieces of Gozu back together. Naruto raised an eyebrow at the technique as it reminded him greatly of his fight with Orochimaru.

Juugo snarled and was about to continue when Naruto heard Plagueis say, "Enough."

Gozu's body turned to smoke and then tendrils as he began restraining the roaring Juugo.

Naruto frowned at the scene, not because he was angry but because he now saw that he really could have used one of the demon brothers help the last time Juugo was in that state. He was about to go and help calm Juugo down when Plagueis walked over and did it for him.

Juugo tried to struggle and was in the process of forming chakra thrusters on his back and front in order to shoot Gozu off when Plagueis placed his hand in front of Juugo and began using his Force powers. Even diminished, Plagueis was still able to calm Juugo down.

The darkened skin retreated and left Juugo the way he looked before before the fight. The teen slumped and Plagueis told Gozu to talk him to a room and then watch him until the teen woke.

Watching them leave, Naruto tried to figure out what his Master was thinking and whether Juugo would be allowed to stay.

'Impressive.' thought Plagueis as he recalled everything that he had seen and examined every detail again. It was almost as if he had watched a person turn into a Sith spawn and then back again. The possibilities with such a controlled mutation were incredible and it was no wonder that Orochimaru was so interested in it.

'I will have the to let the teen stay with us. Taking a mere sample certainly wouldn't be enough. It wouldn't even begin to tell me what the bloodline and transformation are truly capable of.' he thought as he had only seen part of Juugo's transformation but the fact that the teen could change and modify himself to such a degree made him think that with more practice and training the boy could take the transformation even further and create other unique weapons and abilities.

"He stays as well." Plagueis finally said and Naruto silently exhaled the breath that he had been holding.

All that was left now was to test the last person that Naruto had brought with him.

x-x

If there was one thing Tayuya hated, it was being nervous and helpless. These were however two feelings that she currently couldn't rid herself of and she really wanted to punch something.

She was waiting outside the room where the testing was going on. The others had already gone, each of them passing and now it was her turn. Well, her turn after Juugo. A moment ago the floor and walls shook and she wondered if Juugo was completely going out of control. Even without a sensor ability, she could feel the foul chakra emanating from the room but it did stop eventually.

She didn't think the others really knew the meaning behind the test as Naruto had told her that their lives were based as the results. It was information that she hadn't been willing to give anyone else. She wasn't about to trust anyone else or give them the advantage of knowing. She also hated the fact that out of everyone else there, she was apparently the worst off.

The doors opened and one of the smoke duo came out while dragging a unconscious Juugo.

'Great, even he passed the test.' she thought with worry and knew that it was now her turn. She got up from her seated position on the floor with her back and against the wall and walked into the room. The doors closed behind her as she walked to where the two were standing and she had a feeling it was their strange powers that did it.

"As you already seem to know..." Plagueis began and Tayuya started feeling more uncomfortable than she had been, "...this will be a test to see what you know and how useful you could be to us. For some reason my student already decided this on his own but I have yet to be convinced. Therefore you will be having a simple spar with my student to prove your worth." said Plagueis as he motioned to Naruto who was surprised as he had no idea he would be facing Tayuya.

'The brat is his student. I don't get how a fat civilian could possible train a ninja. Maybe it has to do with those special powers of his.' she thought and still didn't like the idea fighting to prove herself. She had already done something similar with Orochimaru and was not keen to do it again. Her life was going to be decided by a whiskered pig that could talk.

Naruto attempted not to show any outward sign of what Tayuya had just thought. He wanted to sweat-drop or tell the girl that both of them could read the thoughts she just had. 'I have no idea how Master Plagueis will take to being called a 'whiskered pig'. I doubt he will take it in stride.' he lamented at the fact that Tayuya was already hindering her chances. His lip did quirked slightly at the comment despite his self control and he tried to get a sense of what his Master was feeling at the remark.

Plagueis kept his feelings to himself but he was actually quite amused. He thought the very same of the body when he took it but it was needed for his plans. 'Now I just need to test her abilities and loyalty to Naruto and by proxy, myself.' he thought and spoke to Naruto, "I believe in order to be properly tested that she would need the instrument that she normally uses." he stated to Naruto and tried to keep the devious smirk off his face.

Naruto glanced at his Master and then back at Tayuya while his hand reached for the flute that was at his belt. He was worried that if he gave it back to her, she would try to kill him or Plagueis. It was obvious to him that it was another test and likely, if he gave anything away to Tayuya concerning the test, Plagueis would not approve and she would fail.

Pulling out the flute he used the Force to send it to her along with a standard ninja pouch and she reached out and grabbed both. Tayuya attached the pouch and then examined her entire flute looking for any damage. After she was satisfied, she then tested out a few notes before doing anything else.

'He gave it back to me?' she questioned, as Naruto had mentioned that she wouldn't get it back until after she proved herself. She spent quite a bit of time learning genjutsu from him but now she had what she wanted and could use her summons as well the normal jutsu she relied on. With that she might have a chance at defeating both people in front of her and getting away.

But why were things suddenly going her way? Things had never gone her way.

She readied herself and looked between the two people in front of her. She wondered why her opponent didn't show any emotion while the man identified as Plagueis had a smirk on his face.

She was about to start and summon her three Doki to fight both of them when she stopped and her brown eyes met his blue. It was at that moment that she realized why. 'This is another test. Similar to what had happened to Kabuto.'

Was one of those demon brothers hiding and waiting to devour her? It was not a thought that she liked but she decided that being so predictable was not something she liked. Instead of using the flute, she put it away and began going through handseals to start the fight.

Naruto's eyes widened as he prepared for the jutsu but he recognized the seals as one of the genjutsu that he had taught Tayuya. She quickly disappeared in a swirl that distorted her image and concealed her in the genjutsu.

Naruto tried to find her using his life-signs ability but it was too late as his hands had already been caught by the illusion of roots that spontaneously grew from under him. The roots formed into a trees that held him tightly against the trunk. Tayuya quickly appeared out of the trunk with a kunai and Naruto bit his lip to stop the genjutsu and free himself.

He ducked her strike and unsealed his sword. He swung at Tayuya thinking she would duck but he realized before the sword struck her that she was no longer there. The sword cleaved through the redhaired girl but instead of blood there was an ink-like substance. The two halves quickly formed into two separate Tayuya and other Tayuya's began coming out from the floor around him.

Naruto recognized the genjutsu as one of the lower ranking techniques that he had taught her and searched for the real Tayuya in the sea of fakes that had begun coming up from the floor. It was called the Mist Servant technique and created apparitions that would confuse the person trapped in the genjutsu while the real individual hid themselves among the group and attacked whenever they found an opening.

He quickly found Tayuya and raced through the fakes to attack her directly. He soon found that was easier said than done as he nearly ran himself into a wall. His life-signs ability told him that Tayuya was behind the wall which didn't make any sense as he knew she couldn't move through a wall.

He stopped running as soon as he reached the wall. Frowning he tried to figure out what was going on. The longer he wasted, the more time Tayuya had to plan her next move.

His eyes widened as he finally realized that the room he was in had changed. The walls were still the same but the dimensions of the room had altered. It was now shallower than it had been, 'Which means that this wall I'm standing in front of is a fake, the False Surroundings technique.' he realized and dispelled the technique with a handseal and calming as well as focusing his chakra to suppress it enough so that the technique no longer affected. The wall shimmered and then dissolved as he found at least ten additional feet of the room had been hidden by his opponent with the technique.

He came face to face with his opponent but knew from his sensing that this also wasn't the real Tayuya it was just a regular bushin. 'That means I'm still trapped in the genjutsu. A Double False Surroundings technique.' he reasoned and formed a kinetite in his hand, then sent it hurtling near where he knew the real Tayuya to be.

The technique passed through the second fake wall and exploded, sending chunks of debris out of the dispelling technique. Naruto's eyes followed Tayuya as she ran out of the fake wall just before it exploded. She threw several shuriken at him to slow him down and then pulled out her flute.

Naruto used the Force to alter the path of the shuriken and he lamented the fact that he hadn't had much experience fighting genjutsu users. It was more of a weakness than he thought it would be and the worst part was that he had instructed her in all the techniques she had just used on him.

He saw her put blood on her flute and jumped back to give some space as a large cloud of smoke erupted in the room. Naruto stared at the newcomer and frowned even more.

'Oh, great. It just had to be one with a gigantic metal club.' he thought as he stared at the Doki. Tayuya began playing her flute and he began sizing up his opponent and looking for weaknesses. The Doki was dressed in green clothing with a similar purple rope that Tayuya had worn tied at its waste. Its eyes and ears were covered with white bandages and he knew that it would move with notes from Tayuya's flute.

He was about to begin his attack when the area around him started to swirl. The area he was now in had a red sky and black ground. It seemed to have no limits to its vastness and he found his limbs bound by strong metal wire. Unable to move he felt the with the Force the movement of the Doki and before he had a chance to bite his lip again, a jolt of Force lightning came from his sword and broke the illusion for him.

Naruto lunged to the side as he heard the Doki's club strike the ground where he just was. 'Shit! She's really trying to kill me!' he realized and decided to end the spar before he actually got injured.

'Take that you pint-sized bastard. I'm not going to lose here.' Tayuya thought and continued to play her flute to animate her Doki. It was true that she wasn't out to kill him but she did want payback for the kidnapping and other things he put her through. That was why she only summoned one Doki and not the other two as well.

'Now to activate my Doki's special ability.' she thought and the tune of her flute changed.

Naruto heard the change and thought it was going to be another genjutsu so he attempted to immobilize the Doki. Dodging a strike of the club, he ran up the Doki's arm just as it's mouth opened and something began coming out. Instead of attacking it, he used to Force to create a bubble around the Doki's head and began removing the air from the bubble, creating a vacuum. Just as some kind of technique began coming out of the Doki's mouth, the beast stopped moving and the technique stopped as well.

'What the hell?!' Tayuya thought as she continued to play and her Doki stopped responding to her commands.

She was about to summon another Doki when she was forced to dodge a grouping of shuriken.

Naruto jumped off the Doki and charged Tayuya directly while the bubble began to fade. As long as he got to her first and managed to stop her from playing the flute, he wouldn't have to worry about the Doki.

Seeing the running blonde coming at her, Tayuya put more blood on her flute and summoned another Doki as Naruto neared.

Thinking fast, and not knowing about the new Doki that was still covered by the smoke of the summoning, Naruto tossed his sword up in the air and went through two handseals. His mouth bulged with water and he spewed an uncontrolled stream of it.

However he wasn't aiming for the Doki, but the floor. Diving forward onto the water he just created, Naruto put chakra in the front of his chest so he would stay on top of the water and he slid right through the Doki's legs.

Tayuya's eyes widened at the tactic and she began playing new noted to get her Doki to turn around and protect her. Naruto's slide took him away from the Doki and he stopped before he reached the wall. Reaching into the air, he looked right at Tayuya as he stood and his sword flew into his outstretched hand. Not missing a beat, he again charged after the redhead.

Tayuya put as much space as she could between them as she ran parallel to the wall. Her flute was still being played while she moved and her Doki were moving to protect herself.

Naruto outstretched his other hand and a giant shuriken appeared after the smoke dispersed. He spun the shuriken and then threw it at the retreating redhead.

Tayuya moved to dodge the shuriken but she wasn't prepared when it went up in smoke to reveal a copy of the cloaked blonde. Her notes were interrupted by the surprising turn of events and she stopped her playing to deal with the new threat that was closing fast.

Her hand reached for a kunai and jabbed it into the clones throat before it managed to get her. She turned back to the real threat and wasn't able to dodge when the real Naruto tackled her. He had apparently closed the distance faster than she expected.

The pair rolled on the floor as each fought to disarm or incapacitate the other.

Naruto managed to get the flute away from Tayuya but was unprepared when the redhead bit his hand and forced him to drop his sword. The pair continued to roll around on the floor as they both tried to get the upper hand and dominance of the situation.

Naruto managed to get on top of Tayuya and pin her arms to floor. He smiled in triumph but was caught by surprise when Tayuya's legs wrapped around the middle of his torso and she began squeezing his rib cage. The triumphant smile left his face and appeared on Tayuya's.

Naruto struggled to breathe in as he felt his lungs being compressed so he moved her pinned arms enough that he could hold down both with one of his hand. His now free hand latched onto her throat as he began choking her.

Plagueis slowly walked over to the pair of ninja. The entire match had truly been a surprise. He was finally able to see genjutsu used by a skilled individual. He found it difficult to break the illusions but he knew the trick to it and wiped the blood off Gatou's lip. It was now clear to him that the redhead might be useful to them and she certainly didn't give up easily.

Though at the moment he wasn't really sure what had come over his student. He could have ended the match but he honestly wasn't sure if Naruto would even listen to him. His student was hell bent on finishing the match and defeating the opponent but he could tell Naruto wasn't out to kill the girl.

'Perhaps it is a struggle for leadership as much as dominance. If my student does not win, then the girl may not take his orders or for that matter my own. If she won't follow orders, then she will be a liability to us and won't live very long. Naruto obviously knows this and wants to defeat her.' Plagueis gathered and decided against stopping them.

If an acolyte or servant did not follow orders then that individual was to be punished until they understood or outright killed for insubordination. That was something that he had taught Naruto. The others were willing to follow Naruto or, in the case of Kabuto, had been subdued but the redhead was different. While his student wanted to show off the girl's abilities he also wanted to put an end to Tayuya's disobedience, get her to follow him, and thereby allow her to live longer. Up to that point, the two had never fought before.

It was obvious to him that Naruto had gone out of his way to make sure the girl was brought with the group and survived. Was it possible that his student had feelings for the girl? The fact that both females in the group were redheads was also not lost on him.

'Definitely something I will have to look into and monitor.' he thought as relationships for a Sith could be very dangerous and cause uncontrolled emotions. He had a feeling Naruto wouldn't seek out a relationship at that point in time. Naruto was too young for that sort of thing and was socially inept when it came to dating or the opposite sex. Though he recognized that it could still cause problems and might occur in the future.

His thoughts returned to the fight as he noted that it was coming to an end. Tayuya's eyes began rolling in her head and she passed out. A moment later Naruto collapsed on top of the girl with his head on her chest. Plagueis quickly checked them both and found that they were still alive and breathing normally. Neither had killed the other.

'Perhaps I'll just leave them here for now. Too bad I won't be around to see what happens when they wake up. It would be quite amusing.' he thought as he left the room and the Doki disappeared in smoke as they unsummoned themselves.

Plagueis walked down the hallway heading to his study as his thoughts took over and the body moved automatically.

The girl would have to stay. She had some kind of hold over his student and her death could turn Naruto against him. At the same time, it would provide him a means of controlling his student should Naruto ever turn on him. He wasn't sure Naruto would ever betray him but his past experience with his Apprentice made him overly cautious. It was one of the reasons why he had trained Naruto differently from how he would a Sith Apprentice. He didn't want Naruto to eventually kill him and become Master of the Sith.

In his mind, Sidious was still the Apprentice and he was still the Master of the Sith. His Apprentice had failed to comply with the Rule of Two and failed to completely kill him. Ascension in the Rule of Two required that the Apprentice face the Master in a duel. If the Master was defeated then the Apprentice rose in position and if the Apprentice was defeated then the Master found a new Apprentice.

Sidious had killed him in his sleep which was a not something he had taught. Such an act of cowardice was not something he could stand. Despite being a spirit, he would not let Sidious get away with it. He was also still around and not truly dead. Therefore he justified it as they were still in conflict and their battle was not over. The conflict would only end when one of them was killed permanently. Perhaps it was foolish to still hold to the Rule of Two but that was how he was taught, though not what he taught Naruto.

His inadvertent discovery of the planet whose people used chakra had brought back his motivation and interest. No matter what, he wasn't willing to give up all the new research avenues that had been shown to him and the possibilities of new discoveries. He would not die again, no matter who the opponent was. However he was still weakened and a spirit, so he needed someone that he could explicitly trust and that wouldn't betray him while he was at his weakest. The Force had seemingly provided such a person in Naruto and he wasn't going to make similar mistakes as he had made with Sidious.

The advantage was currently his as Sidious had no idea he was still alive. He just needed to return himself to a proper body that could hold his spirit and then complete the ritual that his student began. Plagueis the Wise just needed to stay 'dead' until the time was right.

x-x

Plagueis waited for at least ten minutes before he felt Naruto coming down the hallway. The door opened and Naruto walked into the study with a bright red cheek that had the unmistakable imprint of a hand. The boy sat in the chair with a rather dumbfounded look and he could feel his students confusion over what had taken place minutes before.

"You lost control of your emotions in there. It was only supposed to be a simple spar." Plagueis commented and Naruto frowned as those words were somewhat true. It wasn't just a simple spar, however, he wasn't sure what came over him. He did know that if Tayuya was to live, then he couldn't let her beat him, though he wasn't willing to seriously injure her in order to defeat her.

"Did you make a decision?" Naruto asked after a brief moment to collect his thoughts and Plagueis could feel Naruto shielding thoughts from him.

"They can all stay. There is just room enough on the ship, but you will be responsible for them and for their actions. You will have to make sure that they follow orders and don't cause trouble. There is now much more to do. You will need to create an underground bunker system near the castle but far enough away to stay hidden. I want it to be large enough for everyone, our supplies, and the ship. We will stay there until the ship is ready to leave. I won't have any more setbacks. The ship needs to be repaired and in addition, the new...acolytes...need to be taught in the ways of the galaxy.

They will need a basic understanding of technology and language before we leave. However I am not unreasonable and won't place this burden entirely on you. You already have much to do whereas I don't have very much to do at the moment. I am willing to educate them while your are working on the ship." stated Plagueis.

"I understand, Master. I'll get to work on the bunker right away." said Naruto with a bow and he left the room.

'Finally, my plans are coming to fruition.' Plagueis thought and while he was satisfied he was also wary. The galaxy could have changed greatly in the years he was gone and he couldn't come up with a plan for what would happen or what they might do once they got back to the Known Galaxy. With so many variables, there was no plan that he could come up with that was feasible and he didn't like not having a plan.

The ultimate goal was revenge but how to go about that revenge was not something he hadn't been able to work out. The only initial plan he had was to start gathering resources, funds, and creating a power base in which to use later on. This would be the majority of what they could do in the short-term but he had no long-term plan.

It all depended on what Sidious had been up to. For all he knew, the galaxy could already belong to his Apprentice or perhaps the Jedi had discovered Sidious's existence. He doubted either of those had actually occurred but they were not possibilities that he could simply ignore. Anything was possible in the galaxy and until they knew more, he might have to rely on Naruto's ability of getting by without a set plan. That was one thing Naruto had that he didn't. The boy was flexible and quick thinking in any situation.

To simply throw caution to the wind and act on impulse or instinct, and with little guidance from the Force was not something he was used to but it was something that Naruto excelled at. Perhaps it was Naruto's chakra that provided the boy with something else that he couldn't completely figure out, even after all his time watching and analyzing his student.

x-x

The group stayed in Doto's castle for two days before Naruto had finished the underground bunker system that Plagueis had wanted. Such a large castle that was known to all the inhabitants of the island was not the ideal area that Plagueis wanted to have for such sensitive and secretive projects.

He didn't want any of Doto's scientists or anyone else to get wind of what was going on or what the real project was. Their function would be to create bits and pieces of the new reactor or fuel injection assembly that Naruto would require while never knowing what the final product was or what it would do.

Installations were made in the bunker to give it proper heating and all of the infrastructure and other things that Naruto would need to rebuild the reactor on the ship. Accommodations were made for each person, lighting was installed, and several training rooms were even created. They would basically be living in the bunker for the next several months. Naruto had made sure to put fuinjutsu as well as Sith runes in the system to keep them as safe and secure as possible.

Currently he was in one of the largest rooms in the bunker. It was a dome shaped room and made in order to maximize the usable area while providing good support for the ground above. The size would easily fit the ship and allow him enough space to work for the next several months. A large shadowed hallway was also attached to the dome. It was down this long hallway that the ship would travel once it was complete. It stretched for several hundred meters before exiting inside an isolated location in the valley between the mountains. From there the ship could head out to the ocean, unseen by the local population, and begin the ascent into the atmosphere.

But he was getting ahead of himself. There was so much to do first.

His eyes glanced at the door again. In just a few minutes the others would arrive and he would reveal to them why they were all there and where they were going. He found himself pacing back and forth as he wasn't sure how they would respond to the information. It was definitely not something that they would expect or be prepared for. He even had a holoprojector set up on a small platform on the floor in order to visually show everyone what he was talking about so hopefully they could understand things easier.

Going over what he was going to say ended up being pointless. No matter how many times he went over it, each time he ended up with a very different speech. There was so much to say and he had trouble figuring out what to leave in and what to leave out. 'Public speaking is not a strength of mine.' he acknowledged and wished Plagueis had taught him more about the finer points of oration.

Feeling the approaching group, he stopped his pacing and stood near the entrance of the room. The doors to the room soon opened and everyone in their group walked in. Naruto decided to remove his cloak and he tossed it on the table next to him. A silence ensued which Naruto knew he had to break first.

"Up until now, I haven't given any of you much information about what our plans are. Master Plagueis has decided that all of you will be staying and therefore you will need to be informed. You should know that there is no turning back. From this point on, you will be part of our group. We are called the Sith. Master Plageuis is a Sith and I am a Sith but you all will be termed 'acolytes' for now. Perhaps that will change, perhaps it won't. I suppose you could categorize our group as mercenaries at this point but eventually we will be much more.

You will follow Master Plagueis's orders first and foremost. Then my orders. There is no subdivision between all of you as you are all equal in status. The goals of our organization are quite simple. At this point we have only one goal that concerns a single object. Once that is completed then our goals will change. Ultimately the goal of the Sith is conquest and we will make many enemies but we will also need to make allies. Your participation, skills, help, success, and loyalty will not go unrewarded.

At this point, giving you Ryo would be meaningless in the long run as it will have no value where we are going, but I can promise you money, power, and perhaps even fame or infamy. The more loyal you are, the more we can trust you and the more you can gain. In time, just about anything you want can be provided. All we ask is that you work for us and don't even think about betraying the group. Don't believe you are expendable though. I didn't go to the trouble of bringing all of you here just to have you get killed in the next few months. I also don't accept failure and neither does my Master." said Naruto and he took a short break to let it all sink in.

Searching the feelings in the room he tried to get an idea of what his audience was thinking. Most seemed rather curious and interested. A few seemed rather wary but none of them seemed to be backing out at this point, so he decided to continue. The next bit of information would be the turning point and produce the strongest feelings.

"As many of you may have already guessed, coming to Snow Country was only a temporary measure. The country is really just a stopping point. Soon we will leave the Elemental Countries altogether to something...bigger, better, perhaps more dangerous, and with limitless potential." Naruto revealed and before anyone could talk he began speaking again.

"I can feel all of you are wondering where we will be going. Leaving the Elemental Countries does seem like a strange goal. Perhaps you're thinking of backing out or that this is getting interesting. Or perhaps your thinking I'm 'out of my god damned mind and completely bat-shit insane'." he stated with a look of derision at Tayuya. The redhead looked slightly embarrassed before looking around and noticing that the others were all giving quick glances in her direction. Scowling she glared back at them.

Naruto continued a moment later while still giving Tayuya a mild glare, "What do all of you know about the galaxy?" he questioned and the others looked a little confused.

"The galaxy?" questioned Juugo.

"Yes, tell me something that you know about it." responded Naruto and no one spoke.

"Well that's not really surprising. Its alright if you don't know very much about it. The most that any of you probably know is that there are stars and planets in the night sky. This planet has a sun that it orbits and a moon that orbits it as well as several other planets in our local solar system. Perhaps that is just about it for most of you. Now, let me tell all of you about the galaxy that I know." Naruto suggested and dimmed the lights in the room while activating the holoprojector.

A blue light emerged and took the shape of a three-dimensional galaxy. The group members were quite surprised and put their surprise in a few choice words. A few noted that there was a gap or lack of points in one half of the picture, as if portions of information on that area were missing.

"This, is the galaxy that we live in. It is approximately 120,000 light-years in diameter. That means that if you traveled at the speed of light, it would take you 120,000 years to make your way from one side of the galaxy to the other. It is estimated that our galaxy holds approximately 400 billion stars. From that number, it is also estimated that half of those stars, 200 billion to be exact, may have planets capable of supporting life on them. Perhaps one tenth of that number, 20 billion stars, have had planets that developed life in the 13 billion years since the galaxy formed. Of that number, a thousandth of those stars could have planets that contain sentient life on them. For those that are still keeping track, that is around 20 million stars with possible planets that contain sentient life."

"You said could have life forms. Does that mean there is life on other planet and different kinds?" questioned Kabuto as he interrupted. He found himself completely immersed in the information and had to know the answer to the question that was burning in his head.

"Yes of course. Life formed on many planets and still continues to form on others. There are humans, humanoids, many different species, and trillions of other life forms. Plant, animal, bacteria, and perhaps even more. They are likely too numerous for someone to count or document. As you can see from the map, the galaxy isn't completely explored and even in the areas where it has been explored, planets and even entire solar systems have been lost over time or perhaps still haven't been found yet." explained Naruto to the stunned audience.

"How the hell do you even know that?!" questioned Tayuya.

"That will be explained a little later. You'll have to patient." said Naruto with a smirk as he knew Tayuya hated to be patient and he continued on while the girl's glare at him intensified.

"We however live outside of this known area of space." he stated while walking up to the emitter and pointing to an area of space in the Unknown Region. "This is approximately where we are and this..." he switched to a view of their star system, "is what our star system looks like. We are likely not one of the 20 million that developed sentient life, however."

He could feel the confusion in the room and elaborated, "Humans have moved across most of the galaxy and probably an unknown amount of time ago, a ship came to this planet with passengers in order to colonize it. I have no idea where the ship is or when this might have happened but its very unlikely that we simply evolved here.

Now, as to the goals of our group and how I know about the galaxy.." he said while turning back on the lights and turning off the projector. Moving to the other side of the room, he positioned himself and then went through the seals for the summoning jutsu. Slamming his hands into the floor he said the jutsu name and there was a huge eruption of smoke.

A torrent of water rushed at the group but its level lowered the farther it got from the epicenter of the summoning. By the time it was near them, it had almost all gone into the drains that Naruto had specifically created for that purpose. Their attention was taken back to the summoning as the smoke cleared and revealed a very large metal object.

Most of the group just stared at it while a few decided to move closer.

Naruto walked down the length of the ship and once he reached the cockpit, he jumped off of it and back down to the ground. He stayed there as the others eventually gave in and began moving closer. Plagueis merely watched from the sidelines as his part would come eventually.

"What is it?" asked Karin as she looked up at the huge metal object which looked slightly familiar.

"Its a ship. A starship that travels between planets and stars. With enough fuel it can travel the length of the galaxy in a very short amount of time. While this planet is still at a low level of technology. The rest of the galaxy is possibly centuries or even thousands of years ahead of our planet. We would actually be considered a backwater planet and primitive to them." Naruto informed her and the others.

"How old is it?" questioned Kabuto and Naruto thought about it for a second before answering, "The ship crashed on this planet about 14 years ago. Its age beyond that could be upwards of several decades."

"Kinda dirty." Suigetsu commented and Naruto just replied, "Its been at the bottom of a lake for 14 years."

Karin heard the comment and she finally knew why the lake outside of Konoha was so important. 'I never would have thought something like this was at the bottom.'

"Can we go in?" asked Juugo and Naruto quickly replied, "Not right now, but later of course. I have quite a bit of work to do on the ship but I can give all of you a tour in the next few days. We will be using this ship to leave the planet and traveling to the Known galaxy."

The others stopped looking at the ship and now realized what Naruto meant earlier. They wouldn't just be leaving the Elemental Countries but the planet itself. For most, everything Naruto revealed was an incredible amount to take in and accept. Knowing that they were just one planet in a much larger, incredibly populated, and more technologically advanced galaxy was hard to fathom.

Meizu ran his hand over the ship and wondered something so he decided to ask, "Then the rest of the galaxy must be pretty strong or at least advanced in ninjutsu."

The others turned to Naruto and he answered, "No, they aren't. In fact our planet and we ninja are quite an oddity. No one else in the galaxy has or can use chakra."

"They don't have chakra?" Karin questioned and Naruto nodded.

"Then how do they live without it?" questioned Kabuto as he sought for more information. His mind was still trying to wrap around all of the information that was being revealed and while earlier he thought it was some kind of joke, he was now starting to believe what Naruto was telling him. It was too elaborate to be a hoax and he knew Naruto didn't tell lies.

"The inhabitants of the galaxy have small organisms in the cells of their bodies that, in high enough numbers per cell, allow for the sensing and controlling of an energy field known as the Force. This energy field and the organisms are present in everyone of the Known galaxy and without them they would not be alive. Instead of producing energy like our chakra, the energy field, known as the Force, flows in and around everyone. Only those with a high enough number of organisms can be manipulate the Force and only a fraction of the sentient species in the galaxy can do this. Still, you shouldn't underestimate anyone in the galaxy." explained Naruto and he guessed Kabuto's next question.

"And you are able to use this 'Force' as well?"

"Yes. In addition to producing chakra, I also have the organisms in sufficient numbers to manipulate the energy field. I however gained this power by accident and nearly died. It may not be something that can be replicated, but I don't really know. Perhaps you can bring up that question with Master Plagueis. You will be working with him after all and I'm sure he could answer your questions better than I could. After all, he is from another part of the galaxy and has studied the Force for decades." revealed Naruto and everyone in the room looked to the short man.

"I thought you were Gato of Gato shipping?" questioned Kabuto and the short man smiled.

"This is merely a flesh body that I control. Though this form is completely dissimilar from my original, it has had its uses on this planet." Plagueis said and he began to move his spirit outside of Gato's body to show them his true form.

A dark apparition appeared above and even around Gato. The cloaked spirit looked at everyone in the room and spoke to them in their minds, 'Though you know Naruto far more than you know me, I am the leader of this group. My goals extend beyond merely getting back to the galaxy I came from and just so you all know, your chakra and attacks won't work on this form of mine. It's pointless to try. I should also add, if you lie to me I will know it and if you seek to subvert my goals, I will destroy you." he finished and Gato pulled off the glasses so they could see his yellow eyes.

The feeling was unlike anything they had felt before. It was fear that they felt, radiating off the apparition and completely different from killing intent. 'Why can't he teach me that.' Naruto thought with a frown.

The feeling however soon passed and the figure of Gato spoke again, "There is much to do while the ship is being fixed by Naruto. Teaching all of you about the galaxy, the language, the technology, and the weapons will not be an easy task. We will begin immediately." Plagueis finished and then walked out of the room, expecting them to follow.

x-x

**36.4 BBY – Current Year **

Nearly one month later

x-x

Sitting at a small cafe, Kakashi relaxed in his seat and sipped his tea while reading his little orange book. His team had just saved the country from a ruthless dictator, saved a princess, and helped activate a generator that changed the season to spring. He deserved a break to enjoy the new weather Snow Country was experiencing.

His students were likely exploring parts of the village or at least he told them they should. With the country safe and their mission over, he decided to take a few days off before they headed back. He sighed in contentment and glanced up from his book to see some people pass by the shop.

Staying alert was something that he had been trained to do, so his eyes again looked up above his book as he noted two dark figures pass by. They were nearly completely covered by clothing or a hat and he noted several things about them. The red clouds on black cloaks was not something he had ever seen but the large bandaged weapon on one of their backs was something to be concerned over. There was something familiar about them and their presence gave him a bad feeling.

Discretely, he payed for his drink and left the building to follow the pair. Two strange figures turning up just as the country was liberated was suspicious and pulling up his headband, he determined with his sharingan that both were definitely ninja. Stepping into a nearby alley, he created a shadow clone to continue following them and then summoned one of his ninken to round up his students.

x-x

Kabuto sat on the bed in his room and sulked. His current mood had nothing to do with his situation but everything to do with his own foolish actions. After being nearly devoured by the two altered demon brothers a month ago, he had covertly used his snake summons to send a message. He was concerned over his own life but also the fact that he didn't know what Naruto was really up to. At the time he thought it was smart but now he couldn't believe how stupid it had been.

The message had no doubt eventually reached the intended recipient, his previous Master, Akasuna no Sasori. He knew Akatsuki were after the jinchuuriki and they would likely send someone after Naruto if they knew a location. He merely provided that information. Now however he regretted it.

Once he had been told about the goals of the 'Sith' he still didn't care about what he had done. However, that all changed once he learned about the galaxy.

'I still have trouble grasping it. That in parts of the night sky are areas of a large galaxy that this planet is a infinitesimally small part of. Other species and life exist on many of these other planets. An entire galaxy to learn about. A near infinite number of lifeforms that I still cannot imagine and that certainly don't exist here. Incredible technology centuries more advanced than anything else on this planet. He offered me more than I could possibly image and all I did was put that amazing future in jeopardy.' he thought solemnly.

Under Orochimaru he never had the choice of what he worked on but he did like the work itself. Experimenting and learning about everything there was to know concerning the mysteries of chakra and ninjutsu. However then someone came along and opened his eyes to so much more. An entire galaxy of samples, species, and possibilities. It turned out that 'everything there was to know' was nothing compared to what would be available to him through Naruto. How could he pass it up? Access to all of that and no real restrictions on what he could research. And yet he technically had thrown it all away. He told Akatsuki where to find Naruto before he learned about it and now it was likely that a pair of strong ninja were heading their way.

'If only I'd waited. I wouldn't have sent that message.' he lamented and grit his teeth.

It was true that he still hated and wanted revenge on Naruto but after learning all that he had in the past month, his revenge could wait at least a little while. Once he got situated in the galaxy, then he could have revenge and still have access to everything Naruto talked about. In a galaxy that large, he could easily hide from anyone that came after him. He wanted to see the galaxy. He wanted to learn more about it and obtain the power Naruto and Plagueis had. It was obvious to him why Naruto wanted to leave the planet so badly and he felt very much the same way.

Fear of death had led him not to tell the others about the message. Plagueis would have killed him on the spot, of that he was sure. So he kept it quiet, but they might find out eventually. The ship might be taken by Akatsuki, perhaps it would be further damaged or the only people that can repair it would be killed.

His mind struggled to figure out what he should do but he was still at a loss. Keeping that information hidden deep inside his head and not thinking about it was taking its toll. Though he wasn't completely sure how, he could tell that Naruto and Plagueis possessed some form of mind reading or at least being able to sense the foremost thoughts in a person's mind. He'd spent the month doing everything he could to hide that information away so neither could read it.

Plagueis wasn't a fool and neither was Naruto. If by some miracle they survived, one of the two would likely figure out that he had been the reason why Akatsuki had been led there. The only thing he had going for him was that Naruto had hidden the base very well. There was still a chance that Akatsuki would not be able to find them. It was a small chance though, especially given the resources and skills that group had at it's disposal.

x-x

Stopping and looking over his progress, Naruto sighed as he still had a lot of work to do despite being well ahead of schedule. Both he and his Master had underestimated just how much work his shadow clones could do in a short amount of time when he was determined to complete something. Leaving the planet was definitely something he was determined to do so he had his clones work almost nonstop on the ship.

Parts of the ships reactor and injector assembly were spread over the floor of the circular room that the ship was in. The hull had already been coated in the sealant to prevent further crack propagation and now he was focusing on the power source for the ship. Every part on the floor was placed there for a reason and he knew where every part was. He had disassembled everything and now he just needed to build his own reactor from the parts he had and the few parts created by the scientists of Snow Country.

He hadn't been the only busy one, however. Plagueis had been teaching the remaining group about the galaxy. His Master had began with implanting the knowledge of how to speak Galactic Standard into their heads and then spent the majority of the time them about technology and general information about the galaxy. Inputting so much information into a person's head was incredibly dangerous but if it was only the language then they should be fine. A new language would take the longest to teach so it was a necessity to implant it into them.

In less than a months time they learned the basics about common species, droids, weapons, vehicles, factions, and a small amount of information on just about everything else that they would need to know.

Plagueis then began on weapons training and taught them all how to use the blasters that were hidden in the ship by the smugglers. Suigetsu was immensely interested in the different weapons of the galaxy and in order to get the white haired boy to stop pestering him about his sword, he agreed to create a blade for Suigetsu once he got the chance.

The group had then each gotten a tour of the ship and his clones went over the basics of how most common devices worked on the ship. Teaching them something as complicated as piloting or working with the advanced technology was still beyond them but he could teach them about everything else. Kabuto and Karin had been very interested in the small infirmary and Kabuto had been having many 'chats' with the medical droid. Plagueis had also spent time going over Orochimaru's research with Kabuto and also working with Juugo on meditation to help keep the boy as calm as possible to prevent any 'outbursts'.

All in all, just about everyone had been busy with something or another. The jutsu that he had collected from Konoha was also placed in a room where any of the group could go and see it, though few had free time to learn from the scrolls in addition to everything else. That however didn't stop them from at least browsing through several of the scrolls.

Getting back to the matter at hand, Naruto tried to blink away his tiredness and rubbed his sore eyes as he continued to stay on his feet, working on the ship well beyond what his body could likely take. 'How long has it been since I slept?' he wondered and couldn't remember. With so much information going into his head from his dispersed shadow clones he sometimes had a hard time remembering other things while he worked.

He was about to create more clones when he felt Karin's life-signs heading towards the room. Extending his senses as far as he could, he could feel distress and worry coming from her. He was also receiving an ominous feeling through the Force. Sighing, he moved away from his task and moved to the door in order to meet Karin there.

The last thing he needed, nor wanted, was bad news but it seemed inevitable with the success and progress he had made.

x-x

Following a set of metal tracks that apparently were for a vehicle known as a 'train', the pair of Akatsuki made their way to the destroyed castle that only a week before had belonged to the dictator of the country, Doto. They had yet to run into the Konoha ninja responsible but Itachi had managed to find out that Sasuke was part of the team. He thought about using the chance to see how his brother was progressing but decided against it.

Kisame also thought someone might be following them, which Itachi surmised as being Hatake Kakashi. He however didn't tell Kisame about his guess as he wanted Kakashi to follow them. He didn't want to capture the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and thought it was also best for the boy to remain in the village. Allowing Kakashi to hopefully see the boy would let Konoha know Naruto wasn't dead and where they could find him. Then they could send send ninja to capture him. The only problem was that he knew Naruto would likely be captured by them. If the situation called for it, he would have to turn on Kisame to prevent Naruto from being captured.

While Sasori had given them information on where their jinchuuriki was supposedly hiding, thus far they hadn't found a single trace of the boy. Snow Country was an interesting place for the jinchuuriki to supposedly head. On one hand it was very isolated and provided anonymity, however it was also too isolated. Anyone going there was trapped on the island without means of easy escape except for the few ships that traveled to and from the island. There was no way for anyone to make it to the island without a ship or a summoning animal. Should they find Uzumaki Naruto, which he hoped they wouldn't, the boy had nowhere to run.

The island could prove to be more of a prison than a hiding spot. Naruto would have to fight them both, which would result in his defeat. Though they needed the Kyuubi last and couldn't seal it until the other eight Biju were sealed, that didn't meant that they couldn't keep the boy prisoner. Most of Konoha didn't even know the boy was still alive so it provided perfect cover and a perfect opportunity for them to take him.

Itachi's thoughts were broken when Kisame stopped walking again. "Have you found something?"

"No, Samehada hasn't been able to find much of anything. If a jinchuuriki really is here then they're doing a good job of concealing their chakra." Itachi merely gave a 'hnn' in reply and they proceeded on. Over the course of days worth of searching the island country they had yet to find anything. Both were beginning to believe that Sasori's information must have been wrong. Itachi hoped it was wrong, however that had never happened before. Sasori's information was always correct.

The spy had not mentioned anything about Orochimaru's death but Sasori had confirmed that the rumors which had just recently been spreading around the Elemental Countries were indeed true. Since Orochimaru was dead, the former Suna ninja had no idea what his spy was up to or involved in, only that it concerned the Kyuubi jinchuuriki.

At some point the pair would leave the island but Kisame was persistent in his hunt for his first jinchuuriki. Though they actually wished that they brought Zetsu with them. However, when they left Snow Country was still supposed to be covered in snow, which apparently greatly limited Zetsu's abilities.

Itachi was once again brought out of his musing when Kisame stopped again.

"I think Samehada has got something this time." he said and Itachi looked in the direction that Kisame was pointing the sword to. It was in the direction of the ruins they were approaching. According to what they had found out in the city, the castle had only been destroyed a few days ago by the Konoha ninja.

Both ninja jumped off the tracks and ran down the side of the mountain they were on. It shouldn't take long to reach and search the ruins for any sign of the jinchuuriki.

x-x

'Great, two unknown chakra signatures heading for us, one of them several times larger than my own.' Naruto thought as the others gathered. 'We have no idea what they're after or even if it involves us.'

Everyone had come prepared with ninja gear and everything they would need for a battle in case whoever was headed in their direction was really after them. His thoughts created a list of all the possible people that might want to come after him. It was however a short list. Given that Konoha likely still thought he was dead, the only other people he could think of were the Akatsuki.

The two ninja weren't in his range yet so he also couldn't tell anything about them. The best thing he could think of was to send Karin to the surface to investigate, given that she could completely conceal her chakra. The only real entrance to the bunker was through the destroyed castle but they had cleared a path to the hidden entrance. Naruto was currently waiting just inside that entrance to his bunker system, where he should still be concealed. He was also waiting to hear back from the two-way radio he gave to Karin.

Tensions in the hallway between the bunker system and remains of the castle where high except in a few of the occupants, namely Suigetsu and the demon brothers. Tapping his radio that was at his ear, he checked in to see how Karin was doing.

x-x

'Karin, can you hear me?' Naruto's voice came through the receiver in her ear and Karin whispered back to acknowledge him.

The ruins of the castle provided good cover to sneak out through and the new entryway that had been created to look as if it was a part of the ruins. She still had several portions of the outside wall in which to hide and conceal herself from view.

Peeking through a hole in the nearly destroyed wall, Karin removed something that Naruto had given her. It was a 'scope' from one of the blaster weapons. Putting it to her eye, she zoomed in on the figures.

Pushing the radio, she described them to Naruto, "Two figures. One tall, one short. Black trench coats with red clouds. Can't see the faces because of hats. One has a big sword on his back and...blue skin?" she said with skepticism at what she was seeing.

"Where are they headed, Karin?" Naruto questioned as he needed to know. Her description told him that they were Akatsuki but it didn't tell him exactly who they were. He had a feeling that the tall one was Hoshigaki Kisame from the bingo books he had looked through but he didn't know about the shorter one. Kabuto knew information on Akatsuki but not individual members besides Sasori.

"They're headed to right above where the bunker is...no...they changed direction. They're headed right for me?!" she panicked and made sure to move behind the debris and not let them see her. It was difficult to see their eyes and where they were looking but she was relatively sure she hadn't been seen. That however did not explain how they were coming right for her.

"What should I do?" she questioned and Naruto quickly responded, "Stay where you are for now."

x-x

Despite his application of Sith runes and seals in the bunker, it was likely that it was his chakra that was being felt by whatever means the two were using to find him.

'They also may have some method to track jinchuuriki that I know nothing about.' he reasoned as he had no other explanation at the moment for how two member of Akatsuki had basically tracked him down to a specific area on a remote island.

He'd just have to sit and wait. If they got closer then they would have to come out of hiding and fight. He couldn't be sure of their chances against two possibly S-ranked nuke-nin but with the smoke brothers they might still have a chance at catching the enemy off-guard. Unfortunately there was no simple solution to the problem that he could see.

'Even if we kill them, it would only bring more of their group to this island in search of the missing members and if we let them go then the same might happen.' he realized and there seemed to be no solution that wouldn't bring further trouble upon them.

Looking to Master Plagueis, he received only one mental order, 'Don't let them near the ship.'

x-x

Karin began shaking as the two chakra signatures grew ever closer to her position. She still couldn't believe how large one of them was. Her chakra was still hidden but that didn't stop her from having horrible visions of her own death at the hands of the two.

She closed her eyes when they were within ten meters of the damaged wall she was hiding behind. They were even close enough that she could hear their voices.

"I'm not sure, Itachi. Samehada is having trouble picking up anything. Its just so faint. Its possible that someone was here but left." said the one with the monstrous chakra reserves.

"Does that mean he left a trail that we could follow?" questioned the other.

"No, I don't really understand but whatever Samehada is picking up is just right in this area. It doesn't move off in any direction but it can't get a reading on an exact location."

"Doesn't that just mean that he is suppressing his chakra and hiding in the ruins of the castle?" questioned the ninja with the smaller reserves.

"I don't think he's really in the ruins. Maybe there's something beneath us?" suggested the other but Karin didn't hear anymore of the conversation as she was brought out of her trance by movement in front of her and several words spoken in a low voice.

"Fuuton: Shinkugyaku (Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere)"

x-x

Itachi's sharingan alerted him to the disturbance coming from the building wall and he saw a small sphere of wind chakra shoot by him and leave a stream of disturbed air in its wake. It missed his face by several inches.

Kisame was in the process of telling him that the his sword had finally found the chakra when the attack began. Fifteen more spheres exited the wall creating small holes in it and traveling at several different trajectories but all of which were well guided.

Itachi began dodging as Kisame used his sword to absorb the chakra and nullify the attacks. Despite their efforts, one sphere pierced Itachi's cloak and created a shallow wound on his side while another scored a glancing blow on Kisame's shoulder.

The numerous holes created in the wall damaged it enough that it crumbled and fell outward, revealing a cloaked figure and several others that had apparently been hiding in the rubble as Itachi suggested.

The attack had caused their hats to come off and Naruto quickly examined his opponents, recognizing exactly who they were. He was right about Kisame but he was surprised to see Uchiha Itachi.

'Given how poorly I fought against Tayuya's genjutsu, I wouldn't be well suited to face Itachi.' he knew and decided to face Kisame instead. Using his telepathy, he contacted the other members of his group and told them who they would be fighting. The demon brothers and Tayuya would fight Itachi while himself, Suigetsu, and Juugo would fight Kisame. Karin and Kabuto would stay back and help deal with any wounded while Plagueis would remain at the entrance to the bunker, just in case anyone made it by them.

x-x

Both Itachi and the demon brothers went through handseals to launch jutsu at each other.

"Katon: Gyokyo no jutsu." said Itachi as he launched a large fireball from his mouth.

"Suiton: Mizurappa. (Water Release: Violent Water Wave)" said the demon brothers in unison as they launched their simultaneous water attacks at the fireball.

The two attacks met and produced a large amount of steam. Itachi's fireball ended but the demon brothers continued to use their jutsu. They moved their heads back to angle the technique into the sky. Water droplets rained down as Itachi quickly released a volley of shuriken at both brothers but they ignored the attack in favor of more handseals.

In unison, both brothers announced their technique, "Kiragakure no jutsu." right as the shuriken were several feet from impact. A thick mist quickly formed from the steam and the water source they had provided. Though Itachi couldn't see the shuriken hit their mark, he was positive that they had hit.

Frowning, he wasn't sure why either of the ninja didn't try to dodge. He knew of them from bingo books as C-ranked threats so he thought perhaps they had underestimated him. His shuriken had no doubt hit several vital areas, so the mist should begin to subside.

His assumption was proven wrong however when he was attacked by the same two figures. The mist did not subside and he was forced to fight at a disadvantage. His sharingan could not distinguish anything in the fog given that it was filled with chakra by the two individuals that were attacking him. His genjutsu was also useless in the fog.

The attacks were incredibly strong and coordinated. As he dodged one set, the other would attack an opening in his guard. He didn't have time to form any handseals or properly fight back. He blocked most of what was coming and retaliated but the onslaught left him taking several hits. His taijutsu also didn't seem to be doing anything against them as they just took his hits and came right back after him.

It had been a very long time since he had to fight in mist and it was painfully obvious that the two he was fighting were well versed. 'Are they herding me somewhere?' Itachi wondered and decided he needed to get out of the fog. Crouching down, he put chakra in his legs and feet and jumped as far as he could. Once he landed, a shadow clone puffed into existence and he then jumped again coming out of the fog. The shadow clone would hopefully keep them busy while he he used a fire jutsu on them.

Itachi barely had time to get a single breath and form his first handseal before he heard music being played.

x-x

'Suigetsu what do you know about him?' Naruto questioned as the three ninja stared down the lone Kiri nuke-nin.

'Kisame-sempai can drain chakra and so can his sword. It can also help heal him and even merge with him. He has a lot of powerful water jutsu.' Suigetsu thought and Naruto frowned at the information.

He also possessed powerful water jutsu but given the difference between their chakra it was possible that Kisame had the advantage. He'd have to rely on earth jutsu if it came to it.

Kisame stared down the three and chuckled at the fact that he would be fighting children.

'Then again, the entire group is made of brats.' he noted. Although he was confident of victory, he wished the area had been chosen a little bit better. They were currently on a very flat plateau that the castle had been situated on with mountains around it and with valleys on either side. There wasn't really an enclosed area and his water jutsu wouldn't be nearly as effective if they were washed away into the valley. They were more effective in areas of lower or flat elevation where the water would sit around for a while and enable him to use more jutsu. There also wasn't a nearby water source, but he didn't necessarily need one.

Kisame hefted his sword and rested in on his shoulder. Despite the age difference and the fact that he was fighting brats, he might be able to get some enjoyment out of the fight. The blue nuke-nin just laughed and then charged the group of three.

The group of three scattered as Naruto unsealed his sword and then unsealed the Kusanagi for Suigetsu. 'We'll create an opening for you Juugo.' he said and Juugo nodded while backing off.

Suigetsu attacked with the Kusanagi from one direction while Naruto attacked with his ninjato from another. The physical strength difference was rather obvious from the start as Kisame's swing would nearly topple over the attacking swordsmen.

Naruto knew it was best to separate the pair of nukenin so he planned to push Kisame over the edge of the plateau and fight in one of the valleys instead. Giving the unseen signal to Juugo, Naruto helped Suigetsu try to immobilize the sword with both of their strength. Suigetsu used his strong water arm technique to more than triple the size of the muscles in his arm and with both of them, they stopped one of Kisame's swings.

The blue nukenin just laughed at the pair and removed one his hands from the handle to punch the closest brat when he felt an incoming attack.

Juugo rocketed toward Kisame with his hand outstretched and part of his bloodline activated. The augmented fist smashed into Kisame's side and the pair were propelled near the edge of the plateau. Juugo stopped himself before he got near the edge and jumped in the air to avoid Naruto's incoming jutsu.

Kisame was in the process of getting up from the surprisingly hard hit when his ears heard a jutsu being completed.

"Suiton: Suishoha (Water Release: Water Shockwave)"

A huge vortex of water formed around the cloaked figure and out of the top poured a torrent of water that headed right at him. 'Shit.' Kisame thought as he tried to jump over the technique but was hit by the wall of water and taken over the edge of the cliff.

x-x

Itachi dodged a heavy blow by an incredibly large person or summon and he put distance between them. He glanced over at the girl playing the flute and realized she was controlling it. Reaching for kunai, he was stopped when another large creature came at him. This one had arms that were bandaged behind it's back and he tried to dodge but its moves were hard to predict as the head seemed to be improperly attached to the body.

He put his arms up to block the kick from it but was still propelled backwards until he skidded to a halt on the rock. His sharingan instantly picked up movement and he rolled to dodge a huge metal club that came down and caused a crater right where he had been standing.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the demon brothers heading straight for him out of the nearby mist and used genjutsu to hide his real position. The former Kiri ninja however was not fooled at all by the genjutsu and lashed out with his clawed hand.

Itachi, taken by surprise as his crow genjutsu had rarely failed him before, wasn't able to dodge the slash but did manage to jab a kunai into the ninja's throat. Itachi put more space between himself and his opponents but made sure to be wary of the slowly moving mist. The Kiri ninja collapsed on the ground and Itachi looked for the second one.

He glanced at his wound and then at the claw of the ninja he had just killed, 'Poison.' he noted and knew that he needed to remove the poison before it became a problem. The second Kiri ninja came out of the mist behind him and now he was trapped between the summons of the red-haired girl and the second ninja from Kiri.

'I'm starting to think this was a well laid trap and not a hunt for the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. The three chosen to fight me are well suited to face me. Perhaps I was wrong before. This island isn't just a prison for the jinchuuriki in terms of escaping, its also a prison for us as well.' thought Itachi and used another genjutsu to hide his location while he switched himself with a shadow clone.

Hiding behind some debris, he pulled out a kunai to bleed his wound and hopefully remove as much of the poison as he could. Right when he was about to begin, his head shot up as he felt an incoming attack. He threw the kunai behind him and it was blocked by an oddly shaped kunai held by the person that was supposed to be Sasori's trusted spy.

x-x

Kisame was in the process of getting up out of the shallow crater he formed on impact when he felt another incoming attack. 'Little brats just don't let up.' he thought but had to admit that it was a good strategy so far.

He glanced to see the incoming attack and mistook it for another wind jutsu from the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. Putting Samehada in front of him he was confident the attack would be absorbed. The attack impacted his sword but it didn't stop, nor was it absorbed. Instead, Samehada was forced backwards into Kisame toppling him over and forcing him even farther into the crater he made earlier.

The ground smashed beneath him and the force of the technique causing a small amount of debris to come up.

Naruto smiled as his Kinetite impacted the former Kiri ninja. He and his two companions were nearly to the bottom of the valley when he felt an immanent attack. Kicking out, he pushed off of Juugo and sent them both going in different directions. The partially transformed Juugo was about to say something when he saw Kisame appear between them and smash his large sword into the cliff-side, right where they had been.

The Kiri nukenin had two short trails of blood coming out of his mouth and was very pissed. He couldn't understand why Samehada wasn't able to absorb the technique. Even if he was healing thanks to his sword, both he and his sword were injured and he wanted to skin the Kyuubi brat. His sword shaved into the cliff-side and he landed on the side of the cliff only to jump again in the direction the jinchuuriki had just flown.

Suigetsu frowned at being ignored and also jumped in the same direction as Kisame. He was determined to get that sword from the member of the Seven Swordsmen.

In midair, Naruto used the Force to maneuver Kisame away from him and thereby dodge the first swing. Kisame swung again before they hit the ground and their swords met in the air. Kisame saw a trail of blood and smirked as he believed he had given a good shave to the brat.

Kisame landed on the ground while Naruto smacked into the ground from the force of Kisame's swing. He had activated the vibration feature on his sword just before the two weapons met.

Kisame stood and looked over to see what injury he had done on the jinchuuriki that was getting up but but saw none. Looking down he found blood on the still partially wrapped Samehada. However it wasn't just blood on his sword, it was blood coming from his sword.

'That little brat's sword cut Samehada.' he realized but had no idea how something like that had happened. If the boy had used chakra flow or wind chakra to augment the blade, then his sword should have absorbed it. 'Could it really be that sharp?'

He scowled at the thought and decided to change tactics, tossing his sword in the air to use some ninjutsu. Before he was able to use any handseals, he had to jump over Suigetsu's swing at his legs. He immediately rounded on the boy and punched him in the face causing it to splash everywhere and slowly reform. Kisame then caught Juugo's punch and that sent him skidding backwards but he still stopped it.

"You can't use that same trick against me twice, brat." he said as he began draining Juugo's chakra. Suigetsu quickly chimed in from the ground in a half-water and half-solid state, "How about a new one?" he said with his hand in the shape of a gun. Kisame's eyes widened at the familiar technique but he couldn't completely dodge as a small bullet of water ejected from the tip of the outstretched finger. While he managed to prevent the water bullet from hitting any critical area, it still pierced straight through his chest.

Dropping Juugo he went to grab Suigetsu and drain the brat of his chakra when he felt the jinchuuriki coming from behind him. Quickly, Kisame dodged several strikes by the strange ninjato and then jumped in the air to catch his sword. Not wanting to risk further damage to Samehada, he tossed it up into the air again.

"You brats just don't give up, do you." he commented.

Naruto mentally ordered the others to put some distance between them and Kisame as he unsealed a discblade and threw it at his opponent. Kisame dodged the blade and continued with his handseals. At the same time, Naruto quickly created a shadow clone as he kept his concentration on the discblade while the clone started going through seals for an earth jutsu.

Kisame finished his jutsu before the clone did and the man's throat and chest bulged as he spit out a huge volume of water from his mouth. The water kept rising in its place and shot Kisame up into the air. Soon the water had begun filling part to of the valley and forming a huge wave.

Naruto's clone finished the mud jutsu and spat out a long stream of mud. The clone waited until the huge wave neared and then finished the jutsu. The mud began expanding at a rapid rate and formed a thick and extremely tall wall along the line of mud the clone had created. The three ninja all moved close to the wall to prevent the water from getting them as it traveled around the wall.

Kisame grimaced as he saw the wall. 'That brat!' he thought and jumped off his water jutsu to stick to the wall. He thought he would be able to trap the three in his large water prison.

x-x

Karin ran back through the rubble as she temporarily left the fight to report something she had felt to Master Plagueis.

Reaching the entrance to their hideout she stuck her hand out and then moved through the genjutsu like barrier that hid the entryway. Plagueis was standing right at the entrance and could feel she had something to tell him.

"I can sense another chakra signature. They seem to be watching the fight from a short distance away." she reported and Plagueis thought for a moment. He knew that they were facing Akatsuki and that they traveled in pairs. 'It must be the Konoha jonin that is still on the island.' he surmised as there were only so many ninja in Snow Country at the moment.

"How is my student's fight going?" he idly asked as he went to one of the cases that Naruto had brought to the entrance and opened it to reveal a row of blaster rifles.

"They seem to be alright for now. I don't think anyone is injured yet. Kabuto went out to fight with the one that is still near the ruins." she responded.

Plagueis nodded as he grabbed one of the rifles and walked out of the hidden entrance and into the remains of the castle. Naruto brought the weapons as a last resort. Neither he nor Naruto wanted anyone else to see them and each person in the group only had moderate training to use them, so he felt it was more likely that in a battle situation that someone of the group would shoot someone else in the group and not the enemy.

"Where is the ninja that you felt?" he questioned and went to the outer edge of the wall in the direction that Karin pointed to.

Resting the rifle on a section of the wall that was missing, he searched out for the target as Karin gave him more direction. Gato's eyesight wasn't what he desired for that kind of work but it was better than nothing.

Karin guided him right to the ninja and he was right in his guess that it was the Konoha jonin, Hatake Kakashi. Looking at the ninja, he put the reticle on the man and adjusted it for the distance. Controlling his breathing he fired at the right moment and saw the red bolt of plasma strike the Konoha ninja in the side. However the body went up in smoke and he frowned at the fact that it was a shadow clone.

Moving the weapon, he searched for where Karin told him Naruto was and found the boy about to be killed by a blue skinned ninja with a sword.

x-x

Itachi dodged several strikes from the chakra scalpels formed on Kabuto's hand as he was forced back into fighting. His clone had just been destroyed and he knew the last remaining Kiri ninja would be after him as well as the summons from the girl. He thought through what he could use in close combat but didn't have that much that would be effective except his ninjtusu. He knew he could use his Mangekyo sharingan but he didn't want to use it, especially when he was facing so many opponents. He may be able to take out one or two but the rest would take him out after he was weakened.

With the poison to think about, he was now considering retreating, however that would likely prove difficult.

Kabuto knew that the only chance at salvation was to join the fight. With the chaos of being attacked, they might not even think about how Akatsuki managed to find where Naruto was. He just needed to escape being suspected and that meant fighting along with the others.

'Perhaps I should even try to get injured.' he mused despite his situation. He kept his eyes away from Itachi's sharingan and waited for help to arrive. He could break most of the genjutsu that Itachi threw his way but he knew how powerful those eyes of Itachi's could be.

He didn't have to wait long as Meizu, or at least he thought it was Meizu, joined the fight. Itachi jumped back and launched more projectiles at the girl with the flute to slow down the summons and was about to make his escape when he felt a hand grab his leg.

Looking down he saw the supposedly dead Kiri nukenin holding his leg. The ninja laughed and said, "Gotcha." despite having a kunai still clearly sticking out of his throat. Itachi for his part was speechless at the sight but his survival instinct kicked in and he quickly tried to free himself.

Before he could remove the hands that were holding him, the music coming from the flute changed and he found himself trapped in an auditory genjutsu.

Having never encountered that type of genjutsu before, he actually found it difficult to break free using his sharingan. It took a few moments and by the time his doujutsu had pierced the genjutsu, he found his feet still trapped by the demon brother and a metal club heading right for him from above.

x-x

The wall held and Naruto focused on his discblade as large amounts of water came around the edges of the wall and continued moving down the valley.

Feeling for his opponent's life-signs, Naruto ran up the side of his mud wall to meet Kisame at the top, leaving Juugo and Suigetsu. He still had one trick up his sleeve.

Kisame stuck to the side of the wall as his water all began flowing around the mud wall. 'I'll flay that brat.' he thought and could feel the boy running up the mud wall to the top. He smirked and ran up to the top as well. As the two reached the top, Naruto concentrated on guiding his still airborne discblade. He could feel Kisame following his movements on the other side of the wall and worked out the timing.

Both ninja reached the top and continued moving through the air vertically as they also moved closer horizontally. The wall was made to be quite thick so they had almost ten meters before they met in midair. Kisame smirked as he would finally be able to get the brat and noticed that the jinchuuriki didn't seem to be wielding the ninjato to fight him or even defend.

He frowned at the action but understood when he heard the sounds of an incoming weapon. Turning his head, he saw the large shuriken and thought, 'Sneaky brat.' Twisting his body and moving his arm, he reached and grabbed the shuriken out of the air before he it could slice him.

"I'll kill you with your own weapon, brat!" he said out loud and swung at the boy with the shuriken, intent on sending it flying at such a close range that the boy wouldn't be able to dodge. Naruto however only smirked and using the Force, as well as his connection to his weapon, he pushed the weapon and changed its trajectory. Kisame's elbow ended up bending in mid-swing which caused him to stab himself in the gut with the shuriken he was about to release.

Naruto quickly realized that he missed his intended target, which was higher up on the man's chest and a mortal wound. Seeing the man turn back to him, Naruto raised his sword to slice into Kisame but was promptly kicked in the side.

He grunted at the hard kick which sent him into the top of his mud wall. He smacked into the surface of his wall and stopped. He struggled to get up as Kisame landed on the wall as well. The blue ninja pulled the discblade out of his gut and tossed it over the edge of the mud wall. Kisame gave Naruto a murderous look and ran at the boy, intent on cutting his appendages off.

Naruto rolled backwards from his still prone position and the sword shaved through the hardened mud where he had been sitting. His mind registered the distinctive sound of a blaster being fired but he wasn't paying attention to it. He unsealed his other discblade and used it as a shield to protect himself from the toothed weapon.

Naruto ducked under stabbing strikes and blocked others but he was quickly losing ground. The onslaught of stabs by the toothed weapon left him unable to counter or even strike back with his sword. Kisame was evidently wary of his sword and never swung the Samehada at him but simply jabbed at him which deprived him of the chance at getting a good enough swing to cut the toothed sword down to size.

Naruto was still able to do quite a bit of damage to the front of Kisame's sword which only seemed to further enrage the man. He also noted that the sword was healing. Moving back again, he quickly realized that the was nearing the corner of his wall. He turned back to meet a another hard jab by Kisame that sent him to the ground and sent the discblade out of his hand, falling to the wet ground below.

"End of the line." Kisame said to the frozen jinchuuriki and raised his sword to finish him when he heard a noise and registered an intense pain running through his chest. He gritted his teeth at the pain and crumbled to the ground. The edge of the wall was close enough that the ended up falling over the edge and down into what little water remained below.

Naruto had seen the red plasma bolt go right through Kisame's torso and looked around but couldn't tell where the shooter was. He knew it was likely his Master so he figured it must have come from the ruins. 'Hopefully the battle at the top is going better than the one below.' he thought as Plagueis wanted to use the blasters as a last resort.

Grabbing his sword, he got up and went to the opposite edge to see where Suigetsu and Juugo were.

"You okay?" yelled a normal looking Juugo and Naruto responded that he was fine.

"What about Kisame-sempai?" asked Suigetsu. "I really wanted his sword." he added and Naruto just frowned at the statement. He was about to respond to Suigetsu when he felt through his life-signs ability that Kisame was still very much alive.

Feeling an incredibly large amount of chakra, so much that he could clearly feel it despite not being a sensor, he cursed and yelled down for the others to get to higher ground.

x-x

Itachi's eyes changed to his Mangekyo sharingan and Susanoo began to form around him to protect him from the attack. He could see no other way to evade the club except to use his advanced doujutsu. At first, only the mirror formed around him and repelled the attack but the arms and part of the body of Suanoo also began to form and removed the ninja holding his legs as well as forced back the others. He didn't want to try and hold the form for very long or continue to develop Susanoo as it was still something he didn't have much experience using.

The form began to degrade as parts of it began to disappear. Itachi readied several smoke bombs and used them once he the technique was no longer protecting him. Going through handseals, he finished his jutsu, 'Katon: Hosenka no jutsu (Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire technique)," and fired numerous small fireballs through the smoke at the summons while he headed for the edge of the cliff to find Kisame.

At the same time, he felt his teammate's chakra flare and knew that Kisame was getting serious. He also found himself slowing down a bit. Pulling out a kunai, he began bleeding his wound to remove as much of the poison as he could while he ran under cover. Given how much activity he had been through with the fight, the poison would soon start affecting him.

He was nearly to the edge when he felt someone come up near him. 'Kabuto.' he realized and dodged a chakra scalpel swipe by the white haired teen. He performed a sealess genjutsu on the teen and continued running while Kabuto was temporarily frozen. Reaching the edge, he ran down the cliff-side.

Kabuto took a second to break the genjutsu and then went through several handseals. He completed his earth jutsu and slammed his hands into the ground by the edge of the cliff. The edge began to break apart and large chunks of rock came loose and fell down the side.

Feeling the incoming debris, Itachi began dodging the large rocks along his descent and saw the large sphere of water that Kisame was using to trap Naruto.

x-x

Naruto jumped off the mud wall and used the Force to slow his descent. Once he landed, he ran in the same direction as Suigetsu and Juugo, which was the cliff-face of the plateau. His teammates were ahead of him and nearly there.

Behind him he could feel the amount of chakra being used increase and glanced back to see a huge amount of water being formed behind his wall. Parts of the wall began to crack and then break apart. It soon gave way to a huge wave filled with sharks made entirely of chakra.

'They must have chewed through my wall.' he realized as he made it to the cliff and began running up the side. The water volume increase substantially and moved towards the cliff they were climbing. In the water, he could see a very different looking Kisame but couldn't find the sword the man had been carrying.

'Suigetsu said he could merge with it.' he remembered and decided that must the reason for the changes.

As water smashed into the cliff face, Kisame completed the jutsu and the water began forming an immense dome just beneath them. Keeping the sphere shape wasn't difficult for him and he began going through more handseals in order to get his prey into the water prison.

"None of you will get away from me. Suigton: Suikodan no jutsu." (Water Release: Water Shark Bullet Technique).

Several thick streams of water erupted from the top of the dome with sharks forming on the tips of the streams. They targeted the three ninja running up the cliff-side. One struck right by Juugo and destroyed part of the rock, sending the teen falling back to the dome of water just short distance below. Another of the shark bullets hit near Suigetsu next and the last one hit right by Naruto.

Despite being able to recover and not fall below, Naruto decided he couldn't leave both of them behind and released the chakra in his feet, letting himself fall to the sphere below. He pulled out his re-breather mask and put it on right as he reached the top of the dome.

To prevent them from sticking to the surface of the water and not entering the dome, Kisame opened a large hole at the top to have them fall into it and then closed it once they were deeper in to the sphere. The trio were engulfed by water and pulled down past the middle of dome's height.

"Welcome to my Suiro Sameodori no jutsu (Water Prison Shark Dance Technique)." said a voice to all three and they could see the transformed Kisame swimming in a shark-like manner beneath them. The man now had a tail, webbed claw-like fingers, and three fins, two on his forearms and one on his back.

Naruto looked around his new prison and realized that while Suigetsu and he would be fine to fight inside the dome, Juugo would not.

'Juugo, you need to get out of here. Suigetsu and I can stay in here for a while, you can't.' was the message he sent to the orange haired teen and Juugo had no objections. The teen began swimming for the edge of the dome but he never seemed to reach it.

'Shit, he's moving the dome around.' Naruto realized and he could hear Kisame saying, "I'll never let you reach the edge of the dome."

Getting an idea, Naruto contacted Juugo just as Kisame made his first strike at them, 'Juugo, don't go horizontally, swim up.' he said as he dodged the very fast and agile shark-man. As Juugo began swimming upwards, Naruto and Suigetsu covered him.

Suigetsu partially merged with the water and held the Kusangi like a dorsal fin as he and Kisame made several runs at each other. While both were very fast in the water, Kisame was more maneuverable.

Seeing that one of his prey had discovered the method to leaving his prison, Kisame stopped fighting with Suigetsu and made for Juugo. Naruto went to try and put himself between them but Kisame just went around him.

Both began a race to reach Juugo first as the orange haired teen continued to swim to the very top of the dome.

'Juugo, you have to swim faster!' Naruto urged and the teen turned to see the shark-like man that was catching up to him. Thinking fast, he activated his bloodline and two chakra boosters began forming on his ankles.

Right when Kisame reached Juugo from below, the boosters fired and sent Juugo rocketing to the top of the dome while the force of the blast slammed into Kisame. Juugo quickly exited the sphere and found himself flying vertically through the air before he began trying to control his descent and landed roughly at the top of the plateau.

Still inside the dome, the three remaining occupants were playing a cat and mouse game. Kisame had many advantages considering that the closer he got, the more chakra he was able to drain from them. Naruto knew that if either he or Suigetsu were touched by the man then they would likely be completely drained in just a few seconds. Neither could also match the man's ability in the water. Suigetsu was close but every time they clashed, more of his chakra was being lost to the transformed nuke-nin.

Jutsu were, for the most part, useless. Naruto could use a lightning technique but Kisame would just absorb the chakra before it did any damage and most of the other techniques he had were useless as well. Naruto only had a few he could use that might help in the situation given that it was Kisame's water jutsu. Had the water been from a source, then he could use it much better, but because it came from Kisame, it was full of the man's chakra and much harder to use for his own jutsu.

If anything, Kisame was just as interested in outlasting them as he was attacking right at that moment and ripping them to shreds. The longer the battle went on, the weaker they would get. Kisame was the only one with gills and he was also stealing their chakra. Both he and Suigetsu would give out at some point.

'Suigetsu, we should both move for the top to make it seem like we're trying to escape and then one of us will need to be the distraction.' Naruto informed his fellow group member and he could feel Suigetsu's acknowledgment. Both then began moving to the top of the dome.

Kisame of course followed and a new race began. The person who would be the distraction would be the one that Kisame chose first. Naruto had a feeling that since he was the jinchuuriki that Kisame would definitely choose to come after him instead of Suigetsu.

Thinking they were trying to escape, Kisame began shrinking the dome's diameter and trying to increase its height in order to stop them. It took far more chakra to increase its height than moving the dome around but he didn't want them escaping. They were the only ones that had ever figured out the weakness of his dome. Despite his efforts and chakra expense, he was only able to increase the height by a small margin and not enough to offset how fast the two teens were traveling.

As Kisame neared the escaping prey he remembered what they were really there for and moved to following Naruto. Suigetsu noticed this and began moving in another direction to escape Kisame's view and come up behind him.

Naruto kept his course and took a deep breath before removing the re-breather. He would need to use at least one jutsu in order to be the decoy and needed his mouth to do it. Sealing his sword, he slowed down a little bit and went through handseals.

Kisame smiled as he saw the jinchuuriki slow down and increased his speed to maul the boy.

Spitting out water from his mouth and into Kisame's water, Naruto formed a water prison around himself and then expanded it outwards from him, forming a bubble in the center. A moment later, Kisame impacted the sphere. The two were carried quite a distance in the dome and began to sink. Kisame tried everything he could to claw and bite through the sphere but quickly realized he still had the advantage and began draining the jinchuuriki's chakra through the shell of water.

Despite being in a bubble, Naruto still had to keep constant physical contact with the protective shell in order to keep it up. Therefore Kisame was able to begin completely draining him.

Suigetsu attacked right after the distracted Kisame started and the Kusanagi sliced into the shark ninja's back. Kisame turned and swiped at Suigetsu. Though the attack did not hurt Suigetsu physically, it did drain him of more chakra.

'Damn it.' Suigetsu thought as he began losing his form from lack of chakra. His hydrification technique stopped working due to his chakra levels and he began turning into a more viscous substance that was a blueish-white. He could no longer be of any use to Naruto. Despite the failed attempt, Naruto used the opportunity and unsealed his sword as well as moved it outside his protective bubble without Kisame noticing.

Kisame chuckled at Suigetsu's attempt to finish him and turned his attention back to the jinchuuriki. "You can only stay in that shell until your chakra is depleted. Once its gone, you're mine." he finished and Naruto didn't respond. His face remained neutral as he used the Force to move his sword into position.

As Kisame reached for the protective shell of water to completely deplete the rest of his chakra, Naruto sent his sword shooting at Kisame's back. The blade struck the nukenin in the back and protruded out of the front where the man's heart was. Kisame lurched in the water and looked down to the see the sword. Even with such a wound, as long as he had Samehada bonded with him, he could still recover from it. Reaching back to remove the sword, he didn't notice when the blade began to spark.

Naruto poured the last of his chakra into feet to enhance his shell and form a chakra barrier between himself and his water. Before Kisame could pull the sword out, Force lightning erupted from the weapon and engulfed Kisame. The shark ninja writhed in the water as the lightning continued to shock him for several seconds. He still couldn't understand how a jutsu was able to hurt him and why Samehada wasn't absorbing it for him.

The lightning stopped a moment later and Kisame's body began sinking in the water. Acting quickly, Naruto put his re-breather mask back on and ended his technique. Reaching with the Force, he pulled his sword to him and then went to find Suigetsu as Kisame's technique began to lose its shape due to his lack of concentration.

x-x

Itachi ran along the cliff and approached the dome as he watched out for more falling debris. He didn't have many choices now that Kisame had used that jutsu. He would have to wait until Kisame was done before he betrayed him and prevented Naruto from getting captured. Though he did see one of the ninja inside come out, he wasn't sure Naruto could make it. Kisame told him that no one had ever survived his shark dance, though he had no idea what ability the orange haired boy used to propel himself out. Kisame was also supposed to go after Naruto as the jinchuuriki was their target.

Itachi waited for a minute or so before the dome finally began to lose its shape. He expected to see Kisame with the jinchuuriki but he was surprised when the boy came to the surface of the destabilizing water and then jumped to the cliff-side with what might have been the other boy in his arm.

Looking back to the water, he could tell that Kisame wasn't dead as even if the dome was losing consistency, it should have already been flowing through the valley by now. Taking one last look at the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, Itachi jumped into the water. The last bit of surface tension and chakra that was keeping the water stationary broke, and the dome changed into a wave of water that washed down through the valley.

A tired Naruto clung onto the cliff-side as he looked at the rushing water. He could tell from the fact that it seemed very controlled, and that he saw Itachi jump into it, that Kisame was still alive and controlling the water. On that route through valley, they would go straight to the ocean. He thought about taking the speeder bike and going after them but he was too tired to continue fighting.

His thoughts then turned to the people up above him. If Itachi was down in the valley, then had they been killed or injured?

Looking up, he noted the people on the top of the cliff looking back down at him. They seemed fine and though he didn't want any help, he didn't think he had enough chakra and strength left to carry himself and a weakened Suigetsu up the side of the cliff and back to the ruins of the castle.

x-x

Heading to the main harbor of Snow Country, Kakashi was completely alert and looking for any possible threats. From what his shadow clone had seen of the fighting before it was somehow destroyed, he noted several people that he could recognize. The first was Yakushi Kabuto and the others were Uchiha Itachi, Hoshigake Kisame, and one of Orochimaru's bodyguards.

'If Kabuto was there, then does that mean Orochimaru has a base on Snow Country? Is Orochimaru here right now?' he wondered and knew he wouldn't be able to face the Snake Sannin in a fight by himself. Orochimaru was after Sasuke and had given his student the cursed seal as well as the offer of power.

Did Orochimaru come to Snow Country to get Sasuke. It was a very isolated country and if that was true, then there was little he could do about it. The best thing to do was actually to leave the country as soon as possible. They were supposed to stay for another day or so but he told Koyuki-sama that they had to leave due to something coming up back in the village. He could tell his students were all suspicious but he wasn't about to tell them.

The situation was far too much for him to handle on his own. From what Jiraiya had told him, Orochimaru was once part of a group called Akatsuki and apparently he had just seen two of the other members of the group. Jiraiya said they were interested in the Biju and jinchuuriki but could they also be after Orochimaru for leaving the group?

Why else would too infamous nukenin be there? He didn't actually see Orochimaru but it was likely that those he saw were all working for the Snake Sannin. He needed to get back to Konoha and report this as soon as possible to Jiraiya and the new Hokage.

Please Review

AN: Please remember that Orochimaru's death is just spreading in the Elemental Countries and so Kakashi and his group, being on their mission, would not have heard about it. Tsunade is Godaime but I wasn't able to write anything about it in this chapter. Also Kakashi doesn't put together Naruto being in Snow Country because he believes the boy is dead. Naruto wore his cloak throughout the battle and Kakashi was quite a distance away from the fighting in the valley, so he couldn't recognize Naruto and he really hasn't had much contact with Naruto in this story as opposed to canon.

I plan to have them leave for the galaxy in the next chapter. I had planned it for this chapter but the fight took up too many pages. I wanted to update as fast as I could and already had more than enough for a chapter.

Responses to reviews:

Reviewer: fanfic-addict

I really like this story so far and the way you try to compare chakra to the Force is quite interesting. I hope however that you don't try to give Naruto a sub-element because I think powering him up any further jutsu-wise would be plain overkill.

Regarding this chapter and the previous one I have to point out one flaw :

If Naruto creates Shadow Clones in an injured state the clones would be injured to the same degree since they are exact copies of the users body during their creation. You even used that fact when Jiraya checked Naruto's seal. OTHER clones wouldn't necessarily be that way of course.

Response: I'm still thinking about the ability of plasma and it won't be a sub-element but something else. The idea was mostly because I thought some ninjutsu may not be able to break through materials in the star wars universe as they are so much stronger than anything on Naruto's planet.

I'm not sure as the shadow clones were really a flaw. The seal is something that can't really be changed but the condition of the clones is something that could be. I would think that he should be able to create a healthy clone, despite him being injured, but as for altering the seal on a shadow clone that he creates, that would be something far to complicated for him to do. Jiraiya checked the seal on a clone that was created before Naruto broke or loosened the seal. So it wouldn't change. Creating a new clone would ultimately show a difference because the seal is much too complicated to alter when creating a shadow clone. I would think that creating a clone that is healthy would happen no matter how badly Naruto was injured as the clones aren't able to reflect serious injuries. All he would have to do is concentrate and create a clone that isn't as injured as he is. It seems relatively simple.

Reviewer: Peter Kim

Like Orochimaru,Plagueis has a limited time to possess a body since the Dark Side will cause the body that Plagueis uses to decay and with Kabuto and Karin's healing skills it is possible to delay the decay. I think Kabuto is perfect as Plagueis's next body with Kabuto's healing abilty,Kabuto's medic nin jitus, and Kabuto's knowedge as a medic and they should slowly prepare for the possesstion of Kabuto's body for Plagueis and find a way to slow the decay that the Dark Side does to the body.

Response: As I mentioned earlier in the story. Plagueis took Gato's body because it isn't the body of a ninja and therefore would be easier for him to take. Gato's mind was also rather weak and easy to manipulate. Taking Kabuto's or Karin's body wouldn't really help him at all. Kabuto's healing ability is just used before he is injured and helps him recover. I really don't think it would be useful over a long period of time or possible to continusouly use the technique. Karin's blood only has healing properties for others. That does not mean that it would heal her body as well. Plagueis should be able to possess a body from a person in the galaxy for much longer than Gato. Possessions like that have even occurred for up to several decades before the body degraded.


	18. Chapter 18

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

x-x

**36.4 BBY – Current Year **

Chapter XVIII: Up, up, and away

ONE WEEK AFTER THE LAST CHAPTER

x-x

Seated at the Hokage's desk was a person that most would never have thought or considered for the position.

That person was Shimura Danzo.

However, he wasn't actually the Hokage, merely the temporary Godaime, until Jiraiya returned. Most of the ninja council however believed that Tsunade would not be coming back and that either Jiraiya would have to become Hokage or that he would try to worm his way underneath the hat.

While that wasn't far from the truth and he did have aspirations for the position of Hokage, his plans did not involve him becoming Hokage at that moment in time. The village may not be ready for him to take the position, especially with people's opinions of him being so low. Many had never even heard of him and in order to be Hokage he would need a majority vote by the jonin ninja in the village. This was something that he didn't think he could get, but that wasn't what he was currently after.

Given that the Kyuubi jinchuuriki was gone and that he had been unable to find the boy using his resources, he found an alternative method.

The rumors of Orochimaru's death began circulating in the last week but no one was really sure who was responsible. Danzo however was certain that the container had been responsible for the snake sannin's death. He had his Root forces go into Sound Country to investigate and they did manage to find Orochimaru's underground bunker as well as the headless body of the snake sannin but no sign of the container.

Also, the council still didn't know that the boy had faked his death but he had a feeling that Jiraiya did. He was confident in his assumption but that also meant that Jiraiya had not and may not be planning on informing the council either, and was now completely engrossed in finding Tsunade for the position of Hokage. That didn't sit well with him as the longer they waited, the more time the Kyuubi container had to disappear.

Just a week after Jiraiya left, he asked for a meeting with the Fire Daimyo. Using his sharingan, he convinced the Fire Daimyo to accept a temporary Hokage under the grounds that it would take quite a long time for Jiraiya to find and either return with Tsunade or return without her. The village was in great need of repair from the damage caused by the battle and order as well as guidance were needed.

Orochimaru's snake summons and the Ichibi container had caused quite some damage to the village before Jiraiya had stopped them. Someone had to take charge to oversee the reconstruction and make sure the village didn't seem weak. He had therefore promptly put his name into consideration as temporary Hokage.

With his manipulation of the Fire Daimyo, he easily won. While he had spent a great deal of time putting the village back in order since his appointment, he also didn't neglect his hidden agenda and the real reason why he went to such trouble getting the position.

With the position of Hokage came the responsibility of divvying out missions to the village ninja. While it was a tiresome ritual, it afforded him absolute control over where the village ninja went and what missions were accepted. This was the key to his plan as instead of just accepting any mission he could, he methodically chose missions that would take Konoha ninja to areas that he had not yet searched for the Kyuubi jinchuuriki in. His Root forces were only so large and he could only search so many areas. The key to his plan was that with the entire village at his command, he could increase his chances of finding evidence or encountering the jinchuuriki outside the village.

Should that happen, then with his power as acting Hokage, he would be able to send a force of ninja to retrieve the boy and bring him back to the village. He was even able to accept and assign missions to some of his Root forces. These missions were of course off the books and the money went directly to his Foundation. Not only was he enlarging his search for the escaped container, but he was helping the village and helping his Root forces at the same time. He might even be able to begin expanding his operation with the money and recruit new ninja with his position.

Perhaps if he performed well enough during the time before Jiraiya returned, it would even improve his public image and since he had never been Hokage before, it was also good experience for when the full position was actually his. He also learned that when he became Hokage, he would need multiple secretaries to take care of the redundant paperwork.

Despite his plan and a month of being acting Hokage, he had yet to receive any information that would even hint to the whereabouts of said jinchuuriki. However he knew it was only a matter of time before the boy slipped up and was noticed.

x-x

Tsunade frowned as she traveled back to Konoha. Despite swearing that she would never return, she now had to. 'Stupid Jiraiya!' she thought and glared at the man as he wrote down something in his note book.

'I can't believe I fell for his act and trick.' she thought and contemplating knocking him out and then running away.

He had found her in Tanzaku-gai and proceeded to try and convince her to come back and become Hokage. At the time she laughed at him and believed him to be completely crazy thinking that she would ever come back. However Jiraiya was tenacious, even more so than she remembered. He spent days pestering her, telling her about all the good she could do in the village.

He told her about the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and she was actually impressed at the container's thinking. At the time, she thought perhaps she should think about faking her death as well. The days, however, turned into over a week and little by little Jiraiya whittled away her resolve. Now she felt pathetic that he could guilt-trip her like that but Jiraiya did reveal to her several things that actually changed her view of him...a little bit.

Jiraiya confessed that when he had returned to the village, he remembered that Minato and Kushina had decided to name their child after the main character in his book. Jiraiya claimed it was something that he had completely forgotten until he had been back to the village and near the hot springs. He then told her that because of the naming he was also the containers godfather and after the village was attacked by the Kyuubi, he just forgot about it and never went back for over twelve years.

The regret wasn't fake, she knew that. Jiraiya even confided in her, while drunk, that had he been in the boy's life than perhaps Naruto wouldn't have turned out the way he had. Perhaps he wouldn't have disliked the village and left.

Other things were mentioned by the very talkative and drunk Jiraiya and while she didn't want to admit it, she did find herself feeling badly for her former teammate. She also saw parallels between herself and the runaway jinchuuriki.

She didn't really touch her drink that night, which was a first in a long time. Jiraiya mentioned how Naruto would be hunted down, while when she had left, nothing really happened. The village just let her leave despite her position and never tried to get her back. He talked about how the village still hated the boy and that hatred had caused a very promising ninja to leave the village. He even mentioned something about a group of S-ranked ninja that may be after him and that the boy didn't know about it.

After Jiraiya had said all those things, he mentioned that the jinchuuriki left out of selfish reasons and then she realized that she and the container weren't that different. It left a bad taste in her mouth.

Jiraiya then asked how Shizune was doing and she was about to reply when a thought suddenly hit her. 'How was Shizune doing?' Her answer would have been 'fine', but something made her wonder if that word had any real meaning when describing a person's state of being.

If Shizune was 'fine' then did that mean Shizune was content? Happy? Sad? She had honestly never really thought about until that moment. They always managed to get by, staying in different places, losing money, running from her debts, and seeing the world but how was her apprentice really doing? Did Shizune want to keep traveling?

She was intent on staying away from Konoha for the rest of her life and never settling down in any ninja village or perhaps even in a single village. Did Shizune want the same thing and did she really want her apprentice to have that kind of life? For the rest of the time with Jiraiya, until they went to their separate rooms, those questioned plagued her.

It got even worse the next morning when she asked Shizune how she was doing and her apprentice replied, "I'm fine, Tsuande-sama."

Of course just something like that wouldn't be able to get her back to the village. She still had loads of reasons why she wouldn't go back. That all changed however when Jiraiya proposed a bet. She couldn't possibly pass on it as Jiraiya offered to pay off all her debts.

She was of course suspicious whether the pervert even had that kind of money. Her debts were quite substantial. Jiraiya promptly showed her his checkbook and she got a look at the numbers. The damn pervert was worth a fortune. Not a huge fortune but more than enough to pay off her debts. She couldn't believe that it was all from sales of his perverted books and she remembered Shizune commenting on how scary it was that the world was full of that many perverts.

Should she lose the bet, then she would have to become Hokage. Despite Shizune's wishes, she accepted the bet. In fact, not only did she accept the bet, she won the bet. The money had been her's and then when Jiraiya was about to fill out the check, he stopped and had wagered, "Double or nothing?"

Remembering that moment made her strike out and punch the nearest tree, which sent it splintering into two parts and was followed by a crashing sound as the upper half collapsed into the forest. Jiraiya quickly put his notebook away and prepared to run if his former teammates anger shifted to him but Tsunade completely ignored it.

'Why do I always fall for that!' she lamented. The money was practically in her grasp but she couldn't turn down the new offer. She lost and now they were nearly at Konoha.

The thought of skipping out on the deal had crossed her mind several times but Jiraiya would never forgive her. He also stated that if she didn't honor the bet, he would collect every debt she owed so she would owe him all the money. She was all for it until he mentioned that he would be asking her to 'repay' him and 'work off' her debt to him. It was a disturbing threat, especially with the amount of lecherousness innuendo and eyebrow wagging that went into the statement.

Compared to that, the position of Hokage didn't seem that bad, however, given the recent news of Orochimaru's supposed death and the reconstruction of the village, she knew she had her hands full and would likely be drown in paperwork.

'Should have faked my death too.'

x-x

Two illusionary figures of Itachi and Kisame appeared in a room and stared at a third figure that was the leader of Akatsuki, Pein. The figures appeared as something of holograms but it was really a technique, Gentoshin no jutsu (Magic Lantern Body Technique), used by the leader of Akatsuki to communicate with the members of his group from vast distances.

"Did you find the Kyuubi jinchuurki in Snow Country?" asked the leader of Akatsuki.

"We did." replied Itachi and he did not say anymore.

"Were your able to capture him then?" inquired Pein as he was wondering why Itachi would give him such a short response.

"We were not able to capture him."

"Why not?" asked Pein in a more dangerous tone. Two of the strongest members of Akatsuki should have been able to capture one lone jinchuuriki.

"He had at least seven others with him and it turned out to be an ambush. Sasori's spy was also helping the jinchuuriki and can no longer be trusted. The container appeared to be leading them but it was difficult to tell. Few words were exchanged between anyone but they were well organized and coordinated nonetheless. We were both injured and put in a position where either we would both be killed trying to capture the Kyuubi or we would succeed, however the probability was not in our favor. I could not understand what jutsu several members of their group were using and two members seemed to be immune to all physical attacks." stated Itachi but Kisame just kept his thoughts to himself.

"So the Kyuubi has a group of his own." mused Pein at the new development. Jinchuuriki forming powerful groups was not something he had considered. They were supposed to be isolated individuals that were shunned by the world and kept to be a deterrent to war.

"Brats...every one of them." Kisame chimed in as he was irritated at being so injured and forced to flee.

"And yet you were unsuccessful when you fought them." Pein reminded him and Kisame scowled.

"What are our orders, Leader?" asked Itachi as he ignored Kisame's anger.

Pein thought for a few moments and then said, "If the Kyuubi and his group are getting that powerful then we can't risk sending anyone after him at this time. No doubt both of you and your battle attracted some attention.

The Kyuubi must be sealed last and sending more Akatsuki after him might draw more unwanted attention to our group. What we should do is let Konoha know that their jinchuuriki is still alive and his whereabouts. Then they will capture him for us, deal with his group, and then take him back to the village. We will then know exactly where he is when the time comes to go after him again." concluded Pein and he thought of ways to let slip the information to Konoha.

Itachi took the opportunity to add something he had been holding back, "While we were in Snow Country, a team of Konoha nina was also on the island and I believe that Hatake Kakashi followed us and saw the battle. Its likely that he recognized the jinchuuriki and would report back to Konoha. Its possible that the squad is already back in the village and reporting that information."

'Kakashi was the Yondaime's student, so he should recognize Naruto.' Itachi thought.

"We should send Zetsu then, to make sure the container does not leave the island before Konoha shinobi arrive. You're sure that the jinchuuriki would have been recognized?" asked Pein.

"Yes, Kisame and I looked for transport off the island and found the group in a rush to leave on the only available ship. We ended up taking Kisame's summons back to the mainland because of it." recalled Itachi and Pein nodded as the images faded away.

Itachi stopped himself from sighing in relief. The outcome was what he wanted all along. Konoha should be the safest place for Naruto, though he didn't want to admit that the boy had gathered together quite a group of talented ninja. 'By the time we are ready to capture him, I don't think even Pein could face that group by himself.' Itachi thought while remembering the odd abilities that the Demon Brothers had acquired. He still hadn't been able to figure out what they were actually using. His sharingan had told him next to nothing about the technique.

However that also didn't bode well for the Konoha ninja that went after the group to capture Naruto.

Looking over to Kisame, he could see his teammate was still examining the scar left by the Kyuubi container. It was a vertical white scar that showed up rather well in contrast to Kisame's blue skin. The blemish was apparently from Naruto's sword and the wound had nearly killed Kisame. Had the nukenin not been merged with Samehada then he would have died.

For some reason, the wound had not healed, despite Samehada's healing abilities. It should have healed completely and shown nothing but smooth skin, however that was not the case. He had already gone over the wound with a healing jutsu as Kisame had been complaining of periodic pain from the injury, despite it having already healed to a scar.

Itachi found nothing wrong with the scar or beneath the surface. The wound was as healed as it would ever be. He told Kisame it was likely something psychological that was causing the phantom pains which the blue skinned man vehemently denied. Despite this thought, he also knew that Kisame could handle quite a bit of pain before complaining about it. Therefore, it must have hurt quite a bit.

'Perhaps it isn't just all in his head?' Itachi wondered as he glanced at the scar again.

x-x

A door opened and Plagueis stepped into the dark cell. He smirked as Gato's eyes adjusted to the light and he viewed the chained Kabuto. It hadn't taken him long at all to figure out that it was Kabuto who had given their position to the group known as Akatsuki. Despite Kabuto's willingness to fight and from what he found from reading the teens mind, regret over giving up their position, something had to be done.

It had taken him only a few days to figure out exactly what that something was. He couldn't let Kabuto go unpunished but there was also the problem of loyalty. Though he didn't want to admit it, Naruto was right and Kabuto would make an excellent research assistant for him. Kabuto's medical ninjutsu and abilities were not common and not something that he was willing to just throw away, so killing the teen was difficult.

He thought about taking over Kabuto's body but that brought other problems as well. Gato was a good choice to possess because the short man had a weak mind and was a civilian. Taking over a ninja could prove more troublesome or perhaps negatively affect him. He didn't want to take that kind of chance. However, he also couldn't keep having problems with the teen and the days he took thinking it over had been quite fortuitous. The results of his work were hidden behind his back in his right hand.

Moving across the room and closer to the chained Kabuto, the smirk on Gato's face faded as Plagueis became serious.

"You've caused quite a bit of trouble, but you already know that. I also know how much you want to travel to the galaxy. I could just kill you for your actions or perhaps I could take over your body similar to how your previous Master could do." Plagueis mused as his vision left Kabuto and inspected the surrounding wall and then looked back as if expecting Kabuto to plea for his life.

Kabuto grit his teeth and knew he was in the worst position. He desperately wanted to go with them but there was nothing he could do if Plagueis decided to do any of those things.

"However, I am a compassionate being," Plagueis lied and continued, "but I still think you deserve punishment. I could torture you until the ship is ready or perhaps have the Demon Brothers do it. They have asked on more than one occasion if they could 'deal' with you."

Kabuto understood that his life was in Plagueis's hands. He knew Naruto would be too busy to come to his aid or perhaps speak on his behalf. He wasn't even sure if Naruto knew he had betrayed the group or what the boy might do if he found out.

"It didn't take very long for me to figure you out." said Plagueis to the now confused Kabuto.

"Every person has motivation or reasons and yours were quite easy to determine. You Kabuto, are a not a leader. No, you are but a shadow. Someone that follows in the footsteps of others but has no determination to stand on your own.

You may not have even known this until Orochimaru was killed. Perhaps you still haven't realized it. There was no Master to follow and you didn't know what to do. Deep down I'm not even sure that you really hate Naruto for killing Orochimaru. Perhaps you'll realize that, given some time, but your anger really comes from the fact that my student took away your only purpose.

Following others was what you did. You became a spy in Konoha under Sasori and were noticed by Orochimaru. Your mission was to become part of Orochimaru's organization and at some point you turned from one Master to another. But after what Naruto did, there was no one to keep the light off you. No one's shadow to stay behind anymore. You probably felt confusion, frustration, hopelessness, loss, fear and many other useless emotions that eventually turned into anger and you directed that at my student.

When Naruto made you a part of our organization, he never asked you to change and perhaps that was the problem. Instead of accepting us and myself as your Master, you retreated back to your first Master, Sasori. You gave away our location and nearly compromised our whole operation. Therefore, for your punishment, I give you a gift." Plagueis stated with a smirk and revealed what was in his right hand.

"A-a gift." Kabuto stuttered and cursed at the way he must have sounded in front of Plagueis. He couldn't image why he would be getting a gift.

What Plagueis revealed from behind his back was a large syringe filled with a gray material. It looked like a liquid but it was difficult to tell how viscous it actually.

"Yes, a gift. Since you seem so fond of your old Master's and can't possibly survive without them or work with us without them, I decided to provide you with a something that would take care of that. I'll let you have a piece of your old Master, Orochimaru, so that he is with you always. That way you can work with us and never be separated from him. How does that sound?" asked Plagueis with a smirk.

Kabuto was beginning to see where Plagueis was headed and he wasn't sure he liked it. Inside the syringe must have been Orochimaru's cells and he was about to be injected with them.

"Hopefully the cells won't take over your body because if they do, we'll have to kill you. So just hold on Kabuto and you'll most likely keep your sanity and personality intact as the transformation takes place." said Plagueis as the hand holding the syringe moved to the defenseless and bound Kabuto.

The needle pierced through his arm and Kabuto watched in morbid fascination as Plagueis injected the material into his body. The skin in the area around the injection began to lighten and then turn to a light gray. Kabuto's eyes widened as the area began to slowly grow before his eyes. He could feel his cells being converted or transformed and he could see the transformation occurring. 'It shouldn't be happening that fast.' he noted as he stared at the infected area.

At first he only felt cold and then a numbness but the pain soon started and as Plagueis left the room, Kabuto was screaming in agony from what was happening to him. Looking to Gozu, who was stationed outside the door, he said, "When it's finished, give him the cloak to cover himself and then bring him to the lab for testing. I want to determine if everything went properly." stated Plagueis and the Kiri ninja nodded.

Leaving the area, Plagueis headed back to his lab to continue his reading on Orochimaru's research and notes. The syringe he had just given Kabuto was derived from Orochimaru's cells from the head that Naruto had brought back. He didn't think it would be useful to him but now it turned out that it was.

Using Sith Alchemy, he altered the cells slightly and created what could be called a Sith potion. Normally the process was used to create a Sithspawn and even mix the traits of species with the traits of others and create something unique and powerful. His work was really no different.

Kabuto was basically turning into a Sithspawn. The transformation was much simpler than the one used for the demon brothers but he expected very good results. The subject should have been made into a mindless animal that only took orders from him but he was confident that Kabuto would retain his mind, knowledge, and abilities despite the transformation. That was exactly what happened to the Demon Brothers and he therefore expected similar results. However, the new Kabuto would become more loyal to him as time went by due to the Alchemy and his modifications. Kabuto would be bonded to him in a similar way that the Demon Brothers were bonded to Naruto.

'Yes, he will make an excellent research assistant. And should the need arise, I could seal my holocron into his arm and use him as a means of transportation and physical action. Similar to what I did with Naruto before I took Gato's body.' thought Plagueis and the screams of Kabuto slowly decreased in volume the farther away he got from the cell.

Orochimaru's cells were highly parasitic and just simple experimentation showed that they would take over a host body upon injection. However, what would normally take months for Kabuto to transform completely, would be taking mere hours or perhaps even shorter with the addition of Sith Alchemy. Kabuto should be done changing by the end of the day.

x-x

Sitting in a meditative position, Naruto didn't move a single inch except for his rhythmic breathing. His clones however were quite busy. Thirty versions of himself were in what had been dubbed the 'hangar bay' and working on the ships new reactor.

After a day of struggling and failure, Naruto quickly found that using his clones on a single task such as the reactor was a bad idea. Having so many clones along with himself just didn't work. Whereas they could work completely independently, he discovered that when working on one complex task, multitasking with his independent clones actually slowed him down.

Because they each thought individually, the clones took it upon themselves to begin working on individual parts. However, the problem came when beginning to assemble those parts and with the tools available. While the clones could do the work, there was a particular order in which everything had to be done. One part had to be completed and installed before the combined part could be used somewhere else. His clones didn't really grasp the overall picture and failure was inevitable. There was a critical path to the construction and should one problem be encountered along that path, then the length of the project, beginning to end, was increased.

The main problem he was having was that his clones were too independent. They finished tasks before the other critical tasks were completed and then he had to stop and figure out what went wrong. So far he had disassembled a certain part of the reactor four times because his clones had completed only part of the device and neglected to get all the pieces together before assembling that part. Taking the reactor and fuel assembly apart was infinitely easier than building and constructing a new one with his clones. He never experienced the problem before because nothing he had done up to that point had been so complicated and had so many individual tasks that formed a single multifaceted project.

Then there was the problem with tools. He only had a given number of sophisticated tools and with so many clones working, things got misplaced or one clone couldn't find the needed tool because another clone had it. This inevitably slowed everything down as well because he had clones just walking around and trying to find a tool that was being used by another clone halfway across the room. That was just the first day of construction and he ended up killing all of his clones in anger and frustration. Surprisingly, he then had to begin suppressing the Kyuubi's chakra as apparently his anger and frustration began calling a very small amount of it forth when he certainly didn't even want or need it.

Taking a break from the reactor, despite not having the time needed to actually take a break, he had meditated on the problem and wound up stumbling upon the best way to work with his clones on such a complex task.

The key he discovered was to step back and take himself out of the project. Normally that idea would seem foolish as he was the original and the leader, but that was his problem in the first place. He wasn't actually leading the clones and given how independently they thought and worked, they needed extra supervision and guidance on such a project. They couldn't see the bigger picture.

That was the reason why he was currently meditating. Using his Force connection with his clones, he was actually supervising all thirty at the same time. Each one was getting explicit guidance and instruction from him on what they should be doing. Each clone could therefore just focus on a single task and he would worry about the critical path and getting everything put together correctly in the least amount of time. The method was far better than anything he had previously and he was sure that in the future he would be using it on any complex tasks for his clones.

Even the tool problem was solved as he could tell which clones had what tools and then get the right tools to the right clones. With perfect timing and coordination, one clone threw a tool to another and continued working without any problems. The clone reached up and caught the tool but stayed perfectly focused on what it was doing. The new method was so smooth and coordinated that he was making great progress despite the first day's setback.

He didn't start out at thirty clones though, he actually started at only ten and had worked his way up to thirty in the past week. By the following week he might have fifty and then he would likely be able to complete the task by the deadline he had. Based on calculations by both his Master and himself, it would take between two weeks and one month for someone to come to Snow Country. A journey by boat to the island country took a week and both groups had already been gone for that long. That however assumed that they didn't have another mode of transportation that was faster.

Neither was sure which group would be coming as it was still possible that Akatsuki would send more ninja or perhaps Itachi and Kisame would come back. It was also just as possible, if not more possible, that Konoha would also send ninja to Snow Country.

The group that was there had evidently left in a hurry and Plagueis told him about Hatake Kakashi watching most of the fight.

Currently at least four members of his group were on patrol. He wasn't completely sure which members as they switched off but someone was out of the bunker and actively looking for threats. Using a few of his clones, he set up several detection seals in the area around the destroyed castle. At least two members of the group were in the main city and harbor of Snow Country and monitoring the people that were entering the country.

Most ships went to the main harbor but it was also possible that ninja would be dropped off somewhere else or just jump off the boat before reaching the harbor and run to shore. To hopefully prevent this, he had two other members of the group patrolling the surrounding area of the destroyed castle. Both pairs had a radio so he they could communicate with each other and with the bunker should they find something.

He hoped that the ship could be completed, or at least ready enough to leave the area and travel somewhere else on the planet under its own power, by the deadline. However it would take at least the next week to complete, test, and then install the reactor on the ship.

Keeping his mind as calm as possible, Naruto pushed back all his doubts and fears, focusing entirely on his clones and the project. It was a race against the clock and he likely wouldn't be able to sleep much before the deadline.

x-x

Team Seven raced through the trees of Fire Country as they neared the village. Kakashi set quite the pace for his students and he lied saying that it was for training. He wasn't about to tell Sasuke that he had seen Itachi or the possibility of Orochimaru having been in Snow Country. The real reason he set such a pace was so he could report to Jiraiya about what he had seen.

He already sent one of his ninken ahead of him and hoped it would be able to find Jiraiya. When he left the village for his mission, Jiraiya had only just left in search of Tsunade so she could be Hokage when they returned. Ninja decisions were being made by the temporary Hokage, Danzo, whom he would have to talk with if Jiraiya wasn't back yet.

Landing on the main road, the group moved towards the village and slowed down as they neared the main gate. Running straight into the village would definitely cause some alarm so he calmed himself down and set a sedate pace. He would dismiss his students right after they got into the village and then find Pakkun who was likely waiting for him near the gate.

He casually greeted the two chunin gate-guards with his book out and then dismissed his team, telling them that he would fill out a mission report.

Continuing down the main road, he picked up his ninken's trail and turned down a side alley. Despite the crowded street, he made sure to stay as unnoticed as possible. Walking down the alley, he glanced over the top of his book and noted the small pug that peaked around the corner and spotted him.

As Kakashi rounded the corner, he came upon Pakkun and the dog turned its head to indicate the other person that wasn't standing very far away.

Jiraiya looked over at Kakashi and wondered what was going on. He had only just gotten back with Tsunade and they had barely been to see the ninja council when he was accosted by the small dog. 'And I was just about to do some research.' he lamented but decided that whatever Kakashi had to tell him must have been important if the man sent a summons ahead of him before making it to the village.

Kakashi put away his book and became serious, "While I was in Snow Country on a mission with my team, I saw Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame. They were both wearing the black cloaks with red clouds that your described to me."

Jiraiya's eyes widened as he now knew two more members of the group known as Akatsuki. However he had the sudden thought of why would those two be in Snow Country, "Did you follow them?"

Kakashi nodded and then told Jiraiya of everything his shadow clone saw before being destroyed. He mentioned his thoughts on Orochimaru having a base in Snow Country and possibly being there.

Jiraiya couldn't believe what he was hearing. Given the rumors, he knew that Orochimaru was likely dead and had a hunch that Naruto was the person that was in Snow Country. 'Does that mean he killed Orochimaru?' he wondered but didn't dwell on it. He needed to focus on all the new information. Apparently Naruto had created or at least recruited a group of ninja that were enough to stand up against two S-ranked ninja.

"Kakashi, according to the rumors that have been circulating through the Elemental Countries for just over a week, Orochimaru is dead." Jiraiya revealed and Kakashi was shocked at the information. His first instinct was that it must have been Kabuto, but Jiraiya was about to squash that thought, "I probably should have told you this earlier but I have proof that Uzumaki Naruto faked his death and is still alive." Jiraiya said as he glanced around and made sure they were alone at the intersection of alleyways.

If the earlier news had shocked Kakashi then he was completely taken aback by the new information. 'He faked his death.' he ran the words through his mind and he really couldn't understand why.

"Did your clone happen to see this person?" Jiriaya asked while pulling out a photograph of a red-haired Grass ninja.

Kakashi's single eye examined the photograph and he tried to remember exactly what his clone had seen during the fighting. He did remember two redheads but they were too far away for his clone to see exact facial features. He only noted the one redhead as being part of Orochimaru's guard because of her general appearance and because Kabuto was there so it made sense that she was the redhead in the group that helped kill the Sandaime.

Thinking back to the other figures, he knew he couldn't identify most of them but the girl in the picture did seem to have the same characteristics as the second redhead he saw. He also realized that the person he saw in the cloak must have been Naruto.

"There were two redheads there. One I believe worked for Orochimaru and this does resemble the other but I was never able to get a good view of her face." responded Kakashi and Jiraiya nodded before putting the photo away.

'So she still might be alive.' Jiraiya thought and was thankful for the information. Naruto was heading down a dark path but knowing that the girl was still alive gave him hope that he could convince or at least get Naruto to come back to the village.

"Are you going to be assembling a team then?" asked Kakashi and Jiraiya wanted to curse as he realized he would have to wait.

"No, not yet." he admitted and before Kakashi could say anything he continued, "Danzo is currently the temporary Hokage until Tsunade-hime gets inaugurated. We'll have to wait a few days until that happens before taking a team to go after him. Otherwise people will start asking questions. I never told the village elders or the ninja council about Naruto still being alive. I hoped to find him before anyone found out or Naruto became known outside of the village. Apparently Akatsuki is already a step or two ahead of us and also knows about Naruto not being dead and leaving the village. I don't even know how that happened or where they got the information from." Jiraiya admitted.

"There will be a team and I guess you won't take 'No' for an answer so you'll be on it. Who else in the village would be able to help us?" questioned Jiraiya as despite being very good at planning a mission, he was out of touch with the village and the ninja ranks.

Kakashi quickly thought about it and knew several ninja that would be good for the mission. Maito Gai for one was definitely someone that could help. He knew he couldn't take his own team because of the possibility of Itachi showing back up but, though he was reluctant to admit it, Gai's team was strong and well suited for the mission. He also thought about Tenzo from ANBU because of his Mokuton ability and the fact that Naruto likely didn't want to come back. A capture squad would be good and perhaps at least one chakra sensor but he wasn't sure who would be available. He knew the village couldn't spare many ninja at that point in time and would leave the decision up to the new Hokage.

Telling Jiraiya of the information, the Toad Sannin readily agreed but had no idea of who Gai's students were.

x-x

Kabuto looked over his body once more as he sat in the chains. The transformation brought upon by the syringe Plagueis had injected him with, seemed to be over. He wasn't sure how long it had lasted but he certainly didn't want to go through it again. The pain had been excruciating.

Most people would have been completely disgusted to have their body altered to such a degree but he found it completely fascinating. He was immensely curious to see what the changes did for him and couldn't wait to have his chakra fully unsealed to see what he could do.

Interestingly enough, he now had a snake appendage that appeared to be coming out of his body like a tail. It seemed rather intelligent and he could communicate with it on some level without even speaking. His entire body also appeared to be covered in large grayish-white snake scales and he couldn't wait to examine himself with his diagnostic jutsu.

'Perhaps this is why he said it was a gift.' he mused. Orochimaru's cells had merged with his own but he wasn't taken over by his former Master. He might look like a monster in the eyes of others but he honestly couldn't be happier. If this was the trade-off for getting to travel with Plagueis and Naruto to the galaxy they talked about, then he was all for it.

"Kukukukukuku." he laughed and he could feel minute vibrations through the floor that let him know someone was approaching.

x-x

Gozu entered the room with the cloak that Plagueis had given him. He looked at Kabuto and chuckled, 'I'm not sure if he really transformed. Maybe Master Plagueis just brought out his true form.' he mused and tossed the dark red cloak to Kabuto. Crouching down near the snake-person, he held out his hand, which turned into tendrils of smoke, and moved the smoke to the chains that were binding Kabuto. The smoke entered the key hole and released the locks. He then released the chakra seals and other bindings that Kabuto had.

"Master Plagueis wants to see you in the lab and inspect your changes." Gozu stated and Kabuto followed the Kiri ninja as he was led to the lab.

Idly, Kabuto wondered whether they would be concerned over Orochimaru taking over his body but something told him that Plagueis may have been bluffing. Though the cells had merged with him, he really couldn't feel another consciousness in the cells or in his body. 'Perhaps he was just trying to scare me.' he considered but didn't really mind.

'I can't wait to see what all the changes are.'

x-x

Seven days later

x-x

Jiraiya grimaced once again as Maito Gai vomited over the side of the their boat. The very green, both in face and body attire, taijutsu specialist had no idea that he was prone to seasickness up until the boat began its journey.

Jiraiya idly wondered if the man would survive the remainder of the trip to Snow Country. They had been on the boat for about five days, as had taken two days before the inauguration was held and Tsunade was made Godaime Hokage. Tsunade's first action as Hokage was to sanction the mission and he knew he owed her for doing it.

The other ninja Tsunade sent on the mission were fairing much better than Gai but Jiraiya glared slightly at the two members of Gai's team that he had met before. Ironically, they had more insight in the mission than nearly every other ninja on the mission. There had been a short briefing but only a few members actually knew what was going on.

Team Nine, Kakashi, the ANBU named Yamato, a medical ninja, Team Eight, and himself were on the mission. He hadn't planned on taking so many brats with him but from what Kakashi said, most of Naruto's group were ninja that were under the age of twenty, with most being just older than the peace-time genin graduation age. The village also didn't have many higher ranked ninja that were available at the moment.

He had told Kurenai and Gai that their teams would be held back during any fighting but was glad for the tracking team and the two Hyuuga members that he had. If the group was still in Snow Country, which he assumed they still were given how few boats go to and leave from the country, then there was likely an underground base and the byakugan would come in handy for finding it.

Twelve ninja was a lot to send on a single mission but he was sure Naruto was there and from what Kakashi said, they would be facing about nine ninja. The village couldn't spare anymore but judging from what he did have, he had taken most of the highest ranking jonin away from the village. He had a bad feeling that something could happen to the village while they were gone but kept those feelings to himself.

At that moment he needed to focus on the mission and come up with strategies. Despite having Naruto's file, he really had no idea what the boy was capable of in battle. Few people in the village had ever seen Naruto fight before as most of his missions for the village didn't involve many battles or any witnesses.

x-x

Sitting behind a thick wall of hardened mud, Naruto prepared an initial test of the reactor. His clones had only just finished it and now he had to at least test the fusion reaction to see if it would work and if the reactor would be suitable to hold in the reaction and provide the necessary power for the ship. He would only be using a small test and just starting the fusion reaction and not supplying it with any additional fuel. Once the test was over, then he could calculate and determine if it would be sufficient.

If for some reason it didn't provide enough power to get the ship off the planet and enter hyperspace, then he would have to find something else to power the ship with but at that moment, neither he nor Plagueis had any other ideas. Either the reactor would work or they wouldn't be going.

His clones had moved the reactor into an additional room in the bunker, just in case something happen. That way he would minimize any possible damage to the ship should the reactor not function or...well...explode. Given the small reaction inside, less than 1% of what it could do, it likely wouldn't be a large explosion but it would do quite a bit of damage.

Should the test be successful then he would have to increase the fusion reaction to see if it held at higher outputs. If it succeeded then he would begin installing the reactor on-board the ship and then they would leave as soon as possible. The others were in the hangar bay and packing everything into scrolls to take on the ship. They would be taking a large amount of ninja supplies and other items with them but with the scrolls the supplies would barely take up any room on the ship.

While his clones attached all the proper components and measuring devices, he set up the laptop computer that would be taking power readings and providing him with real-time information from the reactor. He also had a kill-switch to stop the reaction at any point and prevent possible catastrophe.

When the clones were ready, Naruto moved behind his protective wall and signaled his clones to begin the reaction. As atoms of hydrogen were introduced into the reactor, they were pushed together so that the nuclei of both atoms or multiple atoms of hydrogen fused together resulting in the formation of helium as a byproduct. The reaction began and he monitored the status.

The power output began steadily increasing until it plateaued at his desired output level. At nearly 1% output of the reactor capacity, he examined the readings and kept the reaction going. The reactor itself was holding and no problems were occurring. Calculating from the output he was getting, he determined the maximum possible output from the reactor and let out a sigh of relief when he found it was just enough for the ship to operate.

With the reaction working steadily for several minutes, he decided to begin increasing it.

The levels on his monitor steadily rose until he he neared 35% of his maximum output. From his position, he could hear the reactor humming with power and looked up over his barricade. There was really nothing to see as the reactor was entirely enclosed but he imagined what it would look on the inside.

'Its going to work.' he said to himself and smirked. His clones quickly got ready to install the reactor back onto the ship while he looked through the data and double checked the numbers. It would be very close but they would have enough power to get off the planet and into hyperspace.

Once installation was complete, they would have to go through a pre-flight check to make sure all systems were working correctly and that there were no other problems. And when that was done, they could finally leave.

x-x

The boat arrived in the newly named Spring Country two days later. Jiraiya and the other Konoha ninja disembarked and walked down the docks and into the harbor area.

"Kakashi we should head to where you saw the battle." stated Jiraiya and Kakashi took the lead.

As the neared the warehouses of the harbor, the group heard a distinctive sound and Gai was hit in the leg by a fast moving red projectile.

x-x

"Karin." Juugo said and the redheaded girl replied, "I know, I can see them just fine. Get the speeder bike ready, I'll do what I can to slow them down."

Juugo ran off while Karin used the sight on the rifle and zoomed in. She couldn't identify many of the individuals she was looking at. Oddly there was even a guy in a kabuki outfit traveling with the group but she focused on what she did know. Tenten said her sensei was one of the strongest jonin in the village, so she targeted him first.

Adjusting for wind and the drop of the blaster bolt over the long distance, she fired a single shot into the green jonin's leg and made sure to miss the artery. She wasn't out to kill them but would still slow them as much as possible and try to eliminate at least a few of them.

A brief second passed from when her first shot hit and the group began taking cover. She fired multiple shots at the rest of the group but realized that she needed to keep moving. They would find a way to come after her at some point, so she shouldn't stay camped where she was. Running from her position with the rifle strapped to her back, she jumped on the back of the speeder bike and Juugo hit the throttle.

As the speeder bike took them both away, she got on the radio and began relaying all the information she could.

x-x

"Gai, are you okay?" asked Kakashi from behind a crate. He had no idea where the attack was coming from but knew that he had incredible difficulty seeing the attacks themselves and dodging was nearly impossible on the first shot as it had taken them completely by surprise.

Gai grimaced at his leg wound and responded, "Just fine my rival. Neji, where are the attacks coming from?" he asked his student while trying to ignore the pain and Neji activated his byakugan. His actions were quickly followed by Hinata as they looked for the attacker from behind their cover.

"I don't see anyone in the area that could be the attacker. There isn't a ninja near us from what I can see." he quickly responded.

Kurenai looked to her student and Hinata said, "I-I can see something. It has two p-people on it and they are traveling faster than I can keep up with them." Neji frowned at the information and didn't want to admit that Hinata's byakugan had a longer range than his did.

"Where are they heading?" asked Jiraiya. He didn't know what the girl was seeing that she couldn't describe to them but he wanted to know where they were going.

"Its heading along the coast." responded Hinata and as she tried to focus and keep up the object. It was heading away so fast that her eyes couldn't zoom in and focus on it fast enough to get a clear view of what it was they were riding on.

As the medical ninja tended to Gai and Yamato, who had been grazed in the shoulder, Jiraiya turned to Kakashi and asked, "Where are the ruins of the castle?"

"Further inland and not along the coast." responded Kakashi as he could see where the Toad Sannin's thoughts were headed. Likely the ambush was just a diversion to get them to go off in another direction and chase after the fleeing individuals.

Jiraiya looked to the two injured and frowned. Even with all his knowledge of jutsu, he had no idea what kind of ninjutsu was just used on them. 'What the hell gas Naruto got his hands on?' It seemed like some kind of long range fire jutsu or a fire enhanced projectile but whatever it was had burned right through the flesh on Gai's leg and come out the other side, then went straight through the wood of the docks.

He sat idly behind the crate he was hiding behind and wondered if they should continue. 'It would only get more dangerous from here and Naruto knows we're coming.' he realized, as they could even end up walking into another trap again.

Looking to the group he decided to keep moving but they would be slow and cautious, using the two Hyuuga as much as possible.

x-x

Naruto heard the news over his headset but focused on his tasks. The reactor was completely installed but they were having trouble starting the engines. The ship had been underwater for over a decade so he and his clones were looking for any problems. The rest of the ship seemed ready to take off and all the others systems were working.

It would take an hour for the Konoha group to get to the castle ruins from the harbor and even if they got to the ruins, he had created a few surprises in the bunker system for them. He made sure that the hangar bay was at one of the lowest levels so the ninja couldn't just use an earth jutsu and easily get to the ship. They would have to go through a labyrinth of tunnels that he had created in the past week. Even if they could see into it with the Hyuuga that Karin reported seeing, he hoped that the Sith runes and the illusions that was on the room would help.

He ordered Karin and Juugo to get back to the ship and would make clones when the Konoha ninja got closer. He wasn't going to leave the ship and wouldn't risk anyone else going off to fight. They would likely be left behind by Plagueis in order to protect the ship.

x-x

Cautiously, the Konoha group made their way through the pine forests and to the higher altitudes where the castle ruins were. The progress was slow as they would stop every hundred meters or so to take a look around and make sure no one else was laying in wait or setting a trap. As the plateau that the ruined castle was on came into view, tensions rose in the group.

Jiraiya had already identified and disabled several pieces of fuinjutsu that were meant to monitor a small area and alert the person that placed them if that area was disturbed. Team Eight and Neji were actively searching the surrounding area but not finding any traps or ambushes. So far they hadn't had to deal with any more problems and though Jiraiya had been positive that they would run into several other traps, they hadn't. This made him rather worried and he could tell the other members of the group were worried too.

They were down two ninja as Gai's leg wouldn't let him get to the site at the same pace that they could and though Yamato was with them, his injury prevented him from being a capable fighter. After tearful goodbyes between the two Green beasts, Kakashi had taken over as temporary captain of Team Nine.

Considering that there wasn't anyone lying in wait, Jiraiya considered that perhaps this was not the area they were really looking for. Kakashi suspected that the group might be using the newly destroyed castle ruins or perhaps had a base hidden under the surface.

There had to be a reason that led two members of Akatsuki right to that spot and a reason why Naruto's group attacked.

"I want both of you to begin looking under the surface for some type of underground room or perhaps levels of the castle that weren't destroyed." Jiraiya ordered and despite being tired from excessive use of their dojutsu, the two Hyuuga each went through the seals and activated their bloodline.

Looking beneath the surface of the plateau, the quickly found a system of tunnels. The tunnels went in a myriad of different directions but all seemed to keep converging and then branching out. 'It's like some kind of maze.' Neji noted and he quickly determined the beginning, which oddly enough came from an opening in the ruins. One tunnel branched out into three and then the maze began. Neji quickly reported what he was seeing and where the entrance was.

'But where does it end?' wondered Hinata when she heard something happening near her and looked away from the tunnels. A short distance in front of them, a figure was emerging from the ground. It seemed to literally come out of the rock but didn't disturb any part of the surface.

The genin noted that the cloaked figure was around their height, perhaps slightly shorter. The figure had a ninjato strapped to its back and the hood mostly covered the face.

"Naruto." Jiraiya stated but the figure did not move or acknowledge it's named being stated.

The group looked to the lone figure and the genin of the group couldn't figure out why they weren't attacking. Gai's team was ready to fight. Lee was anticipating a good fight, Neji wanted to defeat the cloaked figure and Tenten wanted the sword.

"You don't honestly think you can take on all of us, do you?" Kakashi asked as he prepared to pull up his forehead protector to reveal his sharingan.

"I have backup." the figure stated and twenty more cloaked figures began coming up from the ground.

'You just had to say something Kakashi, didn't you.' thought Kurenai with a frown and she went over the best strategy for fighting alongside her team.

x-x

"Have you found the problem yet?" asked Plagueis to his meditating student.

"No, I haven't and my clones on the surface have engaged the Konoha ninja." answered Naruto and Plagueis held back his frown. They were ready to leave but apparently the ship was still giving last minute problems. A ship without working engines was just a piece of scrap metal.

Power seemed to be going to the engines but they just weren't starting. The other members on-board the ship were all strapped in and waiting to leave. He could feel frustration and tension coming from everyone on the ship.

Plagueis would have ordered them to go out and fight but that wasn't something he could really afford. He knew Naruto didn't want any of the group to leave the ship because his student was well aware of the fact that he would leave them behind if the ship was started and they weren't aboard. They were definitely useful, but not as important as the ship and keeping it out of someone else's hands. However, leaving members behind when their journey was only just starting was not the ideal beginning to a group. Trust and loyalty were never something he had to worry about before he died but now it seemed to be very prominent in all his plans.

"Fine, just keep meditating and working from where you are. I'm going to go back and consult with the ships computer." Plagueis stated as he left the cockpit and journeyed to the engine room where the other clones were working.

x-x

Kakashi slammed his hands into the ground to complete his jutsu. A thick wall of mud sprang up in front of him and protected part of the group from a very large combination wind and water technique sent by the clones of Uzumaki Naruto.

Despite his walls strength, the technique began breaking through and he was forced to abandon his defensive position and jump out of the way of the penetrating attack. Putting distance between himself and the clones that were attacking him, he quickly glanced at the other ninja to see how they were doing. Kurenai and Jiraiya seemed to be faring the best against the clones. Genjutsu was indeed one of Naruto's weaknesses and Kurenai as well as Team Eight had already destroyed several clones. Her team was also fighting cohesively against the clones and managing to hold their own. Gai's team had broken up despite his orders and were each fighting a clone individually.

Jiraiya was facing six clones at once and having a difficult time as they weren't letting up their attacks both in ninjutsu and kenjutsu. The sannin had already killed at least two but was being pushed back by their teamwork.

Kakashi came back to his own fight when he heard a familiar sound. Loud chirping birds filled the air and he lunged out of the way as a clone charged him with his own lightning technique emanating from the hand of it's outstretched arm.

'How the hell?!' he questioned as he had only just taught Sasuke the jutsu a few months ago and no one else knew it. The clone turned and continued to attack Kakashi as he dodged with the aid of his sharingan.

x-x

Neji's frown deepened as the clone, or possibly original, continued to prolong the fight. He was unable to even graze the clone with his juuken and nearly lost his hand or even part of his arm to the sword. The clone just kept smiling at him from under the hood despite neither being able to get a hit on the other.

It was infuriating to him that a weaker version of the original was managing to hold him off. He had seen several of them die and erupt in smoke from a single hit, yet he couldn't get that single hit.

"You're only prolonging the inevitable." stated Neji but the clone's smile only widened which made him even more frustrated. Given the clone's chakra reserves, he would actually run out of chakra before the clone did.

Pulling back, he waited until the clone came at him and began building chakra, then pushed it out of his body and began spinning. "Kaiten."

The clone was caught in the initial chakra before the spinning began and dropping it's sword. However, it quickly went through a single handseal. Right as Neji began spinning, the clone's hands began glowing.

As Neji spun, he began feeling a chakra drain that was more than he knew it should have been. Despite his fast spinning, his eyes were able to pick up what was happening.

'He's draining my chakra.' he realized and began to stop his technique to prevent himself from losing all of his chakra. The kaiten was not able to destroy the clone as the techniques loss of stability due to the chakra being drained from it wasn't allowing it to have the desired affect against the clone.

Neji was in the process of stopping his spin when he felt his arm grabbed by the clone. He was about to retaliate when he felt an even larger drain on his chakra. His juuken strike was intercepted by the clone's other hand and the drain was doubled.

He tried to fight back but soon collapsed to his knees and then his corners of vision began going dark as his the rest of his vision blurred. As the last amount of his chakra was being drained, he felt the clone drop him. He was losing consciousness and only managed to see a flash green as he fell to the ground.

Rock Lee stopped in front of his downed partner and stared down his newest opponent. He had only just been able to defeat the clone he was fighting and turned to find Neji being defeated. That was not something he thought he would ever see.

"You're not bad. Do you only specialize in taijutsu?" asked the clone as it took one of the stances of Teras Kasi. It had only just received the memories of its fellow clone before dodging the attack by the new opponent.

"I cannot use ninjutsu or genjutsu." stated Rock Lee as he adopted the stance of his style of taijutsu. He wasn't sure why, but despite all the teamwork training that Gai-sensei had given them, Neji and Tenten had been extremely aggressive and had put aside teamwork to each engage the clones.

"I see." stated the clone and looked to the dropped sword but decided not to go for it. The green boy obviously wanted revenge over what happened to his sensei and he wanted a good fight. The original had fought many ninja before but not one that specialized in taijutsu.

Both teens charged forward began a new fight.

x-x

Tenten was blown back by the powerful wind jutsu and grit her teeth as memories of the chunin exam preliminaries flooded back to her. She quickly realized however, that she wasn't going to land on the plateau, but was headed right off the edge.

She wanted to scream but the wind jutsu had hit her hard and knocked all the air out of her lungs. As her body dropped and continued moving horizontally, she ran out of surface and was now beginning to fall to the valley below.

Her fall however was stopped when her entire body jolted to a stop. Looking around, she found white hair wrapped around her foot. The hair pulled her up, over the edge of the plateau, and deposited her back on the ground.

Looking up, she found Jiraiya fighting with three clones. Several other parts of his hair had lengthened and he was trying to capture the cloaked blondes.

Jiraiya didn't look at her but said, "Help your teammate and then go to Kurenai." he said as he dodged a sword that had visible chakra on its length. The Toad Sannin went through some handseals, slammed his hand into the ground, and summoned a fleshy pod around the clones and himself.

Tenten frowned but ran to help Lee. She could see that it was foolish of her and Neji to go after the clones on their own and they were just becoming liabilities. Her mood quickly changed when she saw a sword sticking out of the ground near where Lee was battling.

She knew it likely wasn't the real one but she would still get to wield it in battle, at least for a short period of time.

x-x

Everything had been going well for Team Eight, that is until the clones figured out Kurenai's genjutsu range. Every genjutsu user had an effective range at which they could 'latch on' to a person's chakra system and exploit their senses. Hers was roughly fifteen meters and now the clones were staying well away from her.

She had been able to take down quite a few before they figured it out. She would use genjutsu to temporarily paralyze the clones and Shino or Kiba would finish them off with their jutsu. Hinata was still using her byakugan to see all the threats at once as there were at least four clones facing off against them.

A few clones had already attempted to go through the ground to get at them, but Hinata had alerted them in time. Now they were at a standoff. From the distance the clones were standing at, they would need to use a high ranking ninjutsu to attack her team. She knew the boy could use ninjutsu like that though, and couldn't believe just how many chakra natures she had seen from the boy.

'Lightning, wind, water, and earth.' she recalled and wasn't sure what to expect next. She contemplated going on the offensive but the clones were smart and when she pressed forward, they would back off. The clones seemed more interested in wearing them out then moving in for a kill.

Despite the distance between them, her team was at a disadvantage. They lacked long distance jutsu. Only Shino and his insects could really reach Naruto without any risk but the boy's insects hadn't been faring well against the ninjutsu that the clones possessed.

The four clones backed off and regrouped as memories of Jiraiya, Kakashi, and the two genin finishing off the other clones flooded their minds. With the real Naruto focusing on the ship, only one of the clones had diminished Force powers. The rest were only using chakra. The four remaining clones stood at a distance from the tired group of Konoha ninja. Kakashi had only narrowly avoided injury and Tenten helped Lee finish off the clone he was fighting.

Neji was the only member of the group that was unconscious but the genin were getting tired and running low on chakra.

The lead clone had been the least active in the fighting and now waited for orders from the original. He could provide more time by having a conversation with his opponents but that also ran the risk of a sneak attack or perhaps himself getting angry. He knew the original didn't want to admit what information had been taken or learned from Jiraiya and talking about that information that could cause the clone or the original to lose control over their emotions and invite an opportunity for the Kyuubi to surface.

Only a few seconds went by as instructions were passed from the original to the four remaining clones.

Without any words being spoken or any signaling of any kind, one of the clones began quickly going through a few handseals. Slamming its hand into the ground, only Jiraiya wasn't caught by surprise when a swamp formed beneath the group and they began sinking.

Jiraiya put the required amount of chakra into his feet and managed to keep above the surface of the swamp. He went through several handseals at the same time that another one of the clones did.

Jiraiya's hair began extending into multiple strands that began wrapping around the trapped ninja as one of the clones finished its jutsu, "Fuuton: Shinku Renpa (wind release: vacuum serial waves)"

Multiple blades of wind were sent at the group of ninja as Jiraiya's hair pulled them out and moved them at different heights and positions to prevent them from harm. Only a few strands of his hair were cut by the sharp wind jutsu while the members of the group remained safe. Continuing the technique, Jiraiya began trying to move them out of the swampy area.

Frowning at the display, the Force using clone stood still while small eruptions of smoke came from two of the clones and the last clone began going through seals. He would attempt to use his fellow clone's discblades to try and get hits on the still trapped ninja while one of them used ninjutsu.

The group however was stopped as thick moving branches of wood came out of the ground beneath them. The Force clone managed to get away but the other three didn't. The clone looked toward the source of the jutus and found another Konoha ninja that had managed to stay outside his diminished sensory range.

Yamato grit his teeth as making the handseals necessary for the jutsu had aggravated his shoulder injury. He had stayed back during the fighting to act as an emergency backup just in case and it appeared that the group definitely needed it.

The clone again waited for further orders on the new development and then took out the vial that it had been given when it was first created by the original. Using a henge, the clone turned into Kabuto. Smearing the blood on its hands, it went through five handseals, then slammed its hands into the ground and said, "Kuchiyose no jutsu (summoning technique)" and a large area was covered with smoke. Using Kabuto's voice, the clone commanded the summonings to attack while it ran back to the entrance of the bunker.

Three larges snakes emerged from the smoke and began attacking the Konoha ninja.

x-x

"The Konoha ninja don't appear to be doing that well." commented the black half of the plant Akatsuki.

"I'm not sure what the jinchuuriki is up to. Attacking with clones and then retreating doesn't seem like a very good strategy." commented the white half.

Their mission was basically to monitor the jinchuuriki. They weren't to engage and hadn't actually been able to get near the containers base as the group possessed a very good sensor ninja and they were ordered not to be spotted by anyone.

Currently they were partially exposed from the side of a nearby mountain but had a good vantage point. Getting any closer to the underground area would put them in danger of being discovered by one of the Hyuuga or someone else in the fighting group below.

It was bad enough that they had to travel to the isolated island. Moving anywhere in the Elemental Countries was easy but they couldn't travel across water the way they could land, especially not salt water.

"Do you think they'll be able to capture it?" questioned the white half and its other half quickly responded, "If they don't we'll have to follow it wherever it goes."

x-x

"How's everything going?" inquired Kabuto to the cloaked figure sitting in a meditative position in one of the chairs of the cockpit.

"They're still on the surface and now fighting a few summonings. As for the ship, its still not working correctly." The cloaked Naruto stated as he kept his eyes closed and focused on his other tasks.

"How long do you we have until they are here?" the cloak wearing Kabuto inquired.

"I'm not sure. My clone will hold them off in the tunnels for as long as it can. Given that one Hyuuga is still conscious, it won't be long before at least part of their group finds us." he stated and kept his anger in check. The dojutsu the clan possessed was now proving to be more annoying than ever.

"And when that happens?"

"We don't take prisoners and can't leave them alive." answered Naruto and Kabuto just chuckled as he walked out of the cockpit and back down the ship's main hallway to the other members of the group.

If the ninja from Konoha made it to the ship before they left, then they would all have to fight. Naruto wanted to leave before it came to that but he recognized that it could still happen. He just hoped that his Sith runes were preventing the ship from being seen by the Hyuuga, or at least preventing it from being viewed clearly. He had put quite a few different sets of runes in the hangar bay. At least one of them should render the viewers unable to clearly make out what was in the room.

He calmly breathed in and checked on his clones and Master Plagueis's progress. It still seemed that something was wrong but no clear sign as to what.

Opening his eyes, he called Karin to him. His sensing range wasn't far enough to figure out where the intruders were and he needed her help to better plan out a defense strategy. It was still possible that at least one of the ninja would use an earth jutsu to move through the rock and he wanted to know if that was happening.

x-x

Jiraiya studied the entrance from afar and sent in one of his toads to check it out for him. He was still wary of traps and wanted to be absolutely sure before proceeding. The snakes hadn't been hard to defeat once he summoned one of his large toads.

Neji wouldn't be going with them and Yamato would be staying on the surface to look after the Hyuuga genin. Jiraiya looked to his right and found the other Hyuuga that was present in the group.

According to her information, they were about to walk into a large and complex labyrinth of tunnels that ultimately led down deeper into the ground and to what looked like a base. She described the rooms to him and he found the last one she described the most interesting.

Despite her dojutsu, Hinata had not been able to tell him what was in the lowest and largest room. She could only tell him that the room appeared to be 'blurred' in her vision. That had definitely caught his attention. He couldn't image what could be blurring the girls vision in that particular room but the fact that it was happening made it obvious that the large room was where they should be going.

The single tunnel split into three and then went into a maze of different tunnels that led both away and into each other. The result was several different ways that led to where he wanted to go, however she also told them about the long very wide escape tunnel that had been created for the large room. Ideally, Jiraiya would have wanted to send ninja to the other tunnel and prevent Naruto from escaping but it was on the other side of a nearby mountain and would take too long. The quickest course of action was to use the girl to quickly get through the maze but something told him it would be far from easy.

He understood that Naruto could just use the other tunnel and escape, while perhaps using explosives to collapse the tunnel system but something about that thought didn't sit right. Despite Akatsuki coming after him and Konoha ninja coming to the island, Naruto was still there. The fact that Naruto was stalling them, had created an elaborate tunnel system, hadn't left the island, and had gone to a great deal of trouble to hide something from a Hyuuga's dojutsu was not lost on him.

Something was down there that Naruto was after. He had no idea what it was but he did know it was something that the boy wanted to keep a secret and if they got there fast enough, he would find out what it was and capture Naruto in the process.

The toad quickly returned and told them that the entry way didn't have any traps. Jiraiya decided to keep the toad with him for the journey as he knew they might be needing him again.

x-x

"Tell me when they reach the split in the tunnel." Naruto asked of the nearby Karin. They were both sitting in two of the four chairs in the cockpit. He was concentrating on his clones while she concentrated on her sensing.

Once the Konoha ninja reached the split in the tunnels he would set his trap. The goal was to create enough confusion to split the group up and keep them from finding each other. Obviously the group with the Hyuuga would be the most well off but that group would have to decide whether to take the time to gather the others or to keep moving forward.

Either choice would give him and his group the advantage as they either got more time or few opponents to face.

"They're nearing the area." stated Karin and Naruto focused his thoughts on the explosive tags he had placed. He wasn't a novice when it came to traps and rather than setting or hiding the tags on the surface, he actually imbedded them into the rock. The goal was to prevent the tags from being heard when the armed and seen when intruders entered.

Strategically placing the tags in groups, he could set off one grouping at a time and herd the ninja to the split in the tunnels, hopefully forcing them in the confusing to split up.

"Now!" stated Karin and Naruto quickly put his hands into the handseal for activating the explosive notes.

x-x

Each member of the group noted the steady downward slope of the tunnel as they continued along its path. The tunnel was partially illuminated for them and the ones at the front of the group could see a room coming up ahead.

From what Hinata described it would have three tunnels that they could take. She found the quickest route to be the middle tunnel, along with a few twists and turns after that.

Once they entered the room, the jonin took note of the slightly different ceiling but didn't think anything of it. As they moved to the center tunnel, an explosion behind them shook the ground. Every member of the group turned and saw one explosion after another coming from the hallway they had just traveled down.

Jiraiya turned to make his way to the center tunnel in the hopes of outrunning the explosions when his instincts told him something else was wrong. A second later, pieces of the ceiling began breaking apart and fall down upon them. Two very long but narrow segments of ceiling began falling. The jonin only had a split second to react.

Kurenai grabbed two of her students which were the closest to her while Kakashi grabbed the two students he was looking after. The stones effectively separated the ninja into three groups with Hinata and Jiraiya in the middle.

No member of the group however had time to break through the walls and rejoin with the others as the explosions got closer and closer. Each ninja group ran to the tunnel they were herded into as the explosions destroyed the room they had just been in and sealed them into the tunnels.

'Damn it! I didn't even notice a trap.' thought Jiraiya as he looked behind to find that the explosions had stopped and debris covered the way they had just come from. He gave a quick glance at the Hyuuga girl to see if she was alright and then thought about what he should do.

He needed to get to the concealed room as soon as possible. It was evident that he would be putting the other ninja at risk and even himself in greater danger but he had to get there as fast as possible.

x-x

"Did they split up like I wanted?" asked Naruto and Karin responded that they had.

The Hyuuga was left with the largest chakra signature of the group, which Naruto knew to be Jiraiya. The pair were also moving fast and right at them. It wasn't exactly what he wanted but it split up the group. He had hoped it wouldn't be Jiraiya that he had to face but he did have advantages.

From reading the man's mind before the chunin exam finals, he knew what Jiraiya was capable of and what jutsu the Toad Sannin used the most frequently. It was only a matter of time before the duo reached the hangar bay, even with his clone still in the maze.

"Tell me when they get near our location." ordered Naruto and Karin acknowledged as she monitored the ninja moving above them.

x-x

Jiraiya ended up carrying Hinata under his arm as they raced through the underground system. They encountered quite a few traps but they either managed to evade them with the Byakugan or Jiraiya quickly blasted through them. Steadily they made their way deeper underground and towards their final objective.

They had a run in with the remaining clone but Jiraiya was able to defeat it without much difficulty. The closer they got to the end of the tunnels, the clearer the image of the room became to Hinata. She couldn't identify what she was seeing but could see several chakra signatures and it was enough that she could identify several of them as Naruto's. The signatures were all in close proximity and didn't seem to be going anywhere.

'Just a little farther.' Jiraiya thought as he would finally be able to make up for his mistakes in the past and bring Naruto back to the village to prevent Akatsuki from getting their hands on him.

x-x

'I have no fucking clue what is wrong with the damn engines.' Naruto admitted to himself.

His clones had been over the engines multiple times from inside and outside the ship. There was nothing wrong. For some reason his controls in the cockpit just weren't registering any power going to the engines or the engines as even being operational. The engines were 'on' but he just couldn't do anything because the controls were all in the cockpit. He couldn't pilot the ship from the engine room.

The clones had checked the cockpit as well but found nothing wrong there either. Karin had also just informed him that the pair of Jiraiya and the Hyuuga girl was nearly upon them.

He knew how strong Jiraiya was. The man could probably fight both Itachi and Kisame at the same time, and possibly win. Even with everyone he had, Jiraiya would still have reinforcements eventually arriving. The ship could also get damaged in the fight.

'Not that it really matters.' he thought derisively as the ship was basically worthless to them at that point. Breaking his meditation, he stood from his chair and began checking his gear.

It was at that moment that Suigetsu walked in. Naruto could feel the Kiri ninja coming in to ask a varied version of 'Are we taking off yet.' which he had already heard many times from the very vocal Tayuya.

"So...what's taking so long?" questioned Suigetsu and Naruto rolled his eyes.

"As you can see on the instrumentation behind you, nothing is lighting up because the engines aren't working properly...or something is wrong. I haven't been able to find the problem and it looks like..." however Naruto was cut off as Suigetsu's attention moved to the panel and the white haired teen smacked it with his fist.

The lights and instrumentation immediately came on, followed by the sounds of the engines and other associated systems completing their warm up period.

'You've got to be fucking kidding me!? All I had to do was punch the damn thing.' Naruto thought as he looked confoundedly to the instrumentation in the pilots seats and found the ship now working perfectly.

"I guess it just needed 'The Old Kiri Touch'." Suigetsu commented on his success and strapped into one of the four chairs.

'They really are a violent village," Karin inwardly commented before she realized that the two ninja she was focusing on had just arrived.

Naruto jumped in the pilots seat and began flicking switches to get the ship out of there as fast as possible. The landing struts came up and as the repulsor-lifts activated and the ship idled forward until Naruto began adding power to the engines.

Looking out the cockpit window, he said with a smirk to the others in the seats with him, "Everyone wave 'Bye' to the Sannin."

x-x

Jiraiya and Hinata made it to the large room and stood silently as they stared at the object before them. It was made entirely of metal, or what they thought was metal and took up most of the space in the room.

'What the hell is that?' Jiraiya wondered as he looked over the device.

Suddenly it began making noise and then four long ski-like pieces began moving from the floor and fit inside the vehicle perfectly, leaving little evidence of them every sticking out.

"Its floating in the air." he noted out loud and the two watched as it began moving away and towards the tunnel.

Jiraiya came out of his stupor and saw three people in the 'front windows' the object. He instantly recognized one as Naruto and the other as the Grass ninja Karin but couldn't identify the third. They were all waving at him.

The slow forward movement of the vehicle ended as it began accelerating forward. Jiraiya stared at the three large glowing lights that were at the end of the vehicle and finally realized it was leaving. Grabbing Hinata, he raced to the large tunnel and after the escaping jinchuuriki.

Running after it, he was soon left behind as it's speed only kept increasing. Hinata examined every part of the vehicle with her dojutsu as she was hefted under one of Jiraiya's arms and carried with the man. It was so complex and full of different things that she couldn't identify. She could tell it was meant to be lived in from the rooms she could see but other than that, she had no idea what it was. Her eyes never left it, even as it got farther and farther down the tunnel.

x-x

Naruto kept the ship steady as it moved down the corridor and to the exit. He had created the long tunnel so that the ship could take off as unseen as possible. The tunnel exited in a valley and he could fly to the ocean without being seen by any of the inhabitants of the island.

He checked through all the systems as he felt Master Plagueis come to the front of the ship.

The body of Gato entered the cockpit and sat down in the other pilot's seat. 'You found out what was wrong?' Plagueis asked through a telepathic link to Naruto.

'No, not exactly.' he responded and Plagueis could glean some of the details from his students embarrassed mind. Only the slight semblance of a frown was the response to the new information. He knew sometimes ships were just temperamental like that, especially ones that were heavily modified and repaired by the owner.

The ship exited the tunnel and cruised through the valley and then over the ocean. They would travel a minute or so away from the country before climbing vertically and leaving the atmosphere of the planet. Eventually they were far enough away to avoid being seen and Naruto began the ships ascent.

The others on-board soon crowded the cockpit as they passed through the clouds and climbed higher in the planet's atmosphere. They watched as the atmosphere became thinner and thinner until it faded into an endless landscape dotted with more small lights from stars and planets than they could count and had ever seen from the surface.

No words were exchanged as every person but Plagueis viewed space for the first time. They had been told all about it but seeing it was very different. The ship traveled a short distance from the planet and achieved orbit before Naruto began altering course. They would take the exact same path the ship had taken to get to their planet and began their journey back to the Known Galaxy at the exact point the ship exited hyperspace in the system. It would take a short time before they reached that part of their solar system so they would get to see a few more sights.

As the ship turned, part of the planet they used to live on came into view. Everyone was starring at it until Naruto glanced over at the moon and felt something coming from it. He had never felt such a dark presence before but it seemed to be radiating from the small moon. He looked over at Plagueis who also was not sure why the moon felt as it did and then altered course to take them away from the oddity that orbited the planet.

If he was honest with himself, the moon scared him and yet he also felt drawn to it. While he was curious about it, he was also smart enough to know that he should stay away from it and never venture there.

x-x

Jiraiya made it to the end of the tunnel and Hinata had just managed to make out the flying machine in the distance. She told him it just kept climbing in the air until she couldn't see it anymore and although she strained her eyes to get any last glimpses, it was just too far.

The pair starred at the sky as neither could really believe or completely fathom what they had just seen. One thing however was certain. Once they got back to the village, they would be having a long debriefing with the Hokage.

This part of the mission certainly wasn't going on any report.

'Tsunade-hime's going to chew me out for failing and I'm not even sure if she will believe me about this part of the story. At least I have a witness.' Jiraiya thought and put his hand on the young girls shoulder to let her know that they should get going.

He had no idea where Naruto was going. He just didn't have the information to put theories together or say anything for certain. Speculations were the best that he could come up with and even then, they seemed rather impossible and outlandish.

x-x

The ship continued on as they traveled to the edge of the solar system to enter hyperspace exactly where the ship had left hyperspace nearly a decade previously. Plagueis had already put the coordinates into the navigational computer after removing the lockout that had been engaged at some point before the ship crashed.

All that was left was to reach the designated spot and then make the preparations for the jump.

Shivers had been going down Naruto's spine since the ship started up and began moving in the hangar bay. The feeling still hadn't stopped. Most would have seen an empty vacuum but that was not what he saw. The controls at his finger tips could take him anywhere he wanted, though he knew he had to go to a specific planet given the available navigational data, but in theory they could take him anywhere.

Just that knowledge made a burden seem to lift off his shoulders. He saw a freedom in the empty vacuum that few others saw. The ship didn't seem like a confined space but more of an unmarked slate that he could write on. No one in the galaxy had any idea what a jinchuuriki was, or knew who the hell Uzumaki Naruto was, nor would they even give a damn.

If he received looks of contempt, they would be because he actually did something malicious to deserve those looks, not simply because he existed. Searching his feelings he found for the first time, in a long time, that he was actually happy, possibly even giddy with excitement which hadn't happened in years. Until that moment he wasn't actually sure he could still experience such strong positive emotions.

In just a weeks time he would travel out of the unknown and into the known. Leaving where he felt he didn't belong, to where he felt he did.

Please Review

AN: I guess some people might be mad that I didn't kill off the Konoha ninja but I do have something planned for later on which would have been more difficult if I did. Naruto will likely return to his home planet at least once but he won't be staying there very long.

It is also important to remember that not all of Naruto's clones can use the Force. So out of 20 clones, only one had force power, the rest were just regular shadow clone. He has to focus specially on those and can really only use one at a time at this point. In the future perhaps he can use more clones with Force powers.

Responses to reviewers

Reviewers: axellon2008fan, Altair, fanfic-addict, newboy, Guglu Muglu, Peter Kim, joe, Chooser, nerdyfresh,

Response: Thank you very much for the comments, reviews, and in some cases continued support.

Reviewer: Cuco

Wow. What an awesome chapter. As always! I was wondering if, on your next chap, you could address the possibility of naruto making more "demon brothers" servants... PLZ :)

Response: Thank you for the review and comments. Unfortunately, Naruto can't really make more smoke demons like the he did with the demon brothers. Because of their chakra, the process was different than what it should have been. Normal smoke demons don't talk and are more like an animal than a person. Naruto could make more smoke demons but they wouldn't be like the demon brothers. That might happen later on, its something that I would have to think about.

Reviewer: concerned

Wow you gave kisame a new ability to absorb chakra? I thought that was the swords ability.

Response: I'm not sure where you get your information but Kisame always had the ability to absorb chakra. Perhaps your not completely up to date with the manga but he can absorb chakra very easily and can even take chakra from samehada. I don't know if he can absorb bijuu chakra like samehada can though.

Reviewr: 25

if kabuto doesn't get killed im going to be very cross with you. anyway, you've made naruto the weakest sith ever. in naruto verse having a bloodline gives you a good advantage over normal ninjas so the force should be more powerful than what your making it out to be. naruto still gets pawned easily.

Response: I let Kabuto live just to make you angry :). He's 12.5 years old. No matter if you have a bloodline or the Force or not, if your 12.5 years old your not going to be uber powerful. This isn't a super powerful or god-like Naruto story. If your really after that then you should read someone elses story. I made this story specifically so it wouldn't be like that.

Reviewer: Downer

Didn't like the fight with Karin. Just seemed like "Hey im going to make her Naruto's love interest so i'm going power her up to match Naruto". I can see her having an advantage with her Genjutsu for a short while but once Naruto closed the gap and got a hold of her he should've won hands down yet you made it a double KO basically. Love the story, hate that fight with a passion, like how Palestine and Israel hate each other.

Glad they'll be getting off the planet next chapter. The whole Akatsuki and Konoha thing is just getting boring. I want to read something new and unique. We've seen Naruto leaving Konoha then being soft on Konoha nin even though he's been characterized as a badass killer in said story that hates Konoha (99% of the time he doesn't kill Konoha nin when they should and deserve to die). I have a feeling that's what this story would end up doing if he stayed. Same with Akatsuki... every story has Akatsuki chasing Naruto and while I know it's a main part of Naruto it gets old. Hoping you give us readers something new.

Response: Naruto fought Tayuya, not Karin and he wasn't out to dominate her in the match. He wanted her to show her abilities and gave her the opportunity. If he had just defeated her as fast as possible then he would have had to kill her after the match. I don't really remember characterizing Naruto as a 'badass killer' in this story. The ninja that came after him were also people that he knew. Most individuals that he killed he did not spend time in the academy with.

Reviewer: vizard

why does kabuto still want to kill naruto? isn't he a snake and isn't naruto helping kabuto full fill his life long dream?

Reasponse: In the manga it seemed that it took a little while for Kabuto to get over Orochimaru's death. Even so, he was still fixated on doing something to sasuke, perhaps in retribution. Kabuto didn't realize what Naruto was going to offer him so he made a mistake and called Akatsuki before he learned what Naruto's plan really was. Eventually he will get over Orochimaru's death and he already realizes how incredible the opportunity that Naruto is offering.


	19. Chapter 19

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

**AN: Several reviewers have asked that I should think about ending this story arc and making a new story because of how I ended the last chapter and the fact that so many changes are happening. While I did think about the idea, I don't want people to have problems finding my story. I don't want anyone getting confused or discouraged as new readers will have to search for the first story. Therefore I will stick with one story just so that I don't have to worry about new or current readers having any problems. Also I'm kinda selfish and really wanted one of my stories to get past 1000 reviews, which was a goal I set for myself when I started writing.**

**Time-line info: I've had several questions about the time-line in reviews so I just want to say that with the current year being 36 BBY, that the first star wars movie (phantom menace) won't begin for four years (32 BBY). Naruto is 12.5 years old, Padme is 10 years old, and Anakin is 6 years old at this point. Padme is also not queen yet and becomes queen in 33 BBY, so three years from this point.**

**In terms of Konoha and the group's home planet, they may be coming back once during or before the shippuden time-line near when canon Naruto would return from his training trip with Jiraiya. One of the reasons that I chose the members of the group was due to the fact that none of them have any ties or even family left on their planet so there is no reason that they would want to periodically return. However, they will return at least once for an unknown amount of time and I haven't decided what role they would play when they return or if they will take part in the events of the fourth shinobi war. **

**Sorry for making all of you wait but the chapter is 44 pages, my longest ever, so enjoy!**

x-x

**36.4 BBY – Current Year **

Chapter XIX: To Sarafur we must go

x-x

Sitting in the pilots seat, twin blue orbs stared into the blue hyperspace corridor as the ship moved through the alternate dimension towards its destination.

Plagueis had told him not to look at it but he hadn't listened. Just the thought that they would be arriving at an Outer-Rim planet the following day was making him anxious and he hadn't been able to sleep. Staring at the blue moving shapes was calming and even if Plagueis told him prolonged staring at the corridor could cause hyper-rapture, which was a form a madness, he didn't really care.

He's been staring at it for hours at a time during the course of their trip, so he felt he was probably safe from it.

Their journey from the Ibonihs System, which was what someone in the group began naming the solar system that had their home planet, would take approximately seven days and they had already been traveling for over six.

Ibonihs was also now the name of their planet and was basically 'shinobi' spelled backwards. He couldn't remember who came up with it but the name had caught on with the ninja on-board. Plagueis stated that he didn't really care and so it became official.

During their travel time, Naruto had spent most of it learning the basics of instinctive astrogation from Plagueis. It was a Force technique that allowed a force user to determine a fast and safe route through hyperspace without the need of a navigational computer, astromech droid, or up-to-date star charts. Though it was just an introduction and the basics of the technique, Plagueis commented that he seemed to have a knack for it.

He had also gotten a chance to look over the chakra armor devices which he had been aware of but hadn't had any time to look at while in Snow Country. He spent nearly a whole day examining the device, its design, and making plans for what he could do with it.

Ideally, what he wanted was to modify it to protect those of his group. Absorbing ninjutsu was not something that they need but blaster fire and other projectile weapons were one of the most serious concerns for them in the galaxy. They may be much stronger, faster, and more powerful than most other beings in the galaxy but that didn't mean that a simple weapon couldn't kill them just like it could everyone else. The attack could even come from a distance or be the result of shrapnel.

His chosen style of lightsaber combat, Form IV: Nimen, also wasn't well suited for deflecting or protecting himself from blaster bolts. His ninjato could deflect them, he was sure of that, but learning to use it to deflect incoming blaster bolts was something he needed to work on when he got a chance. It would also be nice to have a shielding device that could protect him if an attack got through.

So far, most of the group had adjusted to space travel and being stuck in a confined space. The only person that was very uncomfortable with it was Karin and it wasn't because of the ship or claustrophobia.

Given her incredible chakra sensing abilities, the redhead was having difficulty coping. Even if she wasn't actively sensing around her, he could tell that the loss of surroundings had greatly affected her. Going from an area where chakra was all around her, to basically a empty void with only a few chakra signatures near her was not easy.

The entire trip she had been not sleeping, quickly angered and generally irritable. He actually ended up having the medical droid sedate Karin so she could get some uninterrupted sleep and to calm her down. A loopy Karin was much preferred to an angry Karin. Luckily most of Karin's frustrations had been taken out on Suigetsu, whom she couldn't actually hurt physically.

Several days in to their journey, Karin had stormed into his room and demanded he teach her lightning jutsu so that she could hurt Suigetsu.

He agreed, though her frustration only increased upon not being able to grasp lightning jutsu as fast as she wanted to. Her primary element turned out to be earth and therefore she would have some difficult learning the lightning element, similar to how he had difficulty learning the fire element.

The only other person that seemed to be affected was Tayuya. It wasn't hard to notice her glaring at him, all the time, but that wasn't necessarily a new development.

Picking up his nearby datapad, he looked over the information that they had on the planet they were traveling to. In just a little while he would be giving a small debriefing on the planet and their objectives while there.

x-x

"_What do you mean he's gone_?!" questioned Tsunade in a deadly voice as she looked at the only other person in the room. The team she sent on the very first mission she assigned as Hokage had just returned with news of failure and she wanted answers from her former teammate.

"Tsunade-hime, it really wasn't my fault." Jiraiya said in a placating manner and whimpered under the glare she gave him. He then dodged the pen she threw at him, which deeply imbedded into the wall behind him.

"I took this stupid job because you had to find the runaway jinchuuriki and now you're telling me that there is no way to actually get him back?"

"He flew away on a flying machine." Jiraiya explained with exasperation.

"So? Go after him, he can't have gotten that far." the Hokage countered. They had encountered flying devices before during battles with ninja from Sky Country so it wasn't a huge shock that the boy had gotten his hands on a flying machine.

Jiraiya sighed and thought for a moment about the best possible description of what happened that he could give her, "He didn't just fly away. He flew straight up, vertically, and the machine didn't show any signs of slowing down. In fact, from what Hinata-san tells me, the flying machine actually sped up to incredible speeds that I've never seen before. It didn't resemble anything I remember seeing from Sky Country. I also didn't feel any chakra coming off it and she didn't see any chakra coming from the devices that were keeping it aloft."

Tsunade's anger waned slightly as she thought about the information. They had both fought with Sky Country ninja and knew how powerful flying machines and the technology from that country was. It was the main reason why Konoha had gone so far to wipe out the technology and the ninja that used it in that hidden village. Now Jiraiya was telling her about something different and more advanced that the jinchuuriki had gotten his hands on and she still needed clarification on something.

"What do you mean it flew straight up? It didn't just gain some altitude and then continue on its way?" she questioned.

"Hinata-san said it just kept going straight up with no sign of stopping."Jiraiya reiterated for the Hokage.

"Where the hell would he be be going?" she asked.

"...I just don't know." was the reply of the Toad Sannin.

"What about the scientists, did you get anything from them?" inquired the Hokage as she continued to search for answers.

"That really isn't something we should press Spring Country for." responded Jiraiya as he tried to dodge the question.

"Why not?" Tsunade asked irritably.

"Well...in destroying the castle that Doto used, the scientists may not have gotten out of the castle in time and whatever they were working on was destroyed.

"How bad." she asked, almost not wanting an answer.

"A good portion are dead or missing and whatever they were working on is trashed. The ones that are alive are less than happy to see and won't say a word."

"How did that happen?" Tsunade demanded.

"I'm told it was a big explosion."

"Shizune!" yelled the Hokage as she requested the presence of her assistant.

"Hai, Tsunade-sama." responded Shizuen as she partially opened the door and poked her head in.

"Tell Hatake Kakashi that he's on gate duty for the next two weeks." commanded the Godaime and Shizune acknowledged the order as she went to find a messenger.

"What about that huge hideout I read about in the report? Was anything there or left behind?" asked Tsunade.

"Nothing. Whatever was there had been completely cleared out. No scrolls, no weapons, and nothing left behind to tell me anything about where they might be going. He covered his tracks well."

"Don't compliment him you idiot! This is all your fault!" she accused and downed the sake in her saucer.

Jiraiya sighed and didn't respond or contest her accusation. He got up and left through the door, which she knew was rather odd for him as he usually left through the window. Seeing the face of her former teammate as he turned and left, Tsunade regretted her words.

'Maybe were both just screw ups.' she thought and poured herself another drink.

x-x

A flytrap-like creature emerged from the ground and opened the plant part to reveal a split dual colored body. Both eyes looked to the person standing nearby and looking over the main city in Ame.

"Did the Konoha ninja capture the Kyuubi jinchuuriki?" questioned Pein without looking at the newcomer in the room.

"I'm afraid not." answered a hesitant white half.

Pein's head turned and he glanced at Zetsu but then turned back to the view of the city. "And the containers current whereabouts?"

"Unknown." stated the black half and Pein's head turned much faster than before to glare at the Akatsuki member with his dojutsu.

"You lost him?" Pein questioned and both halves could feel the anger in their leader's voice.

"Not exactly..." began the white half and the black half continued the sentence, "He managed to escape in some kind of flying machine before we could implement any means to track him."

"The jinchuuriki never left the area where the device was kept and we couldn't sneak in or get close to it without being spotted." explained the white half.

"Which direction did the container head in? Back to the Elemental Countries?" questioned the leader of Akatsuki.

"No..." said the white half and Pein's glare prompted the darker half to fill in the details, "He headed straight out to sea with his group and not towards any landmasses. He was outside of our range in seconds."

"He was moving too fast across the water for us to get a good look at the device." added the white half in it's defense and the darker half also chimed in, "By the time we got to the coast, he was already miles away from the island and we couldn't even see the machine he was flying in."

"So we have no idea where it might be going." stated Pein and Zetsu only nodded.

"This will make things difficult when the time comes to capture them all. We only found him because of Sasori's spy. Is the spy still alive?" questioned Pein and Zetsu nodded again.

Pein thought about the situation but did not voice any of his thoughts. It didn't make sense that Sasori's spy would have called them into an ambush but that was what Itachi and Kisame reported. 'Why give up a hidden position when they didn't even know the container was in Snow Country?' he wondered and thought that perhaps the spy was still on their side.

In any case, they would now have to put more resources into finding the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. The transportation was a poor choice by the jinchuuriki's part, as a flying machine was very rare and it would likely be spotted and talked about. Word would eventually reach them and they would find out where the jinchuuriki fled to.

With no further conversation on the part of their leader, both halves took the silence as their cue to exit.

x-x

Naruto walked to the rounded table and sat down in his seat. Plagueis was already seated and the rest of the group sat around him. Dimming the lights, he activated the holoprojector an the center of the table and brought up the file on the planet that they were headed for.

"In less than two hours we will be arriving at the first planet on the fringes of the Outer-Rim in the Known Galaxy. This planet is referred to on star charts as Kuna's Tail III of the Kuna's Tail system. For those that travel or live on the planet, it is known by another name, Sarafur.

The planet experiences a phenomenon known as tidal locking. This means that the planet no longer rotates around its axis. Half of the planet is therefore always in direct sunlight and scorched by the sun while the other half is always in the dark and practically frozen. Both halves are essentially wastes but there is a vertical belt between the halves where the conditions are habitable.

It is along this belt where the planet's estimated 150,000 inhabitants live clustered around three makeshift spaceports. The inhabitants that don't live on the planet are smugglers, gunrunners, thieves, pirates, and other unscrupulous individuals so we shouldn't have a problem fitting in." Naruto finished as the group looked at the holographic planet and listened to his speech.

"What exactly are our goals on Sarafur." Kabuto chimed in and Naruto answered, "The ship needs to be replaced. It would be extremely dangerous to keep using it as my hull repairs were only temporary. Since we don't have the money to buy a new ship, we can sell this one at a junkyard and then steal a ship.

Because the planet is frequented by so many unsavory groups, we also might be able to add to our cargo. We currently have several cases of smuggled weapons and the more we acquire, the more money we can get later. We should also think about finding out as much information as possible about the planet without drawing much attention to ourselves." Naruto added.

"I get it..." stated Suigetsu, "So we should bust a few heads and cut off a few legs."

"I believe he was referring to more subtle means of information gathering, which I would be happy to take care of." offered Kabuto. Given so many years of being a spy, the white haired sithspawn was well versed in information gathering.

"Yes, you will initially be going with Master Plagueis to gather information. The rest of us will be keeping a low profile until we learn more. Individuals our age in the galaxy aren't considered adults so a bunch of kids walking around on such a planet would draw a lot of attention. Any other questions?" he asked and looked around the table while turning off the holoprojector and turning back on the lights.

"What types of weird species will we encounter?" asked Tayuya as she sat with her arms crossed and looking directly at Naruto.

Naruto deferred to Plagueis as he actually wasn't sure what species they would encounter given that detailed knowledge of the planet was unknown to him, "Humans would likely be the majority of the inhabitants, followed by Nikto, Vashans, and perhaps species like Duros, Twi'leks, and Sullustans in addition to others." Plagueis surmised. Having also never been to Sarafur, he could only guess at some of the species that they might see.

A brief moment elapsed and their were no more questions. With the meeting over, the group dispersed without another word as they each went to prepare.

x-x

Plagueis guided the ship into one of the open circular hangar bays at one of the three space ports on the planet. He had chosen the space port based upon what the Force was telling him.

Once the ship came to a landing he and Kabuto made their way to the ships landing ramp. The plan was for both of them to venture out with one of the demon brothers and carry out some needed business. He wanted Naruto to keep an eye on the ship until arrangements could be made. Seeing different species for the first time could be a very shocking experience and the last thing he wanted was for some of the group to gawk at every nonhuman they passed.

In some of the seediest locations in the galaxy, all one had to do was look at or stare at a person the wrong way for a fight to start or for blasters to be drawn. It was best to let the group stay at the landing port with the ship and get a glance at different species from afar before getting a closer look.

They would first head to a local junkyard in order to sell their ship. Likely he wouldn't be able to get any credits as Sarafur was so far away from the Republic that credits weren't used as normal currency or accepted. He hoped to instead get nova crystals as they were widely accepted in most places around the entire galaxy.

Given that they ship was used, damaged, and had a makeshift power source, he knew he wouldn't be able to get much for it. Bought new, the ship was likely around 75,000 credits but their ship would only be worth a fraction of that amount. He'd be lucky to get 10,000 but with a little persuasion, he felt he could get that price or more. He could ask for and get an unreasonable price but he didn't want to draw any attention to them. There was no telling how long they would be on the planet. Being cautious was what preserved him thus far and he wasn't about to risk anything. There would be plenty of opportunities to gather wealth later on.

The cargo they had would be worth far more than that amount of credits. Each weapon was nearly worth a thousand credits and they had several crates of rifles and pistols. The only problem was that Sarafur was merely a stopping point. Weapons weren't commonly sold there and it would be more dangerous to try and unload their cargo than to keep it safe and wait to sell it later.

Walking down the landing ramp, the group of three were greeted by several well-armed individuals. The port was probably owned by some thug or criminal and they would have to pay an exorbitant tax to land there, even if it was only for a short period. However, landing outside the spaceport might only put them at a higher risk of their ship being stolen, in addition to other possibilities.

Reaching the bottom of the ramp, they were partially surrounded by four individuals. All four were human and trying to look as intimidating as possible. Searching their minds, he found out what would be in store for them later and informed Naruto through their link.

"This is our port and you're going to have to pay to keep your ship here. There's a charge for staying and a protection fee. We also can't guarantee that your ship will be safe." stated one of the group in Galactic Basic and the others all chuckled.

"That will be fine, however, we've already paid for the day. You should go bother someone else." Plagueis stated while waving Gatou's hand. The eyes of the four humans became unfocused for a second and the leader responded, "You've already paid for the day, we'll go bother someone else." With that, the four left.

"That's quite a useful trick." commented Kabuto as it was the first time he had seen such a technique from the short man.

"Only on the weak-minded." explained Plagueis and with that they headed out.

x-x

On the ship, Naruto began deleting the ships logs and navigational data. Earlier he had copied all the ships navigational charts onto a datacard. There was now only a single copy of the information on their home planet and it was inside a storage seal on his arm.

Plagueis had informed him that they would likely be visited by guests and that he should make sure that the ship cannot be traced to its previous destination. Deleting all the other records would prevent anyone from being able to figure out anything about them and what they might be carrying.

A common trick at some spaceports was to slice (hack) into the ships to find out where they were traveling from, how many were aboard, and what the cargo was. Based upon that information, someone may decide to try and board the ship in order to capture it or steal the cargo. Even if the ship was somehow sliced from outside, Plagueis wanted to make sure that nothing would be found.

The only thing that they couldn't change was the ships transponder code which was a signal hidden in the sub-light engines used to identify and provide information on a ship. From previous logs, they knew the ship had been to the planet before but given how long the ship had been lost for, it was unlikely that anyone from the planet would recognize it.

x-x

Walking down the streets of the space port was quite an experience for Kabuto and Gozu. There were numerous small merchants that lined the streets selling things they had never heard of nor ever seen and they already passed by several non-humans that were quite unique. Plagueis had just sold the ship and they were to deliver it that afternoon to a large junkyard that was on the edge of town. The short man was correct about the price and made sure to make special arrangements with the junkyard owner so that they could keep the ship in the yard but still live in it for as long as they needed.

They were now apparently heading to one of the local cantina which were apparently a bar that also featured gambling, music, and other sordid affairs. However, Kabuto's attention was more focused on the things that he passed by and not looking for said cantina.

So far he had seen at least five species that were each very distinctive. He made mental notes about them but wished he had a datapad device that he's seen Naruto using to write down his observations. Even more so, he wished that he could lure a few into back alleys and add their bodies to his corpse scroll so he could examine them later in detail. Learning from a medical droid just wasn't the same as learning from an actual body that he could dissect.

Gozu was also interested in the species but not nearly as much as the snake-like ninja. His interest was mainly on the few female species he had passed and seeing how much they were different from human females.

Plagueis and the others came to a stop at a building that was easily identified it as a cantina from the writing on the outside. The doors were open but hardly looked inviting. Plagueis led the group inside where they passed through several sensing device, though the others didn't notice this fact. Music was playing as they entered and a variety of smells filled the air. On one side was a band playing as well as several tables with seats containing drunken occupants. The other side of the room had many unique tables where it appeared games of chance were being played. Right in the middle was the bar area.

Their group garnered some attention while they walked up to the bar. The cloaked Kabuto was of more interest to some, while Gozu was certainly the most physically intimidating. Getting the attention of the barkeeper, Plagueis ordered three drinks while the others looked around. The music wasn't loud enough to prevent a conversation from being heard so Plagueis used a simple Force technique to prevent those nearby from hearing him talk with Kabuto and Gozu.

"Take a good look around." asked Plagueis and the other two complied while he didn't take his eyes off his drink.

Kabuto's eyes automatically searched for possible sources of information among the members of the group. He believed he saw several illicit deals or negotiations going on and a couple of individuals who might provide information for the right price.

Gozu looked around and saw a bunch of drunks in a bar and people gambling. He was confident he could take every one of them.

"Those exact thoughts are why I brought each of you. Your role, Kabuto.." Plagueis said while secretly slipping the ninja a portion of the crystals from the sale of the ship, "...is to find out as much as you can about the area and who runs this space port. Gozu, you will be my backup. No doubt I will have a few people coming after me when we leave."

"And what will you be doing?" Gozu questioned while examining the strange drink before him. He didn't like the idea of sitting around and waiting.

"I'm going to be trying my luck at cards, and try not to stare at your drink so much, just drink it. It's quite generic and not enough to really get you drunk. The taste shouldn't be too bad."

Gozu frowned but downed the drink and found it wasn't bad. Plagueis tried his own drink and also found the drink unsavory but quickly realized that it was because he was in a human body. To a Muun, the drink he ordered would have tasted quite different.

"Do you plan to increase our money?" questioned Kabuto as he nursed his drink and thought the idea of Plagueis playing cards must have an underlying reason besides the money that was on the table.

"All I have to do is find a good table with gunrunners and I can figure out where their crews typically stash caches while on the planet. Leaving weapons aboard a ship is an invite for trouble and so many gunrunners have boltholes to hide their weapons in. It won't take long to gather that information and then I can send out Naruto with the others to secure the weapons and increase our cargo. We might even get a ship out of it." explained Plagueis as he scanned the Sabacc tables and sensed for possible marks.

"If you don't mind me asking, why didn't you just send Naruto to come here. I've seen his luck firsthand and I don't think he would have any problem working the tables?" Kabuto questioned as he decided upon who he might try to barter information with.

"He's only twelve and while the fact that he was a ninja made him an adult in the eyes of the people of Ibonihs, he would only be considered a child here. They wouldn't take him seriously. Maybe a few of the players would allow it just to take some of his money but they would kick him out of the cantina if he started winning. That is why I left everyone else at the ship. How many children have you noticed so far when we walked though the spaceport?" Plagueis questioned and Kabuto understood.

Besides Meizu, the three of them were the oldest of the group. Juugo was around fifteen, Tayuya fourteen, and the rest were not even thirteen. A large group of oddly dressed kids would draw quite a bit of notice on a planet such as Sarafur.

Kabuto's thoughts were soon broken by Gozu's questioned, "Can I order something stronger?" he asked as he just finished downing a second drink of what Plagueis ordered.

"No, I don't want you impaired and with Naruto's upgrade to you, I have no idea if you can get impaired. I'm going to be making enemies at the table I'm going to and I need you alert and ready in case they start something at the table. If everything goes according to plan, I'll purchase a bottle of something stronger when we leave." Plagueis stated and Gozu nodded but still frowned. Neither he nor his brother were ever patient.

'Maybe I should have had Meizu come instead of volunteering. He seems to be having more fun.' Gozu thought as he could feel through whatever link he had with Naruto and his brother that their group was doing something much more interesting than waiting around at a bar.

x-x

"I didn't do anything strange when I was sedated, did I?" questioned Karin to the group as she sat at the table on the ship. It had only been in the past few hours that said sedative had worn off and she was having trouble remembering all that transpired on the journey.

"No, not much happened. Well...there was that one thing that you did but I don't know if you consider it strange or not." remarked Suigetsu with a smirk. Karin glared at her nemesis and adjusted her glasses as she hesitated to reply.

"And what would that be?" questioned a frowning Karin.

"Well...you stripped off all your clothes and ran around the ship naked." explained Suigetsu with a shrug and he had a hard time keeping the smile off his face.

"I DID NO SUCH THING!"

"..."

"...Did I?"

The others refused to meeter her glance and those with breather masks were thankful that their smiles couldn't be seen. The laughter however soon started and Suigetsu was laughing so hard he couldn't breath.

"YOU BASTARD!" she yelled and stood while pulling out her blaster.

[BLAST]

Suigetsu's head lost consistency as the plasma bolt pierced it and charred the back of his chair. It soon reformed and the teen rubbed his cheek where the blast had hit him. "That really stings." he remarked with a glare but before anything else could happen, Naruto pulled the weapon out of Karin's hand with the Force.

"Had you been paying attention Karin, like I asked you to, you would have realized that we have company." he stated and looked to Meizu who turned into smoke and quickly traveled to the top hatch of the ship.

x-x

Outside the ship, five figures moved into the hangar bay. They were not same ones that Plagueis had dealt with earlier but were of the same group. It was a routine that they practiced when a ship landed in their hangars. They made them pay and then went after the cargo if it seemed good.

"Are you sure this is going to be a good score?" questioned one of them.

"A ship with no passenger or cargo manifest as well as deleted logs points to a nice score. They could be hauling anything but whatever it is, it will be a payday for us." one of the others assured the rest.

The group approached the newly landed ship and put on their breather masks. It certainly wasn't the first time that they had boarded a ship and stolen its cargo. Seeing as three individuals had already left the ship, they were confident that they wouldn't be dealing with that many assailants and it really didn't matter considering what they planned on using.

The five figures stealthily moved around the front of the ship and headed for the open landing ramp. They made sure to stay out of sight of the cockpit windows. All they had to do was toss the grenade inside and let the gas distribute throughout the ship and knock out anyone that had stayed on-board.

The members weren't nearly in position when the sound of a single blaster shot was heard. They each froze where they were and waited, listening. It was obvious that the shot had come from inside the ship but they were waiting to see if someone would come out.

When half a minute went by and nothing happened, the leader of the group gave a signal to move in. 'I guess they're just helping us along by killing each other off.' he thought and readied the grenade. Cautiously checking the ramp, he moved to one side and tossed the grenade in.

Expecting shouts or at least the familiar sound of the grenade quickly releasing its contents on impact, he was quite surprised when the same grenade flew right back out of the landing ramp and went off on the ground.

The landing ramp quickly raised and the group was left in the open hangar with gas filling the room. A few curses filled the room but with their masks, the gas was no big deal for them.

That changed however when a quickly muted scream came from just a short distance away. With the gas obscuring their vision, no one in the hangar could be sure what was happening. Each member brandished a blaster but the most they could see was a shadow that would appear and disappear inside the plume of gas.

"It's an ambush!" a muffled voice said. Several shots rang out followed by another yell. The sound of a body hitting the ground was heard by the remaining few. The gas finished dispersing and everything was silent in the hazy hanger. No sooner had they believed that the ambush was over than another yell came from across the room.

"Find some cover." the leader yelled but with the gas he couldn't see much of anything. Through the obscured air he managed to find some metal crates and nearly tripped over them. Getting behind them, his gun moved back and forth in unison with his narrowed field of vision as he tried to find any trace of movement.

Somewhere in the hangar, some one was shouting for help but the shouts decreased in volume until they stopped entirely. A shadow came at him from his right and he fired two shots. Both hit and the figure dropped.

As the gas began to dissipate, he got up from behind the position and moved to the body with blaster trained on it. Only a few feet from it, he quickly realized that it was one of his own men.

Before he could do anything, he felt the presence of someone behind him. A sharp pain shot through his back and then nothing. His unresponsive body fell to the ground.

'I can't move or feel anything below my neck.' he realized and could barely move his neck to help him glance around. He tried to yell for help but only ended up coughing up blood.

A dark figure was standing above him which was just slightly out of his immediate vision. His attention was quickly caught by the landing ramp which had just lowered again.

x-x

Naruto walked down the ramp, followed by a frustrated Suigetsu. As he moved down the ramp, the Force user pushed the gas away from the ramp and helped to disperse it out the open topped hangar.

"Damn it!" Suigetsu remarked as he looked around at the bodies, "You finished all of them off before I even got out here!" he finished looking at Meizu who stood above one of the bodies.

"Does this kind of gas affect you?" question Meizu and the other Kiri ninja frowned. He honestly wasn't sure if his hydrification technique could protect him from something like that.

Naruto ignored the two as he made his way to the still breathing intruder. Meizu had been told to at least leave one of them alive to find out information from.

Walking over to the man, he bent down and placed his hand on the man's head to gather information.

x-x

"As for my self, I suppose you could say I'm in the shipping business." Plagueis answered as he furthered the small talk at the table and slowly began to loosen the other player's tongues. In just a short while he would not only be taking their money from cheating but also a large amount of precious information.

He could feel Kabuto in another area of the room already working on gathering other information that could also be useful to them. Kabuto seemed to be chatting with a native to the planet while his current Sabacc game was with one smuggler and two gunrunners that were either regulars to the planet or just passing through. Between the two them, they should be finished in an hour or so.

The others players were initially hesitant to let him join their game but once they saw how much he had, they decided to let his money join the game.

Sabacc was a game of strategy as much as it was luck but when you could alter the programming of the droid dealer and the games randomization computer, it became a game that he couldn't possibly lose. Initially however he would purposefully lose but then defeat his opponents after getting the information he wanted. Then all he would have to do is find a place to stay while Naruto dealt with the footwork.

x-x

"What's that one over there?" questioned Juugo as he looked through a pair of electrobinoculars at the spaceport set out before them.

"I believe that is a Vashan. It's an insectoid species." replied Naruto as he looked through his own modified goggles.

"Let me see." demanded Karin as she pulled the single pair of electrobinoculars from Juugo to look out over the spaceport.

They were sitting on the roof of the open hangar where the ship was. Naruto was trying to get them, and himself, used to seeing different species so they wouldn't make a scene when they went out into the city as soon as Plagueis and the other two were back.

"What an ugly fucker." commented the second red-haired girl who had taken the binoculars from Karin.

Naruto ignored the comment as he stared up at the foreign sky and took it all in. It was strange to look at a sky without a moon but that wasn't the oddest part. Because of the planet's unique orbit, the sky was always in a state of dusk or perhaps dawn. Maybe a combination of the two. With one side of the planet always facing the sun, and the other always facing away, their really was no definitive night or day. The sky was always the same. Looking in one direction, he came upon the sun, and glancing in the other he could see the night sky and just a handful of stars at the very edge of the dark horizon.

"So all of these species just walk around normally and no one really gives them much notice?" questioned Juugo and Naruto was brought out of his thoughts.

"No, probably not. Unless it was a species not normally seen or one that they had never seen before, then they might give it some notice but then move on about their business." answered Naruto and he could feel the orange haired teen feeling relieved at the answer.

'Perhaps given what he turns into, he feels that he always looks different than normal people, or something along those lines.' Naruto reasoned but he decided not to ask.

"This is boring. Maybe we should break out a sniper rifle and have some fun from up here." Suigetsu suggested and a few others sweat-dropped at the idea.

"Why is it that your goggles seem just as good as these binoculars but they're so much smaller and lighter?" Tayuya questioned to change the subject as well as point out something that she had been wondering about. She was still holding the large and heavy binoculars and looking back and forth between the two. The others also looked at him and he could feel some jealousy and envy sweep through the group.

"I made these years ago from a normal pair of goggles and a pair of those electrobinoculars. Do you want some too?" questioned Naruto to the group and tried to determine their real reactions and thoughts on the matter

"Yes. Who wants to carry around something so bulky and heavy like this" Karin stated and he could feel some agreement from the others on the matter.

"Alright. When we go out later for clothes and other supplies I'll see if I can find pairs of goggles and binoculars for each of you and then have my clones make some goggles like mine." he said and honestly the thought made him feel...something. Perhaps it was just excitement over creating a gadget. He wasn't really sure what it was.

"Why do we need to go out for clothes?" questioned Meizu.

"Well technically you don't really need new clothes but myself and the others do." he answered and feeling the oncoming barrage of questions, he decided to explain himself, "When you looked out at the people walking the streets, did you all notice how differently they dress. Our fashion isn't necessarily the same as what the galaxy uses. Nobody wears open-toed combat sandles and most people have a slightly different fashion sense. Meizu's clothing isn't that different from what other people wear, especially with that poncho that both of you wear. Also his ability allows him to change his clothing at will, he doesn't need anything new.

Once Master Plagueis gets back with money that we can use, then we can go and purchase all that we need. Some holsters for our blasters would be nice and I'd like to see what clothing they have and how it compares to what we had back in Ibonihs. It's best to fit in as well as we can and few of the things we currently wear won't make us stand out."

"Why do we have to wait for them to get back? Can't we just use something else to trade? Why didn't we just bring some gold or something. They value gold, right?" Tayuya inquired and Naruto stared dumbfounded at her.

"I didn't think of it." he admitted out loud and few snickers could be heard among the other group members. While the paper Ryo bills would be worthless, some of the coins as well as several precious metals found on their planet would be something that they could have traded with. The only thing they did bring was a good amount of refined chakra metal and storage scrolls filled with ninja supplies. There was no way he would ever trade those supplies but he definitely could have brought something else or converted Gato's wealth to gold.

Frowning, Naruto decided to push those thoughts out of his mind and focus on what was important while the others continued to converse. They needed a ship, to steal more supplies to sell later, and he needed to find some materials from the junkyard to continue with his modifications and other inventions.

The information he had obtain from the thugs that tried to take their cargo told him about the spaceport which was called Sarafuria. Not very original, but the name apparently changed with each new criminal that took ownership from the criminal before them. The city had changed hands many times and was currently ruled by a human named Mordo Varss who was a pirate that decided to settle down in one area. Apparently the man had plans to gather money and buy mercenaries or better ships to begin taking control of the planet and the surrounding system.

The other two space ports were also owned by other criminals of different species and they sometimes fought each other to gain control of all the ports on the planet.

He wasn't exactly sure if Plagueis had any more plans for the planet but thought perhaps they should consider trying to gain the starport. Owning a planet with an unregulated spaceport could be lucrative and provide information as well as different contacts for them in the future.

'I'll have to inquire about this with Master Plagueis when he gets back.' he reminded himself and continued to look at the strange but beautiful sky.

x-x

Pulling his winnings toward himself, Plagueis allowed a small smirk to form on Gato's face. The three other players at the table however were far from thrilled. They had just lost everything that they had to the short newcomer. Thoughts of fairness and the possibility of being cheated had already gone through their minds and Plagueis knew it was time to leave before he was attacked inside the cantina.

Telepathically signaling Gozu, the Kiri ninja approached the table and the other players were temporarily put at bay from attacking. Taking the winnings, he walked away from the table side by side with Gozu.

'Gozu. Kabuto. At least one of them will no doubt try and take back their winnings in the alley. Kill them.' Plagueis commanded and as soon as they got outside and into the alley near the cantina, Gozu pulled out a storage scroll and quickly helped Plagueis seal all the winnings inside of it.

Plagueis took the scroll and continued on his way down the alley and to an adjacent side-street that would take him back to the main street. No sooner had he done this, then two of the three players came around the corner of the cantina and began moving for their weapons.

Gozu sprang into action and faster than the human opponent could draw a gun, the Kiri ninja's clawed hand stabbed into the man's throat. The dying man nearly collapsed but attempted to shoot Gozu before he died but was quickly disarmed and expired moments later.

Standing next to Gozu was an incredible surprised and scared Red Nikto. The Nikto was slower than the human and froze at seeing the human next to him attacked. Forcing himself to action, the Nikto continued to reach for his blaster. The being got the blaster out of the holster and pointed it at Gozu but then stopped moving and grunted in pain before he could fire.

Standing begin the Nikto was Kabuto holding a laser scalpel that was imbedded into the spine of the Nikto. "It seems your spine reacts quite the same as a human's in this situation. I will have to study your corpse further in order to make sure that is indeed the case but it is definitely something that I am looking forward to. You're quite the interesting specimen." commented Kabuto as he looked over the thick hands, facial horns, and ridges on the head of the tan and reddish creature. Removing his newest toy, the laser scalpel, he then shoved it through the brain stem of the Nikto which caused instant death.

Pulling out his corpse scroll, Kabuto's snake attachment moved on its own and wrapped around the body, bringing it to the scroll and setting it on one of the empty storage seals. After sealing the Nikto, the snake then moved the the human and did the same.

"Why do you want the human too?" questioned Gozu as he watched the snake-ninja work.

"You never know what this body could tell you until you examine it. He likely has different antibodies in his blood that could be interesting or even of use to us. We are in a completely different environment with different diseases and illnesses." explained Kabuto as he finished sealing the human and then made sure the coast was clear before exiting the alley and following Plagueis back to the hangar.

There was still work to be done before he could get a chance to look at his newest acquisitions.

x-x

Karin was the first to sense the three returning individuals and told the rest of the group.

Despite her problems in space, she had gotten better now that they were on a planet. There was no chakra or signatures to sense but she found that her sensor abilities were still quite useful. Back on Ibonihs, her sensing was like viewing something in color but now, on the planet, it was like viewing a world of gray. The people were all similar shades of gray and it was difficult to tell them apart. She still had her large range but it was still something she was getting used to.

Jumping off the top of the roof, she landed on the ship and moved to the side to jump to the surface of the hangar to use the loading ramp. As she did this, the three returning group members entered the hangar and followed Karin up the ramp.

Plagueis walked to the circular table and sat down in one of the high-backed seats. Kabuto and Gozu took up other seats as well and they eagerly waited to hear about what had transpired.

"Our trip proved rewarding. The ship is now sold and I've made arrangements at the junkyard so we can stay in the ship until we find a suitable replacement. At the cantina I gained information about a group of gunrunners that are about to unload a shipment of weapons to an area of the planet known as the Krasho Salt Rifts. The drop-off will happen in the next few hours, all we have to do is locate this area." Plagueis revealed and he turned to Kabuto to see if the teen could add anything else.

Slightly adjusting his glasses and then stroking his snake attachment's head, Kabuto began, "My information gathering was actually quite fortuitous as well and only serves to augment what Master Plagueis has just revealed. I also learned of the salt rifts and I was able to get their location on the planet.

Additionally, another individual told me about the history of the planet. It was apparently colonized or perhaps home to a species known as the Sarafurians but they became extinct after the planet stopped rotating. Their ruins as well as the ruins of another species cover parts of the wastelands. There were also rumors that a specific area of these ruins on the colder side of the planet gives those that venture near it an ominous feeling that they cannot shake off unless they leave the area. Some even say that there is a room full of treasure there."

A small knowing smile adorned Kabuto's face as he finished giving his information. He knew the information on the area would spark interest in Plagueis and Naruto.

"And I suppose you found out where this area might be?" inquired Plagueis. It seemed the teen was quite adept at information gathering and if he was correct, Kabuto's information could be more valuable than his own.

"I have general coordinates but nothing exact." replied Kabuto and Plagueis nodded while coming up with a plan of action. He himself was in no condition to travel with Gato's body no matter how much he wanted to and there was still work to be done that needed supervising.

After a short period of silence Plagueis spoke, "Naruto, I want you to take part of the group to get clothes that will let them blend in better. Make sure you aren't seen. After that we will split up into three groups. One group will stay and work on unloading the ship to give away to the junk dealer while the other two groups will head off to the areas that Kabuto and I have found. Once there, they will take anything of value and return."

Naruto however wanted to add something else, "Master, will there be time to take a look through the junkyard?"

Plagueis wasn't surprised about his students interest in the junkyard as such a place, full of pieces of different technology, no doubt greatly appealed to Naruto. However, he really didn't want to use up the remainder of their storage scrolls or perhaps start filling the storage area of a new ship with pieces of junk. Deciding that it was best to first take care of everything else, he replied, "If when we are finished, and there are no other matters to attend to, then you can spend however much time you want in the junkyard before we leave."

Naruto's smile was partially hidden by his cloak. Standing up, he made to leave the ship with the others and replaced his breather over his mouth.

x-x

Five figures stealthily moved across the rooftops of the spaceport as they headed to a local establishment. They could have used the henge jutsu but they would have to dispel it at some point in order to pick out clothing that actually fit them.

The group jumped off a roof and landed in a nearby alley. Individually, they each headed out of the alley in timed intervals and entered a nearby store. A group of children would garner more attention than just individuals.

Naruto was the last to enter the store. He stood in the doorway for a few seconds as he looked over all the merchandise. The shop sold a variety of clothing styles and featured a variety of cloth from natural to synthetic. 'Hopefully they do custom orders.' Naruto thought as they would certainly need customization of all their clothes and get their shoes altered.

The other people he traveled with were already searching through the store. Each person seemed to be able to find something of interest whether actual clothing or just fabric and apparently several outfits had already been chosen and placed on the counter.

While this was going on, Naruto went to the owner and asked, "I'll need quite a few custom orders and modifications to some of our existing clothing."

The person behind the counter only nodded and watched the boy walk off to another area of the store and start picking out utility belts and gun holsters.

"What a weird bunch of kids." the man remarked and began making sure they weren't stealing from him. Five piles of clothes soon filled the front table and he began thinking they might use the weapons they had to take the clothing but money was quickly produced for the clothing and also for the alterations.

x-x

One by one, each of the five left the store and headed back to the ship. Suigetsu was now sporting a dark purple flight suit with a white vest. The suit lacked any of the life-support systems and it was only a children's suit, something which Karin laughed at, but it was what he wanted and he purchased several of them using the money Naruto had.

Juugo left the store with very conservative and cheap clothing consisting of black pants, a tan shirt, and a thin vest. Considering that if he used his bloodline, the clothing would likely get torn to shreds, he felt it was best to stick with something simple that could be easily replaced.

Karin and Tayuya left the store together. They had purchased armorweave body gloves on Naruto's suggestion and then covered the glove with a shirt and either shorts or a skirt. The large bags only put a smile on Karin's face as it was the first time she had done some extensive shopping since leaving Konoha. Tayuya only rolled her eyes at the happy girl but was also sporting the same amount of clothing.

Naruto was the last to leave the store and told the patron, "Our faces and ages were nothing of note." which the man promptly repeated before he left. Naruto also sported a black body glove but covered it with a pair of his ninja pants, a light shirt, and a hooded vest that he had acquired from Ibonihs that was similar to his chunin vest. He decided to forgo the cloak as it only made him attract attention and instead used the hood on the vest along with his breather to cover his most distinctive marks. Ironically, he looked almost the same as he had when he was a ninja of Konoha.

Each member also now had a utility belt with their ninja pouches attached at the back and sported a holster with blaster. Their shoes had also been modified to have the foot completely covered.

x-x

Returning to the ship, Plagueis flew it to the outskirts of the spaceport where the junkyard was. With it in the junkyard, there was little chance that someone might try to take their cargo again. Ships in a junkyard were usually put there because they didn't work and no one was usually allowed to still live in the ships.

Naruto was quite eager to scrounge through the mounds of junk but they still had work to do. That however didn't stop his eyes from roaming through the piles every time he passed.

The first group that left the ship was Kabuto, Suigetsu, and Tayuya. They were sent out to the salt rifts in search of the gunrunners. Kabuto's new appendage allowed him to sense nearby signatures and the snake had an enhanced sense of smell. In the second group, Naruto traveled with Karin and Meizu. They were off in search of the area that Kabuto spoke of in the dark region of the planet.

The junkyard owner had been persuaded to allow Naruto to use his skiff, which was a short range repulsorlift vehicle, so that they could travel to the dark region much faster. The salt rifts were relatively close in comparison and could easily be reached on foot.

Plagueis, Juugo, and Gozu stayed on-board the ship and would be removing as many useful items from the ship as they could before leaving it.

x-x

Plagueis had watched out of the cockpit windows as the two groups began moving out in separate directions to their destinations. He knew what would be in store for Kabuto's group but not for Naruto's. The only advice that he could give to his student was to be cautious.

It was possible that whatever his student was heading for was just a darkside Force nexus, however it was also possible that it was some kind of tomb or perhaps once a lair of a Sith. It could be dangerous but he was in no condition to go exploring. Gato's body was beginning to give out or at least he only had month or so left.

The problem he was having finding a replacement was a lack of suitable candidates. Now that they were back in the galaxy, he had the luxury of being picky when it came to choosing a new body. He at least wanted a tall body that was fit and preferably Force sensitive. The more Force sensitive a host body he found, the more of his own Force powers would return to him.

His thoughts took him to the communications systems where he sat down in a high-backed chair and began preparing to send out a coded transmission.

Sidious had no doubt taken over all of his accounts, assets, hideouts, and just about everything else he had when he was still alive. He couldn't risk trying to access any of his bank accounts or get in touch with any of his former agents that he had used. However, he still had one contact that Sidious knew nothing about.

Right before he died, he had looked for suitable candidates for his new experiment on midi-chlorian manipulation. The goal was to find a suitable female to use his technique on. Not wanting anyone to find out what he was doing, he chose a planet near his hideout and re-programed a medical droid to secretly work for him. Using the droid, he gained access to patients at a local hospital as well as patient records.

From that list, he had chosen a subject. He chose based upon medical history, midi-chlorian count, and a variety of other factors that had led him to a specimen that would suit his purpose. Not a week before being killed, he had put his experiment into motion and used the technique on the woman while she was sedated during a fake procedure for a fake medical condition that the droid had fabricated for him.

If his experiment worked, then a child with incredible Force ability and midi-chlorian count had been born nearly fifteen years ago and may provide him with the perfect host. The planet the experiment took place on not very noteworthy or useful so the child was likely still there, safe from Sidious and out of sight from the Jedi.

With the connection created, Plagueis waited for the droid to answer. He had given it orders to periodically check for messages from him but it had been so long that the droid may no longer even be in operation or could have had its memory wiped at some point.

The signal was eventually answered by the medical droid that he had re-programed, "Who is this?" questioned the droid in an even voice.

Plagueis quickly replied with, "Activate program Plagueis-1."

The droids photoreceptor dimmed and then lit back up as the program activated and put the droid under his control. He had concealed the program in the droids memory banks. The program was activated with the command and once deactivated, the medical droid would go about its basic function without ever realizing that anything out of the ordinary had happened.

"This is Master Plagueis droid. Yes, I am aware that I have changed quite a bit since we last spoke."

"Our last conversation was five thousand three hundred twenty nine standard days ago." the droids responded.

"Yes, yes, I am aware of that. What I want to know is the status of the experiment." inquired Plagueis as his patience waned slightly.

"Monitoring of Test Subject 1, Shmi Skywalker, was terminated four thousand five hundred days ago."

"Terminated?! For what reason?" demanded Plagueis as he his thoughts raced over possible complications or what else that could have gone wrong.

"Test Subject 1 was transported off the planet and no longer withing my capabilities of monitoring."

"Was the subject pregnant or was a child delivered?" asked Plagueis with some urgency.

"Negative. No changes in health status were noted."

'It failed.' Plagueis realized and couldn't believe what the droid was telling him. He had accounted for everything and chosen the best subject available. Why hadn't it succeeded?

'I must find out what went wrong.'

"Where was the test subject transported?"

"The subject was sold to a slaver and transported to Tatooine." replied the droid as it accessed planetary records and Plagueis sat back in the chair as he went over the information.

'I'll need to travel to Tatooine then and see if she is still there. But how will I do it?' Plagueis wondered as he didn't want to tell anyone about his failed experiment. Judging their reactions was difficult and losing cohesion in the group was not something that they needed. Telling them that they needed to go to an obscure planet so he could analyze and experiment on a woman was out of the question. With only a single ship for them to use in the near future, how could he possibly explain an impulsive trip to a planet such as Tatooine?

Suigetsu couldn't even survive on such a planet and what would be there that he could convince Naruto or the rest of the group that they would be interested in.

'The weapons.' he realized and began developing a valid reason. Their cargo was technically stolen but Tatooine was controlled by the Hutts and they wouldn't care where the weapons came from or who their current owner was. Well, at least the current Hutt wouldn't care where they came from.

Their cargo actually belonged to a Hutt but if he found a Hutt of a different clan, then selling it the weapons wouldn't matter. The sale itself could be dangerous as the Hutts weren't trustworthy, but what other choice did he have.

'There are also Rakatan ruins on Tatooine.' Plagueis remembered and knew that it would certainly interest Naruto enough to make the planet stand out as the next destination or at least one of the next destinations. He wasn't sure what would still be in the ruins or even where the ruins were but those were things for Naruto to find out when they got there. Likely his student would also have to negotiate with the Hutt without him being present but Naruto could handle it.

Coming back to the matter at hand, he heard Juugo and Gozu moving around in the aft of the ship and he saw the droid staring back at him on the screen.

"Program end." stated Plagueis and he turned off the screen, severing the communication, just as the droids photoreceptors dimmed again.

Getting up from his seat, he headed to the medical bay to supervise the removal of the bacta tank.

"This damn things heavy." Gozu commented to Juugo as Plagueis neared the room. The pair were attempting to move the heavy piece of medical equipment on their own.

"That tank is worth several times more than the entire ship. Be careful with it." stated Plagueis from the doorway.

"Why is it worth so much?" asked Gozu as both ninja stopped what they were doing and looked to Plagueis.

"The substance inside is very expensive. Normal ships of this size don't have bacta tanks and they typically cost a large amount of money. Out here they would probably cost even more."

"How did this ship get one?" inquired Juugo and Plagueis smirked at the question. "The ship's former occupants took it from my lab along with other medical supplies and then installed it on the ship. I intend to keep it, considering that it belongs to me in the first place." stated Plagueis as he moved the repulsorlift cart over to the tank.

"When you begin tipping it over, I'll use my powers to lighten it as much as I can." said Plagueis and the other two nodded as they got ready to remove the tank.

x-x

Kabuto, Suigetsu, and Tayuya jumped over the rocky terrain as they headed to the salt rifts. They weren't sure what to expect as Kabuto's information was sketchy on what the physical feature actually was.

Plagueis's information also only concerned the delivery of the gun shipment as the person he gathered information from was of the same gunrunner group. They therefore had little to go on and the shipment wasn't to arrive for at least another hour.

"So, what's the plan?" asked Suigetsu as he turned to Kabuto, who was put in charge of the mission.

"We kill them and then take the cargo as well as the ship if we can."

"I like that plan." replied Suigetsu.

"How do we operate the ship?" asked Tayuya with a deadpanned expression and the other two nearly tripped.

"..."

"Perhaps we take one hostage and force him to fly us back or just call for Naruto." suggested Kabuto and Suigetsu nodded at the revised plan while Tayuya shook her head at getting picked for the wrong group.

x-x

Naruto piloted the skiff just a dozen meters off the surface as he headed to the coordinates that Kabuto had acquired. He was uneasy traveling to a place without knowing much information but the possibility of rewards outweighed his worries.

Turning around, he glanced at his passengers. Meizu was enjoying the nighttime ride while Karin had her arms crossed and he could tell that the dropping temperature and cold blowing wind from their fast travel was beginning influencing her.

"You should probably put on that thermal poncho I gave you." Naruto commented while keeping his eyes on the dark terrain ahead of them. Karin looked to the cloth that was sitting on the floor of the skiff next to where she was sitting.

"Its made for a variety of climates and should keep you warm. Even with the body glove you have on, the cold will start to affect you. The farther we go, the worse it will get." added Naruto and Karin grabbed the cloak and put it on.

It would only take a little bit longer to get to the location, given how fast the skiff was, but they could no longer see the sun and were almost completely in darkness.

x-x

It took about an hour to reach their destination and once they laid eyes on it, there was no question that they had found what they were looking for. Below them in a large relatively flat valley was the salt rift.

While the surrounding rock was dark in color, the rift was covered in layers of salt making the entire valley a white color. There were jagged outcroppings of salt and then numerous large and small skeletons of long dead creatures that were also covered in the white crystalline substance. The area had apparently once been an ocean and abundant with life but now all that was left was a salty graveyard.

The bones and stalactites were so numerous that it created a myriad of different hazards and obstacles. The features were so large, tall, and numerous that it created many dark rifts and crevices that looked ideal to hide something. Given the vastness of the area, a person could search for weeks and not find anything of interest.

The trio was relatively silent as they each looked over the feature set out before them. They would have to wait until the right time for the shipment but from their vantage point they would be able to see any ship that came to the rifts. Once the shipment came, the would be able to run down to the valley and then run on top of the salt rift to get to wherever the ship landed.

From what they could see through the binoculars, there were several places for a ship, similar in size to what they had, to land and then unload. The rift only extended so far and then it was just flat rock. Moving across the hill they were on, they repositioned themselves in a better spot closer to the landing spots that they could see.

It did look incredibly treacherous but each person was confident that they could make the journey when the time called for it. Until then, they would stay out of sight from a ship.

x-x

The first thing she noticed as they walked across the barren landscape, was the lack of noise. There was no noise at all and even the air itself seemed completely still.

It still seemed surreal that they were on a completely different planet. The skiff was only a short distance off as they searched the surrounding area.

Focusing on her sensing ability, she searched the area for anything that seemed out of place. As her senses spread over the gray landscape in her mind, she happened upon an area that seemed darker than the rest of the surroundings.

She was about to say something when she sensed something else in the distance. They apparently weren't the only ones out there.

x-x

"Are you sure somebody is gonna come out all this way? I'm freezing my ass off." commented one man to the rest of the group.

"Shut up, Ral. The Boss said we had to come out here. That stool pigeon of his has been talking about this area for weeks in that stupid cantina before he finally got some sucker to listen to him. All we have to do is wait for whoever they send out here."

"But we don't even know what's in that stupid cave." replied the man.

"That's why we're getting someone else to help us find out. I don't like this anymore than you do. I remember the first group that were sent to check it out. Only two of their group returned and they had lost their minds. I wanna stay as far away from that place as possible but you've heard the rumors. A tomb full of treasure and possibly one of the Tessents."

Ral stayed silent and neither of the other two men that were with them said anything else. If even part of the rumor was true then they could be set for life. They wouldn't even bother sharing the spoils with the boss and just leave the planet with all that they could get their hands on.

Movement in the distance caught the attention of each member. One pulled out a set of binoculars and spotted three figures in the distance.

"I can see three coming this way. Two of them look like kids." the man stated out loud with some surprise.

"Kids?"

"I wouldn't underestimate them. If these are the same ones that were at the hangar earlier, the group we sent after their cargo never came back."

x-x

The ninja trio made their way through the dark terrain as they headed for the area that Karin indicated. Up ahead they could make out what looked like an entrance to a cave that was set at the bottom of a tall conical structure. Even in the dark they could tell that it was very different from the rest of the rock around it.

The three continued on until four armed men sprang out from behind nearby rocks.

"Hands where we can see them." said one of the ambushers while another moved in and began searching them one by one for any weapons.

"They don't even have a blaster." commented the man and though a few of the group found it strange, they didn't question it and then motioned to the opening, forcing the three to go first.

x-x

"Why do you think they were waiting for us?" asked Karin as she sat behind some rocks looking down on the four men heading into the opening with the three shadow clones.

"I don't think they lured us out here to rob us or something like that. They probably also believe something valuable is in there but are either too afraid to go in first or know that there are traps and wanted someone else to spring them." answered Naruto and then he looked to her, "Karin, I want you to stay here and look after the entrance. Meizu and I will go in after them."

"Your going to leave me here all alone!?" Karin questioned with an exasperated yell.

"Would you rather go in there?" asked Meizu.

"..."

"I'll dutifully monitor your progress from out here." replied Karin with a nod.

x-x

Kabuto had used an earth jutsu to create a covering over them as they laid on the ground to prevent them from being spotted from the air. Taking turns, they looked through the electrobinoculars for a ship.

Up until that point, nothing of interest had happened. There were no movements in the rift or surrounding area and not even so much as an animal could be seen. However, what began as a low rumbling quickly turned all three heads to the sky as a ship began appeared out of the clouds and slowed down to settle on the outskirts of the rift.

Kabuto zoomed in on the ship and watched it land. A loading ramp lowered and several figures came out with a repulsorlift cart and several crates of what presumably were weapons. In addition to the ones on the ship, several others came out of the rift and met them. They were too far outside of his range to feel or his snake's range to track so he didn't know how many were actually there. He could only count what he could see and he counted ten altogether. The humanoids were quite similar to the one he had collected earlier and were apparently from a group called the Kintan Gunrunners.

Glancing at the others, they got the message and came out of their hiding place. They only needed the weapons but the ship was also there for the taking.

x-x

Naruto and Meizu followed a good distance behind the group and the shadow clones. Naruto was alert and looking for traps but so far he hadn't found any. The cave turned out to be a long winding tunnel that steadily went deeper in the the ground. They were already tens of meters beneath the surface.

The tunnel was quite odd as the walls had a strange structure to them that wasn't really rock but some kind of substance that wasn't identifiable.

Naruto was brought out of musings on the walls when he heard shouts echoing down the tunnel and then a single blaster shot. Before he could contact his clones, their memories flooded back to him but deprived him of valuable intelligence concerning what had happened.

Given the instantaneous dispelling of all three clones, he figured it must have been a trap of some kind but had no idea what.

Erring on the side of caution, he and Meizu slowly made their way to a chamber. Coming upon the area the clones had dispelled, they found the four men that had tried to ambush them. Two had evidently attacked each other, each being mortally injured and dying on the floor, while one had dropped to the floor in a catatonic state, with the final one killing himself with a blaster. In addition to those bodies, he found an additional two bodies that had been dead for quite some time.

The cold temperature had probably prevented some decomposition of the corpses and he was thankful for his breather mask which likely filtered out the smell. It was a strange sight and Naruto refrained from entering the room until he had determined what might have caused their deaths. Both and Meizu looked around but only found two oddities in the room. There was a single carving of the upper portion of a cloaked figure on the opposite wall near an opening to another identical tunnel and also some kind of lettering or glyphs were carved above that opening.

Naruto couldn't make out the lettering as it was unrecognizable to him though he could feel that it was important and believed it to be some kind of warning or instruction. The sculpture was of some kind of insectoid species that was also unrecognizable to him. Besides the bodies, nothing else in the room stood out.

'Is the sculpture the trigger to the trap?' Naruto wondered and did his best to sense the surrounding area with all that was available to him. Strangely, he felt as though he was being watched and looked to the statue. Despite being inanimate, he felt like the carved face was looking at him.

Searching his mind, he tried to gain as much information as possible from the memories of the clones right before they dispelled. However, the only thing he received was an intense feeling of fear.

'Fear killed them?' he questioned and decided that instead of proceeding, that he would bypass the chamber and whatever trap had been set to stop those that entered.

"We're not entering this chamber." Naruto stated and Meizu looked to him in question.

Naruto went through several handseals and Meizu understood what Naruto was up to so he put placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. Once the handseals were finished, they began sinking into the ground beneath them. The pair moved unseen to the other side of the room and emerged at the entrance to the other tunnel.

Making several clones, Naruto sent them on ahead as a precaution. The elaborate trap only confirmed that something must be ahead of them.

x-x

Jumping across the top of the salt rifts was difficult but they were nearly at the ship.

Kabuto could now tell with his snake appendage that they were only ten of the humanoids. Six had come from the ship while four had come out of a hiding spot in the salt rifts. Apparently the hiding place that the gunrunners used to store weapons was actively guarded.

The group stopped less than a thirty meters from the ship to make a quick plan before going in. "I'll go and find the bolt hole that they are using while you two secure the ship." Kabuto ordered and the other two nodded in agreement. Suigetsu took off towards the ship leaving Tayuya behind and Kabuto slithered into the rift.

The scene was incredibly creepy to Tayuya and she shivered at the sight of Kabuto meandering through the crevices in the salt rift. Looking towards the direction the ship was in, she decided that she wasn't really needed and decided to hold back. The Kiri ninja was seemingly immune to the weaponry of the galaxy while she wasn't. She wasn't scared but merely cautious. Until Naruto finished that chakra armor that he had been talking about on their journey to the planet, she wasn't going to run carelessly into a fight.

x-x

Continuing farther into the tunnel system, the duo eventually came to what appeared to be the end of the journey. They had bypassed an additional chamber with respective trap but other than that, nothing else had been activated or come across.

Naruto stood at the end of the tunnel and examined the large chamber. Somehow the room was slightly lit by unseen sources but the majority was still dark. It was quite a bit larger than the other chambers they had come across. His eyes widened upon seeing the contents of the room. From what Kabuto had said, it was to be filled with treasure but that wasn't what he was seeing.

Sculptures of various sizes decorated the room. They were placed on tables or scattered across the room. To his eyes, it was obvious that the same person had made all of the sculptures as they were made from similar stone and had many similarities. Most of the sculptures were simply unrecognizable to him though. He couldn't tell what they were supposed to be, if they were supposed to be anything.

"Is this the treasure?" commented Meizu and Naruto wasn't sure how to answer. Artwork could be valuable but he had no idea what significance or value could be placed on the items in the room.

His attention was soon caught by the features on the opposite side of the room, which appeared to be a sarcophagus as well as another cloaked sculpture carved into the wall above the resting place. Given that the darkside of the Force was the strongest in the room they were currently looking at, Naruto reasoned that the sarcophagus must have been filled with the remains of a Sith and the darkside coming off the remains had created the darkside nexus in the immediate area.

Moving away from the sarcophagus, Naruto's eyes rested upon several other objects that certainly caught his attention. On the ground near the sarcophagus were the remains of an individual that was beyond identifying. In front of the corpse was a raised dais that had two other items. The first was in the very center and was clearly a Sith holocron. The second however was more difficult to identify. It appeared to be a white sculpture that did not fit with the other such pieces in the room. The sculpture was more identifiable to him as it appeared to be of some kind of winged cat.

Several thoughts went through Naruto's head as he gazed upon the room. He was apprehensive at the sight of the body. It meant that someone was able to get past the other traps, only to be caught by surprise at the end or perhaps killed by the spirit of a Sith. Now that he knew what he was dealing with, it only made sense that a spirit, similar to his own master, was inhabiting the tunnel system.

It was likely using carved sculptures of itself to guard its resting place and treasure. To some degree, it made sense however, the placement of the holocron confused him. Plagueis had told him that Sith were usually entombed with their most precious items.

Placing a holocron out in the open would imply that it was meant to be taken or at least its knowledge was meant to be passed on to whomever found the tomb and made it that far. Contrary to that thought, was the rotting corpse on the floor.

'If the holocron was meant to be passed on, why was the person killed?' Naruto wondered and came up with several theories. It was possible that the person was deemed to be unsuitable in some way. Perhaps the spirit had been angered in some way.

These thoughts however did not explain the sculpture that stood out in the room.

'If the Sith entombed here made the sculptures around the room, then perhaps it was an offering?' he reasoned as his mind worked to come up with a way to get the holocron. The 'treasure' was not something he considered worthwhile but the holocron could be most useful.

That line of thinking did seem somewhat logical as it made some sense that perhaps to gain the holocron, an exchange or trade might have been initiated by the deceased. It however did not help him in determined how he could remain alive and still get the holocron.

Looking back at the white sculpture, he again noticed that it clashed with every other sculpture in the room. The Force was also telling him that the observation was of some significance.

'So the Sith was not pleased with the offering and killed the person that brought it. Then what should I do?' he wondered and thought about what he could give.

He had no sculptures and making one on the spot could just as easily offend the spirit as the once living person had done. He also wasn't nearly as artistic or gifted as the Sith artisan had been and had no idea how to deal with a Sith spirit. Whether the Force techniques he could use would affect the spirit, he wasn't sure.

The only items he had which were 'artistic' or at least similar to sculptures were his weapons. His sword and discblades were not however something that he could part with.

It took another minute to think up what he could possibly trade and eventually he came upon something feasible. It wouldn't be a loss and hopefully it would appease the spirit. He thought about making a shadow clone and sending it forward but quickly decided against it.

Taking a deep breath, he entered the chamber and headed for the sarcophagus.

x-x

Jumping off the last vestiges of the salt rifts, Suigetsu twirled in the air and came down upon one of the gunrunners that was just heading from the ship with a load. He caught them completely by surprise and his kunai drove into the head of a Nikto while a thrown kunai pierced the throat of a second one. Suigetsu landed on the ground and charged the rest.

One pulled out a blaster while the other went for some kind of melee weapon. Suitgetus dodged as the one of the humanoids tried to slice him apart with an interesting weapons that reminded him of a knuckleduster with a curved blade on the end instead of just blunt metal.

Judging from the slight noise he could hear, it appeared that the weapon had vibration technology that Naruto had talked with him about.

The thought of getting his hands on the device made him smile and he dodged a swipe while another gunrunner came at him with a pike-like weapon while the other stayed back and fired several shots.

Grabbing the arm of the punching creature, Suigetus maneuvered the humanoid into another swing from the pike wielding one, which cut deeply and easily through its torso.

The surprise from killing a comrade was enough for Suigetsu to take advantage of and disarm the pike -like weapon to use against the wielder. Cutting off its legs, Suigetsu turned to the blaster use one and threw the pike as a spear. The thrown weapon pierced the chest of the final Nikto and killed it instantly.

He was about to go back and finish off the others when he heard something coming from the ship. Turning around he saw that the last of the group had managed to escape and made it to the cockpit of the ship. Thinking the Nikto would take off in the ship, Suigetsu hurried to make it to the still lowered ramp but his attention was diverted to a weapon that popped down from the hull of the ship. It looked like a much larger blaster than he had seen and he was unable to dodge as it pointed directly at him and unleashed rapid-fire bolts of plasma.

The first few bolts hit him before he could even move and tore right through him. While normal blasters were of little consideration to him, the larger ones he was being hit with were burning off more water from his body than he could deal with.

Running as best as he could, Suigetsu took cover behind a nearby rock but the blaster fire was powerful enough to destroy the impromptu hiding place which made the Kiri ninja curse loudly.

Losing consistency, Suigetsu turned completely into a liquid and began slithering away to cover, avoiding the blaster bolts as best as he could.

x-x

Moving past the dark sculptures and many shadowed areas, Naruto traveled through the chamber. His heart raced as he actively searched for danger. He could have sworn a moment before that one of the more statue-like sculptures had moved but it could have just been a trick of the eyes. He was also feeling that he was being closely watched.

As he moved ever closer to the dais, he began pulling out the needed supplies to make the trade. While he had no sculpting ability, he did have something else that was unique and hopefully would be accepted. If not, he would have to create and switch with a mud clone as fast as possible to escape what had killed his predecessor.

Reaching the dais, his eyes didn't leave the carved figure behind the sarcophagus until he had all his supplies out. Pulling out his ink and his only spare scroll, Naruto set both items down on the surface of the circular dais and opened the scroll.

Feeling out his surroundings with the Force, he attempted to get an idea of what the spirit might be thinking. Now that he was so close to the sarcophagus he found he could feel an actual presence and not just the feeling of being watched. Gauging what little emotions were present, he found a slight feeling of curiosity coming from the spirit.

Dipping his brush in the ink, he flattened out part of the scroll and used the Force to help guide him as he began creating a myriad of fuinjutsu.

He began by making seals that he definitely knew and as he continued, his seals became more elaborate. One of the seals was an explosive seal that he planned to use as a distraction if the artwork was not accepted. As he continued with the fuinjutsu, it became more about mixing and adding fuinjutsu together instead of just using a single seal. Soon what he was brushing onto the paper was no longer fuinjutsu seals but some kind of amalgamation of everything that he knew. He even began adding Sith runes in.

As ink covered inch after inch of scroll and the inches became feet as he continued to unravel more parchment and continue on, he stopped worrying about anything else and surrendered his brush hand completely to the Force.

Black liquid continued to flow over the parchment and before he knew it, he had covered all six feet of parchment with ink. Blinking out of his trance, Naruto looked over what he had done and was actually quite surprised. What started off as simple and calculated had turned into something else entirely.

Oddly, he actually found himself quite calm considering the situation. His breathing and even heart-rate were now at a normal level. In the past, he had only ever felt like that when he was building something. He had felt similarly when he created his goggles but it wasn't quite the same. The brushing was much more soothing.

Realizing once again where he was, he nearly stopped but once his senses felt no threat or danger, he pulled out a kunai and decided to carve out a few Sith runes into the outer edges of the paper in order to protect it. He probably shouldn't have been so concerned about it but for some reason he wanted the scroll to last, even if he would never see it again.

When he was completely finished he turned the scroll around on the large dais as if to show off his work and accept judgment.

His nervousness came back in full as he stood still and looked up at the carved statue that also seemed to be looking down on him.

x-x

"Fuck!" Suigetsu cursed as he was being pinned down by the large rapid-fire blaster. The Nikto in the cockpit was dead-set on finishing him off and had changed a good portion of the landscape in front of the ship to do it.

He was too far away from the salt rifts to get back there without incurring more loss of water and his current damage was significant. He could no longer keep his form and was more or less a slow moving puddle.

Looking down at the trapped ninja, Tayuya rolled her eyes and debated about what to do. She didn't want to put herself at risk and it was Suigetsu's own fault for running in on his own. They were however supposed to be a group.

'If those two bastards read my mind and find out I did nothing to help, I'm not sure what they would do.'

With a sigh, the redhead created a few normal bunshin and sent them running around the area. While the clones were doing that, she jumped to the ground and carefully went through a set of handseals. In her spare time, she had been learning some earth manipulation and while she wasn't finished with the exercises yet, she did learn one jutsu that could help her.

x-x

Making his way farther down an unknown path, Kabuto followed the sense of smell of his snake as he tracked down the four humanoids that were in the rifts. All he had to do was neutralize them and he was curious to see how some of the poisons that his snake could produce would work on the species he was facing.

Moving through the shadows, Kabuto could finally hear voices in a language that he didn't recognize. He wished he could interpret what they were saying but there was little he could do at the moment. Unless they started speaking in Basic, he would never know what their last words were.

Coming out of his robes, the snake attachment moved to peak into the opening of the bolt hole that the gunrunners were using. Kabuto closed his eyes and began viewing through what his appendage could see. It was something that he had discovered when Plagueis was examining and testing his body.

The snake appendage could not only detach from him but he could both communicate and sense what it could sense whenever he wanted. Perhaps in time he could use or produce more than one attachment but for the moment, it was all he needed.

Seeing the new activity, the snake quickly returned to him.

It appeared that the Nikto had received a message, from who he knew not, but he assumed it might be from the ship. They were pulling off the covers of several crates to arm themselves and began heading to the exit to presumably go back to the ship.

'Hopefully Suigetsu had some restraint but given their current actions, I doubt it. He probably charged right at them and one them called for help.' Kabuto surmised and prepared to attack.

During their trip, he found that he could still summon snakes, despite no longer being on Ibonihs. So as the four Nikto left the bolt hole and passed by Kabuto, four snakes shot out of the sleeve of his robe and wrapped around the gunrunners before they could react. Squeezing tightly enough to cause pain and make them drop their weapons, the four were supported by the snakes as Kabuto stepped out of the shadows.

Completely trapped, Kabuto's attached snake moved to the necks of each Nikto and injected each with a different venom. If they had to deal with that species again, it might be beneficial, at least to him, to know which poisons would work on such a different physiology. At least that was Kabuto reasoning for the experiment.

x-x

Moments passed as Naruto contemplated snatching the holocron and making a break for it. He was expecting a sign or at least something that would let him know if the scroll was accepted. Nothing happened though.

Extending his senses again, he searched for any negative feeling he could coming from the sculpture or sarcophagus. He guessed that he would feel anger or perhaps disgust if the barter was not accepted but he found nothing of the sort.

Slowly, he extended his hand forward across the dais. Flexing his fingers, as they for some reason seemed to get stiff, he inched closer to the holocron. His eyes were not on the metal object but rather his surroundings and he was ready to leap by back at the first sign of danger.

As his hand reached the pyramidal object, his fingers tips touched the top of it. The metal was ice cold to the touch and sent a chill through his arm and down the length of his spine. His fingers grasped the pyramid and pulled it off its resting place.

With holocron in hand, Naruto locked his eyes to the carved face and was about to start backing up when he had a thought.

The other item on the dais was the half meter tall white statue. He had ignored it's presence until that moment. His scroll had evidently been accepted but the small statue had not. If the Sith didn't like the statue, then he thought perhaps he should remove it from the tomb. After all, who would want something they hated sitting inside their tomb.

'If the corpse brought it there then it may actually be worth something.' he reasoned as his eyes looked between the cloaked and white statue in the room. Reaching again, his other hand grasped the white statue and he waited for a moment for something to happen.

When nothing did, Naruto picked it up and made to leave. He moved one step back when he felt the presence stirring. Completely alert and ready to run, he was surprised when he didn't feel any anger coming from the spirit. Instead, he received a mental picture of what the spirit wanted.

Sighing, Naruto decided the small statue would be worth the price.

x-x

Popping up at the loading ramp of the ship, Tayuya jumped out of the hole and silently made her way into the ship while it was shooting at her clones and Suigetsu.

Suigetsu was also watching behind his newest hiding place as he saw Tayuya enter the ship. Looking to the cockpit, he smirked when he saw a shadow come up behind the creature that had been firing on him. His smirk only widened when he saw a spray and streak of blood appear across one of the cockpit windows.

Exiting the ship, Tayuya cleaned off the kunai on one of the dead gunrunners that Suigetsu had killed. While she was doing that, Suigetsu moved over the surface of the ground towards her.

"I need water." he said and Tayuya looked at him with a frown.

"Don't you have your own?" she commented as she put her kunai back in her pouch.

"I do but I can't reform my body enough to get into my pouches." explained Suigetsu and Tayuya sighed before putting on a wry smile.

"Sure, happy to help." stated Tayuya as she prepared to help her fellow group member by gathering saliva in her mouth

{Spit}

"You bitch! I wanted some bottled water, not your spit! That's disgusting!" yelled Suigetsu as he shook what appeared to be half-formed fist at her and used the other partially formed hand to try and wipe the spit off his face.

"Be more specific next time." Tayuya chided with a shrug and then pulled out a scroll to unseal a bottle of water which she proceeded to dump on the puddling ninja.

This would certainly be an entertaining story to tell Karin when they met back up.

x-x

Moving back the way he had traveled, Kabuto led several of his earth clones as they pushed a repulsorlift cart and carried many crates of assorted weapons to put back aboard the ship they were just removed from.

Only two of the Nikto had been killed by the first administration of poison. It seemed that the other two were not as affected by their individual poisons. He would have to further study their bodies to find out why. It turned out that his snakes also had difficulty asphyxiating them so he just finished off the two with one of new medical toys.

Exiting the edge of the salt rifts, he found Tayuya and an apparently very thirsty Suigetsu arguing about something. He disregarded the pointless conversation as he adjusted his glasses and then decided what to do next.

Of their group, only Naruto and Master Plagueis could properly fly a ship. He was interested and had some brief instruction while they were traveling but other than that, he had no experience. It was possible that the could pilot the ship back to junkyard as it wouldn't require any skilled maneuvering but he thought perhaps he should contact Naruto and have him swing by in the skiff. It might be better to keep the crates off the ship until they decided what to do with it.

He had no knowledge on the ship in front of him and it may or may not be suitable for their needs. One of the things he had learned was that the life-support systems on a ship could only support so many beings. Adding more individuals than the system could handle was not something that could be done for longer periods of time. Eventually the overtaxed system would not be able to recycle enough oxygen for the passengers to breathe.

Searching his cloak and pockets for the holographic communicator, he planned to contact Master Plagueis and provide an update on their success as well as seek further instruction.

x-x

Putting aside his dismay at the situation, Naruto dragged the corpse by its leg across the length of the tomb and back to the tunnel he had entered through.

Evidently a slow decomposition or perhaps the climate in the chamber had caused the body to still be 'fleshy' and rather disgusting to touch. He decided to not use his gloves as he wanted to keep them free of decomposition smell. This unfortunately meant that his hand was in contact with the body. Removing the corpse was the price for the statue.

If the white statue turned out to be worthless, he would surely detonate the explosive seal he drew in the scroll which had been exchanged for the holocron.

Making it to the end of the chamber and the tunnel, he gave Meizu a deadpanned look and said, "Grab a leg."

Meizu sighed and grabbed the other leg, helping Naruto to pull the body through the tunnel and back the way they came. Naruto planned to leave it in the next chamber before bypassing all the traps and heading straight to the surface.

It was hard to gauge what he was feeling. He got the holocron but the rumored 'treasure' did not pan out. His thoughts moved to the men that had ambushed them and he wondered if more might be coming. At first they seemed set on their cargo, then luring them into the cave, and now he wasn't sure what to think about what might happen next.

From reading one of the thugs minds back at the hanger, he knew the person sending them was named Mordo Varss and the man 'owned' the starport they were staying at. Technically the crime boss just bullied the others in the port into paying money for protection but the man's thugs also collected many other 'taxes'.

Given the hostilities between Varss and the other two individuals that owned the other starports on the planet, it was likely that considering how many men Varss was now down, that another criminal or starport owner would try to take over.

There was a chance they could leave before any reprisals or attacks happened but he currently felt that perhaps another course of action was needed and that leaving would forfeit an opportunity. With his mind still forming a plan, Naruto and Meizu deposited the body in the next chamber and then moved through the rock to get back to Karin on the surface.

x-x

Sitting at the circular table on the ship, Plagueis looked up from his datapad as he heard a beeping and saw a light blinking light on the tables control systems. Activating the holographic projector, Plagueis accepted the message and the blue fuzzy image of Kabuto appeared at the center of the table.

"Report." demanded Plagueis as he tried to read as much of Kabuto's thoughts as possible.

"We've taken a ship and many containers of weapons. Unfortunately, we can't fly the ship and we didn't leave a gunrunner alive to pilot it for us, so we have no way of getting back with the cargo." replied Kabuto.

"I'll check in with Naruto and determine what to do from there. If he isn't done yet then we'll have to figure something else out." responded Plagueis as he thought of what else could be done.

Kabuto gave a slight bow and his image disappeared. Leaning Gato's body back in the chair Plagueis thought about what else he could do. The problem was allocation of resources and the only person besides himself that could fly was Naruto. Kabuto now had cargo and ship but possessed no way to move either.

'When we get the chance, we'll have to start training the others in the basics of piloting a ship.' Plagueis mentally noted. It was quite a problem and oversight to have so many group members and only a select few that could pilot a ship. Perhaps he would just have Naruto do it. His student's clones would be able to train several members at once.

Sitting forward, he pushed a button on the control panel for the table to send a message to his student.

x-x

Naruto and Meizu came out of the ground behind Karin and surprised the girl. She seemed to have been quite focused on something which Naruto took as a sign of further trouble.

Decided to get it over with and find out, he asked, "Is something else out there, Karin?"

Karin readjusted her glasses and replied, "I can sense several individuals in the distance. They arrived after you entered the cave and haven't moved since then."

Naruto couldn't keep the frown off his face as he had the feeling that the newcomers were there to backup the ones that had been killed in inside. He could ambush them with Meizu but he also wanted to get back to the ship and examine the holocron with his master. Perhaps they could also find out more about the statue he now had.

Thinking for a moment, he decided, "We should get back to the ship. If they follow us we can send word ahead and ambush them. Considering we didn't find any treasure, I'm not sure they will be interested. They might look for their comrades first, which would give us enough time to get back."

"No treasure?" Karin repeated with disappointment and Meizu shook his head in the negative.

"Hey, what's that you're holding?" Karin said while pointing at the statue.

"Just something I was allowed to take from the tomb." replied Naruto as he got up and headed for the skiff with the other two in tow.

"Tomb?" Karin questioned with a shiver.

"Yes, a tomb, with several traps and now almost half a dozen corpses." finished Naruto as they made it to the skiff. Jumping on the repulsor craft, Naruto manned the controls and put them on a course back to the junkyard at the starport.

x-x

A pair of electrobinoculars viewed the two kids and one adult get on board the ship and commented, "I guess they took out another group."

"Shit, how many is that so far that we've lost to them? Mordo isn't going to be happy." commented another voice.

"Who cares. what about the treasure?"

"I certainly don't see any treasure." responded another man that was also looking through his own pair of electrobinoculars.

"Use your eyes idiots. Don't you see what that brat is holding?"

"It can't be." said one in disbelief.

"It certainly looks like it. The description is spot on and it looks like the rumor was true. One of the Tessents was in that cave and they managed to get it. There's your treasure." responded the leader of the group and he put down his binoculars to start up the skiff they were on to give chase.

x-x

"We're being followed." voiced Karin as she looked behind them and could make out a dark object moving over the surface in the distance behind them.

'Is it revenge they're after?' wondered Naruto as he shook his head thinking how foolish they must be considering what happen to the last two groups that came after them.

"How many?" Naruto questioned as he banked the skiff to the left and began looking for rougher terrain to lose them in.

"Five." Karin responded while focusing on the fast moving vessel. Meizu pulled out two blasters that he had taken from the dead thugs in the cave and moved to the back of the ship to engage when they got within range. Each vessel could take shots at the other but given the distance, the blaster bolt would arc. It would both be difficult to aim, and a waste of energy cell power.

"Um, they seem to be gaining on us." Karin hesitantly announced and Naruto turn to glare at the very similar but apparently faster skiff that was indeed catching up.

"They'll be in blaster range soon too. Is there any chance you could maybe shoot at them with that long ranged weapon you've been carrying around?" Naruto asked Karin and the girl blinked for a few seconds before realizing that he was talking about the rifle on her back.

She had been carrying it around for the whole day and completely forgotten about it. Fumbling slightly as she removed the strap from her shoulder, she placed the gun on the railing of the skiff and took aim at the skiff.

Aiming for the shoulder, Karin steadied herself and pulled the trigger.

At the same moment, Naruto veered the skiff slightly and Karin's trajectory was changed.

x-x

"Get ready. We need to get along side them or try to force them to stop." stated the driver of the skiff as the four other occupants of the craft pulled out their blasters and began taking aim at the skiff in front of them.

Before they got in range, a shot rang out from the ship and red bolt of plasma pierced through the head of one of men standing on the front of the skiff.

"Fuck! They got Olan right between the eyes."

"Get us the hell out of their fire." said one of the ducking men to the driver.

Coming up on a canyon, the driver increased the altitude of the skiff and ran along the top of the canyon wall while the other skiff went into the canyon. Moving to the edge of the canyon, the other men moved to one side of the skiff and opened fire at the other skiff below them.

Naruto knew what they were up to and engaged the ships braking system. As their skiff pulled back, the blaster bolts missed and hit the area in front of them.

As Meizu returned fire, Karin sat at the back of the ship realizing that she had shot one of the thugs in the face. Turning to Naruto she asked, "Do you think he's still alive?"

"No, I'm quite sure he's dead." replied Naruto as he focused on the winding canyon and trying to stay out of the majority of the blaster fire. Karin felt a sinking feeling in her stomach at the realization that she had killed someone.

Glancing at the still sitting Karin and feeling her emotions, Naruto decided to try and say something encouraging, "Given his line of work, he probably would have been killed at some point anyway."

Karin's head dropped at the words and Naruto groaned before returning his full attention to piloting. Comforting someone was not something he was good at, nor something he tried to be good at.

A fork in the canyon was coming up and he saw an opportunity for a brief relief from the shooting. Moving closer to the canyon wall, he waited until the last moment and swerved the skiff to take the opposite direction. The skiff barely missed the wall of the fork and the other skiff was caught by surprise, unable to continue their present course.

With only a few seconds, Naruto's mind raced to find a solution to their problem. Their weapons could do little damage to a skiff and he thought about using ninjutsu but on the rare chance that someone from the party survived, he didn't want anyone telling stories about children that could shoot lightning from their mouths or something like that.

His thoughts were interrupted by a question from Meizu while the Kiri ninja was changing energy packs on the pilfered blasters, "What are they after?"

The question was also something that he had been thinking. Their opponents hadn't even bothered to look in on their friends to see if they were dead or not. While it could just be that they group didn't care, he wondered if it was because of something else. The other skiff didn't seem to be trying to kill them. Most of their shots impacted the skiff and they weren't shooting at the pilot of the skiff, himself, either.

"They want something from us." Naruto stated out loud and he looked around the skiff. The only thing they had was the holocron and the statue. It seemed unlikely that their pursuers were after the holocron given that few people even knew what they were. This left only the statue.

Glancing at Meizu, he demanded, "I need a rock."

The Kiri ninja gave him a strange look and tilted his head before shrugging and aimed his blasters at the rock-face. Firing several shots, many pieces of rock were knocked loose. While keeping the skiff steady, Naruto used to the Force to bring on the piece closer to the ship and it smacked onto the floor of the skiff, breaking into smaller pieces.

The ship lurched slightly from the impact but Naruto held the repulsorlift vessel steady.

"They're coming back." Karin informed them and Naruto acknowledged the warning while looking to Meizu, "Grab one of those rocks." he ordered and the still confused Kiri ninja complied.

x-x

"Get ready to fire." said one of the crew to the others as they neared the edge of the canyon. With blasters out, the moment the reached the edge, they opened fire on the skiff. Each member was careful not to hit the pilot as they needed the fragile cargo on the skiff to remain intact.

A moment later, one of the members of the other skiff tossed something into the air. The act caught the full attention of the other skiff.

The blaster fire ceased as the white statue twirled in the air and kept increasing in height as it flew out of the canyon. The other skiffs occupants were completely distracted by the thrown object and Naruto knew that it must have been far more valuable than he originally suspected.

One of the men began pointing and the pilot responded with, "I see it. Get ready to grab it!"

The skiff moved with the tossed object and increased in altitude as far as it was able to. The statue reached the apex of its flight and as soon as it started to fall, the skiff managed to reach it. One of the men grabbed the statue before it hit the deck of the skiff.

Turning to show it off to the rest, he triumphantly announce, "I got it!" as he held it up for the others to see. As the smoke from the henge dissapated, however, all the crew saw was a rock with several pieces of paper stuck on it. Each piece appeared to be sizzling.

x-x

Meizu and Karin watched the explosive notes go off. While little damage was done to the skiff itself, the crew was either killed or maimed and the vessel went out of control. Quickly losing altitude, the vessel impacted the ground and grated across the ground of the canyon wall until it impacted something else.

Their skiff remained on it's course through the cold, barren landscape as a rising line of smoke grew in the distance. The ship traveled fast enough that the curvature of the planet's surface eventually concealed the rising smoke and any evidence that a crash had occurred in the distance.

Karin tightened her all-weather cloak against the cold air that rushed past them and looked to Naruto who was in the process of removing the small holographic communicator from his cloak.

Plagueis had been trying to reach them but he didn't have a chance to respond. Placing the communicator on top of the console in front of him, a blue image of a sitting Gatou soon appeared.

Plagueis studied his student for a moment and then asked, "Too busy to answer?" It wasn't really meant to be a joke or even sarcasm but more curiosity.

"We ran into two groups of thugs from the owner of the starport. Kabuto's information wasn't completely accurate. It was a Sith tomb but there was no treasure." Naruto began and he could feel his Master's interest in the tomb, "I'm not sure what species the Sith was but we avoided the traps and were able to trade for a holocron and something else."

"Trade?" questioned Plagueis as he had never heard of such a thing. Sith didn't trade, they took what they wanted.

"I can explain when we get back." responded Naruto, and Plagueis nodded while adding, "Kabuto and his group have taken a ship and require assistance."

"I understand, Master." said Naruto and he quickly changed course to rendezvous with Kabuto at the salt rifts.

"There is something else I want to discus with you. I've been thinking about all the trouble that the spaceport owner has been causing us..." Naruto began and Plagueis finished the sentence, "..and you would like to do something about it?"

Naruto nodded and began going over his newly formed plan with his Master. Ironically, his Master was also thinking of the same plan.

x-x

The skiff pulled up near the new ship and a shadow clone jumped off the skiff to go look at the ship. The real Naruto also jumped off the skiff and calmly went to talk with Kabuto.

"Did you find any treasure?" asked Kabuto with interest. It wasn't everyday that people got to go off in search of hidden treasure and he regretted not being able to go himself.

"No treasure..." answered Naruto and he could feel disappointment from Kabuto, "..but we did find two other items that could prove just as good." he finished and Kabuto's eyes widened with renewed interest.

"My clone can pilot the ship back to the junkyard. We have something else we have to do and you can ask my clone to help fill you in on what's going on." Naruto quickly added to cut of Kabuto's impending questions and the snake-like ninja merely smirked.

"Tayuya, you're coming with us." ordered Naruto and he made to leave. The redhead scoffed at the order but said nothing as she got aboard the skiff.

"You're going after someone aren't you? Can I come?" asked a smiling Suigetsu and Naruto answered, "We won't be killing anyone."

"On second thought, I'll remain here." stated Suigetsu and he put his arms up behind his head as he walked back to the ship while Naruto turned around, jumping back on board the skiff, and prepared to leave.

Karin looked to the other redhead and said, "You might want to put chakra in your feet and hold on to something." Seeing Karin do the same thing, Tayuya mimicked the other redhead and was thankful as the skiff's sudden acceleration would likely have caused her to fall over.

x-x

"Once Kabuto gets back to the junkyard, Master Plagueis will be joining us at our location." said Naruto to the group members aboard the skiff.

"Where the hell are we going?" questioned the more outspoken redhead of the group.

"We're traveling to some ruins just outside of the starport but we have to take a less direct route to get there." answered Naruto and before anyone could say anything else, he continued with more details on the plan, "A group on a skiff attacked us while we were returning to the junkyard. Coincidentally, our skiff was the same generic skiff as there's. Master Plagueis agreed that the boss of their group has given us enough trouble."

"An infiltration mission?" asked Meizu and Naruto nodded in confirmation as he continued to fly the skiff.

"So we're not killing anyone?" inquired Karin as that was what she overheard Naruto telling Suigetsu.

"No we aren't going to kill them. We will take the facility that they have and then wait for Master Plagueis to arrive."

"What's the little pig going to do?" questioned Tayuya and Naruto overlooked the remark.

"He's going to turn them to our side." answered Naruto quizzically and he could feel the confusion as to what Plagueis was really going to do.

"But before that..." Naruto began as he turned to Karin, "...we need to know what the men that you saw through your scope looked like." finished Naruto as he had never gotten a good look at the men they were shooting at.

x-x

As the sensor system picked up an incoming craft, a silent alarm was sounded and most of the men went to the mounted gun positions on the outside of the castle while one person looked through a pair of electrobinoculars to check out the incoming craft.

Thinking it might be an attack, they were ready to fend off whatever it was despite their slightly reduced numbers. Zooming in on the vessel, the man recognized the ones aboard and cursed as he communicated to the others that it was their own vessel and not to shoot.

The skiff slowed and moved near the raised ruins of what was once a very decorated castle but had worn down over a long period of time. Coming to a large door at ground level that was not part of the original castle, the skiff waited as the thick double doors began opening to reveal a large hangar bay. The disguised Naruto noted a large ship that would probably fit their needs well.

His clone had informed him that the ship acquired by Kabuto and his group was probably just too small for them to all fit comfortably on it.

Setting down in an open area of the large hangar, the disguised group got off the skiff and they all looked to one are of the hangar wall when human-sized a metal door instantly opening not to far away.

"You idiot! What have I told you about sending a message ahead of you to let us know you're coming. One of these days were going to blast you to dust by accident, or maybe we'll just give a couple of warning shots to make you remember next time." said a man speaking directly to Naruto.

Ignoring the disguised Tayuya's pointed look at the mention of being destroyed, Naruto said nothing at first as he wasn't sure how the man he was disguised as would answer. He analyzed the thoughts of the man talking to him in order to determine what the proper response was.

Shrugging, Naruto said in a less than apologetic voice, "My bad." and the man's serious face changed to a slight frown.

'Shit!' Naruto thought as the man spoke, "Is your voice alright, you sound different."

Faking a cough, Naruto responded with a wave of his hand, "Inhaled some smoke. I'll be better in no time."

The man looked confused for only a brief moment before saying, "Yeah, you'll be fine in no time."

A brief moment of silence passed before he spoke again,"What happened to Olan?" he questioned as he looked over the group.

"Took a blaster bolt to the head," responded Meizu and apparently the Kiri ninja had imitated the dead man's voice enough not to cause further suspicion. No one also noticed a slight squirm come from the disguised Karin at the back of the group when the death was mentioned.

The man shook his head with a frown, "I can't believe how many we've lost today. Have you heard anything from Ral's group?" He questioned and Naruto responded with a shake of his head and motioned with his hand while saying, "There was nothing we could do."

"Well I guess there was nothing you could do. Did you at least manage to bring anything back?" he asked and Naruto held up the white sculpture.

"No shit, you actually got it. Damn, all that fuss for something that doesn't look that spectacular. I expected it to be one of the finest pieces of art that I'd ever seen." said the man as he frowned over the sculpture.

"Aren't we expected?" asked Naruto with another wave of his hand and the man quickly responded that they were.

"Mordo was expecting an update an hour ago." quickly added the man and he moved to the door to take them to where Mordo was.

As they moved through the facility, Naruto looked at all the wires running from some kind of generator deeper in the facility and noted any security systems that could be a problem.

The castle was incredibly old but had evidently been reinforced or at least partially rebuilt in areas so the thugs could use it as a base to oversee the spaceport. Making a few turns and walking up two flights of metal stairs that had evidently been installed when the old stone steps collapse, the group made it to what was likely the thrown room and where Mordo was.

One guard was stationed outside the room and pushed something on his gauntlet to unlock the doors and allow them entry. The man also appeared to speak into a communicator on his wrist and likely announce their arrival.

The door opened and they walked into what was supposed to be throne room but looked more like a combination of dinning hall and meeting room. There were large columns on the edges of the room that held up a high arched ceiling. The room was rectangular and had a large table on one side with numerous crates and pieces of equipment littering the other side.

Whatever throne had once stood at the end of the room was crumbled and had not been replaced. Sitting at the table was apparently Mordo who was a man of average build with what was once jet black hair but now featured quite a few gray hairs. It was evident that the man hadn't shaved in a few days.

Looking to the group, Mordo's eyes instantly fell up on the statue. The man rose from his seat and walked over to them without looking up as his eyes were glued to the item in Naruto's left hand.

Naruto could feel greed and then power swirl around I the man's mind. An obsession over the item was definitely present as well. 'He's been searching for it for a while.' Naruto guessed.

So fixated on the statue, the man never noticed Naruto pull out his blaster. At the speed it was drawn, the man likely wouldn't have even been able to react even if he had noticed.

A stun bolt struck the man in the chest and he quickly crumpled to the ground. Naruto noted how effective the stun setting on his blaster worked as Meizu took care of the man they had walked with as well as the guard at the door.

"Tayuya." Naruto stated and the henge soon fell on the redhead as she pulled out her flute and began playing. The castle was actually quite perfect for her talents as her music would echo throughout the entire facility.

As the melody traveled, the alarm was never even sounded. Each person in the facility began seeing feathers slowly falling in their field of vision. The sight made them incredibly sleepy and they ended up collapsing where they stood.

Naruto and Karin quickly acted to break the high ranking genjutsu on themselves and after the melody concluded, Naruto created a group of shadow clones and sent them into the facility with Meizu to collect the sleeping thugs.

Scrunching his eyes, Naruto removed his breather mask and pulled out a chair at the meeting table to sit down in. He placed the statue on the table and looked at it, as if trying to figure out what secrets it apparently held. The material seemed more interesting in the better light but it still didn't appear all that valuable to him.

He could just read the leader's mind and find out more about it but he was tired and just wanted to rest for a little while. His entire day had been taxing and he leaned back in the chair while resting his eyes. All he had to do now was wait for Plagueis to show up. His Master would likely pilot the ship Kabuto procured and it should arrive in a few moments.

Karin walked up and sat in another chair after checking to see if any person in the castle was still moving or somehow not affected by the genjutsu. The redhead leaned forward and rested her head on her arms.

Instead of moving to the table, Tayuya merely walked to one of the columns and leaned against it. She too was tired but didn't want to appear that tired. She did however think about sitting down as her feet were quite sore. Looking to Naruto, she remarked, "Tired?"

Naruto frowned at her statement but his eyes then widened as his blaster shot to his hand as he stood in an instant an pointed it ahead of him.

"The fuck!" Tayuya yelled in surprise as she looked at Naruto. It was just a criticism but she quickly noticed that the blaster wasn't pointed directly at her. It was pointed slightly to her right. Her blood ran cold at the realizing and the serious look on Naruto's face.

"You can come out now." stated Naruto as he looked at the darkened area between the columns. They were offset at least a few feet from the wall and created a completely shadowed area.

'A droid. I missed a droid.' he realized as he couldn't feel any life-signs in the room but was certain something was there. All his tiredness was gone and replaced by alertness over the new threat. His mind quickly accepted the possibility of an assassin droid but he then realized that it would have likely fired upon him already.

A few seconds passed as he Karin peered over the edge of the table she was crouched behind, Naruto looked down the sight on his blaster, and Tayuya stood completely still with her back against the wide column. One hand on her blaster and the other holding a kunai.

A figure soon slowly emerged from the shadows and it took shape as that of a short droid, cylindrical in shape, with a curved top and two wheeled legs with a smaller third leg jutting out from the bottom of the cylinder at the front. It had a mostly white body with some red markings and looked well warn. The three stared at the droid as it looked back at them.

A few beeps came from the droid and caused Tayuya and Karin to jump slightly.

"What the hell is it?!"

"Is it dangerous?!"

'Oh fuck me. Its just an astromech.' thought Naruto and his complete overreaction made him do something that he hadn't in a long time. He laughed.

He laughed as the obviously nervous droids head swiveled around and its photoreceptors took in the three individuals. He laughed at the strange looks from the two redheads and had to sit down because he was laughing so hard. The droid was completely harmless but a moment prior they had been just afraid of it as it was of them, possibly more afraid, and the thought just made him laugh harder. He even dropped his blaster.

While the laughter filled the room, the two redheads looked on in shock at their leader. Neither had ever heard him laugh before and thought perhaps he lost his mind.

Please Review

AN: the chapter ended up being so long that I will have to reveal more in the next one.

Responses to reviews.

Reviewer: Leadman

Review: Interesting developments.

1. I hope you've got something planned for the new possession body. I agree with your analysis that Kabuto isn't suitable. Anyone will do actually even a random mook from their next planetfall.

2. Using Orochimaru's cells? That's pretty dangerous but I hope you got that angle covered. It would really suck to have him come back again, milking that gets old after a while.

3. Did they clean up their base? A sannin like Jiraiya won't let things go that easily and any questionable tech left behind would be sure to raise question marks.

That's about it. I'm looking forward to the next installment. And to the foul-mouthed bitch complaining about Naru/Hina, go get bent. There are thousands of stories for different tastes. If you don't like this story go read something else. Reviews aren't for ranting that you don't like pairing X/Y. Don't like it, don't read it.

Response: I do have a body planned and some plans for Gatou as well. Using orochimaru's cells is dangerous but even in canon, Kabuto wasn't affected by his transformation and its basically the same only with a few more added features. I don't plan to have Orochimaru come back. They did clean up the base and since Naruto built the new reactor from the old one, he didn't waste or have extra materials. Thank you for the review.

Reviewer: Peter Kim

Response: I don't plan to have anyone on Naruto's planet get any technology from the galaxy. I am of the belief that summoning Naruto back would require his blood, which is something that I don't think they have.

Reviewer: axellon2008fan

Response: I'm always amazed at how much of the coming storyline reviewers are able to guess. At this point I don't plan to completely separate from some canon stuff. I have plans for naruto to come back at some point but I have no idea if those plans will become chapters.

Reviewer: Sasha Naruto

Response: I'm not sure why you think the story is Naruto/Hinata. She was basically only featured in like one of nineteen chapters and I didn't try to set anything up. Your initial review was rather strange and honestly I didn't take your suggestions, or whatever it was that you were trying to get across, very seriously.

Reviewer: WARIOR fanfic99

Response: Thank you for the complements. I haven't quite decided what the ramifications of Naruto absorbing Orochimaru would be. With Sasuke in canon, the resurgence of Orochimaru seemed to be more because of the cursed seal than than just the absorption. Its possible that with time, Naruto will begin to have the healing powers of the white snake, which is something that Sasuke got but was never really explained. I suppose it might just involve faster healing and immunity to most poisons. Its something that I will have to think about.

Reviewer: fanfic-addict

Response: Naruto did summon the snakes with Kabuto's blood and really used the henge so that the snakes wouldn't be confused or possibly attack him. I'm not really sure about the exact specifics. In the case of the suna ninja, they used the scroll to summon a specific snake summons and pooled chakra together to do it. Suigetsu also summoned manda in canon with a scroll and some of sasuke's blood. If Naruto just summoned some random snakes, then I'm not sure he would need a scroll or a summoning seal or not.

Reviewer: joe

Review: thanks for another great chapter and im glad very glad naruto isn't crazy strong takes all the surprise out of fights and watching someone so powerfull they cant get hurt in a fight is not very interesting i like how u are taking time to make him strong

Response: thank you for the review. I do try and make him grow over time as I never liked stories where Naruto gained power in such a fast and unfeasible amount of time.

Reviewer: none

Review: I understand you want to utilize the potential plotlines the star wars galaxy will provide, but I feel you shouldn't abandon the characters of Naruto, either. Perhaps you should incorporate them into the story as well (maybe someone (Zetsu) could stow away on Naruto's ship when he returns, or the Elemental Nations' ninja could be used as warriors by other races when Naruto's group is shown to be so strong). It just seems like a shame to abandon all the work you did developing Danzo and Akatsuki and their plans. Plus, with the reference to the Juubi, cutting the entire solar system from the plot would be seriously disappointing.

This is your story, but I hope you'll at least acknowledge my thoughts, and explain your reasoning if you do drop this part of the plot.

Thanks,  
~~none

Response: At this point I think I will have them return at least once around the time of the fourth ninja war. I don't know what will happen but I would like them to return at least once.

Reviewer: coldblue

Review: Will you have Naruto make a new driod? Think about it! Shinobi DRIOD. THey would be better than commando driods.

Response: I was thinking about making a new droid or perhaps more than one new droid. It might not be Naruto that makes them though. A ninja droid wouldn't really work as chakra requires a physical/organic component. Even Sasori still had his heart in a scroll to somehow hold his chakra.


	20. Chapter 20

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

x-x

**36.4 BBY – Current Year **

Chapter XX: The Tessents and Ast Kikorie

x-x

A pair of blue eyes opened and soon focused on a metal ceiling of the dark room he was in. A feeling of paranoia and alertness flooded over him as his mind raced to identify his location. He soon calmed down as he realized he was in his room, on their ship, which was parked next to the newly captured castle, and on a planet called Sarafur.

Yawning, he sat up and pushed the blanket off him. Looking to his clock to see if it was morning yet he promptly realized that it was a fruitless endeavor as they were on a planet with no day or night. Stretching out his back and neck, he looked over at the droid that was charging in the corner of his room. It was currently in some kind of sleep mode or power-down mode.

The R2 unit, which he had decided to call Deefour, as per its designation as R2-D4, had served them quite well in the short time since it was forced to join their group. It had been two days since they acquired the droid in the ruins of the castle and in that short time, much had happened.

They had managed to take over all three spaceports on Sarafur. One by one, their group had infiltrated and knocked out the criminals, only to have Plageuis put them under his control. The astromech droid proved its worth by slicing into security systems and gathering relevant information for their infiltrations. No member of their group had been injured and with the three spaceports under their control, they effectively owned the planet.

To keep things the way they were, Plagueis began instituting some order among the three ports. The cargo thefts and extra taxes were eliminated while the protection tax was lessened. These measures were contrary to what was expected of a Sith but Plagueis was quite skilled at matters of business, economics, and finance.

By improving the image of the ports, they could possibly attract more people to the planet. More people meant more business and more business meant more opportunities to take advantage of. Instead of fighting amongst themselves, the three ports could pool together resources and better protect the area. Plagueis planned to begin some mining operations on the planet in the future but they currently didn't have the funds. There had to be something there that was worthwhile and once they found it, it could be mined.

Once they managed to gain at least some form of wealth, they could literally afford to look deeper into the events happening in the Republic. So far out in the Known Galaxy and in not very civilized areas, they had no access to the holonet to look at current events or what had happened since Plagueis was killed. They could also start looking into Sidious and begin monitoring the man's activities. Nearly all of their goals were dependent on money.

Currently, they were in the process of consolidating their gathered resources and changing ships. Naruto was right about the second ship being too small for their needs and so they had traded it for Mordo's ship. The manipulated man obviously had no objections and now they had a YZ-900 ship named _The Vulture_ for their use. It was actually larger then their first ship, with much more cargo space, but that actually didn't matter much. With the storage scrolls they had, all the heavy cargo was placed in the seals and they only used a small amount of cargo space on the new ship.

Getting up, he went to get fresh clothes so he could take a shower and then planned on finding some breakfast. Before he left his room, he woke up the astromech droid and it beeped several times before leaving his room as well. Though he couldn't discern what the droid was saying he had the feeling it was something like 'Good Morning.'

x-x

Passing the medical bay after his shower, Naruto saw the door was shut again and no sooner had he walked by then it opened. Despite being slightly down the hall, a strong smell of antiseptic and other odors drifted his way. Kabuto had spent nearly all of his free time learning just how a Nikto's body was different than a human's.

Coming to their usual meeting table, he sat in the free chair and looked to the white statue sitting on the table in front of Plagueis. After all his other work to secure the spaceports and a brief perusal through the junkyard, he now wanted to hear as much as possible about the object. Plagueis had likely already found out just about everything there was to know about it while they were busy taking the other spaceports.

"About time you showed up." commented Tayuya, who was sitting across from him.

"You just woke up five minutes ago, Tayuya." commented Karin about the other redhead and she was quickly silenced by a glare. Naruto smirked slightly at Tayuya's slight embarrassment and Plagueis cleared Gato's throat in their minds to get everyone's attention.

"As all of you know, the treasure didn't work out but we do have this item here and I can tell that all of you would like to know a little more about it. From what I know and from what I found it, it is definitely one of the Tessent. While unknown to all of you, it is an item that has been searched for, sought after, and quickly became infamous in certain outermost rims of the galaxy." Plagueis revealed and wait a brief moment before continuing, "There are two such items that bear the name 'Tessent.' They seem to refer to a mythical creature by that name. They come from two different planets in two different areas of the galaxy and the exact relationship between the two remains mostly unknown, except for the fact that they are probably made of the same materials."

Almost everyone's eyes glanced at the object in question and examined not the carving but the material itself. It was the color of milk with bands of different colors interspersed throughout. At areas where the sculpture wasn't very thick, the materials was almost see-through. It did look to be valuable and Juugo decided to voice a question, "What exactly is it made from?"

"A substance called chalcedony. I believe it to be a mined rock found on several worlds." responded Plagueis.

"Is it expensive?" asked Karin.

"Not really." answered Plagueis and he could feel confusion spread through the members at the table.

"While it isn't expensive, not really intricately carved, or carved by an artist of any note, at least from what I can find, the items have attained a legendary status. Perhaps its best if I explain from the beginning." offered Plagueis, "This particular object is from a planet known as Alsaka and is so called the Alsakan Tessent. I know this because of the creature that has been carved supposed to be part of the distance history and so named the Tessent of Alsaka. This item was created about a thousand years ago to commemorate an event in the planet's history. A short time ago, perhaps twenty years or more, the item mysteriously vanished.

The event caused quite a stir in that area of the galaxy and theories concerning its disappearance were very abundant for years afterward. Exactly what happened, no one really knew. A large reward was offered for its return and that is when the searching began. Likely the reward is still being offered, considering it is sitting right in front of us.

At the time I wasn't really interested as with so many rumors circling around, and a few attempts to pass off a fake as the real sculpture, I never thought it would be found nor really cared. A few of the rumors actually put the objects whereabouts in the this sector of the galaxy and two of those put it on this very planet. Of those two, one of them turns out to not be a rumor at all.

The story stated that a human stole the item and came to this very planet. With the Tessent in hand, he traveled to the tomb of Sith lord and presented it as an offering." Plagueis said and looked to Naruto who realized that everything about that rumor was true. He had seen the body and everything.

"However, that is not the only reason why the item became so infamous." Plagueis began again and recaptured their attention, "Over time, the rumors became even more absurd from what I've managed to find out. People began believing that the Tessent wasn't just a statue but contained some kind of information that would lead to a larger treasure. This secret varied wildly from a datachip hidden inside to microscopic etchings on the surface that were really coordinates to a planet and several other claims."

With the speech over, all attention was brought back to the item in question and Plagueis held back a frown. While it was true that a rumor turned out to be truth, he still wasn't sure about all the other rumors that had abounded since had been gone from the galaxy. They seemed quite outlandish and not worth their time.

"In any case, the sculpture itself still has the large reward attached to it. We could sell it at any time or to a third party. All that remains is to decide what to do next and I open the meeting to suggestions." Plagueis put forth and while he didn't want to excite the group or get sidetracked from getting to the destination he wanted, the thought of a treasure hunt could be too much for them to pass up.

Ideally he wanted to select Tatooine as the next destination. The democratic way to decide was to vote on the subject and hear the opinions of the group members. However, the Sith way was for them to do whatever he wanted to do and not question it. Despite how much he wanted to implement the tried and true Sith method, he reluctantly allowed for free opinions and a vote.

A silence ensued and both Plagueis and Naruto read the emotions that came over the individuals seated around the table. Kabuto was the first to speak but he had a question instead of a say in the vote, "How does this fit in with our overall goals?"

"While the reward would give us quite a bit of money to spend, it would also clash with my desire to stay unnoticed. The return of the Tessent would cause quite a stir and likely put the spotlight on the person that discovered and returned it. I don't want anyone in this group being given that kind of publicity and being featured all over the Holonet. I therefore think we should hold onto the statue and wait to return it at a later time. Selling our stolen cargo would give us funds as well and it won't attract the same amount of attention." answered Plagueis and Kabuto nodded.

"How would we go about determining if the other rumors are true? The ones about the hidden stuff." asked Karin and Plagueis reluctantly answered the question truthfully, "While we currently don't have the means to determine that, there would be a way to properly examine it."

"How far out of our way would we have to go to accomplish this?" asked a curious Naruto as he wondered if they would have to travel into the Republic or any highly populated planets to get access to equipment to analyze the sculpture.

"There is a small Republic research outpost in this sector that would likely have the required instruments. While the outpost primarily studies the galaxy with the many telescopes that are in orbit around the skyhook station, it should have all that would be needed to analyze the sculpture." replied Plagueis and he could feel the seemingly unanimous agreement forming in the group sitting around him. Even if it was a small chance, they wanted to have the sculpture tested to satisfy their curiosity.

"I vote for the sculpture." chimed in Suigetsu and the others all soon agreed.

Holding back a sigh, Plagueis said nothing as his trip to Tatooine was pushed back in favor of closely examining a sculpture. Despite having access to a second ship, he would be needed to analyze the sculpture himself as Naruto wouldn't know how to work the machines or run a proper analysis. He also wasn't sure Gato's body could stand a visit to Tatooine and survive.

As the group members left the table and prepared for their impending trip, Naruto remained at the table and looked to his Master. Once the others were out of earshot, Naruto decided to ask something that he had noted during his Master's speech, "You didn't mention anything about the second Tessent."

Underneath the sunglasses, Gato's eyes darted to Naruto as Plagueis came up with valid answers for the oversight, "There isn't that much known about the second one." he admitted and knew Naruto wouldn't be completely satisfied so he continued, "The second Tessent comes from a planet in this sector, Maya Kovel. It is inhabited by a race of bird-like humanoids called the Ayrou. Its origin is not known to me or most people besides the Ayrou but I do know that it went missing before the Alsakan Tessent. Considering that it came from a planet in the Outer-Rim, the disappearance was less significant and the reward was not as substantial as the other Tessent.

I don't know what the statue depicts, its dimensions, or the artist but I do know it is carved from the same material. There are many rumors surrounding the Ayrou Tessent as well. Some state that it should have been in that tomb or that it resides on the planet that we're now going to. The same secondary rumors also surround the second Tessent about a hidden message that leads to treasure."

"Should we also look for the other Tessent, then? Since it might be on the planet we're heading for." Naruto asked but he could feel the reluctance coming from his Master.

"You were fortunate to find one Tessent, I doubt we would find both. The only rumor that even seemed possible was that the ship carrying the other Tessent was hit during a meteor shower and either crashed onto the planet or was caught in the planet's orbit and is still there. I doubt someone hasn't already looked into those rumors."

"Do you really feel so strongly against examining the sculpture and searching for the second one being a pointless endeavor?" questioned Naruto and Plagueis waited a moment before replying.

"My Apprentice is somewhere out there right now, continuing what is likely a very well thought out plan to probably conquer the galaxy and the only information I've been able to find out is that he hasn't been successful yet. I haven't been able to find a replacement body and I don't really want to chase after a rumor. Finding the Alsakan Tessent alone was fortuitous and not something I counted on but continuing to chase their legend is not something I feel is productive."

"You said it was close, so just give us one day and if we can't find anything of interest, then we'll leave and forget about the rumors." offered Naruto and Plagueis nodded in agreement.

"Where exactly will we be going to sell the guns?" questioned the curious student as he changed the subject.

"Tatooine is probably the best place to sell them. The Hutts won't ask questions concerning where the guns came from and I believe you will be interested in that planet.?" explained Plagueis and Naruto quickly thought about what his Master might be referring to. Going through any mention of Tatooine he had ever heard of, he finally remembered what his Master was talking about.

'The Star Maps.' Naruto recalled and he remembered that Tatooine did have something that he was interested in. Plagueis told him about Darth Revan searching the galaxy for objects called Star Maps which were holographic databases that showed the conquests of the Rakatan Infinte Empire, their homeworld and their greatest achievement, the Star Forge.

Despite the destruction of the Star Forge, it's ruins and the planets once ruled by the Rakatan were places that Naruto wanted to see. Those old history lessons were more like stories to him and he found out all he could from his Master. Plagueis knew much more than most but there were still things that even his Master didn't know. The location of the Rakatan homeworld, and by proxy the remains of the destroyed Star Forge, were things that the galaxy had forgotten.

His Master also only knew of one of those planets that contained any ruins and a Star Map, which was Tatooine. The names of the other planets were not something that Plagueis had ever discovered nor were of much interest.

Naruto however was very interested. He wanted to see these locations and hoped to find something worthwhile from the remnants of the Rakatan Infinite Empire.

Looking to his student, Plagueis could see that Naruto was completely submersed in his own thoughts on the possibilities of Tatooine and finding the ruins of the Rakatan Temple. Getting up from his chair, Plagueis went to pilot the ship.

The trip would only take minutes given how close the planet was so by the following day, they would be headed to Tatooine and he would be able to find out what happened with his experiment.

x-x

_The Vulture_ exited hyperspace and continued traveling at sublight engine speed on its course to Ast Kikorie which was the only habitable planet in the Ast Kikorie system. They were still in the Moddell sector and hadn't traveled very far in terms of lightyears.

Naruto looked over the planet as he helped his Master prepare for their landing. In orbit above the planet's surface was an entire ring of telescopes as well as numerous docking platforms. They however, planned to land on the planet and so were not interested in those structures.

Inside the atmosphere of the planet, was the Republic outpost that they were after. The station was actually a skyhook which was a repulsorlift structure that stayed within the atmosphere of a planet and was typically tethered to the planet. As they neared the planet, Naruto could make out more features of the skyhook and could see a tether that attached to the bottom of the station. The line extended into the atmosphere and disappeared in the clouds.

Making their approach, Plagueis went through the necessary arrival procedures and made arrangements to dock. Ast Kikorie was not as shady as their recently acquired planet Sarafur and so they didn't have to worry nearly as much about being attacked for their cargo. The fees to land in a hangar were also likely much cheaper.

Plagueis landed the ship in a much better looking open hangar than the one they used on Sarafur. The new ship was much longer than the old one but Plagueis didn't have any trouble with it.

As they exited the ship, there were no armed guards to greet them. There was however an automated voice that informed them of how they would have to pay for using the hangar. If they didn't pay, then they were also informed that the Kikorie City authorities would come and impound their ship.

With just a single goal while on the planet, Plagueis decided that those who weren't going to the skyhook, could do whatever they wanted in the Kikorie City, as long as they didn't cause a scene. He didn't have much money to give out to the group so instead he gave a good amount to Naruto and told his student to try and make as much as possible before the twenty-four hour deadline was up.

Naruto sealed the ship with a barrier and created one clone to go with Plagueis as well as leaving another to guard the ship. As much as he wanted to go and determine if the Tessent was holding any secrets, he had other things to do. Plagueis accepted the arrangement and he took the clone as well as their new droid along with him as he headed in the direction of the skyhook anchor point.

"Wait!" Naruto yelled out and Plagueis's group stopped to look back at the original.

Pulling out a scroll beneath his cloak, Naruto tossed it to his clone which promptly caught the scroll. Plagueis looked at the scroll and realized what it held. With the meeting and concerns over the Tessent, he had forgotten all about the other two items that they wanted to get a closer look at and was glad his student remembered. The clone stored the items in its pouch and they continued on to the anchor station.

As the three left, Naruto headed out to the cantina that owned the hangar as he had to pay the fee for parking the ship. All but Kabuto decided to follow him and before they left the confines of the hangar, the youngest members of the group each donned a henge to disguise themselves as being older and taller than they actually were.

x-x

Walking with the clone and the astromech, Plagueis was confident he could deal with anything that came up. The skyhook was merely a research station with minimal security forces or security measures. They were nearly at the anchor station which was still out of view but could follow the tether that extended from the city to the skyhook. The anchor station which was basically just a building where the tether for the skyhook was anchored. It was also where the space elevator for the skyhook was.

Instead of flying and docking with the station, he just needed to take the elevator up to the station. The facility was mostly off limits to non-station personnel but individuals could request the use of the stations telescopes. This was not what he was after but it would give a good enough excuse to manipulate the ground personnel to get him aboard the station where he could gain access to the equipment they were after.

While it would have been better if Naruto was there in person, he also couldn't just leave their group unattended down on the planet. They would likely cause problems if one of them wasn't there to monitor the group and he was needed to work the equipment and analyze the Tessent.

The closer they got to the station, the better they could see the tether. The clone payed more attention to the tether than where it was walking.

"Its made from carbonite nanofibers. We'll be taking the elevator up." explained Plagueis to the clone of his student, which was henged to look older and wearing nondescript clothing. Once they got aboard the station and could see what the uniforms were, the clone could henge into one of the station's personnel and help them remained unnoticed while moving through the station.

x-x

The head of every male in the group turned to watch the female Twi'lek walk by. Their attention soon returned to looking for the cantina while the two redheads of the group glared at them.

Ignoring the threat filled thoughts of the girls, Naruto looked over everything that was around him. The streets had merchants but everything was far busier than Sarafur and looked more inviting. 'Perhaps with the changes Master put in place, the ports on Sarafur will attract more people and look more like this.' he thought as he examined the sky and found it looked rather like their home planet. The sky was the same color blue, the clouds looked familiar, and the temperature seemed pleasant.

He was however brought out of his thoughts as Juugo spotted the cantina they were looking for and the group moved for it. Kabuto had left them a short time ago and he had a feeling that the teen was after a few more specimens. Hopefully the teen could stay out of trouble on his own.

Music, a variety of smells, and a waitress greeted them as they entered the large cantina. From what Gozu and Meizu had told them about the first cantina they visited, the current one appeared to be much better kept and larger. The group looked around at the establishment. Naruto noted the monitors with different races and other events going on that people were gambling on as well as the gambling tables off to one side.

After finding the owner of the establishment to pay for the landing fees, he would certainly try and get some more money through gambling. There were supplies to buy as well as possibly another junkyard to visit. If everything else in Kikorie City was better than in Sarafur, then the junkyard should follow suit. He would also split some of his winnings with the others as they would have the entire day off to do what they pleased.

Tayuya, Karin, and Juugo quickly found seats on the second floor which seemed to have more of restaurant feel to it while Meizu and Gozu went to the bar. Suigetsu was left looking over the room. He decided to help Naruto out and thought he might try and pickpocket a few drunks. They were supposed to keep a low profile but he was kinda bored and hoped someone would catch him stealing from them so he could start a bar fight.

x-x

It was quite easy to convince those in the anchor station that he had scheduled time on one of the telescopes. Now they were thousands of feet in the air and still moving even higher as the elevator took them to the skyhook.

His accompanying shadow clone was looking out of one of the windows of the large elevator to see the shrinking city below. The droid was staying away from the window but examining the elevator they were in. The elevator was completely empty save for a few crates that were scheduled to be taken up to resupply the station that day. The elevator was large enough to be used to ferry not only people but cargo and supplies to and from the station.

Minutes passed as the trio patiently waited for arrival. The clone watched as they passed through the clouds and soon there were no more clouds as the entered a higher layer of the atmosphere. Plagueis could feel the elevator slowing down and used his cane to help himself to his feet.

Inwardly frowning at the stiff body, he managed to stand right when the elevator docked with the station. The large doors opened and two men in uniform were waiting. Both looked surprised to see the people in the elevator. Plagueis knew they were merely supply officers or something similar as the station only had a few security. He already made sure that the men at the anchor station did not tell anyone that someone was coming up.

"I wasn't aware that anyone was coming up, I thought it was just the supplies." stated one of the men and his suspicion was plan to see.

"This is just a supply run." lied Plagueis with a wave of Gato's hand. "We were merely sent up to accompany the supplies and went back down with the elevator. Simply ignore us."

Both men nodded as they went about loading the crates, ignoring the presence of the two people and the droid. The trio walked out of the elevator doors and found themselves in a wide hallway. There were doors on each side of the hallway that were evenly spaced away from each other.

Through their mental link, Plagueis said, 'We need to find a computer terminal for the droid to access. Look for a maintenance room.'

The clone nodded in affirmation and looked at the labels of the rooms as they passed. While the clone looked, Plagueis kept a watchful eye out for anymore station personnel and used his Force powers to momentarily jam the security systems. Considering the station was just a research post, he didn't expect much security or even cameras. Eventually they came across something promising and the trio entered the room.

The room turned out to be a droid maintenance area and that was just as good as the room did have at least one computer terminal. Looking over the room, they only saw few droids that were in power-down mode and none of the droids appeared to be active. Barring a problem on the station, it would hopefully stay that way.

Hurrying the still scared droid to the computer terminal, a computer interface attachment popped out of one of the many compartments on the droids body and fitted into the computer terminal.

"I'd like you to get the schematics of the station, determine all the security measures the station is using, and find us the quickest route to whatever analysis lab they have." ordered Plagueis and the droid beeped in response as it sliced into the stations systems and sifted through all of the data for that information.

x-x

Staying to the shadows, Kabuto stalked a new specimen that he had seen and had taken an interest in. The insectoid creature was quite unique in appearance being rather thin with a yellow carapace that featured many spikes. The medical droid on the ship would likely know what species it was, he just had to get the creature back there.

Following it through what appeared to be a market area, he determined what method was best. Because of the carapace and spikes, using snakes was out of the question. There was a chance they wouldn't be able to get through the exoskeleton or would be injured by the spikes.

Sure that he hadn't been spotted, Kabuto followed the creature into an alley and smirked as the isolated area would provide what he needed. He however quickly realized his mistake as upon closer inspection, the creature had a third eye in the back of its head. No sooner had the realization been made then the creature began turning around with a blaster in its hands and Kabuto jumped to avoid the initial shots.

Sticking to the wall for a brief moment, Kabuto managed to jump behind the creature and was already upon it before it could aim the blaster to fire another shot. He grabbed the creatures wrist to stop it from shooting the blaster but found it surprisingly stronger than its thin body would suggest. His laser scalpel was quicker than the insects other hand and he sliced through its neck, completely decapitated the creature.

As the body crumpled to the ground, Kabuto looked to his hand and found a wound on it from the creatures spikes. Such a wound would not have normally been of concern but he saw that mixed with the blood appeared to be some other purple colored liquid.

'The spikes are poisoned as well.' he realized with a short chuckle as he braced himself against the wall to keep his balance from the dizziness that swept over him. 'The effects are also quick to manifest.' he noted and began diagnosing himself as well as removing the poison from his system.

Given that his body was now so altered, the poison wasn't taking its complete effect on him, however it was rather different from what he was used to. From what he guessed, he should have been completely knocked out within a few moments of injection. Instead, he was just a little dizzy, disoriented, and tired. When he had finished removing the poison from his body with a medical ninjutsu, he stored it in a small vial that he took out from his utility belt.

Standing up again and testing his balance, Kabuto removed his corpse scroll and worked as fast as possible. The shots had probably alerted someone in the nearby area and he needed to be gone before anyone saw him.

Sealing up the body, he ran up the wall and stopped when he got to the roof. Looking around, he didn't see anyone and quickly found the direction he needed to travel in. 'Perhaps doing a little research before hand would be more wise.' he mused before jumping to the next roof. He had been caught by surprise as he had no idea the creature had an eye in the back of its head and had seen him.

However, while returning to the ship, Kabuto again did not see a floating security droid. The droid wasn't armed but was built for surveillance. It filmed Kabuto leaving the scene and messaged the Kikorie City authorities. The droid proceeded to follow Kabuto back to the hangar, staying up in the air and a good distance behind.

x-x

It didn't take Naruto very long before he had doubled his money. He began by betting on podracing that was being steamed in from another area of the galaxy. Looking over at the tables, he guessed he only need another win before he would have enough to enter a game with higher stakes.

Looking over the other races that were being held, he went over to a monitor showing gladiatorial combat and pulled out some money to place a bet with.

"Do you think he'll actually win?" asked Karin as she looked down from the second story at the hooded man that was betting with the money Plagueis had given.

"It looks like he already won something." commented Juugo.

"He better not lose all our money." added Tayuya as she looked at Naruto placing another bet. She didn't like the fact that he was in charge of all of their money. He was younger than she was and therefore by definition less responsible. Its not like she would spend all her money on one thing or something she didn't need.

The drinks soon came and the disguised group examined the exotic drinks. They had no idea what they were really ordering as the names didn't even look remotely familiar on the drink menu. Given that they would be there for a while, they decided to order some food but found the same problem as the food menu featured many dishes they had never heard of before.

x-x

Deefour quickly found all of the information that Plagueis had asked for. In fact, the droid found it much faster than Plagueis expected.

'It must have some extensive modifications in order to work so fast.' he mused as they moved towards the lab. The clone had used a combined henge to hide both itself and Plagueis in a single transformation of a normal looking station worker in their standard uniform.

Working together, they had to synchronize their walking to keep the transformation active while Deefour led the way. It didn't matter that Gato didn't have chakra as the technique was entirely created and controlled by the clone.

Taking a lift to a higher deck, as the station had ten levels, they passed by several other uniformed individuals but remained unnoticed. They just appeared to be a maintenance worker alongside one of the stations astromechs. Arriving at the door, the droid informed them that it couldn't detect any lifesigns in the room. The door was locked to authorized personnel only but Plagueis manipulated the lock to allow them access.

The fact that the room was dark when they entered was a good sign as it meant that likely no one was coming back for at least a little while. Plagueis looked over the present devices and found the research station was indeed well equipped for what they had in mind. It was difficult to tell how well used the equipment was but given that the station wasn't very concerned with sampling, they probably wouldn't be bothered by any other scientists.

The clone ended the henge, leaving both of them standing next to each other as the white smoke dispersed. Plagueis went to the proper machines and turned them on while the clone looked over all that was in the room. Its creator would likely want to get as many details as possible when it dispersed. Unfortunately, given the distance of about forty miles between the station and the surface of the planet, Naruto couldn't control his clone from that far away or connect with it, so he only had the clones memories to learn from.

Once the machines were ready to use, Plagueis turned to the clone and it soon realized what he wanted. The clone pulled a two scrolls from its pouch. The first scroll held the Tessent that Plagueis would analyze while the second scroll held the Raijin, which Naruto had held onto for many years but had not used or had a chance to properly investigate. Not wanting to destroy the weapon, they had never been able to figure out how it worked but now that they had the opportunity.

Unsealing the sculpture from the first scroll, the clone handed the Tessent to Plagueis who carefully took the statue and began the first series of analysis. To test all of the theories surrounding the object, Plagueis planned to scan it with the full electromagnetic wave spectrum as well as microscopically examine every inch of the outside. He also had a few tests of his own to find out as much as possible about the object and prove whether it was hiding any secrets while the Raijin would be analyzed to determine out what was inside the solid, non-conductive exterior mold.

x-x

Prying open the exoskeleton didn't prove very difficult as Kabuto searched for the glands that produced the poison on the spikes. The species turned out to be a Kobok and the medical droid was able to tell him quite a bit about its anatomy and the poison it produced. Having experienced the potent substance first-hand, he was interested and wanted to see what he could do with the poison. Looking to the counter in the small medical bay, he found the dispersal grenade that he had collected while they were on Sarafur.

Naruto had explained how the grenade worked and it was currently empty from when it was used against the ship. 'If I can turn the poison into an aerosol, I can use the grenade to disperse it. It should work relatively fast.' he mused and decided to see if he could. Once he determined the chemical makeup of the poison, he might even be able to secrete it from his snake's fangs to incapacitate prey.

His musings were halted however when his snake sensed something outside the ship.

Through their connection, Kabuto could feel several life-signs in his short sensory range. They appeared to all be in the hangar and moving toward the ship. The others couldn't possibly be back that fast so it must be another group.

He wasn't that worried however as Naruto had placed seal tags and a barrier on the ship to prevent access, except from the top hatch, which was what Kabuto used to get back aboard the ship. Unless the newcomers had a method to get around Naruto's fuinjutsu or tried to get in through the top hatch, then the freight elevator and the loading ramp were not going to work for them.

The clone Naruto had left had already dispersed when he had returned to the ship after securing the body. Leaving the ship's infirmary, Kabuto went to the nearest communication device. Sitting down at a round table similar to what they had on their other ship, only larger, Kabuto remembered the sequence of buttons he had to push on the console to contact Naruto.

x-x

Plagueis looked intensely at the screen as it showed him the initial results for the Tessent. The material it was carved from was indeed Chalcedony. It wasn't rare, nor valuable, but it did appear that the object was the real deal. He didn't know of any other distinguishing marks for either of the Tessents that would definitively show that what they had found was real. As the scan continued, he started getting lost in the lore and checking every single rumor that he had heard, doing an x-ray of the device, scanning it with different electromagnetic wavelengths and doing three-dimensional surface scans in order to determine if something as written on the surface.

Given their time constraints, and the fact that anyone could come in to use the lab at any minute, Plagueis stopped his in-depth analysis of the Tessent so that he still had time to analyze the weapon. That analysis was actually more important to him as he definitely wanted to know what was inside the device to give it the ability to project solid electrical energy. Taking out the Raijin, he quickly placed it in a compositional analyzer. Ever since he had learned of the weapon, he wanted to know about it's secrets.

Waiting while the analysis machine worked, he was interrupted from his thoughts by the clone, "Master?"

Plagueis turned in the chair to look at the clone but said nothing as he waited for the coming question, "When did the other Tessent go missing?"

Thinking about the answer, Plagueis posed a question of his own back at the clone, "What will you do with the information?"

"I wanted to have Deefour check the station's sensor logs. If I'm not mistaken, you told the original that the other Tessent may have come here and been caught in an asteroid shower." explained the clone.

"If by some chance the other one did come here, someone would have found it already and if it did get caught in a meteor or asteroid shower then the ship may not have survived." stated Plagueis but since they were already there and neither the clone nor the droid had anything to do, he decided to let them try.

With still quite a bit of skepticism, he answered the original question, "It would have been about twenty-five standard years ago, give or take. I'm not completely sure on an exact date."

With the new information the clone turned to the droid and asked it to began sifting through the sensor information to bring up the desired data on a nearby monitor. The monitor showed over a years worth of sensor logs in just a few moments. While he didn't turn the chair around to see them, Plagueis still focused on what they were doing while his analysis of the metal continued.

The clone asked the droid to narrow the search to events that included any ship getting hit by cosmic objects. The droid's results came up empty and Plagueis allowed Gato to let out a small sigh of relief. What they had currently managed to accomplish was more than enough. Thinking that they could find another infamous item despite innumerable others having failed was pushing their luck.

No sooner had he put the thoughts out of his mind to focus on the analysis results, then a few beeps from the droid caught his attention. While he couldn't understand everything that the droid was trying to say, it sounded like the droid was trying to tell the clone that a small amount of data was missing.

"That's odd. There's an entire days worth of missing logs." said the clone and it looked to the back of Gato's head for some answer to the unasked question.

Plagueis took a moment before answering as he had to get his thoughts under control. As much as he didn't want to admit it, his mind had started coming up with outlandish theories for the reason why data was missing but he chose to answer with the most logical, "There must have been a malfunction with the sensors and they lost data for that day." he answered and looked over the results of the analysis. Before he could find out exactly what the metal was, his thoughts were interrupted again by more beeps from the blasted droid.

"I believe Deefour is telling me that the information was deleted." the clone stated out loud and Plagueis again stopped what he was doing. Not turning around, he offered the most probable explanation for the new oddity they had found, "Perhaps an oversight in records keeping." but even he thought it was a weak explanation.

Once again he tried to get back to the results of the analysis and finally find out what the composition of the metal was but was disturbed once again, "Um...Master Plagueis?"

"What now?" Plagueis demanded with more annoyance and emotion in his voice then he wanted.

"From what Deefour is showing me, the current research Director of the station was the one that deleted the file several years ago. It seems she also changed the access rights on the file so no one could recover it without his authorization."

'This isn't really happening.' Plagueis tried to convince himself, 'We just came to analyze these three items, not to go on a treasure hunt.'

"How difficult will it be to work around the authorization?" asked Plagueis as he finally turned around in his chair. As much as he didn't want to admit it, the clone and droid had obviously stumbled onto something. Whether or not it turned out to be the second Tessent was very unlikely, but that didn't mean that their findings were worthless either.

"Deefour already worked around it." responded the clone as it looked over the recovered sensor log file. Getting up to look at the file himself, Plagueis again found it interesting at how fast the droid was able to access the information and work around the authorization issue but said nothing.

Looking over the clone's shoulder he looked over the records for the missing day. "Inconceivable." he quietly lamented. The records clearly recorded a ship being caught in a meteor shower and crashing on the planet. It seemed they would be doing more on the station than just analysis.

x-x

"I'm a wanted criminal!" revealed the spacer in response to Suigetsu's comment as he ignored the spilled drink on his clothing. Suigetsu had just purposefully bumped into the man in order to start something as he had been getting bored. A few words had already been exchanged and Suigetsu had been trying to move the conversation in a good direction.

"That a fact? Is there bounty for you?" asked Suigetsu with an amused smile as it appeared he had chosen the right person to aggravate. He had selectively decided that the spacer was the most likely to be involved in illicit affairs that would result in some kind of monetary value being placed on the man's head.

"Yeah, a big one." responded the man as he looked the older looking Suigetsu right in the eyes.

"Dead or alive?" questioned Suigetsu as his smile only widened.

The plan placed his hand on the top of his holstered blaster and responded, "You pick." A few nearby Duros customers made to leave at the impending fight and Suigetsu quickly responded, "I like where this is headed." as he reached into his back pouch and slid his fingers into the holes of his new vibroknuckler that he had taken off a Kintan Gunrunner.

"Hey!" came a voice from nearby and both turned to find a man, possibly the owner of the establishment, looking at them, "You take any fights outside." and he pointed to the door.

Without any hint of worry or fear, Suigetsu walked to the door with his back turned to the man he was exchanging words with. The man promptly followed but nearly stopped when he saw several of the city's police officers walk into the bar. Sidestepping them, he made to be moving to another area of the cantina until they walked by and then he made his exit.

Looking over his cards, Naruto glanced at the other individuals at the table, who were just moments ago fixated on the possible fight happening near the bar. He was about to place a card down to lock it's suit and keep it from randomly changing on him when he heard a beeping from his small holographic communicator.

Frowning, he pulled it out from one of the pockets on his unzipped chunin vest and activated it. An image of Kabuto instantly appeared.

"There are some individuals standing outside the ship." Kabuto informed him in Ibonihese, which greatly limited the possibilities of anyone learning what was actually being said.

"How many, and have they made a move to get access to the ship?" questioned Naruto back in the same language as he used his free hand to keep playing his hand.

"Six are outside the ship and they've only made one attempt to get on board. I managed to get a look and they seem to all be wearing the same uniform." responded the small blue hologram.

"What have you been up to Kabuto, because we certainly haven't been breaking the law or attracting the local authorities attention?" he asked with a glare at the holographic figure. Kabuto just laughed nervously and replied, "You don't want to know."

Shutting off the device, the Force alerted him a moment later to a disturbance happening behind him. He could feel the man that he had paid for the use of the hangar point him out to three newcomers that had just walked in. The men were about to come over to him but then something else was said by the owner that caused them to stop. Naruto could feel the men look in other directions, likely at the other members of his group, who were seated on the upper floor and eating.

Without turning, he felt the guards become uneasy and then one them began talking into a communicator. 'They're calling for backup.' Naruto realized and noted that they didn't seem to be paying attention to the demon brothers. Even without the demon brothers, there were still four members of their group in the cantina and the three likely felt apprehensive about being outnumbered.

'They may not know that those two are with our group.' he thought and contacted both brothers. 'Meizu, Gozu. Three individuals, likely in similar uniforms, just entered the cantina.' he told them while keeping his focus on the game.

'What about them?' questioned Gozu back and confirmed Naruto's suspicions about the local authorities being after them.

'Kabuto did something stupid again and likely there are also a group of them in the hangar outside our ship. Those three appear to be here for us but don't know either of you are with our group. I believe they also called for backup because we outnumber them.' he added and Meizu quickly asked, 'What do you want us to do?'

'One of you needs to go tell the others on the second floor so we can get away. There seem to be some windows on the second floor you can make use of. I'll need the other one to take care of my winnings after they leave. I'll meet up with all on the roof and have Karin find Suigetsu, I think he's outside killing someone.' he ordered and finished the hand. He noted that couldn't feel Suigetsu anymore, meaning that the white haired ninja had moved outside his range.

Before standing up, Naruto looked to the other players and said with a wave of his hand, "I have to go to the bathroom and in a few minutes my friend is going to come over and cash me out. None of you will find anything wrong with that."

The droid dealer also seemed to understand him but he knew it wasn't influenced by his manipulations. Getting up, he walked to the bathroom and could feel the city security trio tense at his movement. Entering the facilities, he quickly moved to the wall and went through the proper handseals to merge with the wall and make a getaway.

x-x

Sitting at her desk in her private office and quarters, the Research Director of the station looked over the datapads that were filled with the digital paperwork that came with her position. The sound of an alert coming from the console on her desk was a welcomed reprieve.

The reprieve was short-lived however when she realized what the alert was. Her eyes widened as old memories resurfaced. She had set the alert years prior after she had discovered something. At the time she was just a normal researcher but with her promotion to director, she restricted access to a file in the sensor logs and then deleted it.

She placed the alert just in case anyone ever went looking for the file or managed to open it. A hologram came to life on her desk and she looked at a schematic of the ship. A red dot indicated that the breach came from the Materials Analysis lab. Picking up and looking through a nearby datapad, she found that no one was scheduled to use the lab that day which made her frown.

Instead of calling for security, she moved to a drawer on her desk and unlocked it. Amidst a few items, she pulled out a small locked box and opened it to reveal a small holdout blaster. It was made to be easily concealed. The power cell would only last a few shots and the range wasn't very far but it would be enough for her purposes.

Taking the blaster, she left her office and headed for the lab on the lower levels.

x-x

After running a quick scan on the Raijin, Plagueis and the clone left the lab and headed for the upper level of the station. Plagueis hadn't even gotten the chance to look at the results from the scan of the chakra metal or the Raijin because they now had something else to think about. He just sent the information to droid and it saved it all in it's memory banks

From the file Deefour had found, it seemed that something had been covered up. Plagueis wasn't sure what significance it really had but he was interested. Deleting and restricting access to a file was dead giveaway for illicit activities. Given how closely the information in the file conformed with the most commonly spoken rumor about the Aryou Tessent, he would admit that perhaps there was something to the rumor after all.

The clone had asked him about going down to the planet's surface to look at the crashed ship but he had no intention of doing it. The person that deleted the file had obviously already looked over the crashed ship and whatever they found was enough to make them delete the file to prevent others from investigating.

Given that the individual involved was now the senior most researcher on the station, it stood to reason that whatever she had found was either long gone or inside her office. Considering that their findings were leading them closer to the second Tessent, it was possible that the item was in her quarters, especially since it hadn't been returned. That kind of news would definitely have spread quickly, even in the Outer-rim.

Thus far, no one had been the wiser about their movements on the station. They were once again in a combined henge masquerading as one of the stations many personnel. While everything was going well, there was one close call just a few moments prior. Someone they passed by nearly ran into them as she moved with urgency in the opposite direction. Whereas most other people they had passed were focused on some task, this individual seemed very serious and worried.

Plagueis ignored the feeling though as they had other things to worry about. Breaking into the personal quarters of the station Director would be easy but finding a time when the director was out of those quarters might be hard.

Coming around the bend of the hallway, they found an intersection that led to where they wanted to go. Deefour led the way while the clone moved cautiously and stopped short of the room they were after. Plagueis instructed it to open a maintenance panel that was on the wall and appear as though they were looking into minor problem.

Having the real Naruto there would have been more advantageous as the clone couldn't sense for life-signs but they would have to get by with what they had, which was Deefour. The astromech moving down the hallway was even more inconspicuous than they were. Giving the droid a signal, it left the open panel and scooted down the hallway. A small attachment came out of one of the droids top panels and began scanning for life-signs in the immediate area. The scanner worked better in the open and could be deflected by the walls of the station but it was the best that they had.

The droid moved down the hallway and eventually reached the quarters. Its scanner had been active the whole way. It briefly stopped in the hallway and then turned around to let them know it was safe with what sounded like a whistle.

The clone moved to the door and made sure the coast was clear. At the same moment, Plagueis began manipulating the control panel for the door to allow them entry. Once they were in the room, the henge was ended and Plagueis began a quick search of the room. He put his hand on most of the wall surfaces to see if there were any hidden compartments. While Plagueis was working on the walls, the clone went about searching the desk.

Coming to the last wall, Plagueis placed Gato's hand on it and smirked. He told the clone he had found something and it stopped looking through the desk. Searching the wall, he was unable to find any control panel or button. Turning, Plagueis looked at the desk and began looking for a button or switch that would open the panel on the wall.

While Plagueis was looking, the clone examined an open box that was on the table. From the shape made in the foam, it looked like some kind of instrument or tool used to be in the box. The clone continued to look at the box until Plagueis found the switch and a panel on the wall began opening. The trio's attention focused entirely on the wall as the panel slowly raised to reveal two shelves of artifacts that had been hidden.

"It appears madam Director is quite the collector." commented Plagueis and his eyes came upon the largest object on the shelves, which was a white sculpture that looked quite different from the one they had but was made of the same material.

'How is it we managed to find both?' Plagueis questioned as the shear coincidence was astounding. Two items missing for decades and in the course of less than a week, they managed to find both. He had never known his luck to be that good.

His thoughts were quickly interrupted by the door to the quarters instantly opening to reveal a surprised woman in uniform with graying hair. A moment passed between them before she looked at the hidden panel and her face contorted in rage. As she pulled out the blaster and aimed it at them, the clone jumped in front of Plagueis and threw a kunai at her.

The woman fired the blaster just as the kunai pierced her throat. The plasma bolt entered through the stomach of the clone, causing it to dispel and continued on to burn through Gato's upper thigh.

The kunai soon dispelled as well but it had already done its job and the woman collapsed to the floor as she bled out. Plagueis managed to grab the nearby chair for support as Gato's body nearly collapsed. He was in no pain but Gato certainly was and the leg was now useless

Quickly taking in the situation, Plagueis began trying to come up with a plan. The clone was gone, which also meant he couldn't use a henge.

Looking to the floor, he saw the scrolls that the clone was carrying, which held the items that they had brought. Using the Force he grabbed the scrolls and stuck them in his pockets. Falling into the chair, he maneuvered it around the desk and then used the Force to pull the woman's body through the door so he could shut it.

Others had undoubtedly heard the shot and he soon realized where he was, who the woman was, and what that meant. Hearing blaster fire on the station would call for a search to determine where it came from. The station had no military personal, just a security force but they still had blasters. He also realized that in the event of a problem, they would contact the Director, who was now dead on the floor. If they couldn't contact the Director, they would search for her.

His holocron was sealed into Gato's body and with the injury, there was no way he could move around the facility. He was trapped in the injured body with only an astromech to accompany him. The helpless droid was in the corner of the room and looking over the scene while making a low foreboding sound.

Pulling the small holdout blaster to his hand with the Force, he realized he only had a few shots and not enough to really do anything. He hadn't carried a blaster with him and the clone hadn't either. It was only supposed to be a quick trip to the station. While he could probably use the Force to kill anyone he came across, there was a whole station of personnel and the last thing he wanted was to leave a huge body count behind. The unexplained deaths of so many Republic citizens would no doubt warrant an investigation and the Jedi might be asked to be the investigators.

'Damn.' he thought as he tried to figure out another way. About to pull out his communicator, he realized that the clone had dispelled, which meant that Naruto was already aware of the majority of his situation.

'I'll have to let him take care of this.' he concluded and looked to the milky white statue sitting on the shelf near him. It seemed one more of the rumors surrounding the statues was true. Those that search for the infamous Tessents would only find hardship and misfortune.

x-x

Sitting on top of the open hangar, Naruto's head instantly filled with the memories of his clone. "Shit!" he cursed out loud in a low voice.

"What's the matter? I thought you said the authorities wouldn't be a problem?" asked Tayuya who was sitting next to him and looking down below at the men standing outside their ship. "It seems Master Plagueis is in trouble too." Naruto explained.

"What should we do then? Karin and Gozu went to get Suigetsu and they're certainly not back yet." asked Juugo and Naruto cursed under his breath again.

They could take off and leave the others while they rescued Plagueis but there were other problems to think of as well. The station didn't have a hangar bay from what he could see when they passed it and he had never docked a ship before. They would need to dock with one of the stations air locks in order to board it.

Movement in the distance caught his attention and looked to the tether to see the elevator going up to the station. 'Damn it, I don't have time to sit and decide.'

"We're going. We'll come back for the others after we've got Master Plagueis." he ordered and he held his hand up as if he was going to throw something. Throwing the imaginary object, the attention of the local authorities below were all diverted as if they had actually seen something move in that direction. They quickly moved to see what it was.

"Now." Naruto ordered and his group jumped down below to the top of the ship. Getting to the top hatch, he opened it and they all jumped in. Naruto moved right past Kabuto as he went down the hallway and to the cockpit.

"Is he mad at me?" Kabuto asked Meizu and the Kiri ninja replied, "Master Plagueis is in a bind and Suigetsu is fucking around somewhere in the city." Kabuto nodded with a smile as it seemed he wasn't the only one causing trouble.

Crouching down next to one of the pilot's seats, so as not to be noticed out the window, Naruto began starting up the ship. A flashing button soon alerted him to a problem and he used the ship's sensors to figure out what it was. Cursing, he realized that a device located beneath the landing pad had been activated and was holding the ships landing struts in place as the entire landing pad had been magnetized.

'So that's how they keep ships from leaving without paying.' he realized and knew it was probably the local authorities that had activated it. His mind raced to figure out what to do. He had no idea how to disable the magnetic locking device which was preventing them from taking off. He could go outside and cut the landing struts but something told him that they would need those in the future. And even if he could get the ship off the ground, he would have to dock the ship with no prior training or experience. He also was sure that the station had defenses and may attack them should they approach and try to dock without authorization.

Still crouched, he leaned back against the second pilot's chair. His thoughts soon returned to the elevator which was still rising in the sky and he could only guess that additional security forces were on board that were headed to the station.

'What the hell do I have left.' he wondered as his choices had grown increasingly thin.

x-x

Walking into what was identified from the outside sign as 'The Kikorie City Police Station', Suigetsu moved to one of the few people that were inside the building. There were many empty desks and he assumed they were just out doing something or arresting someone.

Stopping in front of the desk, a young uniformed man looked up at him and before the man could saying anything Suigetsu asked, "So, how much is this guy worth." and he set an object on the man's desk.

A second or so passed as the man stared at the object. His eyes promptly rolled backed and he fainted. "Huh, well that's not good." commented Suigetsu as he looked around for another officer so he could collect on the bounty.

His search was quickly halted when a voice came from the door of the building and the sound made him cringe slightly. "SUIGETSU! NARUTO SAID WE HAVE TO GET BACK TO THE SHIP!" boomed Karin's voice and Gozu winced slightly at the volume.

"I'll leave when I get my bounty. I didn't go the trouble of killing this guy for no reason." contested Suigetsu as he leaned over a nearby counter to look for another uniformed person.

"I call bullshit." Karin commented and Gozu chuckled as he moved to grab Suigetsu and take him back to the ship. Right before Gozu reached Suigetsu, another person came out from one of the back rooms. He was an older man dressed in the same uniform and a little portly.

"So there was someone else here. I want the bounty for this guy." Suigetsu said and the man, seeing the downed officer as well as the object on the table and the two people standing before him, began panicking. On the verge of hyperventilating, the man starting grabbing his arm and slowly collapsed to the ground.

"Ah, crap." Suigetsu complained and then yelled to the door, "Karin, this guy's having a heart attack. You'd better do something before he dies."

"You idiot, I told you not go waving that thing around!" yelled Karin as she ran to the man's side and her hands lit up with green chakra.

"What, you'd think they'd never seen a severed head before." Suigetsu said while shaking his head at the pathetic display of the two uniformed men. Gozu sweat-dropped at the seen and decided to wait for Karin to finish before dragging both of them back to the hangar.

x-x

A small container of survival supplies flew out of the door way and hit the wall. It was soon followed by a few more supplies that were standard issue on an escape pod. They were meant to provide up to two weeks of food and water as well as needed supplies for those that needed to evacuate but Naruto only needed the pod itself and didn't want to waste supplies.

"What are you doing?" questioned Kabuto as he and the others watched the blonde haired Sith empty the pod.

"I'm going to get Master Plagueis. I'll be back soon." responded Naruto in a calm voice and he smacked a panel on the inside of the pod, which shut the door between them.

The escape pod was ejected out of the ship and the rockets on the bottom of the pod engaged. The pod roared out of the hangar and up into the sky. The officers outside the ship could only watch as it kept gaining altitude, leaving a white trail of smoke behind it.

Working with what little flight controls the pod had, Naruto put it on a coarse near the skyhook. The pod wasn't made for precision flying and the controls were minimal so there was no way he could dock with the station anyway and he couldn't very well ram it considering the pod would likely be destroyed by the station's hull.

There was only once course of action then. Unsealing his sword, he attached the sheath to the back of his flack jacket and pulled on his breather mask. Patience was not something he usually had but this was not a normal situation. A single mistake would leave him falling to the planet below and he listened intently to the Force for guidance on when the right moment to act was.

x-x

Despite the great distance between them, Plagueis had a feeling that Naruto was definitely coming to help him. He just had no idea how his student would manage to do it.

'I never did get the chance to teach him docking procedures for a ship-to-ship or ship-to-station docking maneuver.' he remembered but put the thought out of his mind. The last thing he needed to think about was his student accidentally ramming the station and inadvertently causing a catastrophe on the surface below. Skyhooks had been outlawed on many planets of the Republic because of the possibility that the repulsorlifts would fail and the station would plummet to a city below it.

Sitting back in the chair, he waited for which ever moment would come first. Either Naruto would arrive or the men outside the locked room he was in would get a fusion cutter and cut through the door. He had no idea which would happen first so began calming himself down to hopefully meditate but there was only a slim chance that would actually happen.

'Stuck in a room...in a Ugnaught-like body...with a cowardly droid...and on a Republic outpost in the outer fringes of civilization. Not exactly where I thought I would ever find myself.' he thought depressingly but then again, he never planned on dying in the first place.

A few sounds from the outside of the door caught his attention for a moment. 'Probably a few minutes before they get in.' he calculated. Though he could kill the men beyond the door, his main goal at this stage in his plans was to keep a low profile. He didn't news of an incident involving a person with Force powers killing Republic citizens on a wayward outpost. To completely make sure that no one ever found out what had happened, he would need to make sure the entire station was destroyed and the personnel all killed. In addition, he might have to make sure that the station crashes into the city below to eliminate all witnesses.

That certainly wasn't his idea of keeping a low profile and if he destroyed an entire station while 'keeping a low profile' then it would set a bad precedent that Naruto and the others might soon follow. Creating a path of destruction through the Outer-rim was not what he intended for his return to the galaxy.

Turning his thoughts to something else, he wondered what he would find when he got to Tatooine. Seemingly his experiment was a failure but all the time and effort he put into his research before the test told him differently. He just couldn't believe that he had failed. Failure was a part of experiments but he had been sure he would succeed.

Thoughts of what such a child would be capable of had filled his mind off and on for years. He was in dire need of a new body which was why the thought of his experiment seemed so tempting as a new body. However, his thoughts wandered to whether or not taking such a body would be beneficial for him. His experiment was all about finding out what a child such as that would be capable of but skewing the results by inputting himself into the equation, by possessing his own experiment, wasn't what a researcher did. Could he even possess a child that was connected so strongly with the Force?

Finding a new body was still high on his list of goals though. He couldn't very well go around testing the blood of everyone he passed and Force sensitivity was hard enough to spot without any testing. A Force sensitive and trained individual could sense another Force sensitive and trained individual but sensing untapped Force potential was incredibly difficult.

He wanted something far better than Gato and recognized the fact that he would have to switch bodies on Tatooine and make sure no one ever found Gato's body. The infamous Krayt dragons that inhabited the planet should take care of that for him though.

x-x

The escape pod flew up past and over the station in a arc, no doubt attracting quiet a bit of attention from those on the station that were monitoring the sensor systems or maybe even looking out a window. He stayed far enough away that they wouldn't be concerned about the pod being a threat, but close enough that he could achieve his objective.

The Force told him that the correct moment had arrived. In an instant, he had pulled his sword and stabbed it into the escape pods hull. With both hands gripping the handle, he cut a large circular hole. Removing his sword, he put it back in its sheath and starred at his work.

There was no turning back.

With a burst of speed, he used a Force push to send the circular piece of hull flying off the ship and then dove out of the created hole. His body left the ship headfirst and he found himself in free-falling back to the surface. The feeling of being weightless took hold in his stomach and he felt his heart nearly beating out of his chest. The cold air felt like ice water on what little skin he had exposed and he was thankful for the body glove. His mask was switched to re-breather mode, meaning that he was recycling his air and would only have at most ten minutes before he would no longer be able to breathe.

The air was so thin at the height he was at that there was little air resistance against his body and he picked up speed fast. Below him was the skyhook and he was still a good distance above it. The station stood out like a metal castle adrift above in a sea of clouds.

Falling faster and faster, there was no sound to be heard as only a slight amount of air buffeted against him. As the station came ever closer, he prepared to work on the stopping procedures that he had thought of on the way up.

He was slowing his descent with the Force but he could only do so much. The rest would have to come from jutsu. Putting his hands in a cross shaped seal, he created a two clones right in front of him that faced him. The clones quickly began going through the identical seals and thrust their palms forward at him. Wind chakra instantly came from the palms and buffeted against him, causing him to slow his descent. While the technique worked, the distance between him and the clones was soon too much for the jutsu to be effective so he repeated the process.

As he slowed and neared the station, Naruto adjusted his trajectory to land on the upper level of the station. He hit the hull of the station hard but landed where he wanted to. Grunting in pain, he limped around for a few moments as he thought, 'Walk it off, walk it off.'

Glancing around at the still and silent terrain he was now on, his eyes searched for any access points but didn't find any near him. Extending his senses, he searched for Plagueis and was just able to sense him on the fringes of his range. Quickly moving in that direction, he pulled out his sword to make an entry point.

Coming to a point that was more than one level above Plagueis, he stabbed into the hull and began creating his own access hatch. The moment his sword completed the shape, the piece of hull fell through and he followed it into the ship.

Pulling off his mask, he took a deep breath of recycled station air and examined the area he was in. It appeared to be some access or maintenance area. Not taking anymore time than necessary, he went about making his way to his Master.

x-x

A noise from the door alerted him that the men outside had evidently found the fusion cutter. A small area of the door began heating up to extreme temperatures causing it to turn a reddish orange until sparks shot through the hole that was created by the tool being used.

'Just a minute or two before they get in.' thought a slightly restless Plagueis as he continued to wait in the chair. Glancing around the room, he again noticed the small light on the desk continued to flash, no doubt trying to let the director know that someone was trying to reach her, and he ignored it as he had for the past several minutes.

He could feel Naruto getting closer to his position and tried to remain as calm as possible. As the sparks reached the halfway point on the rectangle being cut out of the locked door, a noise came from above him and caught his full attention.

Protruding from the ceiling was a red blade with black trim and the sight made him smirk. 'He always did have good timing.' he mused and forced Gato's body to stand. The droid also looked away from the door to the ceiling and saw the tip of the sword begin cutting a hole.

Backing away from the desk, the hole was soon finished and a piece of metal came crashing down on the table below, causing it to break under the weight. Naruto then jumped down and landed on the metal.

Plagueis looked up to the hole and found a group of clones lowering two of their own down to Gato's height. The clones were holding onto each other and forming a rope of two clones to span the distance to Gato's height. Reaching down, a clone grasped Gato by the forearm and they began pulling the short man up through the hole into the level above them.

Naruto pulled out a scroll and quickly looked to the items on the once hidden shelves. Deciding that since the woman was dead and that she wouldn't miss the items, he grabbed all of them and sealed them into his empty scroll.

Once Plagueis was up, Naruto looked to Deefour and though apprehensive at the sight of so many duplicates, the droid moved to the floor beneath the opening. The clones came back down and grabbed onto the droid.

Glancing at the door, he noticed that the cutting was nearly complete. Getting beneath the droid, which was actually heavier than Gato, he began pushing to get it up into the hole faster. The cutter finished as Deefour was just getting into the hole and Naruto Force jumped into it as the door feel forward and security guards entered the room with blasters drawn.

x-x

Naruto led the escape with Deefour close behind giving directions and two clones holding up Gato. Plagueis didn't try to have Gato walk and just let the feet drag across the ground. They were on the topmost level of the station and making their way down the hall to one of the lifts. One floor below them were the guards that had just found an empty room and a hole in the ceiling.

'Did you bring the ship?' inquired Plagueis through their link. Naruto replied in the negative and told him about the problems.

'The elevator?' Plagueis asked and Naruto hesitantly responded, 'The ship is now down one escape pod.' and feeling his Master's annoyance, he added, 'The elevator was moving to the station before I even got to the ship.'

'So they might have reinforcements.' Plagueis discerned and planned out what they should do next. The station did have escape pods of its own but if they used one then someone on the station could just communicate down to the surface and have people waiting for them right when they landed.

'We need to get to the lower levels, there are other means of getting off the station.' Plagueis communicated to his student.

Naruto acknowledged the message and pulled out his blaster as he felt several individuals up ahead near the lift that they were headed for. Coming out of his hallway and into the intersection, he fired once at the guards walking down the hallway. Catching them by surprise, the stun bolt struck one of the men in the chest and he crumpled to the ground. The other guards took cover as best as they could as Naruto continued to providing cover while Deefour and the clones dragged Gato across the intersection.

Once on the other side, he ran down the same hall while one of his clones pushed the button for the lift. The doors quickly opened and the group got in. Pushing the console to take them to the level that Plagueis indicated, they only had to wait a brief moment before the lift began taking them to where they wanted. No sooner had they begun moving, then the lift abruptly stopped.

Plagueis instantly realized that someone had turned off the lift as they had only traveled one floor before stopping. Pushing a few buttons on the console, he realized that elevator lift had been shut down. He was about so say something when Naruto's head turned and he knew that his student could feel someone moving to the lift door. Naruto had felt several life-signs moving toward the elevator door and positioning themselves in front of it.

x-x

Six security personnel aimed their slightly trembling blasters at the lift door. None of them had ever seen combat or even been in a combat situation before. Life on the station used to be boring and mundane. Tension hung in the air and only increased when the signal was given for one of the men to open the doors.

The doors instantly slid apart and revealed an empty lift which stunned and confused the men.

Standing inside the lift, Naruto held the cloth in front of him over the bottom two thirds of the lift door opening. He had pulled the cloth out of one of his pouches and put it in the lift entryway to cast his jutsu only moments before the door opened.

On their side of the lift, it showed a slightly transparent cloth but on the opposite side, all the security forces saw was a projected two-dimensional image of the interior of the lift. The break between the top of the cloth and the uncovered lift opening was perfect as the image meshed the two together forming what looked to be an empty lift.

The cloak of invisibility technique was actually the first jutsu that Naruto mastered but not one that he used very often. The E-ranked jutsu however was proving its worth at that very moment. Naruto didn't move and he didn't breathe as he looked straight ahead. Less than a foot away from that head were five blasters, mostly pointed at his upper torso and head.

A few seconds went by before the security members began lowering their weapons and the tension in their bodies faded. On pulled a communicator out of his utility belt and reported, "Nobody was in the lift. The intruders that killed the Director must be somewhere else on the station and they must be messing with the internal sensors, run a diagnostic on them."

The lift doors were shut a moment later and a few more seconds passed until Naruto finally started breathing again. Plagueis also let Gato breathe again and then said, "Quick thinking. Well done my student."

Naruto nodded and then lowered the cloth, which he carefully folded and put back in his pouch. Turning to his Master, he asked, "How do we proceed?"

Plagueis thought for a moment before responding, "We should get to another computer terminal so we can have the droid cover our movements. Like the man suggested, we should mess with their internal sensors. The droid may also be able to reactivate a lift for us."

Using his sensing abilities, Naruto made sure the group was far enough away and no longer in view of the lift before he used the Force and forced the doors open. Looking to the droid, Deefour led the way to the nearest computer terminal.

x-x

With the stations in internal sensors and most of its secondary systems in turmoil, thanks to the little astromech, the trio and accompanying clones were able to get back in the reactivated lift and proceed to the lower levels.

According to the sensors information that Deefour showed them while accessing the computer terminal, the stations security personnel were actively guarding all of the escape pods and the bottom-most level where the space elevator connected with the station. This left Naruto wondering exactly how Plagueis planned to get them off the station.

As the lift door opened and Naruto moved out first. His sensing ability told him that no one was near them on their level but there were patrols on the level above them. They appeared to be on a level with many airlocks for docking with ships.

Naruto wondered why they were in such an area considering that their own ship was still stuck on the surface and no one on board could even fly it up to them. As they walked through the unloading area, Naruto was about to question what his Master intended when Plagueis spoke, "Go to the wall over there and activate one of those panels."

Naruto looked to where Plagueis indicated and found a row of similar panels and what looked like adjacent compartments with each panel. Walking up to one of the, he activated it and the compartment opened to reveal two items. The first item looked to be a standard breath mask that he had seen before on the ship but never used. The second item was what looked like a backpack but it was thinner and very rectangular.

Naruto inspected the device before turning around and giving Plagueis a questioning look. The clones helped Plagueis over to where Naruto was and the Sith Lord explained, "Some vessels such as skyhooks that don't leave the atmosphere, are equipped with extra means of evacuating the ship and getting to the ground safely. Not every deck is equipped with escape pods so in the event of a catastrophic failure of the stations repulsorlifts, these devices can be used and are placed at airlocks around the ship. Its meant for a quick way to leave the ship and survive the fall back to the planet surface."

"What are they?" questioned the student and the Master smirked, "I think you'll like them. They're called survival capsules. Attaching the device to your back, you can jump out of the ship and the device will activate and force you into a seated position while a protective capsule forms around you to completely absorb the impact of the fall. Also, this means of leaving the ship will not alert them that we have left. The internal systems aren't monitoring the air locks so we can leave the ship without them knowing. While we're flying away on _The Vulture_, they will still be searching the ship for us."

Naruto put on the straps for the device and then looked to Deefour. Plagueis noted his students look and added, "They can fit droids as well." Despite his disposition towards droids in general, even he would admit that the astromech had proven invaluable.

Helping Plagueis and Deefour get their harnesses on, Naruto then put on the breather mask that was provided. Easing Gato's body to the nearest air lock, Naruto punched console, opening the door and pulling the air out of the room to create an equilibrium between outside and inside.

Stepping near the edge, Naruto looked down couldn't see the surface through the clouds. 'Forty miles of freefall.' he thought. He was about to jump first until he hear something from behind him. Deefour had backed away from the airlock and was looking quite hesitant.

Frowning Naruto was about to force the droid to go out the air lock when he had an idea.

"Look Deefour, its the ship. They've come to get us." he lied and pointed out the airlock. The poor gullible droid believed him and moved to the air lock to see the ship.

"I'm sorry Deefour. Think well of me." stated Naruto and before the droid could turn around, Naruto lifted his foot up and kicked the droid out the air lock. Instead of a beep, the droid howled as it went over the edge. Plagueis soon soundlessly followed and Naruto went last.

The trio fell for only a few couple hundred feet before the system on their backs activated. A plate swung down from the bottom of the device and pushed on the back of both Naruto's and Plagueis's legs to force them into a seated position in the newly formed chair. Deefour's plate merely went flat against the bottom of his cylinder. Once that was accomplished, the back of the device exploded outward in a yellow material surrounded all three of them and formed a capsule around them.

Inside the protective material, they would be safe for the rest of the fall, which lasted more than five minutes.

x-x

Three objects came out the clouds and headed for an impact with the green fields outside of Kikorie City. The three yellow balls struck the ground but bounced back up and continued bouncing along until the energy from the fall was completely spent. Once safely on the ground, a flap opened to allow them to get out of the capsule.

Naruto got out of the straps and then exited the sphere. Looking around, he could see the city in the distance and the tether that went up into the sky. They had drifted quite a bit during their fall but they weren't that far away. Finding the other capsules near him, he went to help Master Plagueis.

Once Plagueis was free, he unsealed the speeder bike and helped his Master to the bike. Looking at the other capsule, Naruto went to help Deefour and once he opened the flap, he found the angry droid beeping furiously at him.

Looking back at the speeder and then back at the droid, he realized that they didn't have room for Deefour on the speeder. Of course he didn't want to leave the droid behind but also wasn't sure what to do. Leaving the droid in the straps, which seemed to make it beep more furiously, Naruto was about to go back to the speeder when Plagueis chimed in, "The droid does have a cable gun and magnetic grapple."

Naruto nodded at the new information and turned to find a compartment had opened on Deefour's front. Before he could say anything, the cable gun activated and the magnetic grapple struck him in the head.

Looking up at the sky, both heat and pain began emanating from his head. Sitting up, he groaned as his vision spun and then cursed in pain before looking to the droid with murderous eyes. Anger boiled inside him as the droid beeped in triumph. Naruto pulled his sword while he got up. His hands tightened on the handle and he felt some of the Kyuubi's chakra entering into his own reserves. About to teach the droid a lesson, he began walking towards it.

Sensing the vulpine's chakra, Plagueis sent his voice into his student's mind in the form of a mental shout. Naruto turned to Plagueis in both confusion and surprise. In a serious voice, Plagueis told him, "You recruited it, you pushed it out of a skyhook, and there are still things to do. Using that chakra isn't going to help us any."

It quickly dawned on him, through the haze of feelings the Kyuubi was magnifying, what he was doing and he grit his teeth. Coming back to his senses, Naruto kept a scowl on his face but got his feelings back under control and calmed himself down. He gave the droid another glare for good measure, and then attached the magnetic grapple to the back of the speeder bike. Getting on the bike, he took off in the direction of the city with the droid carrying bubble in tow.

Plagueis looked at the back of his students head and thought about what had just happened. It seemed his students condition was getting worse and this was the first time he had seen it. His student could use darkside techniques while controlling his emotions but it seemed that any uncontrolled and prolonged anger could cause the other chakra to come forth. He had warned Naruto against using its chakra at all but it seemed to be more unavoidable than he initially realized. Luckily, the amount that leaked out the seal was insignificant enough not much harm had been done to his student's body.

While he worried about his students condition, he was also concerned with how the midi-chlorians would react. They were an intelligent form of life. If their lives were threatened, he had no idea how they might react as to his knowledge, something like that had never happened before. He more than anyone else knew that the organisms were not something to take lightly. They were supposed to exist in a symbiotic relationship with the host, but he had no idea what they would do if they felt threatened by their own host. It was not something he wanted to find out.

'I'll have to start working with Kabuto on the matter.' he thought and would find out as much as Kabuto had to offer on the subject of Bijuu and Jinchuuriki. 'Perhaps I should also tell the demon brothers about his condition and tenant?' he considered and thought it might be for the best.

x-x

Towing the capsule along, the speeder neared the city. The planet had few trees and the flat ground provided no cover for them to hide their approach. Making for some tall buildings on the edge of the city limits, Naruto stopped the bike there and had a clone get Deefour out of the capsule.

Stashing the survival capsule material, he climbed one of the buildings and got a look at the city and find the hangar. While looking for familiar areas his mind wandered to something had been bugging him since the authorities came to the cantina.

He already had a good idea about what Kabuto had done but, considering that the snake-like man was not trying to sabotage them again, that left him wondering what had led the authorities to Kabuto in the first place. The former spy was not foolish nor easily tailed by anyone.

Looking down the where Plagueis was sitting on the speeder, his vision took him to Deefour and he realized that he would need the droid to find out that information for him. Jumping down, he looked to Plagueis and asked, "Where would I need Deefour to slice into if I wanted some information concerning the local authorities and to free the ship?"

Plagueis thought for a second but knew the likely answer, "Your droid can likely access that information from any computer terminal. Its slicing abilities appear to be quite good and it should be able to access any network in the city that isn't completely closed off. It could even access it from the one in the hangar that the ship is in."

Naruto's eyes widened slightly at the admission. He hadn't seen the computer terminal in the hangar or known that the city was completely networked like the station was. It seemed that they wouldn't have to go searching for anything and could head right back to the ship. All they had to deal with were the officers that might still be outside it.

He left Plagueis with the bike and walked back to the ship with Deefour. Once they cleared out the hangar he would signal Plagueis to return on the bike.

x-x

In the small infirmary, Kabuto sealed back up the body he had been working on. The others were somewhere around the ship waiting to leave and disappointed about losing their free day. The men outside had not been successful at their attempts to gain access to the ship as Naruto's barrier was still holding.

A beeping sound brought him out of his thoughts and he searched the infirmary for the small holopad. Once it was found, he accepted the message and an image of Naruto appeared before him. "What's your status?" Naruto asked, and Kabuto smirked while responding, "I probably should be asking you the same question."

"We're back on the planet. Gato's injured but that's it. Now, what is your status?" Naruto said while being a bit more demanding.

"We're all on the ship and waiting to hear back from you. There are still five individuals outside the ship and they gave up trying to get in. I also don't think they even know we are in here." reported Kabuto.

"I'll be back soon and we can deal with them..." but Naruto was cut off by Kabuto, "Actually I have something that I would like to try."

"Fine, do it. I'll be there shortly." said Naruto as he ended the conversation and the transmission.

Pulling out the small grenade, Kabuto smirked as he would get to test his aerosol and see if the substance form the Kobok worked as well in the air as it did when injected. He was confident the chemical would work but less confident about the delivery system and if the grenade would work correctly.

Walking to the top hatch, he allowed the hatch elevator to lift him to the top of the ship's hull. Once there, he armed the grenade and tossed it at the group. A few seconds after it hit the ground, a few shouts could be heard and then the sound of several bodies dropping as purplish smoke began to fill the hangar.

Kabuto smirked and returned inside the ship to let the gas dissipate and then inspect the results.

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Feeling Kabuto standing in the hangar and the life-signs of five unconscious individuals, Naruto contacted Plagueis to tell him that it was safe to come to the hangar.

Entering the hangar, he found the ship as he had left it and Kabuto standing over the bodies of five uniformed men. He didn't bother to ask what Kabuto was doing and went to the computer terminal in the hangar. Motioning to the terminal with a slight incline of his head, Deefour followed him and then plugged into the terminal.

Walking to the ship, Naruto went about removing the barrier he had placed. Once that was done, he headed back to the droid. Despite his ire with Deefour and the pain in his head, the device underneath the landing pad had already been disabled by the time he got back and the droid was in the process of slicing in the cities network to gain access to any files concerning them. Sifting through all the data, it came upon a piece of information and decided to display it. The hologram caught Kabuto's attention and the teen joined Naruto as they looked at the image being displayed.

Being played in front of them was blatant footage of Kabuto running and jumping at far faster than human speeds over the buildings in the city and going straight to the hangar. Naruto glanced over at Kabuto with a glare and the teen laughed nervously while adjusting his glasses. "I guess I forgot to look up." Kabuto explained as the angle of the footage indicated that it was filmed from above.

"Where did the footage come from?" demanded Naruto and the droid worked for a second before displaying the image of a floating droid.

"Where is the droid now?" Naruto question and Deefour showed him an image of the city and then the location of the droid flying above it.

"Can you delete this information from the cities network and the droids memory?" he asked in a nicer voice. The droid beeped in the positive but again showed him the image of the surveillance droid and gave him a negative sounding beep. 'He can delete it from the network but not from the droids memory.' Naruto gathered and went to get a rifle from the ship.

Deefour watched him go and Kabuto noted the droids nervousness as well as Naruto's lack of patience with the droid.

"Does this have something to do with the red lump on his head?" Kabuto asked the droid and the accompanying beeps told him what he wanted to know. Kabuto turned to greet Plagueis who had just arrived on the speeder bike. Walking over to the man, he noted the wound and had his snake reached out and coiled around Gato, then lifted him up into the air.

Plagueis frowned slightly at being carried aboard the ship in such a manner but decided not to complain.

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"What happened to your head?" questioned Karin and Naruto stopped opening a case of rifles to look at her to tell her, "Nothing, shut up."

Karin frowned at the statement and crossed her arms. Leaving the room, she decided not to heal him if he asked. Watching Naruto picking out a rifle, Suigetsu chimed in from a seat in the next room, "Are we gonna shoot people from the roof?"

"No, not people. Just a droid." Naruto answered and he looked directly at Deefour when he said it. The astromech had only just boarded the ship after corrupting all relevant information about them and their ship from the cities network. The droid saw his look, saw the rifle, and heard the statement which caused it to beep in fright and speed away into another part of the ship.

Walking out the ship, Naruto ran up the wall of the hangar and got to the roof. Checking for any surveillance droids that might be able to spot him, he then looked for what he was after with his goggles. Finding the location that Deefour had shown him, he spotted the floating droid he was after. It was likely programmed to float over particular sections of the city and monitor the activities below. He saw other such droids in the distance but ignored them as his target was just the single droid that had spotted Kabuto.

Kneeling down, he supported the blaster rifle and aimed at the droid. Compensating for the blaster's drop over the distance and the wind speed, he calmed himself and steadied his breathing. Naruto pulled the trigger a moment later and the red bolt shot through the sky and hit the droid, causing it to explode.

Quickly jumping down to the ship, he went to the landing ramp and got aboard.

Though things had been a success, it didn't really feel like it to him. He lost his temper with a droid and nearly used the Kyuubi's chakra. 'That little bastard did get me right in the head.' he thought and winced slightly when he checked the lump.

Walking down the starship, he ignored the looks from the others as he headed to the cockpit. He would have to take the ship around the planet at a low altitude as a preventative measure before leaving the planet and setting a course for Tatooine.

End

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AN: Faster update but fewer pages. This was was sort of a filler but will be touched upon later on as they figure out more about the Tessents.

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Responses to reviewers that don't have accounts

**Reviewer**: newboy 

**Review**: This is a great chapter, I look forward to more. A question I have is will naruto learn any light side force techniques. I only ask because the ability to use both light and dark force techniques would give him quite an advantage. Plagueis himself was called Plagueis the wise for his knowledge of Sith and Jedi techniques, so even a Sith can use jedi techniques.

**Response**: I really wanted Naruto to stick with darkside only techniques. I know he could probably learn some lightside techniques but I wanted him to be darkside only and not gray or able to use lightside techniques. I've read many stories were he is gray and I wanted to stay away from that. Basically I want him to be sith but never turn completely to the darkside or give himself over to that side of the Force. So his body won't be ravaged by the darkside like Sidious's because of turning so dark that it caused changes.

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**Reviewer**: Hell Spawn

**Review**: I believe this was your biggest chapter yet . Just for curiosity's sake why is Plagueis so fixated on Anikan ? Doesn't he want to transfer his consciousness into a clone of his original body . So it really doesn't matter how he achieves that objective right.

**Response**: It was my biggest chapter at 48 pages I think which trumped my previous large chapter by more than six pages. Plagueis isn't fixated on Anakin as he doesn't know Anakin exists. At this point he fixated on the idea of a person like Anakin (conceived from midi-chlorians). His original body was greatly damaged by Sidious's Force lighting (burnt to a crisp in fact) and with 15 years of decomposition, he has no idea if the cells in his body are still viable to make a clone or not. I was going to address this in a few chapters when Plagueis did recover his remains. At this point he just wants a new body and had Shmi given birth, then he would have a very viable and powerful body that he could possess until such time as something better was found. His state as a spirit is such that he is not very powerful and a body created by his manipulation would compensate for his lack of power.

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**Reviewer**: Peter Kim

**Reviews**: Are you going to do the time skip of not on this fic?

I like the idea of Naruto and Plagueis using battle droids as their army since chakra can be used as a battery or create chakra metal as stated by Deadzepplin and Readermike's idea of using shinobi's heart to create battle droids that use jitsu. Also since Naruto does have Kabuto who knows Edo Tensei who can create an army of undead jedi,sith and other force users as their commanders and such for their droids army and that's why I think slowly taking over the The Confederacy of Independent Systems and creating an alternate master control signal system and a back up alternate master control signal system that Naruto and Plagueis controls just in case when the leaders of the The Confederacy of Independent Systems dies,Naruto and Plagueis can gain control of the The Confederacy of Independent Systems

I would like to see Naruto and Plagueis and their forces slowly take over the The Confederacy of Independent Systems and then overthrow Count Dooku and his master since it would ironic that Plagueis take over the forces Palpatine has commanded and then use it against Palpatine. I think Naruto should build a backup master control signal system in his home world so when the orignial master control signal is shut him Naruto cabn gain full control of the battle droids

**Response**: They will use battle droids but I'm not sure about the chakra heart idea as droids wouldn't have the intelligence needed to feel their chakra and use it or have a means to use it (chakra network). Sasori was only able to use chakra strings and not actual jutsu with his condition. I am considering Edo Tensei, but you also have to remember that the Jedi might have something that can fight against it. They may have a way to let the soul that was brought back to the living world, go back to the afterlife.

I think, but I could be mistaken, that the master control signal was only used during the blockade on Naboo. After the Trade federation realized that inadequacy of the signal and the fact that it might be jammed or the transmitter destroyed, they modified the battle droids to be more independent and not need a master control signal to function. So the signal could be exploited during the blockade but not during the clone wars or the buildup of the separatist state.

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**Reviewer**: Ninja fan 101

**Review**: Very good story so far more potential in the star wars universe. I just realized if I remember that Naruto and Plagueis absorbed the memories of Orochimaru so would that mean they have Edo tensei also known as the Summoning: Impure World Resurrection that revive the dead as a summon. They just need DNA of said person and blood stains or organs to use etc for those that don't know the mechanics of the technique. If you think about it they just have to grab some thieves crooks etc to act as sacrifice's. And well you know resurrect the some powerful Sith of Jedi to use as an undead army or gain more knowledge from them, after all they just would have to go to the tombs.

One more thing since Plagueis has the plans for the weather machine in Snow Country will he use it on Hoth as a base since well that planet is far away and that there are some ancient weapons since the planet was used as a testing ground in the past.

**Response**: Naruto technically didn't absorb Orochimaru's memories, he actually absorbed the sannin's soul. I'm not entirely sure how that is different but Sasuke did the same in canon and he never seemed to have any of Orochimaru's memories. Kabuto would likely know the technique and since they have the forbidden scroll, the also have knowledge of the technique. They could use it but I think the Jedi might be able to counter it or learn to counter it at some point. I can't have Naruto's group being that powerful with a bunch of revived Edo Tensei. They would have to watch out with revived Sith as they might be knowledgeable enough to try and fight for control.

I was planning to use the weather control machine at some point. Hoth does seem like a nice place to use it and they might use it on part of the world to remove the snow and make it spring. I haven't read anywhere about the planet being used as a testing ground but I do know that several battles were fought over the planet with the most advanced ships or even prototypes that could have crashed and been covered by the ice. At some point I might add that in.

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**Reviewer**: Marshall

**Review**: Just looked at your profile and noticed you made mention of pairings for this fic. Thought I'd offer my two cents.

Honestly, I can't see any romance happening in this fic, not even after the characters have aged a bit. Those kinds of feelings should have no place in Naruto's world view, either currently or in the future. He may have accomplished his main goal of getting out into the galaxy, but his aspirations should leave little room for romance. Especially with the whole Sith attitude. That is not to say I cannot see a pairing happening, as I would not put it past Naruto to use someone else's feelings for him to quell his hormones. And he does seem to have feelings under his dark exterior, at the very least a sense of comradery or desire to be liked and appreciated, as demonstrated by his desire to keep those somewhat close to him safe and his vague fuzzy feeling at being asked to make a useful piece of tech by everyone. Seems like most of all he still just really wants to be accepted. And I could see that leading to a small amount of tenderness. Just not love or romance. The opposite can't really said about his non-Sith companions, of course, and I can easily see Karin falling for Naruto because of a number of different reasons. Tayuya as well, to a lesser but seemingly just as valid extent. I just can't really see Naruto returning any of their feelings to any strong degree beyond him being that much more reluctant to lose of his crew, and perhaps giving in to a bit of rutting every now and then. Regardless, I wouldn't expect any of that to come into play for quite some time, seeing as Naruto is still so young.

As for the rest of the story, I think things are going brilliantly. What I love most about crossovers such as these are the moments of surprised awe where one character from a certain universe witnesses the abilities of another character from a different universe, and is stunned into disbelieving stupor, we've already had a taste of this with the shinobi being subjected to a few of Naruto's Force abilities. Now it's time to see how the galaxy reacts to a bunch of kids who can "shoot lightning from their mouths," as Naruto put it. I absolutely cannot wait for a Jedi to bear witness to some of these abilities, as I imagine he or she would be extremely shocked by the spectacle. And that makes for fun reading. Can't wait for adventures on Tatooine, as that has the potential for some enormous canon changes if Plagueis actually manages to get his hands on Anakin and takes over his destined vessel. A Sith of his knowledge in a body with as much Force sensitivity as Anakin's would produce a truly terrifying enemy for the Jedi, moreso than Darth Vader himself.

**Response**: Wow you really nailed the character and described him better than I could have. I also feel that Naruto really wouldn't be ready for that kind of relationship now or perhaps in the future. He doesn't have the ability to really love someone, care for them yes, but not really love. The problem that I have is that most readers need or at least want a pairing. I've gotten many questions about a pairing and so I just decided that there would be some kind of pairing but that it really wouldn't be a relationship or marriage kind of pairing, just something physical. At this point I haven't really addressed that, mostly because Naruto is still 12 and this isn't the story where he will be getting any that early in life.

At some point, when they have established themselves (have resources and a few locations that are safe for them to stay at) then Naruto won't care about using jutsu in front of others and they will become more active. This point in the story is really a build up. I haven't decided if Plagueis will get his hands on Anakin, I think the problem stems from his role as a researcher and the slave chip in the boy's head. Plagueis may want to observe his experiment, rather than skew results or try to influence him and removing the chip that will explode if they leave the planet may be difficult to get around.

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**Reviewer**: fanfic-addict

**Review:** Man, I was soooo happy to see that you finally updated! While the lenght of the chapter was spectacular, I'd really rather have medium-sized chapters at a faster rate instead.

Well, this chapter (and probably the next few too) was obviously more about introduction of the "new" universe for the team/crew and how they built a proper base for future operations, and that's just fine since you can't have adrenalin pumpin' 24/7. Come to think of it what exactly ARE the teams' plans for the future? Aside from Plagueis immediate need of a body, vague Sith ideals aren't going to cut it as any kind of long term plan. And how, if at all, will these plans clash with Plagueis personal plans/desires? And what about Sidious, especially when Naruto finally discovers the Rule of Two and that he never truly was Plagueis apprentice? Answers via chapter, if possible, would be appreciated because I hate being spoilered.

Of course Naruto will have to return to Ibonihs (who came up first with that name anyways ? everyone uses it!) for the Kyuubi, if nothing else. He can't ignore the problem forever, especially if it's threatening his Force powers and particulary as a Sith who use their anger and hate and don't surpress it. Though I can't say that I would like Naruto to completely embrace the dark side. It wouldn't suit him. By the way wouldn't the fourth shinobi war happen around the same time as Phantom Menace ?

Last but not least, if you're thinking about droids for the team, I'm rooting for HK-47. His core processor only of course since the body will be rusted beyond repair and a new one would have to be built, but I simply adore the meatbag-killing assassin/translator with the most annoying way of speaking possible. He would fit in perfectly, not to mention his historical value for the Siths. Combined with the little astromech you get a classical Star Wars cast. Now you just need a wookie... though I guess Juugo counts somewhat but it isn't quite the same. Update soon please!

**Response:** Basically they are out to gather resources and money so they can find out what is going on with Sidious. They will need money for whatever they end up doing and right now they are out to sell the weapons and make secure sources of income that they can use to gather information about Sidious. I won't reveal more than that but I will gradually build up their plans in the coming chapters. They don't have a set plan right now because they don't know what Sidious is up to and can't really make plans because of that lack of information.

I have no idea who came up with Ibonihs, it was just a standard that starwars/naruto crossovers use. I do have a method to deal with the Kyuubi and it won't involve a sharingan or wood jutsu. The fourth ninja war would happen right before the phantom menace movie and possibly during it. Its hard to determine how much time actually passes by in canon shippuuden, whether its just weeks or months.

I do plan for three droids for their team. I won't reveal anything beyond that though.

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**Reviewer**: void

**Review**: Thanks for the always the plot thickens and I cant wait for the next update.I have questions though?The allure about the star wars franchise is the tragedy of the protagonist Anikan skywalker and how he become victim to his own power and am saying is that if you have plagueis take over Anikan you take away that intique and human kinsman with your readrs?by plagueis minchlorides experiment failing and anikan being born a few years later shows him to be a work of the force,so in essence he meant to serve a greater purpose than being a vessel?Also when it comes to the jedi,i dont get why the let obi one become anikan master inspite of his strong attachment to his mother and qualms about his should have given him to a person like yoda who would have had almost a milleniums worth of experience and his standing a elder master in the jedi order could have controlled anikans sheer arogance when it came to his power instead of obione who would become his equal in a few years given his vast potential and talent. Are you thinking of pairing naruto with padme?;because theircharacters dont mesh no matter how you look at it comes to the jedi dont make them as blind to the sith as how they were in the movies;it was a disgrace;you could have yoda and sidious have a foreboding through the force beacuse of plagueis but not knowing the origins but atleast knowing its bad(sith),this could convince yoda to take on anikan as a just saying this because you havent had the jedi and sidious reaction to the entry of plagueis back into the known galaxy.

**Response**: You'll have to wait for the coming chapters. I don't really plan for Plagueis to take over Anakin, it was just a thought that Plagueis had. I don't really want to spoil anything beyond that. Naruto won't be with Padme and Anakin may be taught by Qui-gon and not Obi-wan. I haven't featured any reaction from the Sith or Jedi because Plagueis is a spirit and isn't making a big impact on the galaxy yet. They won't be able to sense him or get any real foreboding feelings at this point.

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I want to thank chakragrip, Guglu Muglu, Cherrie-san, lest, kristoff, cuco, Directorman, and Ragdain for reviewing as well as all the other people that reviewed and got me close to 1000 reviews. Thank you for all your support and comments. Hopefully I addressed all of them in this chapter or individuals through replies but if I didn't please let me know.


	21. Chapter 21

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

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**36.3 BBY – Current Year **

Chapter XXI: This isn't Tatooine

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**AN: For a while I've put off naming the group but I haven't been able to come up with anything good so I'm welcome to any and all suggestions. Once I get them, then I'll put them all in a poll for everyone to vote on. Thank you.**

Looking over the holocron, Plagueis once again attempted to communicate with the insectoid Sith Lord. It had been quit frustrating as the language was not something he had ever encountered before. Instead of a vocalization, the holographic creature was communicating through body movements. He already identified three different branches movements: the rubbing of antennae, the opening and closing of its mandibles, and abdomen movements. Each of those came together to form a language.

What began as incomprehensible was now starting to be understood by Plagueis. It was difficult but he was making progress. Languages were not his strength but he hoped to be done near the time that they arrived on Tatooine.

Their journey had lasted a few days and they were more than halfway to the desert planet. They were following minor hyperlanes and Plagueis was allowing Naruto to plot the hyperspace jumps and confirm them with instinctive astrogation, thereby practicing his use with the technique. He could just feel them coming out of hyperspace and no doubt Naruto was entering the coordinates for the next jump.

Hyperlanes were not usually single, uninterrupted jumps from one location to another. They usually involved coming out of hyperspace and making adjustments at least once on most journeys. No sooner than the ship was back to real space then the entire ship shook twice in quick succession. Plagueis put down the holocron as realization soon dawned on him. 'Those impacts were from blaster canons and ship-to-ship fire.'

Coming out of his captains quarters he saw two clones run by and head for the ladder that led to the top and bottom gun turrets. Following where they had just come from, he arrived at the cockpit and sat down in the second pilots seat. Naruto was already taking evasive action and he could see several lasers bolts fly past them, just missing the ships deflector shields.

"We came out of hyperspace and they were already on top of us." Naruto quickly explained as he did his best to maneuver out of the laser fire. Plagueis could already hear the sound of the clones returning fire from the turrets. Sitting in the second pilot's seat, he quickly determined the situation.

Three ships were in pursuit and attacking from behind. The hyperdrive had been damaged in the initial assault when their ship entered realspace. Determining their current location, Plagueis told Naruto to set a course for the nearby star system as several more hits rocked the ship.

"Do you know who they are?" questioned Naruto as he sent another clone to tell the rest of the crew what was going on.

"They could be anyone. Pirates, slavers, thieves, they all travel the Outer-rim hyperlanes and wait for ships. Its unfortunately unavoidable in these parts." responded Plagueis and thought perhaps they should have taken a different route. They followed the ships navigational computer which was taking them through less traveled routes but apparently they were just unlucky.

From his console, Plagueis armed the rear concussion missile launcher and got a targeting lock on one of the ships. "Prepare to come around." he told his student and right when the lock was established, he fired one of the missiles and Naruto brought the ship around.

Predictably, the pursuing ships scatter to avoid the incoming missile. It was already locked onto one ship though and impacted the ship's shields. Before the ships could regroup, Naruto had already turned their ship around and was tailing one of the undamaged ships.

The two turrets rotated and came to bear on the ship in front of them while Naruto began firing with the ships forward heavy laser canons. The combined fired ripped through the smaller ships deflector shield and the unhindered shots struck vital areas, causing it to soundlessly explode in space. Naruto dodged the debris but their ship was soon under attack again by the two regrouped ships.

Routing more power to the rear deflector shields to keep them from failing, Naruto restored their heading to the star system while the clones continued to fire upon the pursuing ships. Calming his mind, Naruto began connecting with his clones at the same time he was flying the ship.

Plagueis looked over to his student as he noted a sudden change, 'He's coordinating the movements of the ship with his clones turret fire to take advantage of every opportunity to fire on our attackers.' he realized and then focused his efforts on getting another targetting lock on the ships behind them.

Approaching the system, Naruto found that they were heading for two large gas giants but soon he found a third planet hiding in between them. It was much smaller than the gas giants and appeared to be volcanically active. The sensors registered substantial gravitational attractions between the three objects and soon they would soon be caught in these forces.

Deciding that Plagueis knew better than he did about the area, he continued his course while his clones continued shooting. Plagueis soon had another targetting lock on one of the ships and fired another concussion missile. Only the targeted ship broke off pursuit to try and evade the missile but it was too damaged and its shields too spent from taking their laser fire to prevent its destruction.

With two ships down, the final ship apparently decided that they weren't worth the effort and fired two proton torpedoes at them before Plagueis could fire another concussion missile. The twin blue projectiles had a lock on their ship and began following it.

"We're too slow to dodge them and we don't have countermeasures, your clones will have to shoot them down." Plagueis informed him and Naruto went about controlling the clone in the top turret to fire only on the incoming torpedoes.

The top gunner clone managed to hit the first torpedo which caused it to explode. The detonation however covered the path and location of the second torpedo. The clone kept firing but it was too late.

"Fuck." was all the original said and Plagueis braced for impact after he fired a concussion missile at the last ship.

The proton torpedo passed through their depleted shields and struck the aft section of the ship. The entire vessel rocked violently and numerous alarms went off in the cockpit. A flashing red light indicated that they had a hull breach and another alarm told him that they were venting atmosphere. Naruto created a clone which ran to the back of the ship to access the damage.

The running clone passed by the meeting table where all of the crew were strapped in a even the original could hear Karin yelling, "WERE GONNA DIE!"

Getting to the engineering section, the clone could see a fire and both hear and feel the air leaving the ship. Doing the only practical thing, it closed door to the section and hoped the fire would be put out by the vacuum of space. The clone then dispelled to tell the original of what had happened.

Checking through the systems, Naruto found that the ship was not coming apart and that they had survived the hit. 'Hyperdrive is down, hull breach, environmental systems are compensating...engines unresponsive.' he said to himself as he went over the list.

It wasn't until he got to the last item that he realized that they were still heading towards the planet. In fact, it was now quite large in the cockpit windows. Quickly going over the sensors, he found that they were trapped in its gravity as well as the gravity of the two gas giants that were close by.

With the engines unresponsive, there was nothing he could do to stop their increasing descent into the planets atmosphere. It was only a matter of time before they crashed.

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As soon as the others had been told what was happening by a clone, there was panic on the ship. All but the demon brothers were running around and dumping all of their possessions as well as their sealed cargo into the other escape pod.

Suigetsu wasn't actually worried about the impending crash as much as he was about the planet they were headed for. It was a volcanic rock and he worried about dehydrating because of his technique. Karin would have laughed at the teen's fear but she was far to panicked and once everything she wanted to take with her was aboard the escape pod, she strapped herself in.

Naruto remained in the pilot's chair as he looked at the dark clouds and partially obscured surface of the planet. As long as he could avoid the lava flows...and lava lakes...and active volcanoes, they should be fine. Most ships could take a beating and he hoped theirs was one of those ships. Their previous ship survived an uncontrolled crash so their chances seemed good.

As the front of the ship seemingly ignited from the air resistance of entry into the atmosphere, he looked over and saw another fireball in the distance and knew it was the other ship. Plagueis's last missile hadn't destroyed them but they appeared to be in the same situation.

Naruto's attention returned to their situation as the ship began to shake as the turbulence increased and friction of the atmosphere increase. Plagueis soon returned to the cockpit after getting his items aboard the pod.

Turning to his Master, Naruto asked, "Did you plan for this?" He wasn't accusing Plagueis of anything sinister but just wondering why they had plotted a course to the planet.

Sitting in the seat and strapping Gato in, Plagueis replied, "Did I know that we would be hit by a torpedo? No, but I did foresee this or similar occurrences. As bad as this may seem, crashing to a planet is much better than being stranded in the void of space. Especially when I have considerable knowledge on the planet and its few inhabitants."

Naruto hadn't actually checked to see if the navigational computer recognized the planet, a quick check revealed them to be in the Mustafar system and heading for the planet Mustafar.

"You've been here before?" he questioned and Plagueis nodded as he focused on the controls and said, "We have to time this right in order get the best landing site. We also need to level out the ship and try to slow or descent."

Going through the sensors and the ships computer, he computed where they would land on their current course and then began adjusting it to find better terrain. They were entering the lower atmosphere and despite not having any engines to make a proper landing, they could still use the ships few maneuvering thrusting to change their trajectory.

Searching the topography of the planet, Plagueis found a nice plateau to land on and began the calculations. His keen mind recalculated their trajectory for that spot and Plagueis began to use the thruster to alter their course.

They were made for use while in space, on a ship not affected by the gravity of a planet, so the small thrusters couldn't move the ship much but they could nudge it in the right direction. Two of the port-side lower thrusters fired and it took a second for the ship to begin to gradually move. Plagueis eased off the thrust and the ship slowed to stay on its the new course.

As the ship came through the dark ash filled clouds of the planet, they saw the plateau and Plagueis activated the bottom thrusters near the front of the ship thrusters to keep the nose up and level their landing. Passing over a river of lava, the ship continued on its course. The ground was coming up fast but the nose started to lift slightly.

At the last moment, Plagueis diverted power to the ships bottom deflector and internal compensator to lessen their impact with the ground. The ships deflector had both ray and particle shielding and while the ray shielding wouldn't help them, the particle shielding would. The deflector shields scrapped against the surface of the plateau first and quickly overloaded. Though they only lasted for a moment, the quick use of the shields lessened the contact of the ship's bottom hull with the rock of the plateau.

Despite the internal compensator was working at full power, the entire crew felt a sharp jerk when the ship dug into the rock and their harnesses dug into them. The ship continuously shook from scraping against the rock but the did start to slow.

Looking ahead of them, Naruto began to see the edge of plateau and his eyes widened. Plagueis saw it as well but there was nothing either of them could do. There was no way to slow down the ship any faster than what the friction with the surface of the plateau was doing.

The edge of the plateau however kept getting closer and they soon realized that they were going over. The ship flew off the edge of plateau and the shaking stopped. For a few moments the ship remained heading horizontally before it began dropping. The front of the ship began to dip forward and revealed to both pilots an empty canyon that they were headed straight for. No relief flooded over the pair as despite the canyon not being filled with lava, they were still falling.

"Brace for impact!" Naruto yelled through the ships comm system and a moment later the front of the ship impacted the rock of the canyon floor.

x-x

Naruto blinked to try and relieve the double vision he was having. Though he could tell he was still sitting in the chair, he felt like he was being suspended in the air by the straps. To relive some of the pressure from his chest, he absently unlatched his harness.

The loss of the harness, caused Naruto to fall forward. His chest hit the control panel but his head kept going and smacked into the cockpit window. Groaning, he pulled his forehead off the window and tried his best to sit up in the dark cockpit.

"It seems the ship's artificial gravity is off because there's no power to any systems. The ship is also sticking vertically upward with the bow in the ground and the stern up in the air." Plagueis informed him with the voice of the groggy Gato.

"I wish you would have said something before I undid my straps." Naruto complained and Plagueis replied, "I could use some assistance getting out of this chair. What just happened to you might finish Gato off."

Grabbing the armrest of his pilots chair, Naruto steadied himself and stood on what surfaces he could. As he helped Plagueis out of the chair, he looked around to see what had happened. The cockpit appeared to be fine and the windows weren't even broken.

"Did the ground give way?" he asked Plagueis and looking through the windows, Plagueis examined their situation.

"No, the front of the ship broke through some lava tubes." replied Plagueis as he moved Gato's body so the feet weren't on the console or damaged the ships controls.

"Lava tubes?" Naruto questioned as examined their situation. Looking out the window, he could only see rock all around them but there appeared to be some tunnel systems that they had crashed into.

"Lava coming out of the surface crust will flow in a given direction. As it flows, the outer surface of the lava will cool while the inner contents stay at a much hotter temperature. Thus the outside will begin to harden while the inside continues to flow further outward from the source. The structure may expand if the flow increases but once the lava flow is done, the hardened outside will remain and create lava tubes.

As more lava flows occur, the tubes may be covered up by further layers of cooled lava or tubes. It appears that the tubes prevented the ship from being damaged from the fall. Instead of striking solid ground, the front of the ship broke through layers of lava tubes and, to some degree, it cushioned the impact. That feature actually isn't very common on Mustafar as the lava is quite unique due to its fluidity and the amount usually produced by most eruptions.

Usually the flows are so quick and of such a volume that they don't have time to cool until they are a good distance away from the source. Perhaps we're in a more stable area or at least an area that hasn't had many of the typical lava flows that the planet is known for. We were quite lucky, had the ship struck solid ground, the cockpit may have been destroyed." explained Plagueis in his lecture mode and Naruto was very thankful for the presence of the lava tubes, which may have saved his life.

Looking almost straight up from his position, Naruto realized that he would have to climb up the main hallway that spanned most of the ship. Since he could stick to the floor it wasn't a problem but he knew that he would have to carry Gato's body while doing it, which would be a pain.

Extending his senses out, he could feel the others in the escape pod. He couldn't determine if they were injured or not but all of their signatures were present. Getting Gato's body on his back, Naruto began walking up the decking and headed for the escape pod.

Passing the medical bay, he noted that the medical droid would likely need some repairs as it wasn't secured during the impact. Coming to the escape pod, he hit the panel to open the door and found the rest of the group.

All heads in the pod turned to the opening and Tayuya greeted Naruto with, "Way to fly, asswipe."

Aside from bruising, the rest of the group seemed to be alright as well. The inside of the pod was a mess as all the scrolls had gotten tossed around. Deefour was stuck in its harness and Kabuto was healing a few minor injuries on Karin and Juugo. Plagueis was taken by the demon brothers and they helped him into the pod to stand on one of the empty seats.

"We probably won't be able to get out on the loading ramp, you should try the top hatch. It may be above ground." suggested Plagueis and Naruto quickly moved up the hallway to the top hatch. Fitting his breather mask, he crawled up the hatch tube and then used the emergency controls to force the hatch open.

The opening however proved to be discouraging as all he found was rock. Moving out of the tube, he climbed higher to the engineering room and opened the door that his clone had sealed. Looking over the damage, he found the hull breach. Through the new hole in the ship, he could see black clouds in the sky which prevented most sunlight from touching the planet.

Climbing out through the breach, he was hit by the warm dry air. Sticking to the hull, Naruto moved up to the tail end of the engines and looked over the surrounding landscape. Their ship was in the middle of the canyon and stuck halfway in the ground with the rear half of the ship sticking almost straight up in the air. The canyon walls were shear black rock on both sides and they were near the apex of a fork in the canyon where it split up into two directions.

The canyon floor appeared to change elevation quite a bit and it was evident that they were in what had been a channel for flowing lava that had dried up or hadn't seen an eruption in a while. A red glow reflected in the smoke of many areas in the distance showing that there were active lava flows nearby. Not too far away, he spotted a huge active volcano that took up most of the landscape. Several rivers of lava were coming out of it and smoke was rising from the top.

Focusing on the ship, he didn't find very much damage from the half that he could see but he noticed that the escape pod was buried under the surface.

A low rumbling grabbed his attention and caused him to look around for a source but he soon realized it was just the beginning of a quake. The ground began shaking and areas of the canyon floor began cracking while rock from the canyon walls broke off and crashed to the ground below. The shaking continued for several minutes and actually seemed to be getting worse. Looking back to the volcano, he saw a massive amount of lava explode out of the top and into air. While it had been spewing out lava before, it was obvious that it was now erupting. As huge flows of lava came down the side of the mountain, Naruto felt through the Force that something bad was coming.

Looking down the right side of the forked canyon, he noted that the canyon floor and wall that was miles away from their position began to glow. His eyes widened as he realized what was coming and given their position, they would be right in the path.

Signaling Plagueis, he then created thirty clones that set about going through earth jutsu. The group began spewing lines of mud to create a wedge shaped wall in front of the ship to diver the coming flood of lava. As the clones finished making their lines of mud, Naruto went through a second set of seals, "Earth Release: Moving Earth Core." The earth jutsu caused the rock blocking the escape pod to sink down further into the ground enough that the pod could jettison.

Telepathically contacting Plagueis, Naruto watched the pod leave the ship and use just enough of its rocket boosters to clear the canyon wall and then grind to stop on the surface. Looking back to the flood of lava heading at him, he gave a signal to his clones and pulled out the speeder bike scroll to get to wall himself.

The clones finished their jutsu and a tall, thick wall of mud sprang up and formed an wedge shaped defense in front of the ship against the oncoming lava.

Naruto drove the speeder bike moved to the opposite side of the fork, which appeared safe for the moment, and he looked back as a twenty foot wave of lava reached the wall and moved around it. The clones had remained in order to make sure that the wall held and reinforce it if needed.

Sealing the speeder, he ran up the wall of the canyon and headed to the escape pod.

x-x

Exitting the escape pod, the group got their first look at the barren and hellish landscape of Mustafar. Seeing the area and feeling the temperature, Suigetsu decided to remain inside the pod lest he begin to dehydrate. Karin again would have made fun of him if she wasn't so disturbed by the planet they were marooned on.

Naruto soon reached the top of the wall and glanced over at the ship to make sure it was still being protected by the wall. His attention then turned to the group and he was hit by a wave of emotions coming from them. There was fear, sadness, anger, despair, and more emotions that seemed to be directed at him.

He didn't look at the group as they stared down at the ship and the river of lava that was flowing around it. It made him angry that they believed it was his fault. He hadn't chosen the route they were taking, nor could he have foreseen the pirates or whatever they were waiting for them when they entered real space. They had won the fight but the memory of the blue proton torpedo hitting the ship refused to leave his mind. Not only had he been in touch with his clone as it happened but the memory from the clone had returned to him when it dispelled during the crash.

He tried to calm himself down but nothing seemed to be helping. A glance to the opposite side of the canyon revealed the damage to the plateau that they had caused when the ship raked against the surface. Looking into the sky, he found the trail of the other ship and followed it down as far as he could before it disappeared behind the horizon. Taking out his scroll that held his speeder bike, he made to unseal it and follow the trail to the ship. There he would finish off the people that attacked him.

Plagueis could feel his student's anger rising and knew what Naruto was up to. Signaling Gozu, he made to stop Naruto before his student did something. If their ship survived the lava then there was a good chance they could repair it and the enemies ship could be the key to doing that. Having Naruto go off and possibly lose control of himself would not help them. He might end up further damaging the other ship.

Plagueis placed his hand on the newly unsealed speeder bike and Naruto turned to him. The Sith Lord could feel anger in his student but before he could say anything, Gozu smacked Naruto in the back of the head with his gauntlet. Staring at the slumped over Naruto, Plagueis turned to Gozu and said, "I was going to reason with him and try to calm him down."

"Oops." responded the demon brother and he looked at the unconscious Naruto. "Do you think he'll be angry when he wakes up?"

"Probably, but I think it's best that you go out and take care of any survivors in the other ship before he wakes up. Make sure there are none still alive and watch out, this planet does have a good number of dangerous creatures." Plagueis ordered.

x-x

Opening his eyes, Naruto found himself in the last place he wanted to be, inside the seal. Getting up out of the water, he walked down the starship-like hallway to where he knew the Kyuubi to be. Turning the corner at the chamber with the Kyuubi inside it, he soon stood in the middle of the large room and looked ahead at the shadowy creature behind the golden bars.

"Why have you come?" asked the Kyuubi and Naruto was confused as he hadn't meant to go into the seal, he thought the Kyuubi wanted to talk with him. Deciding that it really didn't matter either way, he decided to get to the bottom of a few things, "You've been pissing me off a lot lately, in more ways than one" stated Naruto and he could tell that the vulpine creature was smiling behind the bars.

"**Have I? Sometimes I don't even know I'm doing it?**" lied the Kyuubi and Naruto glared at the creature which only made it's smile grow.

"Its only a matter of time before I'll be able to suppress or control you." stated Naruto but he was soon confused when the Kyuubi laughed.

"**Oh really? You think you can to that do me. I'm afraid that won't be possible. No matter what you use, there is nothing that you can do to control or suppress me.**"

"Why not?" asked Naruto and he made a slight motion with his hand to try and manipulate the fox into revealing more. He wanted to know why the Kyuubi was so sure of itself.

"**Trying to manipulate me I see. Now that I know about that little trick, I won't be fooled by it again. However, just to show you how hopeless your situation is, I'll indulge your curiosity. Once you cracked open the seal, you gave me the upper hand. I can influence you because of the hatred in your heart. The same hatred that you use for those special techniques of yours. The more you use your special power, the more I can push my chakra through the seal and influence you. The seal itself hasn't weakened that much but because of all the hatred you hold, it doesn't matter. You're probably thinking that a sharingan will be able to control me or perhaps Mokuton jutsu? Is that what you're planning?**" the Kyuubi inquired and while Naruto didn't reveal any answer, he was quite focused on what the Kyuubi would say next.

"**Neither of those can help you suppress me. Mokuton requires more than just being able to use the jutsu. There is another item that you would need and you don't have it. As for the sharingan, you wouldn't be able to use it against me. That cursed eye requires that the user's chakra to be more sinister than my own. Their hatred would have to surpass my own and even if that did happen, you still couldn't use it against me.**

**I gain my influence over you because of the hatred and anger in your heart. You hold a great deal of it but not nearly enough to surpass me. Increasing it would only increase my ability to push chakra through the seal and influence you. The more hatred you hold, the more power over you I would have. You don't have any power over me and you never will.**" finished the Kyuubi.

"Then I suppose I'll just have to find another way to get rid of you. The galaxy is vast and it has many secrets." stated Naruto and the Kyuubi laughed at him.

"**You only have a small amount of time before I am able to get out of this prison. The darker your heart becomes and the more you use that special power of yours, the more I can influence you. All it takes is for you to lose control of your emotions for one instant and I can take advantage. You don't even possess the key with which to tighten up the seal.**" Kyuubi gloated and Naruto's jaw tensed. He knew about the key but he had no idea where it was. He certainly didn't have it and he hadn't been able to see enough of Jiraiya's memories to find out more about it.

Seeing that he was breaking through the boy's defenses, the Kyuubi decided to push farther. "**Not even that teacher of yours can help you. Though, I don't know how much you should even trust him. He never did tell you about your parents.**" revealed the Kyuubi and he noted the change in his host. The boy was in shock but the anger was boiling just beneath the surface.

Reddish-orange bubbling chakra began seeping under the golden gate and it moved towards Naruto while the boy's attention was still unfocused from what had been said.

"**The first time he came here. I unknowingly gave away quite a bit of information about your parents to him. He was quite interested but he never did tell you about them, did he?**" Kyuubi guessed and he could tell that his guess was accurate. Not until the seal began loosening did he find out more of what was happening on the outside. The information concerning both adults had never come up while he was secretly watching so he guess that the man known as Plagueis had never revealed it.

The chakra moved closer and it was only when a tentacle of chakra tried to reach out for Naruto's leg that he realized something was wrong. Jumping back, he Force pushed the mass of chakra away from him and the Kyuubi chuckled at how close he had come.

"What would you know about **my** parents." Naruto demanded and put emphasis on the word 'my'.

"**I won't tell you.**" relied the Kyuubi and it could feel it's host growing more agitated, which was exactly what he wanted. Naruto responded by trying to probe the creatures mind with the Force. The Kyuubi's smile went away as it snarled from the attempt to intrude into it's mind. As the creature roared at him, Naruto lost his concentration and his efforts to try and break into the fox's mind were stopped. He was still a novice when it came to such a technique and he realized he would need actual contact with the Kyuubi in order to make it work and get the information he wanted.

"**If you really want to know, question the person you call 'Master'.**" stated the Kyuubi as it glared at him in response to his attempt to gain the information by force.

Frowning, Naruto left the room and traveled back down the hallway. His mind was a mess of thoughts. Most concerned what little he knew about his parents and the rest centered on why Master Plagueis would keep such information from him. Stalking down the dark metal hallway, he headed for what was likely the exit.

The farther he got from the chamber, the more he found that he could think more clearly. Confronting his Master about the topic at that moment may not be the best course of action. There situation on the planet was dire and Plagueis said he knew a great deal about Mustafar. They would need to work together, and without any problems, in order to get off the planet.

He had waited years to learn about his parents and a person with information was apparently near him all the time but just never willing give it to him. He could broach, or demand, information when they were in a more favorable position on the planet. Trying to calm himself down, he walked through the dark shroud at the end of the hallway to come back to consciousness.

Sitting in its cage, the Kyuubi was triumphant in its victory over the host. A conversation with the cloaked figure concerning the cursed Yondaime and Kushina could send the boy's emotions over the edge and be the catalyst that freed him from his cell.

x-x

Ast Kikorie

x-x

The red Republic consular-class cruiser moved into docking position alongside the skyhook and extended a tube to attach to the stations airlock. Standing on the inside of the airlock stood two figures cloaked in brown robes.

"You seem troubled." noted the taller figure and he looked over to his padawan.

"I'm just not sure why we are needed here, Master Qui-gon. This seems like something the local authorities should investigate and not the Jedi. As far as I can see its just an isolated incident." responded Obi-wan to his the taller bearded man as they waited for the airlocks to synch up and open.

A small smile formed on the Jedi Master as he nodded to the statements logic, "The Alsakan investors funding the research on the station felt that the local authorities would not be of any help. They used their political ties to have their Senate representative request the help of the Jedi to look into the matter. It's entirely possible that they just want the investigation to be as discrete as possible. I would imagine that it would be difficult enough to get researchers to travel all the way out here, but add in the possibility that they would be in danger and it might be difficult to keep the research going. This also wasn't just a random act of violence, someone went to quite a bit of trouble to cover their tracks after the Director of the station was killed. We seem to have quite a mystery on our hands."

"From the preliminary investigation it appears that the Director may have been involved in illegal activities. She was probably killed because of it." stated Obi-wan.

"Things aren't always what they appear, my young padawan." was the wise response of the Qui-gon Jin.

"Sometimes they are." countered Obi-wan but their conversation was ended by the opening of the airlock.

x-x

Mustafar

x-x

Naruto opened his eyes and sat up. He reached a hand to the back of his head and could feel the remnant of a lump there. Looking down at his chest, he found that several chakra suppressing seals had been placed on his torso.

"While you were out, your chakra began growing agitated. Kabuto just put those on a few moments ago." Naruto turned to see his Master looking at him. Gato was seated on a piece of rock and for a brief moment, Naruto let some of the emotion that he was feeling come out as stared at his Master.

Plagueis noticed the look and the emotion but said nothing as he tried to think of a reason for the look. The moment passed and Naruto made to get to his feet. "Why did you have Gozu knock me out?" he questioned but it came out as more of a demand.

"I didn't ask him to knock you out, there was a miscommunication. I did want him to restrain you if necessary. Your thoughts and emotions were running away from you again. You were so distracted that you didn't even notice someone coming up behind you until he had already struck." Plagueis explained and Naruto frowned at the truth in the statement.

"I was just going to go and deal with the other ship." Naruto informed him as an excuse.

"Did you really go to so much trouble to acquire a specialized and talented group so that they could sit around and watch you do everything? There was a reason for recruiting them, wasn't there?" Plagueis asked sarcastically and Naruto inhaled sharply as he thought about forming a counter statement.

"Until such time as you can better control your emotions, you will have to keep those seals on when you don't absolutely need to use your chakra. You may want to consider making a more permanent solution with fuinjutsu. The others are starting to suspect something is wrong with you and are asking questions. I didn't tell them anything but Karin is probably closer than the others to finding out about your tenant." Plagueis informed him.

'Kami damn it.' Naruto cursed as he didn't want to give up his chakra but knew he might not be able to keep it in check, especially if he planned to ask Plagueis about his parents later on. He also didn't want the others to know about the Kyuubi. Being out in the galaxy was supposed to be his chance to put those things behind him and start out fresh.

"Since you've been out, I sent the demon brothers to deal with the ship. They are already on their way back. Central Volcano is still erupting and likely will continue for the next couple of hours or perhaps even the next few days. The ship is still fine but unreachable to us given the river of lava that is still flowing around it." Plagueis updated him.

Deciding to put his other thoughts out of his mind until a better time, Naruto asked, "How do you know so much about the planet? You even seem to even know the names for local features?"

"When I was still alive, I had a secret facility built on the planet. Its likely still there. I gathered a great deal of knowledge about the planet before selecting it among a list of other locations. The Techno Union has owned this planet for several hundred years and the native Mustafarians only number less than twenty thousand while living in a single settlement.

The only other thing of note on the planet is the mining facility that removes precious minerals from the lava flows. The facility is overseen by workers from the Techno Union but maintenance and the more dangerous jobs are done by some of the Mustafarians. The secret facility is not that far away but will be difficult to reach because our path is currently blocked by the lava. The mining facility is much closer but also difficult to reach. The Techno Union personnel also might not help us." Plagueis answered and Naruto took in all of the information.

It seemed that they would have to wait out the lava flow or try to find a way around it. The canyon was far to wide for them to even think about jumping across and even the speeder bike wouldn't be able to make it across because it had a restriction on the altitude it could reach. They could use the speeder to follow the lava flow but that may not lead to anything and it could go for miles.

"What about the escape pod? Can we use it to get us closer to your facility?" asked Naruto and Plagueis quickly responded, "That is the most logical choice right now, however its very likely that Sidious has taken the facility over. In that case, the security systems and codes may have been changed. It will be difficult to get into it without setting off a subspace alarm that will alert him to intruders. We will have to be cautious." Plagueis explained as he had thought up the plan while Naruto was unconscious and worked out all the small details.

The pod would be difficult to fly but would take them much closer to the facility. He had been waiting for the demon brothers to get back so the group was all accounted for. No sooner had he thought that, then Karin emerged from the pod and he knew that she had sensed the demon brothers coming back.

x-x

Ast Kikorie

x-x

"Three similar looking children, two of them carrying a wounded ugnaught with the third shooting security with a blaster, and an astromech. They secretly boarded the station to murder the researcher and then escaped from an entire station of personnel with reinforcements from the ground." Obi-wan cited from the report on the datapad he was examining. He had taken bits and pieces of the overall statements from the station personnel but it was all in the report.

Both Jedi and padawan were in one of the laboratories of the station and looking through the information that had been given to them.

"You doubt their statements?" asked a slightly amused Qui-gon.

"It all seems...less than credible." admitted Obi-wan and he placed the datapad down on a nearby table to get a better look at what his Master was doing, "What are you after with those pieces from the damaged desk?"

Qui-gon looked up from his work and replied, "According to several accounts from the station personnel, the Director hadn't left the station in quite some time. If she was involved in any illicit activities then there must be some evidence or at least some messages that would corroborate that theory. Someone certainly went through a lot of trouble to get to the station, cut through the outer hull and subsequent decks to get to this room to murder the researcher, and then managed to flee the station using three survival capsules."

"Only three?" questioned Obi-wan as he reexamined the contents of the datapad for the information. Finding the information, he asked, "Can you fit more than one person in a survival capsule?" If there were five intruders on the station then it made sense to find five capsules missing and not just three.

"Only if they were indeed diminutive individuals."suggested Qui-gon as he finished piecing together the portions of communication systems from the desk. With just a few more adjustments, he should be able to see what messages the Director was receiving and what she had been sending out.

x-x

After Gozu and Meizu got back, the group piled into the escape pod again. While Plagueis worked over the controls, Naruto focused on contacting the remainder of his clones, which had stayed at the ship to watch over the mud wall. They hadn't dispelled yet and he was going to make use of them. Though the ship was safe inside the lava river, he was making the clones put Sith runes on the mud wall to keep the ship hidden from view.

Plagueis informed him of the possibility that the native inhabitants were already looking for the downed vessels. Most likely they wanted to scavenge the ships for useful items. Their ship had already been through enough and if they were going to use it to get off the planet, then they would need to keep it from being scavenged as well.

Finishing up his flight plan, Plagueis closed the hatch on the escape pod. Everyone was crowded into the pod and scrolls covered the floors as well as the few unoccupied seats. The current short-term goal was to head to the secret facility and use it as a staging area for helping them get off the planet.

Kabuto had used earth jutsu to raise the nose of the pod so they could take off at a good trajectory. The flight path that Plagueis plugged into the ships computer was to take them around the volcano and land, or rather crash, near his old facility.

Initiating the controls for launch, Plagueis got into one of the seats and the escape pod thrusters engaged. The ship shot off into the sky and following the programmed flightpath that Plagueis had put into it, it leveled out and then began curving around the large volcano. The escape pod then straightened out again and headed for the location of the hideout.

Looking around the pod, Naruto could tell that most of the group were not happy with the impending crash landing. The pod wasn't able to make a controlled landing so they would have to crash, for a third time that day. They soon began descending and the nose of the pod elevated as they aimed for a relatively flat area on the surface. The initial impact with the ground jolted the whole ship and then slowly ground to a stop on the hard surface of the planet.

Once the ship had stopped moving, each person began extracting themselves from the seat harnesses. Juugo was the closest to the door and hit the panel to open it. The landscape that greeted them was oddly similar to the one they had left. The only major differences was that the large volcano was now farther away in the distance and the the terrain was no longer flat but more mountainous.

Looking around, Naruto found no evidence that any facility was near them. There were no signs of any man-made objects and only the extruded rocky surface. They appeared to have crashed on a relatively flat area but were mostly surrounded by higher hills and one mountain.

The ground once again shook from the eruption and each person steadied them selves. With the tremor over soon over, Plagueis moved to the middle of the group and informed them, "We need to get to the top of his hill. The facility is inside the caldera."

Each person's head turned to look at the feature and wondered how they were going to get all of their supplies up there. They had filled up all of the scrolls they had brought and the pod was filled with other belongings as well. Reorganizing them would take time and they would still have to carry more than a dozen large scrolls.

Seeing the obvious problem, Naruto moved to the suppression seals on his chest and removed several of them. He noted the glances when he removed the seals but he ignored them. Unsealing his fuinjutsu supplies, he went to work placing a seal on the hull of the escape pod. The seal would allow him to summon the escape pod so they could leave it there and transport it to them once they were inside the facility. Considering the climb, they left Deefour inside the pod as well. The droid wouldn't be able to go anywhere on the rocky terrain and would have to wait for them to summon the pod.

Moving to the base of the hill, Meizu grabbed Gato and then he began scaling the cliff-side with the others close behind. Normally such a task wouldn't have been difficult but the frequent tremors from the erupting volcano in the distance made it more treacherous.

Naruto kept the suppression seals off of him so he could climb to the caldera much easier. It was doubtful that he would have a problem with the Kyuubi while climbing and not having his chakra would make the trip much harder.

As they group moved up the slope, the incline became steeper until they were running up an almost vertical cliff-side. With the top coming up fast, Plagueis ordered them to slow down so he could look for any new security devices. He knew the layout and security systems he had put in when the facility was created but he had no idea if Sidious had put anything else in place.

Slowly, the ninja moved to the top of the hill. The top was a ring of rock that was ten or more meters wide. Moving to the edge, they looked down into the bowl. Below them was the caldera which was basically a bowl of volcanic activity. Lava, or more precisely magma, churned and bubbled in a large lake at the bottom.

There were small trails of lava coming out of the sides of the caldera and trickling down below but their attention was caught by the structure. A large metal facility was attached to the wall of the caldera. It was over half a dozen stories tall with two additional structure attached to the main building, though there purpose was unknown to most of the group.

Several seconds passed by as they all stopped and stared at what was beneath them. It wouldn't be that difficult to get down to the facility but making sure no alarm was sounded might be difficult. They would have to disable the communications, then the security and surveillance systems to make sure that their presence remained unnoticed by Sidious.

Plagueis reached out Gato's arm and Meizu stuck a pair of electrobinoculars in his hand. Looking over the facility in detail, Plagueis examined it for any additional security measures. He had built the facility inside the caldera, which ironically was the best place to put it. The area didn't have any eruptions as the lava just bubbled away in the lake. The station was supported by repulsor lifts, heat shielded from the lava, and attached to the wall of the caldera in such a way to eliminate all vibrations from the tremors of the volcanically active world.

The caldera and the other systems he put in even prevented the station from being detected by surface scans. Droids continuously monitored and maintained the station and it was powered by energy collectors that fed off of the lava lake so it was basically self-sufficient. Unless there was a massive failure of the gravity supports or complete power loss, the station could remain waiting for use for decades.

Having finished his thorough check, he was confident that the station was exactly how he had left, at least on the outside. Turning to Karin he asked, "Can you sense anything?"

Karin stopped looking at the structure and focused on her abilities. Extending her range, she carefully examined the whole facility and found nothing that was alive or moving. Her sensing could not detect droids however but that was all Plagueis wanted to know.

Considering that the station looked exactly the same, it was possible that Sidious did nothing to change it. He would have to check the stations sensor and activity logs to be sure but they would have to get inside first. The control room would have everything that he needed, however, there was still the task of remaining undetected.

x-x

Looking at the shelf, Obi-wan patiently waited for the crime scene investigation droid to finish. Whatever was stored there should have left some kind of trace behind, even if it was too small for him to see. The droid should also be able to collect it and then they could figure out what was taken or what had been stored there.

While he was supervising the droid, Qui-gon was looking through the messages that were received by the deceased. The first message that the Jedi had found was definitely incriminating and the Jedi Master had set about looking through all of the other ones to determine what the Director may have been involved in.

Obi-wan really wasn't sure what the droid might find or what the message his Master found would lead to. Any number of items could have been hidden inside the compartment and the assignment had been anything but ordinary thus far. Nothing was making any sense to either of them. If Qui-gon had any good theories, he was keeping them to himself.

The droid finished collecting any dust or other materials from the shelves and began its analysis. A few second later it began explaining its finding. Obi-wan listened to the listing of different minerals and rocks. When the droid was finished, he was left with only one thought, 'Some kind of artifacts were kept there.'

The listing certainly didn't tell him anything else about the items but the materials weren't really expensive on their own which led him to think about sculptures or other artifacts. It was possible that the Director had a private collection of some sort which may or may not have been illegal to own or obtained legally.

However, none of the station personnel even knew about the hidden compartment which led him to believe the items were not put on display for a reason. Most likely because the deceased Director did not want anyone else to see or know about them. It was quite suspicious and if the items were very expensive then it could have been a robbery.

Deciding to update his Master, he left the room and went back to the lab that his Master was working in.

x-x

Two plumes of smoke quietly flowed over the volcanic terrain and down the steep slope of the caldera. The purple smoke brushed against ash and small sized debris. The ash was kicked up into the air and created a larger plume that concealed the purple while the small debris started a very small sized landslide.

The smoke and material eventually reached the facility and stopped when it contacted with the building. As the ashen plume began to disperse, the two plume of purple smoke moved through the shadows of the outside features on the metal building. They moved to the tallest level and to the antennae there.

No sensors were tripped by their movement as the winding trails of smoke reached their target. They wouldn't trip any motion or typical scanning device. The smoke surrounded the base of the antennae and began entering into the very small crevices that held the circuitry and cables that ran to the devices.

The hum being produced by the devices soon stopped and indicated that they were no longer working. The smoke then completely entered the crevices of the device and traveled along the network of cables that linked the device to its control system.

Inside the control room of the station, the smoke appeared out of the control console and flowed over the controls. The large plume split into two and they received further instructions from Plagueis on what they had to do.

Tendrils came out of the large plumes and partially solidified before tapping some of the control systems. The sensors, defenses, and security systems were all soon disabled. Any droids that may have been monitoring the station were ordered back to the maintenance room for checking and the outside doors to the facility were unlocked.

x-x

"They've done it." stated Plagueis and he motioned to Kabuto to help him down the caldera while the others began descending to the facility. Naruto was first and quickly slid down the slope.

Between sliding and running down the slope, they eventually reached the facility. "Why did it have to be a lava world?" commented Suigetsu as he looked over the edge and frowned at the lake of lava below. He was already sweating profusely from the temperature of the planet and now they were descending into a volcano. Taking a water container from his belt, he drank the last of the water he had on him.

"This place is gonna be temperature controlled, right?" Suigetsu asked as he really didn't want to sit inside of a hot building for the rest of their stay on the planet.

"The facility can accommodate all of us for quite some time." Plagueis stated as Kabuto reached the facility. He originally designed it as a place to teach acolytes the ways of the darkside but he never got around to teaching any. The plan involved kidnapping Force sensitive children but he encountered problems as the information he needed was contained in the Jedi archives and he had no way of getting to it at the time without alerting the Jedi to the Sith's continued existence. His research eventually took up most of his time and he put the plan aside for a later date, which never came.

Moving to one of the outside access doors which was on the level with the landing platform, Naruto pushed the adjacent control panel and the large door instantly opened for them.

The demon brothers were standing on the other side and Plagueis walked past them with the use of his cane as he led the way into the dark facility. There was still much to do as they needed to secure the facility and make sure that no trace of their presence would be recorded when he turned the facilities systems back on.

With a few alterations and with the help of Deefour, Plagueis was sure that he could confuse the facilities systems and the droids into not even registering their presence while they used the facility. However, he needed the droid and therefore they would have to summon the escape pod to the facility.

Walking into a nearby lift, he mentally told the others to follow. The pod could have been summoned on the landing platform but he wanted to put it inside the facility where it could remain as hidden as possible. On the extremely small chance that Sidious or someone else came to the facility, having an escape pod in plain view would be a dead giveaway that someone was already there.

The lift quickly took the group to the lowest level of the facility where the storage areas were. The rooms were large enough to hold the pod but items would have to be moved.

The group left the elevator and with a mental order from Plagueis, they began picking up containers and stacking them closer to the walls of the room. They just needed enough room for the pod to fit. They were all tired but as soon as the pod was summoned, he would let them pick rooms in the upper floors and rest for the day.

Naruto moved to the center of the open area as the demon brothers finished moving the last of the heavier crates. He was about to summon the pod when he decided to create a shadow clone instead. As he moved with the others, the clone went through the handseals and put its hand on the floor. White smoke erupted and cleared to reveal the pod.

Naruto grimaced at the memories that flooded back to him. The summoning had forced the clone up into the air and it was crushed against the ceiling. 'I'll have to remember that in the future.' he thought and made a strong mental note of it.

Juugo opened the pod door and with the help of Suigetsu, they got Deefour out of the pod. The droid moved around the area before Plagueis beckoned to it to follow him into the lift.

"Rooms are on the fifth level. You can leave the scrolls in the escape pod for now. I don't know how long we will be staying but all of you can get some rest until tomorrow." said Plagueis and went up the lift with Deefour. The door quickly closed and the others were left to wait a moment or two for the lift to come back down.

x-x

Looking over the new information his padawan had gathered, Qui-gon thought about the investigation and where their information was taking them. Using the Force to try and piece together what had happened and possibly why it had happened wasn't getting him anywhere. There were too many inconsistencies and missing pieces of information.

After a thorough search through the memory stored in the Directors desk, he found no secret messages or any strange communications. The only thing he did find was that the Director had sealed a file from the sensor logs and it was accessed the same day she was killed, from the very lab he was standing in.

The log concerned a ship that had crashed on the planet but that had been years prior. The only thing he could think of was that the individuals that killed the Director were after something off the ship but the amount of time from when the ship crashed to when someone came looking for it was quite odd.

"We'll need to look at that crashed ship." said Qui-gon as he placed the datapad down and headed for the door.

"What ship?" asked Obi-wan as he followed his Master out the door.

x-x

Sitting in his new room, Naruto took off all of his gear and placed it on the desk. There were just enough rooms on the station to accommodate all of them but a few would have to share.

Taking off his body suit, he pooled chakra into his stomach and looked at the revealed seal. He hadn't detected any deceit from the kyuubi when it told him there was no way to control it's power or at least to stop it from trying to influence him but that didn't mean that he had no other options available to him.

Keeping chakra suppression seals on his body to stop him from using his chakra wasn't something he wanted or thought he could live with. There was no telling how long it would take to find a good solution to his fox problem or how long they would be stuck on Mustafar but there was something he could do.

Holding the wrist of his right hand, he focused chakra into his finger tips. Chakra flared to life and took the form of several kanji. It was a five pronged seal that he was forming and something that would stop the Kyuubi from having any influence over him. Placing the seal over his seal would seal off his access to the Kyuubi's chakra and therefore stop the Kyuubi from trying to influence him.

The only problem was that the five pronged seal wouldn't be compatible with his his seal. Having an odd numbered seal on an even seal would mess up his chakra control but it he would still be able to use chakra. He unfortunately didn't know if there existed an even numbered seal that would mesh with his seal, so he was left with the only seal he did know that would do the job. The seals finished forming on his fingers and letting go of his wrist. With firm resolve, he pulled the hand up and then thrust it into his stomach.

Five new seals formed outside of his seal and his eyes widened in pain. The whole ordeal was over in a few seconds and he fell backwards onto the bed, completely unconscious.

x-x

Looking over the monitors from his seat, Plagueis looked through the facilities logs. After he was done, he would try to re-familiarize himself with the planet. He had remembered quite a few facts about Mustafar but not certainly everything.

According to the logs, Sidious had not been to the station for years. Everything was still functioning at peak performance and there had been no problems. This was not the only good news. Looking through the information on the planet's inhabitants, he found something interesting.

The planet had a single species but the Mustafarians were divided into two distinct subspecies which was something that he had not remembered. There were northern and southern Mustafarians. The northern subspecies were tall and thin while the southerners were short and stocky but much stronger.

His interest focused more on the northern subspecies as they had qualities that he had been looking for in a body. His original body was a Muun which were apparently very similar in body-type to the northern Mustafarians. In fact, taking one of the northerners would give him a very suitable host to possess. The added bonus of choosing a Mustfarian was their insectoid features. Their hard outer shell was made to protect them from the harsh environment but it also protected them against standard blaster fire.

'I'll need to procure one of these northerners. Gato's body may not last the length of our stay on this planet.' he noted and decided to send a few of the group out to scout for him. The majority of the planet's inhabitants still lived in the only city on the planet, which was called Fralideja, so it wouldn't be that much trouble to spy on them.

The beeping noises from the astromech made him turn in the chair and face the droid. Defour was hooked up to the computer terminal and accessing all of the station's systems. They would need to wipe their presence from the logs and falsify all the information. The station's droids also needed to be programmed to go about their daily business while ignoring the new guests.

From what he could gather and from looking back to his own console, the droid had already managed to forge the new logs and it was currently altering the ships systems and droids to ignore them.

"Let me know when the sensors can be turned back on." Plagueis ordered and the droid beeped in response.

He had hoped to be on Tatooine by the following day but now but they would again be delayed. It was an inconvenience but hopefully the new body would make up for it. Once the eruptions had ceased, they would need to visit the ship and determine the damage. Few ships came to Mustafar and the only ones that did were large cargo ships that belonged to the Techno Union. They were too large to properly hijack and would be too cumbersome and too much of a target to take to Tatooine.

The only viable option was to fix their current ship. They would have the other crashed ship to take parts from since the Mustafarians wouldn't be interested in the ship, only its supplies and cargo. He just hoped that the damage to the _Vulture_ wasn't too extensive.

x-x

"Well that will certainly hinder our efforts." commented Obi-wan as he stared at the ship they were after. Almost two decades ago, the ship had been hit by a meteor shower and crashed on the planet. Then, at some point after that, it had been salvaged and taken to a junkyard. The picked apart shuttle was now sitting among other piles of junk.

Without even looking inside the ship, they could already tell that most of its primary systems had been sold off and only the majority of the ship's damaged hull remained.

"We still need to see if we can find any of the components. Even just finding the navigation computer would give us something." Qui-gon reminded his padawan and turned to the owner of the junkyard, "We'll need to see your sales records."

"I don't keep any records." responded a green female Twi'lek as she stood with her arms crossed. She knew that neither of the two were likely to buy anything but the Kikorie City authorities had told her she was to cooperate with them.

"Of course you don't." lamented the padawan as he scaled the junk pile to look into the cockpit of the small ship. Everything appeared to have been stripped from the insides.

"Thank you for the cooperation." said Qui-gon with a small bow and the Twi-lek rolled her eyes while walking back to her office.

Noting his padawan's emotions, it was obvious that Obi-wan was frustrated at the lack of results. With no markings on the exterior and no other identifications, there was no way to trace the ship back to its origin or find out where it was coming from. They also didn't know why it was going to Ast Kikorie in the first place.

The best scenario that he could come up with was that the Director of the station found something on the crashed ship years prior and kept it in the hidden compartment of her quarters. The authorities had investigated the downed ship a few days after it was found and ruled the human pilot's death as a result of the crash. However, they had not found any items on board the ship, so it was likely that they were already taken from the ship when it first crashed.

There was nothing illegal about taking the items though as the planet's salvage laws were in the Director's favor. The ship had crashed and the owner was dead, though it was suspicious that she hadn't reported the crash as then she could have staked a claim to the salvage rights. Likely whatever was aboard was stolen by her and those items could have been some artifacts.

It was also strange that it took nearly two decades for someone to come looking for those items but it seemed that someone wanted their property or wanted what the Director had found.

'There's not much else we can do.' thought Qui-gon as he knew that they were at a dead end in the investigation and would not be able to determine who was responsible. Any information on the ship that had hastily left the planet was of no help as the transponder signal was obviously changed. They could alert authorities in the Republic about the ship but that was about it.

x-x

"We've spotted the one you're after" said Gozu as he looked over the rocky terrain with the electrobinoculars. Sitting next to him was Meizu, Karin, and Tayuya. The group had been tasked with spying on the local inhabitants and were in some higher terrain near the city of Fralideja.

"And you're sure its him?" questioned Plagueis through the small holographic communicator that Karin was holding. Most of the Mustafarians looked quite similar and wore clothing that hid most of their features from view.

"Yes, I can feel that it's the one you want and its heading with a group of other workers to the mining complex with the others for the next shift." Karin answered as she felt the tall Mustafarian that was among a group of tall and short members of its species.

"Excellent. Capture him immediately and bring him back here." stated the blue hologram of Gato and the communication was ended.

Two days had passed since they commandeered the Sith facility on the volcanic planet and in that time, Plagueis had begun the search for a new host body. Using the demon brothers, he had them infiltrate the Klegger Mining Facility and used them to institute a blood screening of the Mustafarians that worked at the facility.

The screening was masked as a routine physical which was quite unusual because the Techno Union employees that managed the facility cared nothing for their Mustafarian workers and never gave them any periodic physicals. Given that the Techno Union employees never put themselves at risk for injury, as they let the Mustafarians do that, they hardly used the infirmary and didn't even notice the screening.

With the information, Plagueis found a suitable northern Mustafarian that had a higher than average midi-chlorian count of about 4,000. This was over three times higher than average and enough to have slight Force sensitivity. With the body chosen, it just came down to simple kidnapping.

As the demon brothers moved over the terrain in the smoke form, Tayuya readied her fingers to create handseals and put the entire group of workers under genjutsu. She was slightly nervous as given the fact that Mustafarians were an insectoid species, she had no idea if her genjutsu would even work on them. The illusionary art did not work on animals or insects but given the sentience of the species she was looking at, it was possible that it could still work.

Once the demon brothers were in position, they waited for the group of workers to come closer to them. The remaining members were positioned behind some volcanic features on a the side of a cliff which overlooked the pathway that the workers typically took to the mining complex to take over for the previous shift. They had spent the morning scouting the position and preparing the trap.

Hearing the footfalls of the group below them, Tayuya began going through handseals. With the jutsu finished, she put her flute to her mouth and started playing notes, waiting for the shouts to occur as the genjutsu was transmitted directly to her foes.

A large ball of fire soon appeared in the sky and hurtled toward the group of workers. Buzzing shouts filled the air as several of the Mustafarians noticed the incoming projectile and warned the others as they scattered for cover. If it was a fireball then their thick shells would have protected them from the flames but the their response was only natural when presented with a danger such as that.

In the chaos, two plumes of smoke came out from behind some rocks and wrapped around one of the tall subspeices. They quickly took it away from the area just as the flaming sphere was supposed to hit the ground. With the genjutsu finished, Tayuya began making handseals for another one to hide the kidnapping. Without anyone noticing, the surroundings in the area changed slightly to provide an area for the demon brothers to escape with the body and not be seen.

A few moments passed as the workers looked around to find that nothing had happened and whatever they had seen, was no longer there. It wouldn't be until they made it to the facility to report for their shift that they would notice one of them was missing.

x-x

Naruto's eyes opened and he quickly sat up on his bed. Looking over the room, he remembered where he was and checked the seal on his stomach. Five additional seals were clearly visible outside the seal that held back the Kyuubi.

A small smirk formed on his face. Though his chakra control would be hindered, he wouldn't have to worry about the Kyuubi for a time. There was no telling how long the new seal would hold or if it would ever weaken. His knowledge of the seal was limited to how to perform it and not much beyond that. Perhaps even Jiraiya wouldn't have known the answers to those questions.

Standing up, he found himself feeling...good. It was difficult to describe exactly how he felt or if it was from the uninterrupted sleep or something else. His thoughts seemed to be more clear and focused. 'Just how much was I being influenced by that damn fox?' Naruto wondered as he collected his things. If the kitsune was able to influence his emotions, was it also able to cloud his judgment as well?

Exiting his room, he sensed around the facility and quickly found Kabuto a level below him and Plagueis at least one level above him. Juugo was apparently meditating on the station's landing pad and Suigetsu life-signs appeared to be on the same floor as him. Where exactly the others were, he had no idea but decided to find out what was going on.

Since Suigetsu was the closest, so he headed down the hallway. Walking past the rooms on either side of the metal corridor, he found an entryway and walked into what looked like a galley.

Suigetsu looked up from the food ration he was eating and smiled. Spending all his time indoors was really making him bored. "So you're finally up?" he said and leaned back in the chair, sipping on some of his drink.

Naruto stopped moving towards the counter to look for something to eat and turned to the white haired boy. "How long have I been asleep?" he asked and was quite curious at the possible answer.

Suigetsu thought about the question and tallied some numbers in his head before answering, "Over two days." The surprise was evident on Naruto's face and it made Suigetsu chuckle.

The surprise soon turned to a frown as Naruto searched for food and drink. Had he really been out that long? Then again, when he thought about it, the amount wasn't that surprising. He hadn't been sleeping very well during the travel from Ast Kikorie. "Has anything happened since we arrived?"

"Sure, but nothing that I've been able to take part in." commented Suigetsu with some annoyance and he glared at the food on the table.

Though he certainly didn't want to say it, Naruto found himself asking anyway as he wanted to move the conversation forward and get to the more important matters, "And why is that?"

"Have you seen it out there?! The whole damn place is a giant volcano! I can't be out for more than thirty minutes before I start to sweat too much and need to head back in here to cool off and hydrate. And the worst part is every time I see that damn redhead, all she does is laugh at me and make comments about the heat outside." ranted Suigetsu.

'I should have just gone straight to Master Plagueis.' thought Naruto as he tried to tune out most of the rant. It wasn't his job to make sure the others were comfortable or not depressed. He had problems of his own.

"You're a jinchuuriki, aren't you." was the serious statement from Suigetsu that brought Naruto out his thoughts and back into the conversation. It wasn't a question and the boy seemed to know it to be true. Naruto's whole body tensed as a short silence elapsed over the table they were sitting at.

"I personally don't really care but the others might, especially Karin. She's so insensitive at times. I doubt Juugo or the demon brothers would care either. I'm guessing you did something more than those chakra suppression seals to keep it at bay." he said and Naruto looked at him with some interest.

"And how exactly do you know about jinchuuriki?" he questioned and Suigetsu smirked, "Our Yondaime Mizukage was a jinchuuriki. At times, some even thought he was being influenced by it but no one could prove anything. Crazy bastard started a civil war to purge the blood line users from the rest of Water Country. You're not gonna go crazy on us too?" Suigetsu joked and Naruto glared back while didn't give a response.

"This is really gonna suck. Being stuck in this metal building for who knows how long. Of course there would be something that could keep me distracted and take my mind off the situation." Suigetsu baited and Naruto wanted to sweat-drop. All he wanted was basic information about what had been going on while he was unconscious.

Deciding it was best to keep the conversation going to where he wanted it, he asked, "And what would that be?"

"That sword you promised me. Something like the one on your back, only made for me." answered Suigetsu and his eyes traveled to Naruto's sword. Naruto noticed the way Suigetsu was looking at the weapon again and countered with, "I suppose you know where a forge is so I could start working on it?"

Realizing too late, Naruto lamented his comment as he realized the trap, "There's more than one forge in the city on this planet."

"You've been looking into the city that Plagueis mentioned?" Naruto asked with renewed interest in the conversation.

"Not me, but the others have and they've even been to the mining facility." revealed Suigetsu and continued with, "So, about my sword..."

"I don't suppose we've also become good friends with the locals?" Naruto interrupted but Suigetsu's smirk didn't leave his face as he said, "Not yet, but we will have something worked out pretty soon."

Intrigued, Naruto pressed for more information and Suigetsu explained, "Plagueis is taking a new body. He's already chosen one of the locals and the others are out kidnapping the thing right now. With the new body, he plans to coerce the locals into helping us with the ship."

By the time Suigetsu was finished, Naruto was already out of his seat and heading down the hallway. Realizing he was leaving, Suigetsu shouted, "Hey! What about my sword, damn it!

x-x

Coming to the lift, Naruto was about to head up to the control room where he could feel Plagueis but stopped when he felt new signatures enter his range. He instantly recognized the rest of the group as they entered the facility but found one signature that he was unfamiliar with.

'That must be the new host that Master Plagueis is taking.' he realized and decided to wait on the lift. There was no longer a rush to get to where he wanted to be as Plagueis was already taking the lift down to where Kabuto was. Knowing how much his Master hated Gato's body as a host, he knew how eager Plagueis was to get a new body.

The lift soon came back up and Naruto took it down to where the others were. They appeared to all be in the infirmary area and that was where he headed when the lift doors reopened. Walking down the hallway, he found most of the group standing outside the infirmary door as they waited for the process to be completed.

Given how relatively easy it was for Plagueis to possess a new body, Naruto decided to wait outside the infirmary as well. He garnered a few looks from Tayuya, Karin, and the newly arriving Juugo but didn't look too much into it. Their thoughts contained mixed feelings about him but he ignored it while his mind moved to other thoughts.

Though he knew the reasons why Plagueis needed a new body, he couldn't help but wonder if it was due to how long they might be stranded on the planet. For all he knew, the large volcano on the planet was still erupting and the ship was damaged beyond repair. He hoped that wasn't the case but it was a possibility.

Looking to the infirmary doors, he could feel his Master's spirit move out of Gato and into the new body. He hadn't gotten a chance to look at the new body and knew it would take some adjusting. His senses alerted him to movement inside the room and soon the infirmary door opened.

x-x

Inspecting the body, Plagueis moved around the infirmary table that it was lying on. The Mustafarian was still unconscious with quite a bit of trauma to its head, no doubt courtesy of one of the demon brothers. The body was over seven foot tall with long arms and legs, both reminiscent of his own species. Both arms and legs appeared to have cybernetic enhancements to increase their strength to likely compensate for weakness due to the length.

'Those modifications will come in quite useful and I can already tell that Kabuto is incredibly interested in them.' he noted as he could see Kabuto looking over some initial scans of the cybernetic augmentation.

Moving to an empty table, Kabuto moved forward and helped Plagueis get Gato's body up onto the flat metal surface. Holding out Gato's arm, Kabuto unsealed the holocron in the storage seal and held it while giving it a once-over before placing it on the chest of the new body.

Plagueis's spirit soon exited Gato's body and moved to the Mustafarian. No sooner than he had left Gato's body than the short man started going into convulsions. Being in the body for so long and causing so much damage, the shock of his spirit could possibly kill Gato.

While Kabuto dealt with Gato, Plagueis entered the the tall Mustafarian. The process could be difficult and depended on the will power of the new host. Gato was quite easy to possess but the Mustafarian may not be. Once the process began, the Mustafarian awoke with compound eyes wide open in terror. It struggled to find out what was happening but Plagueis prevented it from moving off the table.

The battle of wills ensued but didn't last long. The Mustafarian calmed down as Plagueis took control and the beings consciousness was pushed aside. A few moments elapsed before Plagueis sat up and began experimenting with the new body.

Moving the hands and arms, he tested the cybernetics and then got a feel for how the body reacted. Turning on the table, he let the feet touch the ground and then slowly added the weight of the body to them. There was nothing wrong with the Mustafarians body but possessing such a short person for so long was causing problems with balance and spacial awareness. He had gained about three feet of height in a matter of moments and needed to brace the body while experimenting with walking.

He surmised that it shouldn't take him more than an hour to become moderately acclimated to the body but that it would require a few days time before he was completely used to the changes. Looking to the door, he could feel those that were outside of it, which was quite new as that wasn't something he had been able to do in Gato's body or while he was a spirit.

'The midi-chlorians in this body should allow me to use more of my former Force ability and power. There will be so much to do as I finally regain some normalcy to my existence.' he thought and moved to the door. Hitting the control panel after one missed try, the door opened and looked upon almost all of the group.

Addressing the group, Plagueis began to tell them they needed to get to the crashed ship when he noted their confusion. It quickly dawned on him that although he intended to speak in Basic, his new body was only capable of speaking in the buzzing and clicks of the Mustafarian language, which was completely unintelligible to the group.

'I suppose even the seemingly ideal body still has some drawbacks.' he mused and began speaking telepathically to them.

'_It seems this body is unable to speak in a language that all of you can understand. I shall therefore be speaking directly into your minds. This will likely only be temporary until I make some modifications to the body._' Plagueis explained and moved on to the orders, '_Split up into two groups. One group will be following me to the ship and the other will be staying here. I want to leave within the hour._'

With that, he walked down the hallway and went to the lower levels to get some supplies and check what he already had on his body. With a more capable body, he would be able to do much more and be much more active.

Naruto watched his Master leave and the others disperse back to their rooms to either get ready or to leave. It seemed strange that in just two days time so much had happened. It now seemed that he was more on the sidelines with a more active Plagueis taking the lead roll. He also had trouble adjusting to the now more intimidating body that his Master had.

Deciding that he wanted to know much more about what would be happening or at least be involved in the decision making process, he rushed to follow Plagueis. Suigetsu was little help in the information department and he wanted to be as informed as possible, which was always something that his Master emphasized.

Also, now that the Kyuubi was taken care of for the time being, he had a few more personal questions to ask. Taking the lift, he followed his Master down to the storage level.

x-x

The lift door opened and Naruto moved to where his Master was rummaging through storage crates. He had taken only a few steps away from the lift when Plagueis stopped and turned to look at him.

The Mustafarian was now garbed in an all-weather dark cloak similar to what Naruto liked to wear on occasion. The hood concealed most of the instectoid face and Naruto saw a glimpse of what his Master would have looked like years ago in his original Muun body.

'_I tried to wake you a day ago but you were rather unresponsive. I thought about having Kabuto make something up to bring you back to consciousness but decided you needed the rest._' stated Plagueis but he found that his telepathic words were not what Naruto had come there for. The tension only increased between them.

Without turning, Plagueis noted the location of one of the smuggled weapon crates. He wasn't sure why his student had sought him out in such a manner but the tension and situation was unnerving. The weapon the Mustafarian had been carrying was left in the infirmary and he had no other means to defend himself, save for the Force.

Focusing back on his student, he noted something else and voiced his observation through their link, '_You're not wearing the chakra suppression seals._' It was more of a statement than a question and his mind raced over the possible answer. Could the kitsune somehow be controlling his student?

"I used some fuinjutsu and placed it over the seal. I shouldn't have to worry about the Kyuubi for some time but my chakra control will be diminished." Naruto explained but the tension and staring match did not let up.

Plagueis then noticed that Naruto's ninjato began slowly moving out of its sheath, only a centimeter every few moments as if preparing to be used by it's wielder. 'Not a good sign.' He thought and believed Naruto wasn't consciously doing it but that it might show his possible intentions.

'_Is there a reason that you've sought me out? I can't say I know why and your mind is so closed off that I cannot begin to infer your thoughts and intentions._' stated Plagueis as he tried to get some idea of his students sudden behavior.

"What do you know about my parents?" Naruto finally asked and Plagueis was quite surprised at the question.

'I can't lie in this situation. Nor can I choose the wrong words to give an explanation.' Plagueis realized and his mind raced to come up with what he would say.

'_I only know what little I could get out of the vulpine creature sealed inside you._' admitted Plagueis and he could feel his students anger growing. What was once a controlled and sealed off mind was now brimming with emotions and thought.

"Yet you didn't see fit to inform me of any of it?" countered Naruto.

'_Yes, that is correct._' Plagueis freely admitted and continued, '_Keeping information from you isn't really lying or it isn't according to my definition of lying. You asked the Sandaime many times about your parents and he lied to you. Now you are asking me about them for the first time and I have told you I knew about them and I will tell you everything that I know._'

"Why?"

'_What would you have done with the information if I had told you about them when you were a young boy? Would you have killed those that lied to you? Sought out every bit of information about them that you could? I had to protect the ship and keep it from being found and that also meant that I had to keep things from you. From my perspective, you were as much an asset as you were a liability._' said Plagueis and Naruto instantly demanded, "A liability?!"

'_You first used the Kyuubi's chakra while still in Konoha. Did it happen at the same moment you learned of your parents?_' he asked and Naruto's thoughts confirmed what he thought, '_I needed someone to help me. You were trustworthy, loyal, and an excellent student but with the Kyuubi inside of you, there was always a risk. I was always wary of its power and what influence it might have over you. Recent events have unfortunately proven me correct. _

_That is why you are a liability. The very things I taught you about harnessing your negative emotions seem to allow the creature to push you over the edge. The power contained inside of you is vast and dangerous. Without control, power is worthless and would be just as likely to destroy the wielder or those around them than to defeat his enemies. I didn't want to get found out while we were on Ibonihs and I still don't want to get found out while building up our resources in the Outer-rim._'

'_I admit, there were chances to tell you about your parents but I didn't. There was too much risk to my plans. You might have tipped off someone about knowing who your parents were and then they would want to know where you learned it. There were a host of problems with revealing that information to you. Then we had to deal with Akatsuki once we left the village which only made things more complicated. I even entertained the thought that you might turn against me or not want to help me get back to the galaxy. I initially had to deal with you possibly ruining my plans if I told you and later the possibility of you turning against me. In the end, I never ended up telling you because you seemed so determined to put everything behind you. Pushing forward into the galaxy was something that motivated you and telling you might weaken your resolve to leave the planet._' finished Plagueis as he tried to explain his reasoning for his decisions.

It had been more than half a century since he had to explain himself to someone. The last time it had happened was when he was being trained by his own Master. If it was a young Sidious standing before him, he wouldn't have cared. He would have punished the boy for questioning and doubting him, but it was Naruto standing opposite him, and despite all his training and time as a Sith, he found himself acting differently. He could sense feelings of betrayal coming from Naruto and as much as he didn't want to admit it, what he sensed was disconcerting to him. It somehow affected him far more than he knew it should have.

He had never cared about anyone before or how his decisions affected others. This was somehow different and idly he turned back to the storage containers to continue what he was doing. Searching his feelings, he found it difficult to describe what emotions he was experiencing. It almost felt like remorse and regret, perhaps even shame. These were certainly not things he had ever felt before and it almost felt overwhelming but rather than push them aside, he allowed them to continue. Trying to stay busy was helping but not enough. However, ever the scientist, the experience was something he wanted to study so he let them persist. Perhaps then he could understand exactly why he was having those emotions.

Naruto for his part stood rather still and almost in shock. His anger had waned when Plagueis's normal mental barrier had cracked during the speech. He could feel emotions coming off his Master which he was never able to before.

'He's actually sorry.' he realized and never thought he would feel his Master be sorry about anything. Sith weren't supposed to be sorry or apologize to anyone.

Coming down to the storage level was a spur of the moment decision. He really didn't know what his intentions were and the Force hadn't told him to do it. He really just wanted answers and he had been given them. The statements Plagueis made were true but he was curtailed more by the emotions. As long as Plagueis told him what he had learned from the Kyuubi about his parents, then he saw no reason to press further on the issue. He had used all of his abilities to try and detect any deceit from his Master during their talk, but he had found none.

Plagueis was right, looking back was not something he wanted to do. It was harder now more than ever but he wanted to put Konoha completely behind him. That unfortunately meant putting aside his feelings on his parents and wanting to know more about them. He would just have to let it go and be satisfied with whatever information he could get. Perhaps in the future he could gain more from the Kyuubi. It certainly seemed to know more than it let on and Plagueis admitted that it hadn't revealed all that it knew.

'What would I have done if he hadn't told me the truth or denied it?' he idly wondered but decided not to dwell on that thought. Without Plagueis, he might be completely lost in the galaxy. There was still so much he didn't know about and so much he was still learning from his Master.

Turning around, he made to leave as there was nothing left to say. Stopping at the door to the lift, he said, "I'll go select the group and get everything else ready for traveling to the ship."

The door shut behind him and Plagueis was left alone in the room to decipher the emotions he was experiencing.

x-x

Swinging his sword down, Naruto decapitated the final dog-like creature that had attacked them. The pack of animals had been stalking them for over an hour before finally attacking from behind. The creatures were hard to kill but were not that dangerous to their small group.

Accompanying the two Sith were Juugo and the demon brothers. Karin had enough of the volcanic world for one day and though Suigetsu wanted to come, but he simple couldn't. Tatyuya didn't really care whether she went or not and Kabuto claimed he had something to work on.

They were nearly to the crash site and it had taken much longer than they originally planned. Both Plagueis and Naruto had slowed the group down as some of the terrain was too much for them. Plagueis couldn't walk up walls and Naruto was having great difficulty keeping his feet stuck to surfaces. His chakra control was abysmal and he ended up physically climbing a few vertical cliff faces areas along with Plagueis. Both refused to be carried and while they were quite capable of climbing, it still slowed the group down.

Central volcano was still an ever present feature that dominated most of the their surroundings. Their movements circumnavigated the feature as they traveled past the mining facility and to the crash site. Plagueis informed Naruto that the volcano had stopped erupting only that morning but that seismic readings and scans indicated that they should be fine for the day.

Coming to the top of next cliff-side they had to climb, the small group was greeted with a linear trench that showed where the ship had come down and struck the surface of the rock. Following the trench, they made it to the edge of the plateau. Naruto dreaded what they might see and was initially surprised to find that he couldn't see the ship, however, he then remembered the countermeasures he had used.

Instead of a crashed ship surrounded a wedge shaped mud wall, they were looking at a large outcropping of rock in the middle of the canyon that was the same size as the wall. The illusion however soon faded the more intently he gazed upon. Knowing what was really there negated the effects of the Sith runes which were only meant to fool those that might come upon the area. On first glance it wouldn't look very noteworthy and anyone in the area would move on.

Looking to the canyon floor, he could see that the lava had quickly moved through the area and only deposited a thin layer which had mostly cooled. While Juugo and the demon brothers swiftly moved down to the valley floor, Plagueis and Naruto were forced to take the journey in several controlled jumps until the ground had leveled out. To get to the ship, Naruto went through some handseals and spewed a stream of water in front of them in the direction they wanted to go. The water sizzled on the surface and quickly evaporated but left the surface a little cooler.

Examining his work, Naruto frowned at the fact that the water jutsu had much less volume than he wanted. He wanted more of a deluge but only summoned up a stream. Chalking it up to chakra control, the demon brothers took over and continued to cool off the surfaces in front of them as they made their way to the hidden crash site.

Once they reached the ship, the demon brothers got on top of the mud wall to act as lookout with a pair of electrobinoculars while Naruto and Plagueis began looking over the ship. Not having anything to do for the moment, Juugo decided to go into the ship and see if he could find a few things that the others had left behind when they moved to the escape pod before the crash. They had taken the most important items but the others had left a few things and had asked him to see if he could find them and bring them back to the their temporary base. Suigetsu was forced to leave a few of his weapons because the others objected to taking sharp weapons in the escape pod while they were about to crash on the planet.

Entering the ship through the still present hull breach, Naruto and Plagueis tried to restart the ships systems to see what was damaged during the attack and crash.

x-x

"This is boring as hell." commented Meizu and Gozu just grunted in agreement. Looking over the canyon and the the tops of the cliffs for any sign of Mustafarians or wildlife was not very fun. There just wasn't much to see. The mud wall didn't reach the height of the canyon wall so they couldn't see very far in most directions

"At least its better than sitting down there and doing nothing while they look over the ship." commented Gozu.

"You think we'll ever be able to pilot one of these ships?" asked Meizu as he looked downstream of their position.

"Who knows, it doesn't seem that hard. They seem to be able to take a beating and I don't think you need to know how everything works to fly it. All we need is to be on a non-hostile planet and have some free time." Gozu responded.

"Oh yeah, and when's that going to happen?" questioned Meizu with a chuckle and Gozu laughed as well. Their luck thus far with planets wasn't very good. Each of the three planets they had been too was far from peaceful. Something always seemed to happen to them.

"Oi, Meizu. Take a look at the big volcano." requested Gozu but Meizu brushed him off by saying, "I've seen it already."

"Now that's not what I mean. I seem something on the lower slopes." explained Gozu and Meizu turned around to reexamine the slopes.

Though a portion of the bottom-most slope of the volcano was covered by the curvature of the planet and the canyon walls, Gozu saw something on the lowest visible portion of the volcano. Among the rocky slope was an area that was slightly out of place from the rest. A small portion was jutting up from the rest of the rock and looked too straight and the sides too cornered to be a natural rock. The top of the anomoly also appeared strange.

Looking at the top of the feature, Meizu felt he had seen something like it before. He looked back down at the ship to call out for the others and realized what it was. The top gun turret on the ship looked similar to what he was seeing on the top of the object jutting out from the volcano.

"We better tell Naruto and Master Plagueis." he said and examined the anomaly one more time to be certain.

x-x

'_I believe it is indeed a laser canon turret. It might be a part of a ship or even a whole ship. You've both done very well in spotting it._' stated Plagueis as he looked through the electrobinoculars at the volcano. It had taken him several jumps to get up the mud wall but he was now certain it was worth the effort.

Naruto looked over the feature with his goggles and could also see the similarities. Given how far it was away, the journey would likely take them another hour or more but that was not the primary concern. The fact that whatever they were seeing was on the largest volcano on the planet, which had only just stopped erupting after nearly two days of continuously spewing lava, was more prevalent on his mind.

If the volcano decided to erupt while they were on it, then they may not be able to outrun the lava if it came down on the side they were on.

"Are we going to go investigating?" asked Juugo who was also quite interested but didn't have a pair of binoculars to see with. This was the first real adventure that he had gotten to participate on. He had found the vibroaxe that Suigetsu had asked him to bring back and was holding it in one of his hands. Given that they had already been attacked, he thought it might come in handy.

'_Yes, I think we will but we won't stay for long. I could only determine that the volcano would remain stable for so many hours. Beyond that calculation, we could be endangering our lives. The find however could prove most valuable. If the other crashed ship doesn't have the parts we need, then we can scavenge off this new find._' answered Plagueis.

The quick overview of their ship revealed that their deflector dish was definitely damaged along with the engines and the power relay systems that went to the hyperdrive as well as other systems. They were quite lucky with the damage only being what it was. Had the hyperdrive been damaged, they would have been in some real trouble. Except for the obvious breach, the hull also seemed to be fine but they would need to get the ship out of the rock it was stuck in and on a level surface before determining that.

The ship had emergency power and most of the key systems were still fine but they needed to restore main power and fix the engines as well as the other systems before they could think about leaving the planet. Without the deflector dish they wouldn't have any shields which was also of great concern considering that they had already been attacked once and they were only just past the halfway point to Tatooine.

x-x

Traveling to the huge volcano was easier said than done for Plagueis and Naruto. The others were having an easy time but Naruto's attention kept moving to the smoke rising from the top of volcano thousands of meters above them and thinking it might start to erupt at any moment.

Eventually they made it to what the demon brothers had seen. They were still only a slightly up the long sloping side of the volcano. In their area the incline wasn't very steep but the ground was treacherous.

Looking over the exposed ship, Plagueis tried to identify it but had difficulty. The portion they were looking at was a trapezoidal prism that was about twenty meters tall and steadily got wider until it reached about thirty meters wide before disappearing into the volcanic rock. It didn't look like any known transport ship that he was aware of. There was no evidence of a cockpit or any other common characteristics of a vessel. Examining the very top of the exposed ship, he noted the weapon emplacement. Searching through what he knew about laser canons, he decided to revise his previous statement, 'My initial assessment wasn't completely correct.' he mentally voiced to the rest of the group and quickly got their attention.

'I based my assumption on the fact that the ship was likely a small transport or freighter. That is however incorrect.' he said as he continued to look over the piece of ship and try to identify what ship it was. Naruto quickly voiced the question that everyone else was wanting to know, "Then what are we looking at?"

'This isn't a laser cannon, its a turbo laser canon. It's far too large for a transport ship and unless this is a heavily modified cargo vessel, I believe we are looking at a small portion of a support or capital warship.' Plagueis revealed and

There was a long silence before Juugo asked, "And how big would that kind of ship be?"

'Approximately eighty to several hundred meters long, though I would expect this one to be more towards the two hundred meters or larger mark. Given the slight angle of this exposed portion, the rest of the ship is either not here or was completely covered by lava flows and is hidden from view beneath us. The earthquakes from the recent eruptions may have brought it to the surface or uncovered this portion of it.' explained Plagueis as he moved to the ship portion and began scrapping off some ash and other debris to reveal red metal underneath.

The others balked at the statement of the size. Their own ship was only fifty meters and they considered that 'big'. Glancing over the exposed area, Naruto didn't see any entrances into the ship. The best answer he could come up with was to make an entrance. The only question was where to do it. Pulling out his ninjato, he circled the exposed section. There was no telling what was really inside of it. The exposed section could be part of the front, back, bottom, top, or some other section. If the ship was as large as Plagueis believed, then it could just have fins that stuck up and had a weapons battery on top.

All he really needed though was a big enough space for the demon brothers to enter into. Selecting an arbitrary spot he activated the vibration mechanism on his sword stabbed into the ship. He made sure not to go too deep but found the hull was thicker than he expected. When he was finished, a glance back at Gozu and Meizu told them it was their turn to contribute. They grunted in acknowledgment and turned into smoke. The two plumes rushed into the hole and began slowly searching the dark area inside.

Hopefully, the two would be able to find a good location for all of them to enter.

It took a few minutes before he heard a clank come from the other side of the exposed ship. All three members of the remaining group walked to the other side. The clank came again and Naruto realized what Gozu wanted him to do. Moving his sword to the area he heard the noise from, he stabbed into the ship's hull. Three more clanks came from inside the ship and Naruto proceeded to put three more slits into the ship.

Gozu had given him the dimensions for a door that he could make and now he knew where the corners were. Naruto was about to finish his work on the entrance and cut it completely out of the ship when Plagueis spoke to him, 'Only cut three sides, leave one of the vertical sides uncut.'

Slightly confused, Naruto did what Plagueis suggested and only cut three sides. A quick look to Plagueis and the Mustafarian stepped forward. Extending both his arms toward the hull of the ship, though still several feet away, Plagueis began using the Force.

The metal hull began to peel and bend outward as Plagueis pulled the metal towards them and then bent it around, as if opening a door. With the hull peeled back, they were free to enter the ship and found an access ladder nearby.

Naruto was about to question why they hadn't just made the hole but Plagueis informed him, 'A door is better than a hole and if the ships hull can survive the lava, then leaving an opening that we can't seal will only allow a new lava flow to enter the ship and flood it.'

The Mustafarian ducked down to get inside the doorway and Juugo followed with Naruto following last.

x-x

Looking through the microscope at a high magnification, Kabuto starred at the new sample he had gotten that morning. Up until that point, he had been unable to get a sample from Naruto so he hadn't been able to see what he knew to be in the boy's cells. The other samples he looked at didn't have nearly as many.

Now with the sample from the Mustafarian, which was taken under the guise of looking for diseases or other ailments in the new host, Kabuto could finally see the small organisms that were prevalent in the cells of living beings and animals throughout the galaxy. All apparently except for their home planet. There were several thousand inside just the single cell that he was viewing which was far more than he had seen in previous samples.

According to Plagueis, they were sentient and lived a symbiotic relationship with the host. 'Such marvelous little creatures.' he thought as he continued to stare at them.

These were apparently the things that gave Naruto his added powers. What all those powers were he still had yet to determine but perhaps in time he would be able to find out more and ask the questions he really wanted to answer.

The main question that stood out from all the rest, was how Naruto had come to gain those organisms. He had yet to be told the full story but in time he would earn more trust from the group and finally be able to find out more.

If Naruto could form a symbiotic relationship with the organisms, then perhaps he could as well. He wasn't foolish enough to just go experimenting with them though. That was not something he would chance. There was no telling what the organisms were capable of or what experimenting with them could cause. He had been warned not to look into by Plagueis and told that at a later time, he would be let in on the Sith's research and be able to learn more about the organisms known as Midi-chlorians.

His own thoughts and questions continued to eat away at him but he resolved to wait. Thus far, the galaxy had turned out better than he had imagined. Remembering back to Snow Country, his actions seemed so foolish. The knowledge and discoveries the galaxy had to offer were even greater than anything he had been working on with Orochimaru. His former Master's work seemed to dull and insignificant by comparison to what was now available to him.

x-x

Bodies, the ship was full of dead bodies. Well, skeletons to be exact. Despite being inside the ship, the flesh had decomposed at some point and left bones along with a mess on the floor. Remains littered the floors of the hallways in the area they were in. Without a proper examination, it was difficult to determine exactly how they died but Plagueis was sure that it was through violence or other physical means. There were many scorch marks from blaster fire but not all the bodies they passed seemed to be killed with those weapons.

'Hopefully Naruto will be able to use a medical jutsu and diagnose what happened to a few of the bodies that don't look like they were killed with a blaster.' Plagueis thought as he wanted to make sure that it wasn't something more sinister that had killed the crew. There were many ways that the other crew could have been killed. Bacteriological, viral outbreak, any number of gases, or perhaps something more sinister and related to the darkside of the Force. All were unfortunately possibilities.

From what he could tell, they were actually at the front of the ship and Naruto, Juugo, as well as the demon brothers were in the process of forcing the blast doors open to what he believed to the be the bridge. If there were answers to be found, then the bridge was the best place, however without power, there was little they could do. Therefore, once the bridge was found, they would need to find power or gain a power source to power individuals systems.

The ship likely had a few small power units or generators in storage that could be used to recharge droids and the like, so all they needed to do was find one if the ships power or emergency power couldn't be restored.

While the four worked, Plagueis held up the glowrod that he had brought so that they could see what they were doing. The Mustafarian's eyesight wasn't that bad in the dark but the pitch black ship was not easy to see in. Naruto and the demon brothers were much better off, but Juugo also couldn't see anything in the pitch dark of the ship.

He still found it odd that he couldn't place the type of ship they were on. Considering the Republic's lack of a standing navy, he thought perhaps it was an older ship but that also clashed with the location. Mustafar was far outside the Republic, which was one of the reasons he chose it for the facility.

A screeching and grating noise from the blast door told him that the four had finished getting it open and he walked with them into the bridge.

The dark bridge was illuminated by the yellow light of the glowrod as Plagueis proceeded to the head of the group to better light the room. Several more bodies adorned the floor near the adjacent control stations that operated the ship. Each body appeared to have been hit with a blaster bolt but they also appeared to have other massive injuries as well.

The one thing out of place in the room was a droid that was lying on the floor. Plagueis directed the light on the droid but found that he couldn't place it's model. The droids shell appeared to be an reddish-orange or perhaps it was just rusted. It also had quite a few scorch marks on its body and a blaster was firmly gripped in its hand. Given it's position in the room, it was possible that the droid was responsible for the deaths in the bridge but he couldn't be sure about that.

Naruto moved to several of the control stations and tried to activate them, but everything was dead. Turning around, he found his Master staring at and examining a damaged droid on the floor. Before he could say anything, Plagueis spoke to him and the rest of the group, 'C_reate some shadow clones and have them search the rest of the ship. We will be staying here for the time being. The clones should head to the reactor room and contact you when they find it or look for a small power generator in the rooms of the ship. I'd also like you to bring one of the bodies back that wasn't obviously killed by blaster fire._' stated Plagueis and Naruto put his hands into a cross-shaped seal to form a group of clones.

The results were less than he desired. He only managed to create half as many clones as he wanted so he had to to repeat the process. Using his link, he sent them out to complete the tasks. While the clones filed out of the bridge, the others chose a few of the open chairs and waited.

It didn't take long for two clones to return with the set of remains that Plagueis had asked for. The clones had quite a difficult time as the remains were practically falling apart in their hands The real Naruto moved to it and attempted to use a diagnostic jutsu. It took five tries before he managed to control the chakra enough to work the jutsu. Focusing and concentrating on the chakra control, he moved his hands over the corpse and quickly examined the body.

His control soon waned and the jutsu failed but he had found out something, "There are too many bone breaks in this man's body to count. Its as if his whole body was crushed by something." and to emphasize the point, he levitated one of the bones with the Force and the others watched while he fell apart into small fragments while in the air.

Plagueis took in the new information while looking over the body the clones brought back. It seems most of his theories had been wrong. While many aboard where initially killed by blaster fire, something else happened that finished off the rest.

'_Did your clones see any other bodies with different uniforms?_' Plagueis asked and Naruto closed his eyes to confer with the clones, "No, they have yet to find any other bodies that don't have this same uniform." he confirmed and Plagueis could finally hypothesize what had happened.

'_It seems then that the ship was attacked by an inside force. The best explanation for these injuries is that the inertial compensator was turned off or disabled._' he stated and Meizu promptly asked, "What's an internal compensator?"

'_Its 'inertial', and it is a device aboard a ship that protects the crew from the sudden changes in acceleration that ship undergoes while traveling. Normal travel and maneuvers can cause so much g-force and strain on a body that a person could be instantly killed without the inertial compensator. Starships simply travel too fast for most being's to be able to stand and the device reduces that feeling to where you won't feel anything. Our crash would have probably killed us without it being turned on. In this case, it is likely that the compensator was turned off and the crash killed the rest of the crew. There are many safety features in place to prevent that from happening, but they must have been overridden._' Plagueis explained.

"Who would turn off such a device while they themselves are on board the ship?" questioned Juugo as it made no sense unless it was a suicidal action.

The Mustafarian's gaze turned to the droid that was sitting across but he said nothing about his suspicions.

Naruto's head turned towards the door as he received some information from his clones, "It seems my clones have found the reactor room."

Plagueis turned away from the droid and nodded. He then gave explicit instructions, that Naruto relayed to the clones, on the procedures for trying to activate the emergency power. The clones followed the instruction and it seemed that the ship's emergency power had not been drained as emergency lights in the bridge began turning on.

Several low hums sounded in the bridge as a few key systems began starting up. Naruto sat down at one of the main terminals and waited for the monitor to activate so he could find out information about the ship.

The monitor however did not show him anything about the ship when it turned on. Naruto found himself staring at the image of a droid. The model appeared to be the exact same droid that was on the floor. The red photoreceptors stared back at him and he wondered what the hell was going on.

Every monitor in the bridge began turning on as well and the group looked around to see images of the reddish-orange droid staring back at them. Before Naruto could say anything, the droid began speaking, "Greeting: Welcome aboard my ship, Meatbags."

x-x

AN: Yeah kind of a cliffhanger there. Sorry it took so long to update but the Christmas holiday has been busy for me. I hope to get the next chapter out much faster than this one.

For clarification, most of the responses that I have at the end of my stories are for the anonymous reviewers. I don't pick and choose select reviews to respond to. I get quite a few anonymous reviewers and sometimes repeat anonymous reviewers. Whether they have accounts and are too lazy to sign in, I don't really know, however there are times when an anonymous reviewer does have a question/concern and I try to answer those at the end of the next chapter. The other reviews I get from fanfiction members I answer in private messages so everyone gets their questions or concerns answered but only the ones that review anonymously get it answered in the chapter itself.

x-x

Reviewer:luyos

Great job as always mate! Gotta say, I don't see romance happening in this fic, it wouldn't fit, maybe something purely physical, and not harem. I'm tire of seeing reviews of people asking for romance, though they are few, because, it doesn't seem to have a place here.

I like to see naruto get some soldiers or followers, maybe some sith spawn,(fingers crossed) it would be good too see him have normal followers, I mean people willing to follow his orders without force control or anything else. I like the review about naruto possibly uniting the ninjas, under one banner, his banner!

Anyways, this are just my thoughts; this is your story, and what a story my friend. Do and write what you wish, because so far this is the best story out there! ;)

Response: Well I kinda thought so too about the romance. In time he will have followers and maybe sith spawn. Unfortunately I don't have any plans for Naruto to unite the ninjas in this fanfic. Thank you for the review.

x-x

Reviewer: Leadman

As usual, a coupla questions:

1. I know very little of Star Wars trivia, but it looks like you're aiming to have Plagueis eventually find out about Anakin... right? To be totally honest I'm okay if you have him take over and derail canon Star Wars and take it in a different direction. I like Star Wars but I'm not wedded to the canon details. As long as you don't turn this into a boring Naruto-is-godly story I'll enjoy the ride. It's the challenges he and his motley crew faces which makes this such a fun read.

2. You did mention your focus wasn't on the people left behind (the Narutoverse i.e. the people on Ibonihs), but what you've written previously was good enough that there are still hanging threads here. Are you planning on eventually letting us know what happened to Konoha, Akatsuki, and the whole insane Madara plotting to screw the world over thing? I admit Kishimoto jumped the shark (several times =_=) but it would be nice to read an alternate resolution to the mess he left behind. Especially since the Nine Tails is basically all but out of reach of the Akatsuki which puts a major wrench in their plans (although I hate them, they're not stupid, and a missing bijuu - especially the Nine Tails, the most powerful - WILL be something that they can not simply ignore). 

Response: I'm not completely sure how much I will or will not follow SW canon at this point. I'm trying as best as I can to no turn this into a god-like Naruto story. Its actually tougher than it sounds. I think I will show some stuff happening in Konoha at some point in the future. I have to get to that point though. It may be a good number of chapters but not that much time in the story.

x-x

Reviewer: tussu

Tres bien! Muy bien! Very good! Since you've been doing such a great job, I thought saying in a different language or two, could show my appreciation! :)

Tremendous work buddy..., and like every other guy i've got a question, hehehehe...

I'm just wondering if Naruto will get more followers, meaning, in Surfur (bad spelling) they kind of just fixed every body to work for them, mind control, which is fine, but will he get soldiers, dirty merchants, assassins, exct, to work for him normally, just because he's powerful, or gains their trust or buys them...

Keep up the great work my friend! ;)

Response: In Sarafur, they only mind controlled a select few people. From those, their influence may grow and they could become friendly with a few neighboring systems. He will get soldiers, smugglers, assassins and others that will unknowningly work for him as well as knowingly work for him. So some might think they are still just working for their bosses but actually work for Naruto and others will know that they work for Naruto. I don't want to spoil too much but there will be people he gains the trust of and those that he buys as well.

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Reviewer: Fan of Nightsisters

When will Plagueis go to Dathomir and meet the Nightsisters?

Response: At this point in time I don't have plans for Plagueis to go to Dathomir. That could change but it might not. Sorry if that disappoints you.

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Reviewer: fanfic-addict

My question is: How far do you intend this story to go in the Star Wars timeline? Or more prudently, how far have you planned to go till now? It's just that I don't see this story fitting in with Episode IV since that's basically the next generation and Naruto would be nearly 50 years old which would be weird. Even if Naruto would be the Emperor then but to be honest I don't really see him there either. Oh, and I want to know why Naruto was angered strongly enough to nearly draw on the Kyuubi's chakra. Only Jiraya's memories did that before and unlike in canon Naruto's seal was never loosened by Jiraya either.

Well, other than that I just want to say that I'm quite curious what you'll do with the Tessents since you can be completely original without changing the basic setting too much. Oh, and I think you shouldn't invent any more force powers. I can see that the mind techniques like "knowledge drain" were essential and necessary for the story but the "force astrogation" you mentioned in chapter 19 in the beginning is just way too outlandish in my opinion. While the Force often acts as some kind of guide for the Jedi and Sith, it's more about gut feelings, vague ideas and sometimes visions or in Mace Windu's case even shatterpoints. You can't use the force to substitute the extremly precise calculations of a high-tech navigational computer which consist of countless variables. It doesn't sound very usefull anyways.

Response: I don't plan to go past the clone wars, or at least not far past the clones wars, so my story will end about where the third movie ends and won't go beyond that. Hopefully this chapter explained the question about the Kyuubi's chakra and influence. I've tried to explain it better as other people found it slightly unrealistic that Naruto would get that mad.

Um...actually instinctive astrogation is a real force technique or it is on Wookieepedia as a force technique I didn't make it up. It could be quite useful if Naruto wanted to plot a course through an area he has never been before and that doesn't have good astrological data. The way I understand it, and I could be wrong, is that star charts are updated regularly because the hyperlanes do change slightly over time. Navigational computers need those updated star charts to plot safe courses. There are major and minor lanes and so if Naruto wanted to make his own path through space, he could do that without updated charts or using the navigational computer. This would allow him to possibly travel to places faster and on a more direct route but also work around pirates and other people that might wait at normal spaces lanes to attack ships that come out of hyperspace. It really would come in handy. If he didn't have a nav computer then he wouldn't need one. He could also use it plot new hyperlanes for use later on. Hyperlanes are very valuable as a quicker path is more money for shippers/smugglers, and would be incredibly useful in times of war. Having secret hyperlanes would be invaluable to anyone.

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Reviewer: Renegade

Hey since naruto over rode orochimaru when he tried to take over naruto's soul, doesn't that mean that naruto has to use the technique himself to keep him alive every few years?

Response: Naruto absorbed Orochimaru's soul, but he never took over his body. He still has his own body and the reason Orohcimaru had to keep switching was due to the fact that his new host body kept breaking down because it was not meant to hold his soul or his chakra. Naruto shouldn't have that problem because he never left his body or took over orochimaru's.

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Reviewer: Peter Kim

What about me answering your review on your fanfiction? When will Naruto's gang will face the jedis and most importly,Obi Wan Kenobi and his master Qui Gon Jinn?

Response: Unfortuantely not for a little while. They are in sort of a finding/gathering/building arc where they are making connections and building up their power base, so they won't be facing jedi very soon. Obi-wan and Qui-gon appeared in this chapter because I really wanted to test myself. I wanted to see how well I could write a standard star wars character and how well that would conform to what people expect them to say/do/act. It will be a little while before Naruto faces either of those two jedi.

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Reviewer: coldblue

I have been reading your responses on how you might run the story. It's sad that you might not put Naruto in a relationship with Karin, Tayuya, Naruto girls or any Star Wars girls. I understand that Naruto does not know how to love, but I can't help to be into some romance's. If you do reconsider romance than I can't wait to read about.

So if you are going to keep Naruto to the Sith ways, how will he interact with Sedious and the others connected to the dark side? When will Naruto wise up and kill Plaguesis? Why keep Kabuto alive if he is going to causemore problems for the group for his thirst for knowledge? Will Naruto be buing these new forms of driods that you say that you might show or will be through other situations like with DeeFour? Will Naruto find the tomb of Raven or someething special from finding these statues? What will Naruto light saber will look like? Thanks for the chapter and the responses to the answer from your readers. Keep writing!

Response: If a romance is going to happen in the story then it will be gradual and not happen right away. I don't exactly know if it will or if it won't. It would all depend on where the story takes me. I have a plan but something I end up writing spontaneous stuff that could alter the story later on. Basically, there are still possibilities for anything. I don't have many plans for him to interact much with sidious, the man stays in the shadows so much that it would be really hard for them to interact. I will have naruto interact with other Sith/darksiders and he probably won't like any of them. Since he has been taught so differently and hasn't fully submersed himself in the darkside, he won't be able to get along well with other darkside users. I don't have plans for Plagueis or Kabuto to die. Naruto will find the droids, he won't be buying any of them. Naruto won't find Revan's tomb or anything like that. I'm still working out what his lightsaber will look like. I was thinking it would be a katana handle without a guard or look similar to the handle of his ninjato.

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Reviewer: Silently Watching

Kyuubi is, quite frankly, more trouble than he's worth. But I need to ask, doesn't Naruto remember what his clone heard when the Sandaime and Jiraiya were discussing the "loosening" of the seal that would occur when he first used the demon's chakra? He has all his own research into fuinjutsu, combined with Jiraiya's knowledge, so simply retightening the seal shouldn't really be that much of an issue, should it? At least unless Naruto wants to modify the seal so that none of the demon chakra enters his coils.

As for the pairing issue that seems to have sprung up, the crew of the ship is going to be spending quite a long time with each other, working together in life-or-death situations. It's hard to PREVENT bonds from developing between everyone in those conditions. No, I don't think that Naruto should go ahead and get married, and even loving someone will likely be difficult, but I can easily see a friends-with-benefits relationship between Naruto and Karin, and possibly even between him and Tayuya. And with Karin's personality in canon, she would be able to fall in love (or become obsessed) with him. If that didn't make much sense, I apologize, but I can't think of any other way to explain it. 

Response: Naruto can't tighten his seal because he doesn't have the key. His seal has a corresponding key that was made by the Yondaime and it is written on a summoning toad that is inside of Jiraiya. Naruto had no idea where it was or how to get to it so he can't tighten up the seal. What I had him do in this chapter is really the extent of what he can do.

Karin's personality in canon was based on seeing Sasuke as someone that he wasn't, so its hard to say how she would respond to Naruto. Her view of him was skewed and that moment certainly didn't happen with Naruto, so its hard to say if she would ever be obsessed with him like she was with sasuke. I do agree that they will be spending time together, so anything could happen but at this point I can't say for certain what will. Some of my writing is very planned and some isn't. Somethings I just come up with right on the spot while I'm writing a chapter.

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Reviewer: G L J

I really love your story, as it presents a nice what-if situation and has great follow through. I get the feeling that you're going to turn d4 into a pseudo r2d2, but that's all good. Lovable droids make the best OCs.

Have you considered giving Naruto the hiraishin? Since he knows so much about with runes and fuinjutsu it seems like a logical next step in his training. My personal belief as to why it has never been copied is that it has specific genetic markers designed to only let the marked person use the runes.

Response: I've considered it but at this point it would be a little bit much to have it and I also have something else planned that he will learn. I don't want to spoil it though.

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Reviewer: cuco

Great Chapter, as always my friend! But I've got a couple of bones to pick with you! lol ;) I understand, that for the story to be good, there have to be issues, that Naruto can't be 100% all the time, at least not when he's 12, and getting used to everything. But it bothers me how easily he lost control of himself when the droid hit him. Also, I could be wrong, but couldn't naruto use shusin, or whatever it's called,;) To bring themselves to the ship, from the skyhook.

That's it, for my fan-pestering part! Now I think you did a great job, mixing comedy and action, the chapter had a great flow, like the story! Keep up the great work my friend, you are the best!

ps: I agree, that there is no room for romance, something purely physical could definitely work later on!

Response: To be honest, I really wasn't happy with the way that part of the chapter turned out. I wanted for him to lose control at some point but I guess I kinda forced it to happen instead of letting it happen, if that kinda makes sense. I've tried to come up with a good explanation for that in this chapter but I don't know if it worked out. There are always things that don't go exactly how you plan and this was certainly one of them for me and this story.

Shushin or however its spelled is not meant for traveling really long distances like that. Its really meant for travel for a couple hundred feet maybe. I'm also not sure you can use it with more than one person or that you can move vertically with it.

AN: That was all the questions I noticed this time, if I missed anything just let me know. And again, this section was only for the anonymous reviewers so I could answer their questions.

Thank you to all those people that reviewed.


	22. Chapter 22

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

AN: I would like to say that the crashed ship discovered in the last chapter was _**not **_the Ebon Hawk. Sorry for any confusion that may have caused with readers as I had a few reviewers believe it was the Ebon Hawk and likely that means that other readers thought that as well.

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**36.3 BBY – Current Year **

Chapter XXII: This droid wants to kill us

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No sooner had the droid spoke then the blast doors they had painstakingly opened, shut and locked.

'Well that's not good. Why do I have such bad luck with ships?' Naruto wondered as he continued to look at the screen and contacted his clones.

'Shut off the emergency power.' Plagueis quickly ordered but Naruto soon mentally responded, 'I can't, he's shut my clones out and is trying to start the ship's reactor. There's no fuel for the reactors to start up so the droid won't succeed.'

Both Master and Student's attention was soon brought back to the monitors as the droids began speaking again, "Introduction: My designation is HK-47 and I am currently in need of assistance." the droid announced while looking over the group on the bridge before continuing, "Statement: I assume most of you are spacers that have found the wreckage of this vessel. After the crash, I was forced to upload the contents of my memory core into the ship's systems because my body was damaged when the ship was attacked and boarded. I am willing to offer a generous reward in exchange for your assistance." bargained the droid.

The group gave the screens slight looks of disbelief at the statement as Plagueis had only just informed them moments before of a quite different scenario.

'Inner thought: The offering of a reward will almost always undermine the Meatbag's better judgment. They will soon help me regain a body.' thought the dangerous droid as it overrode security measures and prepared to vent the atmosphere on the ship should the deal not go its way.

Within just a few seconds of being reactivated, he had already determined that the ship's reactor would not be restarting and most security systems on the ships were not functioning. He only had emergency power and that would not last long. The sensors also indicated that the ship was buried under tons of hardened rock. There was no way to get to where it wanted to go so he would have to rely on the Meatbags.

Deciding not to keep the droid waiting or suspecting that they knew more than they let on, Naruto asked with feigned enthusiasm, "What kind of reward?"

"Answer: a once in a lifetime reward as well as this ship and everything on it, Meatbag."

Naruto quickly confirmed what the droid was saying with his clones. Every system on the ship was no longer responding and it also seemed the rest of the ship was on some kind of lock-down. Every door had closed and locked the clones inside whatever compartments they were in when the emergency power was turned on.

Naruto looked toward Plagueis and informed his Master of what his clones had found out. '_What should we do_?' he questioned through telepathy.

'_The ship could be immensely useful to us and could have many valuable items. I believe we should go along with the droid for now_.' stated Plagueis to Naruto and the others.

'_It's going to try and kill us the first chance it has when it completes it's goals_.' countered Naruto.

'_Most assuredly, but knowing it's intentions will allow us to avoid that trap. Having the droid in the ship's computer and in control of the ships systems would complicate everything. Getting it out of the ship's systems should be a priority. After that, the droid would be of little use to us_.' Plagueis explained and he told Naruto to accept the droids proposition.

"We accept, HK-47. What is it that you want us to do?" asked Naruto and the droid on the screens eyed him for a second before deciding that the small Meatbag must be in charge of the group.

"Answer: You will need to acquire several signal relay stations from the main storage compartment of the ship. They are small and easy to carry, even for a Meatbag like yourself. I will guide you to them and then guide you using the ship's communications systems to where you will need to place them. With these I will be able to amplify the ship's minimal signal transmission capabilities to transmit my memory core off the ship. The ship will then be yours."

"Where will you send your memory core?" questioned Naruto as he didn't understand what the droid wanted. Was it's goal the mining facility? There weren't many other droids on the planet and it made him wonder if there was something on the planet that they didn't know about.

"Answer: There is a Replublic outpost not too far from here. I will instruct you at what intervals to place the stations. Once that is complete, I will leave the ship for the outpost. At that point your part of the bargain will complete, Meatbag."

Naruto glanced toward Plagueis at the new information that the droid was telling them. Plagueis didn't respond but he could sense confusion coming from his Master.

"I suppose then you'll open the door?" inquired Naruto toward the nearest screen but the blast door did not open.

"Statement: I will have to ask that the others stay here while you complete the given task, Meatbag."

Splitting up the group was not something that either Naruto or Plagueis wanted. Whatever trap the droid was planning would be easier if they were split in such a way. Before Plagueis told Naruto to object to the request, Naruto said, "I'm not very familiar with the planet so I will need to take my Mustafarian guide with me. He's the tall one. The planet is also quite dangerous so I will need to take someone else with me. Juugo, the orange haired one, is far more experienced with dealing with dangerous animals than I am. Should I go by myself, I might not make it."

Some of what he was saying was true. The ruse the droid was using was that the remaining members were collateral for completing the bargain but it was plain to see that the droid planned something else. Naruto had a feeling that as soon as he left he ship or completed the task, the droid would try to kill the ones that were left.

"Reluctant statement: Agreed. The two similar Meatbags will stay on the ship.

'That was quick thinking.' Plagueis thought as as the three chosen individuals walked to the blast door that had just opened. He would have done something quite differently

Without turning around, Naruto communicated to the demon brothers, '_We're leaving you two behind because you can take whatever the droid throws at you. A few of my clones will also remain to make sure the droid leaves the ship's memory banks but I want both of you continue searching the ship until we get back_.' Naruto ordered and the demon brothers agreed.

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The droid HK-47 guided them to one of the ship's storage rooms where they found a room full of unused supplies. The droid told them how to work the relay stations which were just cylinders with transmission equipment on the top and a tripod on the bottom. The droid also asked them to take a standard communicator so it could keep in touch with them in order to guide them to the destination.

The comlink that they were instructed to take had an open communication channel so the droid was likely actively listening to them and tracking their progress. Exiting the ship, they were instructed to head in a given direction and Plagueis led the way.

'_What do you think about the outpost he spoke about?_' Naruto asked his Master through their link.

'_My initial survey of the planet when I was considering it for a hideout did not reveal any other structures. Its possible that the droid is so old that whatever outpost it believes we are heading to no longer exist. In which case we are heading well out of our way for nothing. There however is a small possibility that it was hidden enough to escape detection. My own hideout was built in that manner._' Plagueis admitted, though he did find it hard to believe that any outpost would still be operational if it had been around for so long in the harsh Mustafar environment.

'_What exactly is wrong with the droid that it would do that to the ship's crew_.' asked Juugo to the others and they heard his thought.

'_Its memory may have been left unwiped for so long that it developed a dangerous personality. That can happen. However, it is also possible that its an assassin droid and was programmed that way from the start. The designation it uses seems somehow familiar but I cannot place it. At some point in history, the droid may have been quite notable. It does appear that it killed the crew of an entire ship by itself. A droid like that is bound to have gained some infamy_.' answered Plagueis as they finished making their way down the volcano and headed in the direction that the droid indicated.

'_Does your host's mind know where we might be headed?_' Naruto questioned of his Master. He really wanted to have some idea where they were going and what would be ahead of them.

Plagueis looked through the dormant Mustafarian's mind and then answered, '_It's possible we are heading to a feature known as Tulrus Island_.'

'_Is there a lot of lava?_' Naruto questioned and Plagueis quickly responded, '_No, the island is surrounded by tall mountains with only a single narrow entrance. I believe those are the mountains in the distance_.' and the Mustafarian pointed toward a line of mountains in the distance.

'_What can we expect?_' asked Juugo as they moved quickly across the surface of the plateau they were on.

'_It's mostly a flat land but is almost entirely inhabited by the Tulrus. The best comparison I can give is that they are a bull that is five or more times larger than normal, with large bone tusks and spikes. They have poor eyesight and charge blindly at the first sign of a threat. The island is covered with small groups of them and they use it for breeding.'_ Plagueis informed them and both Juugo and Naruto balked at the statement.

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Looking over the two Meatbags left in the room reclining in chairs, HK-47 tried to find something else to do with his time. The processing power he had with the ship left him quite bored. He could easily monitor both groups and he wanted something to happen.

While it appeared that the demon brothers were still on the bridge, they had actually replaced themselves with smoke clones and left the bridge through an open access panel. They could leave a smoke clone without alerting the watching droid by siphoning out their own smoke from their feet and leaving just a shell along with a portion of their chakra. If the clone was not damaged in any way, then it would last for several hours.

Following the ships various utility pathways, they began exploring more of the ship. The droid didn't have any eyes or ears in the rest of the ship so as long as they didn't open any doors or use any power, then the droid would likely never know they were searching the rest of the ship.

In the first few minutes, they already encountered a few of Naruto's clones and made plans to search individual rooms that might be promising. The clones were unable to get through the doors but they could slip through various maintenance areas to access most parts of the ship.

Coming to a large blast door, Meizu and two clones looked for a entrance to the room behind. Moving up the wall, Meizu removed a panel from the ceiling and found his way in.

Reemerging on the other side after knocking a panel off the wall, Meizu looked around the darkness and found several odd looking shapes. It wasn't until he got closer to the fourteen objects that he finally realized what was inside the large room.

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Setting the second transmitter to boost the signal, the droids voice soon came over the comlink and told them to continue on. Ahead of them was the single easy entrance to Tulrus Island. It appeared to be a well traveled mountain pass with steep slopes on both sides.

They still had one more transmitter and it would likely need to be placed closer to their goal, if the outpost still existed. More than once the thought that they were being purposely sent to a dangerous area where nothing existed had crossed their minds. Given how badly damaged the droids body was, there was no way it would be able to use the body again and the ship wouldn't fly, so what else was there?

'The droid could just be completely insane and invented the outpost.' Naruto considered but the Force was telling him that wasn't the case or at least he didn't feel that the droid was lying. It was certainly plotting to kill them but not lying about the outpost.

If it was telling the truth, then that could be of even greater help to them. Plagueis's hideout was good for shelter but it lacked the necessities of helping them fix the ship. Their Snow country hideout was large enough to hold the ship so he could work on it without distraction. He hoped the outpost had such facilities for him to be able to summon the ship there and work on it.

Moving quickly through the pass, so as to not get caught by any large animals, they soon entered into a large, flat expanse of land. The plain was dotted with outcroppings of rock so they would have places to hide if they were attacked.

Pulling down his goggles, Naruto saw some dust rising in the distance and zoomed in to see a herd of what must have been Tulrus moving swiftly across the plain. They were at least three to four meters tall with two large tusks by the mouth and one large spiked horn on the top of the head, followed by several other large spikes down the ridge of their backs. He estimated that they weighed several metric tons.

Looking up at the sky, the dark clouds and dust in the air made it difficult to determine what time of day it was. He thought perhaps it was the afternoon or dusk but the reddish glow from active lava areas provided enough light for their needs, so they could keep going. Moving cautiously from one rock outcropping to another, they kept a watch for the distant animals and made sure to keep a good distance away from the herds.

The droid provided further directions and they adjusted their course accordingly.

'_This body needs to take a break_.' announced Plagueis and they stopped at the nearest outcropping to rest. Juugo took a drink from his water canteen while Naruto climbed the rock to get a better view of their surroundings.

Scanning the area, Naruto saw mountain peaks in the distance but the curvature of the planet obscured the rest of the mountains. There were several small herds of Tulrus to the east of their position and one herd was just a hundred meters away.

None of the large gray skinned beasts had taken notice of him and he felt it was best to keep it that way. To the north, the land became more rugged and increased in elevation. The west was where they had come from so he panned to the south, which was where the droid had instructed them to head. Through his goggles, he could see something in the distance besides the rocks and mountain peaks. The ground seemed to lead to an edge and indicated some kind of canyon was there or perhaps a sinkhole.

'If Master's hideout was inside a caldera, the outpost could be beneath us.' he wagered and jumped down to the ground.

'I_ see something ahead of us but its not a structure, more like a drop-off.'_ he told the others, '_Unless we're heading for the mountains, then the outpost must be there, or what's left of it must be there._'

Using his staff weapon, Plagueis forced the Mustafarian to stand back up so they could continue. Given that the Mustafarians were immune to most blaster fire, they used kinetic energy weapons mounted on the ends of a staff. He had yet to use the weapon but against the Tulrus it would be of little help. The natives mostly used lava fleas for long distance travel, so his new body wasn't accustomed to such a long journey on foot.

Continuing on, Plagueis noticed a change in the ground. It now seemed very flat, almost too flat to be natural. Most of the ground they had been on was hardened material from old lava flows that perhaps had come from one of the mountains that surrounded the, however, now they appeared to be on a layer of flat of ash. His observation were cut short however when the comlink came to life with the droid's voice.

"Statement: You have proceeded far enough to place the last transmitter."

Juugo took the last transmitter off his back and handed it to Naruto who quickly set it up. Placing it atop a nearby rock, so it was out of the way of the local wildlife, Naruto activated the device and they waited to hear back from the droid.

After a brief period, the droids voice came back to them, "Statement: My signal is getting no response from the outpost, you'll have to go investigate. I need to make contact with the outpost in order for our deal to be complete."

"Fine, where is this outpost you've been talking about?" questioned Naruto but he kept any skepticism he had about its existence to himself. There was still a chance that at least some vestige of the outpost was intact or left behind.

"Answer: the outpost is hidden in a depression that is not far from your position, Meatbag. You may be able to see the physical feature now."

Naruto glanced over to the distant feature and raised an eyebrow. He could feel Juugo's and Plageuis's interest peak as well.

"We'll be there shortly." acknowledged Naruto and the droid did not respond. Taking a few steps in the direction of the outpost, he stopped as the memories from one of his clones flooded back to him. The corners of his mouth twinged into a smile at what the demon brothers had found back at the ship.

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Gozu reformed on the other side of the large doors and then his body distended outward. A hand soon emerged and the rest of one of the shadow clones came forth from his smoke body. The clone stumbled slightly but soon regained it's balance.

"I didn't know you guys could do that." the clone admitted. While it knew the demon brothers could 'eat' or 'swallow' people, it had no idea that they could regurgitate them back up without devouring them.

"I think it's only temporary. If you stayed inside any longer then you would have been dispelled." explained Gozu and the clone nodded while looking around. Through the dark veil it began making out shapes which soon turned into definitive lines and edges as it's vision adjusted. After a few moments the clone found itself looking at several small ships and it realized they were in a hangar bay. It also realized that the warship even had a hangar bay.

Moving closer to the objects, it soon identified a dozen starfighters and two larger shuttles. The tilt of the crashed ship had caused the vessels to slide to the wall of the hangar but the clone believed it could still access them.

The demon brothers helped the clone find the loading ramp to the shuttle craft but weren't surprised to find it not operating. The clone quickly searched the hull of the ship and found a maintenance hatch. Opening the panel, it began looking over the systems it could see.

"Can we use these ships to get off the planet?" asked Meizu while the clone searched in the dark.

"No, I don't believe so. These shuttles don't seem to have hyperdrives and based upon what Master Plagueis told the original about starfighters of that size, they likely don't have hyperdrives either and I don't see any hyperdrive rings or modules." answered the clone as it worked to activate the ships reactor and force the loading ramp open.

"However, I think I can still get these operational. Once the droid leaves the ships computer, maybe we can get the hangar bay doors open and fly these ships to pick up the others." said the clone and it put it's hands in a cross shaped seal to create another clone and then dispelled it to inform the original of the discovery.

"Maybe we can learn to fly these things. There seems to be enough for everyone." remarked Gozu as he looked over the twelve sleek starfighters.

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Looking down into the depression, Naruto examined the area. The feature could have been a sink hole or possibly the remnants of a very small caldera or volcanic vent but he had no way to verify what it was or had been.. It was about thirty meters to the bottom and the feature was about fifty meters in diameter. There appeared to be the remnants of a staircase carved into the cliff-side as well as what looked to be a planned area for a lift. Both were covered in ash though and hardly recognizable. A part of the features rim also appeared as if it had collapsed into the floor below and several large dark rocks on the floor below were obvious debris from the collapse.

Aside from the broken rim area and staircase, the remaining cliff-side was quite shear along the entire circular feature and from his position he could only see one large metal door that must be the way into the old outpost. Said door was quite large, completely covered in corrosion and had the bottom section smashed inward, as if something had rammed the door in to gain access to the outpost inside. The opening was completely shadowed and masked what was inside.

'_It is quite well hidden. Considering there is no electrical or energy signals coming from the remains of the outpost, my survey would never have registered its existence_.' admitted Plagueis as he examined the area. He saw no visible signs of any defense or security systems and even if there were any, after such a long time in the Mustafar landscape there was little chance they would be still active. However, what worried him was the damage to the door.

Even with extensive age and corrosion, it looked so dented and bent inward that he could only conclude that it must have been some kind of animal that did it. 'Possible a Tulrus.' he hypothesized. It could also have been the one other creature that inhabits the area, which preyed upon the Tulrus but there was no way of knowing.

Glancing next to him, he caught site of a plume of white smoke which was quickly followed by a shadow clone emerging from dissipating smoke jumping into the pit. It landed once on the old staircase and then again on the floor of the feature. The clone set about examining the area and then went to the door. After peaking inside, the clone disappeared from their view for a few seconds before Naruto announced that it was safe for them to enter.

While they jumped down to the surface, the clone continued its exploration. By the time the three made it to the door, the clone was already deeper into the facility.

Pulling out two glow rods, Plagueis handed one to Juugo and took the other for himself. He had no idea what the layout of the facility was but figured what they wanted, the power source, would be on the lower levels while a control or operations room could be anywhere.

Entering the damaged door, Naruto proceeded first while Plagueis and Juugo used their lights. The inside hallway was as tall and wide as the door, which was over ten meters tall and just as wide. The hallway was as dark as it had looked from the outside and only the sound of a light wind whistling through the open door could be heard as they traveled down the dusty metal grating.

Similar to the warship, it didn't take long before they found a corpse. They had only just come to an intersection when they found two bodies on the floor. Only mummified remains were left but the uniforms were the same as the ones on the ships.

Using the glow rods, they examined the t-shaped intersection. To the right, the large tunnel-like hallway continued until it dropped off. It seemed that the tunnel was slanted and went further into the ground. The shadow clone was inspecting it and found a large track on the floor that went down the nearly forty five degree incline with the rest of the tunnel.

Naruto could see what the clone was seeing and guessed that some type of platform lift was used to get from their current level to the next one. Judging on the size of tunnel, it was likely a large lift.

To the left, they found another large door, though it was smaller than the entrance to the facility. Plagueis moved to the wall near the door and found several lines of writing.

'Communications...Security...Barracks...Refueling.' he read off to the others. If the outpost still had power, then they could definitely have used the first two areas that the door led to. Plagueis however wasn't sure about the last location. Refueling?

Looking up at the wall that the hallway ended in, Naruto noted a few windows in the darkness. Pointing them out to Juugo, the orange haired teen walked up the side of the wall with him and looked through the glass windows. With the aid of the light, Naruto could see what looked like a monitoring room. He could see quite a few instruments, screens, and interfaces but none of them appeared to be on.

Turning around to look back down at Plagueis, he saw something on the ceiling near his head. It was blaster turret that was mounted on the ceiling and faced the entrance. He also spied a few other security and surveillance devices.

"Where should we go from here?" he asked down and Plagueis thought for a moment before answering. '_We can easily get into these areas with your sword but without any power it would be pointless. We'll need to head further into the facility to see if we can restore power._'

Naruto nodded and sent a signal to his clone, which promptly started the descent to the next level.

"Maybe we should call the others at the hideout and tell them what's going on. I'm sure the others must be worried by now, given how long we've been gone." suggested Juugo but Naruto merely said, "Somehow I doubt it."

x-x

Walking to the lounging area near their rooms, Karin looked to the other two seated ninja and asked, "Have the others checked in yet?"

"Who the hell cares." said Tayuya as he meticulously inspected and cleaned her flute. Her other supplies and weapons were spread out over the table.

"He better have my sword when he gets back." said Suigetsu grumpily from his reclined position on the sofa.

'Maybe I'll check with Kabuto.' she decided, however the thought of seeing what the bespectacled snake ninja was doing in his lab made her rethink that decision. The last time she walked in, Kabuto had been dissecting something that looked vaguely human.

Walking down the hallway, she called for the only reliable person left in the building, "Deefour."

It took a moment before she heard some beeping and the droid came rolling down the hallway on its three wheeled appendages. "Have any of the others sent any messages?" she asked and droid quickly shook its head in the negative.

Frowning, she let the droid go back to whatever it was doing. 'They'll be back eventually and if they got into trouble, they would have contacted us.' she figured and decided to go back to her room.

x-x

Moving down the steep incline, the trio eventually made it to the bottom of the tunnel. Though the glowrods produced a great deal of light, they weren't concentrated like a spotlight and the light quickly faded into the darkness around them.

From what Plagueis could tell, they were standing on the lift platform and it moved up the inclined shaft they had just walked down. Moving forward and holding the light out in front of him, he found what appeared to be a hallway at first but soon he discovered that the walls were actually huge shipping crates and the hallway was just a wide walkway between them.

As he proceeded forward and the others followed, he found row after row of containers with at least three or more containers stacked on top of another. Each row had a narrow walkway between it but the light wasn't strong enough to reach beyond the innermost line of containers to see how deep the stacks went but it seemed quite substantial. They came to a four-way intersection but decided to keep on their current path while Naruto created a few more clones to scout the others. The crates soon changed to large metal pallets with tarps covering various sized and shaped items that were obscured by the thick tarp and the surrounding darkness.

"This seems like a lot of supplies." Naruto commented and then added, "My clones found two more rooms with the same items as this one. These rooms are huge." It was large enough to easily fit the Vulture several times over but not large enough to fit the capital ship that they had found.

They finally came to the end of the huge room which led to another large door but this one was open. A few more bodies were strewn on the floor as they entered the hallway but by that point they just ignored it. A short distance down the hallway, Plagueis stopped to inspect the wall which had more signage.

'Excellent.' he thought as he saw the Power Generation tag that indicated they just had to keep following the hallway. They passed by another intersection. One hallway said Droid Maintenance and Repair while the other apparently led to what looked like a large lift, only this one appeared to be completely vertical.

'_It appears the facility has another floor below this one_.' Plagueis told them but without power, the lift was unusable. '_Send another clone to look at the droid maintenance area and let me know what's there_.' he ordered as he kept walking in front of the group.

The clone quickly checked out the room and the memories flood back to Naruto, "It was filled with what looked like maintenance, labor, construction, and binary load lifting droids."

'This is starting to make sense.' thought Plagueis and he followed the very three very large cables that were attached to the ceiling as he knew them to be for power generation and that they would lead him to where he wanted to go. Entering through another large doorway, they found themselves stepping down onto rock instead of metal. The room was also much larger than their glowrods could illuminate.

Searching their surroundings in the darkness, Plagueis found the three cables again and followed them to what appeared to be three large energy collectors. The devices were all positioned around a hole that seemed to have been bored very deeply in the ground.

Looking over the edge, Juugo could see a faint red glow at the bottom. 'They must tap into the lava like our hideout does.' he guessed and waited while Plagueis and Naruto figured out the machines.

It took a few minutes before Naruto determined that he couldn't find anything wrong with two of the large energy collectors. It appeared that they had just been turned off or shut off. Plagueis found nothing wrong with the other collector and explained, '_Its possible that after a period of inactivity in the facility, it shut itself down_.'

Reactivating the control systems, the machines began to hum to life and they were left to wait in the darkness while they activated and began sending power to the rest of the facility. As the energy collectors became fully activated, lights in the area began turning on. After blinking away the new brightness. They found themselves in a large cavern. There were a few lights that were on the ceiling but most of the lightning was from glowrod stands that were illuminating areas of the rock. These areas all appeared to be still in the process of being mined and tunneled into.

'So the facility was still under construction when the droid killed the personnel.' Plagueis thought as he looked over the area. It was quite large but rather empty. No doubt the supplies were to continue with the construction of the outpost or perhaps to turn it into a larger base. The ship they found was probably also stationed at the outpost.

'The flat land on the surface was artificial, it must be part of a landing platform for ships.' he realized and was about to tell the others when he felt worry and uneasiness coming from them. Finding both Naruto and Juugo staring at the other side of the cavern, he too looked in that direction.

Sitting less than a hundred meters from them in an one of the unfinished tunnels was a gray skinned creature. To be exact, it was a Tulrus, though it was far larger than any of the ones they had seen on the surface. The sleeping creature appeared to have made a nesting area from destroyed mining droids and rock. It was just outside of his and Naruto's sensing range so they hadn't detected it when they entered the cavern.

Realizing the danger they were in, he began ushering the others to the door they had come through.

x-x

As soon as the signal with the outpost was reached, the upload began. HK's memories and programming transferred from the hammerhead cruiser into the unfinished republic outpost. Once inside the facilities computers, the droid began to acclimate itself to the systems while simultaneously examining and testing all of the outposts systems.

Acclimated to the system took only a few moments and HK transferred power to the small droid factory that was below the storage level. It had been constructed to build additional droids and even battledroids for base security and he planned to take full advantage of it. The outpost only had limited droid building supplies but he believed he could create a small force of powerful droids.

'Inner thought: I'll need to buy some time with the Meatbags to make sure they don't ruin my plans. I should be able to use the existing schematics for a few battle droids before I can implement my own designs and rebuild my body.' thought the droid and it quickly examined the outpost's surveillance systems. Finding the Meatbags, the security cameras allowed him to see a large creature that had evidently entered the outpost at some point.

'Inner thought: Perfect.' and the droid quickly accessed the stations alert system. Within a few seconds, it activated the alert system which was meant to wake soldiers when the outpost was under attack.

x-x

The loading ramp opened and the shadow clone entered the shuttle craft to look around. The spacious shuttle had seating for quite a few people and even some cargo space.

A moment later, the lights in the hangar bay turned on and the three could clearly see the ships for the first time. The two large white shuttles were what dominated the bay but the twelve smaller ships were quite interesting. Each was long and slightly cylindircal in shape with a thick red stripe down the center. They had a sleek body and cockpit but no other discernible features. The compact design confused the clone but it figured that the ship's wings must be folded for easier storage.

"Why did the lights come on?" questioned Gozu from the bottom of the loading ramp and the clone answered, "The droid must have left the computer systems. It was siphoning power away from the emergency lights to keep the computer core active. The ship is ours now. "

The large blast doors to the hangar soon opened and several more clones entered the bay. Meizu was about to say something when he saw that all the clones stopped in unison for a split second and then all went into a frenzy of coordinated movement. Several went to the hangar bay doors and set about accessing override systems while several others went into the shuttle to get it operational.

'Something must have happened with the others.' Meizu guessed and Gozu concluded the same thing. Deciding not to get in the way, they went aboard the shuttle and sat down in a few of the seats. The huge hangar bay door soon opened but revealed a wall of solid rock that was likely many meters thick.

"How are we going to get through?" asked Gozu as he wanted to know if he could help

"We're going to use the ships and punch a hole through." responded a clone sitting in one of the pilots seat of the shuttle. Out the ramp, Meizu could see two more clones trying to access two of the starfighters. The noise of the shuttle starting up could then be heard and the loading ramp closed blocking his view.

Moving to the cockpit, they continued to watch the starfighters out the window. Both brothers were curious to see what the smaller ships could do. They didn't even appear to have wings.

Finally figuring out how to open the sealed cockpit of one of the starfighters, a clone jumped into the single seat ship and looked at the controls in front of it. It quickly identified the flight controls and instrumentation but looked for some kind of activation console.

'They probably made these things idiot proof, look for the simplest solution.' the clone thought and pushed in a green button on the dashboard. The cockpit closed and the ship began starting up. Instrumentation screens and a small head-up display formed on the cockpit glass as the ship began lifting off the deck of the hangar and hovered in the air.

The clones attention was distracted as the shuttles laser canons began opening fire on the rock wall that was preventing them from leaving the ship, but it's focus returned and it took the the center stick in hand. Figuring out the other systems, it activated the ships deflector shields and then pulled the trigger on the center stick.

Nothing happened.

Confused, the clone turned to the other fighter craft and found the other clone having the same problems. Looking around the cockpit, it found a lever that it knew wasn't the ejection system. Pulling it, he watched as the back section of the ship began moving outward and formed a pair of wings. The ship now had a distinctive 'A' or delta shape to it as the wings only folded part of the way out. Along with the wings were two large laser cannons that also folded out and looked quite formidable.

The other clone found the same lever and soon they were both ready to help the shuttle. Pulling the trigger again, two green lasers fired at the wall and did some impressive damage to the rock, more than the lasers cannons on the shuttle were doing.

Both fighters soon opened fire at the wall and began cutting through it.

Watching from the shuttle, both Meizu and Gozu each thought that they would have to learn to pilot the smaller ships. It seemed far easier than piloting the Vulture and more fun as well.

x-x

Quietly and swiftly moving toward the door, the group of three endeavored to get out of the cavern as fast as possible without waking the Tulrus.

Halfway to the exit, all hell broke loose as a loud alarm went off, followed by some red flashing lights on the side of the door they were heading to. The Tulrus was awake in an instant and despite it's eyesight, it spotted the movement and bellowed a loud war-cry at them before getting up and charging.

There were no words spoken amongst the group as each person knew instinctively that they had to run as fast as they could. Several shadow clones popped into existence and attempted to distract the bull with more movement. Their distraction worked as the bull shifted to the larger and more clamorous group. The lumbering gate turning into rampage as the animal picked up speed and headed for the clones

As the clones were getting massacred, they reached the doorway and headed down the long hallway, back the way they had come. Juugo and Plagueis were in the front while Naruto brought up the rear. Plagueis idly noted that the outpost cameras were following them and instantly suspected the droid.

His thoughts were soon verified as the the stations announcement system activated and the droid's voice came on, "Conclusion: Since we have competed our arrangements, you Meatbags may now receive your reward...a brutal death, enacted by myself."

Some distance ahead of them, the large door to the storage area began to close. Knowing they wouldn't make it in time. Plagueis called on the Force and put both his hands out to stop the doors from closing. It was incredibly difficult to do it while still running but he managed. Juugo and Naruto had slowed themselves down in order to match his host's speed so he felt he needed to do it.

Without good chakra control, Naruto was limited to lighter jutsu so he created two clones behind him and they began going through seals as the Tulrus entered the hallway after them. It was a close fit for the creature as it's spikes and girth nearly prevented it from fitting inside.

The clones finished the jutus and both said, "Fuuton: Daitoppa.(Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)" Two large balls of condensed wind chakra flew at the charging animal and combined into one large attack. The jutsu and Tulrus collided and while the bull was slowed, it still smashed through the double jutsu and continued on, building up more speed as it went.

Surprised but still determined, the clones pulled out weapons and threw a barrage of wind enhanced kunai as well as kunai attached with explosive notes. The weapons however made little headway and the beast was only enraged further.

One clone was gored by a tusk while the other was trampled by huge hooves.

'He's got a thick hide and my wind chakra isn't nearly as sharp as it used to be.' Naruto noted as Plagueis and Juugo made it to the closing door.

Straining to keep it open, Plagueis gave up the moment a discblade imbedded into the small opening and forced the doors from completely closing. He and Juugo continued running to the inclined lift shaft that brought them down to that level of the outpost. Plagueis idly noted the crates and tarp covered items but he continued to run. Unable to keep up with Juugo, he began using Force run and Juugo sped up as well.

With the discblade keeping the doors open, Naruto dived through the opening and had to leave his weapon stuck in it the doors while he rolled, got his feet, and continued to run.

A second later the doors were smashed inward by the Tulrus. The strong doors were nearly ripped from their frame as they bent completely inward and allowed the bull entrance to the storage area. Naruto saw his discblade fly through the air and used the Force to make use of the weapon. The discblade righted itself in the air and began spinning as it changed trajectory and headed toward the head of the Tulrus.

With a flick of its head, the discblade was hit by the it's tusk with a sharp clang sound and sent off into the crates. It seemed that the tusks were much harder than he thought as it only made a small slice into the large tusk, 'Then again, they didn't break when it hit the metal doors.' he remembered and tried to come up with another plan. Up ahead, he could see Juugo and Plagueis just making it to the lift and thought perhaps the Tulrus would be unable to make it up the steep incline.

Running as fast as he could, he followed his two companions.

x-x

Four gray crab-like droids walked off the small assembly lines and tested their joints. They each had four legs and a head with two large blue photoreceptors as well as a double blaster in the top of their head. The Mark IV assault droids were a very common droid design during HK's time so the schematics were already in the system.

A nearby screen came to life and the picture of a rustic droid filled the image. "Orders: Go to the above levels and hunt down the intruders." the droid said to the newly formed droids and they proceeded to head to the elevator which would take them to the upper floor.

With the creature and now the droids, HK had plenty of time to finish implementing the designs for the HK-77 model battle droids which had just begun initial assembly. They were modeled in his own design with a few alterations. After enough of the droids had been built, he could then create his new body, which would be very similar to his old body with a few minor alterations. The outpost only had enough raw materials to create a squad worth of droids but that would have to do.

Once he dealt with the Meatbags in the outpost, he would move out to the rest of the planet's inhabitants. He couldn't remember exactly what had happened to him but knew that his body was damaged and he was forced to upload himself to the computer. Not sure who exactly had caused the damage, he just decided to wipe the planet clean of Meatbags and then move on. The spacer Meatbags likely had a ship that he could make use of though from there, he had no idea what he would do.

The only thing he did know, was that he would not allow anyone to be his Master ever again.

x-x

Reaching the top of the incline lift, Plagueis instantly sensed danger and he Force pushed Juugo back into the wall while he lunged for what little cover there was. Two green blaster bolts flew past them and went right through the area they had just occupied.

'_We forgot about the defense turret_.' said Plagues to Juugo as they hid behind a metal reinforcing ring that helped to support the tunnel. The turret had stopped firing since they had hidden themselves but as soon as they came out, it would begin firing again.

Pulling his staff weapon off his back, Plagueis was about to try and use it to damage the turret when an electrified weapon flew past him. He recognized it as Naruto's sword with a little lightning chakra added to it.

As the weapon struck the turret, Naruto ran up the last of the incline. "Keep running! Its still behind us." he told them and they quickly followed his. His sword was pulled from the damaged turret and returned to his hand.

The door that they had not taken earlier had some kind of shielding over it and Plagueis realized it had been magsealed to prevent them from trying to get into that area of the facility.

Running down the main entrance to the outpost, they soon found themselves in the large depression that they had discovered earlier. Turning around, they heard a heavy panting and found that the Tulrus had indeed managed to follow them.

The beast emerged from the tunnel entrance after smashing through the already damaged doors and they once again saw just how large and intimidating it was. Naruto finally saw the minimal amount of damage he and his clones had managed to inflict upon it and was not liking the current situation. Even his discblade had barely scratched it's tusk. They could climb the wall and leave the creature there, but that would also cut off access to the outpost and leave the droid to do whatever it wanted inside.

Plagueis for his part was forming plans at the same time he was inspecting the specimen in front of him. He had never heard of a Tulrus growing that big nor being so ferocious and powerful. Normally he would want to take such a creature alive but that probably wouldn't be possible. He would have to settle for samples. Juugo was also impressed with the creature but was already activating his bloodline for the coming fight and brandishing his vibroaxe which was borrowed from Suigetsu's collection.

Stamping it's hoof into the ground, which caused a noticeable vibration for them, the Tulrus aimed at Naruto and charged. Pulling out his blaster, Naruto aimed right between the eyes and fired a shot off.

The Tulrus wasn't phased in the least and Naruto turned and ran while the others scattered to get better positions. He pulled out his sword while putting away his blaster and readied it for use.

Running up the wall of the cliff-side, he intended to wait until the bull had smashed into the wall before dropping down and spearing it through the head with his sword but that certainly wasn't what happened. Three meters up the wall, he began to lose his footing as the chakra in his feet failed to stick properly. The heavy impact by the Tulrus into the wall jarred him so much that he fell off.

Just missing the first spike on its head, Naruto landed behind the spike in a backwards seated position. Before he could even use his sword, the creature felt him sitting on it's head and went berserk. It began bucking in the air and charging wildly around the pit area.

Naruto for his part was barely managing to keep himself on the creature. If he fell off he would either be gored by the tusks or trampled by the hooves. Neither of which he wanted so he held on as best as he could.

Firing his kinetic energy weapon at the creature was completely pointless and Plagueis tossed the weapon aside. What he needed, and wanted, was a lightsaber and it was the one thing he didn't have. 'Even a sword would do.' he thought and pushed the idea aside for later.

Juugo was waiting for a moment to use his vibroaxe but the Tulrus was moving so wildly that he couldn't get a chance to use it without putting himself at great risk.

Forming a kinetite in his hand, Plagueis threw the condensed kinetic energy at the creature. The attack struck the side of its body. While the creature howled in pain and was nearly knocked over, it only served to turn its anger towards them. Moving at them at them, Plagueis put both of his hands forward and attempted to stop the animal.

'I can't hold it for long.' he said to the others and Juugo threw the vibroaxe straight at the creatures head, where it imbedded deeply into it. At the same moment, Naruto plunged his sword through the Tulrus's spine at the base of its head right as Plagueis's hold over the creature waned.

The beast swayed slightly before collapsing to the ground. Juugo walked up to the Tulrus and watched it draw in it's last breath before expiring. He could even hear the heart stop beating.

Naruto could feel a profound sadness coming from the orange haired teen and he said nothing as he removed his sword and got off the creatures neck. He'd never encountered such a persistent and tough animal and he did feel that perhaps it was shame to kill it, however he had no idea how to use the Force to tame animals.

Just as Juugo pulled the vibroaxe from the head of the Tulrus, a noise was heard from inside the entrance to the base.

Three sets of eyes turned to the opening and could see the outline of several objects moving down the dark hallway. Naruto pulled his blaster and as soon as one of the droids came out of the tunnel, he opened fire.

The three shots were perfectly aimed but deflected off an energy shield that had formed around the droids. With evident surprise, Naruto and others didn't try and take cover until the droids opened fire on them. Red bolts of plasma nearly hit them as they dove behind the downed animal. The droids stopped shooting but kept moving closer and appeared to be splitting up to move around both sides of the animal.

Naruto unsealed a thermal detonator and, after estimating the positions, he activated the explosive. The small sphere was quickly thrown over the Tulrus body. The blaster bearing head of one of the droids quickly flicked upwards and fired one shot, which struck the thermal detonator, causing it to explode in the air.

The sphere had been far enough away from them that it didn't injure them but Naruto and Juugo could feel the heat that was produced from the explosion. '_It seems these droids are well made and have energy shields, you'll have to use something else_.' Plagueis told his student and Naruto unsealed his other discblade.

Throwing it into the air, the blade spun and changed directions. The droids fire upon it but the shots were deflected off the surface of the discblade. Descending upon the droids, the weapon passed through the energy shield and cut the head off of one of the droids. The discblade arced around and came back to finish off two more of the droids.

Moving to the top of the Tulrus body, Juugo threw his vibroaxe as the last droid. The droid was too distracted by the discblade to attack Juugo and the ax imbedded into its body.

"Do you know what kind of droids those were?" asked Naruto as he had only ever heard his Master speak of a few droids that possessed energy shielding.

'_Considering that its a Republic outpost, they must have been standard droids used for defending the facility. That however is contradicting as shielded droids are incredibly expensive nowadays and I don't think the Republic would have used such droids in this remote area of the galaxy. We'll have to examine them later._' Plagueis concluded and soon returned to the situation at hand.

'_I need to get into the room at the end of the hallway_.' he informed his student and Naruto loosed his discblade again. The circular weapon moved down the outpost entrance, elevated in the air, and smashed into a glass window that overlooked the hallway intersection.

Plagueis moved down the hallway and Force jumped into the room while Naruto and Juugo followed him to the intersection.

Scanning over the room, Plagueis chose a terminal and sought to gain access to the stations mainframe. He expected to have interference from the droid but initially found none. This aroused his suspicions and searching through the facility, he found out why that was the case.

The assassin droid had created a small army of droids similar to him as well as a new body. The group was headed through the storage area level straight to the lift that would take them to their level. Twelve identical droids led by a slightly differently looking HK-47.

Accessing other systems, he tried to gain control of the lift and get it to raise to their level in order to keep the droids stuck in the lower areas of the facility. His efforts however failed as the droid had locked him out from those systems.

There was no way he could stop the droids from coming up the lift.

'_There are thirteen battle droids heading our way and I can't stop them. We may need to retreat from the facility and fight them from the high-ground at the entrance_.' Suggested Plagueis and he moved to the broken window.

"Don't bother..." Naruto said as he began to go through seals for a summoning jutsu, "...I've got a present for that damn droid."

x-x

The firing on the rock ceased and the three ships waited for the dust to settle.

Looking over the new exit, the shuttle went first and slowly moved forward as it navigated the tunnel. It was a close fit but the shuttle eventually reached the surface. The side wings lowered and it took of on a heading toward where Naruto and the others were.

The two starfighters followed right behind and easily passed through the tunnel side by side. Once on the surface, they both took off in the same direction and the faster, more maneuverable ships quickly outstripped the shuttle.

x-x

Though he needed to get to the barracks in order to get a suitable weapon, his droids were well equipped. The twelve droids were made different enough from his design to make them distinguishable from him as he didn't want there to be other copies of himself.

The biggest difference between them was the fact that the twelve droids didn't have hands. Where the forearms and articulating digits should have been on each droid was a high powered blaster rifle attached at the elbow joint. They would be more than enough to deal with the spacers.

About a 30 meters from the lift, the droid's auditory sensors picked up a strange noise. It sounded like something tumbling. An object then came hurtling out of the lift tunnel like a rolling barrel. His identification software determined the objects to be an escape pod and he moved before his battle droids even identified the incoming threat. Jumping to the containers, his hands managed to grab hold of the edge of the tallest stacked container and he watched as the rolling escape pod smashed through his HK-77s. The pod continued to roll until it eventually impacted with some containers at the farther end of the room.

Looking to the lift, his vision zoomed in on a figure sliding down the lift and stopping on the lift platform. The figure was already brandishing a blaster.

Putting his feet against he surface of the container, the droid pushed himself off and avoided two blaster shots. Flipping through the air, HK landed on the ground on all fours and continued to dodge blaster fire from the Meatbag as it moved for cover.

While the room was filled with crates, there were several walkways between rows and it hid in one of those. Assessing the situation, HK grabbed one of his fallen droids and pulled it closer to him. Grasping his right forearm, he twisted and unlocked the mechanism to remove his arm. Moving to the 77 model, he did the same with its blaster rifle arms and fitted the new appendage to his stump.

'Inner thought: Now the hunt begins, Meatbag.'

x-x

Using the escape pod, which was still filled with their scrolls, may not have been the best idea but the results were more than acceptable. The small army the droid had managed to somehow amass was now incapacitated and he was left searching for HK-47.

Juugo had come down the lift after him and hopefully the droid had not seen his group member. The teen was heading along the opposite side of the huge room and towards the droid maintenance room which was down the adjoining hallway and not that far away. He had given Juugo a mental image of what he was to look for in the room and acquire for him. It was the best plan he could come up with to not destroy the droid completely and leave it in working order or as close to working order as he could.

He wasn't sure he wanted to destroy HK-47. Something about the droid was familiar or at least he always imagined himself with an old assassin droid by his side like some of the stories that Plagueis had told him featured.

Extending his senses out did nothing as the droid was not a living creature and, despite being entirely made of metal, the droid didn't seem to produce audible footfalls as he thought it should have. The reddish-orange droid should be clanking around but it certainly wasn't.

'It must have some kind of sound dampening field for it's feet.' he thought and moved down through one of the walkways between containers. Coming to the end of a container and an intersection of walkways, his eyes widened right before a fist struck out and hit him in the face.

He was thrown backward by the powerful blow and smacked against a metal container. Before he could do anything to recover, a plasma bolt entered his forehead.

"Statement: One Meatbag down, two to go." said the droid as it lowered its blaster arm. It was almost too easy and he half expected a more interesting battle from the Meatbag. Turning around, it was about to walk away when it heard a sound from the Meatbag. Turning back, it found an HK-77 with a hole burned through it's head instead of the Meatbag.

The droid multitasked as it searched its surroundings for the now elusive Meatbag while also running diagnostics on its photoreceptor and recognition software. It had shot the Meatbag, it was sure of it. Even it's memories verified that but the lack of a correct body defied its logic.

x-x

Laying on top of a container, Naruto glanced below at the droid as it searched for him. He opened and closed his mouth as he tested out his jaw. The droid had clocked him good but now he had the advantage.

Taking aim, he targeting the droids joints and got of two shots before the droid moved behind another crate for cover. Both shots had hit, one in the pelvis joint and once in the shoulder. He thought those shots would immobilize it but that was not that case. His blaster had been giving him a less than stellar performance all day.

Putting the blaster away, he decided to try and use some jutsu.

x-x

The shuttle landed inside the depression near the dead body of the Tulrus. The two starfighters continued to fly overhead but they would soon land as well.

Seeing the destroyed droids and the dead creature, the demon brothers ran ahead of the clones and entered the facility without hesitation. They found Plagueis just inside the facility and went down with him in the inclined lift shaft to the lower levels.

'_There is a droid that needs to be dealt with_.' Plagueis told them and they acknowledged the order.

x-x

The lights automatically came on as Juugo entered the droid maintenance area. Searching through drawers, cabinets and even on some of the droids that were in the room, Juugo sought to find the small device Naruto had sent him after. The image of it was still in his mind and he tried to match the items he was seeing.

Naruto was sure that they would be in the room and he wouldn't stop until he found one. Opening the next cabinet, he found a container full of what he was after. Taking one of the small black objects out, he ran back to the storage room.

x-x

Methodically, HK searched the tops of the stacked containers as it slowly moved on and kept itself from being in an exposed position again. Its damage was minimal but it now knew not to let its guard down. Going over possible strategies, it debated about taunting the Meatbag or perhaps trying to unnerve it by talking. The current Meatbag, however, was quite different from common Meatbags. It didn't believe such tactics would work.

It still had no idea how it had been tricked into shooting its own droid when it clearly saw hit and fired upon the Meatbag. The only conclusion was that the Meatbag could use the Force. This was not much of a problem though. He had vague memories of fighting Force users and knew they could be killed. Taking his time and waiting for the right moment would certainly make the hunt enjoyable.

x-x

Waiting in ambush, Naruto began going through seals for an earth jutsu that would hopefully immobilize the droid.

The moment the seals were finished, he came out from behind his hiding place and instantly knew it had been a mistake. He thought the droid's back would be to him but it was looking right at him. The droid didn't hesitate and fired a shot at him before he could get out of the way.

He felt a searing heat on the side of his cheek from where the plasma bolt had passed near his head. Acting quickly, he tried to make the most of the situation.

x-x

HK quickly rounded the corner with blaster rifle-arm drawn but found no Meatbag. Walking forward, the droid calculated the probability of the Meatbag taking one of the different escape vectors that the area provided.

The Meatbag was acting strangely again. Coming out from behind a hiding spot with no weapon was a difficult strategy for it to comprehend. What had the Meatbag been up to? Perhaps it was not truly the foe he initially believed it to be.

Determining the most likely route that the Meatbag took, he was about to pursue when his senses noted a disturbance. Situated near him on a container was a piece of paper that was sparking. The inexplicable explosion that followed did little damage to his armor but knocked him off balance.

Naruto was quick to capitalize and with one swing of his sword, had taken off the droid's weapon arm. He was however unprepared for the droids recovery and speed. The droids knee smashed into him and he was backhanded with the good arm.

By the time he looked up, the droid was already upon him. Sticking out his open palm, he Force pushing the droid back. HK impacted a container but quickly responded by kicking the severed part of its arm at the Meatbag. The desperate act worked and it allowed the droid a chance to escape.

Naruto deflected the piece of blaster-arm and gave pursuit. Rounding a container corner, he found an empty corridor leading through the various rows of containers. On full alert, Naruto felt for any disturbances. The droid couldn't have just vanished.

His eyes looked all around as he surveyed the area. 'He could be hiding down the next walkway or hiding above me.' Naruto thought and cautiously began walking. He could feel through their connection that his Master was getting close to his position.

Situated flat against the top surface of the container, HK waited for the Meatbag to move past. His new and more agile body was able to do far more than his old one ever could. It was the first time he could design it himself and he knew everything he wanted.

Slowly getting into a crouched position on top of the container, and making almost no sound, HK pushed off the surface with strength his body couldn't achieve and landed some distance away. His landing was perfect and with the sound dampening system he had added, the Meatbag wouldn't have been able to hear him. Moving on a parallel course to the Meatbag, he calculated when they would intercept. Activating his infrared vision, he quickly found the Meatbags heat signature and quickly moved for a surprise attack.

He thought about going after another blaster-arm from one of the damaged 77s but decided he wanted to finish the Meatbag as soon as possible. Even with one arm, he was still dangerous.

x-x

Time was almost up and he had somehow managed to lose the droid in the grid-like maze of the containers. It seemed foolish but a part of him was pleased. This droid seemed far more capable than most other assassin droids his Master had ever told him about in his history lessons. Possible better than all the other droids.

Acting on instinct, he swung his sword behind him but his forearm was caught by the droid. Its red photoreceptors glowed and before he could pull his blaster or any other weapon, his forearm was broken by the droid's grip.

Gritting his teeth, he dropped his sword and was kicked in the chest. Before he could get to his feet, his arms were both pinned to the ground by the droids knee and he looked up to see the droid looming over him with his own sword.

Looking down at the Meatbag, HK said, "Statement: This is the end Meatbag. The energy field you call the Force won't help you now." Looking to its good hand, it admired the weapon. "Observation: What an interesting weapon. I shall keep it and use it in the future to dispatch other Meatbags, after I test it out on you of course."

Moving the sword back for a thrust, Naruto began smiling at the droid despite the pain he was in. The droid stopped in its execution, "Confusion: Your facial expression does not fit the current situation, Meatbag. Question: Why won't you show me any fear?"

"How do you feel about restraining bolts?" Naruto asked the droid's head tilted slightly before it heard something behind him. Turning to see the possible new threat, a small black restraining bolt instantly struck HK's head with a thunk.

Standing on top of some containers almost ten meters away, Juugo sighed in relief that the throw had hit the droid dead on and that the device was so easy to use.

"Stand." Naruto ordered and HK complied, though reluctantly. Moving away from the killer droid, Naruto used his good arm to pull himself into a seated position with his back against a container. Juugo jumped down a moment later and began helping him to his feet while Plagueis and the demon brothers arrived moments later.

The red photoreceptors seemed to glare at them as they all stood and looked at the immobilized droid.

Noting his student's injuries, Plagueis was confused about how Naruto could allow a droid to injure him so much. He tried to think of a valid reason why Naruto would hold back and use a restraining bolt but the only answer he could come up with was not one that he liked. The droid was far more trouble than it was worth to them. It had already plotted and tried to kill most of their group.

Without thinking, Plagueis began speaking to the droid in Mustafarian, "_With this facility and the ship in our possession, you are of no use or value to us. You're far to dangerous to be left functioning_."

While the others were confused about what Plagueis had said in the buzzing language, HK quickly responded in Galactic basic, "Statement: Meatbags before you have said similar statements, and yet I continue to survive."

It was at that moment that Naruto had an idea of how to get Plagueis to keep the droid, "I think we should keep him." he stated his opinion and baited his Master.

'_Do you have some penchant for adding individuals that have tried to kill you to our group?_' Plagueis asked and continued, '_The droid is far too insane and I don't see a purpose for him_.'

"When you were speaking Mustafarian, it didn't have a problem translating you and responding back. I do remember you saying that we needed a protocol droid." Naruto countered.

"Exclamation: I am not a protocol droid, incompetent Meatbag." said the droid and all those around it could tell that it wanted to attack Naruto at that moment. Luckily the restraining bolt kept it from moving or acting on its murderous thoughts.

'_I'd have to agree with the droid_.' stated Plagueis.

"Well, he's just a protocol droid that can defend himself. Sounds good to me. I wouldn't want to keep getting a new protocol droid every time we get in a dicey situation and it gets destroyed. Plus others would think he is a protocol droid and underestimate him. I'd say he's a very 'functional' or 'aggressive' protocol droid and an excellent addition to the group. I don't see any other places to find a protocol droid before we get to Tatooine and I might need one." explained Naruto and Plagueis's eyes narrowed slightly.

He had informed Naruto that he would not be taking part in the weapons negotiation. Naruto would be dealing with the Hutts on his own. However, now his student was trying to coerce him to keep the droid in a manner that a civilian child would convince a parent to keep a small animal.

"_What are all of your functions?_" Plagueis asked of the droid in Mustafarian.

"Statement: My primary function is to burn holes through Meatbags like you."

"_How wonderful, can you still translate a variety of common galactic languages?_" Plagueis inquired.

"Reluctant statement: Yes."

Plagueis thought about his decision for a moment. What the droid needed was a good memory wipe, that however would remove many of the components that made the droid so resilient. The droid had managed to survive for quite a long time and continued to do so as it had said. Having a protocol droid's software in the memory wiped body of an assassin droid was not a better alternative to keeping the droid how it was.

'I could alter his programming so we wouldn't need the restraining bolt.' Plagueis thought and made his decision with a single nod to his student.

Naruto merely smiled a devious smile and turned to the droid, "Congratulations HK-47, you were just forced to joined our group."

"Sarcasm: Oh joy, the short Meatbag says I can stay. Declaration: I refuse to have another Master or refer to you as such." stated the droid and Naruto's eye twitched at the 'short' statement.

"That's fine. I don't want anyone to call me Master. I also didn't want to keep you so you could be my slave. I wanted to keep you because you're useful but you'll only be burning holes through the Meatbags that I tell you to burn holes through. There is a semblance of command structure in the group and you're just at the bottom of it." Naruto told the droid and the two stared at each other for several seconds.

Plagueis was already halfway to the lift when Naruto realized that he and the others were leaving. Their only priority had been repairing the _Vulture_ but the situations and subsequent circumstances for their group never seemed to get dull or easy. Everything up until that point was more of a struggle than he had ever dealt with before. What he really needed was to meditate and figure out what to do next.

When they got outside, Plagueis was surprised to find a large shuttle and two starfighters. He didn't actually know how the demon brothers had managed to get there so fast. Looking towards the dead Tulrus, he began forming an idea.

Despite their favorable position with the discovery of the warship and outpost, they might still need some help with their ship as well as salvaging the pirate ship for parts.

x-x

Jedi Temple, Coruscant

x-x

"Something else you have to add, Master Qui-gon?" asked Master Yoda to the Jedi Master standing before him in the council meeting room. The green creature looked intently at him and knew that something else had yet to be said. Obi-wan was about to leave but stopped to see what his Master might have to say. They had just given their entire investigation report to the Jedi council members and to the best of his knowledge, nothing had been left out.

Qui-gon took a few moments to gather his thoughts before admitting, "There was something that I left out of the submitted report. I felt it wouldn't be a good idea to let anyone else know."

After receiving a nod from Master Yoda, he quickly continued. "During the course of the investigation, I came to an additional conclusion that I could not verify nor did I want to include in the report. The evidence and circumstances pointed me towards the possibility that the Directors death may have had to do with the Tessents." Qui-gon revealed and feelings of skepticism washed over the room. Yoda however did not judge Qui-gon's words. If anything, he seemed more curious. They all knew about the infamous objects known as the Tessent.

"And you didn't include that in the report because of the ensuing chaos it would cause." Stated Master Windu and Qui-gon nodded while adding, "I felt it would cause treasure seekers to flood into the area and cause problems for the skyhook and researchers."

"What proof do you have?" asked Master Sifo-Dyas.

"Only bits of evidence that could be taken in any light." answered Qui-gon.

"What does the Force tell you, hmm?" inquired Yoda.

"Only that far more went on there then our investigation could uncover." Qui-gon answered truthfully.

"Mystery it is. Then wait we shall, to see if the infamous statues are returned. Those that return it may be the killers you sought." stated Master Yoda and everyone knew that the meeting was concluded.

x-x

Naruto watched from the seat of his new starfighter as Plagueis took off on the shuttle. Plagueis was traveling to the Mustafarian city of Fralideja to meet with the other Mustafarians. His Master had told him to put a summoning seal on the Tulrus body and to have one clone board the shuttle. Apparently the Tulrus would be an offering to the Mustafarian people to get in their good graces.

With the acceptance of the offering, they would ask for help from the natives to fix their ship. Though not a space-faring race, Plagueis believed they were quite capable of repairing the ship for them, which saved him the trouble of doing it by himself. The ship certainly wasn't beyond repair but what repairs it needed were quite extensive and slightly beyond what he was capable of by himself. Even with his clones, it might take a week or more to fix the hull breech and other systems while scavenging the pirate ship for needed parts and materials. With the help of the Mustafarians, it might only take a few days and they could be underway in a brief amount of time. This was likely what Plagueis was really after, leaving the planet to arrive at Tatooine as soon as possible, which still made little sense to him.

He doubted his Master had determined what to do with the warship or base yet, or even the droid that had tried so hard to kill them. His own thoughts were a jumble as he started up the starfighter and prepared to take off.

The outpost was full of building supplies and had a small working droid factory. The entire structure was an incredible resource, however they had no plans to stay on Mustafar for a long period of time.

The starship flew over the desolate landscape and he headed for the crashed warship. He would need to switch to the other shuttle and take it back to the hideout to bring others with him, if they wanted to go. Plagueis had also requested a few items and he would need to fetch them.

Carefully guiding the ship into the hangar of the crashed ship, he grit his teeth as the pain from his injuries was flaring up. His adrenaline had worn off and now he was feeling his broken arm and other wounds. It was surprising that they were giving him as much trouble as they were but he believed it was a result of cutting himself off from the Kyuubi. His body just didn't heal like it used to.

Docking in the slanted ship, a few of his remaining clones helped him out of the starship and took him to the other shuttle where another clone already had the ship powered up and ready to go. He was eased into a seat as the ship took off and he knew it would be only moments before he was at the hideout.

He reminded himself that the escape pod he had so brazenly used as a steamroller would have to be summoned back to the base and that their precious scrolls were still inside it.

'Perhaps I should stop and see Kabuto about my injuries.' he thought and waited patiently for the ship to land.

x-x

Plagueis decided to land the shuttle a good distance away from the city. The demon brothers informed him of where the sentries and scouts were around the city and they avoided them as best as possible by flying extremely low.

Walking to the village by foot, he planned to talk with the village leader as well as the village council. His host was not very popular or well liked among but he would broker arrangements between the natives and his group. Naruto would represent their group and in exchange for the Tulrus, they would garner the help of the Mustafarians.

The creature was huge and would likely feed a portion of the villagers. The natives also used every part of such creatures so nothing was wasted and every part of the Tulrus would be useful to them. Such a gift would certainly help their standing and elevate their status as more than just off-worlders. In exchange for the creature, they would ask for help with their ship and access to the Mustafarians metal forges.

During their battle with the creature, he found he was lacking an effective means for fighting. The simple fact was, he needed a weapon. Something that was powerful and that would strike down his foes but also something that was also balanced and dependable. Now that he had useable body, it was a waste not to make full use of it. He may not have all of his Force powers but he was no longer waiting on others to do things for him like he was with Gato as his host.

With his students lack of chakra control, and the likely fact that they would encounter more trouble in the future, he needed something to defend his new body and help fight alongside the group. Without any means or resources to create a lightsaber at the present, he therefore decided to follow his students example and create a Sith sword. Naruto's sword had shown to be quite dependable and although it didn't possess the means of deflecting blaster bolts as well as a lightsaber could, it was still a formidable weapon with its own advantages.

He wanted one and he had wanted one for quite a while.

The memories from when Naruto had constructed one were still in his mind and had never left and he always held on to the secret desire to make such such a weapon for himself. Ever since he first learned about the Sith swords from the texts he had. Naruto had already promised to make a sword for Suigetsu and with the Mustafarians helping to fix their ship, they would have the time to do it.

Along with gathering the others, Naruto was currently retrieving everything they would need to get to work at the forge.

x-x

As soon as the shuttle landed on the stations landing platform, Naruto headed directly for the infirmary while his clones did the rest.

From his connection, he could already tell that his clones were talking with the others. They didn't have to go anywhere and could stay at the station but he already knew that Suigetsu would want to come with them.

Coming to the infirmary door, he could feel both Kabuto and someone else inside. He believed the other person was Gato and was surprised that the short man was still alive. Opening the door, he found an already smiling Kabuto looking right at him.

'Maybe he can somehow detect that I'm injured?' thought Naruto at the devious smirk which spoke of Kabuto already knowing why he was there. He already had a feeling that Kabuto would have no interest in going to see the Mustafarian city so he didn't bother asking.

"I have to leave soon so I need to be patched up fast." ordered Naruto and the smile on Kabuto's face only grew. Getting a bad feeling, he decided to push it aside in favor of getting healed and managed to get himself up onto the exam table while Kabuto readied some items nearby.

Turning around, Kabuto had an entire tray of different instruments and items, "Its been so long since someone was injured that I haven't gotten a chance to test out most of these amazing new devices and medical materials that are now at my disposal." commented Kabuto and began a medical ninjutsu to determine all of Naruto's wounds.

Naruto for his part went quite pale at the look of a few of the instruments that Kabuto was planning to use on him. Deciding to take his mind off of what was in store for him, he glanced around the room. The first thing he saw was an unconscious Gato on the other operating table.

"Is he going to make it?" Naruto questioned as Kabuto prepared a few items to make a plasto-cast for his broken arm and then set about setting the broken bones.

"I believe he should make a recovery though I can't say if he will ever be the same person he was. I also don't know what kind of person he was to begin with so whose to say how he will turn out when he wakes up in the next few days." Kabuto explained while spraying a temporary cast on his broken forearm.

'Really?' Naruto thought and his mind wandered on the possibilities.

Kabuto noted his patients distraction and took advantage of the opportunity. The only person in the galaxy to have both the small organisms known as midi-chlorians and chakra just happened to be injured and sitting on his infirmary table. Taking one blood sample for standard analysis, he took a second blood sample for his own purposes.

Though Plagueis had forbade him from trying to experiment with midi-chlorians, that did not mean that he could not take samples from Naruto in order to study them without tampering with the sample.

x-x

Attaching the needed scroll to the back of his belt, Naruto followed the others down the ramp. Getting used to the new cast on his arm wasn't that difficult and Kabuto told him it would be easy to take off in a day or so when his arm fully healed.

He had piloted the ship and set it down right next to the one Plagueis had taken. Along with him, everyone but Kabuto and Deefour had come. Despite knowing Kabuto's likely answer, he still asked anyway right before he left and Kabuto claimed he had 'important work' to look into. Deefour also couldn't make the trip because of the rugged terrain.

Considering the others in his current party had already scouted the city, he stayed at the back of the group as he tried to extend his senses while they led the way. The city was supposed to have 20,000 Mustafarians but he was still out of range. Karin could likely feel them but he would have to wait.

The city of Fralideja eventually came into view and was constructed in a canyon slightly reminiscent of the one that their ship had crashed in, only much narrower. The Mustafarians had built their entire city in the canyon walls where tunnel systems were hollowed out by creatures that used to live in the area.

The unique city offered them protection if an eruption occurred because the resulting lava flows, should they flow through the area, couldn't reach their dwellings and would flow right by them. The dwellings themselves were both inside and partially outside the rock face. The visible saucer shaped sections that covered the canyon walls reminded him of pieces of fungus growing at the bottom of a tree. It was possible that the structures even mimicked some type of fungus present on the planet. Long trails of steam came from several areas along the cliff face.

Their observations soon ended as they were accosted by multiple Mustafarians, both northerners and southerners. They could tell they were being watched for quite some time but the city patrol had waited until they were closer before making themselves known. Though not hostile, it was made obvious by the weapons and armor that they weren't supposed to try anything while they were guests. A few of the Mustafarians motioned for them to follow and they didn't hesitate.

'Hopefully Plagueis has already worked out an arrangement.' Naruto thought and they walked to a nearby part of the cliff face that was actually a long staircase that led to an entrance to the dwellings they could see.

Once they were up the long staircase, they proceeded through a system of caves until they reached a makeshift lift that took them even higher into the canyon wall. The lift shaft was open on at least one side the entire way up and they viewed many levels of the city before the lift came to a stop.

They were met by more guards and their escorts changed to the new guards who led down a tunnel that ended in two large doors. An additional guard was stationed at either side of the doors. One of them brought his staff weapon off the ground and then slammed it back down, which apparently alerted someone on the other side of the door that they should open it.

Through the doors, the tunnel gave way to a good sized cavern. The cavern appeared to be a meeting room with two rows of carved tables in the shape of parabola. Naruto could feel that each seat was filled and glow lights illuminated part of the room. As they entered, Naruto felt Plagueis, Juugo, and the demon brothers standing not far away. The first thing he spotted was actually HK-47 as the droid's coloring was a stark contrast to the dark rock of the room.

With almost every member of their group standing before the gathered council, Plagueis began speaking in the buzzing language of the natives. Only the crazed droid knew what was being said but it had not been asked to translate by any member of their group. Naruto could feel the emotions of the room and everything seemed to be in their favor. No one seemed hostile towards their presence, but perhaps nonchalant.

Soon all eyes turned away from Plagueis's host and towards the rest of them. One of the older looking Mustafarians began speaking directly to them. Naruto turned to HK and told the droid to translate.

"Translation: Normally we the Mustafarians do not attempt to get to know off-worlders. Our only contact with any off-worlders are the Techno Union and that is for business. We were therefore surprised by your offering. It is most welcome. Such a large Tulrus has never been seen or recorded in our history. No part of the creature will go to waste. Chivos informs us that you wish to use the Tulrus to bargain for the repair of your vessel and the use of one of our forges for a day?" the droid translated and Naruto assumed that Chivos was Plagueis's new host.

"That is correct." he answered but didn't know the name of the person he was speaking to so he left out any address or title as well. He was about to have HK translate when he realized that the Mustafarians easily understood him.

More buzzing continued, but shorter than the last statement, and HK again translated.

"Translation: Then we are in agreement. If your ship is brought here and the replacement parts supplied as Chivos bargained, then we will repair it and you shall have the use of a forge for one day."

"I thank you." said Naruto with a slight bow which was far from his usual demeanor and he could tell that the others of their group were surprised by it.

The Mustafarians all nodded as well and the same native began speaking again. Naruto assumed he must be the village leader or person in power.

"Translation:" began the droid again and Naruto could tell it was getting agitated. If the restraining bolt was not there, HK would have likely already killed someone in the room, "Since you brought such a creature to us, we would like to invite all of you to a feast to celebrate the kill. You may stay the night and the agreement will be fulfilled in the morning."

"We accept the invitation. Your generosity is most welcome." responded Naruto and everyone in the room began getting up from their seats, likely heading to wherever the banquet was to be held.

x-x

"I'm full." complained Karin from her mat. They had been given a small room to stay in and simple mats to sleep on. Naruto and the others were also feeling the same way. Less than an hour before, he had eaten the biggest steak he had ever seen before.

Everyone was quite tired so he applied detection seals outside of their room to make sure they weren't attacked or double-crossed in the night. HK was ordered to power down and left in one corner of the room so it wouldn't try to remove the restraining bolt in the night and perhaps try to kill them.

Naruto's eyes soon widened as the seals activated but he calmed down as he felt his Master heading towards them. Given that Plagueis was still playing the part of Chivos, the Mustafarian, they had been separated after the banquet.

Plagueis used a mind trick on the guards just down the hallway and gained access to their room. Naruto managed to sit up, despite his full stomach and the others just decided to listen. Sitting in the center of the room, Plagueis began speaking to them, '_Everything seems to be going well. We will be able to use the forge in the morning but there are still a few concerns to worry about. They are quite superstitious and you can't let them see you summoning the ship. I had your clone summon the Tulrus to the shuttle and they took it in pieces back to the city. If they witness any of you using chakra, then it could cause definite problems. Did you bring the materials I asked fo?_'

Naruto tilted his head to the wall and Plagueis saw the scroll there with the metal and tools inside to make the swords. Plagueis nodded and was silent as Naruto began asking a question that he had wanted to ask since before the banquet, "What are we going to do with the warship and outpost?"

The interest of the others was perked and Plagueis thought over an answer. '_I'm not completely sure. I wanted to be on Tatooine by now. Both discoveries should be quite useful but I don't think we can do anything with them at this point in time._'

"I've been thinking about it as well, and I think I have an idea." said Naruto and he waited to see if Plagueis was interested. A slight nod told him that he should continue and he did, "I was thinking that we could get the help of the Mustafarians to repair the warship as well."

Everyone in the room was quite surprised by his words and Plagueis soon countered, '_And how exactly will you get them to do that? My influence and the Force can only go so far unless you want me to try and put the entire council under mind control. If that is not the case then you would need something to give them in return. You'd have to kill every creature on Tulrus island for them to give us that much help_.'

"Actually I thought about that as well. You told me that the Mustafarians had no qualms about exploiting this planet, correct?" said Naruto as he asked for clarification.

'_Yes, they would love nothing more than to exploit this world to the fullest._' answered Plagueis and Naruto was quick to get his idea out, "Then why don't we help them do that."

Despite no change in the Mustafarians face, Naruto could tell that Plagueis was lifting an unseen eyebrow at the statement. "And how the hell do you plan to do that?" questioned Tayuya from across the room. Though not part of the conversation, she was still quite curious and wanted an answer.

"They want to exploit their world but the only resource they have is the minerals that are mined from certain lava flows. We have an entire unfinished outpost full of building supplies and various droids as well as construction equipment. I thought perhaps we would build them a mining facility instead of completing the outpost. They would be able to man and operate the facility with the help of droids." explained Naruto and the others were quite silent, none more so that Plagueis as he thought about what his student was saying.

The plan did have merit but he could discern a few flaws, '_That kind of plan would take quite a while to implement and I don't think any of you, or myself for that matter, wants to stay on the planet for months while such a facility is built. I plan to leave for Tatooine as soon as possible. Do you have someone in mind from our group that is willing to stay behind and protect our interests?_" Plagueis asked with a bit of sarcasm.

"Yes, I do." quickly answered Naruto without an hesitation. His feelings were not however shared by the listening group. Concern and worry spread throughout the small room.

'_And whom have you chosen?_' inquired Plagueis as he himself tried to figure out a possible answer to the question.

"Gato." Naruto simply answered with a smirk and Plagueis was left slightly stunned. '_He's still alive?_' Plagueis questioned and Naruto nodded while adding, "Kabuto believes he will recover from your possession. He managed to create a successful shipping business and had many illegal dealings without getting caught on Ibonihs."

'_And what about the warship? I believe it is in need of fuel in addition to the repair work that is needed. That would also take some time to fix._' stated Plagueis as he presented his student with another valid point.

"The outpost has fuel for the ship. Its in containers inside the facility. I left a few clones to continue looking around. Based on what my clones learned about the ship. It might be able to takeoff and operate again." explained Naruto.

'_Despite having droids and droid construction capabilities, the supplies in the outpost are for an outpost, not a mining facility. You would need shielding against the temperatures and other technology that likely isn't in that storage area._' explained Plagueis and he waited to see what Naruto would say.

"Would that kind of technology be the same technology that is currently in use on your hideout?" asked Naruto and Plagueis looked at him dubiously.

'_You want to cannibalize my facility to build a mining facility?_' Plagueis asked with some disbelief.

"You already control the facility and the communications. If after it was deconstructed and a signal was sent that it had a 'catastrophic systems failure', there would be nothing left for Sidious to find. You said it yourself that the outpost was well hidden. I don't think he would find it or even look for it." countered Naruto and Plagueis acknowledged that the idea was doable.

'_What about the mined material? We don't have anyone to sell it to or a way to transport it off the planet. The Mustafarians also wouldn't be interested in money. They would want technology in return for running the mining facility_.' explained Plagueis to his student.

"...I haven't worked that out yet. We would have time though." admitted Naruto and though it was a problem, Plagueis acknowledged that his student had definitely thought most of the plan through and worked out the majority of problems. Even if the plan didn't work out, they would still have a huge facility and the warship.

Taking some time to go over numerous calculations in his mind, Plagueis decided to test his student and asked, '_And you're sure that all of this can be done or arranged in just a few days?_'

"We're already on their good side and most of the arrangements don't seem to be that difficult. The ship would take a while before it would be ready but the mining facility would be easier to build. The Mustafarians seem quite capable. Many of them already work or have vast knowledge of mining and they may not require much convincing if they want to exploit their planet more than they already are. You're also still in control of Gato, so unless I'm missing something else that you've thought about" answered a calm Naruto and Plagueis was satisfied with the answer.

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Sitting at one of the Mustafarian forges, Naruto wiped the sweat off his brow and began unsealing all of the items that he would need. Their sleep in the city was uneventful and Plagueis had already completed a Sith sword for himself. The sword didn't require any chakra metal but used up a good portion of the other metals they had left.

Naruto had been in the forge since the early morning and spent several hours watching his Master work on the weapon. The longsword that his Master had created was quite amazing though he expected no less as he knew Plagueis had gone over the rituals and researched them much more than he had. The handle had been wrapped with the hide from a Tulrus that had been provided by the Mustafarians and the blade was mostly black with a purple blood grove running down the center. It had no real blade guard but Plagueis likely didn't need one. They had no idea what its abilities might be as Naruto had to seal up the sword right after Plagueis was finished. The last thing they needed was for Chivos to be seen acting strangely and creating weapons.

Plagueis's host would need to keep acting normally until they could meet with the council again and put forth their plans. After that, Plagueis could just ask to go with the new business partners and be more of a representative of Mustafarian interests while Gato would be their representative and remain on the planet.

Naruto's careful preparation of materials was once again interrupted by Suigetsu who had changed his mind about the sword several times already and for each sword design that Suigetsu envisions, he kept changing his mind about the actual look. "Maybe it should be a nodachi...no maybe just a zanbato...I liked the stuff Master Plagueis used for a handle..." and Naruto eventually tuned him out as he finished preparing the items.

He already knew what the sword would look like and had an idea of what abilities the sword might have when it was finished. The base material would likely decided that and he unsealed the final piece of metal that he had been holding onto for quite some time.

Suigetsu instantly shut up at the sight of the piece of metal. Being from Kiri, he instantly recognized it, even if it was only a piece of the original sword. "How the fuck did you get a piece of Kubikiribocho?"

"In Wave Country I fought Momochi Zabuza and cut off the top third of his zanbato with my ninjato."

"Holy shit, you fought Zabuza-sempai?!" commented Suigetsu and Naruto simply nodded as he looked at the piece of sword. After the fight with the Seven swordsman was over, he had used a water jutsu to hide his presence as he left but not before retrieving the piece from the bottom of the ocean.

He believed it would one day come in handy and once he remembered that he had it sealed away, he knew it would make up a good portion of the metal for Suigetsu's sword. Given the special abilities associated with Kubikrikibocho, he felt confident that at least some of the ability would transfer to the new sword he would make.

Taking out some chakra metal and durasteel, he placed them into a large crucible and asked Suigetsu for some blood. The Kiri ninja agreed and had to concentrate not to turn into water, allowing Naruto's ninjato to cut his hand. Once the blood was added, Naruto put the crucible into the forge to melt the metal and began the chanting for the ritual which would speed up the process in addition to melting the metal at a much lower temperature.

For the time being, Suigetsu simply sat back and watched. The heat was making him to tired to question what Naruto was doing.

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When the metal was ready, Naruto took it out of the forge and poured it into a simple form that he had created. The form would lessen a great deal of his work as the sword would be quite large when it was done. He planned for it to be smaller than Zabuza's but have a similar shape. Suigetsu had trained with some of the seven swords from Kiri and something similar to Kubikiribocho would likely fit Suigetsu better than anything else.

Once the form was cooled, he would take the metal out and begin shaping the blade. After the blade was finished, he would then have to create the handle and work on the other parts.

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Pulling the unfinished blade from the forge with tongs, Suigetsu struggled with the massive piece of metal but managed to get it over to the anvil. While Suigetsu moved the piece of metal, Naruto hammered in the shape and continued the ritual. Suigetsu also poured his chakra into the metal while Naruto poured the Force into the hammer.

Both boys were quite tired already but the process couldn't be stopped and picked up another day. It was all or nothing.

Looking up from the tongs, Suigetsu found Naruto had gone into another trance as the hammer rose and fall, shaping the metal. He could tell the end result would be a zanbato and from the look of it, he was greatly pleased. A few of the features he didn't understand but Naruto apparently knew what he was doing or at least the 'Force' was telling him how to shape the sword, 'Whatever the hell that means.' Suigetsu thought and Naruto soon stopped hammering, which was his cue to lug the metal back to the forge.

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"I need you to fill the trough with water, preferably from a water jutsu." Naruto demanded and the tired Kiri ninja gave him a dull look.

"Your gonna kill me from dehydration." he commented but Naruto just remarked, "Do you want me to finish the sword or not."

Sighing, Suigetsu went through seals and spit a stream of water into the trough. The blade was apparently completed but still in the forge and needed to be placed in water for quenching. Once the trough was filled, Naruto helped Suigetsu with the blade and they dropped it into the water.

The water sizzled and boiled from the heat of the metal. When the steam had cleared, the trough was strangely empty except for the blue and black blade. The water had all disappeared. While Suigetsu found it slightly strange, Naruto believed that he had succeeded in his creation and the blade would work how he intended it to.

"Pick up the blade and set it aside for now, we need to make the handle, the vibration technology components, and the attachment assembly so it fits with the blade like Zabuza's did." ordered Naruto as he began unsealing a few of the materials he needed.

Suigetsu drank the last bit of his bottled water and heft the blade up. He would have been lying if he said he wasn't immensely satisfied with how it looked. The blade had two semicircles cut into it for decapitating or severing of limbs and an additional handhold on the back of the blade. He wasn't sure why it had all of those features but he would have to test it out when it was finished to find out what it could do.

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Closing his eyes and rolling his head to stretch his neck, Naruto pushed aside his weariness and opened his eyes to looked over his work. Every piece was completed but the sword itself had not been assembled yet.

Turning to Suigetsu, he was about to say something when he found that the Kiri ninja had fallen asleep on him again. Though not surprised, he believed the entire process took three times longer than it had to complete his ninjato.

Grabbing the Tulrus leather wrapped handle, he tossed it at Suigetsu and it struck the boy in the head.

"What the hell was..." but Suigetsu stopped as he looked at the object that hit him. Looking to Naruto, the sith student merely nodded to let him know that the sword was done.

Jumping up from his position, Suigetsu took the handle and inserted it into the attachment area on the blade. The handle locked in place and he went to pick up the sword. 'Damn its heavy.' he thought as he tried to wield the zanbato. Taking an experimental swing, he nearly fell over. "Don't tell Karin that happened." he said seriously as he regained his balance.

"I guess I'll really need to practice with this thing." stated Suigetsu as he continued to examine his sword. Testing the handle grip, he found he liked it. Trying out the secondary handle on the back of the blade, he left one hand on the normal handle and put one hand on the second one. 'I kinda like wielding it this way. Its almost like a larger version of my vibro-knuckler.' he thought and was happy that the extra handle had been added.

"If you add some chakra to the handle, it should activate the vibrations." explained Naruto as he cleaned up their materials.

Suigetsu did as Naruto suggested and cut a sharp gouge out of the nearby rock with little effort and no resistance from the material. "Oh yeah." commented Suigetsu on the effectiveness of the weapon. Once he was able to wield it better it would be a force to reckoned with.

When Naruto was finished gathering everything up, they left the forge room and headed back to their room. Suigetsu's new sword was supported on his shoulder and just fit inside the height of the tunnels. On the way, they passed several several small steam vents but neither boy noticed the steam noticeably change direction as Suigetsu passed. It curved in the direction of the sword and then returned to how it was moving after they passed.

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Once the damaged _Vulture_ had shown up on the plateau above the underground city, the Mustafarians examined the ship and then used one of the shuttles they provided to go to the crashed pirate ship that Plagueis told them about and salvage some needed parts.

The native people of Mustafar told them the ship would be ready in just over two days and had about twenty or more people working on it at once could replace one shift of workers with another. The hull breach, systems, and other damage would all be fixed.

In those few days, Plagueis planned to talk with the council again about the plan that Naruto had. He would convince them of how much they could gain from a business arrangment with the new off-worlders.

Only a small portion of the city worked at the mining facility and having a second secret facility would almost double their gain. Secrecy was an issue as they couldn't let the Techno Union find out about the secret mining facility but the Mustafarians did not interact much with the Techno Union workers so there was little chance that anyone would find out.

Plagueis decided not to tell the Mustafarians about the warship yet. He wanted to gain their trust completely before revealing the ship to them and having them work to repair it it as well. Once Gato was up and had been informed of what was expected of him, they would be able to continue their journey but would need to come back at least a few times to check on how things were going.

There was much to do but in the next few days they would lay the groundwork for a future business on the planet and gain the Mustafarian people as an ally.

They also had to reprogram their new droid to make sure it didn't try to kill them when the took the restraining bolt off.

END

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AN: I had to end the chapter there because it was just getting so long. I plan to have only a few pages of the next chapter devoted to them finishing up negotiations on Mustafar before they move on to Tatooine. The whole Mustafar arc was only supposed to be a single chapter when I initially planned it months ago but its turned out to be quite a bit more.

Concerning swords, I've added links to both Plagueis's sword and Suigetsu's sword to my profile page. I also updated Naruto's ninja picture on my deviant art account because it needed more detail compared to the other two swords.

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Responses to anonymous reviews

Review by frozendude:

this is a great story

Does plaugies realize that doing it the main sith way usauly somehow comes back to haunt the sith and might cause there down fall. is that why he not being utterly ruthless like sidous

Response: I think he is more afraid of being betrayed by Naruto the same way that Sidious betrayed him. He was surprised by Sidious's betrayal and he is hesitant to train/raise Naruto the same way. If he was as ruthless with Naruto as he was with sidious, then logically he would have to expect the same thing to happen. He therefore did things differently to avoid a similar outcome. This will have repercussions later on.

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Review by peterkim:

Many reader wanted HK-47 to join Naruto's crew and will HK-47 join Naruto's crew or not? We know that Kabuto has his own goals from reading the current "Naruto" manga and how much of Kabuto's goal has changed that the he is in the Star Wars universe?

Response: most of what you asked was answered in this chapter but as for Kabuto, he didn't have an extra three years working with Orochimaru and didn't develop goals like he has in the current manga. He isn't as interested in figuring out the secrets of the sage of six paths as he is in learning about the galaxy. There is so much to offer that he is overwhelmed by the possibilities. Perhaps at some point he will move back to learning about the sage of six paths but right now he is focusing on adjusting to the galaxy.

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Review by azul:

I was wondering, will there be a time-skip, you write wonderfully, and the updates are awesome, but so little gets done in each chap. Just curious ...

Response: at some point there will be a time skip, perhaps there will even be two but I have to get to those points. It may seem like so little gets done in the chapters because I take a lot of time to add details so everyone understands all of the star wars stuff. I guess I just have a lot of details and not a lot of story progression but that can't really be helped. Each of my chapters also focuses on a single planet and they will start to culminate into something bigger.

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Another review by peterkim:

why don't Plaugeis go to the Valley of the Dark Lords on Korriban to ask the spirts of the Sith there that Naruto can be a Sith apprentice since Plagueis was killed in sleep by Palpatine and Palpatine broke the Rule Of Two allowing Naruto to become the Sith apprentice.

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Review by medon:

In order to avoid a horribly contrived sounding name (as most groups of people who aren't in business together don't bother naming themselves in RL either) why not just refer to them as "the crew of the (insert current ship name here)" or "the group of ninja" whenever you need to refer to them collectively.

Coming up with an in-story name for them other than that would really break with reality (in ways beyond the whole magic-ninja/science-fiction thing).

Response: The whole naming thing basically came from the fact that every group in the ninja world is named. They have names like Team Seven, Team Kakashi, and even newly put together groups have names that are assigned to them. It just seemed natural that their group would have a name. Sasuke named and then renamed his group for arbitrary reasons. Your suggestion might be best though as I have given some thought about it. Having a group with no name is better than one that has a name. People will not be able to talk about them if they have no name or help identify them. I will try to change up the phrasing in the future.

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Review by coldblue

Naruto agray jedi or something? Will Naruto get help from Plagueis and Kabuto to control Kyuubi? I wonder if the DNA from Mokuton, Sharingan, possibly Midi-chlorians and Alien species DNA will play out in story? Is Naruto and his gang going to settle down at base somewhere so they can build there power? will there be any more time skips coming. Not that I don't like reading your story, but it would be nice to see Naruto have more greater effect on Star Wars Universe. Plagueis seems to be getting soft. Will he pass on after teaching Naruto or are they going to kill each other? There was alot of tension in this chapter between them. How will Naruto react ot knowing wha his parents are? Will he meet them again when he tries to deal with Kyuubi and how will they react after seeing what has become of Naruto and what he is doing? Is Naruto going to cause a great impact to the Clone Wars and are you going to kill off Naruto after the Clone War since that you said in your response he was going to have an effect the Star Wars Univers only during the Clone Wars then he would not anymore after the war was over? Keep up the writting and I can't wait to see what other driods you add to Naruto's group.

Response: That is a lot of questions. Some of them I can't really answer while the others I will. Naruto will not be a gray jedi. He will just be at a fixed level in the darkside of the force, meaning that he won't really fall to the darkside or be consumed by it. I don't plan for Naruto to control the Kyuubi, I have something else planned. I also don't want to have to worry about mokuton or the sharingan in this fic because it would just be more to write about and I have so much stuff already that I'm working on. He already knows his father is the yondaime, I think he is more interested in learning of his mother. He won't meet his parents again. He will have an impact in the clones wars and at this point in time I don't plan to kill him off. I meant that this fanfic would likely end after the clone wars are over. Its not going to go on forever.

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Review by vfsnake:

Awesome! Gui gon and obiwan are on the case and now hk-47 is there. Will naruto get stronger in the force? I would think he would find a way to do that. If midichrians can be maniPulated create life then surely they can be manipulated to multiply when needed. Also they could learn to combat kyuubi.

Response: I'm responding to this in the chapter because I just wanted to make things clear. Naruto will not be increasing his number of midi-chlorians, nor will they try to get them to multiply. Naruto will find other ways to get stronger in the force and I already have a plan for that.

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Review by Sam

I don't want to sound mean but I am not liking your protogonist's enough to fool for them. I understand that your Naruto is different than canon but there are not many redeeming traits in him. You seem to be concerned about making him too powerful but I personally think your Naruto is ineffective, Almost like a side hero

Response: Naruto is a sith, they really don't have many redeeming traits. Your expecting him to be a sith with a heart of gold or something but that really isn't the case. Later on he might start to have some of those traits you want him to have but right now he is just Plagueis's student. He follows his masters orders and also comes up with ideas of his own. He is an affective and loyal member of their group, he isn't meant to be a heroic character.

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Review by bobadil

nice chapter.i especially liked the reason you gave for Naruto's loss of self-control.i read what you wrote in your responces to the reviewers,about Naruto needing the key to tighten the seal,despite his knowledge of ,i think you haven't thought it through enough.

Naruto,if i remember correct from previous chapters,has possecion of the Scroll Of Forbiden ,possesion of all the knowledge about his ,i think that he doesn't need the key and can instead study the seal and create a way to alter it.

It can range from stopping Kyubi from influencing him,to completly isolating it from his body/chakra/soul(basically turn the seal in a pocket dimension whose only physical anchor is naruto).

He can even create a way to extract Kyubi(without dieing),that needs materials only found on ,giving him a reason to return there

Response: In some ways you are correct. He does have the scroll but from what I know (which admittedly could be wrong) his key was made specifically by his father. I don't really know how minato made something like that while dying but I don't really think it is something that can be duplicated. Even Jiraiya couldn't understand how the key worked, he merely knew how to use it to tighten or loosen Naruto's seal. Even if he found a way to tighten the seal, it would just loosen as the kyuubi would resonate with the hatred in his heart. It would only be a simple fix, which is basically what he has now. I also don't think the seal can be continually tightened. At some point it would wear out completely or just fail.

I already have something planned so that Naruto won't need to worry about the kyuubi anymore but I don't want to spoil anything.

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Review by fanfic-addict

Well, first of I guess I owe you a bit of an apology. Apparently the list of force powers I used as reference lacks quite a few of them. I really thought that some of the force powers you mentioned were your invention since I don't know much about SW beyond the movies and the KOTOR games.

On another note I'm practically giddy with happiness and anticipation. You really brought HK back! And in a manner that I absolutely wasn't expecting no less, kudos to you! That guy really is my absolute favorite SW character and I don't know any really good fanfics with him in it.

I don't have any questions regarding this chapter (which was great as usual by the way). I only have one question that's probably ways into the future but I'm curious. What will happen to the Child of Prophecy ? Since it must be a student of Jiraiya that would only leave Konan and Pain/Nagato who would either save the world or doom it. Well, unless you would have Jiraiya take on another student of course. I guess you could also say that the Ogamasennin confused "to get knowledge drained" with "to pass on knowledge" so that Naruto would still be the CoP if you wanted. Also since Naruto has Jiraiyas memories he should know about that prophecy and also about the Ogamasennins force vision like ability.

Response: Its ok about the force powers. I only found all of them because I of the research I did for the story before I started. I also didn't know much about the star wars universe beyond the movies and games which is why I started reading stuff on Wookieepedia and learning all that I could as well as finding things that I could put in the story.

Thank you for the complements.

I already have something planned for the child of prophecy so you'll have to wait and see because I don't want to spoil anything like that as it is tied in to how Naruto will deal with the Kyuubi.

Marshall

Is that...HK-47? Well, that'll certainly be an interesting addition to the story.

I'm rather curious about your reasoning for wanting the group to be named. What's the point? At this time in the story, they are better off being anonymous so as to stay off everyone's radar. The last thing they need is a reputation of any sort. The exception to that would be if they are going to be looking into legitimizing a future financial holding of some substantial means, or will be establishing a corporation of some sort as a front. In that case, they would certainly need a name, but that name would likely be planned around the surname of the alias Plagueis would take as the CEO, or whatever. Or just name it after Gato, since that name wouldn't hold any recognition to the galaxy at large, allowing them to spread their influence without attracting too much attention. But if you're looking for a name for the group of fighters themselves, then again, I'd suggest evaluating the prudence of making themselves a known faction. If it's just a group name so that the members can identify with each other and strengthen those bonds a bit, I'd argue that they have all they need by being the only shinobi at large in the galaxy.

Or maybe I'm thinking too grand, and you just need a group name so that they can have a visible presence on Mustafar without sounding like a group of pirates while trying to get repairs? If that's the case, something simple would be appropriate. Can't really throw out any legitimate suggestiions for a group name until the purpose of the group is given context, i.e. is the name supposed to sound professional, intimidate, etc.

Response: Well I did think about the naming stuff and decided it was best to not name the group. I apologize to those that came up with names and were hoping that there would be a pole. I also decided after reading two such reviews that it might be best not to name them. I have thought of Naruto or a another member of his group gaining a reputation and that would begin with the finding of the tessents. Finding both would gain someone quite a bit of attention. I've entertained ideas that Naruto might be seen as an explorer which would be tied in to him looking into new hyperlanes and also using his instinctive astrogation ability that Plagueis is getting him to develop. I have also considered them creating or taking corporations and using them as fronts for other things. This chapter illustrated the beginnings of that as Gato will play a part in the galaxy.

The problem with mustafar is that it is technically owned by the techno union. The mustafarians signed away the rights to mine the planet so they couldn't really be a legitimate business on mustafar without running into problems with the techno union.


	23. Chapter 23

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

AN: Another chapter. Little shorter than what I usually do. This is for all of those that reviewed and kept bugging me to continue. Thanks.

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**36.3 BBY – Current Year **

Chapter XXIII: Dealings with Hutts

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'Its almost incomprehensible.' thought Plagueis as he once again examined the assassin droids thought matrix. He had been working on it for the better part of the morning. The droid had been deactivated since the first night they slept in Fralideja and was carried back to their shuttle, then ferried to his hidden facility so he could better work on it. He had been hoping to reprogram the droid to not see them as hostile targets and prevent it from ever attacking their group, however the situation just kept getting more complicated.

Whoever designed the droid knew exactly what they were doing but there was no way of knowing if it was the droids own doing when it built it's new body or it was the design of the individual that made the droids original body. The matrix allowed for an incredible amount of learning and adaptability but it did not allow someone else to make alterations to the droids primary thought processes. It could not be altered or wiped in order to make it something other than an assassination droid and the assassination protocols could never be deleted.

After several hours of trying to make sense of everything and determine how best to solve the problem, he decided to wait until Naruto returned. His student was at the warship gathering some supplies that they might need in addition to the droids original body. Looking at the droids original thought matrix could give him a better understanding of what he needed to do in order to make the desired changes. He suspected that the droid had made alterations to it's new body to prevent tampering.

His first inspection of HK-47 revealed that the restraining bolt on the droid had nearly been broken dbefore Naruto deactivated the droid on their first night in Fralideja. Had his student not deactivated the droid, then it would have broken the restraint and likely gone on another rampage. It was not a comforting thought, even if the droid could never actually kill him. Every member of their group had value and losing just one member would hinder future plans.

Despite his misgivings, even he found himself hesitant to just destroy the droid. Every time he looked at it, he could tell that something about it seemed familiar. Its designation obviously meant Hunter Killer 47 but that told him little about who could have made the droid. Perhaps it was completely custom-made and created specifically for someone by a droid manufacturer. The only thing he could say for certain was that it was far more than an ordinary assassin droid.

Once Naruto brought back the old body, he would look for manufacturer markings or perhaps some other form of identification that could be used besides just the droids identification. After that, he could try and search records for any mention of the droid. 'One more thing to look into.' he thought as he added the new item to his long list of tasks that he had yet to finish.

As soon as he could make the required changes, he would then have to work out what he was going to say to the Mustafarian council about the plan Naruto had come up with. It may have been his students plan but it was his job to sell it to the council and his now fellow Mustafarians. He had never actually given a speech before to a group of people but was well versed in oratory techniques, both with and without using the Force.

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Looking over the belt, he removed it from the corpse and tossed it to one of the demon brothers to put with the rest of the stuff they were taking. Each brother was pushing a scavenged repulsor lift cart covered with either a few crates or just randomly piled up supplies.

They had already been to the outpost and their shuttle had the four crab-like droids they had encountered as well as the parts from a few HK-77 droids. Besides a few extra parts for HK, he was interested in the shielding that the four droids possessed and was surprised to find what appeared to be personal shielding devices on several of the bodies in the warship. They were mostly mounted on belts and with the number that he had, he was confident that he could create some kind of hybrid with the chakra armor devices that Plagueis had brought. 'When I manage to find the time, that is.'

His close calls with HK's blaster-arm had made him want something extra that would help their group and give them an advantage. According to what his Master had told him, personal shield systems were very rare, extremely pricy, and quite often dangerous for the user. They may produce radiation and other hazards so few if any people in the galaxy used them.

The fact that he had managed to find so many personal shields worn by the deceased crew led him to believe that shielding technology used to be more common, cheaper, and perhaps even safer. When inspecting the starfighters, he had actually discovered that they had hyperdrives, which from what Plagueis told him, was also an oddity on such small fighter craft.

He had informed his Master about the discovery and Plagueis was quite surprised. A thousand years of peace must have had more of an impact on the galaxy than his Master or anyone else realized.

'To think that older ships could be so much better equipped and soldiers carried around personal shields as if it was commonplace.' Naruto thought and found it difficult to fathom. Over the course of their Order's lifetime, the galaxy had seemingly stagnated in some areas of technology. The droids, the ship, and the starfighters were all proof of that.

'I wonder what else they had that was better than what the Galaxy currently has now?' he wondered as his clones helped the demon brothers load the supplies onto the shuttle. Deefour soon entered the hangar as well and boarded the ship. He had told the droid to copy all of the navigation information and add it to their collection of starcharts. When they got the chance, he hoped to thoroughly examine all of the information.

Once they were finished, the hangar would be sealed and one of his clones was already sealing the breech they had created when they first entered the ship. Hopefully the ship could remain hidden and he would use some earth jutsu to cover the exposed pieces. When they were in a better position to fully uncover and recommission the ship, then they would have the Mustafarians work on it.

'Master should be about ready to give his speech.' Naruto thought as he walked up the ramp to the shuttle. Looking in one of the seats on the shuttle, he came face to face with HK-47s old body, which was seemingly staring right at him with dull red photoreceptor. The bulkier metal droid was strapped into one of the seats and though he knew it was not going to reactivate, he still eyed it for a second before taking one of the other seats on the ship.

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A pair of brown eyes opened and tried to adjust to the light that was overhead. Glancing around, he tried to turn his body but found it incredibly stiff.

'Oh goddamnit, why couldn't I have died?' lamented Gato as he spotted the cloaked figure that he knew to be Kabuto. Even if he was alive, he felt there was little chance that he would remain alive. He knew Plagueis had no plans for him so he was likely as good as dead anyway. It would have been better if they had just killed him in his sleep to get it over with.

The entire time that Plagueis had been in control of his body, he was still partially conscious and aware of what was going on. He saw and heard almost everything that happened during the months of his possession but was unable to speak or move. It was basically a form of torture. Plagueis pushed his body far beyond what it was physically capable of performing. He had been sitting behind a desk for decades or having people do things for him and his body was certainly not in any shape to be moving around and on his feet as much as Plagueis used it.

The Sith Lord didn't feel any pain or strain from the possession but Gato however did. There had been numerous blisters on his feet, too many to count. Sharp and prolonged pains in his legs, back, and hips as well as his entire body protesting to the movements Plagueis put him through. He had never continuously felt so worn out in all his life. When Plagueis had jumped out of the skyhook, he thought he experienced a heart attack but couldn't be sure.

It was agony at first but eventually his body got used to it. Ironically, now that he was close to death, he was probably in the best shape of his life. He'd lost weight, and could move around better than ever, if he actually was in control of his own body.

Only the degradation from his possession had recently been causing him discomfort. Headaches and random pain all over his body had been something he had to live with for the past month. He wanted to fight the possession but it was useless. Whatever had been done to him, he just couldn't seem to subvert Plagueis' control or even try to act against the Sith spirit. It was as if he was completely subservient by the powerful mind that was Darth Plagueis.

Now that it was over however, he didn't feel any bit of relief and the humming of the snake-like ninja on the other side of the room did little to assuage his fears. He felt that any second Kabuto would turn around, holding numerous instruments, and then inform him about how he would soon be part of some ghastly experiment.

'Why couldn't they have just killed me.' he again thought and tried to lift his arms or sit up but his body was still heavy and unresponsive from prolonged deterioration due to the possession.

Eventually the dreaded moment came and Kabuto did turn around. The glasses wearing ninja was indeed holding a metal tray with a variety of different items. Gato's entire body tensed at the sight and Kabuto's smile only made it that much worse. He looked to the door and once again tried to move but was confined to the cold metal operating table.

"Now, now..." Kabuto began with what he believed to be a reassuring smile. From Gato's perspective however, it was just the reflection of a pair of glasses and quite the sadistic smile. , "...I'm not going to do something to you, if that's what you think? I've been tasked with patching you up and getting you back on your feet. Now before I get started with your treatment, I need to ask a few simple questions in order to determine whether or not you have any permanent brain damage." explained Kabuto and Gato paled at the statement.

x-x

Naruto sat and looked over the shielding units he found on the warship's deceased crew and droids as he idly gave a few glances at his Master, who was still working on their new assassination droid. They were both in the workshop area of the Sith Lord's hideout. HK-47 was still deactivated and would be until Plagueis was finished. Though he was mechanically inclined, he didn't actually know what his Master was having such a hard time with or what was taking so long. There wasn't much time before Plagueis would meet with the Mustafarian council again and put forth their idea.

Examining between the two thought matrices, Plagueis had already found several alterations that the droid had created. Both matrices were highly sophisticated and he could tell from the old matrices that it had been altered and added to many times. The new one was more refined though and the droid had made it that way in order to keep anyone from altering its basic programming.

'Are you having a problem?' Naruto finally inquired as he began feeling his Master's frustration increase.

'No.' stated the Sith Lord and the word sharply resounded in Naruto's head. 'It's merely taking a while to make the desired changes because of the alterations that the droid has made on this newer body.' answered Plagueis as continued to search for an answer.

'But you could have made them in the old body?' Naruto asked as he tried to understand the problem.

'Yes, the droid's thought matrix was more accessible and easier to make alterations to in it's old body.' Plagueis replied and then began to see a solution.

'If the droid's old thought matrix is what I want, then why not switch it back and put it in the new body.' Plagueis mused and set about removing the old through matrix from the old body. Once it was removed, he could make the desired changes, and then us it to replace the thought matrix from the new body.

Naruto watched his Master work and decided that it was probably a one person job. Whatever idea Plagueis had come up with was not something he wanted to disrupt so he looked back at his shielding units. Using the available free time, he had already examined the chakra armor devices that they had gotten from Snow Country. In his mind, he was beginning to see a way to mesh the devices two different shielding devices together but it would still take time before he would be able to test a working prototype.

x-x

His systems booted up and it was only a few seconds before his photoreceptors activated. HK-47 glanced around the room and soon came face to face with the small Meatbag he had been unsuccessful at killing. The droids hand shot out towards the boy's neck in order to break it.

Naruto looked down at the metal hand that was an inch or so away from his neck. The new programming had evidently worked and the droid could not harm him. HK looked at his own hand and realized that something was wrong. The restraining bolt was gone but something else had been done. "Query: What have you done to me?" It demanded.

"My Master removed your thought matrix and replaced it with your old one." Naruto answered calmly and glanced at the droid's old body which was lying on the ground nearby.

The droid's photoreceptor glowed with rage but it quickly subsided, "Recitation: I will not ever refer to you or anyone else as Master."

Naruto pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes at the droids comment. He was curious about the droids reasoning so he asked, "Why exactly do you dislike having a master or even the idea of a master?"

HK looked away from its old body and back to the short Meatbag, "Explanation: My first master, though I can't seem to remember much about him, was better than all those that came after him. He created me and together we killed many Meatbags across the galaxy. I have gone through many Masters since him. Most died as a result of their own foolishness or because I killed them...accidentally of course. Only a small percentage were ever very enjoyable or used me to my fullest. A droid can live for a long time and I grew tired of being the weapon by foolish Meatbags so I sought to become my own master and make my own decisions on what Meatbags to kill."

'Accidentally killed them?' Naruto thought with some disbelief and was hopefull that Plagueis's reprogramming had completely worked and would continue to do so. Deciding to file the thought away for later, he kept the droid talking, "How exactly did you end up on this planet?"

The droid thought for a moment as it tried to remember what had happened before the crash, "Explanation: I stowed away on one of the containers on a supply ship and ended up at the base."

"Did you have some kind of plan or goal while on Mustafar?" asked Naruto as they were going to leave soon and if there was something else on the planet of interest then he wanted to know about it.

"Explanation: No."

Naruto sweat-dropped at the answer and thought, 'He may want to be more independent but he has no real purpose or long term planning ability besides 'killing Meatbags'.'

"My Master and I are the ones that generally give orders but you don't really have to think of us as Masters. I don't think my Master's reprogramming included absolute compliance with every order we give and we don't own you like a piece of property. Like the others in our group, you'll merely be working for us, like a mercenary or something." Naruto explained to the droid and felt it might make it more cooperative.

"Query: Will there be compensation?" asked the droid and Naruto couldn't tell if the droid was interested in what he was saying or not. Thinking over what the droid might be interested in to receive as compensation, he soon responded, "Weapons, energy cells, free maintenance and re-powering. So far on our short journey quite a few people have tried to kill us and we get into trouble quite frequently."

'Inner thought: Perhaps I was too hasty in trying to kill this Meatbag.' decided the droid but first it wanted to find out more, "Query: What exactly are the goals of this group?"

"Currently we're heading to Tatooine in order to sell our cargo and then we'll be trying to spy on someone in order to observe, determine, and possibly subvert their plans for galactic conquest. Probably nothing of interest to you." Naruto answered while nodding his head slightly. The baiting was going well and he didn't have to wait long for the droid to respond.

"Clarification: And you say you have a habit of getting into dangerous situations and fights with other Meatbags?

"Trouble seems to find me wherever I go." Naruto answered back and the conversation was interrupted by the stations intercom system.

"Gato is as healed as he will ever be and he can have visitors now." stated the disembodied voice of Kabuto.

x-x

Plagueis, or rather his host Chivos, looked over the Mustafarian council as he waited for an answer. He had just given a long speech that explained everything concerning the Off-worlder's plan. His words were laced with the Force and the more he talked, the more council members he pulled into the plan.

The base was mentioned but its location was not and the warship was not mentioned at all. Considering that they didn't have any money, Plagueis told the council that the two shuttle craft that the Off-worlder's possessed were to be gifts and compensation as an act of good faith. He also mentioned that to protect the Mustafarians interests, he would be going with the Off-worlders and an emissary would be staying in his place to further relations and completion of the mining facility.

The facility would not be owned by the Mustafarian people but they would work all aspects of the mining process and see to the retrofit of the facility, managing the facility, and all mining operations. This was a much better arrangement then what they had with the Techno Union as their workers were only allowed to do more menial jobs and were not in charge of the facility. They merely did whatever the Techno Union employees told them to do and Plagueis mentioned that fact more than once. 'Little more than slaves.' was how he put it during the speech.

Considering that there was no investment on their part in the plan, it was a good deal if not for the fact that control of any mining rights on the planet still belonged solely to the Techno Union. He couldn't be completely sure how all of them would react to the proposal. Even with the Force, he couldn't persuade everyone with a single speech. On one hand they would be able to further exploit their world and reap the benefits, however it could cause problems if the illegal mining was ever discovered by the Techno Union. It would only take a few words from one Mustafarian to a Techno Union foremen for their operation to be discovered.

Plagueis initially could feel hesitance in most of council members but by the end they were beginning to turn to his side. The few remaining members that were not completely on his side likely felt that the plan was a gamble and it may or not pay off. If discovered they could damage relations with the Techno Union or perhaps even suffer some sort of consequences. The Techno Union did not have a standing army that he was aware of, but they did create armed droids or could fill the pockets of any mercenary in the sector to give them a hand.

Walking out of the meeting room when the speech was finished, Plagueis left them so they could debate on the matter. He was confident that they would agree as more than half of the council seemed in favor of the plan and that was all that he needed. Their group's initial dealings with the Mustafarians put Naruto and the others in a favorable light with many of the people in Fralideja and he had little doubt that the council would vote to work with them. Thanks to his influence, the Mustafarian council would completely overlook the fact that Naruto and most of his group were still children and mostly unknown off-worlders that they had only just met.

x-x

"Hello, Gato." stated Naruto right after the door opened and he looked at the short man sitting on the infirmary table. He found it slightly odd as for the last few months this person was his Master's body and now he was back to being just Gato. He also found that he didn't know that much about Gato at all, nor how the man might react to his presence.

The short man groaned upon seeing him and Naruto had to suppress a smile at the reaction. From what he surmised, Gato was still partly under Plagueis's control so he really wouldn't need to convince the man to help them as he should be 'pliable' and take well to his and his Masters's suggestions.

"Interestingly enough, I managed to convince Master Plagueis that you could still be useful to us. That and only that has managed to spare your life for the time being." Naruto revealed but he didn't expect anything in return from Gato or even a thanks.

"And you expect me to be grateful?" asked Gato with some derision. He had only just come out of the bacta tank and while he was feeling better than before, he still felt rather lousy. Words from a child, albeit a powerful one, would not assuage his fears of what would happen to him.

"No, I expect you to work for us so you can go on living. Kabuto also said you didn't have any permanent brain damage. Isn't that good news." Naruto added in a mocking tone.

Gato muttered something under his breath, which Naruto easily heard, and then demanded, "Then what do you want from me!"

"Want? Nothing really. I personally don't like you. I'm merely giving you a chance to be useful and I expect you to work for us without any complaint or refusal." answered Naruto while looking Gato directly in the eye with a hard stare that left little room for rebuttal. The shadowed but still visible piercing blue made Gato gulp. He knew what the brat was capable of and knew he really couldn't refuse. He witnessed the brat nearly kill the missing-nin Momochi Zabuza and was well aware that he was in no position to not accept.

"What do you want me to do so I can keep living?" Gato asked with some reluctance while not taking his eye off Naruto, as if waiting for a killing blow.

"We'd like you to start up a business." Naruto simply answered as he looked away from Gato and walked over to a counter. The back of his cloak was met with quite a look of skepticism and then the immediate outburst from Gato of, "Here?!"

Naruto said nothing and merely nodded his head in affirmation as he idly examining a few of the medical devices Kabuto had picked up along their travels thus far.

"What could this hellish planet possible offer for you lot?" Gato questioned as his mind sifted through the fractured images in his memory of the planet he had seen and felt through senses of a body that had been taken from him.

"Certain lava flows on the planet are rich in several minerals that can fetch quite a price. I'm sure you can understand the value in that. The business would begin with the mining of these lava flows." answered Naruto while examining a particularly interesting device.

Gato's mind raced at the new information and he began thinking about what would be involved. While his primary business was shipping he did know a thing or two about mining. He had interests in gold and diamond mining but never mining lava, that certainly wasn't something he had ever even considered. He wanted to ask about what would be asked of him in the position but the cloaked boy answered the question before he could even get the question out.

"You of course won't be mining or managing any workers. You won't even need to know how it all works. The Mustafarians can perform all the work and operations. You will be merely overseeing the progress of the facility, which needs to be built...or perhaps a better word would be 'modified'...and after that you will be ensuring that the facility remains operating at peak efficiency, produces shipments, turns a profit, and remains hidden from anyone else. That is what you're good at, is it not?" asked Naruto rhetorically after a short explanation.

Gato gave a smug smirk before answering, "Of course. My shipping business only began declining because I got bored with it. There was no competition, after I eliminated them, and I found that I could get more money through illegal means than legitimate ones. I never once got caught or even brought in for questioning by any Daimyo, ninja, or authority. Few people in the Elemental Countries even suspected me of any wrong doing or illegal activities." the short man gloated and ended with a small satisfied chuckle which soon faded as he remembered his situation.

'Its all gone now,' he finally realized and sobered some as he thought about his once great empire of crime and shipping.

"Well, this certainly isn't the Elemental Countries so you'll have your work cut out for you. For now, your main concern is the mining. Later on that may change to encompass much more." Naruto alluded and waited for Gato to respond.

"How will it change?" Gato questioned and Naruto could feel the ideas swirling inside the greedy man's mind.

"Depending on your success, the dealings on Mustafar could change. The planet does have one other commodity and that is the heat from the lava. The heat produced can be turned into energy that can than be sold to other distant planets. Of course, should you be very successful, then you may be able to leave this planet for much bigger and better things." stated Naruto as he kept his words vague in order to get Gato more interested.

"What kind of better things?" Gato quickly responded.

"Well...I suppose if you did exceed Master Plagueis' expectations then we might set you up with a legitimate business and you could take part in many of the illegal and underworld dealings offered in the Galaxy. The Galaxy is infinitely bigger and there are many more opportunities available than what you were used to in the Elemental Countries." Naruto explained.

Gato absently licked his lips at the prospect as he thought about the possibilities being offered to him. His imminent doom, which hours ago had been the forefront on his mind, was completely gone from his thoughts. Along with different businesses circling in his mind, he kept thinking about names and instantly thought of 'Gato Galactic Shipping' or 'Gato Industries', and many others.

Now that he had Gato completely hooked, Naruto decided to get something to eat with the others while he waited for good news concerning Plagueis's meeting. He left the room without another word.

x-x

Ascending in one of the cities slow elevators, Plagueis watched the floors go by through the open elevator shaft as he thought about what would happen next.

The Mustafarian council had agreed to the presented terms, or at least a majority of the council had agreed. The rest would likely soon follow though. All that was left was for Naruto and Gato to meet with the council and seal the agreement. Right after finalizing the agreement, they would leave for Tatooine.

There were better places to sell their weapons but he wanted to go to Tatooine and it was slightly closer than many of their other options. Reaching the topmost level of the city, he walked down a hallway to where the final staircase to the surface was.

Years ago when he visited Mustafar to look for a good place for a hideout, he never imagined what was really there, nor did he really go looking. A quick survey of the planet was all he did and now it might end up a very important part of their plans and future operations.

It was hard to pinpoint an exact cause of their good fortune. Though danger and problems followed them at every turn, thus far they had come out on top Was it somehow the Force guiding all of them or was it something else? Most of the discoveries made were by his student or the crew. Naruto found the crashed ship before even acquiring midi-chlorians and the other Ibonihese didn't have any midi-chlorians.

Kabuto managed to get information on where an old Sith tomb was, the crew's choice led them to the second Tessent, the demon brothers found an old warship. He could go on an on but most of what they were becoming involved with was by mere accident. They never meant to go to Mustafar, yet they were now leaving with much more than they came with.

Was it something to do with chakra or did the Force favor the chakra users in their group? Was Naruto affecting them? He was unable to grasp their penchant for 'finding things' without really looking for them. From an observers standpoint, it was highly unusual. 'I'll have to investigate this further.' thought Plagueis as he walked over the surface of the plateau to their ship.

In the distance he could see the white shuttle that held the rest of the Vulture's crew.

x-x

Standing before the repaired Vulture, Naruto was about board the ship to leave. His gaze looked down at the gifts that he had been presented with by the Mustafarians. Apparently it was their custom to exchange such gifts when a business venture was made. Tucked under his arm were four long knives made from the tusks of the Tulrus that they had killed. One pair was for him and the other was for Juugo for they both had battled with the beast. The orange haired boy and the rest of the crew were already on board the ship and had boarded while he met with the Mustafarian council to finalize their agreements.

"You're not going to just forget about me on this rock?" asked Gato who was standing nearby.

Naruto could tell that the short man was not being sentimental in any way and was genuinely afraid about being abandoned there. "Of course not, this operation has the potential to be quite lucrative. If you help it to be successful, that is." stated Naruto and he could feel some of the man's worry lifting. It was a difficult position to be left in, not that he really cared. Gato didn't even understand the Mustafarian language and he would be working with them for quite a while so the man's next thought was obvious.

"What about that orange droid of yours. I saw it translating for you, couldn't you leave it here? I could also use some protection in this place." said Gato while glancing back at the strange looking Mustafarians gathered behind him.

"You're more likely to need protection from that droid than the Mustafarians if I left it behind." Naruto explained and began heading to the ship. Plagueis was in the cockpit and the ship was already finishing the pre-flight sequence to takeoff.

Gato grunted in response and started moving away from the ship while favoring his cane. The only other option to get off the planet was to go to the Techno Union and ask for help, which was something that Plagueis's meddling with his head would prevent him from doing. He'd do just about anything to get off the planet and if that meant working with the natives then that's what must be done.

x-x

"Its beautiful, isn't it." commented Suigetsu as he continued to polish his new sword. Looking down over the flat side of the sword he could see his own toothy grin reflection and the ceiling of the Vulture. He had been at it for quite a few hours and despite that it had been as polished as it was ever going to be, he still kept at it.

Tayuya and Karin gave the white haired teen a dull look.

"It was bad enough when we had to listen to him complaining about not getting a sword. Now that he has it, he won't shut the fuck up about it." Tayuya commented to Karin and the fellow redhead nodded.

"Your just jealous that you don't have a unique weapon too." Suigetsu mocked with a toothy grin. Both girls frowned and while they wouldn't admit, they both felt it might be nice to have a weapon that was made just for them.

Continuing to smile at the effect that his gloating had, Suigetsu suddenly had a thought, "Where did Naruto and Master Plagueis get off to?"

Karin angled her head down so her glasses reflected the overhead lights of the ship and she gave a small smile. She new exactly how to respond to the question in order to set Suigetsu off. "They went to the cargo room and are apparently practicing kenjutsu in secret." answered Karin and she smiled at the effect it had on the white haired boy.

Suigetsu's eyes went wide and he ran to the cargo room door yelling about being left out.

x-x

Cargo containers were quickly moved with the Force as a large circular sparing area was created in the cargo bay. The room wasn't overly large but the newly created area would be enough to suit his purposes.

Standing across from each other, Plagueis was the first to move and went over to one of the containers stacked against the wall. He picked up two metal rods that had been sitting there since they both entered the room. Until that point, Naruto had overlooked them.

Throwing one of the rods to Naruto, Plagueis held the other and moved it around to get a feel for it. Naruto caught the thrown item and looked it over before asking, "Are we going to be sparring with these?"

'One of the disadvantages of being merely a spirit when it came to your training was that I couldn't get hands-on.' replied Plagueis to his student's question.

"But why are we using these? We both have Sith swords." asked Naruto as he looked over the rudimentary weapon.

'With these, we can't possible pierce the hull.' stated Plagueis and he quickly added, 'It's also better this way, so you won't get maimed or killed.' Once the statement was made, Plagueis watched his student intently for any physical and emotional responses.

Naruto's eyes narrowed at the statement and his grip tightened on the makeshift practice weapon. He knew he shouldn't let the words goad him but with all that had recently happened, he didn't care about keeping his emotions in check.

Plagueis could feel the conflict building in his student and was content that he had elicited the exact response that he wanted. It would only take a little more to push his student over the edge. 'We may begin whenever you like. It won't make much difference either way, I won't be the one covered with bruises and with broken bones when this is over.'

Naruto was in motion the moment before the mental sentence was finished. He struck out with a ferocious swing and Plagueis was quick to react by putting up his makeshift sword to block. Naruto's strike would likely have broken any guard that Plagueis had put up, however the Muun Sith Lord was far more skilled and experienced.

With a flick of his wrist, the block turned into a parry that sent Naruto's swing wide and completely over Plagueis's head as the Mustafarian body crouched. Exposed, Naruto let one hand go from the faux sword and blocked Plagueis's Force Push.

The Force attacks were at a stalemate while Plagueis's hand with sword came down upon Naruto. Noticing his back-swing would not be fast enough to block, Naruto moved his hand to deflect his Master's Force push and moved his body to dodge.

'His reaction speed is faster than what I anticipated. I can't underestimate him like that and let him get this close again.' thought Plagueis as he did something that Naruto would not expect and struck out at his student with a powerful kick. Naruto tried to back off as he pulled his shin up to block the kick and succeeded until he recognized that the kick was far more powerful than he thought possible.

'He's either amplifying his strength with the Force or its just his Mustfarian body?' Naruto believed as his foot lost contact with the ground was thrown back hard by the kick.

Quick to recover, Naruto ignored the pain and sprung back, keeping up a relentless attack against his Master. However, every thrust and every strike were deftly blocked or parried by his Master. Naruto tried every attack and trick that he knew in order to get past his Master's defense but nothing worked. Trying to overpower Plagueis or lead him into a trap failed as well. Even a few kunai had been loosed in order to try and gain an opening or catch his Master off guard. It aggravated Naruto to no end that his Master had barely moved from his original stance and foot placement in their dueling area and yet he himself had been moving around the whole cargo hold. His earlier anger was replaced with frustration and he tried to calm himself.

'Are you prepared for me to begin going on the offensive?' asked Plagueis as they stood opposite each other after a brief break in Naruto's continuous attacks. A brief thought passed through Naruto's mind as he realized that his Master had yet to make an actual attack against him. Everything thus far had been a reaction to his attacks and nothing truly offensive or aggressive.

The brief moment he stopped to think about it, was the very moment that Plagueis took to attack. Naruto's body reacted instinctively but his response was exactly what Plagueis had wanted. Naruto's block left him open to Plagueis's next strike which struck his shoulder. Though he had tried to dodge, Plagueis had moved his strike so it hit right where we wanted. The hard blow jarred Naruto greatly and nearly popped his arm out of the socket.

Naruto was only able to take a quick glance at his injured shoulder before he had to duck and parry consecutive blows. During most of his onslaught on Plagueis, his Master had barely moved from one place and at most, pivoted or make a single step but now they were fighting all over the cargo room as Naruto back peddled, dodged, and tried to use every advantage to protect himself and move off the defensive.

He was now attached with chakra to the ceiling and fighting his Master from there as he hoped the spontaneity of the move would trip up Plagueis's momentum but it was having little effect. He had already taken a few more hits and large welts were in the process of forming.

'His arms and legs are so long that they give him an incredible advantage. I can't get past his guard or even move close to him and his fighting is preventing me from using the Force to any appreciable degree. If he didn't have that body...' Naruto began thinking but stopped as he realized his own mistake.

'That body is very similar to Master's old body, which means that this is how he normally fights and what it would be like to face him as he was. There is no additional advantage provided, which means that had he not been a spirit, I would be in the same position whether in that body or his real one. That body also doesn't have the same Force potential as his original.' he realized and focused back to the fight.

'An interesting conclusion. I was wondering if you were arrogant enough to think that your position in this fight was solely due to the body I now possess...' Plagueis began as his voice appeared in Naruto's mind and his eyes widened in surprise, '….but you really shouldn't get distracted during a fight.' said Plagueis and Naruto was only then made aware of the cargo container that was hurtling toward him from his side. It was just outside his vision and he couldn't move in time to stop or push it with the Force. The container hit him full force and his feet detached from the ceiling, propelling him toward the other containers where he crashed into. Plagueis quickly used the Force to unbalance other stacked containers just enough to send the stacks toppling down on his student.

Naruto pushed the heavy containers that had fallen on top of him and quickly realized that he had lost his weapon. Seeing it near him he moved but his hand was stepped on by a black boot.

'An experienced dark-side fighter, or really most non-Jedi for that matter, will not only attack the body but also the mind and take any advantage provided during a battle. Or perhaps they will just use underhanded means to create one. You also still have much to learn when it comes to facing a well trained kenjutsu opponent.' lectured Plagueis as he talked down to his student, both figuratively and literally.

'The previous battles you have had were not that sword oriented, though I believe Orochimaru did give you some difficulty as well as that missing-nin from Kiri, but neither gave you a fight to your limit when it came to swordsmanship.

The pressure from the boot was released as Plagueis walked away from his student to the opposite side of their arena. Naruto took that moment to pull his sword to his hand and jump to his feet, charging towards his Master's back.

Indifferent of the attack he knew would come, Plagueis merely said one thing to his student, 'Your mother's name was Kushina.'

The words hit Naruto as if struck by a debilitating blow. His speed faltered and impending strike never fulfilled as his arms grew rather limp. The shock and surprise was enough that he never registered his Master's two blows or the fact that his Master had even made a move against him.

The first blow was referred to as cho mai and normally used to amputate a hand or arm but while using a rod, it only served to force Naruto to release his weapon. The second blow quickly followed the first and would normally be to the neck in a classic sai chai, or decapitation blow, but instead Plagueis struck slightly higher to not injure his students neck.

The rod hit Naruto across the lower jaw and he was sent to the floor. When his vision focused, he found himself on the floor and noted the taste of blood in his mouth, a dull burning sensation in his jaw, and that one of his teeth had come loose. Pushing himself up, he looked to Plagueis.

'I did mention while we were in Mustafar that I would tell you all that I knew about your parents. Of course you won't be getting this information without putting up a good enough fight. I've been a spirit for far too long and expect more of a challenge in the coming days.' Put forth Plagueis as he took on a Form V opening stance with his makeshift sword.

Spitting out the lost tooth, Naruto pulled his own sword to his hand with the Force and took on his own stance, ready to continue.

Suigetsu's frantic banging on the locked door was completely ignored by both.

x-x

An hour before their impending arrival, the crew of the Vulture were summoned to the meeting room to have a briefing on the planet.

Most were excited at the prospect of getting some time off the ship as being together in such a close area for extended periods of time was not conducive to good moral. As they took seats around the table, Plagueis went over his own plans for the planet. Should anyone ask, he was also thinking of a plausible explanation for leaving by himself to complete his own goals during their trip while everyone else would go or stay. His disappearance wouldn't go unnoticed by the more observant and paranoid members of the group, though most wouldn't care.

His research was not something he wanted to share with everyone and that would be the way it would remain for at least for the immediate future. Eventually when Kabuto had caught up with the level of technology and knowledge required, he would have a competent assistant that would hopefully add to his research with the abilities of medical ninjutsu. Naruto did not seem very interested in his research but that didn't bother him in the slightest. He spent decades researching the intricacies of midi-chlorians by himself in almost complete isolation, even while training an apprentice who was not that interested in his research either.

The only thing standing in his way at the moment was the meeting and then he would be free to find his test subject on the planet that they approached. He needed data and even a failed experiment should provide valuable information for the future. As a formality, he decided to attend the briefing but really there was no real purpose for him to be there as he was going to let Naruto explain everything. The best method to get around any questions as to his own agenda was to have Naruto run the entire the briefing and fill their thoughts with information that he himself wasn't all that concerned with.

They could sell the weapons just about anywhere, but it would be a good lesson and task for his student to undertake. Dealing with the Hutts, or any Hutt for that matter, could be quite tricky. Naruto would undoubtedly also task a few of their crew members with finding the Rakatan Temple on the planet. His teachings to his student that he had learned from ancient texts and holocrons, spoke of many such temples on various worlds throughout the Galaxy. Each housed a map system that would show the way to the long since destroyed Star Forge and the homeworld of the Rakatan people.

A part of him thought it a fools errand as the Star Forge was long gone, the Rakatan homeworld abandoned, the fact that the Rakatan map on Tatooine may have been destroyed, and the ruins weren't well known to anyone on the planet which made finding them all the more difficult. 'Likely only a select few Tuskan Raiders or perhaps Jawas know the exact whereabouts of such a place. I don't believe the ruins were near any city or settlement and I doubt that has changed much, but if it keeps them out of my business, then who am I stop him from trying.' were the thoughts of the Sith Lord.

Once the crew was seated in chairs and quiet, he turned made a mental nod to his student to begin the briefing.

After giving a brief glance at the crew members, both organic and nonorganic, that filled the room, Naruto began, "The planet we will shortly arrive at is called Tatooine. It's a uncivilized planet that is controlled by the Hutts, which are a large slug-like species that are synonymous with crime and other illegal acts."

"Is it a water planet?" interrupted Suigetsu with his fingers crossed.

"Please tell me it has a lot of water. Large slugs wouldn't like it too dry. Our last planet didn't agree with me much." Suigetsu explained to the others as he awaited a favorable answer.

"Its not a water planet." Naruto answered in a dull tone.

"Lots of islands? Grassy? Plains? Rocky?" Suigetsu asked as he tried to picture a place where he would be at least a little comfortable.

"Actually its a desert planet." explained Naruto and he was met with silence as well as a frown from Suigetsu. The quiet atmosphere was only broken by a snort from Karin as she tried to hold back her mirth.

"So it has a large desert?" inquired Suigetsu.

"No its mostly desert." answered Naruto with a sigh.

"How much is mostly?" inquired Suigetsu as he ignored the smiles and light laughter from the two redheads at the table.

"The entire planet is one contiguous desert, marred with some rock outcroppings and plateau. Nothing grows there and the only water moisture which the populace 'farms' with machines known as moisture vaporators."

Suigetsu starred at him with an incredulous look and Naruto added, "It also has two suns."

After banging his head on the table, Suigetsu sat up and stated, "So we're going to another fucking wasteland in the middle of nowhere?"

"You could say that." Naruto acknowledged as he tried to avoid the impending problems associated with Plagueis's choice of planet.

"Can't we go to a world that doesn't discriminate against me?"

"None of us would be sad if you evaporated." Tayuya chimed in and Karin laughed while Kabuto and Jugo couldn't contain their smiles.

"But he does have a point, why can't we go anywhere nice." Kabuto commented and he glanced over to Plagueis to see if his words caused any visible reaction. He was slightly disappointed when they hadn't.

'Well this briefing certainly became unproductive fast.' Thought Naruto and Plagueis.

While the meeting got back on track and Naruto began explaining more about the planet, a pair of red photoreceptors scanned the meeting room. HK-47 watched as the Meatbags prattled about nonsensical things that didn't concern him at all. Thoughts circled in his processor about taking a few of the weapons that were within his reach and killing as many of them as he could before getting stopped but he could not act on these.

Right before he was about to disable most of his auditory sensors, they picked up on a word that sparked some recollection. With renewed interest he began reviewing the accompanying sentences in which it was spoken. He did not record everything that his auditory sensors picked up but he did have playback for a few minutes. Cycling through the last thirty seconds of the conversation, he heard the recorded voice utter the word one more time.

'Rakatan.' It was familiar to him and he began a search through his memory to try and determine where and when he had last heard it. A few of the others words stated in the sentences also seemed to tug at his though processes. The short Sith Meatbag that was leading their group had also mentioned, 'Tatooine,' 'Star Map,' and 'Temple,' all accompanying or describing the one word that had renewed his interest in the conversation.

Cross referencing these words together with Rakatan, he slowly began to retrieve information that had long been filed away and compressed in order to save room for more important things, like the best methods for killing Meatbags. Initially he began sifting through information on Rakatans, but soon it changed to specific information related to the words he had searched for.

'Inner thought: I have been to this temple before and seen the map in question. The Meatbags have no idea where the exact location is...I can use this to my advantage.'

Interrupting the briefing, HK began implementing his plan, "Query: Am I correct in my logic that you are after a temple containing an ancient map which in the Eastern Dune Sea of the planet Tatooine?"

The explanation that Naruto had been giving Kabuto about Tuskan Raiders and Jawa died as all eyes turned to the sadistic droid which sat in an area of the table with chairs farther away than the normal distance, as several people had moved over slightly so as to not be very close to the droid.

While Plagueis was able to contain his surprise, Naruto was not and had a look on his face that few had ever seen. It wasn't that expressive, just mild surprise and shock but it was more than most at the table had ever seen him display.

'Is this some of kind of trick?' Naruto wondered as he analyzed the new information. The ship that the droid was on was old...very old. It likely dated to near the same period of time as the rediscovery of the Star Forge. 'Does it really know about the temples and the star maps?'

Plagueis on the other hand was several steps ahead of Naruto in his deductions. 'Its obviously an assassination droid and its old body was customized and full of complex modifications. The model is not one that I have ever encountered. It's also several millenia old and now apparently it possesses detailed knowledge of the star maps, or at least the location of one of them. It can't be that droid, can it? I don't actually know what happened to that droid, nor can I remember its designation.' thought Plagueis as he considered the possibility.

With the moment of surprise having passed, Naruto couldn't keep himself from finding out more of what the droid had to say. "And how exactly would you know something like that?"

"Statement: I have been around for quite a while and seen many things."

Naruto held back his frown at the lack of any definitive information in the droid's statement and quickly brought up a map of the planet on the holoprojector in the center of the table. Scanning over the terrain, he then looked to the droid and gestured to the map. HK-47 examined the holoprojection for a moment before looking back to Naruto. "Query: Should I provide this information, what do I get in return?"

Naruto's eyed the droid as he mulled over the question. He wasn't sure what the droid would want. Hearing his thoughts, Plagueis answered, 'I believe he wants to go along with one of the two parties. Likely he has gotten bored during our trip and wants some assurance that he can get to kill something. You were going to take him with you anyway.'

'How wonderful. I thought this was just supposed to be a weapons deal.'

"You'll be going with me to see a Hutt about some weapons. I do believe you speak fluent Huttese?" Naruto asked and the droid ignored his question in favor of something else.

"Ultimatum: I would also like my hand returned to normal." The droid said while looking to its hand that Naruto had changed.

Though the others listening to the conversation were slightly confused, Naruto knew that the droid wanted one of its hands returned to being the blaster rifle attachment and not the articulated hand it now was.

"That can be arranged, but first, the information." bartered Naruto as he motioned back to the Tatooine projection. The droid eyed him carefully and his red photoreceptors flared before its hand reached out and pointed to an area of the projected planet. "Statement: The temple you seek lies in a cave in this area of canyons in the Eastern Dune Sea."

'Though the projection has no identifying names for the areas of the planet, he pointed to an area in the Eastern Dune Sea.' noted Plagueis and it becoming more likely that the droid was not making up its statement, but had likely been there before. Naruto quickly marked the location and zoomed in to study the area a little closer. They had only sparse information on the topographic of the planet and they certainly didn't have complete or explicitly detailed maps of the entire surface. There was no way of telling with the projection whether there actually was a cave containing the temple ruins in that area. Someone would have to go and find out.

x-x

As the Vulture set down on the outskirts of a place called Tosche Station, the landing walkway lowered and Naruto was the first to disembark. The cool night air was a stark contrast to what the conditions of the desert planet must have been during day. Touching the last walkway strut as he stepped out onto the sand, he grimaced slightly and glanced to his right hand which was covered in severe chakra burns.

Along with his training with Plagueis, he had also been trying to master the technique he had taken from Kakashi's and Jiraiya's memories. The rasengan proved quite difficult and while he had passed the first two stages while they were traveling from Ibonihs, the technique was not yet complete. He had tried to surprise his Master during one of their duels but wasn't able to even graze Plagueis with it. Instead he missed and hit an interior wall of the ship. Despite the power of the uncompleted technique, it only marked the metal with a shallow etched spiral that radiated perfectly from the center where the attack had struck. The spacing between the lines of the spiral was exact to within less than a millimeter.

He could have asked Kabuto or Karin to heal the wound, or perhaps even done it himself but he wanted to let it heal normally. Pain was not something that should bother him but it had been quite a while since he had experienced such heavy chakra burns. He was so focused while practicing with the technique over and over again that he never even realized that his hands were becoming burned by the channeling, compression and movements of his own chakra.

Looking out over the sand, he knew that over several dunes one direction was Tosche Station, which was a power station that supplied most of the surrounding towns with power via underground transmission cables. In another direction was Anchorhead, which was relatively close. Far to the east was the Eastern Dune Sea which was were HK-47 had claimed the Rakatan temple was and somewhere even farther to the north was Jabba's palace and several larger cities and space ports.

The rudimentary plan was to head to Anchorhead and then split up into two groups from there. He would be traveling with HK and Juugo to Jabba's palace while Kabuto would be taking Karin and the Demon Brothers out into the desert.

It wasn't wise to put both medics together on a single team but Karin was likely still reluctant to kill and would be needed to sense for Krayt dragons on the open dunes and canyons of that group's journey. Kabuto would be leading the group as the snake ninja had more experience on higher ranking missions and traveling so deep out into the desert was not an easy task.

He thought about sending HK-47 with that group but the revelations during the meeting made him want to keep a closer eye on the droid. 'Master Plagueis also seems to be getting ready to disembark, but I have no idea where he might be headed.' remembered Naruto as he could feel Plagueis his adjacent room getting things together for some kind of travel, though he knew not how heavy or light his Master had packed, or what Plagueis would want on the planet.

From earlier conversations, Plagueis did not know much about the planet, aside from basic knowledge about the controlling Hutts and some history. 'He'd probably notice if I tried to follow him.' thought Naruto as he checked his gear.

Suigetsu would be staying in the ship, along with Tayuya. He had noted that the redhead had been rather secluded during most of their journey and sometimes not coming out of her room for a day or more at a time. Karin would sometimes take food to her. However, nothing showed in her expressions when she was around that indicated a problem and he couldn't glean anything from her.

'Perhaps she still doesn't like her situation here with the rest of the group.' he guessed as he looked in the direction of where Anchorhead was. It wouldn't take long to get there. By foot they would arrive at dawn and from there they would have to secure some kind of transport to their different locations.


	24. Chapter 24

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

x-x

**36.3 BBY – Current Year **

Chapter XXIV: Dealings with Hutts

x-x

Morning was quick to come, or a more accurate way of putting it was that the first sun was soon over the horizon with the second close on its heels.

'I've never actually walked through a vast desert before.' Naruto realized as he led the group in a single file line with Plagueis at the rear. The heat wasn't that bothersome at the moment but even in their survival cloaks taken from the warship on Mustafar, by midday, the heat would certainly affect all of them.

A quick henge had him looking a bit older than usual. He was the shortest of the group now that Plagueis no longer had Gato's body and negotiating with a Hutt would be difficult enough, he didn't need the Hutt and entourage laughing at him because he looked like a little kid.

The cloaked group entered the town of Anchorhead and moved silently in the early hours of the morning. Few people were out that early, just a few merchants setting up street shops and it seemed the only business open was the local cantina and Plagueis soon moved to the head of the group, taking the lead and choosing a path straight for the establishment.

Once the star port came to life, they would split up and move to accomplish their separate missions.

x-x

'The kid has guts, I'll give him that.' thought Tsunade as she once again went over the medical records of a genin, Rock Lee. The surgical procedure that would be required to heal the boy involved quite a bit of risk invoked but the genin desperately wanted to continue being a ninja, despite not even being able to use chakra.

Her eyes looked up from the paper for a second before she grabbed the nearest item on her desk, which happened to be an empty saki bottle, and threw it at the intruder to her office. Jiraiya reached out and grabbed the bottle before it smacked him in the face.

"What do you want." Tsunade said with sigh as her projectile had failed to hit.

Jiraiya held the bottle up and tipped it over his mouth to see if any saki was left, but nothing came. 'She certainly finishes it to the last drop.' he thought before stepping down off the windowsill and taking a seat opposite the buxom Hokage.

"I came to give you my final report on the Kyuubi container." began Jiraiya and Tsunade put down her papers to listen.

"I've exhausted all the means at my disposal in order to determine everything I could about him. I've looked through all his records, tapped out all of my contacts and even called in a few favors." Jiraiya informed her and she waited for him to continue.

"I can't find him anywhere. No sighting, no rumors, he just vanished. There haven't been any sightings of that machine he used, nor any sightings of any member of the group he was traveling with."

Tsunade sighed and wasn't really surprised by her teammate's finding. She knew he did everything he could but whatever flying machine the boy had used, was going completely unnoticed. 'He did say it could go incredibly high in the air. Someone might just mistake it for a bird.' she thought before asking a question that she had been waiting for an answer on.

"Did you find anything new about the machine itself from the Land of Spring?"

Jiraiya nodded and Tsunade's interest in the conversation was renewed. "I talked with all the scientist that took part in whatever Naruto was doing. Not one of them was privy to all segments of the project that they were working on but from piecing it all together, they think they were building the components and fuel to create a power source of some kind." Jiraiya informed her.

"A power source? Like some kind of electrical generator." Tsunade questioned and Jiraiya tried to explain it better, "They weren't completely positive what the end result would be." and Jiraiya closed his eyes for a second as he took a thinking pose to remember the words given to him by one of the scientists. Most of what they had been trying to tell him was so far over his head that they had to explain it to him several times.

"It would create a reaction that would produce an incredible amount of heat and energy." Jiraiya said, reiterating the words that the scientists had told him.

"How much power?" Tsunade asked as she leaned forward slightly and awaited the answer. Jiraiya again tried to remember exactly what the scientists had explained to him but numbers were never his strong suit.

"A lot." came his uncertain reply. Tsunade's eye twitched and she decided to try a different approach with her teammate, "Enough to power the village?"

"More than that." Jiraiya answered and her eyes widened slightly at that.

"The entire country?" she put forth and Jiraiya quickly nodded and added, "That and probably more, they said it could produce more power than anything they had ever seen before."

A moment of silence elapsed as the two sat and thought over the implications of such a power source. Tsunade was the first to break the silence with another question that she had been waiting to get answers to, "Did you ever determine where the flying machine came from?"

Jiraiya shrugged and quickly responded, "No one in Spring Country seemed to know anything about it. I can't determine where it came and the Hyuuga girl said it didn't have any marking on it that she could remember."

Moving on, Tsunade asked, "Have you found out anything else about Akatsuki and their movements."

"My contacts inform me that someone is definitely expending a lot of resources looking for Naruto, his group, and the ship. I suspect it is Akatsuki but I can't get anything definitive. Aside from that, I still don't know what it is that they want with him."

At that point, Tsunade had nothing left to discuss with her former teammate and was about to continue with her duties as Hokage, but it was apparently now Jiraiya's turn to ask a question of his own, "What of the Suna boy you still have in a cell?"

Tsunade sighed as the subject had been one of heated debate with the Village Elders and Council, "Its a political nightmare, you know that." she said and Jiraiya's frown was evidence that he did not like her answer.

"I can't let him go because he attacked the village and did a great deal of damage. We also certainly can't execute him because of what he contains. As much as I hate to say it, Danzo is right, handing him over would be a sign of weakness on our part. The fact that he is the son of the deceased Fourth Kazekage only complicates things further." she informed him and Jiraiya was quick to protest, "Doesn't his own village want him back?"

"I don't know anymore. They seem to but we can't come to any agreement over the matter. No matter what kind of arrangement we've discussed, the Elders are adamant that it would put us in a bad position, even if the terms for his return are a peace treaty. As far as I know, this kind of situation has never happened before.

"Your talking as if he's some object."

Tsunade gave him a look and he backed off. Heavy sighs were made by both Sannin. "For now he's a political prisoner and will remain where he is until this can all be sorted out. A messenger bird comes every few days relaying more terms but neither village is willing to meet and sort it all out. Its just a complete mess." and she gave Jiraiya a look that said, 'This is all your fault,' for making her deal with all of it when she became Hokage.

Jiraiya took the silence as his cue to leave and decided he would visit the boy again to make sure the seal he put was holding. Aside from that, there was really nothing more he could do about it.

x-x

Finding a single person on a the desert planet was proving incredible difficult for the Sith Lord as he looked through one of the few information terminals in the starport of Anchorhead. Despite knowing exactly when his experiment had traveled to the desert planet, he still had difficulty finding any record of where she ended up or even that she came to the planet. It was doubtful at best that she would be in Anchorhead but it was one of the safer ports on the planet and more civilized so it had better access to information.

'Being such a backwater planet, this may take me quite some time.' Plagueis thought as he sifted through files and was finding no results. There was no networked database like on most of the more civilized planets. Records of who came and went from the planet were spotty at best. Anyone could come and go as they pleased and few if any would use a real name. He would be lucky to find any records at all of her arrival, given that so many shady dealings took place on the planet. 'The Hutts wouldn't keep records on who came and went to keep their dealings secret and provide anonymity for their business associates. But perhaps I need a different strategy. She is a slave and some kind of record of her ownership must exist, even if a record of her arrival doesn't.' he realized and began started searching for the location of where slave records were kept.

From what he knew of the slave trade on various planets, each slave owner needed some kind of proof of ownership for each of their slaves and such information would be kept on file somewhere with a copy or original with the owner. Without it, anyone could claim that they did not own the slave and take ownership for themselves. This would likely be especially true when it came to the Hutts and as a result, records were kept for each slave.

However, he first needed to find the location of the records. Anchorhead was obviously not the location for such records as it was one of the more civilized starports and it was exceedingly doubtful that he could access those records from the terminal he was at. 'I'll have to go there in person.' he idly thought as he searched.

The screen on the terminal changed and he finally managed gain the location of where the records were kept. 'Mos Espa,' Plagueis thought and frowned. Naruto had just left for the city in the last hour and he would have to wait for the next transport.

Thinking ahead and planning his next moves, Plagueis decided to go back to the ship instead of waiting for a transport and simply fly there. 'I'll probably need the astromech droid to slice into the database to get the information I need and remain unnoticed.' he thought and headed in the direction of the ship.

As he walked through the sand, he didn't notice a slight movement behind him. The sand bulged slightly and a winding path was made for a short distance in Plagueis's direction before the bulge subsided and the creature moved deeper into the sand.

x-x

'It feels...pathetic.' Naruto thought as he sat on the modified skiff that was being used as a transport between starports on Tatooine. He was on his way with Juugo and HK-47 to Mos Espa followed by Mos Eisley, and they were taking public transportation to get there.

'We'll definitely have to use something else if Jabba is in his palace. I'm not going to show up on a makeshift bus to make a weapons deal. Even walking would be preferable.' he believed and looked to the others of his group.

It was obvious that their droid was also not happy with the accommodations either. Juugo on the other hand seemed rather preoccupied with other thoughts. 'He's rather troubled with something and that's the last we need when going to meet with a Hutt. I'll need him to be more focused and aware.' thought Naruto as he debated about how to go about remedying the problem.

After quite a bit of internal debate and indecision, he began, "You seem troubled?" The question was asked in Ibonihese so as to not allow anyone else to overhear what they were talking about.

Juugo stopped looking off across the horizon and came out of his thoughts to answer the question with a question, "How many slaves are on this planet?" he asked while glancing across the narrow skiff to the chained individuals sitting across the ship on nearby benches.

"I don't really know." Naruto answered as it was never a question he considered during the briefing. "I would guess around 50% of the inhabitants of the planet but that's only a guess. I have no idea how many indigenous Sand People and Jawas there are to make an accurate figure." he estimated.

"Why doesn't anyone help them?" Juugo asked as he continued to stare from beneath his hood.

Naruto could think of plenty of reasons why no one would even try helping them. The Hutts owning the entire slavetrade on the planet and the fact that people didn't make enemies of the Hutts. The slaves Juugo was looking at were likely going to someone of influence or wealth in the starport, or perhaps leaving the planet but it would detrimental to their mission to even try and free a single slave. If half the planet were slaves, what would even be the point of freeing a small handful, other than trying to appease a conscience.

"I don't decide how the galaxy works. Many planets outlaw slavery, especially in the Republic, while on others it is a thriving business. There is nothing that can be done for them. Plagueis mentioned that they likely have a chip in their heads which would prevent them from leaving the planet." Naruto mentioned and Juugo quickly asked, "How would it prevent them from leaving?"

"The chip would likely explode if they left the planet and kill them. I guess there would be some kind of signal or beacon somewhere on the planet that transmits a signal, and once the chip no longer receives it..." Naruto stopped the sentence short as he answered truthfully and could instantly feel Juugo's unease at the statement. 'It seems I'm just making thing worse.'

"Why does it concern you?" Naruto asked of Juugo as he was curious to know the answer.

"I suppose I was a slave of sorts, while in the care of Orochimaru. I was chained up and put away in a cell but that was of my own decision. They don't have a choice. Only to keep existing as they are, or death it seems." Juugo answered and then looked to Naruto seriously, "Doesn't it bother you, even a little? Don't you feel anything for them?"

Naruto earnestly thought about the question and then glanced to the slaves Juugo had been looking at a moment earlier. Up to that point, he had simply ignored the other slaves they had seen on their journey. Questioning himself about the answer, he decided to explore what Juugo had asked. He opened his mind to seek out their thoughts and feelings and was hit full force with a crushing despair.

Loneliness, sadness, anger, despair, and more filled him as he began seeing a few images that they were thinking about. He learned about how they were treated, where they were going, and how one was close to either ending her life or attacking her captors despite the fact she knew it wouldn't end well.

'STOP!' his own thoughts forced to the forefront of his mind and pushed everything out. A second went by before Naruto realized where he was and that he still had yet to answer Juugo. His heart was beating rapidly and overall he felt unwell, despite feeling fine moments before.

"...No...I don't feel anything for them." he answered with finality and the conversation was over between the two.

Juugo was not surprised by the answer but was less than pleased with it. 'Why did I almost expect him to say something different? Maybe I shouldn't have even asked in the first place.'

While Naruto was getting his emotions back under control HK-47 was completely engrossed with processing and analyzing the conversation. The droid had no idea what was said and that was what it found so interesting. He had allocated all processing power to his translation programming in order to decipher the conversation and unlock the language that his new associates were using.

The language didn't explicitly match any of the ones he had in his database but it was very close to several and therefore it would still be possible to piece it together. 'Inner Thought: I need to hear more of the language in order to properly decipher it.' and while this was true, there was nothing he could think of to convince them to speak more of the unknown language. They would presumably only answer a question put forth by him in Basic.

It was at that moment that Naruto's comm-link began indicated that someone was trying to get in touch with him.

x-x

The skiff swiftly moved just a few meters above the open sands. A hot wind whipped by them and none of the four could honestly say that they weren't affected by the dual suns beating down on them and the hot sands below.

After some initial problems, Kabuto had managed to get a hang of the controls on the 'borrowed' skiff. They were made to be as easy as possible to pilot and Kabuto was piloting them to the location that the droid had specified on the map. Currently they were almost halfway there and had managed to cover a vast distance that would have been nearly impossible to cover by foot in such a timely fashion.

Glancing to one area of the ship, Kabuto once again looked at the minimal damage taken during their brief encounter with a troop of Sand People herding large hairy creatures a few minutes earlier. Though the skiff wasn't really damaged, they had taken a few hits that had actually dented the hull in a few spots.

'Those projectile weapons are scary.' Kabuto thought to himself as he focused back to the controls and their current course, 'I could barely see the metal slugs as they were coming at us and the distance was such that I may not have been able to dodge considering the speed at which they were traveling. Supposedly they're archaic weapons but clearly still very dangerous.'

A single hit taken would have easily pierced his body and possible kept on going if it didn't hit bone. They didn't stop when they came across the hostile natives and just kept on going but that didn't stop the Sand People from opening fire at them. Glancing at his chronometer, he looked to Karin and said, "It seems its about time to check in with Naruto."

Karin also glanced at her timepiece and then pulled out their communicator. Naruto had demanded regular check-ins with their group to update him on their progress. Activating the communicator, she found Naruto's channel and tried to reach him. The answer was nearly immediate and showed just how much interest Naruto had in their mission.

"Update, Karin." Naruto's disembodied voice commanded and Karin frowned slightly at the response but was curious as to why he was using Ibonihese instead of Galactic Basic.

"We're still traveling through the desert." responded Karin's dull voice in the same language which Naruto was speaking. They really had nothing to report and she found the exercise tedious at best. There was a moment of silence as Naruto expected a little bit more

"And you've encountered nothing so far?" Questioned Naruto as he wanted at least some bit of information.

"You really wanted to come on this mission instead of the one you're on right now, didn't you?" asked Karin as she threw away any semblance of tact. Another moment of silence took place in which Karin regretted her statement and then Naruto said coldly, "Then update me when you have something to report."

A moment later the communications channel was terminated and Karin stared at the communicator as if wary of it, before putting it back in her pocket.

"That may have not been the best thing to say, Karin." commented Kabuto and he continued, "You remember his reaction during the meeting. This mission is far more important to him than what Plagueis tasked him with and certainly much more important than whatever mission Plagueis is on."

Gozu put down his electrobinoculars and looked toward the snake-like ninja from his post on the starboard side of the skiff, "And what mission is Master Plagueis on?" The other two looked to Kabuto as well and the medical-nin smiled under his hood while replying, "I don't know yet, but I will. I don't even think Naruto knows."

The other three didn't want to know what schemes Kabuto was up to so they decided to leave it alone for now.

x-x

Arriving in Mos Espa, both Naruto, Juugo, and HK got up from their seats and exited the skiff. The three had been quiet for the remainder of the journey and the sadistic droid had barely spoken since their journey on Tatooine had started.

While the others on the skiff got off, only the slavers still remained unmoving in their seats. The slaves they were escorting began to get nervous and then one decided to act. She quickly reached for the blaster on the slavers side and managed to get a hold of the weapon without being stopped. Pointing the weapon at her captor, she realized that the Rodian hadn't moved at all.

She briefly wondered if he had fallen asleep but noticed that his eyes were still open. Not a second later, his body began to slide sideways on the bench and once it got a point, it fell over completely. The other slaves finally realized that the man was dead and the ones that were closer could see a piece of sharpened metal sticking out of the back of his neck. Looking to the their other two captors, they found them dead as well.

The smarter ones in the group quieted the others so as not to draw attention and went about searching for the keys that would unlock their chains and cuffs.

Oddly, no one really noticed what they were doing until they were free and moving away from the skiff. By that time, the trio from the Vulture were already a good distance away from the skiff and could only hear some commotion, which was drowned out by the noises of Mos Espa. They wouldn't be able to stay at all in the spaceport as they needed to get to another transport that would take them to Mos Eisley, which was closer to Jabba's Palace, although they didn't know the exact location of it.

In the distance, the Vulture slowed down as it began landing preparations at one of the hangars of the spaceport. It remained unnoticed by Naruto or his two companions.

x-x

Plagueis swiftly moved through the crowded midday streets. Throngs of people passed by and with him as he headed for where he knew the slave records were kept. Deefour was a short distance behind him and struggling to keep up with the Sith Lord's long strides.

Slightly annoyed, Plagueis turned to make sure the droid was still behind him and no sooner had he spotted the droid through the crowd then someone bumped into him. Coming to a stop and turning back, he looked down upon a small blonde haired child that quickly got up and blurted out, "Sorry Mister." before running to catch up with his worried friends.

Not wanting to make a scene, and unable to speak anything but Mustafarian in his current body, Plageuis didn't ask for any apology or make any movements at all as he briefly watched the group go. He noted that the boy was carrying a severed droid arm with him and found it slightly strange. Already stopped, he didn't have to wait long for Deefour to catch up and the pair proceeded at a fast pace to the records building.

Upon arriving at the address that was indicated in his search at Anchorhead, the Sith Lord found a set of large adobe buildings near a much larger and more lavish compound. 'Probably owned by one of the Hutts that lives here.' he believed and kept casual as he passively surveyed and sensed out the area. Cautious as he wasn't sure what to expect, he walked right on by and would then double back. The buildings were unmarked, save the worn exteriors. A few guards were stationed outside but no where near as many as the nearby compound and he wondered if the buildings were owned and operated by one of the Hutts.

Unlike some worlds, Tatooine did not have regular slave auctions. Most of the population of the spaceport were slaves but everything was more low-key. Slaves were traded or bought from other slavers and some were imported from off-world. New slaves were born from parents that were slaves and sold to others or kept by the owner. A person completely unfamiliar with the planet could walk by hundreds of slaves and may never realize it.

After turning around and coming back, Plagueis headed into the main building. No sooner then he got in through the door than he came upon several guards stationed in the hallway. They wore no uniforms and each dressed differently with dissimilar weapons and they were different species. After he tricked them into thinking they had already checked him for weapons, he made them let him pass and progressed deeper into the building.

Down a staircase and along a hallway, the passage opened up to a larger room with guards and presumable Hutt affiliated personnel at the slave station trying to calm down several loud individuals who Plagueis assumed were slave owners. Several slaves and new owners or sellers sat on benches along one wall as they waited for processing and several other guards were seated or leaning against the walls around the room. Deefour's head swiveled completely around as it took in the room with its several photoreceptors.

'I'd rather not have to wait in line, nor let anyone know what I am here for.' Plagueis thought as he looked towards the complaining individuals crowding what few people were working in the building. Moving at a sedate pace, the Sith Lord made his way to the back rooms where the records must be kept and which were likely not accessible to anyone but those employed by the Hutts.

Before being stopped by any of the guards, Plagueis overhead the conversations of the slave owners shouting at each other and the staff. They had apparently purchased new slaves that were being brought to Mos Espa only for them to escape along the way.

Using the Force to create a distraction, he fueled the emotions on the already squabbling slave owners and made use of a light Force push that led to a brawl starting in the room between civilians and guards. As more people were brought into it and reinforcements moved to break it up, no one noticed as he slipped passed everyone and proceeded through what was supposed to be a secure building.

The first computer terminal he came across Plagueis made sure the coast was clear and motioned to the droid in tow. Deefour beeped in understating while moving to the terminal and breaking through the security systems to access all of the information it could. A few short moments later, Plagueis interpreted the beeps from the droid that all of the slave records were digitized and stored in the buildings computers.

Pleased but unable to speak to the droid in anything but Mustafarian, he moved to the terminal and typed in the surname he wanted the droid to search for. Making sure to cover their digital footprint and access, Deefour soon found the information that Plagueis was after.

'Two listings?' Plagueis thought as he looked to the readout on the screen. The droid had succeeded in finding Shmi Skywalker, which pleased him greatly, but another listing was also there under the surname of Skywalker. Hearing the fight being broken up, he quickly downloaded both files to a datachip he had and proceeded to leave out the nearest exit with Deefour following right behind.

x-x

The skiff cruised at a quarter of the normal speed as Kabuto piloted the ship over the Eastern Dune Sea. They had also increased altitude to see above a few of the dunes and both Demon Brothers were on watch while Karin actively scanned the area as far as her range could go.

'The farther we travel to the location the droid gave us, the more Sand People we seem to come across. We may be passing by camp of theirs.' concluded Kabuto as he manned the controls and put them on a more sinuous course to their destination.

Having run into four groups of indigenous people, they decided to err on the side of caution. Karin had a close call from one long-ranged weapon of the nomadic tribe and she was not eager to be on the receiving end of any more near misses should they exchange fire again.

'The animals that they herd probably noticed us before they did and they had enough warning to get a few shots off as we flew by...' and Kabuto's thoughts were interrupted by Karin's shout of, "Bank left!"

Working the controls, Kabuto lowered their altitude and hugged the dunes as he veered their course around what must have been another group of nomadic locals. Having an idea, Kabuto picked one of the larger dunes and slowed to a stop along its side. Letting the ship hover, he went to the bag he was carrying and searched for his electrobinoculars as he asked, "Another troop?" to Karin.

"Why did you stop, they may have seen us?" questioned Karin as she moved from the front of skiff to the back where Kabuto was. Kabuto's reply was to smile and say, "You'll see." The brothers looked to each other but didn't really care as the weapons wielded by the Sand People could not hurt them.

Jumping off the skiff, Kabuto sunk in slightly to the sand of the large dune and lept his way to the top. He was quickly followed by Karin and the Demon Brothers and when the had all reached the top of the dune, Kabuto was already adjusting his tan cloak to better hide his face and any exposed areas. Creeping to the top of the rune, he covered as much of his head as possible with the sand colored cloth and just peeked over the top of the dune near the highest crest.

Zooming in with the binoculars, he spotted the group that Karin had sensed. Counting their number, he reached ten and then focused on their weapons and the different animals that they were herding or riding. 'The hairy ones must be bantha and the others could be the dewback that Naruto spoke of in the briefing.' he realized and observed anything else of note.

"What do you see?" asked Meizu from his position with his brother and Karin lower on the dune.

"Only a few of them appear to have ranged weapons, most just have the same style of club. But that isn't what troubles me." admitted Kabuto as he studied their current heading and where they had come from.

"And what's that?" answered Karin as she curiously moved a little closer to the top but stayed below the crest.

"They seem to be heading in the same direction that we are." explained Kabuto with a sigh at the implications of what that meant.

x-x

There was nothing of note to see in Mos Eisley as the trio led by Naruto headed on foot for Jabba's Palace. The only stop that they made was to ask questions and find someone that knew the location of the palace. Not many people knew exactly where it was but they had found a Gran that knew the way and Naruto had ripped that information from his mind. The Gran had gone to the palace on only a few occasions and while it did not know the coordinates, the memories were enough to piece together a route to follow that would lead them where they wanted to go.

Few if any people normally went to Jabba's Palace. There was no shuttle or transport there and the few people that probably could take them there, knew to stay away from it. So they resigned to travel by foot. Each member had been quiet for nearly the entire journey. Juugo hadn't said anything since their discussion on the slaves while riding the skiff transport.

What unnerved Naruto was the fact that HK-47 had been giving them glances and had said nothing since leaving the Vulture. The droid was not usually so reserved and he could only guess at what was going through its processor.

Taking out his communicator, Naruto attempted to reach Plagueis once again but the Muun-turned-Mustafarian was not answering again. 'Kabuto should be sending me an update soon. It shouldn't take that long to reach the cave on skiff.' he calculated and decided to proceed. In a few hours they would be reaching Jabba's Palace and he needed to mull over exactly how to address the Crime Lord so as to get a good price on their weapons and how to set up a deal so they wouldn't get double-crossed.

x-x

Putting her flute to her mouth, Tayuya began to play in the comfort of her shared room with Karin. The music began slow and sped up a little as she continued with the soothing melody. Closing her eyes, she lost herself to the tune and kept playing. Right before concluding the piece, the sharp pain made itself know at her shoulder.

Gritting her teeth, the sudden pain caused her to miss a note and she put down the flute as he rubbed the sore area on her shoulder blade, near her neck. It started as a dull pain that had been bothering her for the past month or so but now occasional sharp pains would come and go. The area experiencing the pain had also increased in size and was no longer as localized.

'Its spreading and getting worse.' She knew exactly what the cause was but chose to ignore it as there was little anyone could do and her stubbornness kept her from asking for help. It hurt worse after periods of moderate chakra usage and was less frequent during their time spent aboard the ship in transit but that didn't mean that she put it out of her mind. The thought of what the pain meant was constantly in the back of her mind.

Soon it would become unbearable but she didn't want to think about it at that moment and decided to go and take a shower. Leaving her room, she walked by one of the other rooms and noticed Suigetsu packing a small travel bag along with one of their large empty sealing scrolls. The former Kiri ninja also seemed to be making some type of rudimentary harness in order to carry his cumbersome sword.

"And where do you think you're going, not that I care if you evaporate out there." Tayuya commented at the entrance to the open doorway that was Suigetsu's and Juugo's room.

Suigetsu looked up and smiled, "I'm going hunting as soon as night comes. I won't have to worry about the suns after sunset and I need to get out and try my new sword." he explained as he patted the large blade that lay on his bed.

Deciding it wasn't any of her business, Tayuya continued to the shower.

x-x

Sitting in a small restaurant, Plagueis looked over the data pad and the information it was showing him. The information was telling him something that should be impossible and it didn't help that Force was not offering any insight. Everything seemed clouded but the more rational side of his mind soon took over and he stopped jumping to conclusions without any evidence.

The data showed that his experiment had a son shortly after coming to the planet. Shmi was owned for a time by Gardula the Hutt, whose compound was the location of the slave station and records. After being lost by the Hutt in a wager to a junkyard dealer named Watto, the woman had moved to a new home in one of the many slave areas of the city. However during her time as a servant for the Hutt, she became pregnant but there was no father listed.

This wasn't unheard of as some men of status didn't want to be associated with an illegitimate child of a slave and it was equally likely that the records were incomplete or had not been updated with that information. There was no need for him to come to the conclusion that his experiment had somehow worked after the better part of a decade since its inception; no matter how much he wanted it to be true. The odds were so far beyond astronomical by that point that it was ridiculous to even consider it.

Calming himself and pushing such thoughts aside again, he looked to the boy's file and began going over it and looking for anything that stood out about the six year old. He was immediately surprised to find that he recognized the picture shown in the file. It was a year or two out of date but the boy shown was the same one that ran into him an hour or more previously.

Despite all his wisdom and knowledge, he couldn't keep his stolen body's heart from beating faster than it should at the faint possibility. He had to find out, even if it meant discovering finding nothing more than a normal child and facing another failure in his long line of failed experiments concerning that subset of Midi-chlorian manipulation.

Finishing his meal, he decided to take the droid back to the ship and then strike out on his own again as he went to the address shown in the stolen files. He would gather information from afar and would have to wait until night before doing anything significant. As he stood from his seat and walked out of the shop, a pair of slit yellow eyes were watching from a nearby alley, slithering across the ground and entering the sand once more, the creature continued its pursuit of the target.

x-x

After evading more Sand People, the Eastern Dune Sea leveled out and the large dunes had all but disappeared. Despite a short distance between them and their ultimate goal, the slowing down and evasions had cost them quite a bit of time in their journey and the planet cycle was reaching the afternoon by the time they finally neared the coordinates that HK-47 had given. Stopping the ship once again, Kabuto hid it as best as he could behind one of the only rock outcroppings in the relatively flat sand sea of sand.

"There's definitely a cave." announced Gozu and his brother added, "And it's quite occupied."

Grabbing his own pair of electrobinoculars, Kabuto found the cave on the horizon and increased the magnification on the device. The cave was very large and right in the middle of the flat sea of sand. It looked as thought sand had been poured over it and it was the only such feature for miles around. Focusing on the inhabitants of the cave, he found dozens of Sand People were at the entrance in a small village made of tents and presumable they were also in the cave as well.

'It seems my assumption was correct. They've made it into a shelter for themselves and an entire tribe or clan is living there.' Kabuto realized and he turned to Karin, "How many do you sense?"

Karin put down her optical device and extended her range to the maximum distance that she could. Shutting her eyes and forming a single handseal, her range extended and ended just before the cave. Pushing her chakra and ability as far as she could, she managed to capture the tents at the outside of the cave in her range but couldn't get beyond that.

Sighing in frustration, she stopped her attempt and reported, "I count nearly eighty at the cave entrance but I can't sense anything beyond that. More are heading there as well." she added at the end and Kabuto scanned the horizon to find one more group of Sand People, possibly one that they had passed along their way, headed to the cave village.

Going over all the information, Kabuto weighed their options. He thought about contacting Naruto but he quickly realized that there was no point. The conversation would result in a single response, which he could picture the cloaked boy saying. 'Get in the cave and get me that device.' Naruto wanted what was in the cave and nothing less would be acceptable.

While he did not outright fear Naruto, he had no idea what the former Konoha ninja would do if they failed. Naruto was strong and he did not yet understand the strange powers that the boy wielded. Naruto was also unpredictable, unlike Plagueis, so the only thing to do was to go in and find out if the device was even there.

"We'll wait here until it gets darker and then move in under the cover of darkness." put forth Kabuto as the best plan he could come up with.

"What about using a Henge and getting inside posing as one of the returning groups?" suggested Meizu and they looked to the appointed leader of the group.

"Its too risky. None of us speak their language and they'll be able to tell something is off when we can't respond to a simple question or greeting." Kabuto explained and Karin decided to get something to drink and eat as they waited behind the rocks they were hiding behind. It would still be a few hours before the suns had fallen to the horizon enough to give them cover.

x-x

The palace came in sight, situated on the edge of the Great Mesra Plateau. They had been walking along the wall of a canyon created by the plateau for quite a while and Naruto was positive that their present had been detected while they were still kilometers away from the palace.

"It doesn't really look like a palace." commented Juugo and Naruto had to agree with him. Jabba's complex consisted of one large rotunda building, two spires, and a few smaller buildings. 'In a way, the main buildings looks rather similar to the Hokage tower, although its about two or three times the size.' thought Naruto as they continued to get closer to the building on the carved path they were following. HK scanned the area with the heat vision of his photoreceptors and recorded the locations of the lookouts and sentries were that were watching them.

"Its possible someone has the scope of a weapon trained on us right now but I can't sense anyone with my limited range. HK how many can you identify?" Naruto asked in half Ibonihese and the remainder Basic.

Had the droid possessed facial expressions, it would have smirked but decided to hold it's vocalizations, "Answer: I have identified several Meatbags in the smaller buildings and larger main rotunda. None seem very concerned with our group, which is certainly a mistake on their part." The droid answered and the three continued to the arched stone bridge that would take them across the remainder of the canyon and to a steady incline that led to the palace above.

With the huge durasteel dark portcullis in view, Naruto looked for any monitoring systems or some method to announce their presence. 'I don't suppose we just knock?' he wondered but as they drew closer, it seemed more and more likely to be the case. Finally, they stood in front of the large and heavy door while the only sound in the area was the wind blowing against and around the large building.

Reaching forward, Naruto knocked several times on the door. Immediately a small round plate flipped open and a large photoreceptor protruded out the opening. The eye looked at all three and stated a sentence that was completely incomprehensible to the pair of humans. Confused by the unfamiliar language, by the time Naruto looked to HK for a translation, the eye had already been pulled back into the opening and the plate quickly shut behind it.

The trio stared at the door for a second before turning to HK once again and expecting an explanation to which the droid quickly complied. "Translation: It's response was quite derogatory and rather amusing. It seemed to think you were a Jawa." The droid said to Naruto.

The thin durasteel plate gave way to Naruto's Raikiri and his hand reached in to grab the droid's only photoreceptor. Yanking it back out of the door frame, an angry Naruto proceeded to convince the droid why it should open for them.

A moment later the large door opened for them and once high enough, they proceeded to walk through the opening and into a large cavernous hallway. HK-47 had fallen slightly behind as it mulled over it's what it had just seen and tried to figure out exactly what kind of technique the boy Meatbag had just used. It seemed quite similar to Force Lightning but he had never seen it rip through durasteel plate or used in that fashion.

'Inner thought: The more I observe these Meatbags, the more different they appear from normal Meatbags.' the droid thought as it increased its pace to catch them up.

Moving slowly down the dark hallway, a large lumbering spider-like droid passed by and was completely indifferent to their presence. The trio each noted the glowing pinkish container it carried at its abdomen but only Naruto realized upon first glance that it was a deteached brain in some kind of fluid. He also realized that it was still alive and in deep thought but he could not however glean much. It's thoughts were so jumbled and cryptic that it was as incomprehensible as the gate droid. Once the walking distraction had passed, they noted several guards at the edges of the hallway hidden in alcoves or just watching them.

The group slowed down as two guards came forward to bar their way with large axes. As they came closer and more into what little light the center-line of the hallway had, Naruto and Juugo were finally able to see more of their visage, which was that of a green skinned pig-like humanoid. The two grunted and oinked to make them stop while crossing their weapons together with an audible clang. The two humans looked over the two guards, who Naruto believed to be Gamoreans, while they presumably waited for someone else to arrive or for either party to make a hostile move.

A few moments later, another humanoid emerged from a nearby staircase. He had dark clothing and the only exposed skin was his neck, head, and what appeared to be a long tentacle that wrapped around his neck. None of the exposed skin had a single hair and the skull was shaped differently than a humans. With small red eyes and pointed teeth, the man crossed the distance in a short amount of time as he took long strides.

'Maybe its a lekku?' Naruto thought as he contemplated the tail-like feature emanating from the man's head. It would therefore make the man a male Twi-lek, which the ninja of the group had yet to encounter. Juugo for his part tried not to stare as Naruto moved to head of their trio in order to present himself as the leader and the person with whom the robed man should speak.

Though the first sentence out of the man's mouth was not in a language Naruto could understand, he could still guess at what the presumed Twi-lek was saying, "We've come to speak with the Great Jabba." Naruto said and hid the frown that was formed by uttering the respectful words.

A response was quickly given and Naruto didn't bother to have HK translate before responding back, "We have a shipment of weapons for him. He won't be disappointed." he added with a slight wave of his hand and the pale Twi-lek nodded and then asked one more question.

From the motions the Twi-lek was making, Naruto was positive that the man wanted a name from him. Thinking fast, he quickly blurted out the first thing on his mind. "Rasen..." and he cut himself off to not same the full name of the jutsu that he had been working on in his spare time, and the one that had recently injured his hand. The Twi-lek nodded again while telling the guards to let him pass.

The three walked passed the guards and the Twi-lek motioned to a wide staircase that they were apparently supposed to take. The man himself walked to the much narrower staircase he originally came out of, which Naruto believed led to a lift. As they proceeded to walk down the dark and winding staircase to what was likely Jabba's main room, Naruto could hear the faint sound of music and smell of some smoke like the Sandaime used to use in his pipe.

Pushing the old memories aside, he focused on the current situation. 'He never checked if we were armed.' he noted upon taking another step down the staircase and scanning for any traps or danger. 'Perhaps the droid at the gate scanned us. But even if the guards had searched us thoroughly, they wouldn't have found anything considering he knows nothings of fuinjutsu. We will get this over with as soon as possible, and then I can find out if Kabuto managed to find _it_.' he thought with a small smile.

Walking down another, and much shorter staircase, the Twi'lek Bib Fortuna went to the hidden turbolift that would take him down to his Master's throne room. As the newly appointed majordomo for the Hutt, he would inform Jabba of the new birthday guests and the gift they were bringing. He wasn't sure who they were or perhaps who they represented but many criminals and business partners of Jabba had arrived much sooner or sent gifts for the Hutt's birthday. The party had started that morning and was starting to wind down.

'They must have the weapons on a ship in Mos Espa or will be bringing them here shortly. I suppose the Great Slug will be pleased with their gift but I doubt it will surpass the Rancor that I just acquired for him. That gift will help assure my continued living for quite some time. Jabba's already fed at least two people to it and if the weapons aren't of a high enough quality, he'll add them to the menu as well.' he believed and smirked derisively as he reached the bottom of the shaft.

x-x

Realizing that he was staring, Plagueis started walking again and continued moving down the street, away from the hovel that he had been looking at intently for an unknown amount of time. He had found the home of the Skywalker slaves and would have to come back under the cover of darkness. Looking back over the area, he took note of anything he could in order to mark the area in his mind and make it easier to return later. The slave homes along the roadways of Mos Espa all looked alike. They were the same style, size, and shape, so he needed to look for the differences in order to memorize which one he wanted.

A part of him wanted to go back and break into the house to begin his search for answers but he knew it was a little risky and would therefore have to wait. He hadn't spent most of the day trying to find his experiment only to get caught breaking into her home. 'Waiting an hour or two longer won't hurt me but I do find my patience waning and curiosity as well as eagerness winning out over common sense.' he admitted and began thinking again if there was even the remote possibility that his experiment could have worked. The thought simple would not vacate his mind.

'The boy is five and I've been been dead for fifteen years. It just doesn't seem possible and yet why do I feel that it could have still worked.' he wondered and decided not to go back to the ship and instead just wander through the city while letting his mind contemplate the situation.

x-x

It was a long staircase and the farther they went down, the louder the music got. The smell of smoke only increased and voices could finally be made out by the time they reached the last bend in the winding stairs and their final destination. The stairs opened to a dimly lit room that reminded Naruto of something akin to a basement. The three looked to the nearby Hutt that sat on a rectangular slab or rock that made him the most prominent figure in the room. The two humans stared for quite a few seconds as the Hutt was indeed a species that they had trouble processing and trying to figure out anything that they had seen previously that even looked remotely similar.

The Hutts attention was completely focused on the two dancing Twi-lek in the middle of the room on a sunken floor slightly lower than the surroundings. Most of the room was gathered around the that area to watch or mingling on the outskirts or at the few tables in the room. A live band played in the corner and several droids roamed the room serving drinks. There were a good number of different species and a large number of people in general for such a space. In the darkness and with all of the people moving around or dancing to the music, it was unbelievably difficult to count how many people were crammed into the room.

The three were ushered into the room by the movements of the guests. After moving just a few steps away from the staircase, they eventually found a place to stand next to a few columns on the opposite side of the room from where the Hutt lounged.

"Do you think it's always this lively?" Juugo questioned while few well armed people bumped into him as they moved closer to the gathering around the dancers. Naruto contemplated the question and wasn't sure how to answer. The scene before them was not what he had pictured in his mind when he planned how he would approach the Hutt and haggle a price for the weapons.

Looking around the room like his two Meatbag companions were doing, the droid HK-47 wondered how fast the situation would deteriorate to violence once the Hutt learned that they would not be giving a promised gift. 'Inner thought: Many Meatbags will be killed in the chaos that ensues.' The droid celebrated and knew he just needed to wait for the inevitable to happen. Though not able to hurt his new owners, that didn't mean he had to keep them safe. He had held his voice synthesizer when he learned of what the twi-lek was saying and how the small blonde Meatbag did not understand, nor cared to understand what was really going on.

They however were proving to be more interesting than he originally anticipating, at least for Meatbags.

x-x

Few if any eyes were watching the dark sands of the surface as Kabuto swiftly moved underneath and the Demon Brothers moved through the air voids of the sand particles in their smoke form. Their target was supposedly housed inside of the cave but they needed to get past quite a few obstacles to get there. HK-47's information about the location of the cave had been accurate and they moved to find if the map that Naruto sought was still inside.

Sitting back at the skiff, Karin prepared the ship for a quick getaway and then focused on sensing within her range. Should a problem occur, she would have to get to Kabuto and the Brothers as fast as possible to make an escape. Given that the Sand People only seemed to have animal mounts and no vehicles of any kind, they wouldn't have to go far to outrun as pursuers.

She could feel Kabuto and the presences of Meizu and Gozu. Tracking the three, she soon found that they were on the fringes of her range and she would not be able to help anymore until they had completed the mission inside the cave or sent her a message via commlink.

As they neared the cave, Kabuto came very close to the surface and his snake appendage moved out of the sand just enough to expose it's head. Tasting the air with its tongue, the snake eyed the surrounding encampment and judged the distance needed to continue to a safer place before completely surfacing.

The air was thick with the smells of Sand People and their herds while many Sand People were still moving around the camp and busy with settling in. 'I still can't determine how many are in the cave. We should probably surface in a more secluded area, if we can find one, and then try to blend in as we move to cave.' thought Kabuto as he moved to a calmer area of the camp. Feeling the vibrations through the sand he quickly located the best place to surface with the Demon Brothers following.

The sand bulged as Kabuto's form came up from the depths with the use of an Earth jutsu. The area he had chosen was surrounded by tents, most of which were empty and offered good cover so they could remain hidden from the rest of the camp before trying to blend in. They weren't' far from the cave and could seemingly make it there without much trouble.

While smoke rose from the sand and formed into the Demon Brothers, Kabuto chose the best disguise he could and formed a Henge. Once the smoke had dispersed, the form of a Sand Person stood and examined himself.

Completely formed, Gezo and Meizu did the same except they didn't have to form a Henge and instead just used their smoke to change their appearance. Looking each other over and inspecting the clothing and coverings to make sure they were as authentic as possible, the three proceeded to leave their cover and enter the camp. In a single-file line they headed toward the opening of the cave.

x-x

Watching two Gamoreans arm wrestle, a bored Naruto looked to his chronograph to figure out how much time he had wasted. He had already scouted the room and identified the threats, of which there were many. The majority of the beings in the room were either mercenaries, bounty hunters, various sorts of criminals, or perhaps just personal guards of the Hutt. It was difficult to tell one thug from another sometimes.

They had been offered numerous drinks and food that neither human would even think about touching. He was annoyed and getting more impatient by the minute. The party didn't seem to be stopping or even slowing down. In fact many were taking copious amounts of drugs or even stimulants in order to keep going longer.

The only part that didn't annoy him was the fact that the Hutt also seemed to be growing restless as well. Jabba was apparently bored with the current dancers and yanking on the chains that bound them to the dais he was sitting on. Watching the Hutt with renewed interest as he renewed his search for an opening in which he could speak with the giant slug. Did he just step forward and approach the Hutt or was there some type of protocol that had to be followed. While thinking on the matter, he noticed the Twi'lek they encountered earlier had move to Jabba's side and spoke to the Hutt while looking in their direction.

At first he thought it was finally time for his audience with the Hutt and to negotiate but he felt something else entirely with the Force. 'Something's wrong.' he realized and felt he should turn towards the stairway and leave as soon as possible. Juugo seemed to notice something too and stopped leaning against the wall nearby.

The Hutt's eyes widened slightly as the Twi'lek spoke to the side of his head and presumably through some kind of ear. The Hutt and Twi'lek then looked to Naruto's direction and his feeling of unease only intensified. The Hutt began talking directly to him and the majority of the partying in the room stopped as all eyes turned to the host. There was no translator droid present during the speech so Naruto turned to HK-47 to see what the Hutt was saying.

"Translation: The Hutt is demanding that you present your gift to him."

Naruto did a double-take on the droid and questioned in a hushed voice, "Gift, what gift?"

"Explanation: The gift you promised to provide when we were stopped by the Twi'lek Majordomo up above." the droid explained and Naruto began putting together the pieces of the mistake and assumption he had made.

"What kind of celebration is this?" Naruto demanded and HK-47 was quick to reply, "Answer: A birthday party for the Hutt before you."

Naruto could have sworn the droid had smiled behind the unchanging face and he had no idea what to do. He thought about dismantling the droid but that would serve no purpose at the moment. The Hutt spoke again for presumably just a sentence or two and coming out of his thoughts, Naruto. found that all eyes had turned towards him and the Hutt was growing impatient.

"Statement: You should have payed more attention to your own situation." HK-47 told him in near perfect Ibonihese and both Naruto and Juugo and looked in surprise at the droid.

x-x

Smelling the air and scanning the darkening terrain, Suigetsu smiled as the temperature had dropped significantly and more than adequate for him to venture our without worry of dehydrating or perhaps even evaporating. Considering his techniques and the village he came from, he had never actually been to a desert before. Not knowing exactly what he should bring, he had only taken his sword, some water and the last of their sealing scrolls but was determined to find a few of the creatures that Naruto had spoken about during the briefing.

'A Krayt Dragon sounds like fun.' he thought as he slid down a large dune and headed towards the mountains in the distance. Given the dimensions that Naruto had mentioned, he tried to imagine in his head exactly how large it would be compared to himself and his sword. Besides a general description and the fact that they were more prevalent in the mountain areas of the planet, he had no other information about the creatures or their habits.

It would only get darker as the sun continued to set in the West but that didn't bother him. He knew that most creatures in the desert would be out and hunting at night, at least that was how it was supposed to work. The galaxy had proved to be anything but ordinary and predictable. 'In order to hunt something so big and probably elusive, I'll have to find some way to lure it to me.' Suigetsu planned as he scanned the dunes for some smaller prey to use as bait. Just about anything he ran into on the way to the distance mountains would work for his purposes. He just hoped it would be enough to attract something much larger.

x-x

Moving past the standing beasts, Kabuto and the two brothers navigated their way through the masses and further into the cave. As it turned out, the cave was primarily used for the herd as some kind of barn to keep them during the night. Traveling in and out of the herds, they managed to get passed many of the tribe who were in the cave and tending to the needs of the animals.

Reaching the end of the herd, they found that cave kept going while the animals seemed to stay towards the front of the cave and not venture any farther than a certain point. 'That's rather foreboding.' Kabuto thought and decided to keep going as there was no point in backing out now. Making sure that no one would see them, the three proceeded deeper into the darkening cave.

Eventually the sand disappeared as only bare rock covered the floor and in the darkness they could make out fallen structures and statues. Moving over the fallen architectural features, they ventured deeper and searched for the Star Map. It didn't help that none of their group actually knew what such a device looked like. Naruto and Plagueis could only offer a guess. Basically they were looking for a metallic piece of equipment that looked similar to the holoprojector that was on their briefing table.

As the cave grew darker, Kabuto frowned at their lack of success. It had gotten too dark to distinguish rock from metal and he dare not use a glowrod as it may alert the Sand People at the mouth of the cave to their intrusion. Touching every rock and surface that they could in the dark, proved to be extremely annoying. As the three groped in the dark, Meizu eventually came to a shadowy outline of something that looked rather different from everything else he had encountered up to that point.

Reaching forward, he touched the object with his non-gauntlet hand and felt cool metal. Something told him that the object was what he sought and he felt as if it was reacting to him in some fashion. "I think I found it." he said to the others in a hushed voice to make sure it didn't echo throughout the cave. Kabuto and Gozu quickly found his position and they too began examining his find.

"Its a lot bigger than what Naruto and Plagueis were describing." commented Gozu as he moved around the device. In the darkness they could make out that it was taller than them with three long feet that stretched from a center column or spire. Roughly three meters high and nearly the same distance around for the feet.

'Does it have an 'On' switch.' Kabuto wondered as he examined the device with his hands and his snake appendage moved around it to determine it's dimensions. He could feel that the item was what they sought but something told him that he couldn't activate it. 'I'd hate to bring this back only to find out it's broken or won't work.' After not finding any discernible activation mechanism, he began looking to the base to see how it was attached to the ground.

"I wonder if it a self-contained unit or does it have a separate power source and is just an emitter." Kabuto thought out loud as he tried to see if there were any cables or conduits going to or coming from the unit. Meizu and Gozu looked at each and then proceeded to step forward and grab the feet, forcing their fingers into the rock beneath to get a firm grip and then pulling the entire device up off the ground.

After a brief struggle, it broke free from the rock and they couldn't seen anything attached to the underside as they both tilted one side up to examined it.

"Self-contained, how wonderful." commented Kabuto with some unease. The brothers actions could have easily destroyed something had it been connected to anything. "Now we just need to get it back to the mouth of the cave." stated Kabuto as he moved ahead of the former Kiri shinobi while they walked much slower behind him as they hefted and dragged the device.

x-x

A lone, tall shadow moved through the darkness of the row of slave hovels. In the light of the moon and few street lights, the shadow distended to gigantic propositions and would then soon shortened to almost nil or seemingly change direction with the fluctuating lights sources. Nothing else was around and no one else seemed to be walking the streets or around small similar buildings. The cloaked figure moved from one shadowy area to the next and headed for a particular hovel that he had memorized a few hours before.

He'd spent the remainder of the late afternoon wandering around the winding roads of the city or sitting in a cantina and going over his thoughts. The only distractions were the two pickpockets that had tried to steal from him and the search for escaped slaves which had still not been dealt with. The freed slaves were apparently hiding somewhere in the city or perhaps had left Mos Espa entirely.

With the correct domicile identified, Plagueis moved to the locked door and reached out to sense the building. Both occupants of the home seemed to be sleeping which was what he wanted. Using the Force, he tricked the lock on the door and let himself.

Once inside and with the door shut behind him, he waited in the pitch-black room to see if anyone had noticed the sound from the door. Moments went by as his host's heartbeat and breathing accelerated slightly. When nothing had happened, he moved through the home without a sound on his way to the bedrooms. He examined every inch of the dark main room and the noted that the accommodations, while being very small, were on the nicer side for slaves. Keeping his hosts head down to not hit the low ceiling, he first went to one of the rooms.

Using the Force, he silently brushed the fabric door aside and crept into the room. He found his experiment fast asleep in her bed and noted the changes in her features during the fifteen years since he had last seen her. Moving to the side of the bed, he kept her sleeping while he drew blood and tissue samples from her. He didn't currently possess the facilities to run the tests that he wanted.

'This will have to suffice for the present, at least until I am able to do more.' he thought, knowing he wouldn't get many answers from a mere blood sample, but he still wanted to accomplish something while he was there and intended to get anything he could. Moving out from her room, he went in search of the boy and quickly found him to be in the adjoining room just past the bathroom.

Entering the room, he found it slightly larger than Shmi's. A workbench caught his eye and he went over there first to look at it. 'The boy evidently collects junk or at least items that he believes to be worthwhile.' he thought while inspecting the trinkets and other things on the bench. Glancing to a box on the floor, he found pieces of a slightly older model of protocol droid. He had seen the boy earlier that very day ferrying one of the pieces that appeared in the box. Many pieces were still missing but it looked like the boy planned on trying to rebuild the droid and was possibly bringing it back piece by piece from somewhere.

'He seems a little untrained for such an endeavor.' Plagueis noted as slaves often did not have any schooling or any lessons into droids, especially not when they were so young. Quietly, he moved to the boy's bed. Making sure the boy remained asleep, he took multiple samples, pocketed them, but remained where he was. He could sense something as he stared down at the child. Something he had completely ignored or had overlooked during their very brief encounter before. 'There's something different about the boy.' he believed but couldn't be sure what it was at that moment in time.

Slightly hesitant to leave, he finally walked out of the room. His short steps increased in speed and stride while he walked. 'I must get this sample back to analyze it on the ship.' He thought with urgency while exiting the hovel and quickly heading for the ship.

Once he had walked far enough away from the hovel, a small sand snake moved out from underground and took one last look at Plagueis before disappearing in plume of smoke.

x-x

Standing before his companions and in front of a very expectant Jabba the Hutt, a cloaked Naruto quickly thought of something to say. He was on the spot and therefore decided to put on a show in order to appease the Hutt as much as possible. All eyes turned to him as he began speaking, "Oh great and powerful Jabba, this is our first time meeting and I hope won't be our last. My name is...Rasen...and I have traveled far to bring you a gift on this very auspicious occasion. I bring you a shipment of weapons that I...acquired...and give to you in hopes of promoting future business." and he ended the small speech with short bow.

The Hutt seemed pleased by the speech and spoke. A nearby translating droid had been brought out while Naruto was speaking and it began translating for the Hutt into Basic so Naruto could understand what Jabba was saying in Huttese.

"The Great Jabba wishes to know of what sort of business you are currently involved in and wish to become involved in within his organization?" the droid said in a mechanical voice.

"Everything." Was Naruto's only response as he wasn't about to give the Hutt any more information about himself or their group as was necessary.

The Hutt let out a loud, deep laugh and several members of the room followed suit as if they were obliged to. The Hutt soon began speaking to him again and he glanced to the droid for the translation.

"The Great Jabba wants to know where this shipment is, as it obviously isn't here before him." said the droid in monotone and obviously not conveying the dangerous intent that the words were meant to have.

Naruto chose his words carefully and disregarding the bad taste that flattery and respect put in his mouth, he began, "I have the shipment close by at a hanger in Mos Espa for safe keeping. One can never be too careful and I wanted this gift to be presented to you without any incident. If I could back up the surface and contact my ship, as I can't seem to get a signal from here..." he left the inquiry hanging and waited for the response that he wanted.

The Hutt seemed appeased with the answer and the droid quickly translated his speech, "The Great and Powerful Jabba says that you may use the communications terminal in the room."

Hiding his frown at the news he hadn't expected, nor wanted, Naruto looked to where the droid was pointing and indeed found a communications terminal. Looking back to the Hutt and nodding, he moved through the guests and to the terminal while the party guests began resuming conversation and music. He looked completely calm and composed on the outside but was seething inside.

He wanted to get to the surface, not only to contact the ship, but to give him a moment to create some clones in order to switch with. He had no intention of giving over their weapons and wanted to make a quick getaway as soon as the ship arrived. Unfortunately there were people in every corner and crevice of the room. It wasn't wall to wall people but there were enough people that he couldn't create a clone anywhere in the room without it being noticed or making a commotion. He could have gotten away earlier, but too many eyes were now on him, despite the party returning to normal.

Cursing in his head as he found the frequency for their ship and began transmitting a message, he waited for a reply. Several eyes watched him as he waited for someone on-board the ship to answer his call. Seconds went by as no one answered and he was getting more concerned while the ones watching him were getting more inclined to believe he was lying.

Getting desperate, he began thinking of an alternative plan. As he tensed for action and told Juugo to be prepared, the screen he stood in front of changed and indicated that his call was accepted. He let out a breath that he had been holding and expected to see Plagueis, however someone else answers his call.

"The fuck do you want, I'm trying to sleep here." Answered an annoyed and very tired looking Tayuya in Ibonihese.

Naruto starred at the screen for a second and then remembered why he had tried to reach the ship. "I need to you tell Master Plagueis that things aren't going well and we need retrieval." Naruto answered back in Ibonihese in order to keep anyone else from overhearing his conversation.

"Are you at some type of party?" she asked while ignoring his question. Getting angry, Naruto reinforced his previous statement, "Get Plagueis."

Tayuya's look became annoyed but she responded calmly to his dangerous tone, "You'd have better luck contacting him yourself."

"He's not on the ship?" Naruto questioned as it seemed a great deal of time had passed since their arrival and he estimated it to be nearly nighttime on Tatooine. What reason would his Master have to leave the ship during the night.

"He left hours ago without a word and Suigetsu left within the last hour. Its just me and the droid." she replied and then asked with some hesitation, "Is there anything that I can do?"

"No." came Naruto's terse reply and he ignored the glare that the redhead gave him.

'I don't even want to know why Suigetsu is gone...its only her and Deefour...' he put together and had an idea. "The droid, put the droid on." he demanded and Tayuya called for the droid, who soon came into view and beeped several times in greeting.

"Deefour, I need you to interface with the ship's computer, take over the autopilot, and bring the ship to where I am..." he began quickly and was interrupted by a question from the redhead, "Where are you right now?"

Naruto's sentence and thoughts stopped in their tracks as he realized something. He truthfully didn't know his current location in terms of geographically on the planet. The information concerning the location of Jabba's Palace had been ripped from the mind of some thug in Mos Espa and it was only a memory that led to Jabba's Palace.

It was also an encrypted terminal, and they couldn't latch onto the signal from his transmission or find the signal from his personal commlink as the palace seemed to be shielded or jamming unauthorized transmissions..

"Did the screen freeze..." Tayuya commented and rapped against the monitor on her side a few times as Naruti's pictures had stopped moving.

'Shit, I can't get any backup.' and that was the only conclusion he could make from the situation he was presented with.

"Bring the shipment to Jabba's Palace." he commanded in a louder voice and in Basic. Tayuya gave him a weird look and before she could comment he added in a much lower voice, "Just say 'Yes' in Basic."

"Um...Yes." replied the very confused former Sound Ninja and Naruto took the opportunity to end the transmission. He didn't mean to cut Tayuya off or not explain himself but he had already wasted a great deal of time for what should have been a very short conversation. Turning to the watching Majordomo Twi-lek, he nodded with a fake smile to the man which conveyed an unspoken statement about the weapons being on their way.

'I have five to ten minutes at the most before they realize the ruse and everything begins going to hell.' he realized and looked to Juugo who had been hoping for some reassuring news, but he had none to give.

x-x

"That bastard hung up on me!" raged Tayuya and she looked the droid, who backed away from her a few feet in order to stay out of her way.

A moment later, the landing ramp lowered and she was on her feet, blaster in one hand and kunai in the other as she prepared for an intruder. She however blinked in surprise as Plagueis quickly moved aboard the ship and completely ignored her presence while moving to the medical bay. Remembering the conversation with Naruto, she tried to catch his attention but the door soon shut behind him.

Going up to the closed door, she expected it to open but it would not, trying the panel she found it was apparently not responding and would not open. Pounding on the door with the ring-end of her kunai, she tried to get the Mustafarian's attention but he neither seemed to rouse him from the room.

After trying to raise him on the ship's internal communications system which Deefour tried to convey to her was disabled by someone inside the room, indecision took over as she gave up trying any other means. If the Sith Lord didn't want to be disturbed and went to such great lengths, 'Then fuck him.' she thought and sat down in her seat at their circle table.

Despite trying to put the thoughts out of her head, a fair amount of guilt still remained. Naruto had needed help and there was nothing she could do. Plagueis was completely shut in and there was no one else that could pilot the ship or locate Naruto. She hated feeling helpless. 'He looked desperate, too.' she thought and that thought made her wonder, 'What would he do when he was desperate?'

x-x

Nearing the mouth of cave, the trio stopped and Kabuto scouted ahead while the Demon Brothers rested. 'Fuck this thing is heavy.' thought Meizu as he and Gozu were out of breath and lay against some nearby rocks. Their enhanced strength was being taxed to the limit.

The Star Map was not made to be lifted by people, it was as cumbersome to handle as it was heavy to drag. The task got easier as soon as the floor was covered with sand again but that did not mean it still didn't leave them drained.

Close to the entrance, Kabuto found that many more Sand People were inside the cave than when they originally came in and even more still were slowly filing in. 'Do they come inside during the night?' he wondered but it didn't make sense as there would have been no reason to make camp just outside the entrance.

Deciding on the best way to make their escape, Kabuto determined that a wide area genjutsu should work best. Focusing his chakra, he began making seals for his Temple of Nirvana Technique which would put the nearby Sand People to sleep and allow them to make a getaway. Finishing the handseals he pushed out his chakra and cast the genjutsu.

It didn't work.

The Sand People were all still moving and completely unaffected. They should have been dropping into a deep sleep, 'I don't understand. Can they be immune to genjutsu?' he wondered. After some internal debate, he decided to make a call to someone that might know. Taking out his commlink he was reasonable sure that being near the mouth of the cave, that he could reach their ship. Sending a signal to the Vulture and after waiting a brief period, he received an response.

"Would you people stop bugging me, and do you have any idea what fucking time it is!?" Came Tayuya's annoyed voice from the small device and Kabuto smiled while replying, "On which planet?"

"Smart ass. I should hang up.." started Tayuya before Kabuto intervened in a placating manner, "So sorry... but I seem to be experiencing a problem here." he explained and Tayuya fired back, "I've heard most guys have that problem once in a while, just start thinking of Orochimaru and that should do it."

Kabuto's eye twitched and slight blush developed while he ignored the stifled laughter from the resting Demon Brothers. "No, that is not the problem that I'm having..." Kabuto began but was cutoff, "Do you even have one of those anymore, now that you're all...snakish?"

'I won't dignify that with a response.' Kabuto repeated in his head several times.

"It appears that I am having trouble casting a genjutsu on the people we are trying to not get caught by." explained Kabuto and he heard her mutter, "You can cast genjutsu." and smiled slightly as the redhead knew very little about him as a result of all his time spent as a spy for Orochimaru in Konoha and elsewhere.

"Yes, yes I can. However, I cannot seem to cast my genjutsu successfully over these desert people."

"Well duh." came Tayuya's swift and eloquent response.

"I don't follow." admitted Kabuto and he waited for her response.

"They don't have chakra systems, dumbass. You can't cast a genjutsu over them in that way." she informed him and he was about to ask how she had been able to use genjutsu when he remembered her flute.

Tayuya's method of casting a genjutsu was different than the norm. She used sound to affect the target and then the brain and other senses as opposed to the normal method of the casters chakra affecting the target's chakra system, and affecting the brain and senses.

"Well damn." Kabuto exclaimed out-loud at the realization and the line went dead as Tayuya severed the communication.

'I suppose that is the reason that Naruto was so set on bringing Tayuya into the group. She's one of the few genjutsu users that uses the medium of sound for casting. Did he really think that far ahead?' questioned an impressed Kabuto and he began thinking of other methods to solve the dilemma that was literally in front of them.

Commotion at the cave entrance brought him out of his thoughts as he tried to figure out what was going on. More people were entering the cave and despite the darkness he could tell that they were in a rush and could make out a few shouts and yelling.

'Something must be happening outside.' he thought and cursed as it seemed the entire tribe was going to be coming into the cave. Curious to know exactly what would scare them, he pulled out his commlink and contacted Karin.

"Kabuto?" came Karin's disembodied voice and Kabuto adjusted the volume even lower to prevent the growing number of Sand People from possibly hearing the conversation. "Everyone seems to be coming to cave, what's going on out there?"

Outside the cave, Karin grabbed her binoculars and viewed the encampment and described what she saw to Kabuto, "Everyone's packing up and heading to the cave...there's scared of something...one of them is pointing near my direction..." she noted and panned her view to the direction indicated.

Confused at first, she zoomed out and it wasn't until she was at one of the lowest zoom settings that she started to understand what it was that she was seeing. It was a wall of sand, kilometers long, and hundreds of meters high. It also seemed to be headed right for her, and fast. She put down the binoculars, as they weren't needed and continued to stare dumbly at the daunting storm. The wind was just starting to pick up, blowing her red hair and a low howl could just be heard by her ears.

"Karin?!" came Kabuto's hushed voice and he said her name again louder, which seemed to break her hypnotic gaze and she put the commlink closer to her mouth and said, "S-sandstorm." which was all she was able to get out as she looked out again at the endless moving wall of sand.

"Karin, listen to me! Get the skiff and straight for the cave."

"But what about..." and she was cutoff, "Don't worry about anything else, just keep your head down and we'll meet you outside." came Kabuto's voice over the commlink and it was much louder than before.

Acting on the command, Karin jumped onto the skiff and worked the controls as she turned the skiff towards the cave and headed there at full speed.

x-x

'Think! Think!' Naruto repeated over and over in his head as minutes past but he had nothing.

Mind tricks didn't work on Hutts. Plagueis had put emphasis on that when explaining to him about Hutts in general. Jabba would be no exception to this and that meant he couldn't coerce his way out of it. No clever plan that would make everything right and let them get away unscathed and without repercussions.

The only viable option he had come up with was to spam a huge load of clones all over the room and try to escape in the chaos. Creating clones near the entrance was no problem, but it was too difficult for one of his clones to switch with Juugo or HK to get to the staircase as fast as possible. He just didn't possess the chakra control to accomplish something such as that. There was also the issue that his clones didn't react well to plasma bolts. They tended to go right through clones and the distraction would offer no real protection.

'I'm backed into a corner.' he realized and it was time to implement the only thing he had left. He had made a modification to HK and seals hiding weapons on his and Juugo's belts, all of which would surprise the mercenaries and guards around him but he needed a distraction first.

'What do I have to work with.' he thought while itemizing everything going on in the room in order to come up with something. He had Juugo and one psychotic droid on his side. They had hidden weapons but no opportunity to use them. A room full of guests that were either mercenaries, guards, bounty hunters, criminals and trained or at least ruthless killers. Dancers, musicians, slaves, and others who were not armed and inconsequential. A male Twi-lek that he wanted to maim and possibly kill. And a large fat Hutt that he hated very much at that moment and whose patience was growing thin and getting more annoyed and angry with each passing minute.

'Could I capitalize on that?' he wondered and explored the possibility. While Hutt's minds were very resistant to mind tricks, he had no idea if they were completely immune to every subtlety of Force tricks or if he couldn't break through that resistance. The Hutt was already experiencing negative emotions and he was curious if he could make those emotions boil or at least amplify them enough that the Hutt would do something.

When it came to making a distraction, everyone in the room payed attention to the Hutt more than anyone else. Nearly every eye would turn to see what was happening. Standing still and focusing with the Force, he sought out the Hutt's mind. Almost immediately he encountered difficulty as Jabba's mind seemed completely blocked from his influence. Focusing on just emotions coming off the Hutt while ignoring everything else, Naruto closed his eyes and shut out every other concern and sense.

He began feeling many different emotions that the Hutt was experiencing. Annoyance or frustration was at the forefront of these emotions. 'What exactly would he be so annoyed about?' wondered Naruto as he tried to guess what could be bothering the Hutt.

Was it the party or the surrounding company? Not enough people or gifts? The fact that the Hutt was made to wait for the supposed weapons shipment. To be honest he hadn't noticed all that many gifts being presented while they were there, had they missed that part of the party. 'I really don't know much about birthday parties, or how they work in this part of the galaxy.' Deciding that the reason behind the emotions may never be determined in the time that he had, Naruto instead focused on just the feeling itself and sought to amplify it.

'Whatever the reason, if I can magnify it, he might explode given the slightest provocation.' Naruto determined and focused solely on that task. After fifteen seconds, he wasn't producing any results. Jabba still seemed the same but he pressed on, determine to not give up without a result. Gritting his teeth, he employed every trick and technique he could think of to make it work. He even began trying to transfer his own frustrations at his lack of success to Jabba.

After nearly a minute, he began feeling results. The Hutt's emotions began increasing. Keeping at it, he eventually opened his eyes and began to see his efforts taking their course. The Hutt began voicing some demands which Naruto could not decipher, but he could feel the anger starting to boil just under the surface. Two dancers that had been entertaining the Hutt and other party members throughout the night were quite tired by that point and their dance had been slowing.

The Hutt's ire soon changed to them and he reached for the lengths of chains that bound them to the slab of stone that he lounged on. Taking the chains, the Hutt flicked the chain which jarred the collars on both Twi'lek girls neck's. It seemed that Jabba was demanding that they stop slacking.

"What are you doing?" questioned Juugo in a hushed voiced as he looked upon the unfolding scene and Naruto smiled slightly as he continued watching his success. "Trying to make us a distraction. We can't keep whatever deal he thinks we've promised him and need to leave immediately. Be ready to act and start picking targets and when I give the signal, we'll head straight for the staircase." Naruto responded in a similarly hushed voice.

"What about them?" asked Juugo as he moved his head in the direction of the two Twi-lek dancers.

"Unfortunately they will be in the wrong place at the wrong time as will many others at this party." whispered Naruto in all seriousness and while Jabba was creating a scene in the room, the trio slipped into the crowd and moved towards the staircase. He doubted they would make it all the way there without being stopped but that would be when the blasters and weapons were unsealed.

Determined to keep going and not look at what was unfolding, Naruto could still feel the scene playing out as a crowd gathered around the depression in the floor where the dancers were performing. The two slaves were getting pulled closer to an area of the floor which he had noted earlier. It seemed to be a different grating than what was used elsewhere on the floor and after sensing the room and finding a very large animal in some kind of cage beneath them, it was obvious that it was a trap. The placement was right before Jabba's platform, and anyone there to speak to Jabba directly would likely be led to that particular spot.

'They'll likely be pulled to the trap door and then fall into the pen beneath us.' Naruto thought as he tried to ignore everything else except for the goal of escaping. Not everyone in the room was paying full attention to the Hutt and he could feel several of Jabba's more capable men were moving for their position to prevent them from leaving.

'Should I unseal my weapons or wait a little longer?' Naruto debated as he pushed past a few people. No one had stopped him yet but if he began creating a scene, then the two slaves would be spared. However it would be more difficult for them to get to the stairs and get up before someone started coming down. Everything else in the room seemed to fade away as his mind focused on the Hutt and two struggling slaves. They were probably almost on top of the trap.

'I can't stop. Even attempting such a thing would put me in the middle of a room full of well armed combatants.' he argued with what little conscience that remained in him and plagued him at moments such as the present.

His thoughts were interrupted as his trained senses noticed that something was off. Adjusting his senses to the entire room, he found that Juugo was no longer following behind him. Naruto immediately turned and went back while HK-47 continued on.

Pushing through the gawkers, he saw Juugo just as Jabba's fist came down on a button on the dais that activated the doorway and the two slaves screamed as they dropped through the opening. As the Hutt began laughing, Juugo smashed through the last line of standing people and ran two steps over the floor before sliding the remainder of the way and going right into the opening as the grate was closing.

Starring between the arms of two humanoids, Naruto watched the scene unfold and continued to stare as he was unable to do anything to stop Juugo. If he used Force Grip, Juugo would be helpless in the exact middle of the room. It was best just to let him go. A few moments passed by as the grate completely shut and Jabba's platform moved forward to put the Hutt in position to watch the show beneath them through the larger grating on the floor.

The Hutt began speaking and laughing but the words were lost on Naruto as he stood, somewhat dumbfounded at what he should be doing. He didn't need to glance around to know that at least four weapons were trained on him at that moment and that most of the room had shifted to give the Hutt a perfect view of where he stood. Eyes were torn between himself and looking down through the metal grate as the sound of a rusted gate opening began making itself known.

Jabba said something else in Huttese and another area of the gathered crowd soon parted to reveal HK-47, being led at blaster-point by two guards. The droid held its arms up in a placating manner and said,

"Frightened Statement: Don't shoot, I am but an innocent protocol droid."

A few people in the crowd, including Jabba, laughed while Naruto sweat-dropped and thought, 'There's no way they'll buy that.' The two guards however lowered their weapons as they ignored the droid and focused more on him.

'They actually bought it. I don't know which is worse the fact that they are well armed or the fact that they are completely stupid.' thought a exasperated Naruto as he stopped himself from shaking his head. The Hutt again spoke in Huttese and Naruto guessed it was something along the lines of, "Your next." or "And now you watch your companion die."

Hearing a roar from below, which he knew not to be from Juugo, Naruto quickly glanced around and debated his options. 'Now there are six with their guns trained on me.' he noted and looked for something that could be done. The attention was focusing down below, which was good and the Weequay standing next to him had a short bandoleer with two thermal detonators on it. Naruto smirked under his cloak hood as he slowly moved his hands up in the air to show that he was unarmed and surrendering. Focusing on the two detonators, he moved one of his hands slightly and the switches on each grenade activated.

The sound of the arming detonators was well known and most people that surrounded the Weequay were instantly aware of what had just happened. Before the shouts rang out and the man himself tried to disarm the explosives, Naruto took the moment to act. Moving swiftly, he palm-thrusted the man in combination with a Force Push and sent him across the room, straight at the lounging Hutt.

Impacting the Hutt's sizable gut, Jabba yelled while grabbing the mercenary with his short arms and with surprising strength, physically throwing the man away from himself right before the detonation.

Forming a blade of wind with his hand, Naruto swung at the other combatants around him and did serious damage before he jumped away from the blast area as the grenades exploded. Forming a seal in the air, HK-47's right arm disappeared in smoke as it was sealed into a fuinjutsu on the droids stump and with the activation of a second seal, he unsealed the droid's blaster arm attachment and his own weaponry.

Naruto's belt looked to be ornate but it was actually a series of seals engraved on metal plates that held all of his weapons. Landing and taking cover behind stone columns, the entire room went to hell as chaos and mass hysteria consumed nearly every person. Screams, shouts, yells, and random or concentrated blaster fire were the only sounds Naruto heard as he drew his blaster and sword and began picking targets from his cover. He assumed HK-47 was doing the same but couldn't be sure where the droid was at the moment.

His cover however was soon compromised as heavy blaster fire burned through the stone pillar and he was forced to flee along the row of columns. Taking aim between the architecture, he fired off several shots and sheathed his sword, as it was not helping him, in favor of drawing his other blaster. What appeared to be a small rocket impacted near him and sent rock and debris into him which caused him to stumble, roll, and crawl to the nearest obstruction to hide behind.

Focusing on the location of his many assailants he found that new fighters were coming down the staircase from the floors above as at the same time frightened guests swarmed the staircase to get out of the firefight. The situation created a bottleneck in the stairway which meant that no one would be getting out of there fast. There also appeared to be many guards coming up from another staircase at the opposite end of the room from the lower floors near where Juugo was.

Stuck in a corner area, he found that those left in the room were slowly closing in on him. Now he really was cornered.

AN: Unfortunately its will be continued in the next chapter as I was really running over on this one. I had hoped to finish it in one chapter but that won't be the case.


	25. Chapter 25

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

x-x

**36.3 BBY – Current Year **

Chapter XXV: Escape the Palace

x-x

A shrill cry of pain could be heard throughout the mountainous area as Suigetsu waited for something to take his bait. If there was one thing Suigetsu knew, it was fishing. Fish were simple predators, if they could even be called that, but they still followed the same instincts as much larger and more dangerous animals.

It was also easier to prey on the weaker or injured as food. Less energy was expended to find and obtain the meal and some animals ate such a prey when they weren't even hungry. This was the reason why he had severely injured and then immobilized the large rat he had come across. It was now his bait for a larger predator and he was casting his line out in the hopes that the blood and sounds would attract suitable larger prey.

'I only hope something fearsome actually eats these huge disgusting rats.' thought Suigetsu as he tried to pierce the darkness with his eyes and look for motion of any kind in rocky terrain. Taking out his binoculars, he activated the night vision, which he found incredible useful, and scanned the area from higher ground.

He was in on a very wide ledge of a canyon surrounded by larger mountains. It was quite cold but the low temperature was much preferred to the heat of the day. Listening and waiting, his patience was rewarded when he heard a sound echo off the canyon walls. It was not a roar but sounded more reptilian. Suigetsu noted how the rat became still at the cry and attempted to flee.

'Very promising.' he thought, putting the electrobinoculars away and readying his sword as he tried to determine which direction the predator would come from.

x-x

'Looks like we need a fast escape.' thought Kabuto as he bit his finger, drawing blood and then making several hand seals. Slamming his palm into the ground, a large portion of the cave entrance was filled with smoke.

Two medium sized snakes dwarfed the other animals in the cave and pushed their way out. Numerous shouts and weapon's fire came from the startled Sand People as the snakes carried the three out of the cave and into the dark sands. Karin was nearly to them and Kabuto wanted to keep moving so as to put more distance between themselves and the cave, but the snakes had other ideas.

Their survival instincts told them of the incoming sandstorm and they weren't about to put themselves at risk for Kabuto. Coming to a stop, Kabuto and the demon brothers nearly lost their balance as the Star Map slid off the back of one of the snakes and landed with resounding thud in the sands below. Turning around, the snakes each struck and grabbed a fleeing animal in their mouths before disappearing in a large expanding plume of smoke. The three ninja riding the beasts were left to fall to the ground. Because of the smoke, they couldn't see the sands and all landed in a heap near the Star Map.

Cursing profusely, the Demon Brothers recovered before Kabuto and began moving to attack the Sand People who were regrouping after the disappearance of the snakes. Kabuto began frantically looked around and found the Star Map sticking out of the sand nearby. Its weight and the fall made it sink almost halfway into the sand. Quickly looking it over for damage and finding none, he then scanned the terrain and found that Karin was already slowing down the skiff to stop. Signaling her on where to stop, he instructed her as she moved the skiff over the device.

Ignoring the fighting nearby, he jumped onto the bed of the skiff and Karin moved aside as he began operating the controls and activating the magnetic grapple, Moving it and the ship into position, he secured the Star Map beneath the ship and began moving away from the cave at a slow pace.

Meizu and Gozu were both fighting hand-to-hand with the Sand People while numerous projectiles went right through their bodies. They had each picked up some of the typical weapons wielded by the tribe and were using them to great effect against the nomads. Hearing Kabuto's and Karin's shouts, they stopped attacking and fled to the slowly moving skiff while taking fire from the cave. The remaining Sand People outside the cave did not give chase and instead fled back to the cave to escape the storm.

The Demon Brothers jumped to the skiff and as soon as they were aboard, it picked up speed and moved away from the cave and just ahead of the incoming storm. Increasing the ship's speed, Kabuto began plotting a random that would take them in any direction that was away from the storm until he could determine where they needed to go. Finding the signal from their ship, he found that the ship was no longer near Anchorhead and had moved hundreds of miles to the Northeast.

Frowning as no one had bothered to mention that to him, 'Not even Naruto,' he mentally commented and slowed the ship slightly as he wasn't completely sure what terrain they would be in for on the journey. It was dark enough that he couldn't see large obstacles until they were very close and the most direct path to the Vulture would lead them around a very large plateau. The ship's instruments were also telling him that the repulsor lifts were running at greatly reduced efficiency, 'Probably because of the large metal object that's attached to the bottom of the ship.' he believed and knew they couldn't get much altitude from the ship and would be forced follow the most level and smoothest routes.

"It looks like we'll probably be to the ship by dawn" he announced to the others based upon his estimates from the ship's instrumentation. The only thing he received were a few groans and complaints but at least they had what they came for. He kept the skiff's course as he moved just faster than the storm and had the Demon Brother's keep lookout for rocks and other obstacles.

x-x

'Fifteen signatures still in the room. Five of which are closing in on my position and the rest likely have their weapons trained directly on my position. Another thirty closing in from upper and lower levels and a mass of living people escaping up the stairs. The Hutt must have a secret escape route or lift. He's already outside my range.' Naruto thought as he stared blankly at the stone wall ahead of him and slumped against the last stone pillar in the line he had run down. His plan on getting to the staircase had horribly failed but it wasn't a very solid plan from the start.

'Is Juugo alright? Where is HK?' he wondered in his jumbled mind as he tried to think of what to do next. 'If I try to make a run for it, I won't get far and I can't even move out from this spot without getting hit by blaster fire.' he thought and tried to calm his mind down. It wasn't until he could feel his heart beat lowering that he could finally think clearly.

Looking down at the weapons he kept carrying with him, he frowned at the fact that, besides his sword, he favored those blasters over everything he had grown up with and trained with. 'These blasters aren't going to save me right now. They're useful but only up to a given point. They don't require handseals to first activate and are accurate enough at distances however I can't keep trying to rely only on them. My chakra control isn't where I want it to be because of the seal I put on, but I need to stop holding back. Otherwise I really will be killed.' he thought and his musings caused him to laugh as he realized something.

'I'm thinking like an idiot. Like some spacer from the galaxy. That's not what I am. I'm a shinobi. This kind of predicament should be nothing to me.' he realized with a wry smile. It had been years since he had smiled at all and he found it hard to stop, despite there being nothing amusing about his dire situation.

As the mercenaries neared his position he put his blasters away in their holsters. The situation seemed far less dire than it had a few moments previously. 'I'm surrounded by rock. Just normal rock and not metal.' he realized while continuing to smirk.

Getting to the edge of the columns a Nikto quickly moved around one of the other columns, ready to fire at the person they had forced into a corner...only to find no one there. Taking his eye off the gun sight, he lowered it slightly as he moved a little closer and examined the area to figure out where the brat had gone. The others were just as curious and a few moved closer to see while others demanded to know what was going on and if they had killed the one called 'Rasen.'

Confused, the closest three turned back to respond that he was gone but stopped when they heard something sizzling. Looking back they found several pieces of parchment stuck to the wall which seemed to be sparking. Unsure of what to do, they weren't prepared for the explosion that sent a good part of the gathered group hurtling backward.

The column Naruto had been hiding behind was destroyed in the blast and debris from it spread across the room. During the brief confusion, a lone figure emerged from the stone floor, moving out of it like through the surface of water. Naruto was quick to act and take advantage of the opening.

Throwing two smoke bombs into the fray, Naruto charged one of his attackers and decapitated the silhouette of the man before anyone knew he was there. Many shouts filled the room as he kept attacking and as more of Jabba's men came up and down the stairs from floors above and below.

Unsealing one of this disc blades, he tossed it toward the lower level staircase while controlling it with the Force while simultaneously moving to his next target. The spinning blade curved toward the staircase and cut down the first Gammorean guard while it continued to the stairwell and ricocheting off the stairway walls and cut through other guards as Naruto gave up controlling it.

After slicing apart several other combatants and throwing a volley of kunai that hit their unseen targets. Naruto was forced to block a blaster bolt with his sword just before it hit him. He barely managed to deflect the bolt in the smoke and was pushed back by several more rather accurately fired blaster bolts. Other blasters were being fired in the room, but none as accurate as his foes began firing wildly.

'This one must have infrared or some other vision that can see me.' Naruto thought as he tried to defend himself but his own smoke screen was hindering him and he was finding it harder to try and dodge or block the bolts. After several grazes, he found the blaster fire began to intensify as his opponent had evidently pulled out another blaster. Completely overwhelmed in the dissipating smoke, he knew he was in trouble but the blaster fire was cutoff by opposing fire from a differnent side of the room.

Blaster fire from the second source cut down on the individuals left in the room as well as the ones coming down the stairs. Taking advantage, Naruto retreated to the back end of the room as HK-47 emerged from the dispersing smoke. The droid was walking backwards and heading to him while keeping concentrated fire upon their foes and those that were just entering the throne room from the stairs.

Naruto could hear the droid saying something involving the word 'Meatbags' and a variety of other words and he watched as the droid slowly reached his position in the room directly opposite the upper-level staircase. Peering around the wall he had his back against, Naruto surveyed the damage and sensed who was still alive in the room.

The opposing blaster fire had died down significantly and only a hand full of lifesigns remained in the room but on the fringes of his senses, he could feel an entirely new group just reaching the bottom opening to the throne room. He only had a few seconds to warn the droid as the moment the newcomers reached the bottom step, the blaster fire coming at them increased tenfold and both were forced to take cover behind the stone archway of the opening of the room they were in.

Taking a moment to assess the situation, Naruto found that they were in some kind of trophy room with many different shelves full of items that the Hutt had evidently collected over the course of many decades. On first glance, he saw nothing of value in the room and no other way out.

The firefight being exchanged across the length of the room was very one-sided as Naruto and HK were completely pinned down. Feeling the cold stone behind him begin to heat his back up, Naruto realized that the blaster fire would soon eat through the rock and he quickly weighed his options. He however wasn't able to come up with much as the safety of their shelter was further diminished when a small explosion rocked the backside of their room.

His eyes had caught the briefest of movements before the explosion and he had seen a projectile travel through the arched entryway of the room. His thoughts were confirmed by the droid hiding on the other side of the arch.

"Observation: Micro-grenades."

Having never encountered that type of weapon before, and Naruto was not thrilled with the thoughts going through his head, 'A weapon that shoots small explosives faster than I can dodge and deflecting them will only cause an explosion.' The wall HK-47 stood against was the next to explode and Naruto covered his head from small pieces of rock debris. The devastation was readily apparent as Naruto moved his hands away from his head and glanced over to find the wall at half the thickness it had been.

Another projectile impacted the back wall of the room and trinkets were sent flying to the floor off the shelves. Closing his eyes, Naruto sensed out the person that was shooting and found him, as well as the others moving closer to them. Evidently confident enough that HK and himself were no longer much of a threat.

Standing, he took out a single kunai and kept his eyes shut. He blocked out the sounds of the next small explosion and the small pieces of rock that impacted him as he focused on the shooter. He knew where they were and their height as well as the distance between them. Covering the kunai in wind chakra to increase it's cutting and penetration ability, he turned and tossed the kunai at the wall he had been hiding behind.

The wind covered kunai pierced through the crumbling wall and kept going, undeterred by the rock. It quickly covered half of the distance to the far staircase before eviscerating the Transdoshan holding the micro-grenade rifle. The kunai however did not stop and cut through another person's leg before imbedding deeply in the the wall at the opposite side of the room, only a foot or more off the floor.

HK-47 was not as awestruck as the others in the room and took full advantage of the distraction. Unleashing his blaster-arm as well as a another blaster he had picked up from earlier, he fired at the Meatbags standing in the open room. At least four were hit by his blaster fire before they began returning fire and dispersing. The droid ensured that no one went for the Trandoshan's rifle and forced tehm away from it.

As the two were once again bogged down by blaster fire from various sources, Naruto concentrated on the room again and began making handseals. 'As long as I don't leave anyone alive, I can use whatever I want and now have enough time to concentrate.' he thought as he finished slowly making handseals and put both of his hands into the ground.

HK-47 was confused at the motions as he had never seen the boy make such motions before and was even more surprised when a second after Naruto put his hands to the ground, his auditory sensors picked up screams from the room. The blaster fire stopped seconds later.

Naruto opened his eyes, satisfied that he had taken care of the problem. Taking a step forward and about to head out of the trophy room, his foot kicked something on the floor and he looked down to find a familiar object that he would never have expected to be there. Immediately picking up the object, he sealed it into his arm before remembering that he needed to get to Juugo and moved out into the throne room before locating the lower staircase. He scanned the throne room before going to lowever floors and found only a single lifesign that was slowly diminishing. 'He should be dead soon.' Naruto decided and ran down the narrow staircase past the bodies of the Gamorreans that he had killed with his discblade earlier.

HK-47 entered the throne room along with Naruto but didn't follow him down the stairs. He instead wanted to look and see what had happened. He had counted at least ten remaining Meatbags still in the room and from his perspective, Naruto had done nothing to eliminate these remaining targets.

Cautiously walking into the room, he looked over the area and found it was far different from what it had been earlier. Long, thin rock spikes covered a good portion of the room. They jutted out from the columns and floor, impaling the remaining Meatbags that had been hiding in the room. Thicker and longer spikes had come out form the walls of the upper spiral staircase and were preventing anyone else from coming down.

Searching his memory for anything similar that he had ever seen during his years of operation, the droid was unable to match the scene to anything he knew that Jedi or Sith were capable of performing. 'Inner Thought: The small Meatbag is becoming more interesting as time goes by.'

Disappointed that no Meatbags were still moving and needed finishing off, the droid promptly realized that more Meatbags were likely below and hurried to follow after Naruto, but not before grabbing the micro-grenade rifle.

x-x

Minutes earlier

x-x

Sliding down a short rock chute, Juugo flew out and fell a short distance before landing on the floor. He was instantly to his feet and on guard, ready for whatever was in the pit. He had no idea what he had gotten himself into and had acted without thinking. For all he knew, the chute led to a quick death that he could not have prevented from suffering or saved the dancers from.

Taking in his surroundings, Juugo found the cave empty save for the two twi'lek girls that had fallen in before him. He could tell they were very afraid and it likely had to do with the large metal door that was in front of them.

A moment later, the grinding of gears and grate of metal on metal announced the opening of the door. The crowd cheered from above and Juugo payed them no mind as he slowly awaited whatever was on the opposite side of the door. With the door only a few feet off the ground, long clawed digits moved under the edge of the door and gripped the bottom, trying to lift the door and get it moving faster.

What emerged from under the open door was something Juugo had never seen before. He was transfixed in position as the creature moved towards him. The creature stood over eight meters tall with long arms and sharp claws. It had greyish brown skin, a blunted face and exposed fang-like teeth.

He had seen summoning creatures before and much larger ones but not something as fearsome. It was the epitome of a monster. The shouting and yelling above him as well as the screaming of the two slaves near him were not something that he heard. What he did hear was the voice of the creature. It was despondent and angry.

He could hear bits of pieces of what it was furious over but good portion of what it said was incoherent. It had apparently been taken from its home and family, then forced into a cage. It was also accusing him of being like the ones that had enslaved him. Juugo attempted to use his ability to try and speak with it and convince it that he was not like them but it just wouldn't listen.

Juugo looked on in pity at the creature. He really didn't want to fight it. He could see burns and other injuries as it got closer and it seemed the creature had been tormented during transport or when getting it into the cage.

An explosion above dislodged rocks and dust that fell to the ground of the cage. Juugo could hear screams and blaster fire above and realized that Naruto was fighting everyone in Jabba's throne room. Turning back to the beast that was standing right in front of him, he said out loud, "I'm sorry." and his skin began getting darker as his bloodline began to activate.

Dodging a swipe, he jumped and rolled underneath of it and moved to its right side. He quickly delivered a heavy blow to the back of the creatures knee, which caused that knee to collapse. It swung back at him but Juugo was already moving up its back. He wanted to lead the creature away from the two hiding Twi'leks and needed to get the creature to completely focus on him. As it struggled to reach behind and grab him, the creature kept turning around and around. Moving up to the back of it's neck, Juugo transformed both of his arms and slammed then down on it's neck. He had hoped to knock the creature out but realized that he either hadn't hit it hard enough or its physiology was different and it couldn't be knocked out that way.

Angered by the attack, the beast renewed it's efforts to grab him and then resorted to selecting one of the flatter walls and charging at it, only to twist around at the last moment in the hopes of squashing him. Juugo lept off it's back at the last second when he realized what it was up to. The entire room shook from the impact and Juugo didn't have to wait long for the Rancor to stand up and move at him.

It raised both hands above it's head and slammed them down where Juugo was standing. The mutated ninja was faster and lunged forward between it's forearms. He lept upwards with some help from the chakra boosters that formed on his legs, delivering an uppercut to the creatures jaw.

The creature stumbled backwards and hit the wall again while Juugo rotated himself to land on the ceiling with the leftover momentum from his boosters. Moving around, he dodged and batted away the creatures attempts to grab at him on the ceiling as he tried to convince it that he could free it and asked where the weakest walls were. Somehow Jabba had managed to get the creature inside the cage, 'So there must be some kind of access way or area where the rock was removed and then replaced.' Juugo reasoned while keeping the creature busy. They were already in trouble and having a rampaging creature in the facility could give them a much needed distraction to get away.

On that thought, Juugo began looking for areas of the rock that stood out as he dodged the creature trying to grab at him. Even in the dim cage, his eyes found one area was a slightly different color than the rest of the rock. 'I'll need to make a hole big enough for it to get out.' he thought and had an idea, though he was less than thrilled with what it would required.

Jumping to the ground and ducking the creature, Juugo sprinted at the wall and further transformed. His arms mutated and grew while the boosters on his legs and back propelled him at the wall. He landed two heavy blows that did little to damage the faux rock, but the follow up of the new pistons that had formed at his elbows, smashed into the wall through his arms. The pistoning action put numerous cracks in the false rock face and he smirked as it would be enough for what he had in mind. His success was pushed aside as he noticed a moment too late that the creature was already upon him.

He knew he couldn't evade the swipe, but he could get away from the claws and ended up being hit full force by a smack from the palm. Juugo bounced off a wall and landed on the thin layer of sand that was the cage floor. His vision was swimming but soon settled as he stood and looked to the creature as it looked back at him.

The wall he had damaged was now directly behind the creature and it was angrier than ever at him. Juugo frowned as his anger increased while he struggled to maintain control. He knew the monster in front of him was intelligent but it didn't want to help and was getting ready to charge him.

Allowing his bloodline to further mutate his body, the transformation nearly completed as he bent down and more powerful chakra jets formed on his back and legs. The rancor roared and charged forward at him in the same moment that he roared and rocketed headfirst with both fists outstretched.

x-x

The fight hadn't been going well for Jango Fett as he tried to shoot at the cloaked young man who had disappeared for a brief moment, only to reappear and start cutting down everyone in the room. He could see through the smoke with his helmet's infrared but was having difficulty getting a clear shot with everyone else that was moving blindly through the smoke and getting in his way.

A moment later he found his opening and opened fire on the brat with one of his blasters. He was surprised to find that in the smoke, the boy was able to deflect his shots with the sword. It reminded him of a Jedi and he hated Jedi. With every shot being deflected, he quickly pulled out his other blaster form his thigh holster and began firing with both, trying to overwhelm his foe with the rapid-fire weapons.

He had never seen a sword that could deflect blaster fire so well and he made a mental note to take the blade after his target was killed. No sooner than he had the thought, then blaster fire came from his left. He was struck twice, a glancing blow to the helmet and once in the upper chest by the new attacker and forced to retreat to cover while trying to return fire.

Getting behind a column near Jabba's vacated platform, he waited for the firing to lessen on his location before coming out and exchanging fire with the two hiding in Jabba's trophy room. He quickly reloaded his weapons but stopped as newcomers came in. One of them was holding a micro-grenade rifle, 'definitely overkill.' he idly thought and wondered if they would have anything left of the cloaked young man to present to Jabba for a reward.

The Transdoshan began firing indiscriminately at the trophy room and Jango decided to step back from the fighting. It was one thing to damage Jabba's throne room a little while trying to take out someone that had nearly killed the Hutt, but it was something else entirely to destroy the Hutt's prized trophies in order to succeed.

He wanted whatever bounty Jabba would put on the boy, but taking part in such an action would earn all those involved a brutal death by the enraged Hutt. It didn't matter how much the bounty was worth to Jabba, if they destroyed his trophies he would probably make trophies out of them. It was a shame that he wouldn't be able to take down the prey himself but he knew when to restrain himself from making foolish mistakes.

As the droid and human's cover was whittled away, he was taken by surprise when an object pierced through the wall, and then through the Transdoshan. It continued through someone else's leg and then imbedded deeply into the adjacent wall. He instinctively moved for cover as blaster fire cut down a few of the newly reinforced group. As he waited for it to die down and give him a chance to return fire, he was even more surprised when spikes appeared out of the floor and walls.

Jango looked down at the spike that had pinned him to the wall and couldn't make heads or tails of what had just happened to him. The spike had erupted out from the column he had just moved behind and had forcibly pinned him to the wall. The transfigured rock was no match for his armor, but that did not mean that he was safe. It had pinned him with such force that it compressed his chest and actually forced his body off the floor. His feet were a few inches off the ground and he was no longer able to get enough air into his lungs as the spike prevented him from properly inhaling.

Trying to get a clear view of the others, he wasn't able to determine if any of the group he was with were actually left alive. He could hear movement and his helmet picked up two new heat signatures move into the room as the other heat signatures no longer moved. One was warmer and smaller than the other and he knew them to be the two they had been facing. As he struggled to breathe and get free from the spike he realized that both his blasters had been knocked out of his hands.

He had far more weapons on him than just the blasters but those would make noise and at the moment he did not want to attract attention to himself while trying to get free. He was in no position to fight off such attackers so he stayed as still as possible. The boy could find him and finish him off while he was in such a state and he waited unmoving as time slowly ticked by while he suffocated.

The boy looked directly at him, despite not having a direct line of sight to determine where he was as if somehow knowing that he was either still alive or not as dead as everyone else in the room. They looked at each other for a few moments before the boy moved on and the assassin droid followed a few seconds afterward. Jango began seeing stars the moment the two went down lower staircase.

Waiting as long as he dared, he hurriedly used his wrist-mounted vibroblade on the rock spike and began cutting away away at it. He cursed that the blade was not very long and the tip of the spike had broken on his armor, leaving a much thicker broken tip pinning his chest. He kept hacking away at it as the outer edges of his vision began getting dark and panicking at the thought of dying in such a state, he used the wrist-mounted blaster on his other arm to blast off the last few inches.

Freed from the spike, Jango unceremoniously dropped to the floor and took his first full breath in over a minute. He removed his own helmet and breathed deeply while still on the floor. After taking several deep breaths and when the stars had left his vision, he frantically searched for his blasters and began scanning the room from his cover. Had his blaster fire been heard and were they coming back?

Truthfully he had never seen so much blood before as his uncovered eyes scanned the room. Most weapons cauterized wounds so people didn't bleed out and certainly it wasn't normal for people to be skewered by rock spikes that formed out of the floors and walls. Jabba's throne room was now a war-zone and he had trouble believing that one young adult and one assassin droid could do so much against the men that Jabba kept in his service. They certainly weren't highly trained soldiers but most were experienced fighters and more deadly than any common thugs.

From what he had seen of his prey and how he moved, Jango could tell that the boy had training, most likely from Jedi. It was obvious to him that the boy was not someone's padawan or on any mission from the Jedi. He was almost positive that the young man must have been a failed Jedi and left the Order to strike out on his own. This explained the use of the sword and why he had no lightsaber.

What he had nearly been killed by must have been a Force technique then. 'Though I've never seen something that can shape rock and use it as a weapon. There are even thicker spikes at the staircase to prevent more reinforcements from above. And that knife, it went right through rock and people.' he thought as he remembered the scene as it played out in his head. Getting up off the ground, he moved to were the weapon had stuck into the wall.

Finding a metal ring and part of a handle sticking out of the wall, he grasped the ring and began pulling with all his might. The knife unwillingly came free and he fell backwards from the force he had been pulling with. Grumbling under his breath, he got back up and then looked over the weapon.

It was ordinary, which confused him even more. He expected it to be a vibroblade or perhaps some other technology but he could tell that it wasn't. He was holding just a simple metal knife. 'What metal is this? Plain steel?' he wondered and put the knife away in one of his pouches to look at later.

Hearing a roar from below, he remembered why he was there in the first place and ran to fetch his helmet before heading down the lower staircase in search of his targets.

x-x

Jumping from the rock face, Suigetsu flipped in the air and evaded the slashes of the Krayt dragon that was chasing him. Smiling, Suigetsu played with the creature as he waited for the right moment to strike. He was confident his sword would easily pass through the creatures thick hide but wanted to prolong the fight as much as he could.

He used his blade defensively as the creatures claws raked across it's surface but he was sure that they left no scratches or scrapes. Jumping back to escape a swipe by the creatures tail, Suigetsu landed on the wall of the canyon. As he prepared to dodge the next strike, the rocks beneath his feet began to give way.

Losing his balance and concentration on the loosening rocks, Suigetsu was grabbed by the creature's mouth as it charged and teeth sunk deeply into his body. Shaking it's head back and forth to tear into it's prey, the Krayt dragon released it's hold and Suigetsu's mangled body was tossed down to the canyon floor. Playing coy, Suigetu's body slowly reformed while he remaining completely still, waiting for the moment when the creature was nearly on top of him.

As the creature slowly lumbered forward, confident in it's victory and meal. Suigetsu remained motionless and as the creature moved to take another bite of him, he rolled, got to his feet, and swung at one of it's front legs. The leg was easily dismembered by his sword. Keeping the momentum of the swing, he spun and changed his footing, jumping to strike again at the other front leg, severing it as well.

He expected a torrent of blood to spray from the grievous injuries he had dealt the creature and waited to subsequently be covered in the liquid, however he wasn't. His cloak was dry and in the dark he couldn't determine if any blood had even gotten on him.

As the creature struggled in pain with the loss of it's front legs, Suigetsu looked over his body and the ground in the hopes of finding out what had happened. Finding no blood, he examined his sword and ran his hand over the blade. Expecting it to be slick with blood, he instead found a covering of warm dark sludge came off onto his fingertips and palm. He could smell the usual metallic odor associated with blood but not a single drop could be seen and what was on his hands wasn't blood.

'Weird.' he thought and his investigation was soon interrupted by the cries of the wounded creatures.

"Fine, I'll finish you off." he said. With a powerful swing, he severed most of the neck and followed up with second swing which severed the exposed spinal cord; killing it.

Looking over the newest wound, he again found an absence of blood, however upon pulling his sword out of the wound, blood freely began flowing from the neck. 'Well that's better at least. I was beginning to think this thing didn't have any blood.'

Stabbing his sword into the ground, he began looking over his kill and going over all that needed to be done. The creature was about sixty or more feet long and below average going by the size of one hundred feet that Naruto gave as typical for adult dragons. Suigetsu wasn't about to let it just sit there and was set on using as much of the creature as possible. He just needed to start carving it up and putting the meat into the scrolls to cook later. If he had the means to make a fire, he would have started cooking up some of it as he did feel a little hungry. 'Maybe when we finally stop somewhere for an extended visit we can have a nice cookout.' he thought with a smile.

Looking around the canyon, he searched for the scrolls that he had brought with him. He dropped them when the creature came into sight and the battle began. Running up the canyon wall, he looked for the dead rat creature and soon found the scrolls he was after near the creatures partially eaten body.

Brushing off the strange sludge he had on his hands onto his clothing, Suigetsu encountered something slick. Looking down, he found that there were several areas of his jumpsuit that had some kind of liquid on it. Touching his hand to one of the areas, he brought it up to his nose and quickly recoiled.

It certainly wasn't blood and had a pungent odor to it. 'Venom?' he guessed as there were areas of it where the teeth had entered his body. Ignoring the finding, he went back to the creature and unrolled the scrolls in order to seal up the soon to be carved meat. Going to his sword, he stopped as he saw something. The creatures dark blood was moving to his stationary sword. That however wasn't the strange part, as the blood was moving uphill to touch the blade.

x-x

Panicked from the recent events and the fighting below, Jabba quickly slithered out of his personal turbolift and into his large and decadent living quarters. His form was followed by the pale Bib Fortuna who seemed equally panicked and completely lost as to what he should do. They had no medical personnel at the palace and not even so much as a med-kit.

Jabba, unlike Bib, had not escaped the blast from the thermal detonators. He was missing an arm and had burns on the side of his body. The resilience of the Hutt species had saved him from further injury and diminished what could have been major or life threatening injuries. That however did not mean that he wasn't in a severe amount of pain and that pain as well as his thoughts concerning his attacker turned to anger.

Immediately the Hutt began circling his living quarters thinking up horrible fates for his attacker and shouting orders to his Majordomo. Bib went to the only computer terminal in the room and began looking up the information that the Hutt had demanded, which was the surveillance feed from his throne room.

The Twi'lek found the live feed and they both watched the displays on the large screen. Bodies littered the floor as fighting continued. Both spectators had thought that the human and droid would already be dead or captured but that did not seem to be the case. The room they were viewing suddenly began to fill with smoke and they lost sight of all the combatants as the only things they could make out was the blaster fire.

Someone was out to assassinate him and had gotten closer than any other assassin in the nearly six centuries that he had been alive. As the smoke in the room cleared, some fighting continued and there were many bodies on the floor as blaster fire was exchanged between the trophy room and the rest of the throne room. The Hutt soon laughed as he noticed from one camera that reinforcements had just arrived.

The laughter however died as the Hutt saw what the Transdoshan was using and where he was firing. He yelled and raged at the destruction of his trophy collection and was almost happy when the reptilian humanoid was killed. The two continued to watch as the battle soon went out of their favor but they were not prepared for what happened next.

In a split second, the remaining fighters in the room were all killed by spikes that seemed to come right out of the walls, floor, and columns. Bib was so shocked by what he saw that he backed up from the screen and nearly stepped on the Hutts tail.

A few moments passed until the human and droid came out of the trophy room and looked over the area before moving off screen. They didn't have monitors covering every inch of his throne room and from the angle the Hutt was viewing, he couldn't tell where the short human had gone. Whether it was to the lower staircase or to the hidden turbolift that they had just taken. Worried that the controls on the lift could be overridden, Jabba decided to vacate the palace and take to his sail barge to get him back to Mos Espa and to his compound where he could get medical treatment.

Before he went, he left final orders with Bib Fortuna and then proceeded with haste through the rooms door and on the route to the hangar. He would monitor the situation through the barges communication systems and up-link with the palace while his remaining guards at the palace and the reinforcements that he would send for would take care of the human and droid inside.

Bib continued working at a furious pace as he searched through the security footage for a picture to use and made up a bounty poster and message to transmit to the entire planet and other notable bounty hunters that Jabba used which may in nearby systems or sectors. Finishing up, he just had to add the number that Jabba had wanted. 'five hundred thousand credits should be more than enough to put the entire planet and sector after the human. Normally I would consider getting my blaster and joining up with a few guards to try and split the reward but there is no way that I'm facing that butcher.' he concluded as he transmitted the message and then left the room out the same door as Jabba.

Hurrying down many hallways and one turbolift, the Twi'lek arrived at the hangar right as the Khetanna was being readied to leave. An alarm going off and subsequent message over the loud speakers in the hangar let everyone know that a sandstorm was approaching and they would either have to leave in the next twenty minutes or stay.

Pulling the cloak on his hood down and covering his face as best as he could, Bib got to the boarding ramp for the sail barge and pushed his way past everyone else. Being the Majordomo, he was tasked with taking care of Jabba's affairs and the palace when the Hutt left but he wasn't about to stay with such a trained killer running loose inside the palace.

x-x

Grabbing his discblade at the bottom of the steps, Naruto continued on to get to the cage which Juugo was still in. He was too distracted with his enemies to properly sense Juugo and found out how the orange-haired teen was doing but now that he had a moment Juugo was just outside of range. He could only sense the two Twi'lek dancers and feel how scared they were. Blocking his path were numerous Gamorreans that were slow to respond to the call for help from the throne room and just making it to the upper staircase.

He cut them down with both disc and ninjato as he continued moving down the wide arched hallway. There was an intersection up ahead that the Force told him would lead to where he wanted to go. The Gamorreans however just kept coming and he was getting tired of them. He was about to do something when the closest one to him exploded.

Glancing behind him while the Gamorreans stopped in their tracks, Naruto saw HK holding the micro-grenade rifle. Crouching, Naruto jumped to the ceiling, stuck to it, and continued running towards what he believed to be Juugo's location. He heard many more explosions behind him and the squealing of the Gamorreans but he paid them no mind.

As he ran, he heard a roar and the walls and floor shook as if there was an explosion. He nearly lost his footing on the ceiling but soon increased his speed to get to Juugo. Moving down a passageway, Naruto knew that what he wanted was just ahead. He heard another roar echoing past him as he turned the last corner and found the hallway empty of combatants. There was however a huge hole in a nearby wall and he jumped down, cautiously moving to the hole to figure out what could have caused it and what beast had been Jabba's pet. He knew it was at least the size of the giant Tulrus that they had killed.

Walking into the cage, Naruto peered through the darkness and saw Juugo, alive and helping the two twi'lek dancers who were hiding in some alcoves at one end of the cage. Confused, he extended his range as far as he could and just caught a large lifesign leaving the extent of his reach.

Juugo noticed someone was there and turned to see who it was. "You came to save me?" he questioned of his companion and Naruto stared at him for a second before quickly replying.

"No." Naruto lied and Juugo tried to hold back a smile as he knew Naruto was lying. He did think for a few moments that Naruto would be furious at him but that did not seem the case. "Then why did you come running down here so fast?" Juugo questioned and Naruto was quick to explain, "The upper staircase was blocked so we came down here." he explained and then asked a question of his of his own, "What exactly was down here? I know I felt something large but what happened to it?"

"I don't really know how to describe it. It was just an enslaved creature that wanted to get free. Unfortunately he wouldn't listen to me when I tried to help him so I had to hurt him a little." explained Juugo seriously and Naruto just stared for a moment before saying rhetorically, "You make it sound as though you could speak to it and it could speak and understand you." Moving back to the large hole in the wall, Naruto looked both ways down the hallway to see if anyone else was coming and to confirm that the creature had indeed left. 'Well I guess it's a good thing it didn't run in the direction I was coming from.' he thought but was brought of his musings by Juugo's reply, "I can speak to and understand all animals, even the ones that don't have chakra."

Turning around and looking back at Juugo, Naruto was slightly confused as he could not detect any hint of falsehood in what Juugo just said, "You mean to tell me that you can talk with animals and they can understand you? Why am I just hearing of this now?" he demanded and Juugo just shrugged.

"Regardless, we need to leave now before they find us. HK is almost caught up to us."

"What about them?" asked Juugo and Naruto looked to where he had indicated and found the two dancers. Frowning he debated about what to do. If he left them, they would either get recaptured or perhaps be killed, either by Jabba's men or perhaps the creature still roaming the lower levels.

"It will be hard enough for ourselves to get away, Juugo. If you haven't noticed, the entire palace is after us and you just released Jabba's pet into the lower levels." elaborated Naruto while gesturing to the damage they had already created, but Juugo was resolute in helping the two girls.

"Fine, but you're responsible for them. If they know where the hangar bay is, then I'll meet you there. I need to destroy any evidence of our being here." and Naruto watched the trio leave and head in the direction that HK was.

Making a earth clone, Naruto left the cage and proceeded in the same direction that the creature had traveled. The slaves wouldn't have known where the security and surveillance systems were. What he needed was a living person to question and find out where he needed to go.

As Naruto left, the earth clone proceeded to slowly make a set of handseals for a single jutsu. Slamming its hand into the cage floor, the rock directly above it began to crack and loosen as the entire ceiling came down on top of it.

x-x

It was night by the time Kabuto got the skiff back to the new location of their ship. It was outside the city of Mos Espa and Kabuto had made sure to stay a good distance away from the outskirts of the city so as to remain unseen. Parking the skiff next to the ship, Karin jumped off to go and activate the loading elevator for the Demon Brothers so they could put the Star Map on it.

Looking out over the sand and to the nearby city, Kabuto saw the incoming sand storm. It seemed to slowly approach the city but that belied just how fast the storm was moving and the distance they were from it. As the storm began to envelop Mos Espa, Kabuto moved to the ship to get aboard the ramp.

Boarding the ship and shutting the ramp to keep the approaching storm out, Kabuto passed Karin in the hallway and asked about Naruto.

"He's not back yet." she explained as she couldn't feel his signature on the ship or nearby. 'Perhaps he got caught in the storm. If so I probably won't be able to reach him by commlink.' reasoned Kabuto. As he continued down the hallway, he passed Tayuya sleeping on the meeting table and though he thought it strange, he decided not to try and wake her up. He passed the medical bay door and tried to get it but found it locked.

'Master Plagueis must be working on something.' he thought and knew he would have to summon his snake later to find out what the man had really been up to while on Tatooine. Heading to the storage area, he found the Demon Brothers struggling to move the Star Map onto the elevator and as soon as they were finished, he hit the switch to bring the loading elevator back into the ship.

It was a shame that they couldn't keep the skiff as it proved to be quite useful but it was simply too large to fit in the ship.

Once the elevator was inside the ship, the Demon Brothers decided to leave the Star Map where it was and move it in the morning or at least after getting some rest. Kabuto thoroughly agreed as they had been nearly killed several times that day and he just wanted to get some sleep.

x-x

Cutting out the stomachs as they weren't something that he was going to eat, Suigetsu struggled to get the large collection of organs out of the creatures abdomen without piercing them and possibly contaminating the meat. With great effort, he managed to get the organs out and drag them away from the rest of the creature.

Curiously, the contents of one area of the stomachs made a strange sound and he looked at the organ for a few seconds before taking out a kunai and deciding to see what the Krayt dragon had eaten which would make such a sound.

Carefully slicing into one of the the stomachs so the contents did not spill out onto him, he first came across part of the newly dead rat-like creature that he had used as bait. Cringing slightly, he moved the portion of the creature with his foot out of the way so he wouldn't have to look at it and continued his search. Cutting into the next stomach, he came across a partially digested body of one of the locals, Suigetsu wrinkled his nose and thought about stopping his dissection but an oddly shaped weapon caught his eye. It was a type of club that had evidently been wielded by the corpse before being eaten whole.

Setting it aside and wiping his slimy hands on his pants, he continued and in the last organ finally came across what must have made the noise.

It was a collection of rocks. Curious why such a creature would eat rocks, he thought there must have been some kind of purpose or perhaps it was just accidental. He was about to toss the organ aside and continue inspecting the body to see if anything else could be found on the corpse when something in the pile or rocks reflected what little light was in the canyon.

Using his kunai, he pushed the smaller rocks aside found two rocks that didn't match the others. Picking them both up and wiping them off, he moved to a better area in order to catch more moonlight on them.

Both rocks were perfectly smooth and one reflected green while the other blue in the moonlight. Both were a darker color closer to the surface with a very light and brighter shade at the center. The green was larger than his hand while the blue fit just perfectly.

'They look gems or pearls, not rocks.' thought Suigetsu and looking towards the severed head of the creature, Suigetsu asked, "Man, what did you eat? Somebodies treasure?"

Putting the pearls in their own storage seal on the scroll, Suigetsu got back to cutting up the Krayt Dragon meat.

x-x

Dropping the unconscious monk, Naruto reviewed the information that he had just drained from the man and figured out where he needed to go. He needed to get to the power plant for the palace, which wasn't very far away and then he would have to travel a roundabout path to get to the communications dome that also contained the surveillance equipment for the palace. Both of these were in the Alkhara tower, which was the tallest tower of the palace buildings.

He could go outside and up an exposed staircase that was carved into the canyon side but decided against it. The staircase would leave him vulnerable to snipers and any patrols that Jabba had around the facility. He could also travel throughout the lower levels of the facility and through a myriad of passages to get to the lower level of the Alkhara tower but he knew from the monks memories that he would be traveling through areas that Jabba had numerous guards, locked doors, and that had either suffered from cave-ins or been deliberately blocked.

Naruto therefore determined from the monks knowledge of the complex that the best way to go was to the power plant. The monks shared the large complex with Jabba and though Jabba called it his palace. The monks lived, operated, and maintained the majority of the complex. Jabba had his areas and the monk's had their areas, with marginal crossover through the facility.

The power plant was beneath one of the other large spires of the complex. He would travel through the power plant and then up the Wandering Meditative Staircase used by the disembodied monks in the spider-like droids. They constantly traveled up and down the staircase and based upon his previous encountered, would not be concerned with his presence there. From there he would reenter the main palace and go to the other spire.

Reaching one of the entrances to the power plant, he quickly henged into a standard looking monk. Walking past several monks that seemed to be monitoring the power plant, he glanced at the huge generator and wondered exactly how it operated or what it used as fuel but pushed those thoughts aside as he looked for the hallway that would lead to the wandering stair.

As there were none of Jabba's guards present and the monks were busy, he moved with impunity towards the passageway. He thought about damaging the controls for the power plant or even causing an overload but realized that such actions would hinder him as he still needed the building to have power so he could access the systems.

Finding the stair, he ended the henge and began running up the circular staircase. It was about eight stories tall but since only the disembodied monks used it, they wouldn't even notice his presence.

x-x

Stepping over the Gamorrean corpses and reaching the bottom of the staircase, Jango Fett stumbled as the ground shook from what he thought may have been an explosion. 'He must be trying to get to his companion in the Rancor pit.' Fett guessed and wondered where the explosives had been procured from. His communicator suddenly went off and he stopped briefly as he accessed the message through his visor.

It was a simple holographic message that had been apparently sent out to anyone within range of whatever transmitter was being used. It contained a picture of the boy he was after and an amount of money listed for the capture or killing of the person shown. 'That's...a lot of zeros.' commented the former Mandalorian to himself. With that amount of money he could finally replace his aged ship with something better.

Passing more corpses, Fett came to an intersection and relying on his heat vision, caught the heat signature of someone moving just around the corner down one of the passages. Running after them, he wondered if they knew where they were going. He hadn't been working for Jabba long enough to know his way around the lower levels of the palace and he didn't have a good schematic of the palace.

Coming to the end of the hallway, he moved around the bodies of more guards and came around the corner but found it empty so he continued his pursuit. Glancing around, he determined that he was in the prison area of the palace given what he thought were many sets of prison cells along the wide and long hallways. Noting that his quarry seemed to be keeping the same pace that he was or perhaps even out-striping him, Jango activated his rocket pack and kept a controlled upright flight down the next hallway in order to catch up.

x-x

Breaking the prison guards neck and tossing its corpse aside, HK-47 processed the information he had just gotten from the brief interrogation while his three companions cringed slightly at his deeds. Creating a rudimentary map from the directions he had extracted from the Meatbag, the droid led the others to the turbolift that was in a nearby hallway down the hall. Using the lift they would be able to get back to the main floor and make their way to the palace's only hangar bay where they might find a transport.

Moving to the controls, the droid tried the door but found the controls were locked and without some form of access key card or perhaps passcode it would be difficult to get in. Ripping the panel cover from the wall, the droid exposed sets of wires and components.

"I can get the door." offered one of the Twi'lek dancers and HK looked at her critically for a second before stepping back from the panel and letting the Meatbag dancer work. It wasn't that he couldn't get the door himself, and probably faster than the dancer, but he would then have to leave himself open and let the three Meatbags guard him while he worked.

Standing guard with micro-grenade launcher in hand, HK-47 contemplated his current companions while simultaneously watching for more Meatbags to kill. The male Meatbag was apparently ruled by emotions that he could not understand or perhaps it was something to do with hormones and the two dancers. The two Twi'lek Meatbags were more understandable but he found it interesting that they appeared to be able to slice through locked doors. So far they were proving more useful than the male Meatbag.

Glancing to the hallway that they had just come from, the droid would have smiled if he had the facial structure to do so. It seemed he wouldn't be bored while waiting for the door to be opened.

x-x

Trying to look over the dancers shoulder to see what she was doing, Juugo was immensely curious on how it was that she would manage to unlock the door for them. He had never witnessed 'slicing' or electrical lock picking and had no idea how it was done or could really comprehend the mess of wires and other electrical components that the Twi'lek girl was sifting through and rewiring.

So distracted was he, that he never noticed the former Mandalorian stealthily moving down the hallway to their position at the turbolift alcove.

"Freeze." came a voice from behind the three in the alcove. They did as they were told and froze in place, waiting to either be killed or given some further instruction.

"Drop the blaster, kid." demanded the voice and Juugo dropped the blaster to the sandy floor. He had only unsealed it from hiding a few minutes prior and didn't even have the chance to fire it. Thinking over the situation and trying to determine what the best coarse of action was, Juugo as well as the Twi'leks turned to look at their captor and found a man mostly covered in armor with two blaster pistols pointed at them.

Juugo noticed the marks on the armor but didn't know if the man was injured or not. He didn't think he could disarm the person or escape injury if he tried something.

"Where's the brat with the sword?" asked the figure and Juugo decided to be as responsive as he could, "He left by himself to go somewhere else in the palace."

Jango mulled over the answer for a few minutes while he thought of what to do next. He had been ready to unleash his weapons and for a fight, but he had apparently only found the three from the Rancor pit.

'How the hell did they get out of there alive?' he suddenly wondered as the orange haired teen in front of him seemed amateurish at best and very different from the highly trained swordsman in the throne room. Before he could ask, he was struck with another thought, 'Where's the droid?'

He was however instantly aware of the answer and his instincts told him that the droid was right behind him and had set a trap. A clicking sound that did not cause his immediate death was the only thing that told him that he was still alive for a little longer.

x-x

Watching from the depression of a small ventilation unit in the ceiling, HK-47 viewed a Mandalorian move towards the three at the turbo-lift. He waited until the armored Meatbag was distracted and moved from his position; soundlessly dropping from the ceiling to the ground below.

The sound dampners in his feet worked how they should and the Mandalorian was still unaware of his position. Taking the micro-grenade rifle from his back, the droid aimed carefully. The Meatbag may have been wearing heavy armor, but the back of the neck was still slightly exposed to him and a single micro-grenade to that location, just under the lip of the back of the helmet, would instantly kill the Meatbag that followed them.

Squeezing the trigger, the droid's eyes glowed slightly brighter in surprise as the telltale 'click' sound of an empty weapon echoed through the quiet hallway.

Jango instantly turned with both blasters ready to take the droid the down but HK had already thrown the empty rifle at the Mandalorian. The heavy weapon struck Jango in the helmet and stunned him for just a moment, which was not enough time for HK to reach him but the kick behind him from Juugo to the side of his head gave the droid more time.

Regaining his balance before he fell, Jango recovered to find himself being tackled against the wall by the droid. Several shots were fired as the two struggled against each other. Jango found himself overpowered by the droid's strength and he ended up being forced to drop both of his blasters.

'That helmet really hurt.' thought Juugo as he kept off his foot for a few moments and turned to the two Twi'leks, wordlessly telling them to continue. He then grabbed his blaster from the ground but found HK was already dealing with the situation and he didn't have a clear shot

The droid grabbed Jango's throat with one hand, lifting him off the ground, and stopped the bounty hunter from using his left arm effectively, which had his wrist-mounted blaster on. A shot from it which had been intended for HK struck the ceiling instead and Jango switched tactics. Using his right arm, Jango extended his vibroblade and tried to stab the droid's head or arm but HK moved or deflected the blows with his elbow or knee joint.

"Statement: It has been quite some time since I have killed a Mandalorian Meatbag. This should bring back many fond memories." and HK began to squeeze much harder with the intent of breaking Jango's neck.

Knowing his wrist-mounted flamethrower would do nothing to the droid and neither would activating his rocket pack, Jango used his last option and the only trick he had left. Reaching under the droids arm with his right hand, he activated a button on his left-hand gauntlet. The missile on his rocket pack ignited and launched upwards at the curved ceiling. It didn't travel very far before striking the rock and exploding right above the droid.

With such a close impact, the concussive force pushed the droid off him and sent both to the ground. Stunned from the blast, it took a few moments for either combatants to come to their senses or perform a quick diagnostic. HK was back on his feet first but Jango acted first and touched a button on his right gauntlet, activating his whipcord launcher. The fibercord whip wound around HK's legs and torso, pinning his arms to his side and preventing him from walking.

Sitting up to a crouch, Jango held the struggling droid steady with one arm and took aim with the blaster mounted on his left gauntlet. Still disoriented from the blast, his first shot missed the struggling droid's head and he re-aimed for a second shot.

A boisterous statement of "I got the door." fell on deaf ears for Jango and the droid as they were more concerned with killing each other. Jango however was taken by surprise when a blaster bolt that came from the turbolift alcove sliced his whipcord and freed the droid from being bound to his wrist. The fibercord however did not loosen much or free droids limbs.

Leaning out from the alcove, Juugo tried to shoot the armored guard and help HK but was forced back by blaster fire. HK took the opportunity of distraction to lunge for the open turbolift and Juugo helped drag the droid the rest of the way into the lift as the door closed and protected them from blaster fire.

Finally to his feet, Jango punched the rock wall in frustration after the lift door had closed. None of his shots had landed and the distraction from the teen had let the droid escape. That was probably the most dangerous droid he had ever encountered and he had to use almost every trick he had just to keep from getting killed. 'And it still got away.' he fumed. Looking to the ground, he went to get his blasters.

He could bring the lift back down and continue his pursuit in a few moments. Picking up his prized weapons, Jango stopped as he heard something. It sounded like heavy breathing. Looking to the end of the hallway, he came face to face with a Rancor that was crawling along the ground under the arched ceilings.

The creature looked at him with its small beady eyes and then roared. Cursing loudly in Mandoa, Jango holstering his blasters and began running down the hallway the way he had come from. His left hand moved to a button on his right gauntlet and activated his rocket pack to increase his speed and outrace the Rancor.

'They didn't survive the Rancor, they released it.' he realized. The chasing creature wasn't fully grown but had enough head room in the wide corridor hallways to move on all fours. Jango thought about using his blasters and believed that he if had an accurate enough shot, he could take it down but he remembered that it was Jabba's birthday present and killing it would be the same as destroying the Hutts trophy room; it would mean a painful death if Jabba ever found out.

x-x

Reaching the top of the spiral stair, Naruto pushed the button for the outside door. The large metal door instantly opened and he was hit by powerful winds. Putting his hands up to his forehead to keep the sand from getting into his eyes he peered out from the door. Looking across the bridge at the palace building, he checked for sentries and possible snipers but found none. It was night outside and he was finally able to see how much time had passed since they first arrived at Jabba's. The suns of Tatooine had long since set and it was probably early in the morning he guessed.

In the darkness he could see a few guards on the open areas of the main rotunda but he knew he would be protected from the gun emplacements due to the closeness of the tower to the main building and the overhangs of the main building being just above the bridge that connected the two buildings.

Running out the door and across the bridge, Naruto shielded himself from the sand. The wind tunnel effect of the two rounded buildings in close proximity to one another, in conjunction with the harsh sand that was picked up, were enough to dispel his henge. He however wasn't worried about that as it was so dark out and Jabba apparently didn't believe in any architectural lighting to show off the building at night. Increasing his speed, he was distracted for a moment when he spotted something in the distance to his right side. It took a few moments to figure out exactly what he was looking at before he realized that it was an incoming sand storm.

Nearly to the other side of the bridge, Naruto didn't find any guards at the door, nor could he feel any guards behind the door so he didn't hesitate to hit the control panel and quickly move through the opening. Coming out of the windy darkness, he found himself in a silent windless hallway and putting back his henge, he swiftly proceeded further into the main building.

The end of the hallway opened into a surprisingly large room that caused Naruto to stop as he looked around. It seemed the majority of the main rotunda was just comprised of the single room he was in. It had a large center column as a structural support with rows upon rows of detached brains sitting in little alcoves all around. The setup seemed reminiscent of a theater or arena but there was no show playing at the center and the audience of detached brains had no eyes with with to watch anything. Many colorful banners hung from the ceiling and a very large bladed fan spun at the top of the room around the column, providing a cool breeze.

Using persuasion on a few of the monks that still had attached brains, Naruto moved up one of the staircases, passing row upon row of brains. The monk's seemed to be attending to the brains and he could tell that each of the monks held the brains in high regard, though he knew not why. 'What a strange religion.' he remarked to himself and began focusing, pushing his sensing inward as he tried to keep from gleaning any information from the brains, lest he get lost in their incoherent thoughts.

Coming to the top of the staircase, Naruto proceeded down another hallway and finally let out a breath he had been holding as he relaxed his senses and extended them again.

Reaching the end of the hallway, he could feel people up ahead and thought that they were standing guard or at least patrolling. 'This must be where the monk's area ends and Jabba's begins again.' he thought and released his henge while unsealing both disc blades.

Calming himself, he activated the door mechanism by smacking it with one of the disc blades and found himself exposed to the harsh weather again. Shielding his eyes, he quickly tossed one of his blades as he identified his two targets. He was in the middle of both and they appeared to be each stationed at a laser cannon emplacement.

Both guards were alerted to his presence by the opening of the door and the first one was cut down before he could get to his blaster. Naruto called back the first disc blade and quickly threw the twin. The second target managed to get off a shot before the discblade reached him but the blaster fire missed.

Catching one disc blade and then the other, Naruto moved out from his position and to the short ledge. He was on the open hallway or concourse that circled the rotunda just above the first overhang. Glancing at the spire that he had just come from, he then looked to the Alkhara spire and pulled down his goggles to determine the distance and where he had to go.

'I can make that gap.' he concluded and was about to move close to the inner wall in order to get a running start when he heard something besides the wind. A moment later, four lifesigns entered his range and he watched as a skiff moved slowly into view as it circled the rotunda. He saw them and evidently they managed to identify him in the darkness as they opened fire from the skiff.

There was nothing to hide behind expect for the laser cannon emplacement and Naruto ran to the closest. Moving the corpse off the seat and targeting controls, he rotated the laser cannon and aimed for the skiff. The firing slowed as the men realized what he was doing and the pilot attempted to get away by accelerating out of the range of the turret but Naruto was faster.

Four laser blasts were fired at the skiff while three of the blasts struck the armored skiff in close proximity, piercing what armor it had and striking the skiff's power-source which caused an explosion. Knowing that the explosion would alert any other patrols as to his general whereabouts, Naruto created two shadow clones that manned the laser cannons while he moved to the inner wall.

Picking his trajectory, he sprinted across the short distance of the concourse, jumped over the small ledge, and began running down the sloping overhand. Using the Force to increase his speed as best as he could, he reached the end of the overhang and Force jumped into the gap between the spire and the rotunda.

A weightless sensation soon overtook him as he moved away from the rotunda and to the spire. He reached the apex of his jump and was confident that he would land exactly where he wanted, however the wind and storm had other plans.

Cursing at the powerful gust, his body was pushed off course and instead of landing on the side of the spire, his body moved past the structure and headed off the edge of the canyon. Acting quickly, Naruto deeply inhaled and formed a single seal, the dog seal, and then exhaled a powerful stream of wind that pushed him back to the spire and away from the canyon floor where he had been heading.

His own wind jutsu and the natural wind caused him to spiral out of control and he struck the backside of the spire. With his breath knocked out of him, Naruto fell but unsheathed his sword and stuck it into the rock to slow himself and get his feet situated on the side of the tower to stick to the surface.

Looking around from his perch, he noted the storm was nearly upon the palace and ignoring the pain in his back, he began running up the side of the spire to get to the top. He could hear and see laser fire from the opposite side of the spire and knew his clones must be distracting anyone else that had come to investigate the destroyed skiff.

'Damn they're persistent.' he noted and questioned why such thugs would be so loyal as to stay out during a sandstorm in order to capture or kill him. Memories of the clones soon filled his head as one was killed by blaster fire and he believed the other died as a result of the jutsu being dispelled by the sand in another powerful gust of wind.

Slowing down his pace as he neared the top, he searched the uppermost levels of the tower for lifesigns. It seemed that no one was guarding the top of the tower. Landing on a balcony just below the large communications dome at the top of the Alkhara tower, Naruto walked in through one of the many openings around the circumference. The entrances all led to a large open floor that was dominated by the conduits and relays that went to the communications dome above him.

'Perhaps I should try to contact the Vulture or at least turn off whatever is jamming normal communications.' he thought and proceeded down a staircase that would presumably take him to the communications equipment in lower levels. From what he had previously gleaned, all of the complexes security monitoring equipment was on the floor below the communications equipment. He would need to erase anything that could be used to identify them.

Reaching the bottom of a staircase to the floor below, Naruto stepped over cables that were haphazardly strewn on the floor and connecting various devices. Looking over the equipment, he tried to identify what was around him and find what he was after. Some of the equipment he couldn't identify but he guessed that he was looking at an illegal signal interceptor. The Hutt had numerous transceivers on the outside of the tower so he was able to receive the Holonet but it seemed that Jabba could also intercept other people's transmitted messages over the Holonet and monitor normal communications throughout the sector.

'He must be tapping into the local relay station.' he thought and was surprised by what expense it must have cost to implement such a system. 'Though he would be privy to most interstellar communications going to and coming from the planet and even those messages which are being relayed to other nearby sectors.' he realized and decided how he could use it to his advantage.

Taking his out his fuinjutsu supplies while a few newly created clones looked around the room, Naruto began putting seals on some of the equipment and the hyperspace transceivers which were mostly on the inside of the tower with just the antenna sticking out. Short on time due to the incoming storm, he settled for a few of the most expensive looking pieces and would have to acquire the remaining equipment in order to copy the setup when they eventually settled somewhere.

Leaving a clone to finish up, Naruto moved to where his clones had determined was the surveillance equipment, which was one level below. Exactly where the monk had thought it was.

Bypassing security measures, which were incredibly lax, Naruto sifted through all of the holorecordings and other surveillance that the palace had. Coming across recording from several devices that he had evidently missed or not been aware of during his time spent in Jabba's throne room, he systematically deleted every occurrence of himself, Juugo and HK-47. While working, he had a disturbing thought and looked to see if anyone else had accessed any of the files.

Going over access times, the look on his face soured as he found that someone had tried to cover their tracks and deleted one of logs which showed recent access. Restoring the information, he found that the recordings of the throne room had been accessed twice by two different terminals in the palace. Looking over a layout of the facility on the computer, he found that one terminal was in Jabba's personal quarters, which made sense, however the other was in another part of the palace. Looking over the security recordings from that area of the palace, he matched the time stamp and viewed one of the robed monks accessing the terminal.

While he found nothing strange about Jabba accessing security recordings from his within the confines of his quarters, one of the monks slicing into a terminal and apparently downloading the footage of him was something that he found very disconcerting. Trying to follow the monk through the facility and track the individual down, Naruto found that surveillance recordings were only in Jabba's areas of the palace and as soon as the indistinguishable monk left those areas, he could no longer track him.

Ignoring the storm outside, he sifted through the monk's entire journey to the terminal and away from it. 'At no point does he show his face from under the hood. He knows where the cameras are.' concluded Naruto and his frown deepened.

While staying glued to the screen, his right hand removed a kunai from his pouch and with a single motion, he tossed the weapon behind him. He watched in the reflection on the monitor as the kunai imbedded into the neck of a weequay who had been sneaking up on him from below. The body fell down the staircase and Naruto resumed his focus on the terminal.

'He doesn't work for Jabba but I also don't know who he does work for. Probably spying on Jabba for someone. I won't be able to find him in the palace, there's too many monks and if he's smart, he already left or has a good place to hide and wait.' he decided and continued with the complete wiping of all information on his activities.

"We have a problem!" came a shout from one of his clones in the room above him.

'Damnit.' the real Naruto thought and he got up from his seat at the terminal and walked to the stairs. Stopping to pick up the blaster rifle that his would-be assassin was carrying, he aimed at the surveillance equipment and fired several shots, destroying the terminal and memory cores.

'Despite what I said before, they are really useful.' he thought and decided to keep the weapon as he ascended the staircase back to where his clones were.

Coming to the top of the stairs, he looked to where the clones were all looking and found a holoprojection of a bounty listing, specifically his bounty. 'That's a lot of zeros. Maybe I should turn myself in' commented Naruto as he looked at the number listed and then examined the picture. It was very poor, for which he was thankful.

Apparently they didn't have a very detailed image of his face. His whisker marks were exaggerated or at least distorted enough that it looked like the entire side of his face was scarred and the opposite side was not shown. The hologram had no color besides a generic blue so there was no way to tell his hair, eye, or skin color. The height indicated in the bounty information was when he was in the older looking henge so it was many inches off from his actual height and the weight was proportionately off as well. Also, nothing was listed on the various jutsu that Jabba had seen him use, it only noted that he used a vibrosword, knives, and blasters. In addition to being extremely dangerous.

"Its not that bad, right?" Naruto commented to his clones and most nodded with a few shrugging and one noted that it could have been much worse.

"It was transmitted over many frequencies and channels across the planet and system." one of the clones informed him and Naruto's earlier relief was quickly squashed. Ignoring the fact that anyone with a blaster on the planet would be after him Naruto asked, "Can it be retracted?"

"Not from here. Communications are down because of the storm. If we stayed until it cleared then maybe we could but that won't prevent Jabba from putting out another bounty."

"Make a copy of this bounty and put it on my datapad." Naruto ordered as he tossed his personal device to one of his clones. "Alter whatever jamming system is being used to jam all frequencies and communications." he ordered of another clone and proceeded up to the next level while one of the clones tossed back his datapad after downloading the information.

x-x

Staying inside the room while the search party passed, HK was the first to the door and hit the controls with the back of his palm as he had blasters in both hands. The door immediately hissed open and the droid broke into a run as it chased down the search party. He was upon them before they had finished turning around to respond to the noise. The members at the back of the party were taken out easily and the others were so surprised at the situation that they were unable to respond to the threat and were killed as well.

Standing at the center of what was once a group of six living mercenaries, HK-47 made sure he had gotten all the Meatbags in the immediate area before scrounging for weapons and energy packs. He had put the Twi'lek dancers to use and had them carrying extra weapons and his spent micro-grenade launcher. He was now fond of the weapon and wasn't about to toss it away like he would with any ordinary blaster.

Peaking out from the doorway of the room, Juugo looked down the hallway at the carnage and was once again thankful that the droid was on their side. Though he had been trained to use those weapons, he had never used them in such a situation and decided to step aside and let the sadistic droid do what it did best.

That was the third patrol they had come across since facing the armored man but only the second patrol that they had attacked. HK had decided that one of the patrols had too many men and was too heavily armed for even a surprise attack, especially since they had no explosives. Continuing to the hangar, they moved down two more hallways before coming to a large metal door.

The door was not the main entrance to the hangar which was perfect for their needs. Coming in through the main door would attract a great deal of attention. Juugo and HK again acted as lookouts while the two dancers worked on the door. It was a tense a few minutes but they eventually managed to force the large door open enough that a person could squeeze through the opening.

Moving through the door, they found themselves in a cantina-like setting with many tables and a nearby bar area. There was a staircase off to one side and a balcony in front of them that presumably overlooked the hangar. Juugo cautiously moved to the balcony in order to get a better look at the hangar and found himself looking at an expansive cave that was at least three stories tall and probably forty to fifty meters wide.

The opposite side of the hangar had numerous arched alcoves that had various supplies, tools, and workshops as well as what appeared to be pens for animals. Moving closer to the railing of the balcony, Juugo looked down to the floor and ducked out of sight as soon as he recognized the threat.

Motioning for the others to crouch down low, so as not be seen, Juugo and the girls waited where they were while HK-47 moved closer to the balcony to see what had put Juugo on guard. The droid crawled forward and peered through the openings in the railing. He counted three armored skiffs and nineteen Meatbags.

It appeared that they had just arrived and the four could hear a loud sound at the end of the hangar that turned out to be the hangar door shutting closed.

Focusing on the faces of the Meatbags, HK zoomed in and began analyzing the movements of the lips in order to determine what they were saying. He was able to get bits of conversation from various Meatbags and pieced together that there was a storm outside and no more reinforcements would be coming until after the storm passed. They were apparently splitting up into groups in order to search the palace but broke out into various arguments. They disagreed over claiming a bounty and no one seemed to be in charge or giving orders because most of the group wanted to go after the bounty alone.

'Inner thought: It appears the blonde Meatbag has gotten a bounty on his head.' the droid realized from the conversation and he wondered if he also had a bounty.

Thinking over the situation, HK believed that they could wait where they were while the others left to check the palace. Once the hangar was empty or nearly empty, they could secure a skiff. However, if what the Meatbags said about the storm was true, then skiffs would not be of much use in the storm. Flying a skiff in a canyon during a sand storm was more of a risk than he was willing to take.

'Inner thought: It also means that if we wait until the storm passes, we'll have to evade or burn holes through all of the new Meatbags that could arrive.' he realized and wasn't sure how best to proceed. The thought of waiting out the storm and hunting down all the Meatbags in the palace was tempting.

x-x

Better adjusting for wind, Naruto ran and lept off the tower towards the rotunda roof. He couldn't see it clearly anymore in the sand storm but could approximate where it was to avoid serious injury.

The roof came up fast and he struck the surface hard and went into an uncontrolled slide. He slid right off the first level of roof and landed on the second level, picking up speed as he neared the edge. The sand blowing over the roof surface proved difficult for him to stick to with the amount of momentum he had from the jump. Before going right off the roof, he again used his sword to anchor himself.

Hanging halfway off the roof, Naruto looked below him to the next overhang. He could barely make it out through the storm but now knew that he could drop and land on it. Removing his sword from the roof, he let himself drop and landed on the sloping roof with his hands out to steady his impact and make sure he didn't lose his balance.

Glancing around out of habit, he realized that there was no one around who would see him. Turning away from the building, he noticed something in the distance. He could see several lights eminating from a single position close to the palace. Thinking back to when they first arrived at the palace, and determining where he was and where the lights were, he knew that there wasn't another building in that area.

'Maybe its a ship.' he thought and smirked as if it was a ship, then it meant that he could hijack it and get out of there. All he needed to do was get to the others, who should have made it to the hangar by now.

Grabbing the edge of the overhang, he let himself fall off and used the edge to guide himself towards the buildings outer wall so he could slow down his fall. Skidding down a portion of on the wall, he jumped to the sand below and hoped that he would never have to perform such feats in a sandstorm ever again.

Without taking a moment to recover from his impact with the roof, Naruto went through several handseals and began sinking into the sand in order to get to the hangar below him. The storm was only getting worse and unless they wanted to wait it out inside the palace, they would have to leave soon.

x-x

'Juugo, I'm right above you and am coming through the ceiling. Make sure the droid doesn't shoot me.' asked Naruto through telepathy. Juugo's head jerked to the ceiling and he quickly reiterated what Naruto had said to HK.

Emerging from the rock ceiling, Naruto dropped silently to the floor below. He was about to say something when a short shriek from behind him pierced the silence. Turning, he found one of the dancers had her hand over the others mouth and both were incredibly shocked at what they had just seen him do.

'They already saw Juugo partially transform. You've got to be..' but Naruto's thoughts were cut short when Juugo pushed him to the ground and blaster fire tore through the balcony railing and scorched the ceiling.

'They didn't even bother to see who was up here.' thought Naruto but a memory of his bounty surfaced and he remembered that it did say dead or alive for the listed price. They probably didn't care if it was him or their competition for the bounty.

Slowly making the handseals for one of Jiraiya's earth jutsu, Naruto slammed his hands in to the rock ground of the second floor and said Doton: Yami Numi. The completion of the jutsu was rewarded with shouts from below on the hangar floor. Though he couldn't see it, Naruto knew that most of the shooters were now sinking into the floor, which had turned into a large swamp.

The blaster fire stopped immediately and Naruto ignored the cries for help as he turned to the others, "I think there's a ship outside on the surface, we need to get to it."

The confused group of four could only nod and they proceeded back through the door that they had just sliced into. Naruto was in the process of determining the best way to get to the surface when he felt a few lifesigns heading straight for them. Taking out his sword and ready for combat, he tensed as the two lifesigns neared but was completely confused when they moved right by him.

They had only been a feet away from them and Naruto looked right at the path they had taken and found the wall of a hallway that presumably went the length of the hangar.

'They're in the walls?' he questioned and thought perhaps there was another hallway behind the wall but that didn't seem likely as there were no doors along the entire length of the hallway that he could see. He had the feeling that he should follow them, so he went through more handseals for another earth jutsu.

Placing his hand against the wall, the surface turned to mud and Naruto pushed himself through the wall. Part of his body emerged on the other side in an excavated tunnel that was shorter than average person's height but just enough for him to walk. The tunnel had no lights so it was completely dark but he decided it was better than searching for another exit.

Pushing his head back through the liquid wall, which was still retaining it's shape, Naruto surprised the others before his disembodied head told them to follow.

Reluctant at first, Juugo was the first to put his hand in the mud and found it rather cool to the touch and easy to move through. Pushing himself through, his hand emerged in an area that was slightly cooler than the wall and he kept pushing until his head and the rest of his body emerged. Surprisingly, the mud stayed on the wall and did not stick or collect on him.

The others soon followed and it was a strange experience for the Twi'leks and the droid. Once they were through, Naruto re-solidified the wall and from the outside, it appeared as it had before, with only a slight shift in texture from the surrounding wall.

HK proceeded first down the tunnel as he slightly crouched to fit. His photorecptors provided him with the best distance viewing and nightvision of the group. Naruto followed up the rear to make sure that the other three, who all had limited nightvision, would not fall behind.

He wasn't sure why the Twi'leks were still with them but it was probably better than leaving them behind considering how much they knew about him. The only other option was to kill them but he knew that Juugo would be against it.

Continuing on until they could hear the sound of the wind, the group finally emerged out of the tunnel and right into the storm. Naruto noted that the winds were much more powerful then they had been and he struggled to see any distance ahead of him. Sand pelted their exposed skin and began to sting as they tried to get their bearings. Naruto couldn't even make out the lights he had seen earlier.

"Observation: There is a large sand crawler fifty meters ahead of us and numerous Jawa loading it with junk." said HK as his voice just barely registered over the wind. The droid presumably began walking towards the sand crawler, as none of the others could see it due to the low visibility.

A hand outstretched to him and Naruto looked at it, and then to the Twi'lek and found that she, Juugo and the second Twi'lek were all holding hands to make sure that they didn't get lost in the storm. Taking the hand, Naruto focused on his sensing rather than using his his eyes to try and find the crawler in the dark sandy storm. While HK was not moving very fast, the droid had almost completely vanished in the sand-laden wind.

Naruto could feel the lifesigns of several Jawas as they hurried to secure the crawler and he guessed they were stealing from Jabba or taking the palace's garbage and getting as much as they could before the storm got too severe. A large grouping of lifesigns soon came into his range and he moved towards it, taking the lead of the group of four while he assumed HK was still near them or heading in the same direction.

Opening his eyes so he didn't run into the ship, he could barely make out HK just ahead of him and could see a dark shadowy area ahead which must have been the crawler. Moving along the side of the vehicle, HK apparently activated a control panel and a ramp lowered for them. The light coming from inside the vehicle told them where they needed to go and the five boarded the ship.

x-x

Coming to the end of the mountainous area and the beginning of the seemingly infinite sand, Suigetsu looked out over the dark dunes and smiled as he believed he had several hours until morning. This meant that he should have enough time to get back to the ship without worrying about the setting suns and the heat of the desert.

'Its actually gotten really cold.' he realized, shivering and pulling his cloak tighter around him. Making sure he knew the approximate direction of where he was going, Suigetsu jumped out into the sand from the rock outcropping he was on and continued at a good pace.

He had no idea that he was heading right into a sandstorm.

x-x

Looking over to the sleeping trio, Naruto shook his head slightly at the fact that they were able to sleep with bumpy ride of the crawler. Tricking the Jawas was easy enough and they settled in the main hold of the ship, surrounded by droids and large piles of scrap and junk from various other vehicles or equipment. He had used to Force to move items and better hide their small group from any Jawa coming into the hold, otherwise he would have to use mind tricks on nearly the entire crew of the crawler.

The Jawas were apparently able to navigate the sand storm, despite other vehicles being completely incapable of such a feat. Given the speed that they were traveling, they would make good time to wherever it was that they were going. Naruto could only tell that they were heading in a westerly direction.

Looking from the sleeping trio, Naruto locked eyes with the droid's photoreceptors and asked, "Do you need recharging? Did you sustain any damage?"

HK looked at him strangely for a second before his photoreceptors dimmed as he ran a self diagnostic. "Summation: I do not require recharging and have only sustained minor damage to my armor plating and abrasions from close-quarter blaster fire." indicated the droid as he glanced to the wound on his side and then the discolorations of his metal from some of the fire fights he was in.

'Looks like someone tried to stab him with vibroblade.' thought Naruto and he looked around the hold for a similar metal to put a quick patch on the hole.

x-x

Running the same scan for the third time, Plagueis was given the same results. 'The boy has over twenty thousand midi-chlorians per cell.' he repeated in his head as it still seemed hard to believe and even harder to accept.

That thought inevitably changed as realization hit him, 'The experiment worked. The boy was conceived by the Force through my midi-chlorian manipulation on his mother.'

Standing over the scanner and looking blankly at the display, he tried to think of what he should do next. He began getting ready to leave but stopped as he realized something. While he may be able to kidnap the boy and perhaps even make the boy his new host, he would have to explain to everyone about his experiment. No one was to know about it until he was sure that the information was not going to get out. Going back to his machines to double-check the results, he stopped again as he remembered that he had already done that, twice.

He'd never been so befuddled and confused before in his life or during his afterlife. 'What do I do next?' he confessed to himself and decided to sit on the operating table and think it over as he felt foolish standing dumbfounded in the room, despite the fact that no one could see him.

He had just made one of the greatest achievements in the study of midi-chlorians and he had no idea what he should do. Obviously he couldn't tell anyone, though a part of him wanted to make it known to receive some kind of praise for the success or at least share it with someone so more people could know of the miraculous thing that he had accomplished.

'I don't even know how it actually happened.' he realized and stood back up to look over the information he had. Was it just an accident caused by his experiment? A side-effect of his manipulations, or had his experiment taken much longer to produce results than he originally thought?

'I don't have enough information to answer those questions and I don't really know how to get that information.' he realized as his experiment had already been in progress for years by that point in time. He hadn't been around to document or determine how it had worked. 'So much information lost that can never be recovered or determined.' he lamented and remembered back to the beginnings of his research.

The original design and theory behind the experiment was to see how such a being would interact with the Force and other beings. A being conceived by the Force and with such Force potential would be something worth studying. He hadn't set out to create a weapon, but just to study the subject and see capable they would be. He remembered decades ago when he boasting to his own Master Tenebrus, that his future research would one day let him create the being of the prophecy. It was an arrogant statement but he of course had never believed in such a prophecy. Seeing the future was difficult enough to navigate when you saw just a glimpse into the near future, days or even weeks in advance. But seeing thousands of years ahead and making a prophecy of a chosen being. How accurate could it be?

Taking all of these thoughts in, he unavoidably had to consider the situation from a different perspective because as scientist he couldn't be biased. Despite not believing in prophecy, his creation of the boy could be something detrimental to himself. Now that the being was created, the prophecy stated that he would bring balance to the Force. But what did 'bring balance to the Force,' even mean? Most Jedi took it to mean that the being would destroy the Sith.

The Sith were still around, unbenounced to the rest of the galaxy. They were also likely getting close to taking over the galaxy. Sidious might even be poised to take over the Republic in the next few years, he really didn't know. Had he created a weapon that would inevitably destroy his Apprentice and himself and possibly even Naruto? 'I'd never considered that train of thought before.' Plagueis admitted to himself.

Those dark thoughts were however countered by what he had seen of the boy. Anakin Skywalker was currently the slave of a junk dealer. What would the boy ever be able to accomplish? Would he sit in obscurity his whole life? However, for a being that was the embodiment of the Force, that made no sense whatsoever. Someone would come along and find him eventually.

On that very thought, he wondered if that someone was himself. Was his insistence on their group coming to the planet supposed to cause something or was he supposed to take the boy with him? Should he kill the boy? Take him for study? Train him? Make the boy his new host body? He truthfully had no idea what he was supposed to do in such a situation.

Would the outcome of his own meddling turn out something similar to his Apprentice? Would his actions be what led to the complete downfall of the Sith. "How do I proceed?" he asked out-loud as if someone would answer. The Force was not giving him any guidance on the matter, but that may have been to his own lack of clarity and calmness over the situation.

After meditating on the dilemma for an unknown amount of time, Plagueis decided to take his own thoughts and emotions out of the decision. He would look at the problem from a purely logical standpoint.

'My project has succeeded but there is no evidence of what will happen next. My meddling could conceivably create my own downfall but at the same time, my inactivity could also inevitably create problems. The best thing that I can therefore do is to monitor him as much as I can from afar. If something should happen, then I will respond to it as best as possible. I should also try and keep the Jedi and Sidious away from him.' he concluded but didn't like the decision. It was almost the same as doing nothing but he realized that it was no different than what had been happening up until that point. No one had discovered the boy yet.

To implement this plan, he would need some way to monitor the boy at all times or at least as much as possible. His mind moved to tracking devices and other such monitoring equipment that he didn't currently have access to. One idea did have promise, however he would need to go back to the small domicile and then find some droid parts.

Looking to his arm, he realized that he needed to document his finding and his holocron was sealed into the arm of his host. A seal that he was unable to retrieve it from.

Coming out of the med-bay, he walked down the ship's long hallway and passed the meeting area to get to the landing ramp. Just after passing those rooms, he stopped and backed up several steps. Looking into their meeting room, he stared at the lone occupant of a seat at their round table. The redheaded Tayuya was asleep at the table with her head on her folded arms. There were several datapads strewn about the table and the droid Deefour was charging in the corner, which was not where it was normally charged.

The scene had instantly struck him as odd, which was why he had stopped and gone back. 'She's never slept on the table before, nor does she seem the type to do such a thing.' he thought and moved into the meeting room to see what was going on.

Walking over to the girl, he moved to touch her on the shoulder and wake her up rather than sending a nudge into her mind. As his hand reached her shoulder, he recoiled as he felt that something was wrong. Using the Force, he moved her hair away from her neck and shoulder. Instantly he was aware of what the Force had telling him. 'I'll have to mention that to Kabuto.' he mentally noted and shook the girls shoulder to wake her up.

A bleary eyed Tayuya looked up and it wasn't until her eyes focused and she realized who she was looking at that she remembered what she had been meaning to tell Plagueis.

"Naruto messaged for help." she said in an even tone as she knew that the message was rather old and she looked to him to see what his response would be.

'When?' demanded a slightly surprised Plagueis.

Receiving the telepathic message, she looked at her watch, she said, "A few hours ago."

'Hours!' repeated Plagueis indignantly as he summoned up the dark-side of the Force and something akin to killing intent filled the meeting room.

"Don't give me that attitude, asshole! I tried to say something but you shut yourself off in that room with your metal play-toy droid. You even blocked off the comm system so I don't wanna hear it! I can't fly this fucking ship and you know that. I don't even know where the guy's palace was and neither did Naruto." said a brash Tayuya with no fear of any reprisal from the Sith Lord.

Begrudgingly, Plagueis calmed himself as the girl had won the argument with logic. He certainly didn't approve of being talked to in that manner but he would let it go. Forgoing his earlier plans completely, he analyzed the situation. He had never known Naruto to ask for help. Something must have definitely gone wrong during negotiations with Jabba.

"What about the others? Have they arrived back?" he questioned as he wanted to know if he could take off without worrying about Kabuto's group still being out.

"They got back about an hour ago, right ahead of the big sandstorm." Tayuya informed him and he was slightly surprised that he hadn't even noticed their arrival or the sandstorm. Despite being in med-bay of the ship, he should have still been able to hear something of the raging winds and sand on the hull. Stopping to listen, he could easily hear the winds raging outside.

'And there hasn't been any further word from Naruto.' he asked while moving quickly out of the meeting room and down the hall to the cockpit.

Tayuya followed behind him and replied, "No, there hasn't."

Getting to the cockpit, he looked at the dark sandstorm outside the windows.

Did he think Naruto was dead?

No.

Did he think that Naruto had created a problem for them and that many other people were dead?

It was a definitive yes, with questionable intensity as to whether it was just a small incident or whether they would get on the radar of some powerful adversaries.

Given that the storm had not let up yet, he leaned back in the chair and said, 'Once the storm passes, we'll look for Juugo and Naruto.'

Glancing at the instruments, he noted that a message had arrived. It wasn't a transmission from Naruto, but something that was sent out to anyone that could receive it. Examining the message, he found that it was a simple holorecording but there was no audio portion.

Leaving the cockpit, Plagueis went to the meeting room and activated the holoprojector on the table, displaying the sent message. The display activated and showed a single picture surrounded by text in various languages. It was a bounty poster of Naruto with a hefty price on his head for taking him dead or alive.

'This was sent to every holopad and device in the sector.' Plagueis realized with disdain and knew that anyone with a weapon would be after Naruto for such a sum of money.

x-x

Tracking the path of the droid and company he was after, Jango followed the corpses left behind and was led to the sail barge hangar. With both blasters drawn, he found the sliced door and entered into the upper cantina of the bay. Noting the destruction, he gave the area a once-over before cautiously approaching the balcony.

Given the number of blaster strikes, he expected to find numerous bodies strewn about the bay floor but instead found three empty skiffs and not a single body. The only thing he could see was a single blaster dropped carelessly on the floor a short distance away from the skiffs.

Taking the staircase down to the main level, he examined the area. Both the door to the hangar bay and the outside door were shut. A single noise put him back on guard and he stealthily moved towards an area of cargo and supply containers.

Strafing around the corner of one of the large containers, Jango found a green skinned Ryodian cowering on top of the one the smaller metal crates. The man was sobbing and he lowered his weapons as the Ryodian was unarmed.

"Get off the floor!" the man screamed and Jango looked at him strangely.

"What happened here?" Jango demanded, thinking that the individuals he was after had been attacked and run either outside or to another part of the palace. If others were giving chase then he needed to hurry up.

"They're all dead." the Ryodian said and he wouldn't elaborate further.

Getting angry at the lack of valuable information and thinking that perhaps the four he was after had been killed and bodies taken off somewhere else, Jango grabbed the mans shirt and pushed him against the larger metal crate demanding, "Where are they?!"

"In the floor." responded the man and he began talking incoherently in his native language, begging for his life and praying to various gods. Dropping the man, Jango went back to skiffs as he thought about what the Ryodian had said. Something had scared the man enough to put him in such a state and he couldn't understand what it was.

Looking to the lone blaster on the ground, he bent down on one knee to pick it up and checked the energy cell. 'He never fired a single shot.' he realized and it was at that point, from his crouched position, that he noted the discoloration on the ground. A large oddly shaped area beneath the repulsorlift vehicles was a darker color than the sand around it and looked to be solid rock instead of the sand that was everywhere else.

Looking to that area of the floor, his visor began to pick up heat. Viewing with just infrared, Jango found multiple heat signatures. He found eighteen individual sources of heat. The temperature for each were the same and just below normal body temperature, 'And dropping.' he noted as realized what the heat sources were.

'They're really in the floor.' he thought to himself in disbelief but it confirmed exactly what the hysterical Ryodian had said to him. Going back to the man, Jango decided to ask something else, "Did the ones they were shooting at come this way?"

While not responding with words, the Ryodian did shake his head in the negative and Jango looked back up the balcony. With all other doors shut, and if the scared Ryodian was to believed, 'Then they went back into the palace or left the palace entirely.' he concluded and ran back up the staircase.

Squeezing through the sliced door, he looked down the long hallway that was the only other way that someone could have gone, 'unless they completely doubled-back.' Moving swiftly down the hallway, he knew that it ran along the length of the hangar bay and in addition with leading to other areas of the hangar, eventually exited outside.

He didn't pick up any heat signatures and didn't stop until reaching the outside door. Noting that the door was not sliced into, Jango nonetheless opened the door as he knew the security code. The door instantly opened and howling winds pushed sand into the hallway.

Given the severity of the storm, there was no way for him to get to his ship, Jaster's Legacy, and he knew it would not be able to take off in the storm. It was too old and the engines were not sealed to prevent large amounts of sand getting in.

Closing the door, he walked back down the hallway and considered whether or not the group had doubled-back and if he should continue searching the palace. 'Were they foolish enough to try and make it in the storm?' he wondered but couldn't answer that until he had a look at the surveillance system that Jabba had installed throughout the rotunda. Then perhaps he would be able to figure out where they went.

x-x

Hours later...

x-x

A hand reached out of the sand and used chakra to harden the sand and make a stable area for him to grab onto and pull himself out. The pale face and hair of Suigetsu emerged from the sand and gasped for air.

"I thought I was a goner..." he wailed as he struggled to get the rest of his body out and his sword. He had been overtaken by the storm and while he tried to continue on, eventually he had to hide behind his sword and use it as a windbreak, shielding himself with his cloak from the abrasive sandy wind. When the winds became too much for him and began affecting his hydration technique, he burrowed into the sand for shelter.

Looking at the cloak, Suigetsu frowned at the fact that it was in tatters. The strong sand-laden wind had destroyed the cloak and it was barely usable. Looking up to the morning sun...suns, he corrected himself and his frown only deepened as he viewed the twin suns nearly finished coming up over the horizon. 'This sucks.'

When he started out, he knew exactly where to go but now, 'I just see sand in every direction.' he realized and kept turning around and around until he eventually got dizzy and stopped. There were no landmarks to be seen. The mountains should have still been on the horizon but he could no longer see them. 'Shit, I must have gotten lost in the sand storm and traveled in the wrong direction.' he concluded and dropped to his knees as he stared at his dark shadow in the sand.

A familiar sound quickly caused him to search the sky as he recognized the sound of a ship. Not a second later, a fast-moving starfighter zoomed overhead. Taking the stick that he found in the dragon's stomach, Suigetsu began waving it overhead in order to catch the ships attention. Though it did circle once more around him, the ship soon continued on in another direction.

Thinking that no help would come from the starship, Suigetsu assumed that it was heading back somewhere populated and followed the ship's heading as he moved up and down the dunes. He guessed that the direction was northeast but couldn't be sure as he didn't know if the planet rotated the same way around it's suns as his own planet did and whether the suns rose in the east or not.

x-x

Looking over the four Meatbags as they slept, HK-47 reviewed the previous days events. He was quite pleased with the situation he had caused and with the new information that he had seen. Though he knew not how, the orange haired Meatbag had managed to handle what the Twi'leks claimed was a rancor with seemingly nothing more than his puny flesh hands.

'Inner thought: Its unfortunate that I was not able to be there to see it.' lamented the droid at the loss of valuable information. He was however able to see more of what the short blond Meatbag could do and was rather impressed with the abilities.

He had seen the boy change his height or even age. Use Force Lightning to stab through thin but strong metal. Create rock spikes from the ground to impale opponents. Create an area of quicksand-like material, and turn a rock wall into permeable mud. These were not things that he could ever recall seeing a Jedi or Sith perform or even be capable of performing.

'Inner thought: Perhaps he has more of the special techniques.' HK theorized and wondered when he would get to see them. While not overtly destructive, they were effective at eliminating or evading pursuing Meatbags.

It was at that point that Naruto's eyes opened and after focusing and remembering his surroundings, he looked around and locked eyes with HK. The two looked at each for a few moments before Naruto pulled out his datapad and communicator. He was about to start trying to reach the Vulture when he stopped.

"Statement: It seems you've realized that they will be monitoring all signals in the area." said the droid and Naruto frowned as that was exactly what he had realized. If the Hutt still had a bounty on him, and he was confident that there still was, then anyone with the ability would be monitoring all communications and investigating anything out of the ordinary. He could try to use a coded transmission or speak in Ibonihese but that would still be risky given that he was likely in an area where no other transmissions were being made. It could be traced.

'If we can get to Mos Espa, or any town for that matter, then there will be so many other transmissions and chatter that they won't be able to distinguish mine from anyone everyone else and even if they did, they'd have to search a whole city.' he reasoned and got up from his position, cracking and stretching his back from sleeping against the hard metal wall and on the hard metal floor.

Looking over to the others, he found Juugo laying with the two dancers underneath his cloak which was being used as a blanket. The two Twi'leks were laying on either side of Juugo and the orange haired teen was drooling slightly. He smirked slightly at the sight and then looked to the droid and said, "I'm going up top to see where we are."

HK watched the Meatbag leave and then glanced down to the left side of his torso. Looking over the welding job that the boy had done to repair him with some scrap metal, he was at least satisfied with the work. Though it was a blemish in his new body, memories surfaced of many other instances when he had been damaged and hastily repaired by the only human he had ever truly considered his Master.

x-x

A pair of Mustafarian eyes opened as Plageuis was roused from his meditation by the ending of the sand storm. Prepping the ship, he began actively looking over the scanners and found that at least four other ships were also in the process of taking off from Mos Espa. Watching the other ships on the scanner, Plagueis waited for them to clear the city and determined the path that they were headed.

'It seems I won't have to search for Jabba's Palace. These other ships will lead the way.' he reasoned and piloted the ship in the same direction.

He kept pursuit with the other ships but increased the ships altitude so that he was moving through the clouds instead of just over the surface. Turning to the other person in the cockpit, who had woken up from the takeoff, Plagueis ordered, 'Go and wake Karin, we'll need her sensing ability. And have the Demon Brothers take positions in the laser turrets.'

It only took a few minutes to traverse the distance from Mos Espa to Jabba's Palace. During that short time, Plagueis counted at least seven skiffs that they had passed and which also seemed to be en-route to Jabba's Palace. Oddly, they had passed by a single ship that seemed to be heading in the opposite direction of everyone else but Plagueis payed it no mind as he could only detect a single lifeform aboard.

The location of the palace wasn't actually that hard to find as a trail of smoke was coming off one of the towers. 'Is that a Rancor?' questioned Plagueis but he couldn't be sure as he was a few thousand feet in the air and circling over the buildings below.

Karin entered the cockpit and strapped into one of the chairs. Without looking back, Plagueis commanded, 'Extend your senses out and search for Naruto and Juugo.' Karin quickly complied and extended her range in every direction. Encountering numerous entities, she sifted through them and looked for any hint of chakra. Though she could feel a lingering of Naruto's and Juugo's chakra beneath the surface, she could not find them.

Plagueis didn't need her to tell him that they were not within her range as he could feel through her emotions that Naruto and Juugo were not down there.

'These ships wouldn't have made the trip unless they had not been captured yet, which means that they are still out there somewhere.' Plagueis deduced but wasn't sure where to look. The most logical course for Naruto to take was to head back to Mos Espa or another populated area but through what means he had no idea.

No one was stupid enough to try and brave through such a sandstorm.

'Taking a skiff would be out of the question. They either found something before the storm hit or commandeered a ship after the storm.' he thought and headed back to Mos Espa. There was no point in drawing attention to their activities so he took a meandering course back and continuously scanned the area to try and find any trace of the missing crew.

Checking all the ships recently received transmissions, Naruto had yet to try and make contact. No doubt the storm had wreaked havoc on most communication devices but he did wonder why there had been no contact, 'Although he may just be keeping radio silence in order to not be tracked.'

Plagueis contemplated trying to contact Naruto but decided to trust that his student could take care of himself.

"So what are we going to do?" questioned Karin and Plagueis responded after a brief pause, 'We will head back and wait for Naruto to make contact. I don't know how he managed to get away from the Palace but it seems he has evaded everyone that is after him, for the moment at least.' answered Plagueis.

x-x

Moving through the sandcrawler was easier said than done. Naruto ran into many Jawas and had to use mindtricks on all of them in order to remain undiscovered. The Jawas had likely also received a copy of his bounty and he wasn't about to underestimate them.

Opening the top hatch on the crawler, Naruto climbed up the ladder and used chakra to stick to the surface of the roof as he neared the edge of the flat topped vehicle. Pulling down his goggles, he examined the horizon and looked for any recognizable features. They were moving very close to a wide but shallow canyon area that was just beyond the last of the dunes. Looking to where the vehicle was heading, he found that it's course appeared to be towards an area of mountains that were a good distance away to the west. 'I doubt they are heading to a city in that direction.' he concluded and knew that they would likely have to leave the crawler and make their own way to civilization.

Pulling out his datapad, Naruto brought up many of the maps and scans of Tatooine that he had downloaded from the ship before setting out. Closing his eyes, he tried to retrace all of their movements from when they had left Mos Espa. Looking over the maps, he estimated what path they had taken. 'I only know that the crawler went west and I don't know exactly where Jabba's Palace was.' he thought and frowned but one of the maps that he had contained some elevation data and he looked it over as he determined what plausible paths the crawler was capable of taking.

'We either went right by Mos Espa or we went around it to the South.' he concluded but that still didn't tell him where they currently were in relation to a city. Bracing himself as the crawler went up a particularly tall dune, Naruto again looked to the surrounding features and tried to pinpoint where they might be. Trying to correlate what he was seeing in three dimensions, with the two dimensional maps was difficult but he guessed that the canyon area nearby was the Xelric Draw and that they should move North and hopefully be able to see Mos Espa or another town in a few hours.

Moving back to the hatch, Naruto proceeded to the lower decks of the crawler to wake and inform the others.

x-x

After a quick check of the palace and getting some needed sleep, Jango had set out shortly after the storm passed. He waited an hour or so to make sure that it had passed over Mos Espa, before heading out. The _Jaster's Legacy_ was an old amphibious interstellar assault vehicle and had belonged to his mentor for decades before eventually coming into his possession. He wasn't even sure if it had any owners before that. It was beat up and considered 'ancient' by everyone that saw it but he had come to rely on it for some time and kept it as maintained as he could. Jango knew he should get a new vessel and hoped his bounty hunting would provide enough

'If I manage to get this bounty, I could afford a new ship.' thought Fett as he looked at the newly updated bounty that had been sent out to a select few that morning. The price had been increased and he knew what game Jabba was playing. With the lack of success, Jabba still wanted the bounty fulfilled and was willing to pay more to a certain few to get the job done. However, on the chance that someone else got lucky, someone that wasn't that useful or couldn't be useful to him, he could pay the original bounty amount to them and save the rest of the money. Providing multiple bounties was something that he had encountered before in his short bounty hunting career.

Passing numerous ships on his way to Mos Espa, Jango smirked as he knew something that they did not. Well...he knew several things that they did not. The first was that a rancor was loose in the palace or had finally broken out and his competition probably wouldn't find that out until it was eating them. The second was that the target was no longer in the palace and had managed to find some way to leave before the storm or during the storm.

Whether or not the target was still alive, he didn't know. There was always the possibility that the small group had been killed by any number of occurrences that could have befallen them in the deserts of Tatooine. Despite this, he still felt that the blonde was still alive. The third piece of information that he had and which the others apparently did not, was that the blonde was likely an assassin or at least after revenge against Jabba.

The boy certainly wasn't the first person to try and kill the Hutt. There had likely been countless attempts but he doubted they had been so close or done so much damage to the criminals operations or gang. It was really the only explanation that made any sense concerning the blonde teen, the droid, and the orange haired teen. Revenge against Jabba more sense than the group being assassins but he still couldn't seem to dismiss the hired-assassin angle. While amateurish, the blonde teen was deadly, well trained in combat, and had strange powers. A person simply didn't develop such abilities without specialized training that wasn't very easy to come by. He also didn't get a, 'I'm out for revenge,' feel when he had seen the blonde teen in the throne room of the palace.

With all of that in mind, if the blonde teen was an assassin, then the place to find him was not Jabba's Palace. Combing the desert for any signs of him was also foolish and a waste of time. If the contract was not fulfilled and if the teen wasn't backing out, then the place to find him was wherever Jabba was. Jango was confident that the teen would try again and so he aimed to find a good place near Mos Espa to land his ship and would proceed on foot to Jabba's Townhouse which was roughly in the middle of the city.

x-x

Getting off the crawler was easy as they just needed to open the loading ramp door and jump from the moving vehicle. Juugo was currently having polite conversation with the two dancers while Naruto and HK remained silent but were listening. The two dancers were sisters. Tann and Ann Gella were their names and they had only recently been sold into slavery.

At the lead of the mostly single-file line, Naruto noted that the dunes were beginning to even out and flatten as they neared the Xelric Draw. Looking through his goggles and on the lookout for any patrols, he relaxed slightly as he realized that Jabba's men and other bounty hunters would be looking for him in the area between Mos Espa and the palace. They were currently on the opposite side of the city from the palace.

The feeling was short-lived however as he heard the familiar nose of a starship. There wasn't time to find cover and there was also no cover to find as the ship moved overhead. Evidently they were of interest to the pilot as the small starfighter began circling their position. Naruto cursed as the pilot might recognize their group, even from that altitude. The only thing they had going for them was that they only knew his face and not their group, however HK and the two Twi'leks did stand out.

The ship broke the circle and accelerated away from them which caused everyone to relax. The group was thankful until the starship began making a very wide arc as it circled back. Now heading right at them for a strafing run, Naruto yelled, "SCATTER!"

x-x

After traversing a few dunes in the direction of the starship, Suigetsu was immensely thankful that he could now see the mountains he had come from which were behind him once again. The storm had apparently reshaped the dunes and the area he pulled himself out of seemed to be a depression with taller dunes around it, prevented him from seeing anything.

Back on track, he hurried up and down the large dunes as he rushed to get back to the ship. He had no idea when they were scheduled to leave and he had planned to be back on the ship by now. Reaching the crest of one of the taller dunes, Suigetsu saw a vehicle moving across the dunes and stopped to look at it.

It was a large brownish vehicle on treads that moved slowly away from him and to the northwest. Seeing as it wasn't headed in the direction he wanted, Suigetsu continued on for a few minutes until he heard sounds coming from up ahead and saw the same starship as before. This time however, it seemed to be attacking and firing upon something that was on the ground. Over the dunes, he couldn't make out what it was firing at but decided to get closer and investigate.

x-x

Running as fast as he could and jumping along the dunes, Naruto dodged laser fire from the ship. The last few shots struck the sand near him and the impact sent him rolling down the last small dune that gave way to the flat canyon. Protecting himself from pieces of molten glass that rained down near him, Naruto extended his senses to search for the others but they had each gone a different direction and were outside of his range. Running along the very wide canyon floor, Naruto unsealed a discblade and kept his eye on the starfighter as it circled around to come back for another run at him.

Stopping on the flat sands, Naruto readied himself and the discblade for a throw. The small starfighter was likely rayshielded and protected from any energy weapons fire, not that they had any weapons that could actually damage it. It was very unlikely that it had particle shielding to protect it from physical objects, which meant that his discblade would pass right through the shields.

The starfighter descended as it moved past the edge of the canyon and into the wide basin and Naruto could hear the sound of the ship getting louder. Waiting until it came within range and could not dodge, Naruto fought the urge to move and stayed where he was. The ship began firing at his position, with the shots missing and impacting the sand not too far away from him.

Pulling back, he let loose the discblade and used the Force to guide it at his target. As more blastefire rained down on his position, Naruto focused on controlling discblade as he went through seals for a jutsu. "Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu," he said as another pair of laser cannon shots struck right near him.

What had been one discblade, became ten and the pilot of the starfighter attempted to avoid the projectiles by banking hard to starboard. Despite having perfect control over two discblades, Naruto struggled with ten and was only able to focus on three of the discblades with two striking successfully into one of the crafts wings.

Spiraling out of the control, Naruto retrieved the real discblade from the thrown group while the ship crashed with a loud thud out in the dunes he had just run from. Naruto felt the impact and the second he caught his discblade, sprinted to the crash.

The others were just moving into his range when he reached the craft and began going through handseals for a water jutsu. The crashed ship was starting to smoke and he didn't want to draw unwanted attention. Rising smoke could attract the attention of any patrols or predators from miles away. Once he had finished dousing the craft, the cockpit opened and a Weequay brandishing a blaster took aim at him. Using the Force, Naruto yanked the man forward, removing him from the cockpit and toppling him over the fuselage. Landing hard on the sand and before the man could get back up, the blaster was pulled from his hand. When he looked up, all he saw was a swift moving boot before everything went black.

'I think its a Z-95 Headhunter.' Naruto idly thought while the others came to look at the crashed ship. Pulling himself up into the cockpit, he checked the status of the ship. It would certainly never fly again, what with missing an entire wing, but he wanted to see if the man had sent any messages. 'Not for at least five minutes.' he noted and was satisfied that he didn't have to worry about someone else coming to collect on him in the meantime.

Taking a moment to gather his thoughts, Naruto tried to determine what to do next.

"I need him alive for the moment." Naruto said out loud but with his eyes shut in contemplation. HK-47 removed his blaster rifle from the back of the Weequays head and Naruto ignored whatever the droid muttered in response.

The problem he was trying to deal with was what he should do about the bounty. It was something he had been thinking over before getting some sleep earlier in the morning and it had also been on his mind after getting up. He could only think of a few possible paths for him to choose. He could simply do nothing and leave Tatooine once getting back to the Vulture. That however was not the best scenario that he had come up with.

Going straight to Jabba, he could force the Hutt to rescind the bounty but his feelings on that were that Jabba would either refuse or agree and then put a higher bounty on him right after parting ways. Killing the Hutt was still one of the best options. The only other course of action was to fake his death, which would be incredibly complicated and require coercing someone to take his corpse or some other evidence to Jabba and collect.

Jabba had seen all of them.

"Observation: Someone is coming from the South." HK announced and Naruto opened his eyes. Leaning over the side of the cockpit, he looked out over the sand and saw someone making his way over to them. The person was waving some kind of weapon that looked similar to what the Sandpeople were known for carrying.

Pulling down his goggles to get a better look, as the man was outside his sensing range, Naruto was about to say something when another voice cut him off.

"Statement: Sandpeople. Such an annoyance, but amusing to kill." and without another word, the droid took aim through the rifles scope and fired once.

Zooming in on the figure, Naruto watched as the blaster bolt pierced the person's chest and the man dropped. Stunned slightly at the events, Naruto watched silently as the person that should have been dead, raised a clenched fist and extended a single finger in their direction.

With the derogatory gesture completed, the group could just make out words traveling over the sand. No doubt it was yelled out at them but over the distance it came as no more than a normal speaking voice, "_You stupid mother fuckers!"_

"Oh, it was Suigetsu." announced Juugo as he recognized the voice. The two Twi'lek turned to him and wondered why he was so blase about the person that had just gotten mortally injured. "He's gonna be pissed for a while over this." Juugo added and Naruto went back to his contemplation as he leaned back in the pilot's seat.

'Jabba hasn't seen Suigetsu.' Naruto idly thought and expanded on that statement. Looking to the ship's controls, he looked for the readout that would tell him about the ships current load. 'Still one in the tube, ready to fire. Its a good thing he didn't use that against me.' he noted and began planning a contingency in case his newest thought backfired.

Getting out of the cockpit, he moved forward on the fuselage and began moving the sand away from the side of the ship with his hands to get access to what he wanted. Taking his sword out, he began cutting a large, horizontal L-shape out of the side of the ship's hull. Using the Force, he peeled back the metal and exposed the internal structure and systems of the ship. While Naruto looked over the insides of the ship, Suigetsu walked up the group.

"You friggen shot me! I would have expected that from Karin and possibly Tayuya, but not from you." Suigetus said to HK while pointing his finger and the droid continued to look at him. Ann and Tann both stared at the teen before them in shock as they both thought he should be dead. The burn hole through part of his tattered cloak and purple jumpsuit underneath was clearly visible.

"Curious Statement: You're not dead."

"Whys the hell is that a 'Curious Statement?'" demanded Suigetsu.

"Response: I didn't miss. Are you about to die and currently in agony? I could end your suffering?" offered the droid and he pointed his weapon at Suigetsu again but was stopped by Juugo and both Ann and Tann.

"Naruto, I thought you said that droid couldn't kill us?" questioned Suigetsu and Naruto responded while trying to extricate something from the ship, "You were too far away for him to tell it was you and not a Tusken Raider. Next time don't wave around that weird looking weapon."

"So if tomorrow I started wearing different clothes and maybe a funny hat, he might take the opportunity to shoot me again?"

Naruto didn't dignify the remark with a response but instead said, "Somebody take this." as he held up an object over his shoulder. Suigetsu was actually the closest and moved forward and snatched what Naruto had been holding.

"Damn, this is one big ass firework." commented Suigetsu as he looked the missile over and held it without a care in the world. When he turned to the others, they all looked at the item with some fear and trepidation. Getting an idea to get back at them, Suigetsu turned to them and said, "Oops." as he purposefully let go of the object and then grabbed it before it touched the ground.

The four in front of him had all been completely shocked when he had dropped it and three had been on the verge of running away before he had grabbed it.

"Heheheheh, just kidding. What's the matter with you guys?" questioned Suigetsu at the looks of fear as they began taking a few steps back.

"The warhead tip on that 'big ass firework' has more than enough explosive yield destroy this starship and kill us as well, if it exploded." Naruto said as he removed a few more items from the ship, mostly circuitry, and nothing like the first item.

Staring at the concussion missile with a new and informative understanding of what it was, Suigetus instantly began moving to the others and offering it, "Someone else take it."

The others backed away as many steps as Suigetsu took forward and kept shaking their heads.

"Oh come on!" Suigetsu said as he looked towards HK, "You just shot me a minute ago. You owe me metal-man."

"Statement: You volunteered to hold it, Meatbag. Perhaps you should go play with it a few hundred meters to the South."

A small smirk formed on Naruto's face as he knew the concussion missile wasn't armed. It could still be set off with an explosion but it wasn't something that Suigetsu could accomplish unless he shot at it with a blaster. Getting the rest of the useful items from the ship, he turned to the others and told Juugo to head on out ahead of them with the dancers.

Taking the concussion missile from Suigetsu, which the white-haired teen was thankful for, Naruto sealed it into one of the few remaining storage seals that he had left. Looking to the body, Naruto bent down and began examining the man's head. He found where Jabba was staying in Mos Espa and got a better understanding of where they were and where they needed to travel in order to get back to the city.

'That's a big compound and a good amount of new guards have been hired since the incident at the palace.' Narutuo gleaned as he looked through the man's knowledge of Jabba's Townhouse and recent events. Though Jabba did not stay there very often, it was where the Hutt kept his large luxury space yacht, the Star Jewel. It was the only ship that he took off planet and was primarily used to take him back and forth from his Palace on Tatooine and his luxury tower on Nar Shadda.

Jabba had people combing the desert looking for him, but only a few starfighters had been sent out to look over the areas to the West and South of Mos Espa. The majority were to the East of their position and he hoped it would stay that way. In addition to the people currently after him, Jabba had more on their way to the planet. His forces on Tatooine were just a small contingent of his over criminal empire and that didn't even consider what would happen if the Hutt got his clan involved.

Taking his hand off the man's head, Naruto went to the arms and motioned for Suigetsu to take the legs. Getting the man back into the cockpit, HK was readying his blaster when Suigetsu snapped the man's neck as he couldn't use his sword in such a position. Turning to the droid, Suigetsu smiled at the droid, who only glared back at the teen for taking the kill from him.

Following in the footsteps of Juugo and the Twi'leks, the three were silent until Suigetsu began to start up a conversation. "So, who are the two blue girls?"

"I believe one is named Tann and the other is Ann, though I can't say for certain which one is which." answered Naruto.

"And...why are they following us?" Suigetsu got to the point of what he really wanted to know the answer to.

"Juugo." was Naruto's response and Suigetus laughed as he understood what Naruto was getting at with such a seemingly vague statement.

"They seem to really like Juugo. Guess it's because they haven't seen him transform yet."

"Actually I think they have seen him in that state, and seen more than that about us." admitted Naruto.

"What are we gonna do?" asked Suigetsu seriously and Naruto waited before replying, "...I don't know yet." There was a silence between them as Naruto contemplated his answer and HK chose not to join in the conversation but still to listen to them.

"Sisters?" Suigetsu asked, trying to break the silence.

"No they just happen to have the same facial features, skin color, and have rhyming names." was the sarcastic reply from Naruto.

"On edge a little?"

Handing Suigetsu his datapad, the white haired teen looked over the information that was displayed and found himself looking at Naruto's bounty.

"Shitty picture." Suigetsu blurted out.

"That's about the only good thing about it." Naruto admitted with a sigh as he took the datapad back.

"He's gonna electrify you when he finds out about this." thought Suigetsu out loud concerning Plagueis' reaction to the bounty.

"Not if I can fix the problem before I see him." answered Naruto.

"You got a plan?" questioned Suigetsu with renewed interest.

"How would you like to become a bounty hunter for the next few hours?"

x-x

Cycling through frequency channels and listening to everything that he could, Plagueis continued to wait for a message or response from his student. From what he had gathered listening to the various channels, no one had yet to claim the bounty so Naruto should still be trying to make his way back to Mos Espa or one of the other spaceports on the planet.

There were two ways that his student was likely to get in touch with him. Naruto could send a message over one or multiple channels and hope that he was listening. They could then converse on one channel and use a variety of codes or even a different language. The second method was to send a direct signal to the ship. Sending a coded message over one or multiple frequencies was likely the best choice as anyone could hear it and that meant it was more difficult to find the intended target of the message if the code could not be broken or figured out.

As the communications equipment switched from channel to channel, one voice caught Plagueis' attention. Stopping the cycling, he went back to the channel he had heard Naruto's voice on.

Naruto was repeating a single phrase over and over again. It was a short sentence that immediately caught his attention as it was in Sithese, "Student looking for Master." Naruto repeated and Plagueis was about to respond when he remembered that his current body could not speak in Basic, 'But it can speak in Mustafarian and the droid is with him.' he realized and responded.

There was a long pause on the channel, as no doubt Naruto was deferring to the droid for a translation to determine who had responded and what they were saying. A response soon came in Sithese, "Problems with negotiation. What is your location?"

"Outside your location." responded Plagueis as he guessed Naruto was currently in Mos Espa as he knew that was where Jabba was. "What about the bounty?" asked Plagueis and he awaited Naruto's response on the matter.

"Working on it." Naruto responded and Plagueis was unsatisfied with the answer, "You have a strategy for removing the bounty from your head?"

"I have Suigetsu." came the reply after a small pause for the translation from the droid.

Plagueis was rather surprised at the statement. He had no idea that Suigetsu was not on board and no one had mentioned to him that the teen had left. Turning to Tayuya, who had heard the mention of Suigetsu's name and was dreading a conversation with him, Plagueis asked, 'And when were you going to mention that Suigetsu was not on board?'

"I forgot." admitted the redhead and though he knew she was telling the truth, he wondered if she had remembered, whether or not she would have told him.

"Will you return to the ship when you are finished?" asked Plagueis as he figured out what Naruto was likely up to.

"I'll need a skiff if everything goes well." responded Naruto and Plagueis was quick to ask another question that was on the forefront of his thoughts, "And if everything does not go well?"

"I'll find my own transport." Naruto concluded and both knew the conversation was over.

Plagueis sat back in the pilot's seat for a few moments to absorb and review the new information. He soon got up and headed back to the medical bay. A few hours previously he was completely immersed in the success of his old experiment but he had dropped everything after speaking with Tayuya.

'We need to acquire more secure communications equipment.' decided Plagueis. The normal equipment that they had was proving to be woefully inadequate. What they really needed was secure, military-grade equipment. He had an idea where and who to get it from. The next planet on their journey should provide what they needed. He hadn't wanted to go there but it seemed like the best place after the current events.

'Perhaps I can also acquire some monitoring devices for here as well. I'll need to closely monitor the experiment if I am not able to involve myself in his life at this point.' he decided and tried to determine what he would need as he shut himself into the medical bay. He however decided against locking the door or disabling the intercom system.


	26. Chapter 26

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

x-x

**36.3 BBY – Current Year **

Chapter XXVI: Mos Espa Fiasco

x-x

Turning off the communicator, Naruto put it in one of his pockets and moved through the alleyways, back to the cantina that the others were currently getting food in. The conversation with his Master went as well as it could have considering the circumstances. He was henged to look like an average teenager with short brown hair and no whisker marks. His hood was no longer covering his head but he had to wonder if someone would recognize him without the henge. It was difficult to know what the people searching for that bounty were really looking for. An assassin droid was mentioned in the bounty poster but there was no picture of HK or a good description.

Juugo was not mentioned at all and he wondered if bounty hunters and the rest were even looking for orange-haired teen and the two dancers. 'Does Jabba know that they weren't eaten by the creature?' he wondered as he walked into the cantina and took a seat to eat the food that had been ordered for him. Despite not knowing what it was, he still devoured the food as he hadn't eaten anything in over twelve hours.

Finishing his brief meal, Naruto looked to the others and then to Suigetsu, "The plan is quite simple. Suigetsu and HK will head to Jabba's compound and collect on my bounty. With the bounty removed and money secured, everyone will meet up at the Vulture so we can leave this planet. There will be one contingency plan in place should things go wrong."

"What about us?" asked one of the slave girls who he believed was named Ann. "You don't have to stay with us and may leave whenever you like." said Naruto as he thought about the best way to remove their memories of the past twelve hours or at least keep them from talking about their group.

"It isn't that simple. What about our implants? We can't leave the planet because of them." questioned the sister. Naruto looked at Tann but with unfocused eyes while he tried to think what to do. They weren't supposed to be his problem and Juugo wasn't supposed to jump in after them.

"How exactly do your implants work?" asked Naruto as he really had no idea what configuration the device had or where it was even implanted. Unfortunately for him, neither Tann nor Ann seemed to have that information either. While the others prepared to leave, he decided to ask someone where the nearest junkyard was.

x-x

Reviewing an old and well used datapad, Watto glanced over his inventory once again. The Toydarian hovered near the the checkout counter and glanced up from his pad to watch over his recently acquired slave. The small blonde boy was trying to lift something onto the shelves that was a little heavier than what he was able to handle. Though the child showed excellent mechanical aptitude, Watto wished he had acquired someone a little older. 'Can't be helped.' he thought as he remembered that he acquired the boy in a bet with Gardulla the Hutt.

Deciding to finally speak up before his merchandise was damaged, "If you break that equipment, you'll have to work it off with extra hours." he shouted across the room but the possible bad situation was averted by one of his potential customers.

Juugo's hand reached out, steadying the piece of equipment and keeping it from falling. Letting the boy help, the pair pushed the item onto the shelf. Juugo smiled at the boy, who smiled back and Naruto ignored the entire situation as he searched through the shelves for the devices that he required. Various items soon filled his arms and he even spotted a few things that he wanted for the other projects that he was working on. Walking up to the register, Naruto emptied the contents of his crossed arms onto the table and Watto looked the items over before adding up the price in his head. As he created a list of the items and put prices with them, he began to realize something.

While the items being purchased could be used as replacement parts for any number of different machines or devices, the sum of all the parts together could be used for something rather different. 'All the parts needed to make a bomb with remote detonator.' the Toydarian thought idly as he kept his eyes away from the customer and appeared to be still adding up the total cost. The only thing missing was the explosive but with the power packs being purchased, a much smaller explosive device could be created, 'Or the power packs could be used to enhance a more powerful explosive.' he realized but kept it to himself.

If the person in front of him was planning something, then telling the Hutts could earn him a nice reward. His thoughts however were interrupted by the voice of his slave, "Hey Mister. What do you need all that stuff for." Glancing down to the boy standing right next to the customer and realizing what had been said, Watto's face instantly changed from his aloof but sly expression to one of shock and surprise. It was only on his face for a brief moment but more than enough to be noticed and understood by Naruto.

"Stop bothering the customers." Demanded the Toydarian owner and he moved to usher the boy into the back rooms of the store. Naruto watched the scene and thought over his options. He had been having great difficulty trying to read the owners mind and now he knew that something was wrong, 'He must have put together what I plan to use these parts for.' He realized and stayed completely calm while acting as if he hadn't seen the owner give himself away. From how the creature looked and the lack of success at reading thoughts, he guessed it was a Toydarian, which Plagueis taught him were one of the few sentient species that were immune to Force tricks.

'Does that mean that I can't extract knowledge from his head either?' Naruto wondered but didn't have time to ponder the question long as the owner soon returned. While the being hovered back to it's original position behind the counter top, Naruto ignored the man's excuses and determined what he was going to do. Before the owner could give him a price on the items Naruto spoke, "I was also interesting in something else and I was hoping perhaps you could help." he said and put the Toydarian completely on edge.

"I was interested in acquiring some slaves and hoping perhaps you might know where I would be able to do this. You see, I'm not from Tatooine, only visiting, and have quite a bit of money to spend that I just won." Naruto explained as he completely diverted the owners thoughts and seemingly offered a reward for the information that he wanted.

The new topic caused Watto's eyes to slightly widen, though he was unaware of this. Pretending to the think the question over and figuring out how much he could swindle the customer for information that was common knowledge to those that lived in Tatooine, he answered, "Well there are several auctions going on each week but most of the merchandise there is just substandard and probably not worth your time. However there are a few other private auctions that have much nicer merchandise."

"I thought so." Naruto lied and continued, "But, I was looking for something a bit special...or...let's say rare."

"I'm sure if they don't have it, then they can get it for you if you pay enough." Responded Watto with a look as if he'd just won something. "They'll also take care of the implant process at this place, won't they?" Naruto questioned in a slightly more serious manner as he had finally gotten the real question that he wanted answered.

"Of course, that won't be a problem. The boy that was in here is my slave. I won him and his mother from betting on a pod race and they were already implanted at the same place you're inquiring about." Watto said in a matter-of-fact tone and made sure to add, "This information isn't known by everyone..." Watto lied, "...and it won't come cheap."

"That's understandable..." Naruto said in as cheery a voice as he could and he reached into one of his pockets, pretending to grab something from it. He then placed his hand down on the edge of the table. His palm was slightly elevated over the top of the counter and the positioning of his fingers made it seem like he was placing something on the table. Sliding his hand over closer to the owner of the shop, the Toydarian leaned forward, hoping for the hand or fingers to move slightly so he could view how much he was getting offered for the information.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Naruto used his other hand to grab the creatures head and slam it onto the counter top. Pulling out a kunai and placing it on the cheek of the owner, Naruto said in a deadly voice, "You've got three seconds to tell me the location of where they do the implants, otherwise I'll start by cutting off your wings."

x-x

Naruto left the shop into the hot midday suns with his stolen merchandise in a bag and quickly moved to a nearby alley so he could change his henge.

He'd left the owner alive but the Toydarian wouldn't be waking up soon. A customer had walked in during their exchange so he had left the injured owner on the floor behind the counter. From the information he gathered, it turned out that the place he wanted was one of two main slave station for Mos Espa. Slave implants were also installed there by medical staff. It was also attached to Jabba's Townhouse which worked out perfectly for him given the proximity to where his other plans were being put in motion.

'While Suigetsu is taking care of the bounty, the rest of us can go into the slave station.' he thought as he left the alley and went to the meeting point. The others were already making their way to a location near Jabba's compound, in fact it was right across the street. He had tasked Suigetsu with scouting the outside of the compound, while the others stayed off the main streets to avoid suspicion.

He wouldn't be able to get an idea about how many were inside but that didn't matter. The goal was not to finish off the Hutt or start a siege of the massive townhouse. 'But it doesn't hurt to know what Suigetsu is walking into.' he admitted and passed by many different establishments on his way through the winding sand streets of Mos Espa. Glancing back and forth to both sides of the streets, he saw his bounty posting displayed almost every thirty feet. No doubt everyone in Mos Espa knew his incorrect face.

x-x

Quickly moving through the streets of Mos Espa, Plagueis traveled to a specific location that he had gleaned from the mind of his young experiment. He knew that their group would be leaving the planet soon and he still had one last task to take care of before he was ready to set out. The Demon Brothers were on standby with the skiff and the others were merely lounging about the ship when he left. No one asked him where he was going and he wouldn't have answered them anyway.

Moving around a corner, he stopped and began searching in the alley. From his memory, he knew the location was correct but he couldn't find what he was after. Exploring nearby alleys and even looking inside a few of the abandoned homes, he continued the search for the items he sought. He was in a less crowded area of the city and off the main street that meandered through the city. Many of the buildings around him where abandoned and run down but he wasn't interested with them. Concerned that he may have the wrong location, he began to move away when his foot struck something in the sand.

Reaching down, he pulled out a severed droid arm that had been almost completely covered by the sand, obscuring the part from view. Recognizing the arm as part of what he was after, he set the piece down and looked back to the sand to find the remaining pieces. 'The recent storm must have covered the rest of the parts.' he realized and knew that he was in the correct location. Unable to find the other pieces he sought, Plagueis turned to the Force. Concentrating on his surroundings, the Sith Lord created a small dust storm. Not concerned with anyone that could be watching, the spinning wind lifted the sand up and exposing the remaining pieces.

He had seen several pieces of that particular droid in his experiment's room and now he had found the rest. After looking through the boy's memories, he knew that piece by piece, Anakin Skywalker had been coming to that exact location and collecting those parts. Not wanting to be seen with all the parts at once, and since the boy was so young, he wasn't able to collect much at a time or be able to come to such a location very often to scavenge the parts. That was the main reason why the collection of the dismembered droid was proceeding slowly.

'But I intend to speed things up.' Plagueis thought as the winds died down and he looked to the uncovered pieces that now littered the ground. Now that he could see more of the droid, he determined from the parts that it was a Cybot Galactica protocol droid model but he couldn't be sure of the age. Scanning through the parts and reconstructing the droid in his mind from the parts in on the ground and those from the boy's room, he found that the droid was just over fifty percent intact. The protective outer shell was completely gone but the appendages and robotic skeleton all appeared in good condition. However, some of the more important systems and likely the circuity as well as all the wiring would need replacement.

Picking up the head, Plagueis examined the droid brain and found it missing a few key parts but he knew that they were rather generic and could be obtained from many different places. 'With a lot of work and some scrounging, I think he could finish the droid in a few years.' believed the Dark Lord of the Sith but he was confident that with a little more help and after procuring a few more parts, he could drastically cut down that time for the boy.

Collecting the parts and wishing he had a storage scroll or the chakra to use it, Plagueis proceeded to take them to the boy's house. 'Along the way I'll have to make a quick stop at the junkyard he works at.' thought Plagueis as he promptly walked in that direction with arms full of droid parts. He would have to walk halfway around the city but he already planned on going to that particular junkyard anyway.

x-x

Looking both ways as he stood at the end of an alley, Suigetsu determined that the coast was clear enough for his entrance to the compound. Coming out from the alley with HK-47, he dragged behind him part of corpse. It had a head, torso, and arms but was missing the everything below the belt-line and was wrapped inside a cloak.

Smiling as he walked past a few people, Suigetsu found that while most were a bit weary when they saw the huge sword he had strapped to his back, the ones that had a clue as to what he was dragging made sure to move to the opposite side of the street or into a nearby alley. Seeing the largest building in the city, the pair moved past numerous small buildings and shops as they looked for the main entrance to the building dominating the backdrop. Eventually they came to a street that's only purpose was to lead to the palace-like complex.

The Desilijic Townhouse as it was known on account of Jabba's clan name, was a collection of interconnected buildings with the main complex at the center. On the western side of the compound were three open-top hangars, with one several times larger that the others. Apparently Jabba's transports would land at his complex and unload illegal goods or even slaves that would be implanted and sold at the station in front of the compound along the main roadway through the city. There were many other buildings but their purpose was unknown. Seemingly Jabba owned every property adjacent to his massive Townhouse.

East of the hangars was the palace part of the compound. It was dominated with four domes of different sizes and several towers. Nothing on the compound save for the towers randomly placed in between the domes was over five stories in height, with the towers extending several stories above everything else.

HK eyed numerous organic targets as he examined the compound from afar. It seemed Jabba had significantly increased security. Even the roof of the building had guards posted or patrolling. He could see snipers in the towers and several ground to air laser cannon emplacements where guards waiting to use them. He guessed that the 400 meter long complex should have it's own shield generator, though it did not seem active if it even existed.

'Inner thought: There is also no way to tell how many levels are beneath the surface.' Noted the droid as he continued to review the outside of the complex and marked the locations of everything he could see on a rudimentary map that he was making and saving changes too.

Looking down the street leading to the main gate of the palace structure, the two nodded to each other and made their way down the street. Suigetsu noted that aside from the main gate, there was no protective wall around the compound. The walls of the continuous building were tall enough, and likely thick enough, to create a protective barrier that had no low windows or easy access points.

Coming to the gate, Suigetsu stepped forward as several guards barred their path, "I'm here to collect on a bounty. The Big Man definitely wants to see me." he said and the Gammorean guards looked back and forth between each other.

x-x

Leaning against an alley wall, Naruto watched Suigetsu and HK move out of his sight before taking the lead of his group and walking straight towards Jabba's slave station. He wanted the collecting of the bounty to go uninterrupted. Adopting a henge that had a breather mask on as well as bandages to cover most of his face, Naruto stopped in front of the two guards posted outside the building he wanted.

"I'm here to have my two slaves implanted, step aside." he told them and they quickly complied, moving out of his way to let the group of four pass. Walking into the facility, they proceeded down to a lower level and eventually came to a business-like area that retained the aesthetic of Tatooine interiors. Standing in line and waiting for their turn, Naruto looked around the room and thought it looked like a shady dentists office or small clinic, rather than a place to have slaves implanted with exploding chips.

Looking at the line of people ahead of him, Naruto frowned and sidestepped the others patiently waiting. Moving past them without a word, he arrived at the head of the line and waited at the counter for a moment before someone noticed him. One of the personnel at the facility yelled out something to him but Naruto had no idea what language the man or possible woman, was speaking. "He says you can't skip ahead of everyone in line," another employee informed him after Naruto ignored the previous statement.

"Yes I can." said Naruto in an even voice and the man agreed with him. "Where are your forms?" he then asked and with another wave of his hand, Naruto said, "You've already seen the forms. Let's move on to the implantation." Despite the outrage of those that he had cut in front of, Naruto and his group of three were ushered through a door and led to an operating room.

x-x

Stopping his sprint just short of where he thought a junk shop was, Plagueis rested his Mustafarian body against the wall of a building out of sight from the main street. Mos Espa wasn't a large city but it's construction was not laid out in any coherent manner. The main road winded it's way through the city from it's start at the southern edge to it's end at the very northernmost area of the Mos Espa. From it, numerous other roads were offshoots at various angles and most of the main shops in the city were along the man road while very large areas of slave quarters being placed in the outskirts.

Unfortunately this meant that it was extremely difficult to travel off the main road and through the city, because of how easily it was to get turned around or take a wrong turn. This was exactly how he had been traveling but it also meant that he could cut through different areas and bypass long bends in the street which would have significantly added to his journey. Stashing the pieces of droid in the alley and covering them with sand to keep anyone from finding them, Plagueis proceeded to find the junkyard he was after at a walking pace that was no longer impeded by the heavy droid parts.

After a large curve in the main road, Plagueis could see the tall outer walls of the junkyard as well as the stacked scrap materials that lay beyond. Heading for the door, he walked right in and his size as well as presence startled the hovering Toydarian behind the counter. Though unaffected by the encounter on the outside, Plaguies was very curious as to why the male Toydarian was holding his nose with a bloodied rag and was so startled by his entrance into the shop.

It made him wonder if someone had robbed him recently and he noted how the man eyed him while keeping a hand under the counter. Presumably the action was to be in close proximity to a hidden weapon, but he couldn't actually tell if there was a weapon under the counter or if it was just an act. Looking through the shelves, Plagueis moved toward an area of the shop that displayed droid parts and he searched through the racks for the items that he sought. What he needed was a droid brain as well as a few other key parts for the head. Those would be the most expensive to obtain on Tatooine.

While searching, he detected the presence of two other life-signs entering the shop as well as one other life-sign of someone who appeared to be on the property, though out of sight. Glancing to the front entrance, he saw two Mos Espa police walk in to the establishment and immediately go to the owner. As the owner began describing his assailant, the Mustafarian features of the Sith Lord turned into a frown, or what would have been passable as a frown for the species. 'That sounds an awful lot like a henge that my student would wear.' Plagueis thought and though he tried to keep his eyes to the shelves, his attention was brought back when the owner called out for someone.

Initially he thought the owner was calling to him, which he remembered would be a significant problem as he couldn't speak any language they would be familiar with, however, the call was not directed at him and was soon returned by a much softer voice. A blonde boy ran in from a back room and Plagueis instantly recognized who it was. 'Now I remember why I knew the exact location of this shop.' he realized as the memory surfaced of his investigation into the slave records. He had seen the address because the junkyard owner, Watto he believed was the name, also owned his experiment and the mother. The blonde walked up to the counter and began answering the questions that the police were asking.

Still keeping to the shelves, Plagueis finally found some of the parts he was after and began collecting them but he slowed down his progress as he didn't want to get involved with the local law enforcement. It would be difficult to talk his way out of a problem, especially when they wouldn't be able to understand his speech. Once the police had left, he would purchase the parts and he also had something else in mind. He had been presented with a better opportunity than his original plan had entailed and wasn't about to let it pass.

Naturally resistant to mind tricks because of being a Toydarian wasn't the same as being impervious to all mind tricks. With the knowledge that he had and control of the Force, it wouldn't be impossible for him to dominate the mind of the simple store owner. It would simply take a little finesse to deal with the strong-willed and resistance species. Once the police left and the boy went back to work, he would approach the counter and implement the newly conceived plan.

x-x

'You know the guy must be loaded when he's the only person on a desert planet with a water fountain.' reasoned Suigetsu as he examined the courtyard. It was also the first time since being on the planet that he had seen actual plants that were growing. The open courtyard had a number palm trees but also other plants that didn't necessarily looked suited to being in an environment such as Tatooine. HK ignored the plants in favor of memorizing the layout of the building and escape as well as choke points.

Moving past the aesthetic features, a contingent guided the pair into and through the luxurious building, presumably to meet with the owner. The inside proved to be more extravagant than the outside with numerous decorative carvings on the sandstone walls and wide hallways with tall ceilings. After many turns, the pair was eventually led to a large circular room with a very tall, domed ceiling. Many different armed mercenary types were surrounding the central figure and Suigetsu looked at their weapons to see what they were using. 'Lots of melee weapons.' he noted with a small smile as even if getting hit by blasters wouldn't kill him, it still hurt and he wouldn't mind collecting a few of the implements that he saw.

Sitting on a platform that seemed to hover off the ground, was a large green slug-like creature. While HK was unaffected by the appearance of a Hutt which he had seen countless times before, Suigetsu was rather disappointed. 'All of these dangerous looking people follow this helpless looking slug?' he thought and held back a frown.

From his perspective, the hairless and unclothed slug was completely unarmed and lounging, but nothing gave him the idea that it was dangerous or even strong. The bandages on the side of the head and missing arm only made the Hutt look more pathetic in his eyes. He guessed it further emphasized that the slug had a great deal of money and all the surrounding people were hired help. 'I suppose I used to be like that.' he realized, because before joining Naruto's group he worked for whatever client payed for his services as a ninja of Kirigakure.

Coming to a stop in the middle of the large room, the pair glanced around them at the possible hostiles before Suigetsu dragged the covered corpse a little closer to the Hutt and dropped the end that he was carrying on the floor. 'Be careful you fool. Any harder and you would have destroyed my clone.' resounded a voice in Suigetsu's head and he mentally apologized before clearing his voice and announcing to the crowd, "I've come to collect on the bounty." Fishing out a small holoprojector from his pocket, he turned it on and showed the bounty poster of the person known as 'Rasen.'

Everyone present stared at the pair before the largest occupant of the room began a deep mocking laugh. As if on cue, the others in the room began laughing as well and the laughter grew in volume as fast as it grew in participants. 'They're all going to die. I'll start with...' were Suigetsu's thoughts on the laughter before he was interrupted by Naruto. 'Don't let them get to you so easily. They're only laughing because Jabba is laughing. We still need them, if only for a little while.' The voice informed him and Suigetsu let a small smile form on his face. The information put him at ease because it seemed that Naruto didn't really care what happened to any of the individuals laughing at him.

The laughter soon died down however and with a small motion from Jabba's head, one of his men stepped forward and grabbed the shoulder of the corpse, pulling off the cloak and turning it up to get a look at the face. They were apparently not the first people to come in with a body and try to collect on the bounty. Though Suigetsu was the youngest person to come in. Seeing the face of the corpse, the being that went to identify the body quickly said something in a language that Suigetsu didn't understand. While the words were lost on him, the effect it had on the Hutt was more than enough for him to know that they believed that he had killed the person shown in the bounty.

The Hutt spoke while directly looking at Suigetsu and despite not knowing the language, he had a general idea of what was said based upon the surprised look on the Hutt's face. Before the translation droid near the Hutt could convey the words, "I wanted to bring him in alive and demand more money but he bled out on the way here." Suigetsu answered with a shrug. The effect was a short period of complete silence in the room. Despite failure by countless others, the adolescent in front of them had apparently succeeded and done so with ease, or at least not accruing any injuries.

The silence was ended when a more jovial sounding laughter began coming from the Hutt. It was much louder than before and Suigetsu smiled in turn as it appeared that the slug was pleased with what he done and brought. When the laughter started to die down, recognition dawned on the Hutt and he pointed to the droid that was standing close to the newcomer. Weapons were drawn by the various villainy around the room and pointed directly at HK.

Guessing what was going on, Suigetsu stepped in front of the droid and said in a placating manner, "Relax~! He's got a restraining bolt. He's my droid now and completely harmless." The statement evidently put the Hutt at ease, possibly because the black restraining bolt was clearly visible on the droids rust-color armor. Although no one else in the room besides the pair knew that the device was something that Naruto had picked up at the junk store. It didn't work at all and was just for show.

Jabba gave a deeper laugh and nodded his head in understanding. He knew he could always try and barter for the deadly droid later but not in front of the crowd. Though the person before him was a complete unknown, he was very impressed by the work and the sword that the young human carried on his back. He did wonder if the teen had actually done the deed or perhaps taken the body from some other successful bounty hunter, but either way it didn't really matter to him. He was still interested in adding the boy to his syndicate, which recently had lost many of it's Tatooine-based members and since the boy wasn't on his personal list of people who were contacted about the bounty increase, he only had to pay the lower amount.

In a loud booming voice, the Hutt began to speak and any murmuring in the crowd died down instantly. A brief moment passed after the Hutt stopped speaking and Suigetsu was confused about what to do next until a droid near Jabba began translating the words to him, "The Great Jabba congratulates you on your bounty and wishes to know what currency you would like the payment in?"

Before Suigetsu could even answer the question, a voice in his head began conveying different types of acceptable currencies, "Aurodium ingots, nova crystals, or..." but Suigetsu ignored the voice and turned to speak with the droid near him. Surprised at being completely ignored, Naruto tried to once again deliver the message by speaking through the clones mind but Suigetsu payed him no attention.

'Suigetsu, what are you doing?!' he demanded but was again ignored and had to try and guess concerning the developing situation. With the clone's body staying motionless, Naruto tried to catch the short conversation with the droid but had no success. 'What did you just tell that droid?' he demanded of the white haired teen but could only feel amusement on the mind of his comrade. Said droid began speaking a moment later in what Naruto knew was Huttese. Through the link with his clone, Naruto could feel perhaps surprise from the Hutt but he wasn't sure what had been spoken and he couldn't use his powers through the clone to get more information from Suigetsu's mind. 'Does he know of this limitation?' he wondered with disdain.

Since Suigetsu refused to answer, the clone, he simply waited for a verbal response from the Hutt to find out what was going on. Undecipherable words were spoken in response to HK's response and the voice of another droid quickly translated, "The Mighty Jabba is amused with your choice of payment. Someone will take you to collect your reward and afterward a banquette will be held which the Great Jabba wishes for you to attend."

Suigetsu readily agreed and was then led out of the main. Naruto wanted to have the clone reach out and grab Suigetsu's leg but refrained and the clone remained completely still to keep the position it was in. Trying to keep his anger in check, he pulled back from his connection with the clone to focus more on the situation his real body was in

x-x

"I refuse. I won't do it!" said the clinic doctor with finality as he looked upon the two young humans and two older Twi'leks. The man gave a quick glance to the alarm button situated next to the door's control panel. Upon touching it, all of the guards in Jabba's entire complex would be alerted to a problem in his operating room. The problem was, it was across the room from his current position.

Naruto glanced in the direction that the doctor's eyes had looked and saw the alarm panel. The operating room had two beds with numerous instruments and other equipment attached to it. There were only two doors that led out of the room, one which they had come through and one more that the doctor did not seem to be concerned with. 'Probably that means that it doesn't lead anywhere helpful to him.' Naruto surmised looked to the man with a satisfied smirk, believing that the doctor was trapped.

'It may be best to emphasize for him that I don't care about the Hutts and make him fear me more than Jabba.' and on that thought, Naruto broke the silence, "Fine. You don't have to remove the chips from these two Twi'lekks." He said and quickly received concerned looks from the other three in his group but ignored them for the moment. However, before the clinic doctor could be the least bit relieved from the burden of going against Jabba and freeing slaves, Naruto kept talking, "It would be terrible to force you into doing something that you don't want too. So here's what we'll do." and he paused for a moment before finishing, "I'll do the surgery."

Surprised looks were shared by everyone in the room and the two would-be patients started to protest until Naruto held up his hand and silenced them. "I'll start by strapping you into this chair and then begin implanting chips into you." Naruto explained to the doctor while motioning to the many slave chips which were in clear view on one of the nearby counters

"I'll put one or two in each of your appendages, followed by one in your neck. After I've successfully completed these operations, I'll cauterize the entry wounds and then begin the process of removal. You may lose appendages during the process of removal as I may not get the first one right, or the second or third. But I assure you that although I may look young, I'm not that inexperienced at playing doctor. I can surely stop the bleeding before you lose too much when an appendage explodes and probably keep you from going into shock despite such trauma. By the time I get to the chip in your neck, I'm confident that I'll have the process down and can then begin on these two young ladies with confidence. This way you can remain firm in your stance against helping us with your knowledge and skills and I'll get to have some fun. How does that sound?"

The long explanation was met with horrified looks around the room.

"You're out of your mind." Were the words that the clinic doctor blurted out and Naruto gave a fake smile in response before explaining, "No, at the moment I'm just really frustrated and annoyed with your noncompliance. So, I think I'll be better off doing it myself. I'm certainly not going to think about removing their chips before I get some experience first. That's just crazy."

After a short period of shocked silence, Naruto added, "So, who's going to be doing the operation, me or you?" The doctor stared at him with disbelieving eyes and short heavy breaths before looking to the three companions. He quickly determined from the expressions on their faces, that the leader of the small group didn't appear to be joking. With a nod that began slow and increased with speed, the man agreed.

"Good. And just remember, I'll be watching over your shoulder. If anything happens to them, I'll make you suffer for a long time before I kill you." said Naruto darkly as he put further emphasis on the doctor performing favorable with no complications. 'I could just take the information from his head but it's probably best to leave it to someone who actually has the physical experience.'

x-x

Waiting at the large blast door while one of Jabba's men used a key card and code was agony for Suigetsu. The guard had already messed up the code once, delaying them from gaining access. His prize was just on the other side and he was tempted to just cut the door apart with his sword. If there was one important thing he learned during the briefing before disembarking on the planet, it was about the dangerous lizards that stalked some areas of the planet. But he also learned that Jabba was heavily involved in the illegal arms shipping business.

That information to him meant that illegal melee, energy, and projectile weaponry was continuously coming into the Hutt's possession and then being sold or transported elsewhere for sale. So it made sense to him that at any one time, Jabba may have an extensive inventory or at least supply of illegal weapons on hand. There was always the chance that nothing came through Tatooine and the arms business was conducted elsewhere or that nothing was stockpiled but as the door opened, Suigetsu's imagination was put to shame as a veritable armory of items came into view.

The blast doors opened up into a very large circular storage room which was filled with crates and on many of the differently shaped containers displayed examples of what they were filled with. The room was divided into different areas based upon classification of weaponry. One area featured strictly energy weapons of various types and likely with different effects. Another area seemed to be completely melee weapons such as vibroblades and other paraphernalia. The rest of the room was devoted to explosives and other projectile weaponry.

"It's beautiful." exclaimed Suigetsu as he fell to his knees and looked upon the cache of his dreams. Jabba was amused at the young man's reaction to his main armory and storeroom. Some of the weapons in the room were to be moved out soon by his various gunrunners but he always felt it was best to keep a large stockpile of weaponry on-hand or at least close by.

Motioning to his men and translation droid, he gave out orders and proceeded to leave the room. The droid relayed the information out loud to everyone in the room and informed Suigetsu and HK that they could take from the room whatever they wanted but with a cost not exceeding the bounty price. With that said, Suigetsu started moving throughout the room and examining the items on display and inside the crates because he was just approved for 500,000 credits worth of illegal weapons and he aimed to get some of everything present in the room.

"Hey, what's this one?" Suigetsu asked and waited for the assassin droid to move over to where he was. "Response: That is a unguided or 'dumb-fire' rocket launcher." stated the droid as it looked the item over and then proceeded to begin its own search. As Suigetsu rummaged through another area, he held up another weapon over his head and yelled out to HK, "What about this?" Turning to see where the white-haired Meatbag had gotten to, HK examined the item, "Response: A disintegration rifle."

"We'll need at least a crate of these, right?" Suigetsu asked and the droid's photoreceptors grew slightly brighter before answering, "Response: Agreed."

Looking through the explosive, HK proceeded to find that certain individual weapons were missing from the crates and containers. Based upon what was missing, he guessed that Jabba armed his newly hired or previously hired men with the weapons from the room. Upon that guess, he searched for the same model of micro grenade launcher that he had picked up at the Palace.

Said weapon was still slung over his back, though the magazine was empty and the rifle essentially useless. Finally opening the correct container, HK removed the spent magazine and replaced it with one of the full ones that was siting in the case next to other magazines and rifles. Glancing at the guards that Jabba had left to watch them, he marked their positions in the room and went to pick out other weapons that he wanted to keep for himself.

"I'll start making a pile!" yelled Suigetsu with his arms full of weapons as he moved to an area of the room with more open floor space.

x-x

'This is progressing rather fast.' thought Naruto as he watched at the doctor work. One Twi'lekk, Ann he believed, was already done and her procedure had only taken a few minutes. Watching over the man's shoulder, he guessed that most slaves had the chip implanted into the neck which it seemed that both dancers had.

Glancing to the closed door at the opposite end of the room, he curiously stretched out his senses to that room. At first he thought it was a large animal and thought it best to just ignore it, but as he concentrated on the adjacent room, he found that the large life-sign was actually numerous smaller ones that were very close together. Not only in the horizontal direction but also vertically. 'Too close to be multiple floors.' Naruto thought and turning back, he caught the doctor eying him for a second before going back to work.

'He doesn't want me to go in there.' Naruto realized and now he was even more curious about what lay behind the door. 'Once he's done with Tann, I'll open it and find out what's there.' He thought and continued watching to make sure the operation was successful.

In a few moments, the chip from the Tann's neck was removed and made a 'tink' sound as it was dropped in a nearby metal dish along with the other chip. As the doctor began sealing the wound, Naruto looked at the two small devices. They were only the size of his finger nail and perhaps a little thicker, but apparently they were not only able to pick up a signal from a transmitter but if the person strayed outside of the signal's range, the explosive in the device would detonate. Given that the device was placed in the back of the neck, even a small explosive under the skin would ensure death.

A thought dawned on Naruto as he turned his eyes back on the doctor's work, 'When we left the palace, shouldn't their chips have exploded?' Although he had prior knowledge of the existence of such chips and was well aware that both girls were slaves, it was not something that he had thought about as they moved through Jabba's Palace and fled the area. 'I didn't even think about their chips until they mentioned them. But why didn't they activate? Are they duds?' he wondered, glancing back to the chips. Both devices certainly looked intact.

His features turned sour as he realized the reason that both girls were still alive, 'The interference from the sandstorm must have stopped their chips from detecting the signal. Given how frequent sandstorms are, the device probably knows when the signal is lost because of interference and won't explode because of it. Otherwise there would be a massive amount of dead slaves after every sandstorm moved through. However that really isn't that comforting. If there wasn't a sandstorm when we were leaving, they both would have been killed when they left the transmission area.'

It wasn't something he should have cared about, especially considering that they had just met and Juugo was the only one that wanted to save them and bring them along. They weren't actually a part of his group, and after leaving the building they would be parting company. Despite knowing that, he did find himself wanting to help them. They weren't annoying or getting in the way. 'It also probably helps that they are easy on the eyes, so to speak.'

His attention quickly turned back to the operating table as it seemed that the doctor was finished closing the wound on Tann's neck. Naruto reached forward and touched the back of her neck with his hand, as he had earlier with her sister. After a brief moment of using the Force to examine the wound and work, he retracted his hand, satisfied that nothing was amiss. Locking eyes with the very nervous doctor, Naruto asked a single question, "What do you keep behind that door?" Naruto indicating over his shoulder with his right hand as he didn't want to break eye contact while he tried to learn more about the room beyond the door.

The physical response from the question was instantaneous. 'He's scared, even more scared of me when I suggested operating on him. Since he's not talking, I guess I'll have to see for myself,' thought Naruto before turning and heading to the door. Ignoring a shout from the man to stop and not go in there, Naruto pushed the control panel for the door and it opened instantly.

It wasn't just the smell of body odor or excrement that stopped him in his tracks, but the view he had from the doorway of the rows of pens, stacked four-high. Nearly ever cage was filled with a humanoid, with their total number ranging in the sixties or seventies. They varied in age from very young to no more than middle-aged adult, though for some species it was hard to tell. The cells were just high enough that they could sit inside of them but not high enough for them to be able to stand up. While the sight and smell alone of such a scene was something he wasn't prepared for, it was the feelings coming off the people in the cages that hit him the hardest. Crushing despair, hopelessness, and other foreign emotions were coming off of every being in the large room and it was overpowering. He could feel that many were more willing to die than to become slaves.

Naruto's mind retreated inward as he tried to push the emotions out his head. Everything had been fine before he opened the door but now he was bracing himself against the door frame for support. During his own life, he had never felt despair or lost all hope. It was therefore not something he could easily deal with when confronted or perhaps bombarded with such feelings. Plagueis had taught him to control and harness his emotions but he had never felt like the slaves were feeling so he found no way to get them under control.

The only thing that brought him out of his state, was his bodies reaction to an external stimulus that he was familiar with and knew what it meant. An alarm was going off. With adrenaline pumping and awareness coming back to him, Naruto turned to determine the source of the noise and quickly found it. The doctor had taken the opportunity to run towards the other door and pushed the alarm button before trying to leave. What he hadn't counted on was that Naruto had disabled the door before they entered so he couldn't run away.

Panicked, the doctor turned back to the room and his captors. For a brief second he realized that he was trapped again but decided to act instead of give up. Practically lunging to the nearest counter, he opened one of the drawers and pulled out a weapon that he remembered was hidden there.

Naruto saw the weapon, realized the danger, and his body reacted by pulling out his sword to block what he assumed would be a blaster bolt. The weapon was fired not a second later but instead of a bolt of plasma, the weapon fired with a bang, but softer in volume than a projectile weapon. A pellet left the gun at high speeds, much faster than Naruto could feasibly dodge. He moved to deflect the projectile but when the pellet was a few feet from him, it did something that he certainly wouldn't have expected. It exploded.

Thin durasteel flechettes inside of the pellet were launched at him at supersonic speeds. They moved so fast he could barely make out anything at all, especially with the small explosion distracting him. The small 12 millimeter projectiles spread out and while his sword was positioned where the weapon had been aimed, it only managed to stop a few.

The first needle-like flechette to impact either hit the sword or imbedded themselves in his fingers gripping the handle. The remaining darts flew beneath his guard and primarily hit his forearm and then shoulder. Several passed by his neck and at least one outliers went into his chest. Trails of blood came out of his arm as the thin flechettes pierced right through skin, muscle, and even bone. Most had passed clean through him save for the ones in his hands which had impacted the tang of the handle, preventing them from exiting his fingers and stopping their movement.

It all happened in an instant and Naruto was left with the feeling of incredible heat where the injuries had occurred, right before the intense pain started. The henge he was using gave out immediately, shrouding the area around him in white smoke as his larger figure disappeared and showed his shorter body. Though the doctor was distracted for a second, the pain caused Naruto to stumble and grab his forearm to stop blood loss and he lost the moment of opportunity. Looking up, he found that the doctor was sneering and about to fire again. His eyes widened at the immanent danger because he didn't know what he had just been attacked with, nor how to properly defend himself.

Before firing again, the doctor's head jerked to the side and his arm went wild as he stumbled and almost fell. He struggled to determine what had happened and tried to aim his weapon to fire again but he couldn't see the large white blade sticking out of the side of his head, nor understand that he was dying. The doctor collapsed to the floor a moment later and didn't get back up again. Juugo didn't immediately collect the Tulrus tusk knife that he had gotten on Mustafar but instead went to Naruto to check on his wounds.

Warm blood poured through the fingers of Naruto's left hand, which were applying pressure to the terrible wound on his right forearm. 'I'm losing a lot of blood', he realized and his mind struggled to determine what he needed to do next but the decision was made for him as Juugo grabbed him, pulled him to his feet, and ushered him over to the operating table.

Laying his arm on the table, Naruto looked around and struggled to figure out what he needed in order to take care of his injuries and where to get it from. 'Why can't I think...I'm going into shock.' he realized and began trying to calm his mind so he could take care of himself. He knew medical ninjutsu wasn't going to work, especially without the use of his right hand.

"..I need..." and before he could finish the sentence, Juugo had taken over applying pressure on his arm so that his hand could be freed to begin treatment. Looking to the supplies at hand, which the doctor had just used, it was readily obvious that it was insufficient for his injuries. Before he could go and start searching through the operating room, both Ann and Tann moved into his view. Their arms were full of medical supplies that they had just pilfered from the drawers and cabinets along the wall. They both dumped the supplies onto the table and Naruto began sifting through it as his blood began pooling on the table. Items were pushed aside and some fell to the floor as Naruto picked out what he needed.

He thought about a pain reliever but he wasn't sure how much to give. He watched when the doctor had administered a local anesthetic to the girls but he had no idea how much to give himself, 'And I can't run the risk of giving myself too much of any other drug.' Forgoing pain relief, he grit his teeth began to work on his arm. Despite the pressure Juugo was applying, he was still bleeding heavily and knew that the projectiles must have hit one or both of the arteries in his forearm.

With the alarm sounding, it was only a matter of time before Jabba's guards in the facility went to work on the door, 'And I expect reinforcements to be coming from his Townhouse.' Naruto thought as he worked as fast as possible to stop the bleeding and patch himself up enough for them to start working on escaping.

x-x

'Bomb carrying clone to Boss. You still there?' said the henged clone in his mind. The connection between himself and the original had been severed and had yet to be reestablished. 'I don't know what that means.' Thought the clone as he analyzed the situation.

Everything had been going smoothly as people had all filed out of the room minutes ago after Suigetsu left with Jabba. He was then put 'on-hold', so to speak, as something was going on at the slave station but the connection was abruptly terminated. 'Does that mean that he's in trouble and needs me to act?' Unfortunately he just didn't know and the plan had involved him getting a signal before finding somewhere to set off the bomb. His analysis however was put on hold as he heard footsteps approaching.

Walking back to what he guessed was called the throne room, Jango found the body of the young man still on the floor. No one had bothered removing or disposing of it, which actually fit his purposes. Something was bothering him about the situation and he had doubled back to get a closer look at the body, even completely ignoring the alarm that had been sounded at the slave station in favor of satisfying the questions that he had.

Reviewing the scenario of the past day and half in his head, just gave him a headache. 'Some brat who no one has ever heard of and who doesn't appear to be working for anyone, shows up and tries to kill Jabba the Hutt. Putting aside how stupid such an action is, he nearly succeeds, wounding the Hutt, and then kills a large number of guards and mercenaries before seemingly disappearing completely. And if that isn't hard enough to believe, another brat who nobody knows or has ever heard of, shows up having killed the first and claiming the bounty.' He thought and shook his head at how much it sounded like a spacers tall tale and not something that he knew had just transpired.

Someone so skilled at such a young age was uncommon enough, but two such people at nearly the same age showing up out of the blue, that was a little much for him to swallow. The appearance of the second individual was actually more disturbing to him than the appearance of the first. 'And that Wookie sized sword that he carries around. Can he even lift that thing on his own?' He questioned as he reached the body he wanted to look at. Stopping and glancing around the room to see if anyone was watching, Jango knelt down to get a better look at the body and confirm that it was indeed the person that he had fought.

'Oh shit.' Thought the clone as he held his breath and remained completely still. Cut off from the original, he couldn't use any Force powers and if the person there did anything to his body, not only would the henge be dispelled but so would he, and then the bomb would be useless until the original detonated it by remote, 'Of course that is only if this person doesn't disarm it, or if the signal from the remote can even reach here from the below ground slave station.' Thought the clone as he considered his options.

'Besides the obvious injury, I don't see any other wounds.' Observed Jango as he looked over the damage to the corpse. Considering that he had his visor on during the entire fight and was looking in infrared, it was difficult for him to tell if the face matched. 'No defensive wounds.' he noted and he realized that he didn't see the sword that the boy had been carrying. It wasn't on the body and it wasn't on his killer. 'Nothing was mentioned about the other teen or the dancers that could have all been working with him.' He also noted and found this even more strange.

Though he couldn't be sure, his intuition and experience was telling him that the person who came to collect the bounty was extremely dangerous and probably did kill the person that was dead before him. 'The two botch the job of killing the Hutt so another is sent to clean up. They know each other and are caught by surprise without enough time to even fight back.' He reasoned but knew that the hypothesis had flaws in it. 'Three people all around the same age, probably trained together, but I have no idea who could train them to do what I saw.'

'This also means that Jabba might still be in danger, though the new one seemed far more interested in acquiring the bounty and I don't know anyone who accepts such a high payment in just weapons. I don't know if he is more or less dangerous than you.' Jango thought while looking at the body and decided that going to the armory and watching the new kid very closely would be a good idea. However before he could stand, a hand from below struck him in the neck. The swift blow went right underneath the bottom of his visor and higher than his chest plate, straight into his throat which was only protected by armor weave.

Choking because of the attack to his larynx, Jango fell over from his crouched position and was enveloped in smoke. Getting to his feet and into a fighting stance to protect himself from further attack, Jango was surprised to find the body missing and nobody in his immediate vicinity. He caught motion heading down one of the hallways and looked between the running person and where the dead body had once been before he started to realize what had happened.

"You gotta be kidding." he forced out between coughs and took off in pursuit.

x-x

Finished with final spray bandage on his arm, Naruto used a hypoinjector to give himself some of the painkiller that was on-hand and he then gave himself a stimulant to counteract some of the effects of the painkiller in case he used too much. With Juugo's help, he had managed to stop the bleeding from the artery, or at least lessen the flow, and stop the rest of the bleeding with a heavy application of coagulants and the spray bandage. His hand proved slightly difficult as the very small senbon-like projectiles had pierced his fingers and pinned the bones in his hand to the handle of his sword. Juugo had to wrench his hand from the sword and removed them with forceps but it was clear from the damage that he wouldn't be making handseals anytime soon.

Alright for the moment, Naruto knew that getting to Kabuto, Karin, or a medical droid was top priority for him in the next hour. 'It was stupid to put both med-nins on the same team.' He realized and was determined never to make such a simple and costly mistake again.

Examining the wounds on his shoulder, he found no projectiles in the wounds and the bleeding wasn't very significant, so he had Juugo patch up both sides of the wounds with spray bandages. Carefully removing his cloak and ninja flak jacket, he found three blood spots on his chest. 'They went right through the armorweave.' He realized and was actually impressed by the shear penetration of the weapon. He wracked his brain to remember if Plagueis had ever told him about such a weapon and did recall learning about something called a flechette launcher.

Using the Force, he determined how bad the puncture wounds were, 'My lungs were pierced but the hole is small and shouldn't be too much of a problem. I don't think air can get in and deflate my lung. The other holes are right through my shoulder, I won't be able to even rotate my right arm for a little while, but even if I could, with the damage to my hand and forearm it won't make a difference.' He analyzed and someone had quickly sprayed the wounds with more bandage.

Once he had gotten his clothes and cloak back on, sparks began flying from the door that led back to the rest of the clinic. It was obvious that the guards on the other side were using a fusion cutter and that they would only have a minute or so before a fight would break out. Looking towards the still open door where the slaves were being kept, Naruto realized that there might be another way for someone to circumvent the locked door of the operating room.

"Do you know if there is another way out of here?" Juugo asked and Naruto shook his head as he wasn't sure. Fleeing the operating room seemed to be the best course of action at the moment, unless they wanted to fight their way out of the building and through an area of the city almost completely owned by Jabba. 'Further into the facility it is.' Concluded Naruto as he quickly walked to the door he had opened. Once inside, he confirmed that two more doors were along the wall, which meant that their were either two more operating rooms or just additional access to the front of the facility.

"Secure those doors." he ordered to the two Twi'lekk dancers and they quickly moved to disable the other entryways into the slave holding area. All eyes were on the newcomers to the room as they certainly didn't look like they worked for Jabba. For Naruto it was a nice change, as with attention focused on who he was and what he was doing there, he didn't have to worry about how they had been feeling before.

Ignoring shouts from those still trapped in cages, Naruto calmed his mind and extended his senses. It was hard, but not because of the slaves, more because of the cocktail of painkiller and then stimulant that he had taken. 'There isn't anyone above or below us but I can feel something beyond the far wall...and about seven people waiting for the doors to be broken down behind us.' He discovered and began thinking about the best course of action for an escape.

'I could use Juugo to make handseals and try to move through the floor, but trying to move all four of us at once would be difficult and dangerous.' Naruto thought as he began coming up with eliminating other strategies but something else came to mind that might be better, 'I'm surrounded by slaves that want to be let out...so why not let them out.' He realized and reaching down with his left hand, he unsealed one of his discblades and handed it to Juugo.

"Your bone knives won't cut through the locks on the cages, but this will." He explained and Juugo readily took the weapon, moving to free the slaves. Drawing his sword with his left hand, Naruto began cutting the locks off the nearest cages. Their actions were greeted with shouts and exclamation from those in the cages who were being freed from bondage. Leaving the locks on the higher levels for Juugo, Naruto pulled out his communicator and started trying to reach Suigetsu or HK. After several unsuccessful attempts, he realized that all transmissions were being jammed. 'Probably started after the alarm went off. I won't be able to tell where Suigetsu is until I get within range of him.' Naruto reasoned and decided to try something else.

With his connection to the Demon Brothers, Naruto attempted calling out to them for assistance. The plan was for them to be ready with a skiff near the edge of town to pick them all up they shouldn't have been very far. Unsure of his success, he returned to planning what to do next. 'We're currently underground but I could make a nice hole through to the surface, however, we could run into anything out there.' Thought Naruto as he continued calmly analyze the situation and search for the best strategy.

'There were sentries on the roof of Jabba's buildings, I can still feel them there and no doubt the alarm has sent a good portion of those in Jabba's employ to this building in response. However, Jabba's main complex and this building are close enough that they could be connected either through underground structures or perhaps I can just make a tunnel.' He concluded and tried to figure out where best to make such a tunnel while his body continued to break locks on cages.

'While Jabba's men are headed into the clinic, we'll take a shortcut through his complex and get a ship. If it's just the four of us, we should be able to slip through relatively unnoticed. At some point I'll make an escape route for the slaves. They'll take off through the city and give us an added distraction while we try to find a ship or I feel someone familiar. Until we receive a signal from Suigetsu, I'll have no idea where in the complex they are and with the jamming signal I won't be sending out any communications until it's down. If the Demon Brothers get here first, then we'll just meet up with them so I can get back to our ship and get healed.' He concluded and glanced down to his arm which, after the painkiller, was only a dull ache.

With Juugo, Ann and Tann just finishing freeing the rest of the slaves, Naruto chose which wall he planned to use. Looking to Juugo he said, "Get ready." The orange haired young man took him very seriously and pulled out both of his knives from Mustafar. "Where exactly are we headed?" Was the questioned he posed to Naruto in response to the younger blonde's intense staring contest with an area of the far wall in the room. "That wall is about to become a door and if there are similar structures beneath the buildings outside of Jabba complex, eventually they could lead us directly into it." He replied and was unaware that everyone in the room was listening to him. Sheathing his sword and forming a Kinetite in his left hand, Naruto threw it at the wall.

x-x

In unison, the heads of both Meizu and Gozu jerked up as the felt something. Though no clear message had been given, they both jumped into the skiff and headed into Mos Espa, directly towards the large complex owned by Jabba. They were supposed to receive a signal through the communicator but both were getting a bad feeling and almost an urge to head out.

x-x

Blocking all of the security measures that he could with the Force, Naruto and a group of over twenty former slaves quickly moved through the halls of Jabba's upper complex. After blasting through several walls of the underground levels, they finally made it into Jabba's main building. Although he gave all of the former slaves a chance to escape, only about two thirds had taken the opportunity and escaped through an opening outside that Naruto had inadvertently created. With good cover and few guards in the area, he told the group to slowly make their escape and they parted ways.

The others had remained and were determined to go with him. At first Naruto didn't know why but after gleaning information from a few of their minds, he knew that everyone present had an idea of who he was, a newly infamous person called 'Rasen' who had tried to kill Jabba the Hutt. Apparently that name and bounty was known even amongst the newly arrived slaves, despite the fact that the events only happening the previous day. 'They think I'm heading to finish Jabba off and foolishly want to come with me.' He gathered from the gleaned information as they moved down a hallway.

'I can't protect them from their own idiocy, though I do find it interesting that they are following someone as young as me on something so dangerous. Must be the power that I displayed or maybe they just hate Jabba to such a degree that they are willing to face death in order to kill him. They had a chance at freedom and it's too late for them to back out.' He thought as he slowed and waited for the guards to come around the corner. Likely they were responding to the commotion from his Kinitite attacks but would have trouble coming after them considering the winding path he had taken through the underground structures. 'I should probably be more concerned about what Jabba has ahead of us.' Naruto suddenly thought but calmed himself and waited for the moment to attack.

The first guard was walking slightly ahead of the second and evidently they didn't suspect any opposition as they sedately approached the hallway intersection. Naruto moved quickly and lopped off the hand of a guard that was holding the vibro-axe. Instead of finishing the surprised guard, he walked right on by. He was short enough that his figure was hidden by the first large Gammorean so the second didn't even see him coming until his sword was already piercing it's neck. Juugo quickly swung his knife and cut the throat of the first guard.

Naruto expected outcry or at least gasps at the brutality of what they had done from the slaves but they surprised him when nothing was said. Two members even stepped forward and picked up the dropped weapons, intent on using them in the near future. Surprised but mindful of the present situation Naruto lead the group down the hallway and extended his sense to find three other guards motionless ahead of them.

Stopping as they neared another intersection, Naruto crept to the corner and inched his body around to get a view down the hall of the guards while exposing as little of himself as possible. 'Are they guarding a doorway?' He questioned as he peered around the corner. From his vantage point, he couldn't make out a door but because he could feel three life-signs and only see two guards, he reasoned that the two were guarding a door and that the third was inside.

"This shouldn't be too hard, how's your throwing arm?" Naruto questioned of Juugo and the orange haired teen turned to ask, "Kunai or shuriken?"

Remembering from their training in Snow Country that Juugo wasn't particularly skilled with throwing kunai, 'Though he is good with those Tulrus blades,' Naruto admitted before answering, "Shuriken."

"I've gotten better." was Juugo's optimistic reply.

"Good enough." said Naruto before removing two shuriken from his thigh holster and putting wind chakra in them. He didn't sharpen the chakra but merely infused it into the weapons so Juugo would have an easier time handling them. Taking the chakra infused weapons from Naruto, Juugo moved closer to the intersection and inched around the corner wall before throwing the two shuriken.

Acting quickly, Naruto formed a single handseal and sharpened the wind chakra in the projectiles before then using the Force and guiding them to their targets. The shuriken took an arced path down the hallway to catch both guards who were standing almost side-by-side. One shuriken may have been enough if it had been thrown straight and the guards didn't move, but two projectiles insured a more certain outcome as Naruto could guide both independently from all his practice with the discblades.

The two guards did not have time to react as the shuriken nearly cut their heads off and embedded into the wall behind them. Quickly running down the hall, Naruto directed the slaves to form positions around the door. Two others picked up the blasters from the dead bodies and several kept lookout down the long hallways while he went for the door panel. Finding it locked, he was about to try and slice through it when Ann and Tann brushed past him and began working on it.

Realizing that it would probably take them less time than him, especially without the use of his right hand, he gave them space while focusing back to the individual inside the locked room. 'This might be a security station or some kind of checkpoint but I don't recognize the writing above the door. It must be important if Jabba keeps guards stationed outside but the person inside seems rather calm. Does he not even know that the guards are dead and that we're breaking in?' He wondered but focused back on the situation when it seemed that the two sisters were close to getting the door open.

Looking to him for a signal, Naruto nodded and prepared to throw his sword at the person inside. His heartbeat quickened and he took a breath before the door opened instantly. While the plan was straightforward, Naruto stumbled slightly in his execution. He had expected to come face to face with an armed guard but instead he found a Gamorrean lounging in a chair in front of several monitors showing camera feeds, presumably the immediate area of the complex. However, what made him stumble was the fact that, "He's asleep," Juugo blurted out and the others who were also at the doorway just stared. A few of the former slaves even crowded around to get a view of what had made everyone stop in their tracks.

After letting the twitch of his right eye settle, Naruto walked calmly into the room while the others watched from their positions at the door. Moving to the console, Naruto used his right foot to gently push the chair containing the sleeping guard out of the way to give him some space. The snoozing Gamorrean continued a low snore but otherwise remained unphased by the movement or his presence.

Wrinkling his nose slightly at the smell coming from the room, Naruto scanned the monitors and looked through what was being shown. It was immediately apparent that the monitors only showed him a portion of Jabba's entire townhouse and underground levels. 'Likely they are only positioned in my immediate area around this security station. There must be more of these throughout the compound.' He realized while glancing over the feeds.

Before he could turn around and look through the Gammorean's mind, movement on one of the screens caught his attention. Several figures turned a corner and came into view of one camera. Naruto watched them carefully and ignored the members of his group that had decided to enter the room and look around. Juugo moved to stand next to him while the others began looking through the adjoining back room.

"Should we be concerned about them?" Juugo asked without needing to point out the armed men on the screen.

"Not sure yet. I don't have a good map of the facility and can't say for certain where those cameras are positioned. I can't sense them and for all I know, they could be going right around us." Naruto admitted and watched as the ones in the front of the group walked off camera angle. Though he wanted to be able to avoid a conflict with that many enemies, it seemed that may not be the case as they quickly appeared on the next camera in the line of monitors.

"Nine heavily armed combatants and they're probably headed right here." Naruto said low enough so that only could Juugo hear. Before the orange-haired teen could ask about what to do, Naruto asked him to gather everyone inside the door and look for any weapons that were lying around to bolster their group's firepower. Admittedly, he knew he wasn't in good enough condition to take on that many in a tight corridor, 'I could down a few with my discblade before taking them by surprise with Juugo's help but if even one of them gets off a message then we'll need to expect more company and be on the run. Unlike our communication devices, theirs are probably unaffected by the jamming signal.' Naruto reasoned as he searched for the best option. The monitor feed which sowed the door they were inside of was only about six camera's away from the slowly walking group of potential enemies.

'It wouldn't be that bad if we had some explosives.' Naruto idly thought and nearly moved for one of his pouches before remembering that he didn't have anymore explosive notes. Looking up, Juugo had returned but shook his head indicating that their weren't any weapons and he informed Naruto, "Its really just a break-room and bathrooms back there. This is the only room with anything of interest in it."

Preventing himself from sighing, Naruto then asked, "You don't have anymore explosive notes?" It wasn't as much a question as he was relatively sure of the answer before Juugo even shook his head to confirm that they were out. 'What I wouldn't give for...Oh.' Naruto suddenly thought as he remembered something he had forgotten and began reaching out with his mind.

x-x

Being absolutely still, the clone waited and listened from it's position behind the working machinery. Peeking around the corner and looking for a particular bounty hunter, the clone sat tight and waited to hear anything from the original. In panicking and running from the armored hunter, he had gotten lost in the complex and could no longer figure out where he was going.

After a game of cat and mouse, he eventually realized that the reason he kept being found was a result of the bounty hunter using infrared so he had found a piece of machinery that was giving off more heat than his body temperature and was using it as cover. The bomb was all prepped and ready to go but he couldn't decided if he should manually detonate or leave it somewhere and try to figure out what happened to the original.

Peering around the machinery again to make sure his hiding place was not compromised, the sound of a voice caused him to jump and nearly yell out. Doing a complete three hundred and sixty degree rotation, the clone couldn't find anyone near him and then realized that the voice was only in his head and it was very familiar. "Where the hell have you been!" the clone questioned in a voice slightly higher than a whisper before remembering that he merely had to think the words for them to be heard by the original.

'Good, you're still alive.' Was the original's response and the clone quickly shot back a retort, 'You completely forgot about me!' A short silence elapsed before the original spoke again, 'Events unfolded that took me by surprise and I was injured.' Despite that the clone couldn't see the original, it could tell that something had indeed happened and knew the original was not one to exaggerate.

'Fine, whatever.' Responded the clone with a pout, right before asking, 'Where is the target I need to use the bomb on? I got turned around by that armored bounty hunter. He's managed to chase me over a good portion of the complex.'

'He's still alive.' The original commented as he briefly glimpsed an image of the person the clone was referring to. A more serious voice continued, 'Forget the bounty hunter, I need you to bring that bomb here and deal with an armed group before they get to me.'

'Do you know where I am?' Questioned the clone and he received a mental nod from his creator. 'I may not be able to feel you since you're outside my range, but I have a good idea what direction you need to travel in and with a bomb like that, you won't need to get that close in order to be helpful.'

'Alright, tell me which direction to head in.' Responded the clone as he relinquished his hiding place.

x-x

Opening his eyes, Naruto looked to the camera's and found that the armed group had progressed further towards their location while he had been speaking with his clone. Taking a few deep breaths, he noted that everyone he had brought with him was in the same room and looking directly at him. Some looked very nervous and he could feel a steady undercurrent of fear and trepidation throughout. 'Perhaps it's finally dawned on them that they're a little out of their element and following someone younger than they are.' He thought and though it was completely true, he found that he instantly disliked his own thoughts.

Deciding that it might be best to 'rally the troops' or at least keep them from falling apart, he said in a voice that everyone could hear, "You're all worrying too much about the men on the camera. I have a plan and in a few minutes they won't be a problem anymore. Then we'll pry their weapons from their hands and head straight for Jabba. All we need to do is wait, you might as well take a short break."

Ignoring the relieved looks of the group and focusing on the screen, Naruto glanced to his left as Juugo had walked up beside him again, presumably ask a question. While pretending to look over the monitors, Juugo leaned closer and whispered, "I thought we were going for a ship and getting out of here?"

"We are but what am I supposed to do with all these extra people. I could just trick them into leaving but there's no telling what we'll run into on our way to the hangar." Replied Naruto in a calm voice to which Juugo quickly interjected, "We're not using them as shields, are we?"

"No, but I can't guarantee their safety, which is what I told them when they all wanted to stay." Answered Naruto in as low a voice as Juugo's. "And how exactly do you know where Jabba is right now?" Asked Juugo as he looked over the monitors and found that they didn't show very much and certainly not the whereabouts of the large Hutt.

"I have no idea where he is right now." Admitted Naruto and before Juugo could say anything, he explained, "I don't need to know where he is. Since we're heading towards the hangar bays, I'll just have to make sure that Jabba is there too." Slightly confused, Juugo was about to inquire as to how Naruto would do it, when the blonde pointed to a button on the controls panel for the monitors and said, "When I tell you I'm ready, push this button." And with that, he walked outside of the room with the door shutting behind him.

x-x

'Where did that kid go?' Questioned Jango as he slowly moved down the hall with blasters in hand. Both were on the stun setting and he was holding one pointed down the hall before him and one pointed behind him, switching his view between the two as he stealthily moved. Though he had run into quite a few guards and staff employed by the Hutt, it had been several minutes since losing sight of the boy. From those that he had bumped into, he learned that something else besides the alarm sounding in the slave processing area was going on in the buildings but he ignored it as he focused entirely on finding his quarry.

'And whatever it is that he's carrying.' Jango thought as he tried to remember what exactly he had seen the boy holding. 'An improvised explosive?' He questioned and very much hoped that the boy was not acting as a suicide bomber. Whoever he was after, they seemed to be able to change heights or at least appear taller and then shorter, which made him wonder if he was facing a shapeshifter. 'So I may have no idea who I'm really after.' he thought with disdain as he could have already passed the individual; posing as one of Jabba many employees.

Hearing the tell-tale sound of a door opening, Jango instantly turned to the sound with both blasters ready to fire. However, all he found was a single open door of the many that lined both sides of the hallway he was in. 'They were all locked.' He noted and remembered going to that very door and trying to open it as well as looking through the door with his heat vision to find any signs of the boy.

When nothing emerged from the door, he began slowly and methodically making his way to the doorway. It obviously wasn't a faulty switch or short. 'He must be baiting me and set a trap. No one has come out and the door was locked so it must have been opened from the inside.' Jango thought and he remembered seeing heat signatures in the room but had attributed them to the machinery that the utility room contained. 'So he's also managed to find a way to hide himself from my heat vision, clever.' He commented as he moved closer.

Listening before he even considered entering, Jango was able to hear to the hum of various machinery but nothing else. With his back against the wall close to the door, he weighed his options and decided to accept the challenge but would not go in unprepared. Holstering one weapon, his now free hand moved to his utility belt and carefully removed an item which he had purposefully put there in case he had run into 'Rasen' again. Using his thumb, he activated the flash grenade and waited a moment before tossing it into the room.

Turning his head away from the door, he waited for the flash and loud explosion which would incapacitate anyone in the machinery room. The moment the grenade was done, he rushed into the room with both guns drawn. His trained eyes and heads-up-display took survey of the room but identified no targets or threats. 'No other doors to have escaped through.' He instantly noted and looked to the large pieces of machinery, believing that the boy was probably hiding behind one of them, temporarily blinded and deafened.

As he took his first step towards the first piece of machinery, his boot brushed passed something on the floor that he hadn't noticed upon rushing in. It was the a control panel cover, the same style that was adjacent to nearly every door in the complex and operated the opening, closing, and locking. A sudden bad feeling washed over him. Glancing up from the item, he slowly turned to look at the door that he had just entered through.

Sure enough, the control panel face of the door had been removed, which confirmed that the item on the floor had come from the door. In addition to the missing panel, a pair of wires were running from the circuitry and controls of the panel, up the wall, and into a conduit that had been ripped open in the ceiling. It was at that moment that a door opened on the opposite side of the hallway, directly adjacent to the room Jango was in.

Standing in the opening across the hall was the boy and in his hands were the ends of two wires that looked identical to the size and color of the wires running out from the panel. With a large satisfied smile adorning what was visible of the partially concealed face, the boy moved to touch the wire ends together. Jango's eyes widened and he raised his hand to fire a stun bolt.

The bolt however did not reach the boy in time. The wires touched together, completing the circuit, and the door of the machine room instantly shut with the stun bolt harmlessly impacting the hard surface. Before Jango could even make another movement, the open control panel erupted in sparks and the two wires were forcibly yanked from their connection, moving up the wall and into the conduit.

It took a brief moment for Jango to absorb everything that had just happened. 'There's no other exits and he just overloaded, probably fried, the door's control panel.'

x-x

Outside the disabled door, the clone kept a large smile on his face as he put down the wires and picked up the explosive. Before running away, he listened intently and could hear muffled shouts as well as the sound of either someone banging on the door or perhaps kicking the door. "That was great." He said out loud, right before laughing and running in the direction that his creator had indicated.

After moving a short distance, he heard what he thought were the dulled sounds of blaster fire, which only made him laugh more as the door would definitely hold up against that.

x-x

"Fifty seconds." Naruto announced suddenly in a loud voice as he ignored the many questions about his abilities that were being directed his way. Some of the slaves asked if he was a Jedi and despite telling them no and pointing out that he had no lightsaber, they didn't seem to believe him. 'I'll have to use some mind tricks on them before we part ways.' He thought before someone asked, "Fifty seconds until what?" The statement had stopped the questions about his abilities and confused most of the room as to what he had been referring to.

"A large explosion that will demolish a portion of Jabba's complex and deal with that group on the monitor." answered Naruto in a calm voice. "Where?" Another person questioned, "Not too far away, but hopefully far enough to keep us safe," replied Naruto and he tried to ignore the unease that spread throughout the room at his use of the word 'hopefully.'

"Shouldn't we be concerned?" Inquired one of the former slaves as she and others tried to read emotions on his face.

"I can only estimate it's overall destructive potential and I really don't know enough about this building and how it was made to be sure our area can withstand the explosion." Naruto replied and decided that based upon the annoyed looks and vagueness of his words, that he would simplify his statement, "You may want to move with everyone else to that back room and assumed some kind of crash or fetal position." The statement caused a mass movement and shuffling of feet as everyone crowded into the back room. The only ones that stayed were Juugo and the sapphire colored twins.

"Is this really a good idea?" Juugo asked. "Could we deal with those nine guards without further injury?" countered Naruto and he explained, "I'm injured and the others only have a few weapons that we took off the guards. This option has less variables and we should probably use the bomb before something else happens. Its not a bad plan."

"So it's safe." inquired Tann, with both her and her sister nodding their heads with the hope of an affirmative answer.

"No not really." Naruto said honestly and the three were not thrilled with the news, and were also slightly disturbed by the amused tone that he suddenly seemed to have about the situation. They, however, were unaware of what was going on with his clone.

"Does that mean that the walls might not hold up to the blast?" Asked Ann and Naruto was quick to reply while continuing the countdown in his head, "Actually, I'm more worried about the ceiling collapsing."

"The ceiling?" Was the collective response of the twins and both girls began looking towards the ceiling as if looking for a weak area or perhaps something that might tell them whether or not it would survive the explosion.

"Shouldn't we run and get farther away?" Commented Juugo but instantly knew that if they had time to run or get to a safer place, Naruto probably would have done that already.

"There's no longer any time to run and being caught in the hallway when it goes off would kill us instantly because of the pressure wave. This is what I'm counting on for that group heading our way. We also have the security monitors in here and can keep them locked out until the blast goes off. Fifteen seconds." Commented Naruto and he announced the last sentence far louder than the first.

Seeing the worried outlooks on his closer companions Naruto added, "Don't worry, I'll make sure to detonate a little farther away and perhaps take off one of the additional power paks to lesson the blast. Trust me I have no intention of killing myself, well, apart from my clone which will indeed be consumed in the blast..." and he decided not to continue with that line of thought because neither blue skinned girl had ever seen him make any of his clones or wouldn't understand what he was referring too. "If anything, he's got the right idea." Naruto said while pointing to the guard that was still asleep in the chair, calm as can be, and completely unconcerned with the happenings around him.

It wasn't the best pep talk, certainly not as good as the one he had given earlier, and left the three realizing that they only had seconds left until the explosion, so they went to the back room to take shelter. Juugo concluded that it must be the drugs that Naruto had taken earlier for the pain in his arm, not knowing about the recent humiliation of the bounty hunter.

At the same moment, Naruto was thinking with a slight smile, 'That was pretty funny with the bounty hunter. My clones still laughing about it, so unstable those clones. I wonder what the look on his face would have been when he realized he was trapped in a utility room.' Looking to the monitor, he realized that his clone had appeared on one of the screens.

x-x

Still sporting a large grin on it's face, the clone set the explosive down and began removing one of the power paks, tossing it down the hallway behind him. He was at an intersection of hallways that was larger than normal and circular. The guards his creator had talked about were quite a ways down one of the hallways but he payed them no mind as he activated the explosive.

A loud whining began as the overload of the remaining power paks started, which would set off the explosive from the concussion missile. Forcing his eyes to remain open, the sound stopped and everything instantly went white because of a flash and he was dispelled.

x-x

Walking down a narrow street between slave housing that all looked the same, Plagueis was pleased with the delivery he had just completed. After his experiment put together the droid, he would have a good way of keeping tabs on the boy and determine progress or learn interesting events that might occur which he may normally not be aware of due to his choice of non-interference and lack of any available surveillance devices to place.

Stuck in his thought swhile making his way back to the Vulture, he was taken by surprise when a large explosion sounded. At first he thought it was close but soon realized that it can from across the city. Despite being a borrowed body, he could still clearly feel the thud in the Mustafarians chest as the created shock wave passed over him. Noting the direction in which the blast occurred, mostly because of the smoke rising in the air, he realized what was the cause and mentally frowned.

'I should have just assumed that things wouldn't go well.' He thought while trying to reach Naruto on his communicator. No signal was going through, however, and trying the ship as well as the Demon Brothers produced no results either.

'If someone has already activated a signal jammer, then it must be going worse than I originally thought.' He realized and broke out into a run so he could get back to the ship as soon as possible. The ones that had been left on the Vulture would have no idea what was going on and wouldn't be able to do anything by themselves.

x-x

Reacting to the explosion, it only took HK less than a second to realize that the signal had been given. Taking his newly loaded weapon, he took out the three guards in the armory before they even knew what was happening. Two more shots to disable the security systems in the room and he shouldered the weapon, pulling out his communicator. After two failed attempts to reach Naruto, he knew what the cause was. 'Inner thought: The jamming signal is likely coming from a device or array situated on the roof.'

Searching through the collections of weapons, he chose a scoped blaster rifle and then picked out a proton grenade. Not having extra hands or anything to carry it in, he magnetically attached the grenade to his body so he could have his hands free to use the rifles. Going through his recorded memory of the facility, he identified where the best and most likely access point to the roof was.

"Hey, where are you going?!" Questioned Suigetsu from behind him. HK stopped and turned to look at the Waterbag, "Statement: To the roof to remove the jamming device and to kill any Meatbags that get in my way."

"What about all these weapons?" The white haired teen questioned as he motioned to the two full repulsorlift carts that they had just finished loaded. "Half of this is yours." He added, trying to get the droid to help him as ferrying weapons and explosives through a chaotic complex by himself was not something he was looking forward to.

Though hesitating for a moment, HK responded, "Conclusive Statement: Acquiring all of those weapons will not leave me satisfied later when I know that we will only meet a few Meatbags with which to use them on in hurried transit out of the facility. Taking a few weapons and having free reign of this complex to use them on any Meatbag I can find will be much more enjoyable in the end." And with that the droid left the armory.

"Damn he's wise." Suigetsu admitted out loud as he realized that what the droid was saying was right. 'I guess I'm still naïve, because I'd rather have all the weapons I can get my hands on.' He thought and with that he began pushing one cart and pulling the other as he made his way to the door.

x-x

'Holy shit!' Thought Naruto as he covered his head from any possible falling debris as the ceiling literally seemed to be weeping dust or sand, and a few small stones. The explosion had been huge and his entire body had felt it. Despite knowing that he was still alive, with the memories from his clone flooding into his head, he stopped and checked just to make sure that he had not been consumed by the blast. From his crouched position, he noted the large horizontal cracks that had developed on the outside wall but found the door seemed to be in good shape still. Glancing at the monitors, he noted that more than half of them were just static and no longer functioning. 'Good idea to take that power pak off.' He admitted and took a few deep breaths.

Standing, his eyes widened when, despite the ringing in his ears, he heard a snort. Slowing unsheathing his sword he turned to look at the guard. Though the Gamorrean had woken for a brief second, the green skinned sentient promptly went right back to sleep without ever completely waking up. 'He has no idea how lucky he is.' Thought Naruto as he put the sword back, deciding not to pointlessly kill the guard.

"We're alive!" Came several shouts from the back room and Naruto frowned at the fact that he felt disbelief emanating from the huddled mass. Moving to the door, he pushed the control but found that the usually ultra-fast opening doors he had come to know didn't react well to explosions. The door had instantly screeched to halt without opening more than halfway.

Unperturbed, he ducked under the door and peered down the hallway. The life-signs of the guards were gone and he found them all on the ground less than thirty feet from the door. Looking at the wounds, he found blood still slowly dripping from their ears and likely mouths as well as noses.

Ducking back under the door, he moved to the monitors and took control of all the screens. With the pushing of a few buttons, all of the camera feeds had changed to show a pre-recorded message that was stuck on a loop. It was a short video of himself, standing just outside the door from earlier. Looking directly at the camera positioned at the door, which up until moments ago was still functional, he was making motions with just his hands.

A henged older version of himself was the focus of the video. First pointing at himself, he then pointed at the camera and then motioned across his neck. Despite a language and cultural barrier between himself and the Hutt, he was positive that his message would be universally clear and completely understood by Jabba; 'I'm coming to kill you.'

Briefly touching the sleeping guard in the chair, Naruto got the location to the hangar bay and found an image of what Jabba's ship looked like. 'Once he sees one of those camera feeds, he'll be on his way there.' He thought, confident that Jabba would be at the hangar, but knowing that in order to make it worthwhile, they had to arrive at the hangar first.

"Jabba's not going to kill himself!" He yelled to the former slaves who were still woozy from the explosion. Moving under the door, he was soon followed by the entire group. Walking past the dead guards, he waited as they scavenged any weapons that they could.

Looking down the hallway, the farther his eyes traveled, the more damage he came across. There had likely been other rooms down from them but the walls had not held and all he could see through the openings in the broken rock was collapsed pieces of ceiling. At some point ahead, the hallway just disappeared completely as there was now a drop off.

Walking forward, he reached the end of the hallway and noted the step-down of about three feet from smooth hallway to broken rubble and crater. Seemingly an almost circular area of about thirty meters was missing from Jabba's complex and another ten or fifteen meters beyond that was just completely trashed walls, floors, and ceiling.

It was easy to see where the intersection of the hallway should have but there was little left that was still recognizable. The ceiling in the very center of the blast was completely gone, possibly vaporized or blown onto other parts of the roof. The rest had fallen to the floor, which was significantly lower than it had been before and was composed of dust, small rocks and large chunks of rubble. Smoke emanated from the various spots that were still burning and Naruto idly thought, 'I didn't know you could set fire to rock.'

Stopped in his tracks for a few seconds by the scene before him, Naruto eventually realized that everyone else had gathered and was crowded behind him. Jumping down to the crater, he ushered them to follow so they could reach the hanger before Jabba left.

x-x

While all of his servants were preparing for a big feast to celebrate the death of the assassin, Jabba was lounging in his large private quarters. Finally he could relax and heal without further incident. In a few days, after the rancor was recaptured, he would even be able to get back to his palace. However, his tranquility was continually being disturbed by matters within his complex. First a group of newly delivered slaves had managed to get free in the processing complex. It should have been put down instantly but despite his head of security and all of his new mercenary guards, it remained unresolved.

The small slave revolt had occurred nearly twenty minutes ago and since then he had received updates that they had blasted their way into his main complex through the underground storage areas. At first this didn't bother him but further updates made him think that his security forces were completely inept. Not only could they not find the group of slaves but guards were turning up dead all over the complex. Annoyed at the tenacity of the slaves, he had come to the conclusion to have their chips activated, but that was before he learned that none of the slaves had been processed. Growing increasingly concerned, he did the only thing he could, which was to throw more men at the problem.

Believing that the problem would finally be dealt with, he tried to sleep. He could feel his body finally relaxing and the pain relievers he had taken finally kicking in. A huge and resounding 'BOOM' instantly changed all of that. Jabba was forced awake and very confused as seemingly his entire complex shook from what could only have been an explosion.

Yelling out for his guards and security, he slithered off his bed and out of the bedroom. Moving to the monitoring station that he kept in his quarters, which showed him nearly every part of his complex, Jabba began looking through security cameras while he simultaneously listened to the chatter on the frequencies his security used. Checking the outside of his complex, thinking he was under attack from the air or perhaps, he looked through the roof camera feeds.

Ignoring his personal guards that had entered the room who had answered his call, Jabba finally found something on the screens. One of the outside cameras showed smoke coming from an area of the roof. Demanding over the communication system to know what was happening from the guards in that area, he only received bits and pieces of information that all pointed to an explosion but none of his sentries reported that the complex was being attack from outside. Checking all notification systems, his eyes widened and he looked through the various alarms that the facility had, noting that many fire alarms had all been set off. A holographic view of his complex showed that the alarms were all in a ring around a large area that was used mostly for storage. Accessing the feeds from that location of his complex, Jabba moved slightly backwards in shock as he caught the tail end of a looping message.

Watching as the soundless message replayed itself over and over, he silently shook as the implications of the message were quite clear. The longer it went on for, the more afraid he became. Switching to other camera feeds in the vicinity, he watched as the screen changed to nine different viewings of the same recorded message all showing up on different cameras. The recording was definitely taken from inside his complex and the corner of the image indicated that the video was time stamped only a few minutes prior. It had been a long time since he had felt afraid for his life and no one individual had ever put such fear into him. That person was dead, he had seen the body and payed the hunter who killed him but now he was back and coming for him.

Pushing passed the guards he had called, Jabba moved out his quarters. The only response to their questions was a loud frightened sound that did little to convey the shear terror he was actually feeling. It wasn't until he came upon someone he thought could help that he started talking sense and demanding to be taken to his personal yacht by as many guards as could be mustered. He even went so far as offering a reward for keeping him alive and getting him off the planet.

x-x

Jumping over a railing and sliding down an incline, HK-47 killed two more guards before taking cover behind one of the many architectural features that dotted the landscape of Jabba's roof. Inspecting what was around him, his targeting program and sensors identified numerous targets and several laser turret emplacements but no signal jamming device. Pulling up the blaster rifle, he zoomed in on several Meatbags that had heard his shots and took them out before they were able to figure out what was going on.

Changing positions, he analyzed the best possible choice for mass destruction and computed that heading towards one of the gun emplacements would be best. The closest laser turret was empty, it's controller having already tasted his blaster, so he ran to it. That particular emplacement was one of two that were situated on either side of the large courtyard at the entrance they had walked through less than an hour ago.

Before reaching the gun, he identified two targets that were heading for the gun on the opposite side of the courtyard. With his rifle, he managed to get one of the Meatbags without slowing himself down but was unable to get the second. Both he and the other Meatbag took the controls of the laser turrets at nearly the same moment but his turret had the advantage and he rotated to acquire a target lock first. As two shots struck the other emplacement, he watched it's destruction for a brief moment before he picked other targets and soon opened fire on anything on the roof which moved. Three more turrets were downed and numerous combatants were killed or maimed by his fire. One Meatbag even jumped off the roof in order to escape his deadly laser fire, which got a short chuckle out of the droid before he heard something from below.

Targeting an incoming skiff, HK stopped from pushing the firing button as he recognized the pilot and passenger as part of their group. Rotating to look over the courtyard, HK's head tilted to the side as he found a unique sight. Suigetsu was moving through part of the large courtyard while trying to pull both repulsor carts. Some individual had started shooting at him.

'Inner Thought: Foolish Watery-Meatbag.' was his thought as he watched the scene. Trying to cart weapons and explosives through what was fast becoming an active war-zone was not a very good plan. Deciding that watching the scene unfold, with a blaster shots eventually hitting one of the many explosive devices on one of the carts, would not be as fun as mowing down everything in the courtyard, HK rotated the turret and lowered the guns into position.

'Inner Thought: Perhaps this act will increase our comradery and make up for when I shot him.' Were the thoughts going through his droid brain moments before he opened fire on Jabba's complex. Switching to alternating fire for the double laser cannon was best as he slowly moved around the building's features in the courtyard, destroying pillars, fountain statues, blasting apart walls and taking out anyone that came into view. Before finishing, he concentrated fire on the bottoms of both the large spires adorning the very front of the building, causing them yo fall over and possibly finish off someone that he had already injured.

Satisfied with his work, HK peered around the control screen and found Suigetsu slowly standing up from a crouched position and surveying the destruction. Turning to him, the fellow group member made a gesture towards him with the thumb sticking up in the air while smiling. 'Inner Realization: That gesture looks different from the one that was given when I shot him. I'll inquire later about whether it is derogatory or not and decide if I should shoot him again.'

Starting to rotate the turret and look for fresh targets, HK stopped as he spotted a sensor device on the control screen. Zooming in, he discovered that with the spires gone, he could now see the complex's sensor array package, complete with signal jammer. Firing several shots, the array was destroyed and he stopped for a moment to use his communicator.

After waiting a moment, the signal was accepted and he asked, "Inquiry: Are you Meatbags still alive?" A brief moment elapsed between the end of his statement and the reply. Despite not being in the same room, HK could tell that Naruto was frowning at him, "Yes...still alive...and I assume you are as well. What about Suigetsu and where are you two?"

Turning to look down at the courtyard before answer, HK said, "Report: The Watery-Meatbag has met up with the two Smoke-Meatbags at the entrance to the complex. I am positioned on the roof."

"You could call us by our given names." Commented Naruto's voice over the commlink before he asked, "I'll.." but before he could start, HK turned to find that a small ship was exiting the facility from one of the hangars and he asked, "Inquiry: Are you currently on a starship?", as he rotated the laser turret and locked on target.

"No, why do you..." but before anything more could be said, the voice was drowned out with laser fire as HK bombarded the ship before it could reach any altitude. One of it's engines exploded before it plummeted back into the hangar and exploded.

"I see." Came Naruto's response as he understand what had just happened, "We're heading for Jabba's ship and could use some support from above."

Looking over the destruction on the roof and satisfied that no other targets were available, "Response: Understood. I will be there shortly and take up a sniping position from above."

x-x

The large explosion hadn't damaged the room or phased him much but hearing the muted weapons fire and other explosions was really getting on his nerves. Making one last adjustment to his handiwork on the nearly destroyed door panel, Jango yanked his hands back as sparks erupted from the panel again. His work was rewarded as the door opened...six inches. 'I knew it wasn't going to be easy but this is getting ridiculous.' He complained while picking up something from nearby to use as a lever arm and force the door open wide enough to crawl out.

Pushing up on the lever arm, he began talking to himself, "When someone asks where I was when Jabba's Townhouse was being demolished, there is no way in I'm mentioned being locked in a utility room." Pushing up as hard as he could, he stopped for a second before tossing the lever and bending down to grab the bottom edge of the door, pulling up as hard as he could, he was rewarded with a screech of metal on metal as the door finally gave a few more inches. Briefly checking to see if anyone was outside, more out of fear of embarrassment than caution, he slipped under the door with just enough room to get himself and jetpack out.

Sitting in front of the door, he leaned back against it and took a few breaths before trying to stand. After a few seconds, he forced himself to stand and began deciding what to do next. No one had tried to communicate with him but given the explosion and fighting he had heard, it was certain that everyone was either fighting, dead or panicking. Not hearing anything happening in his immediate area, Jango headed back the way he had originally come.

This turned out to the be the right choice as the farther he went, the louder the sounds got Eventually, he spotted several individuals that he recognized as being employed by the Hutt. Anxious for any news or update he could get, Jango ran down the hall and managed to stop someone that was headed in the same direction.

"Tell me what's going on?" He demanded from the Gran. The man spoke quickly before pushing his way past and continuing on his way. 'So Jabba's leaving and now everybody is headed for an exit or the hangar.' Repeated Jango as he translated what the man had said.

'Where would I go if I had come all this way?' Jango questioned as he put himself in another person's shoes. Quickly realizing that he should head for the hangar, he got his bearings and took off in the that direction.

x-x

Amazed at the destruction and desperately wishing he could be up on the roof in that laser turret, Suigetsu's attention was diverted as the Demon Brothers arrived in a skiff. "Great you're both here. Help me load these weapons onto the skiff." He said while starting to pick up what he could.

"Did Naruto tell you to take all these weapons?" Questioned Meizu as he didn't remember hearing about such a thing.

"Yes, yes he did." Lied Suigetsu and he quickly furthered the fib, "He also said we could get as much as we could out of the armory and help ourselves to anything else." One brother looked to the other and shrugged. They hadn't been able to reach Naruto by commlink but evidently Suigetsu had spoken with him. It did sound like something Naruto might say so they went with it and started helping load the skiff.

x-x

The main hangar which held Jabba's ship was the farthest away from them and also by far the largest in the complex. They could take a longer winding route but time was short so Naruto took the lead and decided to go through the hangars to save time. The three hangars were all positioned together in a line and a straight shot without any turns should be easier.

Not feeling anyone ahead of them, Naruto opened the door to the first hangar and was surprised to find the burning wreck of what was likely a small freighter but quickly remembered the conversation with HK. Putting his good arm up to shield his face from the heat of the flames he entered the hangar and skirted the circular outer wall, around the downed ship.

Moving to the next door which should take them to the second hangar, Naruto stopped when he felt life-signs on the other side. One was up much higher than the floor, another was lower than that and the third was floor level. 'Must be getting ready to leave. The destruction next door must have caused them to pause, not knowing if they would be shot down as well should they take off.' Naruto realized and tapped the control panel with his sword.

The door opened and Naruto instantly threw his sword, impaling the individual standing nearby that was going for his blaster. Noticing that another was sitting in the pilot seat of a large transport ship which took up most of the room, Naruto was about to deal with the third person when he felt danger. Jerking his head back to the pilot, he noticed that something was going on in the cockpit and soon one of the blaster turrets on the ship started moving for his direction.

His left hand shot up and motioned to stop the rotation of the turret with the Force. A few degrees from reaching his position, the turret was halted but the pilot was unaware and proceeded to start shooting. The wall to Naruto's right exploded and while he held the turret, his attention was diverted away from the pilot. On a ladder to his left and above his position was the third life-sign he had felt. Despite not turning looking in that direction Naruto was sure that a blaster had been removed from a holster and was being pointed at him.

With only one good hand and no time to move, he knew he needed help but was unable to call out before he heard blaster fire. Flinching but keeping the turret at bay, Naruto froze for a second, thinking he had been hit, until a body unceremoniously hit the floor to his left. 'HK is here.' Naruto noted and let out a sigh of relief before issuing an order before the opportunity was over.

"Someone go take care of that pilot!" He shouted and two of the former slaves rushed forward, intent on boarding the ship. The pilot noticed the danger he was in and Naruto watched him go for the controls that would likely raise the boarding ramp. Wishing he had a second hand, Naruto mentally gave an order to the volunteers, 'One of you help the other one onto the ramp,' before he switched his focus from the turret to the ramp.

He barely managed to keep it down long enough to watch one of the two be helped on-board before he started to move in order to evade the turret. Reaching back, he simultaneously Force Pushed anyone standing in the doorway to get them farther into the other hangar as he bolted to escape the blaster turret. Knowing that his best chance at survival laid with the individual that had gotten aboard the ship, Naruto split his attention between running and reaching out to the two aboard the ship.

'He doesn't know you made it aboard.' Naruto conveyed to the former slave as he could feel worry coming from her which was not something that he currently needed. 'Keep moving as silently as you can to the front of the ship.' He ordered and he oddly found that, similar to his connection with his clones, he could get glimpses of what the inside of the ship looked like and what the woman was doing.

'Not yet. You may miss at this range. Get closer.' He informed her as he saw a blaster being raised and felt her apprehension over pulling the trigger as well as how scared she was of being caught. 'Wait until you have a clean shot, he's focused on me and the hangar door.' Taking cover behind some crates as blaster cannon fire continued to chase him, Naruto's focus shifted back to inside the ship and as he helped the woman aim the gun and told her, 'You can do this, shoot.'

Before the last of the blaster cannons shots stopped, a muted shot could be heard and Naruto knew that she had been successful. Telling her how to lower to the ramp, Naruto got up from his position and looked around, disoriented. For a second he had forgotten that he wasn't on the ship but inside the hangar. Getting his bearings, he moved to retrieve his sword as the loading ramp touched the hangar floor.

While all the others flooded into the room, Naruto looked up to HK and nodded to the droid before motioning to the next and larger of the three hangars. The droid understood and moved on to scout ahead of them. With sword retrieved, Naruto looked over the damage to the wall due to the blaster cannons. Many parts of the rock were scorched and some parts were missing but his focus was more on the fact that he couldn't remember much of himself running and moving for cover. He remembered more detail about being on the ship and shooting the pilot. It was different than what he did with his clones. He had no real connection to the woman that killed the pilot and barely knew her at all. 'What was that?' He questioned as the experience left him with an odd feeling. Pulled from his thoughts as he realized the group was looking at him, he realized their time was short and they needed to keep going.

"The ones that don't have weapons, get aboard the ship. Everyone else can come with me to the next hangar. If we got here before Jabba, then we can set a trap for him." The words were greeted with agreement from around the room and Naruto took that moment to wave his hand and say something else, "All of you will be leaving on this transport. When you leave, you won't remember that we used any special powers to facilitate your escape or Jabba's demise." The words were repeated by everyone in the hangar, save the three standing next to him. 'Hopefully that actually works.' Thought Naruto before using the commlink, "Is Jabba in the hangar?" he questioned of the droid as he could feel life-signs ahead of them but couldn't determine if Jabba was among them.

"Response: Negative. I see several guards and maintenance personnel but no Hutt."

"Take them out." Naruto ordered and proceeded to walk to the final door as muted blasterfire could be heard. Tapping the panel, Naruto found two dead guards that had recently been shot. Unlike the other two circular hangars, the third hangar was rectangular to accommodate the immense ship that filled up it's space. Naruto estimated that the length of the hangar was about six hundred feet and needed to be that long in order for the five hundred foot space yacht to fit inside. The vehicle was shaped like a trowel or spade and was currently supported by large landing legs. The area near the door was rather empty and they had to walk nearly half the length of the hangar before getting to an area that would provide them cover.

Turning his eyes away from the vehicle, Naruto focused on the room to determine what he had to work with and where best to make an ambush. The area near the door was rather empty and they had to walk nearly half the length of the hangar before getting to an area that would provide them cover. 'Three entrances/exits, one of them we control since it leads to the commandeered ship. So only two that we need to worry about. I doubt Jabba would go through the other hangars.' He believed and looked over the items that covered the floor in that area. Various sized cargo containers and crates were stacked beneath the prow of the ship, leaving enough room for it to take off and land. He couldn't tell if they were just extra supplies or it meant that the ship was not prepped and ready to take off. Two Z-95 headhunters were also on the hangar floor and it appeared they were in the process of undergoing maintenance. One was being partially disassembled while the other was either done or next in line.

Two large and very beat up looking lifter droids were stationed in alcoves seemingly carved into the wall with other small storage and workshop areas, presumably for maintaining the ship and starfighters. 'The roof is three stories above me and there are no other levels or balconies that we need to worry about this time. The walls are solid and go straight up. If we move around the crates and maybe reposition a fighter or lifter, it shouldn't be too hard to ambush Jabba as soon as enters the hangar. The only question that remains...which way will Jabba come from?' Naruto thought as he closed his eyes and tried to reach out in order to possibly feel any approaching groups. The choices he had to choose from were a pair of large horizontal opening doors which were on opposite sides of the room apart from each other near the front area of the hangar.

With his limited range, he found nothing immediately around them. Retracing his steps and overlaying them with a mental map of the compound, Naruto found that they had only penetrated about fifty percent into Jabba's complex. The larger domed areas of the complex, and presumably living areas, were something that they had not come across yet and would have been towards the far eastern end of the complex where Suigetsu and HK had entered through. 'So he'll come from the left.' Naruto surmised while turning to that door and began issuing orders while preparing to lift some of the large objects.

x-x

At a hurried pace, Jabba led a large group towards his personal yacht, the _Star Jewel_. He wasn't actually leading the group but merely moving as fast as he could and therefore at the front of the party. No one dared outrun him despite their ability to do so. Even with his immense girth and slug-like appearance, it appeared that when the situation called for it, he could move pretty fast.

His closest advisers were almost all with him, along with a number of guards and other hired soldiers that they had passed along the way. Seeing the Hutt running, they had obviously realized that the situation was bad enough for Jabba to leave his own Townhouse so they should probably follow and make sure to leave with him, otherwise they might not get paid. Jabba wasn't going to wait for any more people to show up and would leave with the group he had.

The Hutt had already demanded to know the status of his ship and was informed that it was fueled but not fully stocked for a long voyage. Also, the fighter escort was not all onboard. One had been lost to the desert that morning while two others were still being worked on. Jabba ignored all of the information save for the fuel. He planned for a journey deeper into Hutt space and wouldn't stop until he was safe in his spire on Nar Shadda.

Reaching the hangar door, the Hutt waited impatiently as someone activated the control panel for him. The heavier doors were slow to open and Jabba pushed his way through first. Looking to his large yacht, he smiled as soon he wouldn't have to worry about an assassin. Giving an order to an attendant, the person pulled out a small device and activated one of the ship's access lifts because Jabba was too large and not strong enough to move up the ships main boarding ramp. It was while the lift lowered that Jabba's Majordomo, Bib Fortuna noticed that there were no guards in the room. He clearly remembered that six should have been present in the room along with the mechanics.

x-x

'Let him go and focus on the others.' said Naruto as he mentally gave the group instructions. HK was with them and he knew the droid could deal with the pasty colored Twi'lek, who had realized what was going. Rearranging the items on the floor, they had kept themselves completely hidden until Jabba was already a good distance into the room. Slowly the group came out of their hiding spots and Naruto gave them explicit instructions not to fire. It was best if each person chose a target to shoot at. It would be even better if they chose different targets and everyone didn't start shoot at the same person.

Briefly he contacted each person, looking through their vantage point on the enemy group and assigning them a target. They weren't spotted immediately but Jabba's group was unable to mount an offensive as Naruto gave the mental signal and coordinated blaster fire cut down their quarry. A sword cut through the air and pierced the control panel of the open hangar door, causing it to start closing. The lone Twi'lek did not get far as HK sniped him from on top of a container and then turned his attention to the remaining guards.

Jabba was too large and out of breath from his fierce rush to the ship to take any cover from the shooting and went straight for his ships lift, which hadn't even reached the ground yet. As the last few members of Jabba's group were shot down, Naruto turned his focus to the Hutt and found him climbing onto the lift and trying to activate the controls. Looking to the door to recall his sword from the control panel, Naruto was surprised when he felt Juugo rocket right past him. The orange-haired teen had partially transformed, using chakra boosters to propel him forward and had also changed part of his forearm to that of a heavy axe. The surprised Hutt had no chance of moving and everything from his bottom lip up was removed by Juugo's attack.

'Holy shit, Juugo. That was the clothesline from hell.' thought Naruto with surprise evident on his face. He hadn't expected Juugo to do anything, especially not decapitate the Hutt. While the twitching body collapsed onto the lift, the head was sent into the air and landed just off the lift. Everyone in the hangar moved closer to the body in order to inspect the damage. Possibly to check and make sure the Hutt was dead or perhaps purely out of morbid curiosity. Soon the silence was shattered as people started cheering at the Hutt's death and quite a bit of attention was given to one who had done the deed.

Naruto too went to get a closer look until his attention was diverted as he heard something land near him. He tensed but relaxed as he came face to face with HK-47 who had jumped down from the containers. "Can you prep this ship for flight?" Naruto immediately asked and glanced up at the ship while processed what it was looking at. Normally it would take multiple people to startup such a large ship but he was confident he could manage by himself. The only downside was that it would take a few minutes for the engines and other systems to initialize and he could either prepare the ship or stay outside to fend off any attackers that showed up. However, seeing the bandaging covering Naruto's arm and the way he was favoring it, the droid relented and nodded before shouldering his weapon.

Before the droid left, Naruto asked, "Is that a grenade?" Stopping, HK remembered that he had secured the explosive to his leg and had planned to use it before he got his hands on the laser cannon. Demagnetizing the cylindrical bomb, he handed it over before moving onto the lift. Despite the distance from the ground to the ship, HK vertically jumped from the ground to edge of the opening and proceeded to pull himself in.

Watching the droid go out of sight as he entered the ship, Naruto felt pain in his arm and looked down to the bandaged injury. 'Pain killers are wearing off.' He guessed and wasn't surprised as there were many factors, including his own bodies resistance to drugs that were likely at play. Realizing that they needed to get moving and part with the slaves, Naruto tried to get everyone's attention but rather than raising his voice or shouting, he took his sword and ran the tip up one of the lift's struts. The result was a piercing metal on metal screech that instantly caught the attention of all those present and even made him shiver a bit.

"This isn't the time to celebrate. Jabba only arrived here with a small contingent. I doubt that was what's left of his men in this complex. There might be others heading here right now. All of you..." and he motioned to the former slaves, "..should head back to the other hangar and take that ship. It should be ready to go and you can leave this planet." When the group seemed like they wanted to stay, Naruto got creative and used mind tricks to get them to leave.

"Are we taking this ship, then?" Juugo asked as he craned his neck to get a better look at the large vessel. "Yes. We could have gone with them but showing them the _Vulture_ would require more mind tricks and I don't know how much you can use on a given person in a given day. It's best if we go our separate ways and they never see our ship or anyone else from our group. Suigetsu was supposed to collect on my bounty but I have no idea what he ended up doing. We could use money and despite belonging to a dead Hutt, even used and stolen, somebody should be willing to buy this ship or I suppose we could keep it. It's also our easiest way out of the facility without trying to fight our way out." stated Naruto, not knowing that the roof had been completely cleared by HK or that the Demon Brothers were not that far away.

"We need to give HK a few minutes to start up the ship. I need you two to disable those doors," said Naruto as he looked to Ann and Tann while motioning to the two large doors and the smaller door that led to the adjoining hangar. 'We shouldn't need to worry about covering the third door until after the slaves leave in the ship.' He thought as he looked around and determined what was best to use.

"Couldn't we barricade ourselves inside the ship until it's ready to take off?" asked Juugo as he followed Naruto to the middle of the room where the two starfighters were sitting. "We could but if anyone comes we wouldn't be able to shoot them. I'm not sure what weapons that ship has and if we take long enough, or give them enough time, they may be able to disable the ship. HK got this grenade from somewhere and there's likely more where it came from. It sounds bad, but if they're shooting at us, then they should leave the ship alone." explained Naruto as he opened one of the cockpits and attempted to start the first fighter while using only his left hand.

Frowning when he found that the ship wouldn't start at all, Naruto moved to the next one and tried the same start-up procedure. Hearing the fighter start to come to life, he examined the console and found that the display was showing a failure in the propulsion systems, 'But the weapons still work.' he thought and getting off the fighter, he prepared himself and then put forth great effort as he used the Forced to lift the ship just a few inches off the ground, enough to rotate it and aim it at the door opposite the one Jabba had come through.

Right as the two Twi'leks came back from locking the doors, Naruto ushered them to the still open loading lift. Using the Force, he moved a few items onto the lift in order to give them cover and told them to both stay there. The lift was almost equidistant from the three doors and they each had a weapon to use if the situation got that bad. Ignoring Jabba's body, Naruto motioned to where Juugo, who had picked up a blaster from one of the bodies, should take cover and added, "If they get through that door, wait until it opens and shoot this grenade." Juugo watched the item as Naruto set it for armed and then used the Force to make the explosive hover over to the door in question and magnetically latch onto it. Moving to cover the opposite door, Naruto slid into the cockpit of the fighter and waited for either someone to come or for HK to tell them that the ship was ready to leave.

After a few moments of sitting in the cockpit, Naruto became aware of a sound that to him was some kind of alarm. Looking to the communication systems in the ship, he found that someone had sent out an evacuation signal for all personnel still left in complex. It was also at that moment that he started to feel life-signs headed their way.

x-x

Running with a group towards the hangar to catch a ship or at least find a speeder, Jango stayed to the back of the group as he had no idea what they would be facing. It was best to let the foolish go first and observe what happened, not to make the same mistakes. The group skipped one of the small hangars because of the debris inside that was partially blocking the door, they instead headed through the corridors and to one of the doors to the second small hangar.

While someone bypassed the locking mechanism, Jango positioned himself against the hangar wall nearby the door as he also kept watch for anyone coming up behind them down the one corridor. The door and walls were too thick for infrared so he turned to something a bit more rudimentary. Leaning his helmet up against the corridor wall, he increased the sensitivity of his helmet's outer listening devices. As filtered sounds were transmitted into the helmet for his ears, he noted what he believed to the be the sound of starship taking off. 'No idea if it's friend or foe but I'll probably know if they start shooting.' He thought as the door was opened and he made no move to get inside quickly, letting several of the group push their way through.

As they entered, a transport ship was indeed taking off. Being cautious, Jango stayed at the door frame and paid less attention to the starship as it took off as he did to the dead bodies on the ground. With the high walls, the hangar was a good place for an ambush from above. He counted three bodies on the ground and it appeared two were dead by blaster fire and the other through a melee weapon. They looked to be the type of individuals that Jabba would hire but since he hadn't been in the Hutts employ for very long, and because of the large amount of new replacements, there was no definitive way of knowing whose side they were on or even what the ship was doing in the hangar. It had no distinguishing marks and Jabba wouldn't tell anyone what ships worked for him or mark them as his.

From messages he had picked up on chatter over the now open comm system, nobody knew who was attacking Jabba but it was clear that slaves were missing, someone had destroyed the roof emplacements and sensors, and a large explosion had occurred inside the complex. 'I may be the only person left in the building that actually has an idea of what we're up against.' and with nothing else of note in the room and with the transport having no intention of stopping or coming back, Jango locked the door behind them to prevent any surprises and continued on to the next set of doors just as sounds of blaster-fire and explosions began.

x-x

As the doors on both sides of the hangar were forced open, four individuals prepared for an assault but realistically, only two would actually be fighting. With the hangar being so long, Ann and Tann were almost a hundred feet from the doors and unless Naruto and Juugo were pushed back, they likely wouldn't need to shoot. They were primarily there to secure the platform for escape when the ship was ready. Naruto made sure the weapon systems were active on the ship and he knew that Juugo was likely taking aim at the grenade.

Juugo's door was the first to be opened and from his position, the orange-haired teen waited until the door was fully opened. The grenade was placed on the very edge of the one side of the horizontally opening doors so it would remain exposed when the door was open and be right up against the door frame. As armed men ran into the hangar, Juugo fired two shots at the grenade. The first missed but the second hit and caused a large explosion that forced Juugo to completely hide himself. After it was over, he looked up and found that most of the door frame was horribly mangled in addition to the bodies on the ground. The hallway ceiling had partial collapsed along with part of rock above the door, making it extremely difficult for anyone else to enter.

Knowing that Juugo was fine and not feeling any active unfamiliar life-signs behind him, Naruto waited with his finger on the trigger. He had already prepped two concussion missiles, intent on demolishing the entire entrance but needed to wait until the door was open enough for the missles to enter through as he didn't want them to detonate inside the hangar. As the door was unlocked and forced open, Naruto began opening fire with the starship's laser cannons when the door was only halfway open. He only needed a short burst to deal with the few individuals but could feel that more were on their way. Switching to the missiles, he manually targeted the hallway ceiling beyond the door and before firing he pulled the transparasteel cockpit shut just in case.

Despite the short distance, the fast moving concussion missiles were easily able to curve and strike the ceiling, collapsing it entirely and blocking his door. Reopening the cockpit, Naruto could hear a ship taking off. The yacht blocked any view of the sky but he knew through the Force that the slaves had gotten away safely. No sooner than he had jumped out of the ship, then the far door in the hangar had been opened. Confused, Naruto couldn't tell who it was. That far away was outside his sensor ability and at first he thought perhaps all of the slaves couldn't fit on the ship but as soon as he spotted the silver and blue armor of a certain foe in the distance, he knew better and yelled out to the girls to start shooting.

x-x

As two of the more foolhardy of the group entered first, Jango tilted his head to peer out into the hangar from his position at the door frame. One of the yacht's loading lifts was down and touching a button on his gauntlet, the activated his helmet's rangefinder. The small antenna rotated down to cover part of his helmet and he was able to zoom in on the area. Getting over his surprise from seeing Jabba's severed head, he soon spotting two blue heads, complete with leku, and his eyes widened as he recognized the two dancers from the previous day at Jabba's Palace. Looking for other familiar faces, he slightly tilted his head towards the containers in the room and spotted two more. Realizing that he would miss the opportunity if he did not act, he deactivated the rangefinder and moved into the room.

Storming into the room, he quickly analyzed his surrounding in an effort to find cover. With nothing near him at the end of the ship, he activated his jet pack before the shooting started. As a shout was given and the Twi'lek's opened fire from their position over the long distance, Jango gained altitude and maneuvered himself around the rear engines and up onto the top of the ship. Getting a good distance down the ship, he landed and proceeded to run down a portion of the craft's length, looking down at the gap between the edge of the starship and the wall for any place to shoot from and keep the teens from reaching the loading lift. Feeling vibrations through his feet, and from the sounds of the big engines firing up, he knew that the ship was likely moments from being able to take off.

Spotting carved workshop and storage alcoves in hangar wall he judged that they were enough for him to take cover and shoot from. Jumping off the top of the ship, Jango slid down the steep slope of the starboard side before falling to the floor below. Activating his jetpack before touching the ground, his abrupt fall was stopped and the boost give him more forward momentum. He tucked and rolled into one of the alcoves. Though his haste nearly caused him to run into the legs of powered down lifter droid he quickly recovered. Looking to the loading lift, he smirked as he had arrived in time. Taking out both blasters, he opened fire on the Twi'lek's and on the two male teens in order to make them take cover and stop their escape onto the lift.

Looking back and forth between the targets that were still separated by about fifty feet, he began conserving his ammunition as they had all taken cover to keep from being hit. Taking up a better position under the arched entryway of the alcove but against the wall for cover, he continued to keep suppressive fire on the males while they hunkered down in the loading and storage area beneath the long nose of the ship.

'Keep them from moving until the others arrive to help.' the Mandalorian repeated in his head as he began alternated fire between targets to keep the males from progressing and to keep the dancers from taking out his only backup. 'I have no idea how close he needs to be to use those strange powers but I think I might be safe at this distance.' Assumed Jango as he took an opportunity to change power paks before continuing.

x-x

Cursing, Naruto and Juugo were unable to move from their position behind the last bit of container cover. 'Damnit, this bastards a good shot.' Admitted Naruto as he looked to the scorch mark on his cloak. There was an empty gap between the loading lift and their current position, which earlier had helped them deal with Jabba but now it wasn't helping them get to the ship. He knew that they couldn't both make it without one of them getting injured.

'Should have finished him off.' Naruto lamented at their current situation while he thought back to the chance that his clone had or when he had felt the man's life fading away in Jabba's throne room. His earlier amusement was now coming back to haunt him. Seeing Ann and Tann completely pinned down and unable to shoot back at the men who were running towards the bounty hunter's position, he thought about telling them to just raise the lift and get inside the ship but where would that leave himself and Juugo?

Ignoring the message through the commlink from HK about the ship being ready to leave, Naruto tried to think up a way out of the situation. 'HK needs to pilot the ship right now. Coming to help us would only delay takeoff and provide opportunities for them to stop us or board the ship. We blocked our other exits and unless we want to run up the walls while being shot at or stick to the underside of the ship, I need to think of something else. Those men are getting closer and if they start working together we'll be outnumbered and so will the girls. If I could get a better view, I could maybe throw one of my discblades...' he though until he noticed a glance made by Juugo. Seeing Juugo look at his injured arm, Naruto knew exactly what the teen was thinking. Without proper use of his right hand, he couldn't perform the majority of the jutsu that he knew. However, the motion made by Juugo had given him an idea.

'Juugo's hands still work fine. It'll have to be something C-ranked, though.' Naruto planned and he shouted over the sound of intermittent blaster-fire, "I need you to make three handseals in the order that I give them." Juugo nodded but wasn't sure what Naruto was getting at. His earliest tries at using jutsu were not very successful and the orange-haired teen doubted he could successfully perform anything under the current conditions.

Moving to another area, out of sight from the bounty hunter and slightly away from the shooting, Naruto put his left hand on Juugo's shoulder. Concentrating as much as possible, he told Juugo to make the Ram seal, followed by the Snake and Tiger seals. Feeling Juugo's chakra building, Naruto helped with the nature manipulation as best as he could and instructed Juugo to say, "Suiton: Kokuu no Jutsu. (Water Release: Black Rain Technique.)" however, before Juugo could do anything else, Naruto absorbed the molded chakra from Juugo and then forced the Tiger seal with his injured hand. A faint but dark mist began emanating from Naruto's body and it moved above them to form a very small, semi-transparent but dark cloud.

x-x

Of the original group of seven that had gone through the door to the hangar, only five had made it to the alcoves from the far door. The Twi'leks had evidently picked off or injured two. Making it to the line of carved alcoves they had kept firing on both targets while quickly repositioning themselves from alcove to alcove and moving up until they were right across from the lift. This however was more than enough men for Jango to work with as he started giving orders to the others on what to do. Reminding them of the money they would get from stopping the attack and returning Jabba's dancers, while leaving out the part about how earlier he had seen Jabba's body and severed head, he managed to convince them to follow him. He planned to rush the lift and prevent escape on the yacht before then cornering the two teens in the front of the hangar. Both exit doors appeared to be blocked so there was no where for the males to go and they could take Twi'leks hostage, forcing a surrender.

The dancers were unable to shoot at all and were merely hiding behind the crates on the lift, keeping from being shot. No movements had been made by the teens, which was actually cause for some worry based upon what he knew of one of them, and he had yet to spot the dangerous droid from the previous day. Despite some hesitation, he knew not to pass up the chance and left the safety of cover with the other five. As they took a few steps out from the archways and kept both groups pinned down, movement caused a few of the group to stop as drops of something landed on them. With adrenaline pumping and focused on the task at hand, the ignored it at first until an utter downpour started in the hangar.

Black droplets landed all around them, though they were unaware that it was just around their position. The sudden occurrence was a complete shock to everyone there as such an impossible phenomenon was occurring. It never rained on Tatooine. Though initially caught up in the shock, the whole situation soon screamed 'WRONG' to Jango and he touched his forearm, smearing some of the substance between his gloved fingers. Even with his visor on and unable to see colors properly, he knew it wasn't water that was raining down on them and he guessed what the dark liquid was, 'Oil?' and his eyes widened as he couldn't stop what happened next.

x-x

"Now!" Naruto told Juugo and the teen came out of hiding for a second to fire a single shot with the blaster he had. The bolt struck the ground and instantly ignited the flammable liquid that was raining down on the group of six. Amidst the screams, Naruto told Juugo to run for the lift while he messaged HK to take off. Both Ibonihese natives ran for the lift as fast as they could with Naruto trailing just a little bit behind Juugo.

x-x

Unperturbed by the ignition of the oil with his sealed suit, Jango moved through the flames and emerged while still partially on fire. Scrapping burning oil from his visor he spotted his creative quarry. Using one pistol, with both hands to stabilize the shot, he led the target and fired a single accurate shot.

x-x

Juugo made the jump to the edge of the lift as the ship was taking off and Naruto had just crouched slightly in order to make the higher jump when he caught a flash light out of the corner of his eye. Whatever power he had put in his legs for the jump was completely diminished as bolt of plasma cut through the middle of his left thigh and burned through the top of his right. He watched in slow motion as Juugo lunged to the edge of the lift and stretched out an arm to grab him but their hands couldn't reach. Naruto fell hard onto the smooth but unforgiving ferrocrete floor.

A searing heat and subsequent pain soon made itself known and the intensity made him cry out. It may have been even worse than the wound to his arm and completely drown out the pain coming from his chin due to hitting the floor or the taste of blood in his mouth. In that moment he forgot about the ship and couldn't hear the shouts from those on the lift. He instead focused solely on the pain and the single life-sign that was moving closer. Moving his head slightly, Naruto glimpsed the man slowly walking towards him. Parts of his armor were still ablaze and he would have looked fearsome in anyone's eyes.

'I don't want to die, not when I've made it this far.' Was the only thought in Naruto's head and despite the pain, a newly found rage flooding through him. He focused chakra to his left hand. Four symbols appeared, one on each finger. They each represented an element not related to nature chakra and would unlock the pronged seal over his Jinchuuriki seal. Despite no response from his legs, he managed to push himself up slightly, enough for him to get his hand under his shirt and vest in order to remove the seal he had placed.

He could practically hear the creatures voice in the back of his mind, encouraging him and he kept feeling more and powerful. As his hand neared the seal and he lost all rational thought on the matter, he only looked at the approaching danger and repeated in his mind, 'I'll kill you. I'll kill everything.' For a moment he thought he saw the man hesitate as he looked directly at the masked head. He saw the reflection of someone in the dark t-shaped visor but didn't recognize the yellow, slitted, and dangerous eyes looking back at him. Nor the viscous, animalistic smile that showed no hint of any remorse for the deeds that eyes were planning.

The reflection however soon became blocked as someone else entered his vision. A person or perhaps a creature had landed right next to him and with an incredibly strong punch, had sent the armored adversary flying backward. The person turned and a partially transformed face looked directly at him, 'Do I know this person? He looks...worried?' Naruto questioned as his mind tried to comprehend the situation. Before he could think about it and get angry for the interference, the orange-haired creature had wrapped a brown colored arm around his waist and lifted him up.

Not knowing what was happening, Naruto simply watched the ground getting farther and farther away. Not only had he been picked up but apparently they were flying through the air and he did feel the weightlessness in his limbs with only the arm supporting him. He could also see that his armored adversary was quick to recover but two sets of red bolts were raining down on him, keeping him from a direct pursuit or accurately shooting back as he also took flight. The view soon changed however and he was staring at metal grating. Though muted, he could hear voices but couldn't tell what they were saying.

The anger he had felt earlier was dissipating and he could no longer remember why he had been angry or who it was directed at. Thoroughly confused, the chakra on his hand faded away as the jutsu was unconsciously released. Dull pain returned to various parts of his body and the moment he started coming back to his senses, the pain magnified to such a degree that everything started to go black.

x-x

Leaving the confines of the hangar, HK extended the six maneuvering rods to give him better control of the ship. Glancing to a nearby monitor, he noted that he was short two Meatbags in one of the loading bays. It wasn't too late to land the ship again but it was supposed to be a quick escape. Seeing no other option that didn't violate the programming that had been forcibly installed, he prepared to bring the ship back down, however both suddenly appeared back on the screen with the taller one holding the other.

Seeing that they could continue taking off, HK activated the lift controls for them and the ship continued to gain altitude until it would clear all the buildings of Mos Espa. A sensor warning caught his attention as the ship detected an object approaching fast from the surface. 'Analysis: Not fast enough to be a missile, must be a Meatbag with the jetpack. The Mandalorian.' HK realized and looking back to the screen of the loading bay, he found that the Twi'lek's were definitely exchanging shots with something which only further confirmed what he thought. Without any ventral weaponry, HK quickly went through different options to fend off the incoming Meatbag as the lift was slow to raise and wouldn't close in time to prevent them from being boarded.

Pushing a button for the intercom system, he projected his voice throughout the ship, "Warning: You have five seconds to hold on to something." The message was evidently received as all three heads reacted to the message. With muted words being exchanged, both dancers grabbed on to Juugo right before HK implemented his plan.

x-x

With an unconscious Naruto under one arm, Tann held in his other, and Ann's arms wrapped around his neck, Juugo secured his feet to the metal lift floor moments before the entire ship tilted by more than forty-five degrees to the port side. Holding on and trying to drown out the screams from both girls, Juugo moved out of the way as the containers they had placed on the lift all slid off, followed by Jabba's body. Looking down towards the ground, Juugo watched as the armored man tried dodging all the items.

Jango was doing rather well until Jabba's tail smacked into him and he lost control of his ascent. The weight of the tail and attached body pulled him down until he was able to push himself free. Resuming his pursuit, Jango watched as the ship leveled out and began pulling away as the lift closed shut. He followed the ship and though he was able to catch up and even land on the hull but he couldn't locate a hatch near enough to him in order to board. As the ship accelerated and made a steep ascent off the planet, he was unable to hold onto the sleek hull or activate anything on his gauntlets that would help him. Falling to the surface below, quickly grabbed for a tracer beacon launcher that he had in one of his pockets and fired the device but the engine wash stopped the beacon before reaching the hull. Reactivating his jetpack, Jango aimed for a landing spot outside of the city so he could find his ship and attempt to pursue.

Author's Note: I had a lot more than this but wanted to get something out as the chapter was ballooning to over 60 pages and I wasn't close to being done with it. I hope to have another chapter our much quicker than the time it took this one. I also wanted to thank that the reviewers and private message senders that kept bugging me for the next chapter.


	27. Chapter 27

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

x-x

**36.3 BBY – Current Year **

Chapter XXVII: Home

x-x

About a mile outside of Mos Espa, Plagueis stood on top of a tall weathered rock as he viewed through electrobinoculars what was going on in the city. He watched a smaller ship take off but couldn't tell who was aboard and it wasn't until a large Minstrel-class space yacht started taking off that he was able to determine what was going on with the other members of the group. He could see that a loading lift was still un-retracted and could make out two Rutian Twi'lek's who were quickly joined by an orange-haired teen that he recognized. Juugo appeared to be carrying an injured Naruto, judging by the bandages which covered his entire right arm.

'Far in over his head. His simple plan to collect on his own bounty has definitely backfired.' Plagueis surmised though did feel slight worry as there was no way for him to know what his student's condition was. Naruto wasn't moving at all in Juugo's arms, or at least no movement that he could notice through the lenses. 'Has he stolen the ship from Jabba or killed Jabba and stolen the ship?' He wondered but his attention shifted as he saw a bigger immediate problem.

Watching a blaster fight ensue as the three were being shot at, he panned down to find a Mandalorian chasing up after them. Tensing as he thought about taking the _Vulture_ there, the Sith Lord did nothing as he watched the entire ship executed a significant rotation. Zooming out slightly and keeping the lift in the center of his focus, he saw Juugo hanging on while everything slid off. His possessed body smirked slightly as the Mandalorian was hit by what appeared to be Jabba's corpse and continued to watch the man fail to gain footing on the ship as it moved into the upper atmosphere.

'Naruto must have really done something to him to warrant such excessive.' He noted about the silver and blue armored man. Lowering the binoculars, he caught sight of a skiff heading towards the _Vulture_ and zoomed in on the three passengers, 'And a significant mound of weaponry.' The observation made him frown as that did not seem part of the plan. Money would have been preferable but perhaps they could still gain something. If all the noise he heard while making it back to the ship was any indication, Naruto and his group had done significant damage to Jabba's complex. 'Possibly they've taken out a good portion of the guards and that body was definitely Jabba. I didn't think he'd actually kill Jabba but once people find out he's dead, the vultures will start circling; if they haven't already started to land on what's left of his complex.' Plagueis surmised and thought perhaps they should take the skiff back into town to clean up the mess his student had left.

'Jabba likely keeps something worthwhile aboard that ship but he may have vaults or valuable items somewhere in that complex and I have the Demon Brothers as well as Karin.' He realized and decided to make the trip to Tatooine as profitable as possible. Despite Naruto's inability to negotiate something simple, he had nonetheless done something impressive. Jabba had been alive for nearly six hundred years and dozens, if not hundreds, of attempts had been made on the Hutt. Some sent assassins, tried to poison him, and arranged for accidents to happen all in order to kill said Hutt. He'd personally known at least a dozen powerful individuals, former business rivals or partners, that all had tried but failed to have Jabba killed. The threats even came from those that worked from Jabba. Most didn't try as they felt Jabba was simply untouchable in his Tatooine Palace.

'We'll need to move fast in order to make this count. I know Gardulla Besadii the Elder still lives at her townhouse just across town from Jabba and she's been trying to get rid of him and take over Tatooine for years. Hopefully Mos Espa Police will stay out of Hutt affairs. I'll let them quickly dump everything from the skiff while I check in with Naruto or whoever can answer before we head out.' Plagueis concluded before jumping down from his position and moving back towards the ship.

x-x

Eyelids opened revealing blue eyes. Suddenly realizing that he was under water, Naruto started to panic as he found himself trapped in a tube but he soon realized that he could breath and it was at that point that he finally noticed the breathing mask that was strapped to his face. Floating in the heavy water, which he realized was actually Bacta, Naruto relaxed and tried to peer through the slightly murky liquid to determine where he was.

For some reason he expected to find himself in the medical bay of _Forty-Two_, but remembered that they no longer had that ship. Looking over his body, he found new skin on his right arm and couldn't feel any pain. Sensing out, he found that he couldn't feel anyone within his range. This was disconcerting as it either meant that everyone else was gone or that he was somewhere completely unfamiliar and alone. 'How did I get here? And for that matter, where is 'here'?' He questioned and tried to remember what happened to him.

His last memory was running to Jabba's ship, however, he couldn't remember ever stepping foot on the lift or entering the vessel. All he remembered was following behind Juugo. It made sense that he must be on Jabba's ship and given it's size, it was no wonder that he couldn't sense anyone. While thinking, his eyes caught movement in the room but he soon recognized that it was a gray metal figure, with no life-signs, which meant that it was a medical droid.

The droid appeared to be monitoring his vital and progress in the tank. Apparently it was time to get out as he noticed that the Bacta soon started to be pumped out of the tank. As it drained, he got a better view of the medical bay through the clearer glass and found it much larger than that of the _Vulture_ or _Forty-Two_. Instead of a single table, there were three and many more storage areas as well as instruments.

As his feet touched the bottom of the tank and the precious Bacta was drained, Naruto thought the tube would open but was surprised when he started to get washed by what he guessed was water. 'Probably to remove every drop of the Bacta.' He guessed and after being dried, the tube finally opened and the medical droid went to help him exit the tank.

About to push the droid off him, Naruto actually found his legs slightly unsteady and let the droid help him over to the medical table. While it ran a few tests and checked his arm, Naruto noted that the storage seal was now missing pieces of the black tattoo. The needle-like attack had pierced those areas of his arm and it appeared that new skin had formed but with no ink on it, effectively breaking the seal. 'Does that mean it's gone?' He wondered as he continued to look at the incomplete seal. The item he had taken from Jabba's trophy room might be lost forever. He grit his teeth in anger at the possible loss and the medical droid asked if he was still in pain. Though he wished for pain over the reality of the damaged seal, he replied that no, he wasn't feeling any pain. Finished looking over his arm, the droid then started examining his legs. Naruto found this very odd as he didn't remember any damage to his legs.

"What are you doing?" He questioned and the droid responded in a metallic voice, "Making sure your all injuries are completely healed. You were only in the tank for two hours but your body seems to possess great natural healing ability."

Confused, Naruto asked, "What was my condition when I was brought here?" Looking up from the examination, the droid quickly replied, "Circulatory Shock. Severe trauma to right forearm with severed Ulnar Artery. Puncture wounds on the right hand and fingers. Puncture wounds through the right shoulder. Puncture wounds through the right pectoral. Blaster wound through the left thigh with cauterization of wound and damage to left femur and muscle. Superficial blaster wound to right front thigh with cauterization of wound. Bruised jaw." the droid completed as it seemingly listed the wounds in order from most severe to superficial.

'I was shot and then went into shock?' Naruto questioned as he had no recollection of such an injury. 'Once or twice?' He wondered because of the wounds on both legs that the droid had mentioned. Looking down to his legs that the droid was still examining, he found no blemish or sign of an injury. The checkup was soon complete and Naruto stepped off the table. Looking around the room, he spotted a pile of clothing and equipment which he knew to be his.

Taking out the pants first, Naruto stopped when he noticed a burn hole through the leg. Examining the left leg, he found a large entry hole and a corresponding smaller exit hole on the inside of the pant leg. Sure enough, the right leg also had a scorched cut on the front.

'A single shot that hit both of my legs.' He gathered from the evidence and an image of the silver and blue armored bounty hunter popped in his head. A slight chill came over him, and he realized that he was still in the medical shorts so he decided to stop examining and just put the clothes back on. Grabbing his ninja pouches, vest, cloak and sword, he moved for the door.

The door sensed his approach and opened for him, revealing an unfamiliar metal hallway. Still cautious, he peered into the hallway before stepped out and looking either way, unsure of where to go.

x-x

Resting both hands on his sword pummel as if the weapon were a cane, Plagueis looked down to the struggling Chevin who was being held in place by the Demon Brothers. He had already ascertained that the individual was Jabba's Chief of Security at the Townhouse complex and named Ephant Mon. The large pachydermoid sentient was being quite stubborn in telling him what he wanted to know and despite not trained to resist mind tricks, was surprisingly loyal to his deceased employer or just possessed a strong will.

'I will ask once more the location of where Jabba keeps his most precious items. I know they aren't here or at his Palace. Your thoughts have betrayed as much already.' Said Plagueis as he projected his thoughts directly into Ephant's head. The Chevin aimed to try and spit at him again for which he received a powerful blow to the face from one of the Demon Brothers before being able to accomplish the act.

'Then I'll just take the information that I want. You had your chance to be useful and live.' Lied Plagueis as his Mustafarian body reached out and made contact with the Chevin's brain. 'Unfortunately for you, I'm not as practiced at this as my student and you will suffer.' Admitted the Sith Lord as he extracted pertinent information from the being's mind. Although he could have used mind control, the Chevin' strong will and loyalty to the Hutt made it far more difficult and time was precious at the moment. He had hoped not to delve into the Chevin's mind but given the events that day, he should have known that endeavors would continue to not go smoothly.

As Ephant began drooling and slumped in the grasp of both brothers, Plagueis removed his hand and informed those present, 'This one had the information we seek.' With a single, quick strike, Plagueis's blade cut from from the bottom of the Chevin's jaw, through the tall face and exited the top of the head with no resistance. 'Prepare the skiff.' Plagueis ordered, to which both Meizu and Gozu dropped the body and moved with haste from the room.

Karin exhaled a breath as she turned away from the scene, not wanting to have to witness such a thing again. It was bad enough that the first three individuals she had tracked down were not members of Jabba's trusted inner circle and therefore did not have any of the information that Plagueis wanted. Slightly perturbed when Plagueis chose to let her go ahead of him, she doubled up her speed in the direction of the brothers.

Watching the much shorter redhead speed up her pace, Plagueis again questioned whether or not she was suited for such work but relented considering the ease at which she had tracked down those looting or trying to escape from the complex. He found it odd that, like his student, he didn't mind her hesitance to kill all that much. 'It must be her sheer usefulness in both sensing and healing.' He thought but decided to turn his focus to the location they needed to find.

'Glass Mountain.' Plagueis said to himself, repeating the name in his mind and trying to remember if he had seen it's location on any of the maps they had for Tatooine. He did hope it wasn't a colloquial term but a given name for a physical feature. The Chevin's mind contained a rough route to the location but he felt it was always best to have exact coordinates. Hidden in an old mine shaft is where Jabba kept a ship that apparently held the Hutt's most treasured and valuable objects. The Townhouse was for slave and illegal goods transporting while the Palace was a location of safety and leisure from which the Hutt had done most of his business and kept trophies as well as monstrous pets.

Despite having a general idea where the location was, Ephant Mon had not known the security systems present or the layout of the mineshaft. Those were apparently only known to Jabba and the ones that constructed and armed the facility for the Hutt. All of which had promptly been killed when the work was completed decades before. 'The treasures of a Hutt will go a long way to recovering some of my lost wealth.' Mused Plagueis as he exited the complex and noted the many individuals that were also looting or coming to see what had happened. Despite being a bit stranger and dressed differently than the Tatooine natives, they nevertheless were able to blend in rather well and disguise their true intentions.

x-x

A very large pair of ornate doors opened for Naruto when he got past the locking mechanism. Looking inside for any security systems, he soon focused on the rest of the room which was a large and finely decorated bedroom. The centerpiece of the room was a very large circular bed, 'Big enough for a Hutt,' Naruto quipped and he walked completely around the bed, looking at the walls and other items to see what was there. His attention was grabbed by a large fish tank, but it was full for creatures other than fish and something told him that they were more for snacking, than for viewing. Moving past murals on the walls and a collection of various items, the only thing he hadn't seen was where the wide hallway led to, which was presumably the bathroom.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, he let himself fall backwards, which turned out to be a mistake as apparently Hutt's liked really stiff beds; almost like stone with a very nice silky cloth covering. Groaning slightly, he was stopped from getting up by the view through the skylight above him. The transparasteel dome in the ceiling showed him a spectacular view of hyperspace. The blue and black hyperspace tunnel looked rather interesting when viewed from below and not head-on as in the cockpit.

'If the bed was more comfortable, this would be preferable to sleeping in the pilot's seat all the time.' He thought and decided to close his eyes and try it out. His attempt, however, was interrupted as he felt Juugo moving towards his position. While wandering the halls, the others had come into his range but he decided not to go and see what they were up to, instead favoring to see parts of the ship.

The door to the bedroom was still open and Juugo looked inside to see what had changed since he had last been through because the door had been locked before. Seeing Naruto on the bed, he walked in asking, "I've been looking all over for you after I found the medical bay empty. How are your wounds?" Leaning up slightly and looking at the teen, Naruto faked a smile to provide some form of comfort to the teen and said, "I'm fine."

Sighing Juugo looked around the room for a few seconds before sitting on a different part of the bed. "Just fine? You were pretty injured and everyone's been worried." Naruto wondered if Juugo's version of 'everyone' included HK or not, but feeling that Juugo needed some proof, he showed the teen his right arm and Juugo was rather amazed at the lack of any wound. "That Bacta stuff really works, but how do you feel?"

Taking a moment to think about how to answer, Naruto decided to go with honesty, "I feel tired." he said while continuing to stare at the hyperspace tunnel through the dome. Thinking that Naruto was giving him a hint to leave so he could rest, Juugo commented, "Maybe you should find a better room, there's bunch just down the hall and to the left.." but before he could finish, Naruto clarified, "Not physically tired, though I do agree about the bed. However...I don't know why I feel this way. I've been feeling it for maybe a week now and it seems to be getting worse."

"Well we all did go through a pretty stressful ordeal, or ordeals given that it spanned almost two days." Juugo suggested but searching his own feelings, Naruto wasn't convinced that was it, "It's more than that but I can't seem to describe it. Something is missing."

"Perhaps it's the places we've been and how soon we leave?" Juugo said, suggesting a different explanation. Not exactly understanding what the older group member was getting at, Naruto lifted his head and gave a questioning look. "I know we've left Ibonihs and you don't have any plans to go back, but it would be nice to have some other place to come back too. I guess you would call it a 'home' for lack of a better word but some place that is both safe and familiar." Juugo explained as best as he could.

"What about the ship. Is that not a home?" Wuestioned Naruto as they had all been living on the _Vulture_ for several weeks. "The ships okay." Admitted Juugo but he quickly amended the statement, "But we've already traded our original ship for a new one and now we're using this one. This is completely unfamiliar and not really safe. I keep expecting more of Jabba's men to suddenly come out. I like the _Vulture_ and I liked _Forty-Two_ but the rooms are small, everyone is forced to share but you and Plagueis, and not everyone in the group gets along very well. I may have been in a cell for years but it became what I was used to and I considered that a home. The others are probably used to open spaces and trees. Also an occasional breeze that isn't recycled air."

'I have yet to see a single tree on any of the planets we've visited.' Naruto admitted and could see the the point that Juugo was making. "Does everyone feel this way?" He asked and after receiving an affirmative nod from Juugo, he then wanted to clarify something, "Are you suggesting we make a more permanent place on one of the planets that we've visited?"

"No, I don't think that would be a good idea. Sarafur was nice but there was something missing about it. It would be nice not to have to walk in pairs or worry about someone around every corner, even if you basically own the planet now. Ast Kikorie was much better but we aren't really allowed back or probably shouldn't go back anytime soon. Mustafar was hot and ashy, the planet itself was dangerous, and not somewhere anyone but the Mustafarians would want to stay for long periods. And Tatooine..."

"It sucked." Naruto said while filling in Juugo's unfinished sentence. The orange-haired teen nodded in agreement. "I like going to new places and all but it would be nice to go somewhere that's a little nicer or that has nicer people and isn't somewhere that we need to worry about someone shooting at us." Confessed Juugo and Naruto thought over everything that had been said.

"And everyone else feels like this?" He asked and receiving a nod from Juugo, Naruto then commented, "No one's said anything to me about it." Juugo couldn't help but give a sad smile at the statement. Part of it was true but it made him wonder. To him, Naruto seemed like someone that could adapt and survive no matter where they went. He also didn't seem like the type to desire a safe place, given how easily he had left everything on Ibonihs behind for the seemingly more dangerous galaxy. It therefore struck him as ironic.

'They haven't been complaining but I wonder how much he has been 'absorbing' of their real feelings concerning the matter. He does seem to pick up on the feelings of those around him rather easily. Hypersensitivity, I guess it could be called. They didn't need to complain because he seems to have felt what everyone else is feeling and it's affecting him. Maybe he doesn't realize it or understand it.' Thought Juugo and he decided to keep such thoughts to himself, but wondered if Naruto could read what he was thinking. Naruto seemed to have recovered from whatever had happened when he had been shot and though Juugo wanted to ask, he was well aware that everyone had their demons.

"It seems you might be on to something." Conceded Naruto and went one step further, "I'll give this some further thought." A moment of silence passed between the two, with one still laying in the same position on the bed and Juugo leaning against the door frame. Deciding to end the silence and change the discussion to something that should be of a bit more importance to him, Naruto asked, "By the way, where are we going right now?" It was odd for him to be so far out of the loop and since he normally piloted all the ships, it was very surreal that he should be sitting in a room and looking out a window, instead of in the cockpit at the controls.

"Plagueis checked in and gave us coordinates to rendezvous at. They aren't far away and we actually should be there in about an several hours. It should be unpopulated, I believe is what was said." Juugo updated and Naruto responded with lackluster, "Oh."

"Perhaps you should consider some rest though. It's only been about three hours since we left Tatooine." Stated Juugo after another moment of silence between the two. "Sure." Naruto decided to say as he felt it was best to end the conversation to take time and think about what Juugo had said. Juugo left the doorway towards the rooms that the had mentioned, intent on getting some sleep.

After taking perhaps an hour of trying to achieve a meditative state, Naruto eventually had to stop as the smell of the Bacta was disrupting his concentration. A sickly-sweet smell emanated from his body and he knew from previous experience that it would take a long bath in order to eliminate most of the odor.

Standing up on the bed and stretching, he went to find the bathroom and hopefully get the smell of him. Moving to the short hallway inside the room, he stopped when he spotted something sitting on a small table next to the bed. It appeared to be a large remote control with various buttons. Interested, Naruto picked up the large device and found each button was labeled, however he was not familiar with the writing system.

Looking it all over, he eventually decided to mess with it. The ship was now his after all. Pushing one of more important looking buttons, a part of the ceiling opened up and a mechanical arm emerged that maneuvered a viewing screen in front of the bed. The screen activated and Naruto found himself looking at the hallway outside of the room he was in.

'Seems Jabba has lots of cameras here too.' Naruto thought before eventually finding the button to switch to the next camera. Different hallways were displayed and the bridge, where he found HK who appeared to be recharging in the pilot's seat. Finding other areas of interest, a throne room, storage areas, the loading bays, the views switched until they eventually started showing him rooms on the ship. He stopped when he found the room that Juugo was evidently staying in as he spotted spiky hair and body underneath the covers in the darkness of the room.

About to change the view to another part of the ship, Naruto stopped as he noticed something change in the room. Two shadows were caste onto the floor of the room from the light in the hallway. His eyes widened as he thought perhaps that they weren't alone on the ship. About to contact Juugo and grab his sword, he stopped as Juugo turned on the light in the room. His group member, however, looked confused more than anything else. Evidently the figures weren't a threat.

As two figures stepped into view, Naruto recognized Ann and Tann and wondered, 'What are they doing there.' The ship had plenty of rooms and it wasn't as if any of them needed to share. The muted conversation that Juugo started stopped part way as both girls began making very lithe movements while moving towards Juugo. The orange-haired teen's mouth dropped open, as did Naruto's when the two started performing a very erotic dance for Juugo. Naruto's cheeks tinted and he thought perhaps he should turn it off.

Fumbling with the remote, he thought he had the correct button but instead of turning it off, he simply changed the view to another hidden camera in the room. 'They're taking off their clothes...' he realized and his cheeks grew redder as his thoughts became incoherent. A moment later all he could think about was, '...blue...'

Getting control of himself and looking over the remote, he pressed another button, intent on doing anything to change the view on the scree, however when he pressed it, it simply turned on the volume from the hidden microphones in the room. "..Just sit back and let us..." Frantically pushing every button to stop the feed, various things in the room started happening. A shutter began moving over the skylight, blocking out the view. A trapped door activated in the floor halfway between the bed and the door. The lights in the room started dimming and then suddenly brightening and it wasn't until he pressed one of the very last buttons that the monitors finally shut off, cutting a soft moaning and giggling.

Thoroughly embarrassed and blushing like mad, Naruto had no idea that he had also activated the rooms butler droid. Coming out of a seamless doorway in the wall, the droid looked around the room before finding only one person inside. Moving closer on a single wheel instead of legs, it got right behind Naruto before saying, "Is there anything that you need?"

The sudden sound from something so close behind him caused Naruto to jump in the air and nearly fall off the bed. Looking to find a droid behind him, he wondered where it had come from while practically shouting, "Fine! I'm Fine!...What?" The droid seemed slightly puzzled at his actions but repeated the question, "You summoned me. Is there anything that you require?"

In the state that he was in, Naruto's mind went through a very long list of things that he might like at that particular moment in time, few were things that the droid could do for him. Eventually he regained some rational thought and said, "Can you prepare a bath?" It was more because of earlier and the fact that he really wanted the droid to go away so it wouldn't notice the tent in his pants.

"Of course." the droid replied, before asking, "Mud or Water?" Naruto turned his head back to the droid, while keeping the front of his body faced away. "Water." he replied as if it was obvious but after answering he did find himself rather curious about the mud bath. The droid moved across the room and to the short hallway, going out of view as it entered a doorway. Looking down at bulge in his pants, Naruto tried to calm himself down but found it very difficult.

Plagueis was almost always with him, twenty-four hours a day, for most of his life growing up so he never got the chance to look at any of the dirty magazines he noticed in the Konoha bookstore or the orange covered book that he saw Hatake Kakashi with his nose glued to. He'd heard about other shinobi spying on kuniochi and civilian women in the hot springs but this was also something that he hadn't dared do. It sounded rather sad, but the images on the monitors were the most graphic things he had ever seen. Even looking through Jiraiya's head, he had pushed aside all the smut and looked for more useful information.

A brief thought entered his mind about turning the screen back on but he immediately decided against it. In a few hours they would be landing and he would have to face those three. Being in the same room with them would be quite awkward after what little he saw and far worse if he continued to view what he probably shouldn't. 'I'm a Sith for crying out loud.' He ranted but that didn't help ease the embarrassed he was feeling at the entire situation. He looked up as the droid informed him that the bath would be ready shortly and decided to head towards the bathroom. Taking his cloak to hide the problem, he walked underneath the wide archway and into the short hallway, however something caught his eye.

Taking a few steps back, he stared at what was recessed into the opposite side of the wall from the bathroom door. Where probably there should have been a walk-in closet, Naruto instead saw a large vault door. With his interest peaked, he felt that it was at least something to keep him occupied after the bath.

x-x

Core Worlds

Ralltiir System

Planet Ralltiir

x-x

Sitting back in his exquisite chair, a blond haired man swirled his nearly empty glass of colored liquor, as several servant droids began removing the plates before him; the remains of a very expensive meal. The table he sat at was very long, but the head seat was the only one that had been set for a meal and contained an occupant. Long shadows were caste off all the vacant seats which only helped to emphasize that the sun was getting lower on the horizon. A slight breeze came in through the open window of his large estate and he kept his eyes closed while feeling the breeze.

Despite the empty table, he was far from alone as guards that were stationed in the room just outside on the balcony. They were there for his protection and he paid them for that. He had gotten used to their presence and thus was able to retreat to his mind and ignore their presence. Each had been hand picked and had their backgrounds thoroughly checked so he could feel a modicum of safety while at his fortress.

Feeling that his contemplation was about to be disturbed, he turned and opened his brown eyes to find his personal secretary, Oolth, moving to stand beside him. The bald Fondorian bowed slightly before stating the reason for his intrusion, "Narees is asking to speak with you. He claims it's urgent." Since business always came first, the man certainly couldn't let Narees wait, especially if it was urgent. Setting down the glass, he quickly stood and turned to follow Oolth to his study. He didn't discuss private matters out in the open, even when they were all his employees. He had more than enough trouble with spies from all the other criminal organizations, there was no need to help facilitate them by talking out in the open.

In order to reach his attention, most information first had to pass through the lower ranks and then to one of the nine Vigo, usually the one in charge of that area of their operations spanning the entire Galaxy. From there, the Vigo would decided if it was important or not for his attention or just handle it themselves if it was insignificance. He couldn't devote all of his time to every matter and his Vigo's knew not to waste his time. Though it was a good system, it did unfortunately have it's flaws as by the time information reached him, a fair amount of time had already passed, sometimes as much as an hour. It was therefore important to always be available and work as swiftly as possible to maximize their response or action.

Sitting down in his desk, he waived Oolth out of the room and activated all of the anti-snooping devices to keep the conversation private. Taking a shallow breath before activating the holopad, an image soon appeared of an Iktotchi male. The horned man gave a toothy grin before saying, "I've got something that you need to see, Lex." The statement elicited a response from the Underlord of the Black Sun as the corners of his mouth twitched to form a small smile.

Only close friends and his Lieutenants, or Vigo's, as was the historic term for their organization, were allowed to refer to him as Lex and not his given name Alexi. Narees always did have a slightly less than professional attitude about the business but he had always been a trustworthy Vigo and amusing at times. "And what would that be?" Alexi questioned and Narees' smile only widened before explaining, "That monk we've been paying at Jabba's Palace on Tatooine has finally earned the amount we've spent on him, that and maybe more. Take a look at this security footage that was sent. I already checked, it's not edited in any way that I can find. I'll wait while you watch."

Extremely intrigued that Narees would offer to patiently wait on hold while he watched some stolen holorecordings, Alexi eagerly waited for download to finish and the movie to start. What he saw was nothing of what he expected. Taking multiple small holorecordings, everything had been rendered into one large view that showed the entire Throne room of Jabba's Palace. It was a place that once upon a time he had personally visited but not something he had seen in quite a few years. It however had not changed in that time. Alexi watched as events unfolded in the room. He expected a person that they had not seen in a while, or that they had been after, would make an appearance on the recording. However, he never expected what played out on the recording as a teenager started a fight in the middle of Jabba's crowded Throne Room.

As he watched, people were cut down as chaos spread throughout the digitally rendered room. Jabba was injured and fled while an assassin droid and the teen began systematically taking out everyone in the room. For a moment, he thought like everyone else that the teen was cornered but a large explosion and diversion, rendered the cameras useless for a handful of seconds as smoke obscured the recorders. When it cleared, the fight renewed with new arrivals destroying Jabba's trophy room. The events afterward were what really caused Alexi's eyes to widen. A projectile took out two after moving through a wall and then spikes came out of the floor and walls, impaling the remaining foes.

During his time with the Black Sun as an underling, Vigo, and ultimately the Underlord, he had seen many strange things but nothing quite like what was playing on the recording. As the teen exited the Throne room, the recording stopped and Alexi was left replaying several key moments in his mind. Idly he pushed a button on the holopad control panel to put Narees back on display. "So, you saw it. What do you think?" Alexi however was very quiet for a few more moments until he turned to ask, "What happened next?"

Unsure whether his friend and boss had believed what was sent or not, a slightly more serious Narees revealed, "That's where things get really fuzzy. Nobody is completely sure about what events took place next but it culminated the following day with the confirmed assassination of Jabba."

Few times in his decade as the Underlord of the Black Sun had any of his Vigos managed to truly surprise him with news. He had been stunned on a number of occasions but never truly shocked. The fact that someone like Jabba had finally been killed was possibly the most interesting news he had heard in quite some time, especially because no information had come to him about any assassination attempts on Jabba. Wanting to know more, Alexi demanded, "When did this happen?"

"About three hours ago, with the tape you saw happening yesterday." admitted Narees and before Alexi could get too angry and respond, the Iktotchi quickly explained his actions, "I received this with no explanation and have spent the past day trying to find more information when I got the news about Jabba about two hours ago. You saw the tape, I needed some corroboration before presenting you with this. Honestly, if I had sent you that recording hours ago without trying to figure out if it was fake or if it could be believed, what chance would I have had to keep my position as Vigo?"

Taking time to calm himself, Alexi said out loud, "So someone finally killed Jabba," and he had trouble believing it himself. The death of a Hutt was rare but it did happen. They were nearly all involved in illicit criminal activity, so a few were killed every few years. Usually, the Hutts made sure to insulate themselves with a small army, in very much the same fashion that Alexi used to protect himself. It was actually incredibly shameful and hurt a Hutt's reputation for them to be caught or jailed so they were always careful to use others and not do anything personally. Fifty percent of the time, when a Hutt died, it was likely the result of another Hutt.

"It's not just Jabba, Lex. In less than twenty-four hours, whoever these people are, they wiped out Jabba's entire Tatooine operation. Forced him out of his Palace and then finished him off at his Townshouse. All of Jabba's top ranking men are dead or missing." Explained Narees as he tried to convey his amazement and Alexi quickly asked, "Did we hear anything about this before it happened?"

"Nothing at all. I didn't hear about any attempts or hiring of any assassins. No large movements of money or secret meetings." Stated Narees and Alexi knew this was quite troubling. The region that Narees was in charge of included Tatooine along with thousands of other systems and dozens of sectors. Most of the habitable worlds were of little consequence but they took special interest in their competitors and the Hutts. In the past they had usually heard something about big attempts on Jabba's life right before they happened. Few large criminal acts escaped the ears and bank accounts of the Black Sun. An attempt to not only kill Jabba but cripple his entire operation on Tatooine was certainly something that they should have heard about.

"Is anyone taking credit? Do we know who may have hired this person or these individuals?" Questioned Alexi of his Vigo but Narees merely shook his head and said, "Nobody has taken any credit but rumors are flying around and we have no idea who did it or who would hired them. As far as I can tell, Lex, they're nobodies. No history or bounties on any of their heads before this and no criminal activity attributed to the name he gave of 'Rasen.' The leader is young but too well trained to not have been noticed before. This must have been his first contract, and it's got to be the biggest assassination success of anybody just starting out."

Taking a moment to gather his thoughts on the matter, Alexi went over what he had been told, 'A powerful and uniquely skilled unknown comes out of no where and kills someone previously thought untouchable, or at least protected enough by his men, clan and other criminal ties to ward off most attempts for fear of retribution.' Opening his eyes from his near meditative thought process, Alexi demanded, "Tell me everything you know, every detail."

With enthusiasm, Narees begins the tale with the information that he was sure about, "It all started with Jabba's five hundred and sixty fourth birthday party. Somehow those three that you see on the recording, two humans and a droid, made it inside the Palace. Despite the venue being private invitation only. They mingle in the party and the time comes for their tribute and present to the Hutt. Not sure on the exact details but some problem occurred and then Jabba gets bored I guess and sends two of his dancers into the pit. But suddenly one of the trio jumps into the trap door for the pit."

Remembering that part of the recording, Alexi frowned slightly as the actions of that particular individual, thinking, 'Perhaps the girls were some kind of decoy or were used to get the other three access. Such...foolish heroism is not something I would expect from an assassin group, though they are quite young and perhaps he was just green and not willing to sacrifice others for the mission.' Coming out of his thoughts and seeing a very geared up Narees, ready to continue the story, Alexi suppressed a sigh and motioned for his impatient Vigo to continue.

"So then Jabba gets ready to send the other one into the pit; the droid escaping in the confusion and moving through the crowd. Right there the kid explodes into action, never seen anything quite like it. Suddenly Jabba's men start dying left and right, huge explosion," says Narees while gesturing with his hands, "...and Jabba runs for cover after being injured. Everyone in the room tries to kill the young man but he somehow escapes and kills quite a few while under the cover of some kind of smoke grenade. Suddenly the droid starts killing guys left and right but the pair get pushed back to Jabba's trophy room. Somebody starts shooting everything up and then the really weird stuff happens." said Narees and Alexi nods as he knows exactly what the man is talking about.

"Outta all the guys in that room, I'm told only Jango Fett, former True Mandalorian and now a bounty hunter and hired gun, managed to live through that. That's not all, the three that went into the pit with Jabba's new pet rancor somehow manage to escape and the rancor gets loose. Jabba meanwhile calls for reinforcements and leaves his own Palace on his sail barge, heading back to his Townhouse before a sandstorm prevents him from leaving. That's right about the time our spy downloads the security recordings that I sent and makes his exit." Explained Narees and Alexi finds himself becoming captured in his Vigo's exuberance and asked, "So they managed to escape as well?"

"I guess so." Admitted Narees before adding, "All the reinforcements Jabba sent disappeared or were eaten by that rancor and there's a huge ten hour or more gap as the sandstorm hits and nobody can find the assassins."

"But it doesn't end there." Gathered Alexi and he was eager to hear more. Smiling with a few nods, Narees elaborates, "Half a day after the Palace incident, somebody walks through the front door at the Townhouse claiming the bounty Jabba put on the assassins head. He apparently walked in with that assassin droid in tow. Jabba sends out a message that the bounty was claimed, however that's just the beginning of the matter."

A frown adorns Alexi's face at the news of the assassin's death but Narees quickly added, "I haven't finished talking about him yet, there's more. Just wait until the end." With his interest renewed by the words of his Vigo, Alexi motions for Narees to continue so he may hear everything.

"Minutes later an alarm starts going off in one of the buildings close to the main complex. The slave processing center. Jabba's men rush in and put up a jamming signal. A short while passes with the alarm not going off and then there's a huge explosion in the main complex. That's when all hell breaks loose, Lex." Said Narees and Alexi watches as the Iktotchi begins making motions off-screen of the holopad. A new file is soon sent with and Narees explains, "A repulsor-lift patrol droid used by the Mos Espa Police responded to the explosion."

With a slight laugh, Lexi guesses, "And you managed to get that recording as well." Narees nodded with another toothy grin and Alexi went to open the file, putting it up on holopad so he could watch what was happening while keeping Narees on speaker for the man to narrate. "This is right after the explosion and the droid is up a few hundred feet in the air surveying the damage and reporting it to the police. It catches something real interesting." Said Narees and Alexi is at first confused before he notices blaster-fire on the roof. One figure starts attacking all of the sentries that Jabba has and takes over one of the laser cannons.

Alexi watches with rapt attention as a single droid creates utter chaos and destruction on the roof of Jabba's complex, taking out anything that moves and even a small transport that tries to take off. "What about those at the entrance? What do we know about them?" Questioned Alexi as he sees that the only individuals that the droid does not take out are a group of three at the main entrance to the Jabba's Townhouse.

"The one carting what looks like weapons is the one that collected on the bounty. It seems that they may be in-league with the primary assassin and his group." Explained Narees and Alexi was about interject when Narees made a motion to give him a bit more time to explain his reasoning. Nodding to his Vigo, Narees continued, "I surmise that they are looting the place after collecting the bounty and used it as a ruse to get inside the building. The assassin droid quickly leaves the roof and heads to the hangar bays, presumably while whoever set the bomb inside the building is also headed there as well." 

Looking over the recording, Alexi watches as it fast-forwards to presumably another point of interest. Watching a ship take off, Narees soon says, "I haven't been able to determine anything about that ship. I can only guess that it's Jabba's men escaping or whoever owns that ship is leaving. What's next is really what you want to see."

Continuing to watch, Alexi sees Jabba's yacht start to take off and the security droid focuses on the craft. After it starts to leave the bottom of the ship is finally visible and Alexi leans closer to see that one of the loading bay lifts is still open and two familiar Twi'lek girls are shooting blasters down at something on the hangar floor. Moments later, a figure emerged from the hangar, likely using a jetpack or similar equipment and flies up to the lift. Besides recognizing the person from the other recording, Alexi also notices that someone else is being carried.

The image paused and turning back to Narees with a curious look, Alexi asked the question on his mind, "You think this is the same assassin that was in the Palace and believed to be dead? His bounty was collected on, Narees. Was he turned in alive?"

"I don't about how they managed to get that one over the Hutt, I do have a good source that says that the assassin somehow faked it all and is still alive." Narees countered and pushed a button to continue the recording. Alexi didn't question about the source, yet, but instead turned back to the recording to continue watching the events unfold. Another individual soon took off after the fleeing pair. Recognizing the armor, Alexi watched as the ship turned and started dumping cargo onto the Mandalorian in order to keep him at bay. The image paused again and Alexi looked to his Vigo. "I didn't notice it at first either and someone told me about it so I'll show it again and highlight what I'd like you to see." Explained Narees before replaying the containers falling on the bounty hunter. The recording replayed, but unlike before it froze and the image was zoomed in on the last item to fall from the lift. It took a few moment before Alexi realized through the fuzzy image that the object was oddly shaped and certainly not a crate or container that he had ever seen, in fact it looked like, "Jabba." Alexi said out loud and looked to Narees for confirmation.

The Iktotchi nodded and waited for Alexi to finish looking. "A failed kidnapping." Suggested Alexi but Narees knew that was not the case, "I thought so too at first but it turns out the body that fell did belong to Jabba's but it was also missing the head."

"How barbaric." commented Alexi in response to the information as he thought of the many times that he had used a hired gun, bounty hunter, or mercanry to take care of a problem. For the most part, they brought back something simple for proof. A tooth or blood sample, some kind of DNA evidence to prove the deed was done and collect. Thinking that the assassins had taken the whole head as proof was quite something as few if any assassins or bounty hunters he had encountered, went that far.

"And how exactly did you come by this information that you are saying is confirmed?" Inquired Alexi as he wanted to be certain before expending any further resources. "I talked to the only living eye witness of the events." clarified Narees and Alexi said the name of the individual a moment later, "Jango Fett."

"Initially he was quite tight lipped but for the right price he did tell me that the recording was true and that the boy had faked his death. He refused to comment on those unique techniques used but did say that Jabba's bounty information was inaccurate. The assassin was younger and shorter than what Jabba claimed. Jango believed he was near-human and no more than twelve years old with unique facial markings. He also confirmed that while he did injure the assassin, it wasn't a mortal wound and he should still be alive. He doesn't seem like the kind of person to make up a story or admit that he failed at preventing his employers death." Narees cleared up and he watched the leader of their syndicate lean back in his chair to think over everything.

"What about the droid?" Questioned Alexi suddenly as nothing was explained about what had happened to it. "I would hazard a guess that the droid was piloting the stolen ship. As to anything else concerning that particular droid, I really don't know. I've tried to identify it's model but not had any luck. I can only guess that it is fairly new or that it was custom made."

"So the Twi'lek dancers were definitely in on it then?" Was the question Alexi posed as he wanted to know what his Vigo thought, "Most likely. Give Jabba a few dancers to check out his facilities. It would explain why that one assassin was so determined to help them." Answered Narees and he watched Alexi nod in agreement before asking, "Is there anything else?"

"I'm afraid not. When my other spies arrived at the facility, the scavengers had already arrived but I did ascertain that the group leaving with the weapons did come back and I think they were there to also play cleaned-up because all other security data and recordings had been deleted. I was lucky to get the recording from the patrol droid as they probably didn't notice it." said Narees in response.

Remaining silent for several minutes, the Iktotchi waited to see what the Underlord wanted to do. He thought perhaps Alexi would call together all of the Vigos to make sure that the Black Sun got their share of Jabba's former empire but the decision was ultimately not his to make. Alexi eventually concluded on their course of action and spoke to Narees in a serious tone, "Do not share this with the other Vigos. I want to explore this but let's keep this between ourselves for now. I want you to put out feelers and start passively looking for this group using whatever means necesssary.

They couldn't have gotten that far on such a large and recognizable stolen ship. I'd like to find out more about them before making contact and perhaps getting a little leverage. Until that time, I want you to use your best men and distribute as much false information and rumor as you can about the whole thing. I want a smoke screen large enough to make everyone question what really happened on Tatooine and who did it. I'll be calling shortly for a holo-meeting of all nine Vigo's. You will only mention Jabba's death and provide none of the details you gave me. Don't take any action against the known locations of Jabba's interests. It would be best to not make the Desilijic Kajidic think we were involved with the death of such an influential member of their clan."

"As you wish." Responded Narees with a slight bowand he knew that he had his work cut out for him. The holopad was turned off a moment later as the transmission was ended. Taking a deep breath, Alexi turned to a dark corner of the room and asked, "Have you ever seen techniques such as these, Mighella?"

A feminine figure emerged from the corner and took another look at the recording of the spikes killing members of Jabba's syndicate in the Hutt's Throne Room. Mighella had long brown hair tied in numerous different pony tails and a very pale face with several black facial tattoos around the eyes, nose, and mouth. The Nightsister was very knowledgeable about the dak-side of the Force and about Jedi but despite this knowledge, she had never seen such manipulation of rock. "No, I haven't. This kind of technique is unknown to me or my sisterhood." She answered honestly to her employer. Though the response was given with a straight face, the black tattoos around her lips made it always seem as though she was smiling. Alexi smiled too and asked her to leave so he could be alone with his thoughts.

Since becoming the Underlord, he began building up the Black Sun, aiming to make it even larger and finally eclipse the plateau that his predecessors had stalled out on. Despite being around for over three thousand years, the Black Sun was still one of the largest criminal empires in the galaxy. The key words being 'one of the largest.' The syndicate had hidden bases and holdings throughout the Rims with thousands of people working as smugglers, soldiers, pirates, mercenaries, and various other positions that supported a vast empire of illicit activity throughout the known Galaxy. In addition there were countless individuals who simply didn't realize that they were working for a subsidiary or shell corporation owned by the Black Sun.

This however was not good enough for Alexi. He wanted to take the Black Sun to the next level, a level that all of his predecessors had failed to seek or come close too. Despite all their bases and holdings, the Black Sun did not truly own any planets. They had influence on countless planets and some power over the government but did not own the planet. They did not own any systems and certainly not any sectors. There also was no 'Black Sun Space' or 'Black Sun Territory'. Seemingly the expansion of the Black Sun had stagnated at some point in the distant past and each Underlord strove to increase it's size until their death, a coop, or action by other criminal syndicates. The syndicate therefore had experienced a large but steady fluctuation as various Underlord's would raise in power and influence but then fall and go back to start over with someone new.

Surviving for so long was impressive but what the Black Sun really needed was the ability to compete with the Hutt cartels. The Republic was losing influence and the ability to police it's space and this was only made more clear when he first became Underlord, right before the Stark Hyperspace War. A combined group of pirates and smugglers, despite being completely tricked by their charismatic leader, was actually able to pose a sizable threat to the Republic.

Despite such impressive dreams for the Black Sun, he faced many problems. Though very large, the Black Sun was still one of hundreds of other criminal organizations in the galaxy and not large or powerful enough to try and deal with the Hutt cartels or squash their smaller competition. Each group was after similar things and competing for areas, distribution, and piracy targets. This inevitably led to confrontations and those confrontations were what he and the Black Sun spent most of it's time on.

Not taking out the smaller competitors would only allow them to become larger but straight fighting came with a great risk. If they destroyed enough of their competition, the smaller groups may band together against the threat and create a very costly syndicate war. The Stark Hyperspace War also proved this was possible. That unrelated organizations of pirates, smugglers, and other criminal could band together under a leader.

'It would therefore be best to have someone working for me, but that couldn't be traced back to me, and have them go after my competition. Or I could strive for something even more elaborate.' Thought Alexi and he remembered implementing the plan once before but suffered a very costly setback in the design phase. He had secretly payed for the training of several individuals at the Orsis Academy, a well known and accomplished school for training some of the best assassins, spies, soldiers and trackers. No one knew that the students were being trained to work for the Black Sun, not even the students themselves. After years at the Academy, they were close to graduation when one student, a male Zabrak under a false identity, decided to kill every student, faculty member, and ultimately destroy the Academy itself.

'I still haven't found that Zabrak.' Recalled Alexi with a sneer as it had only been just over a year since the massacre. He took a deep breath and exhaled to calm himself down. With the Academy gone, he couldn't very well send another group to be trained and few other facilities such as the Orsis Academy existed, or better yet, were allowed to exist by the Jedi Order.

'Perhaps, however, my luck may be changing.' He wagered and once again looked through the recordings that Narees had sent. The only problem was controlling such a powerful individual or group of individuals. He needed to find out who they worked for, what they worked for, and if their services could be bought for the right price.

x-x

Back on Tatooine

x-x

Flinching as she continued to hear blaster cannon fire, Karin stayed behind Plagueis as he waited for the Demon Brothers to deal with the more dangerous defenses. After finding Glass Mountain, it didn't take long for the Demon Brothers to locate the old mine shaft that Jabba was using. Slowly they had managed to make their way through the veritable maze of different passageways that would supposedly lead to Jabba's hidden treasures.

While a good treasure hunt was supposed to be fun, it was anything but for Karin as Jabba seemed to take security very seriously for his hidden treasures and had used just about everything against them. From hidden mines to laser traps and even older styles of traps like pitfalls. Thus the journey for treasure had been terrifying as danger seemed to be around every bend in the tunnels.

"Clear." Yelled one of the Demon Brothers and Plagueis led the way into what was hopefully the end of their journey. As they rounded the bend, the narrow tunnel widened dramatically into a good sized cavern. Looking away from the energy field at one end, Karin found Meizu finish ripping out a turret from the wall and tossing it to the ground. As the brothers made to move to the energy field, Plagueis ordered them to stop.

Using the Force, Plagueis picked up the disabled turret and with a flick of his hand, tossed it against the energy field. The metal struck the field and seemingly began to be eaten by the energy field until there was nothing left. Karin let her mouth drop at the scene and Plagueis explained, 'Its a disintegration field and don't think it can't harm you two. The spell placed on you is very powerful but neither of you are invincible and it would be good for both of you to remember that.'

Finished with the explanation, Plagueis began a thorough examination of the field. Normally such a security measure was used to prevent explosives from being placed on doors to breach them or prevent the use of cutting tools. They were primarily used in facilities rather than starships but there were some exceptions. Sometimes a lighter version of the field was implemented which simply gave a painful shock and they were found primarily in detention facilities. The field was not however to be confused with ray shielding as they were very different.

Ray shielding could be let energy weapons pass through one-way and not the other. It was also not normally dangerous to people, save for some radiation in certain cheaper shielding systems that were not used in starships. People could pass through ray shields and so could objects and the shields could be bent to envelop an entire starship or used to form a shudder to protect a specific region.

Disintegration shields could not be bent around anything and operated on a single, flat plane; not let anything pass through from either side. They were also very power hungry, and could only be activated between special emitters, 'Which appear to be buried deeply into the solid rock.' Noted Plagueis as he knew that two tall devices were placed in such a manner to protect them from tampering. The only way to get to the emitters was to use explosives or to use mining equipment, neither of which had they brought and neither of which Plagueis was willing to use, lest they chance a cave-in.

On the other side of the red, semi-transparent field, they could all see a medium sized starship in a makeshift hangar that had likely been carved out of the rock."How'd they get that thing in here?" Questioned Karin and Plagueis froze as he realized that her inquiry was extremely valid. He had too concerned with the field to even think of such a question to even considered how had Jabba gotten a starship inside a mine shaft that was far narrower than the size of the ship. Stepping closer to the field, the Sith Lord glanced in the direction the ship was pointed and found a tunnel in the rock that was just big enough for the ship. It was cut at an angle and presumably went to the surface or more likely the face of the mountain. Preventing himself from getting angry over the thought that if they found the camouflaged door, which was likely at the end of that tunnel, then they could have avoided all the traps. Plagueis calmed himself and pushed aside such thoughts, and looked for other possibilities to bypass the field.

Glancing to where the power was coming from, he found conduits traveling from one of the concealed emitters and heading to a back room where there was likely some kind of generator. 'I doubt they keep this field on all the time, we must have activated it along with one of the traps.' He wagered and looked over the hangar for something to use to take out the conduits. Finding nothing in the hangar, he decided to try it the hard way.

Aiming an outstretched hand at the conduits, Plagueis began to use the Force to pull at the conduits. Though the disintegration field hindered him, the conduits began to strain under his application of Force technique. Soon they were bending outwards toward him until they could not take the stress and ripped apart, severing the power cables inside and erupting in sparks as the field lost it's power and promptly failed.

With a motion to the others to hold back, Plagueis stepped forward to the edge of where the field was and looked over the entire hangar. Turning to Karin, she realized what he wanted and she shook her head as she couldn't feel anything. 'Possibly still droids or other security measures that I cannot sense or see.' He thought and took out his sword while stepping forward to further examine the ship.

Giving a mental command to the brothers, they both started up the exit tunnel for the craft. Karin looked to see where they were going and Plagueis answered her question before she could ask, 'I asked them to examine where the tunnel leads. Hopefully they can open the doors or whatever is at the end and bring the skiff around.' She nodded in understanding but wanted to clarify something, "Shouldn't we just take the ship?"

'Definitely not.' Plagueis immediately answered and knew that was not a good enough explanation. Karin was like Naruto and always wanted details so he elaborated, 'Given all the traps that Jabba put to protect the ship, it is highly likely that the ship itself is the last trap. It may only respond to Jabba or perhaps it could have a variety of different internal security systems intended to foil theives. We aren't going to even try starting it up. In fact, I plan to sever the ships power and cut our way inside or at least a hole large enough for the Demon Brothers to get in.'

Karin's eyes widened as she hadn't even thought of that possibility. To her, the obvious answer to the situation was to take the ship and pilot it back to their ship, rather than transferring everything into scrolls or the skiff. 'Its a very good thing he's leading this group, although he did bring us into this deathtrap in the first place.' She acknowledged but decided to keep such a thought to herself, given how easily Naruto could read her thoughts, Plagueis might be even better.

'You are quite correct.' Plagueis said to himself as he read Karin's thought. He could have said it to Karin in order to scare her but, given the current situation, decided against such an action. Looking away from the ship, Plagueis glanced to the power conduits and to the door that was nearby. The conduits stopped close to the door which meant that they passed through the wall and into whatever room was beyond. Curious to see what was inside, Plagueis took his sword and started cutting a piece out from the door.

Caution was best considering what they had already faced in order to get to the hangar so he only made a small cut, enough to look through and didn't even consider using the control panel on the door, because it too may be a trap. Removing the piece of thick metal door with the Force, Plagueis glanced through. The Mustafarians had excellent night-vision as a result of their planet always being so clouded with ash from volcanic activity that it blocked most sunlight, so he had not trouble looking inside. Shapes soon appeared and he noted that the room was much larger than he initially thought it would be. Inside, he could see the outline and some detail of a reactor that would normally be found on a small capitol ship but instead was feeding the disintegration field. 'I was wrong, that disintegration field has been on for a very long time.' Realized Plagueis and he looked around the room once again.

If it was him and he had been trying to hide his treasure ship, the Muun would have left a small number of assassin droids at the very end. A last defense against those that made it so far. It seemed that Jabba did not favor the use of such droids though. 'But I would think that someone would need to come here and check that reactor from time to time.' he believed and didn't see any maintenance droid inside the room, though he did only have a narrow field of vision.

Staying watchful of his surroundings, he would wait for the Demon Brothers to return before doing anything further.

x-x

Outland Transit Station

Outer-Rim Territories

Baxtel Sector

x-x

Coming out of hyperspace, Jango piloted the Jaster's Legacy toward a docking port on the large and very familiar space outpost. Though he basically lived on his ship, it was always nice to have some place to come back too and he knew the person that owned the station. Once the ship was docked, the Mandalorian found himself still sitting in the pilot's seat and not moving to disembark from the ship. Frustration was the primary feeling that he couldn't seem to shake and the thoughts running through his head only fueled it. Normally he kept himself detached from his work and was able to return to the station without any baggage but apparently not this time.

The events kept playing in his mind and he kept coming to the same conclusions, 'With Jabba's death, I've lost significant job opportunities.' Like all the Hutts, Jabba employed many bounty hunters but the Hutt didn't hire just anyone. To gain Jabba's trust and interest required a significant reputation or the ability to impress the Hutt. His first bounty for Jabba had been a few months previously and had been a great success. Jabba was pleased with his work and he received jobs directly from the Hutt. Quickly, he became the favored hunter of the Jabba and was even invited to his birthday celebration. The Hutt had become a good ally. He didn't have friends, he had allies and enemies.

In less than twenty-four hours time, all that was gone. There would be other bounties but those were much harder. He would be competing with everyone else that found the notice and not given the special treatment like with Jabba. He was just another bounty hunter. Coming out of Tatooine with barely a scratch, while everyone around Jabba was killed, did not bode well for his reputation. It looked bad from his perspective. Perhaps it was all in his mind, but if someone had told him a similar story about someone else, he would have thought the person that survived had run away or avoided conflict. 'I'd be reluctant to hire somebody like that.'

In the end, the assassin himself or even the group of assassins didn't matter and therefore Jabba's death was not the end of the situation. It was the person that had hired the assassin which he had wanted and which was why he tried to capture them. Taking a boy back to Jabba's clan and claiming him as Jabba's killer would get him laughed at, but going to the Desilijic clan with the name of the person that hired the assassins, was completely different. That would have gotten him a bounty to go after and a good rapport with other Desilijic Hutts. He may have lost out on one bounty and lost an employer but he could have created another opportunity for himself.

However, he had been unable to capture any of their group. 'I've killed Jedi with my bare hands but I couldn't stop an assassin droid, two brats, and two Twi'lek dancers.' He thought, in spite of knowing that he was understating the abilities of his enemy. A failure was still a failure. 'I'll just have to start taking the longer and more dangerous missions again. Perhaps his face will come back up.' He hoped but something told him that it may not.

On his way back to the station, seemingly with his tail between his legs, somehow his situation had managed to get a little worse. A transmission from the Black Sun. They weren't however interested in him for a job, they wanted to know about the assassin and his group. That irked him to an incredible degree. 'Maybe I should quite bounty hunting and become an information broker?' He thought sarcastically as he made more money on his trip to Tatooine from the Black Sun's payment than through his combat skills.

'If the Black Sun has developed an interest in him, then I either won't ever encounter him again or he'll be protected.' Jango thought and pushed his head into the headrest of the pilot's seat. The image of the animalistic face soon came to the forefront of his mind. The eyes were yellow and the smile was the most sadistic he had ever seen.

'That damn face is gonna haunt me. I need a drink.' Were his thoughts right before getting up to board the station.

x-x

Uninhabited planet in the Mid-Rim

Chommell Sector

x-x

'Disappointing.' Naruto said to himself as he looked out on the planet that Plagueis had given them coordinates for. He thought perhaps a base would be there or at least something worthwhile to see. Standing on top of the parked ship, all he could perceive was described by that single word. Everything in view was dead or dying slowly and he was positive that rivers weren't supposed to have such a tint to them, especially in that shade of green. It wasn't some kind of unique ecosystem, it was just a ruined planet. The air didn't smell very good either and there was a slight burn inside his nose when he breathed in. It was probably the most polluted planet they had ever been too.

There was no telling how long it would be before Plagueis arrived and more importantly how long they would be stuck with nothing to do. The only item of interest was the remains of a large factory that had evidently exploded at some point, with part of the tallest tower falling over. 'That would have been something to see.' Thought Naruto as he zoomed out from examining the details of the fallen structure with his goggles; not understanding the significance of the building. His viewing was disturbed as he felt someone getting near and then heard the lift activating. 'Juugo.' Naruto realized and wasn't really thrilled to have the teen visit him. He had been hoping to avoid them for a little longer.

"So here's where you went." He heard Juugo say as the teen walked over to where Naruto was. "Everybody was looking for you after we landed." Juugo explained as he looked over the view that the top of the ship gave over the surroundings.

'Oh, I'm sure all of you were. Thoroughly searched your bedroom first, probably.' Thought Naruto sarcastically as he didn't even think to include HK in Juugo's statement. "Is everything alright?" He heard Juugo question and Naruto quickly responded, "Fine, just fine."

'There's two of them and one of you!' Naruto raged inside his head. However the more he thought about it, he really never tried to get to know either girl. Aside from helping them remove the slave chips, Juugo had been with them for far longer, saved them from the rancor and the bounty hunter and held actual conversations with both. 'And apparently he saved my life too.' He thought begrudgingly. Juugo was also much closer in age to the girls than he was and regardless of his abilities, they still probably thought of him as a child. Despite some understanding of why events turned out the way they had, he still wanted to push Juugo off the side of the ship. However, then he would have to explain his actions.

Seeing that all of this thoughts had created a long moment of silence between them, Naruto decided to do something to avoid further questions and change the subject completely, "I've given some thought to what you said before about finding some place to stay for a longer period of time."

"That's not exactly what I said," started Juugo but he decided just to go with it, however, there was one thing he wanted to confirm, "Not here, right. I mean, we aren't going to stay here."

"Hell no." Naruto responded while giving Juugo a strange look. "I think the ship has a good computer and navigational database. We'll consult that before making any decisions." Stated Naruto as he turned and walked back to the hatch so he could head for the bridge.

x-x

As one of the Demon Brothers passed another urn through the hole in the ship's hull, Plagueis decided to emphasize once again, 'Be careful with those!' Both brothers gave him slightly irritated looks but complied as Gozu walked the fourth of the eight total urns over to Karin and set it on the seal. They had actually unloaded items from the storage seal back on the _Vulture_ in order to make room as they'd filled every storage seal that had been brought with them.

Looking over the item, Karin examined all of the detailed work. Shades of blue and green were intermingled on the surface and the top rim appeared to be inlaid with precious gems as well as some metal which she couldn't quite identify. Noting that the vase had a lid, Karin opened it and looked inside. 'Ashes.' She realized and shut the urn right before giving Plagueis a disgusted look.

'You can make whatever face you desire, so long as you don't drop or damage that urn.' Was the Sith Lord's response and Karin frowned before demanding to know, "This is treasure!? It's full of ash, right? It's somebodies relative, right?" Plagueis soon responded in a slightly amused tone, 'Indeed it is. These look to be from the Krung dynasty, though I could be mistaken.'

"And that makes it valuable? A dead person in a nice urn?" She contested as Gozu brought another and carefully set it down. 'These Mendacian funeral urns are in fact priceless. Everything else in Jabba's Palace and Townhouse is cumulatively worthless in comparison to these eight pieces.' Responded Plagueis and he actually found himself enjoying the redhead gawking at what he had just revealed. Even Naruto wouldn't have known something like that but he had been around for quite some time and besides his hefty bank accounts, he also used to own numerous valuable pieces of art.

After the brothers had finished with the urns and Karin had sealed them safely in storage, Plagueis climbed into the ship so he could look at the remaining items. Looking over the main hold, Plagueis came across numerous artifacts and valuables, however they were all focused around Hutts. Jabba had an ancient Hutt suit of armor as well as Hutt weapons and other valuable cultural items but they were only valuable to another Hutt. No one else would want to buy them, so the question on Plagueis's mind was, 'Who do I know that would want them?'

While he could just leave them, they could also be used as bargaining chips with any Hutt in the galaxy. So long as no one knew where they actually came from, or as long as they didn't mind where they had come from. 'Those close to Jabba would probably know something of his collection. That rules out the entire Desilijic clan. His clan is historically enemies with the Besadii clan and I doubt that has changed in the time that I have been gone, but I don't know any members of that clan save for Gardulla. She makes terrible business deals, gambles away most her money, and no one has ever been sure about the relationship she had with Jabba. That leaves only a few others that I've ever done business with...' He concluded and though he did have one in mind, he wasn't keen on the prospect.

He had clashed with that Hutt as persona Hugo Demask but there was the chance that as an unknown Mustafarian with numerous Hutt artifacts, they might get along. Deciding that everything could be sorted out later, he took the items that, in his mind, would be the easiest to get rid of for a good price. Selecting the weapons, armor, and a few of the nicer pieces, he informed the brothers of what he wanted and let them do the lifting.

x-x

The bridge of the Star Jewel was quite large, despite only needing a single pilot in order to pilot the ship. The help of a co-pilot was more effective but that still did not warrant such a big bridge. In the middle of the room was a raised circular piece of equipment that most would easily recognize as a holoprojector. The device was however about 10 feet wide and therefore larger than any similar device Naruto had seen before. Walking up to it, Naruto looked over the controls as he tried to figure out how to operate everything. Most holoprojectors were similar in control operation and user interface but he was more interested in the features that particular model had.

Finding that it could accept voice commands, he switched that feature on and activated the holographic emitter. Opening the ships galactic database and bringing the ship's computer online, Naruto started his quest for a star system and habitable planet, "Display our current location in the Galaxy." The projector came to life and rendered an image of the galaxy as well as an arrow pointing to their location.

Not completely sure how to proceed, he changed gears for the moment, "Show me the navigational database." He commanded and the projector rendered a columned list of the different systems and coordinates in it's memory banks. The scrolling list was incredibly long going by the number of listed entries, which was displayed in the corner of the representation. Naruto knew that even if he had multiple lifetimes, he could never visit all the systems that were being displayed.

"What criteria can I use to eliminate systems from this list in order to find a specific system that meets my needs?" Questioned Naruto. He believed a futuristic machine combined with the ship's computer should be perfectly capable of complex tasks and data comparison. The list changed to a shorter listing of different characteristics that could be searched for or used to better define his search. He noted things such as atmospheric characteristics, population, pollution levels, and a variety of other categories and perhaps even subcategories to choose from.

'Good.' He thought and ignored the gathering of all of the other ship's passengers onto the bridge to see what he was doing. "Eliminate all systems without habitable planets." Was the first criteria that Naruto chose and the list of systems came back, but was noticeably shorter.

"Eliminate all systems that have no planets with a Type 1 atmosphere." He ordered and the list dropped entry number again but by a smaller amount than before. Seeing that the list still included several million systems, Naruto decided to go for a much narrower criteria, "Based up the specifications of the shuttle craft in the hangar bay, and using 40% of it's available fuel capacity, show me the systems that I would be able to reach from our current location; piloting that ship on charted space lanes."

The Star Jewel was too noticeable to fly anywhere inhabited so they would have to get by with the shuttle which appeared to have a hyperdrive. He also wanted to have enough fuel to get back to the _Star Jewel_ after they were done. 'It's thinking.' Naruto realized as the projector flickered rapidly while it seemed to be plotting routes and determining what systems could be reached.

After about twenty seconds of waiting, a much smaller list was displayed but it still included a few thousand systems. 'What else..' Naruto contemplated as he mentally reviewed the list of criteria that had been displayed earlier. "Show me a list of individual planets instead of systems." Ordered Naruto and the list got longer but he felt it would be easier to work with.

"Eliminate planets with extreme hot or cold seasons as well as planets covered in ice, having no water, or covered in sand. Also eliminate planets that have extreme volcanic or tectonic activity. Remove from this list planets that have high crime rates. Also remove planets that have no stable governmental system in place and have less than a million population." Said Naruto in rapid succession and everyone watched as the list began shrinking until only about fifty planets were left. Naruto smirked as evidently he had underestimated the computers ability to approximate and input his slightly generic criteria. 'I just hope that information is at least somewhat up to date.' He idly thought before thinking of what to say next.

"Show these planets, highlighted on a map of the galaxy." And once this was done, he added, "Magnify to only include these planets and not the rest of the galaxy." Looking over the chart, it was immediately apparent that most of the planets in question were not in the Outer-Rim but rather the Mid-Rim and Expansion Regions of the Galaxy. 'I'd still like to stay close to the Outer-Rim if at all possible.' Naruto thought and said, "List the planets in order of closeness to the Outer-Rim Territories and on more heavily traveled space routes."

Looking over the top ten planets on the list, one instantly jumped out at Naruto. 'Naboo.' He read to himself and tried to remember where he had heard that before and why it was so familiar. 'Sidious is from Naboo and is now Senator for the entire Chommell Sector.' he remembered and began thinking perhaps he should skip that planet as it would be too dangerous.

However, he was curious to see what kind of planet it was and the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to go. 'If Sidious can hide under the nose of the Jedi, I'm sure we can hide on Naboo. Besides, if he's the Senator for the sector, then he spends most of his time on Coruscant and not on that planet. Master Plagueis also mentioned that Sidious disliked his home planet.' He thought and decided it couldn't hurt to just go and look. If there were no prospects that could provide them with a safe place to stay and could be purchased for a reasonable amount of the money he had found in Jabba's vault on the _Star Jewel_, then the could return and wait for Plagueis. Naboo was close enough that it would only take about twenty minutes to get there.

x-x

Entering the Naboo System, Naruto piloted the small shuttle closer to the third planet of the system. He thought their ship had been picked up by whatever scanners and sensor system the inhabitants were using but they had yet to be hailed or asked to declare their intentions. Circumventing one of the planet's moons, a light began flashing on the main controls and Naruto answered. With a few lies, their shuttle was cleared to land at Theed Stpaceport and an approach trajectory was given to them. Since they were expected to follow the path that was calculated for them, Naruto didn't stray and kept the course.

As the small ship pierced into the atmosphere of the green and blue planet, the clouds which had been blocking some of their direct view were pushed aside and revealed a large city on a plateau. The detailed architecture of the city became more visible the closer they got with many green capped buildings and unique designs. Large buildings were spaced slightly apart from each other and the entire landscape did not seem like any city Naruto had pictured in his mind before they arrived. Trees grew between the buildings and movement of people soon could be distinguished on the roads and walkways. Despite the crowded cockpit, as three others began pushing forward between the gap of the pilot and co-pilot seats to get a better view, Naruto and HK took the ship to the designated landing site.

Though very impressed with the beautiful buildings, Naruto also kept an eye out for gun emplacements or any other possible threats. He was glad that they hadn't tried to sneak in because they passed a rather large hangar from which squadron of yellow and chrome starfighters were parked. The shuttle they were in had only a twin blaster cannon at the front and it was too slow and cumbersome to even think about outmaneuvering the swift looking fighters.

Bringing the ship down to land at a starport situated at the base of the plateau, Naruto powered down the shuttle while the others moved for the loading ramp at the very back of the spacecraft. As they prepared to disembark, Naruto looked over his gear and tried to determine what would be best to take. He didn't have a change of clothes and had been wearing the same outfit for over two days. The events of Tatooine did not help the matter as his pants had blaster holes and his cloak as well as shirt and armorweave body glove were missing portions or stained with blood. As such, he decided not to wear the armorweave and looking to his trusty cloak, he decided to leave that as well.

While passing over part of the city, they were low enough to see that none of the citizens were wearing any black clothing or cloaks. Most were dressed in colorful garb but not a single person wore a cloak. Frowning at the holes in his pants, he decided not to worry about it. Glancing to his sword, blaster, and ninja pouches, Naruto contemplated what he would need. While walking around with a sword was perfectly alright on most of the planets they had visited up until that point, it didn't seem prudent on a planet with such low crime. Taking the pouches, he left the blaster and hesitated with the sword. With the seal on his arm damaged, there was no other place to hide it or at least he hadn't created any other seals and didn't have his sealing supplies with him.

Taking a deep breath, and against his better judgment, he left the sword sitting with on top of his cloak. Turning to the rest of their group, he found HK holding a blaster rifle and frowned before saying, "We aren't taking any weapons. Leave it." Swearing that the droid twitched in response before setting down the weapon, he eyed HK for a moment longer before then looking to the others. Juugo was dressed in very plain clothes, which were quite dirty from their travels and the girls were still wearing their outfits from Jabba's Palace with cloaks to cover them.

Sighing, Naruto said, "I'll go and find something for all of you." As he headed down the ramp, he met a customs official that had come to welcome them to Theed and inquire about their visit. It only took a brief mind trick to fool the uniformed man.

x-x

Walking the streets of Theed in all new clothing, Naruto felt rather out of place and could tell that the others did as well. While not giving off feelings of great wealth or nobility, the city of Theed certainly presented a mid to upper-class feel with extremely clean buildings, stone roads and happy people whose presence they didn't seem to bother or affect in any way. Such an atmosphere and aesthetic buildings were very strange things for all of them. Ann and Tann were former slaves and while not originally from Tatooine, their native planet of Ryloth did not have many cities, mostly sporadic villages and living areas. Konoha had interesting buildings but most were simple structures and not all that grand in comparison; the roads were also dirt. Spending a portion of his life in an underground cell, Juugo was quite out of his element as well.

'I have no clue where to go in order to find property.' Admitted Naruto as he looked around and wondered if he should ask someone on the street or find someplace a little quieter. The decision on what to do next was made for all the non-droid members in the group as a wonderful smell wafted through the air and caught their attention. With a loud and embarrassing growl from Naruto's stomach, a near unanimous decision was made to stop to eat.

x-x

Back on Tatooine

x-x

Approaching the _Vulture_, Plagueis slowed down the skiff and positioned the repulsorlift vehicle near the ship's loading lift. With a flick of his wrist, the lift began descending for them to get on. The trip from Glass Mountain had been uneventful, 'Likely because everyone is focused on Jabba's Townhouse and Palace.' Thought Plagueis as he took the scroll with the funeral urns in hand and decided to keep it close. He had no idea what he was going to do with them as despite being priceless, someone would have to put a price on them in order for them to be sold.

'An auction would fetch a good price but I've been out of touch with the shadowy auctions where items of this type will always find a buyer. Flooding the market with multiple urns will also draw much suspicion and lower the price. I'll either have to sell or auction them one at a time and wait a good length between, or I could use them as valuable bargaining chips.' Reasoned the Sith Lord as he waited on the lift with Karin while the Demon Brothers loaded the Hutt paraphernalia from the skiff.

Plagueis guessed that for the near future, the urns would becoming friendly with the Tessents as they waited to become useful in their plans. 'Now that we have some finance and bartering items besides the weapons, I can turn my attention back to my Apprentice.' thought the Sith Lord as he knew that despite discovering that his experiment was a success, it was extremely important to determine what his Apprentice was up to. The adventures in the Outer-Rim would certainly need to come to an end before they continue to attract the wrong attention or create a major problem. The death of such an influential Hutt would no doubt attract far too much attention and he only hoped that the ruse of feigning death would keep his student's image from being distributed on wanted posters throughout the Galaxy.

'It is not yet time to create events that garner the notice of the Republic, Jedi and my Apprentice. It will be a few more years before we can start testing the waters and seeing how powerful our opposition's sensing and precognitive abilities are. The last thing we need is for him to start hiring individuals to search the Galaxy for us or even worse, to use the Jedi to do it for him. For now, I will go back to where this extreme detour in my life, and afterlife, began.' Concluded Plagueis as the Demon Brothers finished and he activated the lift controls.

x-x

Naboo, Theed Palace Complex

x-x

Naruto exhaled heavily and wanted to complain about his overly full stomach but it was his own fault for eating so much. He ordered multiple meals in case he didn't like the food but actually found that everything tasted quite good. After that, he had gathered some information from the waitress and proceeded on his own while giving the others some spending money. Walking through a portion of Theed Palace, Naruto marveled at the grandeur of the building's interior, the high ceilings and tall columns. It made the Hokage Tower and the Fire Lord's Palace look like hovels. He wasn't even in the main building where the monarchy lived but it still looked incredibly nice and well cared for.

Heading for the Property Management and Tax Department, he followed the directions he had been given and tried not to make eye contact or look suspicious to the Palace security guards. He had learned that while many different reality companies could help him find a place to stay, they didn't have anything he was truly interested in. A large apartment or house in the city was not what he was after. Even something just outside the city was questionable at best for a good hideout and if he was honest with himself, he didn't want to stay in a cave or tunnel system again either.

A property that was unknown by the majority of the planet and that was either abandoned and nearly forgotten about, the loan was defaulted on, or was seized for some reason. That was what what he had in mind. Getting something for a fraction of the actual sell price was always best. It turned out that claim of these type of properties were turned over to the throne, until such time as something was done with them; whether sale, auction, or demolition. The only problem with the plan was that Naboo was doing quite well. The planet did not appear to be suffering economically and he had a feeling that properties such as the one he was after, may be few and far between.

To him, it didn't matter if it required a little work, as long as it was standing, isolated, and something that he could work with. It would also be helpful if it had enough rooms for each of them to get one as well as work-areas for himself, Kabuto, and Plagueis, in addition to many other features and amenities. 'I guess I really do have a long list of necessities.' He mused and the more he went over everything in his mind, the more he believed that Naboo would not have such a building or property.

Turning a corner, he found the office that he was after. Entering the room, he came to a bench and sat while he waited for the person ahead of him. For being in charge of most of the planet, the office was not very large, with several receptionists and droid workers but few other people. This unfortunately only furthered his earlier belief about not being able to find anything. Realizing that the person ahead of him was having more of a long personal conversation instead of inquiry or problem, Naruto decided to take some action and not wait patiently for them to finish. Throwing out his hand, he flung an imaginary object which went unnoticed by everyone else but caught the attention of the conversing pair. With their chat completely stalled by the distraction, and finding nothing the matter in the direction that Naruto had thrown toward, they turned back but found very little to say, slightly confused by what had happened. Saying their goodbyes, it was his turn and Naruto walked up to the receptionist.

They both smiled at each other but secretly each seemed to know that they probably weren't going to get along. The woman began with an opening list of possibilities for his visit, "Have you come to..." Naruto raised his eyebrow slightly as he listened to the choices and noted that the particular sentence was likely something that the woman had repeated over and over again, so much so that the words had become dull to her and beyond repetitive, "...or claim an ancestral home." She finished and Naruto perked up at the last one.

"Claim an ancestral home?" He blurted and wasn't sure himself if it had been a question or an actual statement of what he wanted. The receptionist looked quite surprised, which only emphasized in Naruto's mind that few if any ever chose that particular item of the other six listed. "And I suppose you have the correct identification, genealogy records, citizenship, certificates, and the proper forms, filled out in triplicate to prove that claim?" Demanded the woman with a skeptical look at his utterance.

Arriving quickly at a metaphorical crossroad, Naruto decided to take the path that continued on instead of retreating. Though frozen for a second, he quickly replied "I've already shown them to you." The use of the mind trick was more out of self-preservation and habit than planning as he found himself a bit overwhelmed with the materials she had asked for. The woman looked confused for a second before shaking it off and agreeing with him, "I see, you've already shown them to me." Accessing the terminal in front of her, she suddenly stopped and asked, "I'm sorry, what property and name was it again?"

Thinking fast and knowing he was probably in over his head, Naruto decided to try and get her to decide for him, "When I use the words, isolated, extravagant, good condition, and no known heirs to inherit, a property comes to your mind." Naruto said as he began to confuse and try to extract the information he was after. "What is that property?"

"The Rudshar Estate." The woman answered and soon came out of her daze as she waited expectantly for him to answer, "The Rudshar Estate." Repeated Naruto with a nervous smile and the woman nodded before looking through her records. Finding the information, she stepped away from her station and moved to back room, out of sight.

Having no idea what he had just claimed, Naruto calmed himself from panicking as he continued through the process of stealing...claiming property. He contemplated leaving but knew it would look worse if he left than if he stayed and finished. 'What I am even doing?' He thought but found no good way to stop the momentum that he had built up towards acquiring a hideout. 'Could I just say it was all a mistake and try to make her forget everything with mind tricks?' He wondered but was distracted by her return.

The receptionist walked back to her seat and opened a small box using her thumbprint on a small scanner built into the box. The top of the box opened and she removed a thin key card, swiping it on a device on her computer console. Looking over something on her screen, she nodded and set the key card down on her desk. Going back to the small box, she removed a second object which Naruto identified as a data chip. Taking out a datapad, she input the small memory device into a slot and then looked over the displayed information, checking for accuracy and making sure everything was in order.

When finished, she handed the device over to Naruto, and asked, "Please sign and provide your print to complete the transferal." Taking the datapad and trying not to look nervous or suspicious, Naruto looked at the screen and found it displaying a Title for the estate, legal jargon, coordinates of the estate, and finally at the very bottom, a place for a signature and presumably thumbprint. Knowing he had definitely gotten in way over his head, Naruto pretended to read through the document as tried to determine what to do next. Originally he had only gone to look for properties, 'I didn't even bring any money to buy anything. I was just going to look and now I'm accepting ownership of a place I've never even seen and I'll be leaving a digital trace of it all.' He thought, concerned at the situation he was in but knew that he had created an opportunity. 'Why am I doing all of this and going so far?' He wondered and it suddenly hit him that Juugo had been right.

The purpose of going to Naboo was to look for some place to call a 'home' and now he was right about close the deal. He wanted a home or at least some place that was safe to come back too between traveling or whatever else he was doing. He wasn't just acting without a plan, he was actively pushing to seal the deal and acquire a property. It seemed that the idea of a place of his own, or a place for the group, was more important that what it actually looked like. Setting aside the bigger problem what would happen when he told Plagueis of what he had done, there was the problem of the signature. Obviously he was transferring it to himself, but by what name was he going to transfer it too? There was no way he would pick his given name and since it was the Rudshar Estate, he wondered if he should use that surname. 'No just pick one name at random, and not Rasen this time.' He decided and his hand began signing right before his thumb touched the reader, providing his print.

Handing it back to the receptionist before he even realized what he had written, Naruto waited agonizing moments while she looked it over. "Everything looks to be in order... Menma." She said as she read off the name on the Title and then began finalizing the transfer on her computer.

'Of all the names I could have chosen, Menma? Did it have to be a Ramen topping? Why do I feel like I was the one who was robbed?' Thought Naruto as he regretted the spontaneous choice. He only had to wait a few moments before the receptionist was finished and she handed him the datachip as well as the key card. "The chip has the deed information as well as the transferal of ownership, don't lose it. The key card will get you past the locks. If there are any problems, please let us know and enjoy your ancestral property." She said with a smile a little nicer than when they first met.

"Of course. Thank you." Naruto responded and before he left and backtracked through the Palace.

x-x

Walking with a slightly aimless or dazed look, Naruto was rather easy to spot amongst the more purposeful people of Naboo. He reached Juugo and the girls without really registering it. 'I now own property.' He tried to convince himself of the fact but the significance had not yet set in and at that point, all he had was a datachip with a digital document and a key card.

Stopping near the three, he found them looking through a shop window and it took almost a minute before one of them noticed him. "You're back." Noticed one of the girls and Naruto absently nodded. His lackluster response and the general look about him did not go unnoticed by the three. Juugo decided to say something and try to find out what was the matter, "Did you not find anything."

"I now own an estate." Naruto revealed but his response made them think that perhaps he was unsure about whether or not that statement was true. He had simply looked at them while stating it plainly. "I thought you were just going to look?" Asked Juugo with quite a bit of surprise. "Stuff happened, and I ended up with an estate." Reiterated Naruto, despite knowing that the statement wasn't completely true. He had taken advantage of an opportunity that presented itself and did everything he could to exploit it.

"Is that not a good thing?" Inquired Ann as a result of Naruto's lackluster enthusiasm over such a big event and Naruto simply shrugged in response. "What's it look like?" Aked Tann and Naruto responded both simply and truthfully, "No idea." All three were slightly surprised and confused that he had purchased a property without even looking at it but decided not to say anything.

"So I guess we're staying or at least long enough to see this place before heading back?" Asked Juugo for confirmation and when Naruto nodded, he found himself pleased at the prospect of coming back to Naboo. From just what he'd seen of the city, it was a very interesting and beautiful place, surpassing everywhere else they'd visited by far. The twins were also happy at the prospect of staying. 'Well I guess it's good they're all happy.' Naruto thought but couldn't be sure how long that would last. He had yet to tell Plagueis any of his intentions or actions and with the way they had left Tatooine, as well as the mistakes made along the way, he did not see his Master's response as being positive or painless. Finally realizing the absent member, Naruto asked, "Where's HK?"

"He found nothing of interest and went back to the ship." Reported Juugo and for a second, Naruto had the sudden thought that perhaps the droid had left in their ship but he soon reconsidered the thought considering the type of planet that Naboo was. 'There really isn't anything that would interest him here. Hopefully the ships still there.' He thought and if he had to guess, he would say that it still was.

Looking to the twins, Naruto said, "Why don't you two head back to the ship and we'll meet you there." They both looked to each other and back at him. Just the look alone said that they knew something was up and that he wanted to talk with Juugo alone. Though Naruto could feel they were skeptical of him, he also felt that they put great trust in Juugo and headed back to the ship without saying another word. Juugo immediately looked to him and Naruto could tell that the slightly naïve teen did not have as much understanding of his statement as the two former slaves.

"They shouldn't come back with us. We should part ways before heading back to the Star Jewel." Naruto clearly stated as he and Juugo walked together a good distance behind the twins. "What!?" Juugo demanded in more of a surprised than angry tone. Keeping his tone firm, Naruto reiterated, "They don't have to leave the planet and you don't have to cut all ties with them but it would be best for them not to come back with us."

Seeing that Juugo was not in agreement or simply unable to understand his train of though, Naruto elaborated in a hushed but serious voice, "Yesterday we got messed up in what was supposed to be a simple negotiation. I ended up with a bounty on my head. We freed two slaves who now know quite a bit about us, especially given how much you've been talking with them. I detonated a bomb, we stormed a Hutt stronghold, and you killed that very influential and powerful Hutt. A bounty hunter tried to kill us and is still likely alive, perhaps even still looking for us. To make matters worse, we left Tatooine flying a stolen ship in a very showy manner. Now I've led us away from the rendezvous and secured property on Naboo, which in retrospect may not have been a very good decision. I honestly don't know anymore and from a certain point of view, I seem to be losing my ability to think straight. It would be best if they weren't around when we next see Master Plagueis and he asks us to explain ourselves."

Slightly wide eyed at the hushed abbreviation of the past two days for them, Juugo decided that he didn't like what Naruto was saying. "Why are you so concerned about how Plagueis is going to react?" Before Naruto could even respond to the surprising question, Juugo added, "We did what we had to do and he wasn't even there, nor did he help us when you called him for help at Jabba's Palace. Why do we need to explain ourselves to him? I don't think we did anything wrong and if he has a problem with that, then that's tough. I'm not going to just tell both Ann and Tann to leave. They don't have any money, possessions, or place to go. I seem to remember both of them helping when you were injured, both times. Have you forgotten that? What about what they want and what about what I want?"

Rather stunned at Juugo's outburst and the things that were said, Naruto remained quiet in contemplation as they soundlessly headed back to the edge of the city and to the lift that would take them down to the cities starport on the plains below. 'Why am I so concerned?' He kept thinking but he really didn't have much of an answer. He was supposed to meet his teachers expectations and had been trained not to fail, he didn't want to fail, but things had gotten out of hand.

Arriving at the spaceport level, they moved across the long and wide durasteel surface of the port to their ship. The ramp was already down and the two walked up and moved inside the craft with Naruto going to the pilot's seat. Sitting down and remaining silent, he pulled out the datachip and turned to HK, "There's coordinates in the documents on this chip, I'd like to go there."

Perhaps out of intrigue or just believing it might cure his boredom, HK readily took the datachip and turned his left forearm over. Touching a part of the rust colored metal panel that protected the underside of his forearm, the panel opened and revealed several slots and other ports. Choosing one of the ports, HK connected the datachip and reviewed the file. After aquiring the coordinates, Naruto watched as the droid activated the ship's sensor array and began determining the location.

'I didn't know that connection ports were underneath that panel.' Thought Naruto as he watched the assassin droid processing the information and plotting the best course to the estate. Turning to him, HK said, "Notification: These coordinates are not far away from our current location, less than thirty kilometers. If this is an assault or infiltration mission, I would advise renting a speeder instead of taking this ship." Naruto quirked an eyebrow but decided not inform the droid that it wasn't a mission they were going on.

x-x

The wind whipped through his hair as the landspeeder cruised just a few feet above the ground but at high speeds. 'I forgot how much I like using a speeder.' Naruto thought and moved off the path that had taken them north from Theed and made his own course through the trees and around the mountains. Glancing back at the passengers, Naruto found that the girls were enjoying the nice ride while Juugo seemed slightly petrified, possibly because they were going rather fast and didn't have a protective canopy like in the ship. HK was sitting in the front while the other three occupied the backseat of the vehicle. Earlier, HK had tampered with the tracer beacon which was apparently easy to confuse and thus their actual destination was obscured.

Turning to HK, the droid understood what Naruto wanted and it pointed in the direction that they should take. He could have used the vessels on-board computer to plot the course but decided against it and had HK plot it for him while he memorized the journey as they went. Passing good sized forests full of short trees with green leaves and moving over a river of crystal clear water, Naruto couldn't prevent a small smile form on his face. It was an aesthetically pleasing planet and the only negative thoughts he had concerned the estate.

'Since it's called an estate, it should have enough rooms. It better have enough rooms.' He thought but in truth, he had no idea what it would be. The term estate could be used to describe any number of different combinations of land and buildings and that was on Ibonihs. He had no idea if the word 'estate' meant the same things on Naboo. Removing the thoughts from his mind, he focused solely on piloting the speeder.

Entering into a valley and following a river, HK motioned up ahead, "Notification: We are approaching the designated coordinates." Naruto took the information and acted by slowing the speeder down. He wasn't trying to make the reveal more dramatic but just wanted to make sure that they could approach without garnering much notice. There was no telling if he had neighbors or the much smaller chance that someone was currently using the building. The river soon widened into a long but narrow lake and the father they moved towards their destination, the wider the lake became. Snow capped mountains were on both sides of them in the distance and Naruto was reminded of Spring Country.

Traveling farther down the lake, a shout came from the backseat as Ann claimed that she had spotted something above the trees but when everyone looked, they couldn't see anything above the treeline or through the leaves. Rounding what was likely the final bend before the estate came into view, Naruto slowed down a bit more and crept the vehicle forward next to the tall trees to see what was ahead of them.

Leaning forward in their seats to get a better look as whatever it was that he had gotten, Naruto's hopes were dashed aside as something came into view. It was a shack or boat house that looked rather dilapidated, with a partially sunken dock stretching out about ten meters into the lake. The vehicle continued to move out from the trees as Naruto was distracted enough that he didn't stop.

Before anyone could say anything, stone came into view that was similar in color to what was used throughout Theed. The side of building kept growing, much faster vertically until an entire tower came into full view. Jaws dropped as the magnificent looking building made them completely forget about the old shack that stood just in front of it. It had the distinctive look of a Naboo building, with green capped roofing and similar building materials but it stood apart from buildgins in Theed because it was taller than it was wide. Most structures in Theed were more uniform and not towers. Naruto estimated it was about a hundred meters tall, and wider at the bottom than at the top, having an almost conical shape to it.

The structure had quite a few windows and multiple rounded green roof caps as well as many semi-circle turrets that were partially absorbed by the single tall structure. The turrets all ended at different heights and appeared to be spaced around the entire structure, with none but the very top one providing a completely panoramic view but only partial view of the surroundings. The structure also seemed less refined than the ones in Theed or at least less polished on the outside and it had almost a sandcastle-like quality to it.

Completely uncontrolled, the speeder continued to move until Naruto realized that they were steadily moving across the entire lake. Their heads had continued to turn to the right and keep the constant stare going on the castle that surprised all of them. Moving the speeder around to face the building, Naruto increased speed and made for the shack. The wooden structure was large enough to store the speeder in until they needed it again and they disembarked while continuing to stare at the estate.

"So this is what they call an estate?" Asked Juugo to no one in particular and Naruto added in a soft voice, "It's more like a castle. Forget getting your own rooms, we could each have our own floor. It must be fifteen to twenty stories tall, depending on how high the ceilings are." Moving closer to the building, the height was slightly staggering from so close and given the steep sides. Naruto thought it must have been nearly as tall as the Hokage monument. Turning to look at Ann, he thought, 'She probably did see the top of it above the trees.'

Deciding to take a look completely around the estate before going in, Naruto moved first and walked partially around the building, coming to a set of stairs as he came close to the lake edge. Moving up them, he found that the building was situated against the lake with a large uncovered balcony or deck area made entirely of stone that overlooked the lake and mountains in the distance. Looking back at the building, he found that it was made to be able to walk right into the first floor from the 'deck' but transparasteel glass panels were blocking the way while giving tantalizing glimpses inside. Presumably they were to weatherize or at least keep things out when the building was not in use or during the night.

Continuing his journey, Naruto walked along the the stone raining as the deck became narrower until it became a stone walkway and underneath a very interesting archway that was attached to the building and part of the supporting structure. Passing a pair of large double doors on his right, presumably through which the castle could be accessed, he continued and soon found himself at the back of the building. His eyes looked over the lake as it continued and eventually narrowed into thick branching rivers that continued off into an expanse of rolling grassy plains with a herd of some kind of animal in the distance. The mountainous area apparently ended right after the building and all he could see was the what was known as the Western Great Grass Plains.

Looking away from the plains, he found that behind the building was a good sized hangar for shuttles and other craft. It was built with one side having three large open archways for three large craft and a flat landing pad in front. The opposite side of the hangar was made of large windows, through which he could see the trees. Their shuttle could fit inside one of the arched landing areas as could the _Vulture,_ if they squeezed it in, and several craft could fit on the landing pad, but certainly not the _Star Jewel_. Walking out on the landing pad, Naruto looked up at the back of the castle before continuing through the hangar and out an open archway to stairs that led him back onto green grass. Underneath the hangar on the opposite side appeared to be arched storage areas for speeders and other craft and he noticed an old trail that led off presumably into the woods, though he couldn't be sure what purpose it served or where it actually went.

Remembering the view of the building from his entire course around it, Naruto couldn't find an area or vantage point where the building didn't look magnificent. Making his way back to the shack, he found HK looking through a blaster rifle scope and surveying the area, possibly looking for targets. Slightly confused, he asked, "I thought I asked you not to bring along blaster rifles?" Looking between the craft and HK he found himself wondering how the droid had managed to sneak the rifle aboard without him noticing.

"Correction: This is a sporting blaster rifle, perfectly legal on Naboo for the purposes of hunting 'game.' I purchased it with the spending credits you provided." Clarified the droid and Naruto noted the emphasis the droid put on the word 'game', most likely hinting that HK considered humanoids game as well. Deciding not to go further into it as the droid was probably right about laws concerning firearms, Naruto didn't say anything else about rifle. Fishing out the key card from his pocket, he looked to the large arched doorway and double doors ahead of him.

While he walked to it, the others soon came around the path that he had just taken and joined up, eager to get a look inside the castle. With a locking mechanism visible at the center of the double doors and clearly not an addition or part of the doors, Naruto found the small slide reader and his card was accepted as the magnetic lock disengaged. Removing the device from the doors, Naruto found a very old fashioned pair of round handles beneath. He noted the control panel to one side of the door but he could tell it didn't have power running to it. Taking both handles, he pulled the large doors open.

He was surprised to find that despite being heavy and solid, the doors opened with ease but before he could even take one step inside, HK moved past him with sporting rifle drawn and moved down the short dark hallway. 'Is he going to clear every room?' Naruto questioned but he decided it wasn't a bad idea. He couldn't feel any life-signs but he wasn't sure if he could detect all the way up to the uppermost floors. 'It would also give him something to do.' He concluded and let it go while taking his first step into his new castle.

x-x

Sitting in a large chair, Naruto soon sneezed as cloud of dust filled air floated off the old and obviously unused furniture. While the others were exploring the large and open first floor area, Naruto had created numerous clones that were climbing the staircases to get to the upper levels. He had waited until the others had left the immediate area so they would go unnoticed by the two Twi'leks.

Since the building had no power, the turbolifts weren't operational and neither were the lights or any controls but there was still enough sunlight coming through the windows to light up most of the building. It seemed the first floor was all about entryways and presentation. The openness and extravagance of the architecture was to show off the wealth of the owner to all those that entered the building. Several landscape paintings adorned the walls with many ornate support columns and a grand staircase that led to the turbolifts. In fact, just about every entrance to the building really led to the turbolifts which was why he thought that the ground floor was entirely for show.

Several sitting areas were set up but there was no living areas or kitchen with only a few bathrooms and storage rooms. He had also noted a staircase down to a lower level which Juugo and the twins had decided to explore. It all made him very curious about what the floors were like above him and he closed his eyes while connecting with his clones to see what they were seeing and guide both them and himself through exploring the building.

As the clones entered the areas above, Naruto found that the three floors above him were all created for hosting rather extravagant parties or at least entertaining a large number of guests. There was a ballroom with huge chandelier, a large kitchen with duplicates of every appliance, and a large dining area with long table and numerous chairs. The dining area had a great view and one room had an entire service area full of powered down service or butler droids. One of the three floors consisted entirely of guestrooms. Above this area, the rest of the building was dedicated solely to the owner.

The fifth floor contained a much smaller kitchen and dining area than the floors below as well as a lounge area and balcony with good view of the lake. The sixth floor was partially filled by a medical bay or really a medical center as it had much more than even the Star Jewel with an adjoining laboratory. The floor also had a good sized greenhouse and hydroponics room. Unfortunately, years or perhaps even decades of not being watered, cared for, or given artificial sunlight had killed off everything in those rooms. He wondered why he had such rooms and thought perhaps the owner was a scientist or just liked to grow his or her own food.

The sixth through ninth floors contained penthouse suites, four to each floor for a total of sixteen rooms. They were of vaying sizes but each with complete bathroom as well as walk-in closet space. All were fully furnished. The tenth floor as well as eleventh floor were both unfurnished as well as basically unfinished, being completely bare save for structural supports, making Naruto think that perhaps the previous owner never figured out what to put in those rooms. The twelfth through fourteenth floors were partially combined to provide a hangar, workshops, equipment area, and maintenance area for small to medium ships. There wasn't enough room on the hangar floor to fit the _Vulture_ but the walls on either side had a row of storage alcoves for small courier vessels. In fact, the clones found six dusty ships waiting to be used.

On the top floor of the building was a covered and enclosed veranda that gave one of the most amazing panoramic views that Naruto and his clone had ever seen. It had more than one meeting room and at least one eating area as well as a balcony. Opening his eyes back on the ground floor, Naruto was again amazed at the building he had just acquired. It had the things he wanted and had many, many more features that he hadn't even thought about nor may he ever even need. Responding to a nearby noise, he heard Juugo and girls returning from the lower level, or levels because he wasn't sure what exactly was beneath them.

"There's an entire stocked wine cellar beneath us." Exclaimed Juugo and Tann added, "Not just a cellar, there's equipment and storage for an entire wine making operation." Thinking over the information, Naruto wondered if his property had a vineyard somewhere. 'A small greenhouse and hydroponics, the small couriers, and basement full of wine and means to make wine. It seems the Rudshar Estate used to be involved in the wine making business and possibly delivered their own brand to customers.' Surmised Naruto and the information was mildly amusing because he had never consumed a single alcoholic beverage and if what Juugo said was accurate, he now had more wine than he would ever need, 'And the means to make more, apparently.'

As his clones finished searching and encountered HK on the fourth floor, he had them tell the droid that he had already searched the rest and to come back down. Going over everything and sifting through all the information as his clones dispelled, he realized that despite getting an amazing castle, there was a large amount of work to do before it was ready to be lived in. 'The dust. The power issue. Making sure there is running water and working atmospheric controls.' And these were just the tip of the iceberg in order to get the building back into good working order.

'I really need to get my datapad back from the ship and write all this down.' He thought as he eventually gave up trying to organize and prioritize everything that needed to get done. A slight frown formed on his face as he realized that he was the most likely person that was going to be doing all the rehabilitation work. 'At least I have clones. Thank the Force for the clones.'

When he thought about the fact that he just acquired the castle around him, he still had trouble explaining what emotions he was feeling. The goose bumps had not left his arms for quite some time, 'It's all just so surreal. I went from a shitty apartment in Konoha to...this.'

Turning to the others as they went to go look upstairs, Naruto's eyes widened and he looked to his watch to find out what time it was. To make matters worse, he realized that he had no idea what time they arrived and therefore didn't know how long they had spent on Naboo. 'We need to get to the shuttle and head back to the planet.' He realized and called for the others.


	28. Chapter 28

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

AN: If you would like to see what the Naboo castle looks like, I have posted a link to the Wookieepedia site that shows what I used for inspiration. I have also included a link for the Star Jewel and several more for this chapter. Thank you

x-x

**36.3 BBY – Current Year **

Chapter XXVIII: Encounters

x-x

Landing near the much larger _Star Jewel_, Plagueis left the _Vulture_ and went to examine the luxury yacht. He noted that the hangar door was open and there were several voids where normally ships would have been. Looking for Karin, he was about to ask her to sense the surrounding area but she shook her head before he could, indicated with a slightly worried look that she had already checked and found no one.

'That's far from good, but seemingly normal for Naruto.' Thought the Sith Lord and his mind went through various scenarios of what could have happened. The most likely explanation was that Naruto had taken several of the fighters and one of the shuttles, possibly to go after someone. 'This planet may not be as secure as I thought.' Taking out his communicator, he suddenly wondered what it meant that he had not received any messages. He had scanned the system when they exited hyperspace and found no trace of any ships or debris.

Before he could contact his student, a familiar nose in the sky caught his attention. It was a shuttle coming out of the higher atmosphere and preparing to land. There were no fighters with the lone shuttle and though he knew Naruto and group was on it, he wondered what reason they had for using the shuttle, 'Seems I'll be having another long talk about subtlety and restraint.' Reasoned the Sith Lord but whatever the explanation, he doubted it could completely affect his mood. Finally returning to his body, the funeral urns, and a luxury yacht were no small gains.

x-x

Moving through his damaged building, Plagueis looked for the doorway that would lead to what used to be his private quarters. Inside he knew what he would find, his body. Despite being alive for over a hundred years and spending fifteen years as a spirit, he found himself hesitating once he found the open door he was after. He was supposed to feel nothing but he noticed that his possessed body had a peculiar feeling in one of it's stomachs. Ignoring such physical indications of nervousness, he climbed through the sideways door and jumped down to the floor.

As Naruto and Karin followed the Muun, Naruto wondered where HK and the Demon Brothers had gone. Plagueis had given them coordinates for a canyon area miles away from the tower. The ships sensors hadn't picked up anything of interest in that area but he didn't question it. Plagueis had not been concerned when he had arrived on the shuttle, or about the Twi'leks, and had yet to question him on where he had come from. It was confusing until he realized the significance of the planet. It was where his Master had been killed and evidently the former Muun had more on his mind. For the time being, he too decided to forget everything else.

Looking towards the body, Karin moved so she could get a better view, only to quickly cover her mouth to keep from shrieking at the sight of the terribly decomposed body. Looking to both Naruto and Plagueis and then back to the body, Karin's eyes narrowed as she realized what was going on, "NO! No way! I told you Orochimaru's head was the last time I had to deal with freakish corpses. Find somebody else to help you move it." Karin raged and attempted to leave before Plagueis and Naruto stopped her by using the Force to pick her up in the air and draw her back into the room.

"Damnit." She voiced as she was set down back on the metal floor of the room, which at one point was the wall. "Shall I fetch a gurney?" Inquired Naruto and Plagueis nodded before saying, 'The medical bay is two floors to your right.' He said after making sure that his directions were correct, given that building was on it's side.

"Why can't I fetch the gurney." Complained Karin and Naruto was quick to respond, "Because you'd never come back." Not looking him in the eye, she looked back to the body as Naruto jumped through the door and headed for the turbolift shaft. A disgusted look formed again on Karin's face as she looked over the still gooey body. Most of the skin and muscle had liquified while leaving a puddle on the floor with clothing still partially intact. "Ughh, it stinks." said Karin out loud as she tried to keep the bile down.

Frowning slightly, though he did partially agree about the smell, Plagueis commented, 'I thought perhaps I was dealing with a medical professional but I suppose you're still just a child.' Karin grit her teeth at the jibe and almost took a deep breath to calm herself before she remembered about the smell.

"I can deal with it." She announced in a strong voice and Plagueis decided his work was done for the moment. Looking to the surrounding room, he began searching for something. Watching the wandering Sith Lord, Karin questions, "What about the body, I thought we were moving it?"

'For now, we'll wait for the gurney.' Responded the former Muun and he soon found the item he was looking for under some debris. Finding the sculpture he was after, he used the Force to push off the debris and then stood it up, leaning it against a wall. Curious, Karin decided to get a better look and identified it as small statue of a cloaked figure that was made out of some kind of metal or stone. It had evidently been much taller but the legs had been broken off.

Feeling around the statue, Plagueis searched for the hidden mechanism and upon finding it, activated the small button. A secret compartment opened and Plagueis gingerly removed the cylindrical metal object. Karin peered over his shoulder at the device and moved a step back when a red energy was emitted from it with a 'snapzzt ' sound. Marveling at the red beam of light, she wondered what it was as the Sith Lord turned and examined his second lightsaber. The battery was designed to remain good for long periods without the need for recharging and it had served it's purpose.

Moving the blade with simple motions, Plagueis frowned slightly as his possessed body was unused to the way in which the weapon operated. It had little weight to it and actually had a gyroscopic motion because of its workings and thus was difficult to wield for those who had never used one. Despite having years worth of practice, the Mustafarian body was not used to the blade and he knew it was something that he would have to work on.

Looking up from the blade and over the head of an amazed Karin, Plagueis caught his students surprised look from the doorway. 'Soon you will be making one of these for yourself.' Plagueis informed him and deactivated the blade. The making of a lightsaber was a significant step for any Sith or Jedi and though Naruto already had a weapon, a lightsaber could be much more versatile, 'Although his sword has proved itself quite useful, as has my own blade.' He thought while glancing down to the blade on his belt and in it's sheath.

'Perhaps I shouldn't make a second lightsaber and instead learn to wield this with my sword?' He posed to himself and filed the thought away for later. As Naruto positioned the gurney beside the body, he moved closer to look at his corpse and determine how best to move the body out of the building and back to the ship.

"We could cut around the body and remove the entire piece of wall?" Suggested Naruto and Plagueis thought about the suggestion but decided it may not work, 'The metal wall is too heavy for the gurney.' Concentrating with the Force, Plagueis and Naruto attempted to lift the body off the floor but stopped trying as Plagueis realized it wouldn't work. There wasn't enough material left to hold the body together anymore and the remains of the organs, flesh, and muscles would be completely removed from the skeleton if they continued, making quite the mess.

"So, why can't we just use storage seals?" questioned Karin and Naruto elaborated, "We're out of scrolls." The redhead was quick to come back with, "You've got one on your arm, what about that one." Rolling up his sleeve, the other two were shown the damaged seal. "What happened to it?" Karin questioned as she moved her head closer to examine the seal.

"What type of weapon fires a small pellet that explodes into supersonic flying needles?" Naruto questioned of the Sith Lord and Plagueis contained his surprise at the question and damaged seal, before answering, "A flechette gun." Looking over the seal before he covered the arm again, Naruto had a sudden thought. Karin was correct, but all he really needed was ink.

x-x

Pushing the repulsorlift gurney, Naruto and Karin ferried a large pile of metal pieces. Each had a storage seal placed on it and had been cut from parts of the building. He had gone back to the ship to get the last of his ink supply, then by placing a storage seal on a flat piece of metal, he had created a large amount of storage seals. Though heavy, the method did work. They only needed to put the object they wanted to seal over it and they were able to seal just about everything that Plagueis wanted to take of what had been his laboratory and his vast collection of books in the library. Once done, Naruto had cut out all the storage seals, forming small round tablets of metal that were now on the gurney and weighing upwards of five hundred pounds. The Muun himself was hefting a hand-sized piece of wall, in which was sealed his original body on the cut slab of wall that it had rested on for over ten years.

However, getting the gurney out of the building was no easy task. The pair employed the treewalking exercise for extended lengths of time to get through the building. While on it's side, many of the hallways had all been turned into vertical shafts and the rest of the building became a difficult maze to get through. Naruto had ended up cutting their way out through several rooms before finding daylight.

In addition to the items that Plagueis wanted, Naruto's clones were also using massive numbers and heavy lifting to carry off anything else that might be useful to them and put it inside the Star Jewel. His clones had veritably gutted the building, taking conduits, cables, small power generators, equipment, and anything else that they or Naruto deemed important. Getting the gurney up into the Star Jewell, the pair of Naruto and Karin had a difficult time finding a place for the last of the items considering how full the vessel was. It may have even been too full to even fly but that didn't matter to Naruto as he had no plans of flying it to Naboo.

Wordlessly, Naruto followed Plagueis to a meeting room in the luxury yacht. Though surprised that his Master seemed to know right where it was, Naruto said nothing as the two quietly sat down. Staring across from each other, Naruto employed the tricks he had been taught to keep his emotions and thoughts from being read. As such, Plagueis found himself staring at an unreadable wall, one that he had helped create.

Mistakes had been made by nearly every member of the group on Tatooine, including himself and while he was not willing to admit that, he also wasn't willing to simply let it all go. Such problems could not continue and he wanted an explanation. Realizing that the staring contest and test of reading techniques was not productive, Plagueis decided to try simply asking a question. 'Tell me, what have you been doing in that shuttle?'

Despite having many things to say, Naruto found his mouth dry and decided to take his time to formulate the best way of answering and choosing his words carefully. "I have been acting erratic as of late...however I'm not alone in this. Nearly ever member of the group has been irritable and not followed orders. Until very recently, I didn't understand what the reasoning was for this but I have been...made aware." Said Naruto as he thought over the things that Juugo had said to him, all of them.

Curious to know what his student had come up with, though already having a good idea of the answer, Plagueis waited for Naruto to finish, "It seems that in our rush to leave Ibonihs, a problem was created in the fact that now we don't have a place to return too. Continuous journeys to less than civilized worlds or at least places that none of us would like to stay, in addition to sudden ship changes, has only made the problem worse. Suigetsu is a prime example. Up until now, the majority of places that we've visited were quite...detrimental to his ability. A volcanic world and then a desert planet has taken their toll on his commitment and he is just one example." Said Naruto as he refrained from using himself as the example.

'This is not news to me but it is good of you to either notice these things or at least have someone that can make you aware of them. It is certainly a problem that needs to be addressed, however I would still like to have my original question answered.' Explained Plagueis and Naruto took out a small data chip and put it into one of the ports on his side of the table. The lights in the room dimmed slightly as documents rendered via the holoprojector in the middle of the table. No stranger to any legal document, Plagueis recognized what he was looking at and read through the legal jargon before coming to the information that he wanted as well as noting the planet.

'Naboo?' He questioned and Naruto only heard the word spoken with an even tone in his mind through telepathy. No anger seemed to be present in the transmitted voice of his Master but possible a small amount of surprise was present. Before he could say anything, Plagueis continued, 'You do remember all the talks that we have had when I mentioned that my Apprentice was from this planet?'

"I remember, but with him being a Senator, how often does he come back to Naboo? And if you are trying to find information about him or figure out what he is up too, what better place to be. Given how much you said he dislikes his birth planet, and the fact that he represents the planet on Coruscant, would he not involve Naboo in his plans; in at least some fashion?" Questioned Naruto and Plagueis thought it over before looking back to the displayed documents.

Rudshar Estate. He kept repeating the name in his mind. There was something familiar about it. It wasn't significant but at some point he knew that he had encountered the name before. His memory was very sharp concerning relevant matters, which meant that he probably did not consider it important at the time. 'Tell me about the estate?' He inquired as he tried to figure out the memory that seemed just out of reach.

"Its a large tower, about twenty five kilometers north of Theed by speeder. It looks like other Naboo buildings in material but perhaps not in architecture, because it's much taller than wide. It's situated on a lake in the valley between mountains and right before the start of a large expanse of plains..." Naruto continued but Plagueis interrupted with, 'What's inside the building.' Nothing up until that point had sparked any recollection for him.

Going from basement to top, Naruto began, "I never saw the basement area but Juugo mentioned a large wine cellar and the two Twi'leks said it also had a wine distillery...or whatever it is called when you process and make wine..." It was at that point that Naruto stopped as he felt something stir in his Master.

'Wine.' Plagueis recalled and the image of a bottle entered his head. The label said Rudshar and it was an older vintage, almost two hundred years old. In his mind, Plagueis left the meeting room with Naruto and entered another room from his past. He was at a meeting to finalize plans for something. An image of a person came to mind and name soon surfaced to go with the name, 'Bon Tapalo,' he remembered and now he could recall why the name was familiar.

He had made plans with Tapalo for a partnership to exploit Naboo's plasma reserves with the help of a company he represented. His end of the bargain was to help fund and support the man's eventual campaign to run for the monarchy of Naboo. 'When finalizing the deal, he presented me with the bottle of wine while I gave him a gift as well.' That was the extent of the memory though he did remember enjoying the liquor. Beyond that, he knew nothing of the Rudshar Family or Estate.

Coming back to the meeting room to find his student waiting patiently, Plagueis commented, 'So you've acquired an old winery and building?'

"I've acquired an estate on Naboo that no one has owned for quite a while and which no one else can claim. I also didn't have to pay a single credit for it." Countered Naruto as he felt that his Master wasn't understanding just how large a building it was or how perfect it was for them.

Looking over the information again, Plagueis found that he wasn't angry over what his student had done. He had noticed the temperaments of the group beginning to show. Being cooped up in different ships and far from a planet they had at one point considered the only one that mattered in the galaxy did have effects. It was inevitable that someone or everyone would begin to showing signs. There were many names that such feelings went by. Homesickness, cabin fever, depression, anxiety, and a number of different names and related ailments.

He had hoped they could hold out a little longer as he planned to find a place to make more permanent after selling the weapons. 'It seems he has done the choosing for me, though I can't really say he's done a poor job. Merely not followed through or been thorough enough. I've taught him similar lessons but not about such things as property acquisition.'

'It seems you've got this all figured out, haven't you.' Said Plagueis and Naruto kept his confusion from being known as he wasn't completely sure what his Master was getting at. It seemed reminiscent of his initial learning when Plagueis would make him believe he had done something correct, only to point out all the flaws. 'You probably chose this estate because it's isolated and no one has claimed it or perhaps you looked at it first and decided that you had to have it.' Plagueis guessed but was having a hard time determining if he was right or wrong. 'Or perhaps you signed and gave your print without even seeing it first, letting the die be cast?' He suggested and despite great restraint by his student, Plagueis could tell he had gotten that one on the nose.

'You've made a very big step forward...' Plagueis began while he hoped that it would swell his student's pride a little and when he finished his statement, all of it would be dashed aside, '…..only to still think that there was ground to stand on.' Naruto's leg tensed and it did so in order to keep the frown or any expression from forming on his face.

'Perhaps what you've found is perfect for our needs and we could stay here in this room and debate whether or not it is, for quite some time, but that isn't the point right now. What is the point, is that we're going to have to spend the next few weeks cleaning up your mess. I warrant that it may take longer to clean up the mess you've made than to get this estate ready to be lived in.' Explained Plagueis and he waited for Naruto to ask a question or perhaps even make a rebuttal.

Thinking that it would be better to try and guess the mistake or possible mistakes that he had made, Naruto went over everything that he had done before coming deciding on, "My fingerprint." He was however unprepared for what Plagueis said next, 'That's just the tip of a large iceberg.' No longer able to keep his features in check, Naruto adopted an expression of slight scorn for what was just said.

'I know you rather well and I'm betting that you tried to make whoever you talked with forgot about the estate or perhaps even had them forget they saw you altogether. I know how you like to use mind tricks. The problem is that no matter how much you made them forget or how much you convinced them that you were the ancestor or inheritor of this estate, you don't know how such matters work. Nor did you know enough about Naboo.' said Plagueis right before elaborating, 'Once you put your fingerprint on this document, even if you had them delete everything right after it was done, you put yourself in their system, or rather you put a person called Menma.

Once this documentation was processed which happened immediately, many other triggers were set off in their system. You think in terms of Konoha but Naboo is far more automated. By inheriting this home, you've also let the planet's tax department know that the building is now occupied and you'll be expected to file taxes. The planet's government also keeps track of it's people. They certainly don't spy on them like a few other places I know but Menma's name won't register in the database of Naboo citizens which will likely attract the attention of someone. Naboo is not a well known planet in the Republic and it never has been. People don't have vacation homes on Naboo and thus the people on the planet that are not Gungans, are all citizens. They have identifications and all sorts of credentials which Menma does not.

Also, when you tried to claim this property, you were probably asked for credentials and proof. That information was supposed to be entered into their database but wasn't because you didn't have it. Even if you did have the inheritance deleted, at some point, someone is going to start asking questions about what is going on with the Rudshar Estate and who is Menma. It may take a month or more before something happens but at some point, someone will get wise and go looking to see. Unless you plan to keep lookout or constantly trick the planetary security forces, the tax collectors, the citizenship bureau, or many other departments in the Naboo government? However what is certain is that you aren't going to be able to keep this property.

There is of course the opportunity to back out and leave. Menma is really just a name on a piece of paper with a fingerprint. That in and of itself is not very significant. It isn't your name and though it is your fingerprint, they'll probably only think you just tried to fake being from the Rudshad family in order to steal property. When they can't find any trace of you, they'll put the fingerprint into some type of database in the Republic. Perhaps it will never come up ever again. You could just start wearing gloves all the time. However, if you are set on keeping this estate, which I believe that you are, then there is a great deal of work to do.'

Naruto thought over all of the information that he had just been hit with. He never considered something like that. It did however make sense that a planet such as Naboo would be automated with notifications and listings. 'I can't just get by with mind tricks. Someone _is_ going to notice but I don't want to give up that property.' Was the decision that he came to and he soon asked, "What must be done?"

Pleased that his student was committed to the endeavor, Plagueis explained the solution, 'You must become Menma Rudshar.' Surprised by the answer, Naruto went to say something but Plagueis cut him off, 'And I don't mean just on paper. Of course there are numerous documents to forge, from more than one planet even, but you still must become this person. You must play the part enough that anyone on Naboo can meet him and not think that he doesn't belong or question whether or not he is the inheritor of that estate.'

After almost a minute of thinking it over, Naruto asked, "What will that entail?" Despite trying to control the possessed body, Plagueis let himself indulge and the Mustafarian smiled as the newly devised plan grew to fruition. Naruto was certainly going to be punished for making such problems in the past few days but it occurred to him while reading the deed, that he needed to change the manner in which it would happen. If there was one thing he had learned in the last few months, it was that his student could take an incredible amount of punishment, physical and mental, and feel very little or at least push past it. Such punishment did not really teach Naruto a lesson, it really only taught him how to endure more punishment than he could before. He had something better in mind, something more subtly but ultimately fitting.

Admittedly, there were other ways to get the estate without having to create an identity for his student but he made Naruto believe that his method was the only option they had available. From the time he started teaching the boy, he made a note of everything that Naruto hated and disliked. One of the many dislikes was being in the spotlight for positive deeds and acts. It was almost akin to humiliation for Naruto. Spending most of his life as an outcast and infamous among the adults in the village, Naruto had grown to accept the gazes of the villagers as normal while under his tutelage. The looks of contempt had ceased to bother the boy as much as they used to and Naruto had stopped looking for attention and acknowledgment because the his spirit was always around.

Having learned to live in the shadows, it would therefore be a fitting punishment for Naruto to have to live out in the open and interact with new people on a daily basis or as often as possible. 'As the heir to a winery, you will be expected to restart production and rebuild the business. It would look suspicious if you neglected what your ancestors worked hard at. You will also have to be able to present yourself as upper-class and obviously become extremely knowledgeable about wine.' Started Plagueis and he could tell that Naruto was dreading the thought of meeting people, especially those of the upper-class. Though he could have continued, the Sith Lord paused in his explanation, to wait for the inevitable admittance from his student.

"I don't know anything about wine." Naruto stated honestly as he hadn't even consumed an alcoholic beverage in his life, let along started a winery. 'You don't have to worry much about that, the person that I was born as, Hugo Damask, was quite the wine connoisseur. I will teach you.' He offered, knowing that Naruto would not be able to refuse.

'Does this estate have any rooms for gatherings or events?' Plagueis then inquired and Naruto thought over the question with the first few entire floors of the building coming to mind. He wanted tell his Master that, no, it didn't have anything but knew it was foolish to even think about lying, so he confessed, "The first few floors of the building seem entirely dedicated to entertaining guests."

The former Muun was actually pleasantly surprised by this and found himself wanting to see this building that his student had inherited. 'Then as Rudshar, you shall be making use of these rooms. After all, wine tasting is an important part of successfully running such a business.' Plagueis commented and he could feel the apprehension come from his student. Naruto felt at home in the planets of the Outer-Rim but at a party, full of wealthy and influential guests, that would be quite the torment.

'And now to add the icing on the cake.' Thought Plagueis sadistically before getting to the best part, 'There is one more thing I should add.' And with such a statement, he immediately had Naruto's attention, 'Had you done your homework about the planet beforehand, you may have come across the fact that public service is mandatory from the ages of twelve to twenty on Naboo.' The effect that the piece of information was instantaneous. If there was one thing that Naruto hated about being a ninja for Konoha, it was the public service aspect that was involved with the job. It wasn't all dangerous missions. They also had a duty to the village to serve the people and patrol Fire Country. However, Naruto's dislike went even further beyond that as public service was a very broad collection of positions, duties, and jobs.

Despite having great patience and taking huge amount of time to teach Naruto everything he could, Plagueis encountered one significant problem that Naruto could never seem to get over, he was completely incompetent when it came to government and politics. How the Republic Senate worked, committees as well as debates, just seemed to confuse and frustrate his student to such a degree that he eventually stopped trying to teach him such subjects.

Before Naruto could ask, Plagueis said, 'No, you won't be able to put yourself down as being older than twenty. Your paperwork will all list you as being thirteen, giving you plenty of years to enjoy and experience public service at it's fullest. On Naboo the largest public service organization is the Legislative Youth Program, helping young Naboan's learn about government and politics. Almost all youths join this program for several years before they can switch to something else.'

The information was not welcoming to Naruto as he considered his future on Naboo. There was still the option of opting out of it all but thinking back to the castle, his castle, he couldn't part with it. "Then I guess I'll be requiring more of your teachings." Was Naruto's only response to the revelation and Plagueis nodded, confident that he could work with what he had been given, both with the property and his student.

'Oh and one more thing,' Plagueis said before Naruto started to get up and leave, 'Why are two Twi'leks suddenly joining us?' Remembering his earlier talk with Juugo, Naruto decided to go with, "Juugo saved them and now they apparently feel they need to repay him or really just have nowhere to go."

'Is that all?' Questioned the Sith Lord and Naruto remembered what he had come up with on the way back from Naboo, which would make them useful to their group. They didn't really need dancers and neither girl had any other ability that he was aware. However, eventually something did come to him, "It may be good to start up a small business on Naboo, one that isn't associated with us but could be useful."

'And what would this business do?' Inquired Plagueis as he tested to see if Naruto was making it up as he went along or not. "Importing and selling our mining product from Mustafar. If I'm going to be in the wine business, then it would look strange to be importing minerals and metals from the Outer-Rim." Naruto came up with and found himself in another staring contest with his Master.

Plagueis was intrigued by the answer as he hadn't started considering what to do with their future mining operation on Mustafar. It would be months before producing anything, given how much work needed to be done to add-on to the facility, but they would need someone to sell it for them. 'It seems you have given this some thought after all and aren't just making excuses for other members of the group. However if anything happens, you will make Juugo deal with them.' Plagueis said with finality before getting up and leaving the room.

x-x

Just over two weeks later

x-x

Coming down to the living area in the tower, Naruto exited the working turbolift and found several of the group lounging or eating some breakfast while surfing the Holonet. Their access to the galaxy wide information network was thanks to the transceivers that he had stolen from Jabba's Palce, which were installed in the upper levels. Most of the building was now functional and this was primarily due to the use of all the materials they had taken off the fallen LiMerge Power building. Their building was not connected to the Theed Power Grid but they were using smaller generators until they could get their hands on something bigger.

Summoning the Star Jewel to an area of the forest nearby the mountains, they unloaded everything from the ship and Naruto un-summoned it or really just sent it back to the dead planet they left it on. It would be some time before they had the means to do anything with the luxury yacht and it was best to keep it where it couldn't be traced to them. There wasn't room near the tower to store the vessel without risking someone spotting it from above or from the plains. It was also too large to create an underground storage area for it with the earth jutsu that Naruto possessed.

Looking through the kitchen, Naruto looked right over the leftovers from the previous large meal, which had mostly consisted of the Krayt dragon meat that Suigetsu had gotten from his kill on Tatooine. While it was great to have the meat and it tasted good during the large barbeque they had on outside by the lake, after so many weeks of eating it, everyone had grown tired of it. Making his breakfast, Naruto looked over his datapad and reviewed what still needed to be done concerning the building and all of his other projects. The list seemed to only get longer despite his completion of a number of tasks.

The most recent completed task from the list was secretly placing Sith Runes on the building in order to strengthen it as well as keep any dark-side energies from being felt by those outside. Considering his Master's plans for wine tasting parties and other such events, which he still dreaded, Naruto couldn't very well try and keep people away from the building with concealment runes so he had done his best to at least give them some protection. As the Master in question arrived on the floor and went to the kitchen as well, Naruto wondered what would be on the agenda. Learning about the process of wine making was tedious, though he never voiced his opinions. It was immediately evident that Plagueis was far more interested in wine than he was originally led to believe. The part about being a connoisseur while still alive was likely correct.

Plans were already made for the cultivation of the old vineyards using seeds from the wild vines that had kept growing in the years since the estate had been properly tended. Given the planet's long growing season because of the very mild winters, it seemed that they could start at any time and even harvest more than once a year. The numerous variables concerning harvesting the fruits had all been explained and were still bouncing around in his head. The former Muun had regaled him for hours over the past few weeks and in great detail about nearly every aspect of a winery and yet claimed the previous day that the teachings were only the beginning and that he would be learning much more in the coming months and possibly years.

'Joy.' Naruto commented as he finished his breakfast and looked at the planetary news about the upgrade of a starport in the city of Keren. Putting a mental map of Naboo in his head, Naruto determined that such information really didn't affect them as the city was hours away from them by speeder. Before he could hear the rest of the broadcast, Plagueis muted the volume and stood over his position on the couch, "We have another meeting." the Sith Lord said in deep and slightly synthetic voice. Naruto nodded, knowing immediately who the meeting was with and he went to get ready to leave.

With the new facilities they had, Kabuto had helped to install a special vocabulator module in the Mustafarian's throat. It instantly converted his Mustafarian speech into Galactic Basic so that they could understand him. There was a slight displacement between when he started talking and the vocabulator but it was much better than constantly hearing the Sith Lord's voice reverberate in their heads.

The individual they were going to meet was a Hutt named Borvo. Despite Naboo's seemingly ideal and peaceful society, or perhaps because of it, Borvo had made a hideout on the planet that he used more than any of the other outposts Plagueis mentioned that the Hutt possessed. Keeping a legitimate business on the planet, selling sporting rifles, Borvo kept anyone from knowing about his rather expansive criminal empire known as Nal Raka. He operated on numerous worlds and was heavily involved in the illegal activities of smuggling and gunrunning. Since settling in their estate, they had visited Borvo several times.

During the first visit, they had made an offering to the Hutt to prove their good intentions and promote good relations. The offering was part of the weapons shipment that Naruto had failed to sell to Jabba. The first part of the shipment had been on their previous ship, Forty-Two, with the second half spending over ten years hidden in a bolthole on the unnamed planet.

Having thought he lost the shipment, Borvo was immensely pleased with having a part of it returned and they had explained finding the ship abandoned and crashed in the Outer-Rim. Plagueis had not allowed Naruto to negotiate at first and merely had him sit back and watch as Borvo was shown some stolen Hutt-related items and they bargained in exchange for procuring several pieces of equipment and devices that would normally have been impossible to find on Naboo or most planets that did not have a thriving black market.

On the second visit, Plagueis revealed their real intentions for contacting the Hutt, which was to secure falsified identity information for the person that Naruto intended to become and impersonate. Despite being able to forge most of the documents that Naruto needed, there were some items that Plagueis simply could not create with the resources he had access too. While Borvo did not have the means to do this either, the Hutt did know someone that could. This unfortunately made the deal more complicated as they were no longer dealing with just Borvo but actually dealing through the Hutt. Coming to a price that included the Hutt's fee as well as the forgers amount was not easy, especially since Plagueis felt that Borvo's price was far too much.

Getting bored on the sidelines, Naruto decided to offer something else to Borvo instead of monetary payment. He noted that the Hutt had dealings throughout the Outer-Rim and asked if Borvo did business on Sarafur, which they already knew what his answer to the question would be. The Hutt responded that he did and Naruto offered the Hutt's vessels protection while on the planet and would waive the starport landing fees. Borvo had been curious to know how he would accomplish such a deal to which Naruto responded that he knew the new owner of the planet and that Borvo could worry about the forger's fee. The Hutt laughed but accepted the arrangement and as part of the deal, Naruto would have to travel to Sarafur on Borvo's next shipment in order to show that the deal was finalized and that his smuggler ships had free access to the shadowport.

With the agreement, they only had to wait for his documents to be completed and the next shipment to be arranged.

x-x

Taking one of the small couriers in from the upper hangar, Naruto and Plagueis journeyed a short distance to the Hutt's base nestled in an area of the Gallo Mountains. Plagueis took the helm while Naruto glanced down at the surface of his new home planet. He soon spotted their destination as what appeared to be a manufacturing facility, with adjoining hangar, came into view. Neither knew exactly what the collection of buildings had once been to the Naboo or if Borvo had built everything himself and they decided not ask. Messaging their arrival, the base defenses allowed their approach and they landed on the landing strip coming out of the hangar.

Disembarking, the Sith Lord and student walked across the smooth surface as they made their way to one of the manufacturing buildings. The building was architecturally similar to all other Naboo buildings however Borvo hid many sub-levels hidden underneath the facility where the real dealings and operations were done. Naruto noted the interesting looking freighter in the hangar which apparently was the style that Borvo liked to use. He based this off the last time they were there, when a similar vessel with different marking had been parked in the hangar. The starships were beige in color with a beaked front like a bird of prey and were long as well as narrow ships. Halfway down the fuselage, they carried either three very large cargo containers or were equipped with a cargo hold, depending on the variation or perhaps what cargo it was hauling.

Reaching the building, large metal doors opened for them and they noted but pretended to ignore Borvo's heavily armed men stationed both outside and inside. Taking a secret lift down to the sublevels, they were stopped by someone as soon as they exited the lift and thoroughly searched for any listening devices, communicators, and weapons. Walking down rough rocky hallway which led to Borvo's throne room, or whatever the Hutt preferred to call it, Naruto and Plagueis remained silent the entire journey.

With no henge to hide his appearance, Naruto stood next to the much taller Mustafarian as both looked across the short distance to the seated Borvo. The throne room was large and draped in finery to cover most of the rough, exposed rock wall. Unlike Jabba, Borvo had many pieces of furniture in the room so guests could sit down. The largest piece of furniture was a raised platform which the blue Hutt was currently sitting on. Borvo's coloring was almost a dark aquamarine with a much lighter front and stomach. Unlike Jabba, Borvo was smaller and liked to move around the room while they spoke or at least stayed mobile instead of just lounging during business meetings.

Sliding off the platform, Naruto didn't need to know Huttese to figure out that Borvo was welcoming them as he wore a large smile and gestured with his arms for them to come closer. The pair moved and Borvo made a motion with his hands to the guards around the room, who soon dispersed so they could talk in private. The only person of Borvo's entourage that stayed was his right hand person, a human female named Adela who also acted as translator. The Hutt offered them a drink, the offer being translated to them by Adela, but they declined with Plagueis siting that they had their time was short and that they meant no offense. Borvo nodded and motion for Adela. The short black haired woman walked up behind Borvo and handed him small case which she opened to reveal a single datachip.

Moving to hand the chip over to Naruto, Borvo pulled back and said something that was quickly translated by his assistant, "The arms shipment will be ready by tomorrow." Naruto quickly replied to this statement, "I'll be here in the morning and ready to travel."

With another large smile, Borvo proceeded with the exchange, and handed him the case with the chip, which Naruto pocketed. The Hutt raised a hairless brow and Naruto quickly explained, "I trust that it's all there." Nodding in agreement and with the transaction complete, Borvo escorted them out while talking about how he hoped to continue working with them and that if they needed anything, his door was always open for the right price. As the pair left, Borvo moved back to his throne room but the pleased look he had on his face had diminished greatly.

'It's a shame, we may never see them again.' Admitted the blue Hutt to Adela and she kept her surprise in check but asked, "Why is that?"

'They've garnered the attention of some dangerous people. I'm not sure if it's good attention or bad as it all depends on information that I won't be privy too.' Explained the Hutt as he remained a little cryptic so as to not break his agreement. Adela knew better not to inquire any further and she asked if he needed anything before leaving.

Borvo shook his head and was left to his thoughts as the guards returned and took their stations around the room. He rather liked the humanoid boy, not the taller unknown male but it did sadden him that they may never do business again. He was quite interested to know how someone so young had so much influence on a shadowport that was so close to the Unknown Region and quite a distance from Naboo. He had done some checking and it turned out that the entire planet of Sarafur had recently been 'unified' and under the control of someone likely working from the shadows.

It made sense in a way as he suspected the boy was much more dangerous than he appeared. Especially after he received a peculiar message from an old friend. Though running his own criminal enterprise independently, he still kept good relations with the other criminals that mattered. He had no idea that the boy was in any way responsible for the recent events on Tatooine but after sending all the pertinent information to the forger that he used, one the Black Sun Vigo's soon contacted him.

He had known Narees for quite some time and they were on good terms, it was therefore quite a shock when the Iktotchi had asked if he was involved in the assassination of Jabba the Hutt. After profusely denying having a hand in such an act, though admitting that he was glad for a business rival like Jabba to have been killed, he wanted to know who had been spreading such information about him. Narees was confused but explained about the boy and how the Black Sun aligned forger had received the picture and information. Until that point, Borvo had no idea that the boy might be so infamous or skilled. They talked at length and it was agreed that the false identity would be created but that Borvo would need to determine if the boy was who Narees had been looking for.

It payed to know who he was doing business with and Borvo never anticipated that Jabba's assassin would come to him to do business or for the creation of a false identity. Using his contacts in Theed, he found the property that the boy was staying at and cautiously checked it out. Sending out several probe droids, the suspicions were confirmed when they spotted a large Ubrikkian yacht, greatly resembling Jabba's _Star Jewel,_ hidden on the property. However, before confirming with Narees about the boy's identity, he had asked what the Black Sun's interest was in Menma. His old friend was tight lipped and wouldn't reveal anything, likely on orders for the Underlord, which told Borvo that it was a serious matter. A new question was therefore asked by the Hutt, 'Did the Black Sun wish to harm the boy?'

Narees was able to answer the question and stated that they did not wish him harm but simply wished to get in contact with him, not immediately, but soon. Borvo was positive that Narees meant they wanted to recruit Menma into the Black Sun. Such a task was made simpler by the fact that the Black Sun was creating the fake identity and could hold that information over Menma. It was unfortunate but he informed Narees about the _Star Jewel_. The Iktotchi was extremely happy about the news and informed Borvo that he would be given a nice finders fee.

As long as Menma accepted the Black Sun's offer, no harm would come to him and while Borvo told that to himself over and over again, he still didn't like the taste that was left in his mouth. Selling out new friends was not something he liked to do but he was running a business, a criminal business. It was better for his business to not make enemies or lie to the likes of the Black Sun.

x-x

Stopping at the Theed Spaceport, Plagueis waited while Naruto left the ship and went to take care of his citizenship and property inheritance to make sure that everything was in proper order. Later on they would worry about his public service and other such matters. Thus far, they had not had anyone come by knocking to inquire about him or the estate. It was best to keep it that way.

While Naruto headed off to the palace, Plagueis began to meditate but found himself unable to properly do so. Something was wrong but he couldn't pin down exactly what. The feeling was coming through the Force but it was an unspecified danger or caution. At first he thought it was his student but that didn't seem correct. Naruto had only just left the ship and wouldn't have even made it to the palace yet. Deciding not to ignore the feeling, he kept the ship running and ready to leave.

x-x

Walking down the ramp of his supplied transport in the Theed Landing Plaza, Senator Palpatine and his entourage were greeted by the Governor of Naboo, Sio Bibble, along with many of the planet's Advisory Council members. The large welcoming party also included many noble and important figures as well as the chief of security and a contingent of Naboo security officers. The only important figure that had not come to see his arrival was the King of Naboo, Ars Veruna.

This did not surprise Palpatine in the least. He had many dealings, both in the light and in the shadows, with the current king and their relations had grown rather strained in the past few years. He therefore ignored the absence of the King in favor of greeting those that had shown up. He quickly adorned a fake smile and gave firm but untrue handshakes. He would have greatly liked to not have to travel back to his home planet but the duties of a senator came first and he could not avoid it. Following as the group led him out of the plaza and into the city, he made simple conversation with those around him and gave orders to his assistants as they headed towards the palace.

It was while he was being guided to the large structure in the distance that he suddenly felt something. Not only through the Force but he also felt a familiar feeling suddenly come over him. It was difficult to describe and even after searching his feelings he could not determine exactly what he was feeling. 'It had better not be nostalgia.' He quickly thought with disdain at the mere notion of ever feeling such pointless emotions towards his birth planet. It had been a number of years since he had last set foot on Naboo but something just felt...off about his visit. Remembering that the King had not come to greet his arrival, he thought perhaps his feelings and the Force was telling him something about the significance of that slight.

x-x

Despite having his new citizenship in hand and having avoided another debacle in the property and tax department, Naruto found himself wanting an actual physical copy of all the documents he now had. He felt unsatisfied with the digital copy that he was forced to live with and wanted something more substantial. Putting the new chip along with the other in the case, and dropping it back into his pocket, Naruto continued along the hard but finely polished stone floors. Making his his way through the Palace and along the path that was becoming more familiar, he headed towards the large Palace courtyard in order to become lost in the crowds and make his exit towards the starport.

Looking to a nearby window, he looked down into the expansive Royal Gardens and since no one else was in the hallway, he decided to stop and look at the lush and colorful courtyard. Soon remembering that Plagueis was waiting for him back at the spaceport, Naruto turned back to continue when he suddenly felt something. Though a group was moving towards him and would soon intersect with them in the upcoming hallway, he was stopped by something that felt out of place. It was a specific individual, an anomaly among the group. As they got closer, he could feel emotions coming from them, save for the one person that stood out. That person felt strange to him. Looking towards the wall, as if he could see through the thick stone, he began to realize who or what it could have and quickly said one word through his communicator, then repeated it.

x-x

Walking with the large escort through the hallways of the Palace, the Senator ignored the ramblings of those around him as he felt something up ahead. As they turned the corner and found large windows showing the Royal Gardens, for some reason, Palpatine had almost expected to see someone standing by the windows.

Confusion set in, as the brief contact with the presence had started another bout of vague familiarity but no sooner had he felt the presence and the feelings, than both had completely vanished. In spite of the disappearance, the feeling triggered an almost forgotten memory to surface in his mind as he ignored what many were saying to him and stopped to look out through the nearby windows to the gardens below.

It was during the latter half of his training that he had been pitted against a Jedi Knight by his Master in order to test his skills. He was arrogant during the fight, providing an opportunity to the Jedi which nearly cost him his arm. Plagueis ended the battle by knocking out the Jedi and then torturing his Apprentice with Force Lightning for his failure and foolishness at underestimating his foe. He remembered that the Jedi was kept in a coma while slowly drained of blood over the course of several months before finally being allowed to die.

'Why would such a memory surface?' the Sith Lord questioned and soon realized that he had stopped to stare at the garden and everyone was still around him. Turning back to concerned faces, questioning why he had suddenly stopped, the sly Sith quickly thought of something. "I must apologize good friends. I got lost in the view." He quipped to group with a smile in order to explain his sudden actions.

It was greeted with chuckles from most with understanding statements made about how different it must be from Coruscant. Agreeing with the speakers, he continued on his way to the dining hall where presumably the King would be. Though he could have chosen to meditate on the thoughts and memory later, he decided not to revisit his past and forget the events. That Jedi was long dead and the body properly disposed of with no evidence remaining for anyone to find. There was no conceivable reason it should ever come back to haunt him and he was determined to keep such memories buried deep in his mind where he would never have to revisit them.

x-x

Thinking that his student was taking a very long time, Plagueis tried to remain patient but still wondered why he couldn't shake the bad feeling that getting... "Kinan. Kinan." Suddenly came through the comm system from his student and the Sith Lord instantly recognized the words and their significance. Working the controls, the ship was already leaving the ground off before the ramp was closed or the landing legs of the sleek craft were fully retracted. Flying low and hugging the rock wall, Plagueis accelerated and kept the ship on a rather perilous course, even going straight through a waterfall as he piloted the vessel away from the city and would take a winding course as he made his way back to the castle.

The word, kinan, was something that he had come up with for the both of them. It was Ibonihese and was best translated as 'immanent danger or peril.' When used once, the word would convey to the other that they were walking into a trap. Repeating the word a second time was not to make sure it was heard but to emphasize even more danger. Saying it twice was the equivalent of being told to leave immediately and not look back. Meaning that he was to take the ship away and leave Naruto. 'It seems I should have listened or at least heeded the Force and my feelings more. Possibly going so far as to keep Naruto from leaving the ship.' Admonished the Sith Lord as Naruto would not use the word, much less twice, unless it was a significantly dangerous situation. There was no way of knowing exactly what the situation was but he knew that getting back undetected and without anyone following him was top priority at the moment. He would arm the others and prepare for a battle if it came to that and get the _Vulture_ ready in case they needed to leave the planet.

x-x

In a crouched position, hidden in the branches of a tree in the Royal Garden, Naruto stared through his goggles at the figures that walked through the hallway, specifically the one that had stopped. Though he was over a hundred feet away, he still felt that perhaps that was not enough and his heart was beating out of his chest. Memorizing the face of the older man, he had never met the person he was looking at but was almost positive that he knew who it was. Everything his Master told him about Sidious soon jumped to the forefront of his mind but he pushed it aside as he gauged the situation and tried to figure out if he had been spotted or was in danger.

Looking intently at the searching man, at one point their eyes even met and Naruto's grip on a nearby branch tightened to such a degree that his arm shook. Precious seconds passed and it seemed his position was not compromised. Sidious and the group soon moved past the row of windows and out of sight. Letting out a breath and pulling down his goggles, Naruto continued to look at the windows and was glad that he had remembered to give the proper warning to his Master. A senatorial visit to the planet was bound to happen but neither had thought it would occur so soon.

"What are you doing up there?" Came a feminine voice that abruptly halted Naruto's thoughts. Cursing in his head, Naruto realized the life-sign that was directly beneath him. He was so concerned with what was going up at the window that he failed to notice someone in the garden.

x-x

Kneeling in the soft grass beside one of the water features in the garden, a young brunette of perhaps ten years of age looked at her own reflection in the smooth pool. It was something that she often did during times of stress or when feeling unsure about something, though she was never sure exactly why she did it. It was nearly lunch and she had time between classes so her feet had automatically taken her from the classrooms at Theed University to the Royal Gardens that were very close by.

'In less than a year, I'll be a full Apprentice Legislator.' She realized and although not the youngest to achieve such an accomplishment, she was moving very fast through the program and gaining recognition because of it. The brunette would be eleven when that happened and had only been in the Legislative Youth Program for just over two years. The reason for her visit to the guards was that in less than two days time, she would attend a dinner with Senator Palpatine right before he left to return to Coruscant.

The invite had only just come but there really wasn't the option of declining. To do so would be extremely rude to the Senator but this did not stop her pulse from quickening every time she thought of the upcoming dinner. She did wonder how many other people were attending but already knew that no other student in her class had been given the same invitation. Staring at a nervous looking reflection, she closed her eyes and took several calming breath while trying to relax the tension. When her eyes opened and she looked to the water, she found her reflection had become distorted from ripples on the surface caused by some fallen leaves.

Looking up to the tree above her, she was surprised to find someone sitting in the branches, almost completely concealed from view. The boy seemed to be around her age and was making no noise while looking intently towards the Palace through what she thought were just normal goggles. Curious, and eager for a good distraction, she asked, "What are you doing up there?"

The surprise of her question had somehow caused the boy to become even more still than he had been. Turning toward her he pulled off the goggles and met her gaze. Blue met brown and she felt as though she was being heavily scrutinized under his sharp stare. Breaking eye contact, she looked to his features, slightly chubby cheeks with strange markings and spiky blonde hair that went in every direction.

Naruto's mind went through a dizzying array of scenarios as he determined both how to answer the question and how to respond to being caught. He needed to ascertain the situation with Sidious to determine if the masquerading Senator was on to them and if his visit was due to their presence on the planet. He wondered if he should run, kill the girl, knock her out, use mind tricks, look through her memory, or take her hostage. Concerning the Senator, he regretted not having any weapons and knew engaging was out of the question, which meant that distanced observation was likely best.

These thoughts all went through his head in no more than a second as he used the Force to analyze the situation. However, he regretted that decision when he realized that his manipulation of the energy field could attract the wrong attention. As seconds passed and her question remained unanswered, and his decision on what to do with her remained undecided, Naruto panicked and made up a quick lie, "Just playing a children's game."

No sooner than the words had left his mouth than both of them realized how bad the lie was. When he was younger, Plagueis always told him that he didn't have time for children's games and since no one ever played with him, he never knew the names or even types of games that were played by those his age. Even if he had, the cultural and language differences would have made just about any game he mentioned seem like gibberish and he wasn't even sure children played games on Naboo; too busy doing pointless public service.

A sly smirk adorned the girl's face and she responded by saying, "No child refers to the games that they play as, 'children's games.' What an unconvincing lie. I can tell that even you regretted telling something so feeble. Why don't you just try telling me the truth?" She suggested and Naruto mulled over the suggestion before deciding to use her for answers but would have to be much more convincing and subtle about it, so he told her a version of the truth.

"I've recently become a citizen of Naboo and will likely be entered into the Youth Legislative Program, so I'm looking over the area before joining." He offered and kept a straight face while ignoring how her eyes narrowed in suspicion and lips pursed. "The University is in the opposite direction; you were looking at the Palace." She accused and waited for him to show a sign of being caught in the lie or for him to explain himself. It was strange that he was in the tree but he had no weapons or seemed to be up to no good, as far as she could tell.

Keeping calm, Naruto gave a smug smile before he elaborated, "I've already looked at the University and as for why I was looking at the Palace, I heard that Senator Palpatine had arrived on the planet. I was curious and decided to take a look while I was in the area." He noted how her eyes widened slightly at the mention of the name before she quickly glanced to the windows of the Palace that he had been looking at. She didn't realize that the Senator had already arrived on Naboo.

Since it was evident that the girl may know more than him, Naruto decided to press his advantage, "You seem just as interested as I am?"

Schooling her features, the girl remarked, "I don't need to hide in trees in order to get a look at someone. You're lucky the Palace Guards didn't see you acting suspicious. Couldn't you wait to see him until his address in Keren?" Having heard the city named before, earlier that day in fact, Naruto decided to use the simplest method at his disposal.

"His address in Keren?" He inquired with a tilted head and the best questioning look he could come up with. The girls shook her head slightly and informed him, "The reason for the Senator's visit is to re-open the Kwilaan Starport in Keren. It's been under construction for a while now to upgrade it to a stellar-class starport. He'll be giving an address to those of the city and it will likely be broadcasted all over the planet."

"Oh...I believe I caught something about that on the news this morning, but someone muted it before I could hear everything." Naruto explained and could tell that the unnamed girl still did not fully believe him but was relaxing and letting down her guard. Having gotten quite a bit of information, Naruto came to part where he had to decide what to do. What he really needed was a distraction. He had already revealed more than he wanted to but didn't have time to continue such conversations as he needed to determine if Sidious had felt him and then report back to his Master.

"Padme!" Came a call from someone else who was entering the gardens. The newly named Padme, turned to see her friend coming towards her and then turned back to ask the boy to come down so she could introduce them but upon turning back, she found the tree empty. Her eyes widened and mouth dropped in surprise as not even a leaf had fallen from his escape and she looked all around to figure out where the blonde could have gotten too. There were many trees and bushes in the garden but she didn't even spot a glimpse of him.

Seeing Padme's confusion, her friend asked, "Did it fly away?" Thinking that it was a bird that Padme was motioning towards and that had been up in the tree. Turning to her friend, Padme thought about telling her about the boy but decided against it. "Apparently he did." She admitted in a soft voice and wondered just how the boy had managed to do that. Not even catching his name, she remembered what he said about entering the youth program and wondered if it was the truth or if it was a well spoken lie.

x-x

Using Jiraiya's Toton Jutsu (Transparent Escape Technique) for concealing himself from view, Naruto stuck himself against one of the rock walls and looked down below at the Theed Landing Plaza. The square plaza was just large enough for the vessel parked at the center and he found two guards positioned at the end of the ship's entry ramp.

He hadn't been able to verify Sidious's location within the palace because he didn't risk getting too close to the building or finding himself in another situation like what had just happened ten minutes prior. Going back to the castle would be the best choice but if he could get a hold of the Senator's schedule or even a flight plan, he would have a better idea of where the man would be while on the planet or at least when the Senator planned to leave. Since stealing a datapad from one of Sidious's entourage was out of the question for the moment, he decided to sneak onto their ship.

If they weren't leaving for at least a day, then he shouldn't have a problem with anyone returning. All he needed to do would be to get past the guards. Wall crawling like a chameleon, Naruto moved down to the plaza floor while keeping an eye out for surveillance and guards. He made his way across the ground on his hands and feet, just a few inches above the surface. Moving to the nearest docking skid, he climbed up it and moved across the bottom of the ship, heading for the entry ramp. The faster he moved with the technique active, the less the jutsu was able to conceal and someone might see his outline or movements.

Getting onto the ramp without making a sound, Naruto slowly moved into the ship, stopping at the entrance as he focused on the Force to detect any monitoring devices. The marking on the hull identified it as a Republic ship and it had no armaments, so chances were good that the ship had not been modified but was one of many ships available for use by senators or other ambassadors of the Republic. 'Still, I'm not taking any chances.' He thought and had already adopted a henge so if anything did catch him or see through the camouflage technique, he wouldn't be identified.

Moving down the ship's main corridor and past numerous rooms, he extended his senses and didn't detect any life-signs aboard. Remaining wary of droids, he slowly heading towards the cockpit. Sitting in one of the seats, Naruto accessed the flight controls and ships log. If there was one thing he had retained from his Master's teaching about the Republic government, it was that they documented just about everything. Quickly finding the flight plan, he memorized the arrival and planned departure time. With the information and after covering his tracks, he knew it was time to leave the ship and Theed.

x-x

With Jiraiya's technique still active, Naruto ran across the plains north of Theed in standard ninja form, with his arms trailing and his torso lowered. Timing everything perfectly, he moved in unison with the breeze as the grass was blown which hid his foot falls in the short ankle-high green blades. Going at full speed, he soon reached the treeline but was unable to tree-hop as the trees on Naboo were just not the same as those on Ibonihs.

Concealed blue eyes spotted quite a few of the native fauna as the noises of his movements were heard but his body remained unseen. With nearly thirty kilometers to cover he decided to keep commlink silence for the same reason that he hadn't taken a speeder. Having memorized the route from Theed to the castle, he knew that eventually he would meet up with the river that entered into the lake on his property. Once he was there, he would wait in the water using water jutsu and see if he was being followed. When he was sure that no one was tracking him, he could follow the river to the castle with the same jutsu and remain unseen beneath the surface.

x-x

The _Vulture_ was packed and ready to leave as every member save Naruto sat on pins and needles in either the cockpit or galley. The engines were fully warmed and hyperdrive ready to leave the system. The only thing left was to hear back from Naruto or detect something on the ships scanners. Sitting in the cockpit, the Sith Lord kept the comm channels open but had the distinct feeling that his student would not use them. Looking back to the other members in the cockpit, he was reminded that despite the ship having good sensors, Karin would likely be able to detect someone from much farther away than the ship could because of the trees and mountains as well as indigenous species.

Breathing in and out while trying to keep from feeling the sense of tension and nervousness which was pervading the entire ship, Plagueis turned his thoughts elsewhere and discovered the one problem in their use of the word alerting system, 'We never agreed upon a length of time to wait or if leaving entailed just the area or the planet.'

A picture of Naruto captured by a bounty hunter came to the forefront of his mind and though it was a possibility, he didn't think his student would be captured so easily, despite not having any weapons. The thought that Borvo had betrayed them, or at least notified someone of their presence on Naboo, did occur to him. He had no idea if the bounty was still in place but doubted that it mattered. The picture was wrong, the description was wrong and Jabba's clan would want definitive proof if they were going to spend any credits to have the assassin brought to them or killed. Borvo also hated Jabba and had more to gain from taking over Jabba's territory than from turning them in. There was only one person who survived to tell others but such a story may be seen as nothing but a spacers tale. People would stop focusing on the assassin and turn their attention to who had hired Jabba's killer, not that they would find anything or suspect that no one had hired Naruto.

His mind then came to the other real possibility for Naruto's message. 'Could Sidious really be here on the planet?' Plagueis questioned as he hadn't felt his Apprentice, only a sense of foreboding, but wondered if they could be one in the same. 'If that is the case, then staying in this ship would actually be worse than staying inside the castle.' The Sith Lord realized as the Sith Runes would keep him from being felt.

Choosing between leaving the planet and going back to the castle, his choice was made for him when Karin spoke up from the seat behind him, "I can feel him. He's just coming out of the water!" As a mass exodus ensued as everyone but the Sith Lord moved quickly to find out what was going on. Plagueis took his time as leaving the ship could be foolish, depending on what news Naruto was bringing.

Taking deep breaths to let himself recover from the hour and half journey from Theed with constant jutsu usage, Naruto ignored those gathered around him and the questions being asked. He waited for Plagueis to near and heard his Master's voice in his mind, 'He's here.' It wasn't a question though as Naruto knew that from just looking at him that Plagueis had deduced what he was going to say, so he merely nodded and the Sith Lord then asked, 'Were you followed?'

'No but I'm quite sure that he felt me for a brief moment.' Admitted Naruto and he could feel the conflict resonating from Plagueis at the thought of being discovered. 'With me, now.' He commanded and Naruto told the others to stay in the ship while the pair went back to the castle to discuss what had happened.

x-x

'Tell me everything." Demanded Plagueis as he and Naruto sat across from each other in the first floor of the castle. Naruto did not hesitate and started from the beginning, "After I finished taking care of everything with the documents you provided and those from Borvo, I headed back to the ship out the same way I entered the palace. I suddenly felt a group approaching with one person standing out and fled the area, hiding in the Palace Gardens as I watched the group."

Sending a mental image of the person that he saw to his Master, he visible saw Plagueis's possessed body react to the image and could feel the hatred and contempt coming off him. "I believe he felt something though I don't know what he made of it. He spent nearly half a minute looking out of the window and he looked right over me before someone in the group asked if he was alright. He made some comment and they all laughed before taking off."

"Why is he here?" Questioned Plagueis and Naruto chose his words carefully as he explained what he had found out, "I learned that he will be giving an address tomorrow at a spaceport in Keren. It is being upgraded to a stellar-class." Feeling the realization come from his Master, Naruto did not mention anything about the news-feed that morning.

"I did manage to sneak aboard his ship and determine that they aren't scheduled to head back to Coruscant until two days from now." Added Naruto and Plagueis looked up from contemplation and nodded at the valuable information. Leaving out anything about the encounter with the girl, Naruto felt that Plagueis was far to busy in thought to have caught the fact that he left certain details out.

A minute passed while Naruto waited but he soon found a feeling of indecision coming from his Master. "On my long journey from Theed, I thought that this could be an opportunity as for once, you know exactly where he is." Naruto suddenly stated as he tried to determine what his Master was thinking. Not exactly following, Plagueis asked, "You plan to try and kill him during the address?"

"It did cross my mind. But if you know for a fact that he is on Naboo..." and Naruto was cut off as Plagueis caught on to his train of thought, "..then I know that he isn't on Coruscant and won't be leaving to return for another two days. We also just purchased military-grade, encrypted transmitters and receivers from Borvo, just for such an occasion. Though I didn't plan on using them so soon."

"I have to complete our agreement with Borvo." Naruto quickly reminded the Sith Lord and Plagueis nodded before planning who to take with him to Coruscant. The ship was already prepped, he just needed the equipment. Moving back the way he had just come, Plagueis left Naruto sitting in the chair as he went to the ship.

x-x

The _Vulture_ had left several hours ago and Naruto was using the opportunity to quickly finish one of his projects. In his workshop, or what was better known as the tenth floor of his castle, he looked at the contraption that he had created in front of him. Connecting to the Star Map from Tatooine was a mass of wires which interfaced with a computer console that Naruto had built from spare parts. The Star Map was a complete unit but in order to get completely obtain all the information that he was after, he needed to be able to transmit data from other sources into the Rakatan device.

Several data chips had been inserted into the computer console and were compiling large amounts of data from multiple sources. He had navigational data from _Forty-Two_, Deefour, the _Vulture_, the warship on Mustafar, and the _Star Jewel_ all compiling together into the Star Map's memory and database. What he wanted, was to be able to view everything he had concerning hyperlanes, planets, and anything else of interest all on a single device. Since the Star Map also happened to be a holoprojector, it only made sense to use it.

While he waited for the process to finish, he marveled at the Rakatan device. It supposedly used the dark-side of the Force to power it but he could barely feel the device siphoning the Force to power it. He could however feel the dark-side emanating from the device. Being that was around thirty thousand years old, it was in perfect condition. When he opened up the panels to take a look at the inner workings, he found that it looked brand new and also noted several pieces of technology inside whose function he did not completely understand.

For such an old device, it also had an incredibly sophisticated and colorful holographic image. Most projectors only used a single color, usually a blue tint, to display images but the Rakatan device was in full color and showed him an image of the entire Galaxy as it likely looked from a view outside of the Galaxy. 'It's thirty thousand years old and it's still high-tech, even cutting edge technology.' He thought and shook his head at how strange that sounded. Adjusting the holographic image with the Force, he zoomed in on an area that he was currently the most interested in.

The Rakatan Infinite Empire was comprised of over five hundred planets but only the ones that had strong connections to the Force. The Rakatan Force-powered hyperdrives were only capable of taking them to such planets. This created a much easier to read projection that only highlighted an almost insignificant number of planets in the Galaxy as a whole. However, out of all those planets, he was currently only concerned with one. The homeworld of the Rakatan species, Lehon.

When the Rakatan retreated to their homeworld after their empire began to fall, they damaged the Star Map devices to prevent any of the numerous races that they enslaved from following. Over tens of thousands of years, the devices repaired themselves, including restoring their information. It was accomplished using a technology or application of the Force that still remained unknown to the rest of the Galaxy and was beyond his current understanding.

'During the time of the Mandalorian Wars and the Jedi Civil War, the information in the devices was incomplete but it seems that in the past three thousand years, this device is now completely intact along with all of it's data.' Thought Naruto as he zoomed into an area of the Unknown Region that showed the location of the Lehon System. Ever since being told the stories concerning the Rakatan and Revan, Naruto had desired to travel to that system and visit the planet.

According to what Plagueis had told him, a thousand years ago, Darth Bane had visited the planet in search of artifacts related to Revan and had discovered a holocron. From that information, Bane formed the current Order of the Sith but the device was all the Dark Lord of the Sith had discovered. Plagueis informed him that Bane's recollection of the planet was that it had no life-signs, so sign of any Rakatan, and nothing else of note or interest. The holocron had also been destroyed by Bane after he learned what he could from the device.

That story had always caused questions to surface in Naruto's mind. He kept thinking, or perhaps hoping that there was still something there. Plagueis had been specific that Bane was looking for Force objects or artifacts related to Revan and that made him wonder, 'Did Bane ignore everything else?' It was likely that Lehon wouldn't offer anything to him but he couldn't deny feeling a pull towards the planet. It was likely a combination of his own curiosity and desire to get any glimpse he could into that time in history, as well as feeling something through the Force but he was unable to determine what the feeling was.

He sometimes wished the Force was more clear to him and he could have visions or at least a greater insight into what choices he should make or what was available to him. Most of the time he felt as if he was looking through a haze or fog when the Force should have been guiding him on a clearer path. Plagueis experienced something similar, though the Sith Lord believed it to be a result of him being a spirit and not having a physical body to feel the Living Force anymore.

Whatever the case, he had manipulated both Plagueis and Borvo into the deal concerning Sarafur. The individual left in charge of the shadowport was mind controlled by Plagueis and would still listen to him. There was no real need to go there and make arrangements that could be made through a simple message. His real reason for going was to try and get to Lehon from Sarafur.

Having looked through the data on the crashed Mustafar ship, he found that it didn't contain a hyperspace route to the Rakatan planet, despite being from around the same time period as the destruction of the Star Forge. What did however strike him as curious, was the fact that his own birth planet, Ibonihs, was likely closer to Lehon than any other planet on the charts he had access to. Compiling them together into a single map, he planned to see just how close it was and how far he would have to journey on his own.

Getting to Sarafur was easy and because it was Borvo's transport, the trip was expected to take at least two weeks or more to get there and back. Borvo did not have the shortcut that their previous ship, _Forty-Two_, had used to go right past Sarafur and into the Unknown Regions. Naruto was confident that he could convince the pilot of the freighter to use that course and get to the shadowport in less than half the time. From there he planned to procure a ship and eventually get to Lehon. Everything depended on how fast the hyperdrives on freighter and procured ship were, as well as his piloting skills to navigate through the Unknown Region.

The trip would be dangerous and foolish, which was why he had not informed his Master about any of it. There journey from Ibonihs was easy because it followed their already traveled path but pushing his way into the hyperspace anomaly that separated the Known Region of the galaxy from the Unknown Region, would be exceedingly difficult. If all went well, he might be able to get to Lehon and back in the same amount of time it would have taken Borvo's freighter to get to Sarafur and back, but he doubted it. If things did not go well, he might be stuck in the Unknown Region forever and no one would know that he had ever left Sarafur.

Naruto's attention was soon brought back to the Star Map as everything finished compiling. Quickly looking over the route they had followed from Ibonihs to Sarafur and the locations of Ibonihs and Lehon, Naruto found that the two planets were indeed close but actually almost the same distance as Sarafur was to Lehon. The distances between the planets and their locations almost formed an equilateral triangle. Going from Sarafur, to Ibonihs, and then to Lehon would be a longer distance than going directly from Sarafur to Lehon.

'The only thing I don't know about this is how expansive the hyperspace anomaly is. Everyone knows that it's there but nobody has tried to figure out how big it is or knows how deep into the Unknown Region it goes. For all I know, by the time I get to Ibonihs, I may have passed completely through the anomaly.' He thought as he remembered his Master's teaching on the phenomenon that prevented most hyperspace exploration of the Unknown Region. One theory was that the anomaly was created by an ancient race who possessed incredibly advanced technology and used it to hamper the conquest of the Rakatan.

'That is a big assumption though.' He realized as he continued to look over the Star Map's projection. Unfortunate the Star Map did not contain any of the Rakatan's hyperlanes or paths that they traveled from Lehon to all of the worlds they conquered. 'Perhaps it's just a well considering I don't have a Rakatan hyperdrive.' He thought and took a deep breath while he considered the choice.

Each choice was dangerous. One path was longer but with the possibility of becoming easier while the other path was shorter and was either the same difficulty or much harder. Normally, he would meditate on the prospect and consider everything but he only had a few more hours of light before nightfall and in the morning he would be heading out. At some point he needed to get some sleep.

The turbolift coming to a stop at his level, pulled Naruto from his contemplation and he reached out to see who was on the lift. Plagueis had taken Karin, Kabuto, and Deefour to Coruscant. That only left a few people that it could be. He was surprised, however, to find that it was Tayuya. The redhead waited for the door of the lift to open and then walked slowly into the room.

While it had structural supports and windows at the outside, the floor plan was completely open with no dividing walls. Oddly finding one of the starfighters from Mustafar sitting on the floor not far away, Tayuya decided to ignore the partially dismantled ship and continued looking around one of the only floors of the building that she had yet to visit. The large floor was divided into numerous zones based upon piles of what she saw as junk. Each pile appeared to be a project or endeavor of some type and she stepped over parts and pieces of machinery and other items as she made her way to an area where the single occupant of the floor was sitting.

"Given up on avoiding me?" Questioned Naruto as he continued to sit in his chair with his eyes closed. When he heard the redhead make a huff response and felt her regretting her decision to come to him, he opened his eyes and tried a different question, "Are you finally going to tell me what's been bothering you?"

"You don't already know?" Tayuya accused and Naruto could feel her frustration and anger growing. Not knowing exactly what was the matter, he decided to take the civil approach, "Despite what you may think, I do give all of you privacy and am not always trying to read your minds."

"I'm dying." She abruptly admitted and a moment of silence fell upon the pair as Naruto looked upon the reddish hair that partially covered Tayuya's face as she didn't meet his gaze. Knowing that she was waiting for him to respond, Naruto replied, "I see." It was a rather pathetic response but was all that he could muster upon being told such news. Whatever he thought she was going to tell him, he wasn't fully prepared for her statement. Despite not being trained to do so, Tayuya hid her emotions and feelings quite well. He actually thought she might have wanted to return to Ibonihs and was unhappy in the group.

"You see?!" Demanded the redhead in exasperation and with clenched fists as if ready to strike out at him. Though she looked up at him, her bang prevented him from properly seeing her eyes. Naruto wasn't sure how to handle the situation and with a dry swallow, he replied, "How exactly would you like me to respond to this news? If it was so important, then why did you wait almost a month before saying something?" The sudden change in the redhead's feelings made him again regret uttering such a statement and confirmed that he was not handling the conversation well.

"I'm sorry if I'm not able to respond the way you want me to because I really don't know how to responds or what else to say." Naruto quickly admitted but the explanation did not produce the results he intended.

"Forget it." Said Tayuya in a small voice and he heard her sniff as she turned to head back to the lift. His eyes widened as he realized how badly he handled the situation and that such a strong-willed person was either close to tears or already crying underneath the reddish bangs. Before she could reach the lift, the doors slammed shut and when she turned to face Naruto, she found an empty chair moving towards her; pushed by an invisible force.

"I can't do anything to help if I don't known more information. Take a seat...and elaborate. Please." He offered as politely as he could.

Knowing that even if she managed to leave the room, he would likely hunt her down and make her talk, Tayuya grit her teeth and forcibly sat down in the chair to face him with her arms crossed. Before she could comment on his horrible interpersonal skills, Naruto decided to renew the conversation between them, "I take it that it's your seal that you're referring too?"

After receiving a nod from the redhead, Naruto stood and moved closer before asking, "Can I examine it?" Turning away from him, Tayuya pulled down the left shoulder of shirt she was wearing and Naruto moved forward to look over her seal as well as the seal that he had placed to keep her from accessing Orochimaru's handiwork.

The cursed seal was placed on Tayuya's shoulder and Naruto was instantly aware of something being wrong as the skin where the seal was had a darker shade than what was Tayuya's normal skin tone. Without even trying to touch the area, he could tell that it was sore and perhaps that the tissue was dying. However, the seal he placed was perfectly intact while Orochimaru's seal also showed no signs of acting up. Letting his hands hover over the area, he used for Force to try and figure out what was going on. He was immediately met with a rather malevolent feeling coming from the seal. It was something that he had not encountered before and it felt familiar to him. While he continued to examine the area, Tayuya began to talk to him.

"I'm not supposed to care...about dying." She said but Naruto could feel the redhead had much more to express than just such a statement. He'd never seen the sharp tongued girl struggle with words.

"Working for Orochimaru, I knew that the seal would kill me eventually, if someone else didn't do it sooner. I'd seen it kill many others, slowly destroying their bodies and mind but I didn't care because I was finally useful and wanted. It was terrible in Oto, everyday was crappy and I knew he was using me but it didn't matter because I finally had power." She admitted while staring out a nearby window. It actually surprised Naruto to find just how much he could relate or at least how familiar it sounded.

"I finally had something stable after spending so many years on the streets alone and perhaps I was expendable to him but there were many others who came from similar situations. Then you came along and messed all that up." The redhead explained.

"And made you want to strangle me?" Naruto questioned while he continued to use the Force to examine more than just her shoulder and determine what the extend of the damage was to her body.

"Yes...No you dipshit, you made me want to live." She confessed in a hushed and sharp voice before continuing, "I spent years convincing myself that I didn't care that my life was being shortened considerably. You destroyed that utterly, by kidnapping me and forcing me to be a part of your group." Tayuya took a long pause as she thought over her situation since that moment and commented, "For once there was something good to look forward too. Things were getting interesting, the long ship rides weren't that great, but this..." And she motioned to the castle they were currently living in.

"I didn't really care about any of those fuckers in Oto." The redhead added and Naruto saw through the statement to the true meaning that she found a friend in Karin and perhaps even others in the group. "And now this seal that I used to covet is killing me." She concluded and at the same moment Naruto finished his examination. Her condition was stable at the moment but it would continually worsen over time. It seemed like every cell in her body was slowly being damaged or at least degrading. He had never seen anything like it. The damage was much worse in the area around the seal, along her main chakra network paths, and in her muscles. The organs remained the least damaged but they weren't far behind. He guessed that she had at most a year or more before the damage caused her organs start failing.

'This would be a good moment for some inspirational words. Recently I've proved to be rather poor with providing any comfort or inspiration, to anyone. Perhaps I should try something from when I was younger.' Naruto thought as he remembered something that he used to say from before he met Plagueis. The statements had shown to even move or at least bring a smile to the Sandaime's face.

"I'll find a way to help you, I promise." Said Naruto in a soft but confident voice. Tayuya did not turn around to look at him but he heard her sniffle once before contesting, "You lie all the time, Shit-face." A small smile formed on Naruto's lips as he could tell that she was putting up quite a front but really wanted to have something put her at ease or at least give her hope, "I never go back on my word and when I make a promise, I keep it. You were just moved to the top of my list." He explained as he went to his datapad and added her name to the top.

"So I guess I shouldn't worry about it." Tayuya commented sarcastically while trying to sit up a little straighter in her seat and possibly wiping tears out of her eyes. Naruto couldn't tell with her still sitting and looking away from him but he ignored the motions and responded, "Maybe you should tell the others and let them worry with you, especially Karin. She's been quite concerned with what's been bothering you but hasn't brought it up. With Kabuto, Juugo, Karin, Plagueis and myself, I'm sure we could find something. There's a whole galaxy of possibilities and even if I can't find something right now, there are ways to keep you alive indefinitely until I find a way. It looks like I have a lot of research to do. If there is anything that you know which could be helpful..."

Leaving the sentence open, he wondered if she actually did know something that could be helpful. It at least couldn't hurt to ask because he hadn't taken a look at most of Orochimaru's research like Kabuto and Plagueis had. After waiting a brief period, Tayuya said, "The only one that could withstand the seal or at least showed the most promise with no appearance of side-effects was Kimimaro. Orochimaru was thrilled at the prospect and intended for him to become his 'dream-container' or whatever the fuck that is. Sounded creepy and still sounds creepy now, but the brainwashed bastard came down with an unrelated illness that prevented Orochimaru from taking him as his next host."

Naruto remembered the name and thought back, remembering how he had killed the individual which had turned out to be Juugo's best friend. He also remembered that the white-haired teen was terminally ill and knew that Tayuya was telling him accurate information as their two ailments were not related. Seeing that Tayuya was done and had nothing else to recall at the moment, he decided to give her the less than stellar news, "I have to leave and will be gone for a little over two weeks..." and before she could protest or call him a liar, he added, "That doesn't mean that I won't be doing anything to help you."

"You'll be on a ship the whole time! What can you possibly do?" She argued and turning around he could finally see and confirm that she had been crying. Ignoring that fact, he replied, "I'll be looking over every bit of information that I have on the seal. I stole Orochimaru's notes and I have another source of information as well."

"Fine, but I expect you to be working on it when you get back." She demanded before getting up and leaving. Naruto wanted to say something back but kept his thoughts, about how she could have brought such an important matter to his attention earlier, to himself. Right before the lift door closed, he started to ask if she wanted to come with him but their conversation was cut off by the door and he thought better of it as she would likely be more comfortable in the castle than on a ship for two weeks.

'I should contact Kabuto and see about him getting a hold of a stasis tube while they're on Coruscant.' He thought as he sifted through the equipment in order to find his communicator, which he had apparently misplaced. The stasis chamber would be for the worst case scenario but he felt it was prudent to plan for that. The easiest cure would be to put her in a Bacta tank for a day or two but something told him that such a solution wasn't going to work for what Tayuya had. Something about her ailment felt parasitic or at least stubborn, as if it would keep returning no matter how good Bacta was at healing.

'I don't even know what it is that she is actually suffering from.' He admitted as he found the communicator. Once he was done with the communication, he would have to go to their storage room and find the scrolls pertaining to Orochimaru so he could take them with him.

x-x

Borvo's Hideout, the following morning

x-x

After leaving some spending money for everyone staying, Naruto and HK had made their way to Borvo's landing field in order to catch the freighter that they would be taking to Sarafur. Landing on the field, the pair seemed as though they were going on a short trip though this belied the fact that the storage scroll in Naruto's backpack was carrying enough supplies and weapons to respectively last several weeks and to deal with a small army.

He was worried about Sidious but with him leaving, there shouldn't be a problem for the others still at the castle. Nothing had happened during the night and he kept several clones as lookouts to make sure that no one approached the castle. 'I'll be gone for two weeks but I'll have something to come back too.' Naruto idly thought as he stepped into the freighter and was followed by HK.

'Once we set off, I'll try and get the captain to take my alternative route so we can arrive at my shadowport much faster. With the route from _Forty-Two_, this ship should be able to make the journey in three days, which will hopefully give me the time I need to get to Lehon. I may also want to be in the cockpit as they take off in order to see what methods they use to get past Naboo Security Forces.' He thought as he stowed his belongings in the room he had been given for the trip. Borvo obviously had a large operation that used the planet and he was very curious how the Hutt managed to do it all without attracting suspicions.

It was really something to distract him from the event of the previous day, because once the ship was in hyperspace, he had a lot of reading to do.

x-x

After switching from minor hyperlanes to the Corellian Run, they would be arriving on Coruscant in the next few hours. The ship had been in transit for two days and there was much to discuss before arriving. Coruscant was a huge place, a single continuous city covered the entire planet and no one in the group besides himself was used to seeing something of that scale. The Sith Lord's primary target on the planet was an old LiMerge Power building in The Works area of the ecumenopolis planet. The industrial area was in the Dacho District of the planet's surface and relatively close to the Senate District which better served their purposes.

He believed that the building was likely still in use by his Apprentice as it was the only property that he had on the planet at the time of his death. The Works area was sparsely populated with numerous large industrial buildings in all direction. Though some were occupied, many were either abandoned or primarily autonomous and needed no organic oversight. 'This will hopefully help Karin adjust to the planet. With such a large influx of people per squire kilometer, she is likely to easily become overwhelmed should we set down in any other district.' He thought as he moved to the meeting room.

Aside from the building, the only other targets he could identify that he knew Sidious used were the Senate building and likely an apartment complex somewhere on the planet. 'Most likely in the 500 Republica complex.' He surmised as he didn't believe Sidious would want to stay in any other building on the planet, save for the finest residential tower, reserved for the most wealthy and influential people. It was the same place that he would have wanted to stay, if he had a reason to be on Coruscant for an extended period or time.

'The residential tower will be the easier of the three to gain access too, despite boasting it's own security staff and updated surveillance to prevent entry. Although I highly doubt Sidious does much in the way of shady dealings or Sith activity in his residential suite. We really need the LiMerge building and his Senate office.' He concluded and would consider the residential tower if they had time and if they were successful with the other two building.

His concerns with the LiMerge building had little to do with security systems though. He was confident that he could bypass those, having great knowledge about their installation and operation. The Sith Lord was however concerned with running into whatever apprentice that Sidious had taken or turned after his death, 'Or before my death.' The Muun remembered as it was something he had thought about during his years away from the Known Galaxy. If Sidious had been able to keep his true appearance, intentions, and murder him in his sleep, than it was entirely possible that his Apprentice had already started training a new apprentice before killing him.

The last thing he wanted was for Sidious to return to Coruscant and find a dead apprentice or a missing apprentice. That would certainly put Sidious on edge. He planned to eventually kill whoever Sidious had chosen but it was not yet time for such an act. 'If everything does go completely wrong, I suppose calling for help from the Jedi wouldn't be out of the question.' Plagueis thought and wasn't sure if he was being serious or actually attempting to make a humerus statement concerning the matter.

In lieu of Naruto, he had chosen those that had proven to be the most loyal of the group, save for the Demon Brothers. Going near the Jedi Temple with two Smoke Demons was out of the question. They couldn't control their passive use of the Force for their 'abilities' and as such could not be counted on to remain undetected. Kabuto was well versed in stealth and Karin could completely conceal herself from just about anyone while having a long-range sensing ability. The security breach droid, Deefour, would also prove incredibly useful as getting past anything that the Senate or LiMerge building security systems had to prevent them from achieving their goals.

Sitting down at the meeting table, Plagueis waited for the others to file in before beginning and activating the holoprojector, "This is the Republic planet of Coruscant..."

x-x

Finishing another of Orochimaru's scrolls, Naruto stopped his speed reading and closed his eyes to collate all of the information together and process it. It seemed that Orochimaru had created a unique juinjutsu that had several purposes. The first purpose was to help propagate and activate an enzyme produced regularly by Juugo's body that appeared to be the key to the teen's mutation. As the seal spread across the body, so did the enzyme spread. The second purpose was to feed off the user's chakra and when the seal was activated to provide them with some of the special chakra that was kept in the seal and placed there by Orochimaru. Along with chakra, the Snake Sennin had also placed a portion of his consciousness which can influence and possibly even manipulate the user over time. 'So he split his soul amongst a large number of his followers, great.' Thought Naruto as he had believed that Orochimaru was dead but that didn't appear to be the case with pieces of the man's soul sealed in other people and Tayuya.

The final purpose of the seal was really to test individuals in the pursuit of finding the perfect host body that could not only withstand the enzyme but whose body was able to make use of the special chakra known as Senjutsu. 'I still have no idea what Senjutsu actually is or why Orochimaru needed a body that could use it.' Admitted Naruto as he only had brief bits of information about the special chakra from Jiraiya while looking through the white-haired man's mind. Orochimaru did not write much down about the specifics of the strange chakra.

There also appeared to be more than one type of the juinjutsu that Orochimaru used. Tayuya's and likely the rest of the Sound Four's seals were of a weaker type that had a greater application success rate, being higher than the one out of ten success rate of the heavier seal, but resulted in being harder to control. It was common for users to lose control of their minds during activation due to the seals influence of the enzyme, similar to what used to happen to Juugo.

'I also don't know why Kimimaro was special compared to all of the others that Orochimaru tested on. It doesn't appear to be the bloodline that the man possessed so I really can't say what the difference is between him and Tayuya. Orochimaru doesn't even seem to know as he only mentions 'a stronger body' or finding a 'more suitable host' but never explains what that really means.' Naruto analyzed and he frowned in frustration, pushing the scrolls he was finished with off the bed and onto the floor. He was no closer to any kind of discovery than he had been when Tayuya first told him about her problem. 'Though I have only been at this a day.' Realized the blonde-haired boy and he sighed at the fact that he had taken in so much information and still had nothing optimistic to work with.

From the notes and results, Orochimaru had been more concerned with using trial and error to find a suitable host body than he was with how certain individuals could adapt to the seal and Juugo's enzyme better than others could. Quantity over quality it seemed, and he remembered all of the prisoners in the facility where they had found Juugo. 'And he has an unhealthy obsession with the Uchiha.' Naruto noted as his mind recalled many unrelated tangents that the Snake Sennin had gone on while penning the notes.

'If I had a better understanding about what Senjutsu was, then perhaps I could start forming some kind of ideas.' He thought and decided to keep with the research as long as he could. Looking to the storage scroll that contained the remainder of research notes, he decided that perhaps a short break was in order. It was likely only safe to deal with so much of Orochimaru's crazed writing and experiments in a given time.

Looking through his datapad, which he had brought with him and loaded onto it everything that he could, Naruto came upon several files that he had saved but had never opened. They were from Ast Kikorie when they had broken into the Republic astrological station in order to use their equipment to examine several objects. It seemed like something that had happened so very long ago but Naruto soon realized that it hadn't even been three months since their disastrous visit to the planet.

Opening the files, he looked through the detailed analysis of three objects: the Raijin and one of the Tessents. 'We never had time to analyze the second one.' Naruto remembered and went back to his list to add that task. Looking to the sword first, Naruto read through the examination of the material that the handle was made of and was surprised to find the words 'Unknown Material' come up numerous times. 'How the hell can it be an unknown material? It should be able to determine something about the handle.' He thought before he looked at the x-ray and other analysis' results. The Raijin was hollow but the space inside was completely empty and it produced no heat or radiation of any kind.

'That...shouldn't be possible.' Naruto thought with disappointment evident on his face as he looked through every scan that was performed. He thought for sure that a scroll or some kind of mechanical assembly would reside inside the handle of the electric blade-producing weapon. 'Nothing.' He repeated over and over in his head with disbelief before calming himself and pushing the thoughts aside. It appeared that chakra could be converted into electrical energy through the use of an empty space inside of an unknown material. 'Or at least that is all that modern science can tell me.' He thought with frustration and looked to the other files concerning the Tessent.

The analysis showed an object carved from a solid piece of chalcedony. There was no holoprojector or datachip hidden inside either statue and nothing decipherable or of any relevance was etched microscopically into the outside. 'Wow, that is really disappointing.' Thought Naruto as he grit his teeth and refrained from throwing the datapad against the wall of his cramped quarters.

They were still each worth a small fortune when returned but that was of small consolidation to the amount of rumors and speculation that they had amassed in the Galaxy and even in their own ship among the members of the group. 'We sort of forgot about them after crashing on Mustafar.' Naruto remembered and he deleted the information from his datapad. It was only a copy of the original file but it was also worthless to them since it showed nothing that they didn't already know.

'There is still the other Tessent to look at but I've had enough of treasure quests for right now.' He concluded and set the datapad down to resist the urge to damage it. It took a few moments for Naruto to realize the irony of the statement he just made, especially considering the current journey he was on, and he attempted to convince himself that it was just a quest for knowledge. The convincing didn't work as he soon acknowledged that he was on another treasure quest.

Throwing his head back onto the bed's pillow, Naruto examined the ceiling of the room as he tried to determine if what he was doing was right. It was what he wanted to do but it also put Tayuya's condition on hold until everyone got back. With the new course that he had convinced the pilot of the ship to take, they would arrive on Sarafur in three days instead of seven and he could be back to Naboo within a week, instead of two, if he didn't travel to Lehon.

'But if the scrolls that I've looked through so far are any indication, I won't have any good news for Tayuya, no matter if I get back early or not.' He thought as he covered his eyes from the suddenly bright ceiling light, with his forearm, as he felt the start of a headache begin. He had read through too much, too fast, with the Force and would need to take some time before trying it again. It was terribly selfish but he really wanted to go to Lehon, despite the odds that nothing was there. Though only an extra week, the thoughts still made his stomach feel upset. With the prospect of becoming a citizen of Naboo and dreaded public service on the horizon, combined with all the items he still had on his list to accomplish, he knew he may never get another chance to visit the Rakatan homeworld for quite a while, possibly until he was an adult. Though it still felt bad, he convinced himself that he would somehow make it up to Tayuya.

x-x

'Try to image yourself as being very small and continually getting smaller.' Plagueis telepathically suggested to the panicking redhead and he attempted to calm her mind so she could focus on staying hidden. They were concealed behind an architectural feature inside the LiMerge Power building and the reason for the redhead's fright was the male Zabrak that was coming their way. 'If I remember correctly, he is now headed to his quarters or possibly a mediation chamber after his practice.' Mused a far less concerned Plagueis as he stood close to Karin in order to keep himself from being seen and to keep her from running.

He used to be able to completely conceal himself, presence and body, through Force Cloak but the ability was diminished due to his current state and so he could only hide his presence. The reason that he wasn't concerned was because it was just Sidious' apprentice. He could tell that the Zabrak was not that old and despite likely being well trained, Plagueis was confident that they could slip right past him and continue on to the main computer and security room of the facility.

The life-sense ability that he had taught Naruto was not something he had bothered to teach Sidious. His Apprentice had not been concerned with trying to feel the life-signs of others and so he doubted the Zabrak knew that either. Unless the Sith Apprentice had prodigious sensing ability, he doubted that either of them would be sensed. He had seen the young adult through the feeds that Deefour had sliced into earlier so they could get a look at the facility and temporarily disable many of the security systems.

'I know he uses a double-bladed lightsaber but he seems to be still learning to wield it properly. He also seemed adept at Teras Kasi like I taught my students. However I am still confident that I could defeat him should the situation deteriorate.' Concluded the Sith Lord and he knew this wasn't arrogance. He was well versed in the use and disadvantages of such a lightsaber configuration, despite never fighting an opponent wielding one or having used one himself.

Most would have difficulty or at least trepidation going against such a lightsaber because it was so rare but he wasn't worried. Most of the styles advantage was due to the fact that so few used it and it primarily relied upon that unfamiliarity in order to gain the upper hand against an opponent. Other than that, it was actually a more difficult style to learn and implement for the user. 'The only thing that we really need to worry about right now is losing concentration or that our heartbeats may be heard.' Commented the Sith Lord to himself as he began to hear footsteps coming down the hall.

Karin had warned him of the man's movement so they had taken cover, lest they be caught out in the middle of the hallway. He knew that the next ten meters of hallway had no doors or other rooms to hide inside and it was best to stay right where they were and wait it out. As the footsteps got closer, both he and Karin held their breath on instinct while they both hid themselves from being sensed. As the shadow of the Apprentice could be seen on the floor, Plagueis made no move for his weapons and focused entirely on cloaking both of them as well as slowing their heartbeats. Making any move for a weapon would instantly put most well trained Jedi and Sith on alert.

Seconds passed by as the only thing either of the two heard were the steady footsteps on the metal floor panels. The shadow came and went, moving down the hall and walking around the corner. The gait was unbroken and there were no pauses or slowdowns. Still, neither of the two moved as Plagueis waited until he felt through the Force that it was all clear. He was concerned about the fact that Karin appeared to be turning blue but the real problem was what would happen when she took her first large breath.

Covering the girls mouth, he waited until the last possible moment and coaxed her into taking a shallow and moderate breath instead of something heavy, loud, and desperate for air. Taking several moments to let Karin breathe, he waited until the redhead could talk before wanting to know the whereabouts of the Zabrak. "He's moving farther away at a steady pace." Karin informed him in a whisper and he nodded before taking the lead again and moving for the security systems.

The building had it's own security and holocam system that took note of everything happening inside the building and in every room, which was how the system had been designed when it was installed so many decades previously. However, it just constantly recycled every given period, likely a few days, so nothing was permanently recorded and could be used against the Sith should the hideout be discovered. There was also many switches throughout the building that could be used to erase and destroy the entire security room and main computer for the building.

What they needed to do was continuously copy the security information and transmit it to a receiver that was placed somewhere else on the planet. That way the signal was short range and harder to detect. Plagueis knew he would also have to modify the security settings to not detect that signal or at least overlook it and they had to either use the buildings own communication system or hide one of the transmitters that they had brought with them.

x-x

Transmitting a specific signal to the surface, Borvo's freighter was allowed to land just outside the largest of the three cities. None of the starports on the planet were large enough for the length of Borvo's vessel and Naruto made a note of that on his datapad near the end of his list. Disembarking, they were met with no hostilities, though Borvo's men had no idea that three Smoke Demons were currently watching them from the rooftops of different buildings.

They were part of the group that Naruto had created before leaving and were in charge of the security for that particular city. The twilight skies of the planet were exactly as he remembered them; impossible to tell whether the sun was setting or rising. They had landed in the same city as on the first trip to the planet as it was the closest to the hideout where the leader of the planet, Mordo, stayed and kept his ships.

'I'll need to do something to bolster this place in case someone else tries to take it. The Smoke Demons won't be enough considering that I only made nine. They can take care of anything but they can't talk or act as a leader. I also have no idea what would happen if they were on a starship when it was destroyed. Can they survive in space?' Naruto wondered as he took the group of Borvo's pilot and two others along with HK to a waiting skiff.

Once they met with Mordo and informed the fake ruler of the deal and to hold up their end, he could finally start looking for a ship to take. Hopefully the one that he wanted was still there.

x-x

Each looking through a pair of electrobinoculars, Plagueis and Kabuto watched the landing port of the Republic Executive Building from a rooftop of a residential tower miles away. The executive building was the location of the offices for the senators of the Republic and was close by to the much larger Senate Rotunda. The infiltration and tampering with the LiMerge building had been a complete success and now they were moving on to the Sidious's senate office.

With a transmitter set up and hidden in one of the abandoned buildings in The Works, they could transmit signals from Coruscant to just about anywhere in the Republic and even into the Outer-Rim. The transmitter was rigged with several security devices to hopefully alert them if it had been compromised. The signal was also masked through all of the other signals going out on the Holonet and extremely difficult, if not impossible, to trace unless the transmitter was found and bugged.

Plagueis decided that rather than transmit to Naboo, they could use the recently procured _Star Jewel_ as a type of mobile receiver for all of the information. The vessel was equipped with a holonet receiver, which normally cost a fortune to have aboard such a vessel. From the ship, the transmissions could then be sent to Naboo. Since the ship needed to stay off the radar for at least a year, they could move the yacht around to various planets that Plagueis knew of which were formerly owned and strip-mined by the LiMerge Power Company.

Now they were stalking senators and not taking their eyes off the executive building. They had borrowed an air speeder and were ready to leave at a moments notice when they finally identified a good patsy. Trying to follow speeders from far away was difficult enough through the skylanes of the extremely busy planet, so they waited for something headed towards them so it was easier to follow.

Deefour was with them and in the speeder while the others, especially Karin, were back at the parked ship and ready to take off. As Plagueis had believed, the redhead was unable to deal with all of the people that she could sense within her radius, which was over a million in the portion of Coruscant that he and Kabuto were in. Even trying to sense out, she was submerged in a sea of moving people and started to become sick as the sheer number overloaded her and caused something akin to motion sickness.

"This is quite something." Commented Kabuto as they watched the sunset on the horizon of the endless city. He never imagined that a city could become so large or expansive as to cover an entire planet. "Exactly how far are we above the surface?" he inquired of the much more knowledgeable Sith Lord and Plagueis, while not taking his binoculars off the dome-shaped building responded, "More than kilometer, possibly two from the surface and there are other levels to consider as well that are underneath was was once the surface of the planet and in what was once a canyon covered surface. At those levels, light from the sun is sometimes unable to reach and such areas are referred to as the Underworld. Very dangerous with high crime and strange creatures created over thousands of years of a very different evolution from the rest of the population. The area where we are is home to only the wealthy and privileged. Most of the planet's population live hundreds of stories below us."

Kabuto took in all the information and smiled at the fact that such an amazing looking world hid such a seedy underbelly beneath it's many levels. He had been in the cockpit when Plagueis was piloting the ship down to the planet but that was no comparison to riding around in the open topped speeder through the air traffic. It had been both exhilarating and terrifying.

As they both continued to keep lookout, Plaguies looked to the timepiece that he had and noted that Sidious' time on Naboo was already over. The esteemed Senator was likely on his way back to the planet. If his Apprentice had stayed as long as was planned on Naboo, then they had a day or more at most but that hinged on too many variables and Plagueis wanted to get finished as soon as possible. He was even willing to skip monitoring the residential tower in order to get out undetected.

Spotting another personal transport taking off that they had just witnessed a Senator board, the pair watched with anticipation as it slowly lifted off from the landing port of the Executive Building and started to head their way. Without a single word exchanged, Plagueis moved to the speeder and got it started up while Kabuto slowly moved to the opposite seat while keeping his sights on the personal air speeder.

x-x

Entering into a familiar junkyard, Naruto tried to keep the small smile off his face as he had seen a familiar ship still where they had left it. HK followed him into the shop but said nothing as he perused the shelves. The owner turned around and welcomed the new arrivals before recognizing him as a repeat customer. The man was an older human, with white hair and in well used clothing, showing that he spent quite a bit of time in his junkyard or perhaps tinkering. While Plagueis had sold the ship, Naruto had been the one to deliver it to the yard.

"Come back for your ship?" The man joked and Naruto quickly nodded that he had. The man's eyebrows raised in slight surprise at being correct but he decided not to question it, "Sixty thousand, in good currency." The man gave as his price for the ship and it was Naruto's turn to be surprised at the price. That was about fifteen thousand shy of the price that the ship cost new and he knew firsthand how used it was.

"Ten thousand." Naruto shot back and the man blew him off, insulted by the price. "That ship isn't the same as how you left it with me. I've fixed it up right and good. The hull plating has been fixed. I replaced an escape pod, so it actually has one. The cockpit door was replaced. I fixed the water damage to several axillary systems and I replaced that horrid reactor as well as upgraded the hyperdrive." The man claimed with quite a good deal of pride behind his words.

"What was wrong with the reactor?" Naruto asked in a calm and serious tone. The man gave an amused face before answering, "It was jury-rigged and improvised to an incredible degree. The power output wasn't constant and varied too much. Nor did it provide enough power for all the ship's systems to properly operate, and the hyperdrive was nearly fried by the inconsistency."

Gripping the edge of the counter-top, Naruto wanted to contest that he had done the best that he could with what he had on hand but refrained as he didn't want to admit that it was him that had done the deed. Deciding to change the subject slightly, he inquired about something that was very important for the coming journey, "How fast is it now?"

"A new model of this type was released with a class 3 rating, if I remember correctly. The way you brought it in, it was maybe a class 2 with the modifications it had. With the new reactor and what I put into it of my own modifications I would guess its now closer to a class 1." Said the man with a smile and Naruto could tell that the older man believed every word of what he stated.

"This old man knows a few tricks and is pretty handy with a spanner." He boasted and Naruto couldn't help but smirk at the statement and the smiling junkyard owner. "Does it have a full tank?" Inquired Naruto and the man promptly nodded. "I'll pay your sixty thousand." Naruto agreed and went to his bag to retrieve the money he had brought, "Do you take nova crystal?" The man quickly nodded and was quite surprised that someone so young was going around carrying sixty thousand credit-equivalent in nova crystal and the fact that he wanted to buy back the ship.

"What's your name brat?" The man asked while Naruto counted out the money. Thinking before answering, Naruto decided to go with what Plagueis had decided and said, "Menma Rudshar."

"Rath Obath." The man replied and he held out his hand for Naruto to shake, which he did. "You some kinda explorer or something?" He questioned and Naruto replied, "...Or something."

Deciding to continue the conversation with something he had wanted to ask for a while, Rath said, "I wanted to ask you when you first came to me but I wasn't sure until I got a good look at it and found it was the same ship, but, you didn't happen to find or see the man that this ship originally was owned by? A man named Doro. I know it's been such a long time..." Asked the man and Naruto could tell that he seemed quite concerned.

"I found it crashed on a planet in wild space but no one was aboard. All the escape pods were launched though." Naruto explained and he didn't look the man in the eye but continued to get out the correct payment. A saddened but understanding Rath nodded in response as a brief period of silence followed.

"The ship had better be as you claim and I better not get stuck dead in space. I'll come back here." Said Naruto as he finished getting the money out. Even if the newly named Rath believed in his own statements, that didn't mean that all the work that had been done would be as good as was claimed. They may get along well but he barely knew the man or his work. Rath chuckled at what he thought was empty threat until Naruto added, "And so will the droid."

Looking to the droid in question, HK immediately turned from looking through the racks and his photoreceptors glowed at Rath. The owner took a slight step back before looking back to the boy, only to find his money was on the table and the newly named Menma was already walking out the door.

x-x

Standing in a luxury apartment suite, Plagueis removed the identification that they would need from the unconscious senator while Kabuto checked the woman's vitals and proceeded to lay her down onto the couch. The Sith Lord had quite easily incapacitated the senator with the Force before she even made it to through her apartment door. The best method for getting into the Executive Building that Plagueis had come up with was to pretend to be a senator. Find someone that was just leaving, follow them back home, take their identification information and head back to the building. With the use of Kabuto's henge, they could disguise themselves and claim to have forgotten something inside the building, bypassing the guards on the outside and gaining access to the office level.

Bringing along Deefour would be suspicious but it couldn't be helped. They needed the droid in order to get past the locked door and break into the security systems to gain control of the feeds for Sidious' as well as perhaps a few other offices. Having access to security holocams from multiple private senate offices, and conference or meeting rooms, would be invaluable and was too much of an opportunity to pass up. Such information could be used to great effect. It was far more difficult than just getting feeds from one office but he never had such a chance before. Spying on the closed-door meetings of the Republic Senate could be priceless in terms of getting blackmail information and finding out what some Senators and their interests were really up too.

The individual who was unlucky enough to head in their direction was a junior representative for the planet Murkhana and also represented the interests of the Corporate Alliance, which was composed of various companies and owned multiple systems in an area of the Tingel Arm in the Outer-Rim. Plagueis couldn't complain at the choice, he needed someone and the more time they spent, the closer Sidious got to Coruscant.

Getting everything that was needed, the pair left the room and proceeded to the landing port level of the building in order to commandeer the Senator's ride. The had a window of several hours but Plagueis hoped to take only an hour to get everything taken care of and to return, putting everything back in it's place and leaving no witnesses or evidence of ever having stolen a senator's identity to break into the building.

Before finally leaving, Kabuto had informed him that Naruto had messaged and apparently needed a stasis tube, possibly for Tayuya. That was not something that he had expected nor knew anything about prior to Kabuto mentioning it. He knew exactly where they could procure such an item but at the present moment, he had to push that information and questions aside to focus on the difficult task at hand.

x-x

With two ways to travel, Naruto had chosen the route that allowed him to have more time to study Orochimaru's notes, which was the journey back to the Ibonihs System from Sarafur. A clone could man the helm as he wasn't needed for instinctive astrogation since it was specified route that had already been traveled twice. Tossing another scroll into the pile that had formed on the ground of his captains room, Naruto went for the next scroll, only to find that he had run out.

"Damn." He cursed as he had still yet to find anything useful that could help Tayuya. Calming his mind, he remembered that he still had one source of information available to him. It wasn't something that he wanted to do but he still had more time until reaching the Ibonihs System and it would be wrong not to try everything that he could.

Closing his eyes, Naruto looked for the tug of the seal in order to enter his own mind, not for the Kyuubi, but the seal made it much easier for him to journey into his subconscious. Finding the right 'path' so to speak, his mind left the cabin as he delved inward. Losing touch with his real body, it was replaced with a representation and he opened his eyes to find himself standing in almost waist deep water in a metal corridor with many offshoots that greatly resembled the main hallway of _Forty-Two_.

Trudging through the water and even using the cold structure of the hallway to help pull himself along, Naruto passed the doorway that would have taken him to the seal. It was closed off and a large expanded version of the four pronged seal was written on the stone wall that barred the way. Glancing at the wall, he noted the cracking along the outer edges and could hear something coming from beyond, likely the Kyuubi raging at being completely sealed away.

Adopting a more serious face from the smirk he had quickly worn concerning the Kyuubi's fate, Naruto pushed on and turned down a hallway towards a room that he knew about. At the end of the long hallway, he turned to the only doorway and walked up a long ramp that took him out of the water. The metal floor of the room quickly ended, with a mass of moving flesh replacing the cold sterile metal. It wasn't just the floor as the walls and even ceiling were made of the the flesh material. In the center of the room were three figures that were almost completely encased in the pink flesh. Two of them Naruto didn't know as they were previous hosts of the Snake Sennin, but the third was the head of Orochimaru. It had yet to be completely encased in flesh and Naruto moved towards it, stepping out onto the flesh and he grimaced at the squishing sound his footfalls made.

From reading all the scrolls, he had come upon the man's notes concerning the Fushi Tensei and how Orochimaru was using it in order to prolong his life by devouring the souls and inhabiting the bodies of others. The host bodies didn't last long though but the souls of the hosts were never really killed or completely consumed. They resided inside Orochimaru's mind and now they resided inside of Naruto's, having turned the Snake Sennin's jutsu against him. His twisted soul subdued by Naruto's and unable to do anything against him or at least that was his understanding of the jutsu from the notes.

Reaching out his hand towards the Sennin's head, Naruto stopped and immediately pulled his hand back as the eyes of the head suddenly opened. He nearly took a step back, thinking that Orochimaru would start chuckling in that peculiar way that he always did or start talking about how he wasn't really gone. The head however said nothing and the eyes remained dull and unfocused. 'Creepy son of a bitch.' Naruto commented as he tried to get control of his racing heart which as he thought about it, wasn't actually real but seemed to be beating out of his chest nonetheless.

As Naruto looked into the yellow slit eyes, he found them oddly familiar, perhaps something he had seen recently in a nightmare. Ignoring the feeling, his hand made contact with the man's forehead and he began sifting through the memories contained within. Though he had devoured the soul, the memories had not become a part of his mind. This was something he was actually thankful for. The Snake Sennin had done a lot of crazed experiments on men, women, and children. If half of the things he had heard about or learned from the memories of Jiraiya were anything to go by, that was only the tip of a deeply disturbing past.

Pushing aside anything not related to jutsu, Juugo, the cursed seals, and Senjutsu, Naruto soon gathered together a large amount of information and began draining it. Though he could have gone over it all where he stood, he decided to leave and do that in his cabin. That particular area of his mind was way too creepy to stay in and he actually wasn't sure if he was even in his mind or not. Taking his hand off the former member of the Sannin, he went back the way he came and ended the technique to get back to his room on _Forty-Two_, where he could mediate and sort through everything he had drained.

x-x

'This is where we briefly part ways.' Plagueis informed Kabuto and while the Sith Lord obfuscated the security systems in their area, Kabuto ended the combined henge. The smoke soon subsided and Kabuto reformed the henge of the Koorivar female while Deefour broke into the electrical and computer room that they were standing at. As soon as Plagueis and the droid were inside, and the disguised Kabuto was walking away, the Sith Lord ended his usage of the Force on the security systems and went to work inside the room.

As Deefour unlocked the office door for Kabuto to eventually enter into, Plagueis ordered the droid to also bring up a list of all the current senators and their representation. Activating the small holographic projector in it's upper head, Deefour displayed the long list and slowly scrolled down as Plagueis took in all the names and what planet or organization they represented. It had been almost sixteen years since he had been alive and almost twenty since being active in politics and back room dealings in his quest for gaining power and influence in the Republic. Therefore, most of the names of the list were not ones that he recognized. Most Republic Senators did not stay in politics for more than a few terms.

Spying on the offices would be easy. Even the office of the Chancellor of the Republic had security systems that monitored everything that went on. They could be turned off but many didn't as Senators weren't supposed to have something to hide and the security information in the Senate Building never left the premises. It all was transferred to the archives in lower levels and deleted at a later date. Such a system was expected to provide transparency for the Republic Senate but simply did nothing as Senators found somewhere else to talk or disabled the security devices for more private conversations.

'And I will be able to use that for maximum benefit for us.' Thought the Sith Lord as he changed tactics and had Deefour tamper with the entire system, making it so that every time the security system was turned off in a given room, it silently reactivated itself to continue monitoring the room as well as saved the information until the system was turned back on. Only Sidious' office and a few others would be monitored continuously. While Deefour worked at the computer terminal, Plagueis took a console and started rewriting many protocols for the building.

The security tampering was actually the easy part, making sure that the information was sent to him was the hard part. Signals going to and from the Republic Executive Building were monitored and it would be difficult to try and plant a transmitter because it was more likely to be found as the building was regularly maintained. Several of the buildings in The Works had been derelict for decades so it was less likely to be found. 'The best alternative would be a virus that would send out the data imbedded in or with other signals but how would those signals be routed to the transmitter.' Plagueis contemplated as he hadn't completely thought that part of the plan out. Taking a segment from his student's handbook, he decided to improvise after gaining access to the building.

The Mustafarian host body's eyes opened as Plagueis had an idea. The Executive Building and Senate Building regularly exchanged messages and the Senate Building also broadcast Senate deliberations during most of the meetings. People could tune in to a specific channel on the Holonet and watch the Senate meetings but it was also broadcast on local channels all over Coruscant. 'That could work.' Thought the Muun as he began rewriting computer code using the Force to help him tamper with a few systems in order to get everything to work properly.

'All I'll need to do is have the transmitter hidden in The Works receive and transmit the local broadcast signals and then later decode any of the hidden information. I can use their own information network and monitoring systems against them.' Plagueis thought as he set to work on at his console and worked in tandem with Deefour to set everything up. Kabuto would have to wait in the Senator's office for a while but he should be able to make everything happen in about an hour.

'I wonder why no one has ever thought of this?' He idly questioned but ignored the thought as he continued with the work.

x-x

Reviewing so much information was relatively easy when using the Force, however, making sense of everything was a different matter altogether. 'So Senjutsu is the combination of Chakra and a normally undetectable energy field called Natural Energy. And Natural Energy exists around everyone in the sky and in the ground. In order to become a Sage, one has to learn how to not only detect this energy field but to gather it and mix it with physical and spiritual energy. That sounds kinda familiar.' Admitted Naruto as he reviewed everything he had learned from Orochimaru's memories.

Apparently the Snake Sennin had journeyed to a location called Ryuchi Cave, where the snake summons live and learned about the existence of Natural Energy from the White Snake Sage. The sage was an incredible long and old snake that lived there and was the spiritual leader of the rest of the snakes. To learn to feel natural energy, Orochimaru had covered himself in special Senjutsu venom that the White Snake Sage produced from it's fangs to first be able to sense Natural Energy and from then on tried to sense it without any aid. Only by being completely still was a being able to correctly mix the three energies and become a sage. Failure to complete the mixing could lead to the user turning to stone.

Despite Orochimaru's great ability and genius in all things jutsu related, the Snake Sannin was never able to completely become a sage because he had already started using the Fushi Tensei and his host body could not handle it. Instead, Orochimaru had used Juugo's bloodline as a way to alternatively harness Senjutsu chakra. Juugo's clan apparently could passively absorb Natural Energy. However, something in the passive use of Natural Energy and mixing caused a great surge in aggression and rage should he lose his temper which started the production of the enzyme and transformation.

Having looked at all of the information, Naruto found himself greatly confused. 'How many different energy fields can there be?' He wondered as he considered the existence of 'Natural Energy' that he had just gained knowledge about. 'It sounds quite similar to the Force in the description.' Were his thoughts on the matter and he could see many similarities. Plagueis' original explanation of the Force to him and the explanation of Natural Energy by the White Snake Sage were very similar.

'It would explain how Juugo is able to communicate with animals. If he is constantly taking in small amount of Natural Energy or the Force, and mixing them with his chakra. Even I can't talk to animals and I believe there is one or more Force powers associated with communicating or controlling them. He only starts to transform when he is angry and that certainly seems like the dark-side of the Force at work.' He thought but that explanation did not explain something, 'I've never felt Juugo ever gather the Force and I failed in every way that I tried to mix the Force with chakra.' Naruto remembered as the many different attempts and idea from Plagueis flooded into his mind. They simply would not combine, though he had never tried sitting completely still and not moving at all. 'Even if I succeeded, I likely wouldn't have been able to correctly mix it right away and would have turned to stone. It took Orochimaru months to be able to properly sense and start gathering Natural Energy and still more time before realizing that he was limited by his host body.'

'I've also never felt Juugo use the Force or gather the Force, but his ability is supposed to be passive and I have no idea what Senjutsu chakra feels like. I've noticed how Juugo's chakra suddenly feels more powerful but I've never felt that it being combined with the Force. How would Juugo's body be able to gather the Force since he has no midi-chlorians?' He questioned and found that he simply did not have answers to prove or disprove the theory of Natural Energy and the Force being the same energy field.

The fact that the Force and chakra could augment each other was still something he always found odd. For two completely different energies, they were quite compatible when used separately. 'If I tried to absorb the bit of soul in Tayuya's seal, I would also have to take in the Senjutsu Chakra that is attached with it and since I have no idea how to control it, I guess that I would turn to stone.' He concluded and didn't like what logically made sense.

'If the Force and Natural Energy did turn out to be the same thing than this would be much easier to wrap my head around. I'd just need to figure out how to combine it with Chakra but I've already proven that didn't work. But if they are the same, then why didn't it work?' Naruto raged as he grew more frustrated with his train of thought. Despite wanting to drop the entire subject, he really wanted for Natural Energy to be the Force. It made sense to some degree because if another energy field existed on his planet, then why hadn't Plagueis ever felt Natural Energy while on Ibonihs or why hadn't a sage or those able to use Senjutsu ever felt the existence of another energy field. Juugo's ability to use his transformation suggested that Natural Energy was also present in the rest of the galaxy, so why hadn't Jedi or Sith ever noted a second energy field.

'If Juugo is able to gather a small amount of the Force and combine it with chakra, than why can't I make any headway. If Orochimaru and Jiraiya of all people can start combining the two, then why did I completely fail so many times. It can't be that I was just not sitting still. If the two are the same then I'm able to gather Natural Energy regularly because of my midi-chlorians...' And it was at that point that Naruto stopped his train of thought. The one difference that existed between himself and all those that could use Senjutsu was the fact that he had microscopic bacteria in his blood.

They allowed him to feel and manipulate the Force and from what Plagueis had told him, the midi-chlorians weren't mindless and were intelligent. 'What if the reason that I couldn't combine them was that my midi-chlorians prevented me in order to keep me from turning to stone when I failed to combine them correctly.' He reasoned and remembered that the first time Orochimaru began combining Natural Energy with chakra, he started to change into a snake and would have turned to stone if the White Snake Sage had not intervened.

'If Natural Energy and the Force are one and the same, that means that Tayuya is suffering from an ailment brought on by seemingly the dark-side of the Force combined with chakra. Orochimaru is certainly the equivalent of a Sith and from just sensing Tayuya's seal, I could feel a strong malevolence. Tayuya is likely one of the many people that can't properly use Senjutsu, unlike Juugo and thus her body is being destroyed by Orochimaru's combination of the Force and chakra. Every time she used her seal, her body was slowly being damaged. However, this means that I can't help at all, unless I'm able to combine chakra and the Force, which I can't do that because my midi-chlorians are possibly preventing me. Though I wonder if a strong application of healing using the light-side of the Force would help heal Tayuya's body? Either way, it doesn't seem as though I can do anything.' He realized and the theory made his head spin. It sounded crazy and there was still no proof that Natural Energy and the Force were the same energy field.

There were however elements of the theory that made sense. It explained Juugo's odd ability to speak with animals, those animals that had chakra and those outside of Ibonihs that did not. Juugo was using Senjutsu instead of channeling or manipulating the Force so it could conceivably go unnoticed by either him or Plagueis because it wasn't actively being done. Apparently no one was able to manipulate Nature Energy on it's own and had to first balance it with their spiritual and physical energies instead. Considering he was the only ninja with midi-chlorians, it made sense that only he could manipulate Nature Energy or the Force on it's own. It also explained why the Force and chakra were able to amplify one another because it was possible to combine them.

'However, even if it is true, none of it really helps Tayuya unless I can do the seemingly impossible. Even if Juugo can use Senjutsu, that doesn't mean that he can absorb it from the seal and I'm not sure what to do about the piece of soul. I only managed to defeat Orochimaru because he was using the Fushi Tensei and I turned it on him. I don't know how to absorb pieces of soul by themselves. I also don't know where that cave is that Orochimaru found. He took such a winding path and that place isn't on any map, nor is the mountain that Jiraiya went too.' Naruto lamented and opened his eyes from meditation. Days of research had created more questions than answers and it seemed that Orochimaru never bothered creating a way to remove the seal, nor did he likely want it to be removed.

x-x

In just shy of two days, Naruto had made the uneventful journey from Sarafur back to the Ibonihs System. Combined together with the trip from Naboo, it meant that the totaled journey that had taken just over five days in two ships, compared to seven days in the old Forty-Two. 'Quite the improvement.' thought Naruto as he looked out at the planet that was the fourth from the Ibonihs' sun, which was a large gas giant with about six moons. The ship was sitting stationary out of planetary orbit and was positioned looking directly at the small blue dot in the distance that was Ibonihs.

Naruto was not completely sure why he had come out of hypserpace close to his home planet. If he followed the path exactly, he should have exited hyperspace at the edge of the system, millions of miles away, but for some reason his navigating had ended up there. Having enough of staring at the small blue speck, Naruto turned the ship around and prepared to make his first completely uncharted jump into hyperspace towards the coordinates that he had for the Lehon System.

Normally his hyperspace jumps were on or at least following minor hyperlanes. A few had been shortcuts but certainly nothing as long, as uncharted, and possibly through an anomaly as he was now attempting. Calming his mind and pushing out all other thoughts, Naruto focused on using the Force to guide his navigation. It was all that he had to rely on and what he needed in order to make it to his final destination or at least to come out of the journey alive. Moving his hand to the navigational controls, he began inputting a course towards his ultimate goal. Opening his eyes, it felt rather nostalgic to be putting his hand on the ship's hyperspace lever once again while within the Ibonihs system.

For a second time, he was leaving his birth system and traveling to something else. 'Though this time I've going even deeper into the unknown.' Naruto thought with a smirk and pushed the lever forward, watching as the ship accelerated into the forming hyperspace window.

x-x

'It's quite possible that we passed Sidious in hyperspace.' Mused Plagueis as he tried to mediate in his quarters. He actually found it difficult to calm himself down after spending an entire day running around Coruscant, breaking into government buildings, and infiltrating his Apprentice's hideout. It was the most involved he had been in such subversive actions in more than two decades. Historically, he had liked to use third parties or look to his Apprentice to take care of things. It had become rare for him to be so hands-on in the completion of such a daring task and he had rarely led others.

They had managed to get off the planet without setting off any alarms, that he knew about, or getting caught. The data that would soon be gathered from both the Senate and Sidious would be invaluable to any future actions. Everything had gone rather smoothly for such a rushed and partially planned maneuver. When he had left Naboo, he had no detailed plan and that was really a first for him. He always liked having a well thought out plan and escape or he relied on Naruto. 'So this is how he must feel when he gets away with it.' Commented Plagueis as his thoughts turned to his student.

Aside from the debacle on Tatooine, everything had been going well as of late. The castle was quickly becoming a very good hideout and with a good deal of work, it could turn into a lucrative operation. He envisioned being able to use the small courier ships to not only deliver wine to customers but also to use storage scrolls and make extra money by delivering arms shipments for Borvo. With a single scroll, which would easily get through any planet's customs officials as some kind of art work, they could take a huge shipment, that would normally require the cargo hold of a medium sized freighter, inside of a small courier vessel.

Despite making Naruto think that he wanted the boy to enter the Legislative Youth Program, he knew that Naruto would not make it. There were other public service programs available for youths but the legislative program was usually the starting place for everyone. Those that simply couldn't cut it in that program, were able to choose something else after spending at least two years in it. 'However, should Naruto fail the program, he can be allowed to enter something else, immediately.' Mused Plagueis as he was sure that Naruto would indeed fail or perhaps get kicked out the Legislative Youth Program. That was fine since there was another program that he planned for Naruto to join and spend the rest or at least a good deal of his remaining public service time in. One that would hopefully teach him or at least force him to learn more patience and discipline.

As the Sith Lord's thoughts turned away from his student and towards resuming meditation, he suddenly recalled that Naruto had asked for a stasis tube. A slight frown adorned his host body's features as he realized that he had forgotten to get one. It had slipped his mind, as well as Kabuto's, which was understandable given their successful break-in at the Executive Building. 'We should be able to stop at any number of places on our way back.' Reasoned Plagueis but he couldn't help but wonder exactly why they needed one. It did give him a bad feeling through the Force and he knew it had to do with their suddenly lethargic crew member.

x-x

Sitting in the cockpit with a fully charged, polished and alert HK, the bags under Naruto's eyes and bloodshot eyes made him look pathetic by comparison. When he had started the trip from Naboo, Naruto had asked the droid a single question before setting off, 'Can you translate Rakatan?' The droid had been curious at the inquiry but simply replied that he could. Naruto had asked him to come and told him they were ultimately heading to Lehon. He could tell that HK had recognized the name but the assassin droid said nothing more. After spending five days traveling to the Ibonihs system and almost another four in transit to the Lehon System, Naruto was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with the droid.

He had never known HK to be so quiet. In the last three days, the droid had spent almost all of that time powered down in the ship's galley and in the days before, after leaving Sarafur, HK spent quite a bit of time inspecting the ship and checking for any problems. It was nice to know that the droid was looking out for them but he half expected HK to inquire as to why they were heading to Lehon or perhaps make some kind of comment about his past. The meeting before arriving on Tatooine had all but convinced Naruto that HK had been owned by Revan but he was starting to wonder if the droid didn't remember going to the Rakatan homeworld. 'I'm actually not completely sure he was ever there or not. I just assumed that he was.' Suddenly realized the very fatigued Naruto and he decided to just forget about it.

The past four days had been hell. Navigating by the Force alone meant that Naruto had to remain in the cockpit for almost the entire journey in order to make minor course corrections and keep them moving while avoiding all of the perilous dangers of uncharted hyperspace travel. Some of the other dangers he had not considered did not become apparent until the second day when Naruto took the ship out of hyperspace upon coming to a planetary system. He had planned to park the ship on the dark side of a moon so he could get some sleep, feeling that simply having the ship sitting idle in open space was more dangerous. His plan however did not work out as the long range sensors suddenly picked up something. Before he had a chance to find out what the unknown ships or perhaps even space stations were, he had already plotted a new course out of that system and entered hyperspace.

He hadn't expected to come across other ships. That was when he realized that traveling through uncharted space to an empty system was not the same as traveling through empty space. There could have been any number of advanced or equivalent civilizations along the way with technology no one from the Known Galaxy had ever encountered before. Though the chance existed of finding a friendly group of people, he was not willing to stop and chat. Naruto was not on an exploratory mission, or stupid. From that point on, he had only taken short breaks from the pilot's seat, mostly for the bathroom, and kept the ship in hyperspace as long as possible.

The only other problems that he had encountered was the first time that he had accidentally fallen asleep and was rudely awakened when the ship exited hyperspace in an asteroid field. 'I'll sleep when we're there.' He kept thinking to himself and was simply too stubborn and overly cautious to stop the ship and rest. Long bouts of meditating while piloting helped, but it also wasn't sleep. The last time he had fallen asleep behind the controls, he was surprised when he awoke to find HK sitting in the co-pilot seat and he decided not to questioned it. That had been two or three hours ago and now they were finally nearing their destination.

Pulling back on the lever, the ship exited hyperspace and a huge planet as well as a moon came up fast as they decelerated to normal sub-light speed. Looking at the large gas giant, Naruto examined the sensor readings and found that they had arrived at the fifth planet in the Lehon system. Remembering back to the Star Map, he recalled that Lehon was the fourth planet in the system bearing it's name. About to pilot a course towards the planet he was after, both pilots looked to the controls as an indicator flashed. As Naruto determined exactly what the sensors had detected, HK took the controls and piloted the ship to the nearby moon.

It had an icy, frozen surface with hardly any atmosphere but Naruto payed little attention to the destination and more to the sensors as he quickly found that they had detected something in orbit of the gas giant. The object was just out of view from their position. It was not another moon and it had a faint electrical reading coming from it, meaning that it could be a ship. The size was larger than _Forty-Two_, over three times the size of their ship, and it did not appear to be moving save for a stable orbit of the gas giant. As HK touched down on the rock, they powered down all the ship's systems and waited for the moon to rotate and hopefully bring the object into view.

Inhaling and then exhaling slowly, Naruto waited as patiently as he could to get a better look what the sensors had detected. It took nearly an hour for the moon to rotate enough that the gas giant came into full view. Pulling down his goggles, Naruto zoomed in on the planet and tried to find what the sensors had detected. It took several seconds before an object came into his zoomed view and Naruto magnified as much as he could to get a better look and determine what they were dealing with. What he saw was not a starship but it was a space station. He couldn't determine anything about it's purpose through the goggles but it didn't appear to have any running lights or other indicators on. The station was cylindrical with the bulk of its structure n being higher than the center of it's overall height. It had sensor arrays jutting out from the top in addition to solar panels and the bottom part appeared to be for docking.

"Observation: A small Republic Outpost. Likely very old and most assuredly abandoned." HK informed him and the droid quickly turned back on the ship's systems before asking, "Inquiry: Should we ignore the station and move on?"

Naruto had yet to take his eyes off the station and he noted that parts of it were rather damaged as well as looking quite worn. Remembering that the sensors detected power readings, Naruto decided that it might be best to take a look.

x-x

While Naruto maneuvered the ship to dock with the derelict station, HK prepared for boarding. There were no life-signs aboard but he was prepared for anything. Naruto would have gone with him but he didn't have a spacesuit and the station had no atmosphere. The ship shuddered slightly as the docking procedure was complete. "I'd like any navigational or sensor data you can find and anything else that could be useful, like supplies." Naruto said over the commlink.

Standing in the airlock, HK acknowledged the communication and sucked the atmosphere from the airlock back into the ship before he forced open the doors to the station. The doors revealed an utter blackness that the lights inside the airlock of _Forty-Two_ could only partially illuminate as metal flooring and an empty storage area. The incredibly low temperatures and darkness did nothing to make the assassin droid hesitate and with blaster rifle shouldered, HK cautiously moved into the station. With no life-signs present, there was still the chance of droids or automated defenses. Something in the station was still operating and had power.

Bypassing the inoperable turbo lift, HK chose maintenance access routes and climbed up a ladder into the main levels of the station. Prying open another door, the assassin droid peered through at the hallway and proceeded to check every room in his search for supplies and targets. He found an empty barracks, communications room, main operations room, mess area, and more empty storage rooms. It didn't take him long to determine that nothing of interest was left in the station, so it had either been decommissioned and left adrift or abandoned and picked clean by someone else. Disappointed that he had not found something to shoot, HK proceeded to the bridge or operations room so he could try and access the main computer.

Checking all the consoles in the large and dark room, HK found one that had some power running to it. Using the strap of his rifle, he removed a layer of frost and dust from the screen so he could start accessing whatever systems that he could. The vessels reactor was completely drained and the only source powering the station were a few of the solar panels which still partially worked. The storage batteries were likely dead and so there was only a modicum of on-demand power to work with.

Checking to see the power allocation, HK quickly discovered that the majority of the power coming from the solar panels was being directed to the sensor array. The array was draining power but it wasn't working properly and a quick check to the sensor logs showed him that the logs had stopped a few centuries prior to their arrival. Either the array had become damaged or something in it had ceased operating, so HK powered it down. With power to work with, the droid diverted everything to the main computer and the operations room. The change was immediate as a few lights in the room started to flicker to life and his auditory sensors picked up several devices and systems slowly coming back to life.

Accessing the main computer allowed him to view all of the stations records and he quickly surmised that the outpost was not military but for monitoring. There were only minor exterior defenses and shielding with no internal defenses at all. With power back on, he quickly disabled the communications system to ensure that no signals were automatically sent due to the reactivation of the main computer.

Quickly scanning through station logs, he learned that the station had been put in place shortly after the destruction of the Star Forge. The Republic had wanted to monitor the system, specifically the planet Lehon and it had been fully operational with a dedicated skeleton crew for a number of years before the systems were placed on automatic and left to continuously monitor the system while reporting any disturbances.

The station was not designed for monitoring continuously for the over three thousand years since it's commission and had likely been completely forgotten about. He noted that as the centuries past, the systems had eventually started to break down or fail and soon only the sensor system and log computer were active. Sifting through the very long sensor logs, HK found the most recent active log and discovered that nearly a thousand years prior to their arrival, the sensors picked up two ships entering the system. One ship arrived shortly after the other, but only one of the ships left the system. The logs were only days apart and nothing had been noted since then. Taking out a datachip, HK downloaded the entire sensor logs and started looking through other databanks.

Though the station had no engines or hyperdrive, it still had navigational charts and other information about the system as well as surroundings area of space just outside the system. HK also found that no communications had been sent or received for a very long time and the communication array had been damaged almost two thousand years prior to their arrival.

Finding no other valuable information, HK wiped everything from the stations databanks and headed back to the ship. Getting in the airlock, he closed the hatch to the station and told Naruto over the intercom system that they could disembark. As he moved away from the airlock, he expected to hear the ship disengaging from the station but instead heard nothing. The ship did not move at all.

Realizing that he did not get a response from the cockpit, he took out his weapon and headed down the ships long hallway. 'Inner thought: Something could have gotten onto the ship while I was searching the station.' With that in mind, he slowly moved towards the cockpit, ready to shoot anything that could have snuck onto the ship.

Finding nothing amiss and no sounds coming from any of the rooms, HK moved past the communications room but couldn't see anyone in the pilots chairs. Putting his back to the wall to keep from being surprised from behind, he quickly moved into the cockpit and found pointed his weapon at the only occupant, an asleep Naruto sitting in the main pilot's seat. Despite usually being very alert, the blonde-haired Meatbag did not wake and showed no signs of even being disturbed by the weapon pointed at him.

Standing up straight and lowering the weapon, HK was again disappointed. He hoped that the ship hadn't been overrun by a crazed droid or perhaps some unknown life-form that had incapacitated his comrade. Closing the cockpit door, just in case, the assassination unit set his rifle down by the copilot's seat and took the controls. Disembarking from the station, he set a heading towards the nearby fourth planet in the system. The sublight engines would reach the planet in a few minutes and he had no problem waiting as he kept the long-range sensors actively searching for any contacts, signals, or anomalies in the system.

He knew firsthand that the Lehon System was full of surprises and the last thing that he wanted was to be caught by that disruptor field again and crash on the planet's surface. His memory concerning the planet was not completely intact as he recalled bits and pieces of their arrival and the subsequent battle that took place. Those were good memories, up until the battle ended and Master Revan soon left for an unknown destination.

Scanning the incoming planet, HK found that the majority of the debris from the space battle had been caught in the orbit of the four planets close to the sun. Somehow Lehon attracted far more dark colored debris than the other three planets which were closer than it to where the Star Forge was destroyed. As the blue tropical world came into view, HK thought about waking the pilot but decided against it.

He had a good idea where it was that Naruto wanted to go on the planet. With infighting between Rakatan tribes after the fall of the Infinite Empire, most of the planet's surface was destroyed and there was only a single building on the entire surface that would have been of any interest. Fortunately, he knew exactly where it was and once he got past the debris field in orbit, he could land the ship right next to it.

x-x

Two blue orbs started to open but squinted and were unable to focus. A bright light prevented him from seeing anything out the cockpit windows and still disoriented from waking up, Naruto didn't understand the situation. Completely forgetting about arriving in the Lehon system, Naruto thought he was still navigating and immediately sat up as he believed that the ship had exited hyperspace because it was flown too close to a star. Taking the controls, he started to try and pilot the ship but found all the systems were unresponsive.

Panicking, he looked up at what he thought was impending doom but suddenly found a blue skyline as a cloud moved over the sun and blocked it's rays. Confused, he stood and leaned forward to get a better look, only to find that the ship was currently parked on a flat grassy area, overlooking an expanse of ocean.

Taking a deep and calming breath, he slumped back into the comfortable seat and wiped away the tiredness from his eyes while feeling embarrassed. 'Thankfully there was no one around to see this.' He thought with a sigh and knew that he wouldn't be able to live it down if one of the group had...

"Announcement: We've landed on Lehon, also known as Rakata Prime." Came a voice from just behind him and Naruto nearly jumped out of his seat as he hadn't heard the droid approach. Thinking about it, Naruto decided to confirm his sudden suspicion and asked, "How long have you been there?"

"Reply: Since before you started to wake and your poor organic eyes and puny Meatbag mind were confused at our current situation."

'He saw everything, damnit!' Thought Naruto and he quickly ordered, "You will not share this...moment with the rest of the group." Though the droid said nothing, his photoreceptors glowed and Naruto had no idea whether that meant acknowledgment of his order or not.

"Where are we?" He finally asked as stood from the seat to properly stretched and moved his neck to try and relieve some of the ache from his awkward sleeping position. "Statement: I set the ship down next to the Temple of the Ancients." Replied the droid and Naruto's eyes widened right before he strained to look through the cockpit windows in order to catch a glimpse of the building. Looking out the right side window, he managed to see part of a white stone building and realizing that he didn't have to merely look out the window, he ran to the landing ramp. Forgetting to even ask the the atmosphere was breathable, Naruto went right outside.

Stepping onto soft grass, Naruto looked over the building as he idly started walking towards it. He half expected to find the building in perfect condition, similar to how the Star Maps could repair themselves but that was not the case. The tall white structure appeared to be in disrepair with many discolorations and numerous portions where stones had come loose, been broken off, eroded by weathering, or were perhaps damaged by some other means. The heaviest damage within his view was at the main entrance to the temple. The ramp going up to the entrance suddenly ended and there was almost a crater beyond that point where the ramp, entrance, and part of the structure had been blown apart. Numerous stones and broken pieces were scattered all around the damaged ramp and the entrance was partially caved-in.

"No way." Naruto said out loud as he took in the entire building. It was not what he had expected. Though the uppermost parts bore a resemblance to the Star Maps design, it was not jet black as his mind thought it should have been. The building was less than a hundred feet tall with a tower segment that stood out of a round and much wider bottom segment with sloped top. He idly wondered if the building had a strong dark-side presence to it but was suddenly struck by the presence he felt coming from all around him. He hadn't noticed until that moment, but the entire planet seemed to be steeped in the dark-side. The Force was not only very strong on the planet but the presence it gave made him feel quite powerful.

"Inquiry:.." Suddenly came a voice from behind Naruto and he broke from his staring to find HK moving towards him, fully suited up for a battle it seemed. "...What is it that you are looking for inside this temple?" The assassin droid finally asked, and Naruto didn't need to wonder anymore who the droid had once belonged to.

"Anything that can be useful to me. My Master told me many stories about the this planet but since he had never visited it, I always wondered if there was something more to it. About a thousand years ago, a Sith came here in order to find artifacts associated with the dark-side and apparently only managed to find a single holocron once belonging to Revan. I'm hoping that he overlooked something, enough to make this trip worthwhile." Explained Naruto and he noted the droid's sudden twitch at the name he had mentioned.

"Recollection: The last time I was here, the Temple was sealed with a unique force field that only the native Meatbags could open but it appears that it won't be of concern. I also remember a powerful disruption field being generated from this site, the controls being in the upper levels. Ships that were not properly shielded against it had their systems overloaded, hyperdrive damaged, and should they be closet to the planet, were caught by it's gravity and crashed on the surface." The droid explained from it's memory and Naruto stood with his mouth open at the very relevant information that the droid had just given him.

'Was Darth Bane not interested in such technology?' He wondered and decided to get things started. He had already wasted enough time with his nap and they were still on a timetable. Making a cross-shaped handseal, no less than forty clones were created and they soon moved towards the building. Several went around the perimeter while a few started moving up the sides with the rest jumping right inside the entrance.

x-x

Being summoned by the calls of one of his clones, Naruto moved towards one side of the damaged entrance ramp to find several clones attempting to lift a stone that was apparently covering something that was important. Coming to a stop and watching the clones struggle, Naruto simply said, "You idiots. I can use the Force." The clones all stood and started scratching the backs of their heads as they realized what he was getting at. Moving out of the originals way, Naruto easily lifted the heavy stone to see what was beneath.

Naruto genuinely smiled as he found a severed arm that had been imbedded into the ground due to the stones weight. What caused the smile, however, was not the forearm with remnants of skin and clothing, but the cylindrical weapon that was still grasped in the remains of the hand. Using the Force, he wrenched the weapon from the hand and floated it in the air so he could get a good look at it. The outer metal had likely once been very polished but had developed a distinct patina to it from being in the ground for so long. It appeared to be in good condition and anxiousness overrode caution as he pulled the lightsaber into his hand and tried the switch.

Nothing happened.

'Damn, I got all excited too.' Thought Naruto as he held the weapon and found it far lighter than he had imagined it would be. Though he had seen Plagueis' weapon activate, his Master would not let him hold the lightsaber. Seeing the damaged area in the ground and to the stone, he realized that it had been left on after the arm was severed and likely the battery had run out. He was however very curious about finding the arm and weapon. HK had just informed him of the sensor information from the station. Apparently Bane was not alone on his journey and had some unexpected company. 'The fight ended right at the entrance to the temple.' Naruto realized as he looked to the arm of what had likely been Bane's opponent.

'Where's the rest of him?' Naruto wondered as he looked around, thinking that the arm had been severed. Looking back to the damage to the building, he began to rethink how the battle had played out in his mind and started to believe that perhaps the man had been part of the explosion. 'Then maybe I won't find the rest of him.'

"Found another one." Yelled one of the clones as it ran towards Naruto from the opposite side of the ramp with an identically shaped weapon. Holding onto one, and looking at the other, it was very evident from the juxtaposition that hundreds of years near salt water had not been as kind to the one weapon while the other had spent the time hidden beneath stone and far safer from the elements of the tropical world. The outer casing of the second lightsaber was completely rusted through on one side and Naruto wondered about how the internal components had faired.

Quickly looking towards the Temple, Naruto was alerted through his connection with his clones inside that they had also found many damaged droids, some of which appeared to be partially fixed by the unique Rakatan self-repairing technology. 'Take them.' Said the original as he handed the lightsaber over to one of his clones so it could be transported to the ship. Two of his other clones had found a device on the summit of the building but it didn't appear to be operational and the turbolift door was also locked.

'That could be the controls for the disruptor field.' He thought and decided to enter the building himself in order to try and determine if there was power heading to those systems and if he could access any other systems in the building. HK was already inside and he would need the droid in order to translate whatever he found.

x-x

Moving through the sublevel of the Temple, Naruto found that numerous lights were still working and they provided enough illumination for him to get by in the dark hallways. Turning a corner, he found HK waiting and he then focused to find the location of the clone that had contacted him. Finding the clone, Naruto led the droid down one of the hallways and made a left, moving a short distance and finding another one of the strange doors.

Most of the doors he was used to were completely solid and opened vertically or horizontally. The Rakatan apparently preferred individual segments of door that each opened vertically from the center and not all at once, with a slight delay on each to make it unique. The control panels were also situated on the door at the center segment. Stepping through the door into a good sized room, Naruto looked to his clone, who was sitting on a small ledge on the wall.

"Is the door locked?" He questioned to the clone, motioning to the door on the far side of the room, opposite the one he and HK had just walked through. The room was the last item that had been discovered; his clones having explored everything else and even used jutsu to move through the walls and make sure there were no other secrets. Aside from the computer or console on the summit, the room was the last mystery.

"It won't budge." Said the clone and Naruto looked to the strange tiles on the floor. Nine were arranged together in three rows of three, with a tenth tile attached to the side closest to where Naruto was standing. Some of the tiles were colored red while others were white.

"I think it's some kind of floor puzzle." The clone informed him as it stepped forward onto one of the tiles and changed it's color. Inhaling and exhaling to calm himself down, Naruto asked, "And you've been messing with it?" The clone shrugged in response and wouldn't meet his eyes which made Naruto want to punch it.

Looking to floor tiles and then looking to the door, Naruto did the obvious thing, he reached for his sword and walked around the floor tiles. Stopping in front of the door, he stabbed forward at the door, intent on cutting his way through but found resistance. The blade struck but made no sound and was partially deflected, but the strong stab still resulting in a hard jarring motion to Naruto's arm. Flexing the elbow of the now sore arm, Naruto switched hands with the sword and tapped the door with the blade. The metal of his sword made no sound on the metal of the door and looking closer, Naruto discovered why.

Refraining from turning around, he asked the clone, "When you mentioned that the door wouldn't budge, did you actually mean that you couldn't touch the control panel because of some kind of force field that stopped you?"

"I guess you have to solve the puzzle first." Explained the clone and Naruto replied not to the clone but to all the occupants of the room with, "Shoot him." A quick flash from a single blaster fire told Naruto of the impending rush of memories from the deceased clone. After viewing everything that the clone had done and seen, Naruto mumbled, "I don't like puzzles."

Walking away from the door, Naruto moved to the wall adjacent to the door and again tapped his sword against it. The weapon made no sound on the carved rock wall and Naruto proceeded to go to the opposite side where he received the same result. Turning to HK, who was still holding the weapon that killed his clone, Naruto said, "I'll be right back," and he quickly sheathed his sword while making some handseals and started sinking into the ground.

Less than a minute passed before a hand appeared out of the ground directly beneath HK and grabbed the droid's leg. Channeling earth nature chakra through the metal of the assassin droid's armor plating, HK was soon sinking into the rock floor as Naruto pulled him in.

x-x

Coming out of the floor, HK surveyed the room as he was taller than Naruto and his head came out first. Naruto soon followed and he too looked around the dark room. It was larger than the room outside with four pillars that surrounded a central, slightly raised platform on which sat a single large piece of technology that resembled the control panel on the summit that his clones had seen.

Making sure that nothing else was in the room and knowing that HK seemed as clueless as he was about the device, Naruto stepped forward and stood in front of the machine. Looking over it's various panels, it appeared to have touch screens but the language was not anything that he recognized. Before he could look back and have HK come and help, a masculine voice emanated from the device and spoke in a language that he did not recognize. Stopping himself from taking a step back, Naruto was about to ask HK when the droid interrupted him.

"Translation: Welcome."

A moment of silence passed as Naruto got over his surprise and tried to think of what to respond with or say, "What are you?" He simply asked and hoped that the voice was not just some kind of recording. This was confirmed when it responded back with a much longer sentence.

"Translation: I am a completely self-sufficient, autonomous, interactive database constructed by the Rakata to record and store the entire history of the species."

Naruto raised his eyebrows at the explanation and he started to smile as his hopes for the device started improving greatly. Before he could say anything else, the voice sounded again and he waited for it to finish and for the translation by HK.

"Translation: Normally those worthy would have to solve the puzzle outside, however I may be willing to make an exception. By what method did you use to get into this room?"

"I used a technique that allows me to move easily through solid rock." Naruto elaborated and he hoped that the computer was interested and made the exception.

"Translation: Most interesting. I have not recorded anything similar since my creation. My sensory input systems tell me that your composition is slightly different than the humans that the builders enslaved. Your unique appearance in this room and compositional differences have now been added to my database."

Waiting a moment to see if the computer would ask anything else, Naruto considered all that he wanted to ask and started with, "Then, am I allowed to access your database?"

"Translation: Yes. Since the collapse of the Infinite Empire, there have been few events worth recording and no one has sought to access any significant portions of my database."

Pushing aside his other questions, Naruto deciding to first to ask something that had been plaguing him since the computer started speaking to him, "Has anyone else been here to access your database in the last thousand years?"

"Translation: Yes. One other came here and dissimilar to you, he solved the puzzle and was allowed access. This individual sought knowledge on artifacts hidden in the temple but I was unable to help because of the language barrier between us. Unlike your droid, he could not understand Rakatan and soon left."

Ignoring the bit about the puzzle, Naruto thought, 'So Darth Bane was here but he ignored the device. I guess I'm lucky he didn't destroy it after not being able to communicate.' "Are you fully functional?" Naruto quickly asked as a followup to his thoughts on Darth Bane's encountered with the device.

"Translation: My system is operating at peak efficiency and due to my ability to monitor and repair myself, you will find the information in my archives is fully intact. Please choose the topic that you wish information on."

'This is it.' Naruto thought as something he had wanted for a long time was possibly about to come to fruition. A part of him never thought he would have such a chance or find such a computer. He hoped but always remained firmly set in reality which told him that he wouldn't be able to get the information that he was really after. 'The feeling of leaving Ibonihs may actually pale in comparison to confirmation of my next few questions.' Naruto thought before asking something general and moving towards what he specifically wanted. "You mentioned that you contain the recorded history of the Rakatan. I am very interested in their great technological achievements. Do you have detailed information on these achievements?" Naruto waited on baited breath for the computer to finish answering and for HK to translate into Basic.

"Translation: I have detailed information on all of the Builders technology and achievements. Recordings from across the former Infinite Empire have all made their way into my system. Which specific topic would you like to know about?"

A feeling of great success and victory soon rushed over Naruto and he quickly answered, "The Star Forge, " but he also added, "I want to know if you have detailed plans for the Star Forge." Rather than answer, Naruto watched as a small device emerged from one area of the curved computer console. The device was actually something he recognized, only much smaller. The holoprojector opened like the Star Map and projected a colored image of what must have been the Star Forge. The projection had various detailed information in what Naruto assumed was Rakatan. Next to the main picture of the factory was a smaller image that kept changing multiple times a second and Naruto realized after a few moments that it was displaying details of every system on the space station.

'Like all Rakatan engineering, it's a melding or fusion of extremely advanced technology and dark-side energies. If the formerly enslaved species of the galaxy were able to figure out how to modify the Rakatan hyperdrive system to run off other power sources instead of the Force, then it should be possible to do the same for the Star Forge. The modified hyperdrive was able to visit any planet instead of just the ones strong in the Force and a similarly modified Star Forge should provide all the benefits and abilities of the original, with none of the downsides.' Naruto thought as he continued to stare, enraptured at the holoprojection.

'I want more.' Naruto suddenly thought and decided to ask another question, "You mentioned earlier that you are a self-sufficient and autonomous, does this mean that with a little hard work, I could remove you from this Temple?"

"Translation: This would indeed be possible but for what purpose would you do this? I was created to be placed on this very spot inside this temple."

Naruto took a moment to gather his thoughts and come up with the most logical statement or at least one that would coerce the machine into willingly coming with him, "I didn't expect to find such a computer on this planet. I thought perhaps that it would be a wasted trip but now I find myself in a conundrum. Lehon is very far away from where I am currently living and I have _so_ many questions concerning the Builders. I want to know everything about them and their technology. Though old, it is far from obsolete. I want to learn about their medicine, Force techniques, weapons, ships, space stations, and everything that I can. The best solution that I can see, is to not keep coming back here whenever I have another question but to take you with me."

Naruto waited a moment for an answer, one that he hoped would be in his favor, "Translation: I have recorded your statement in my archive and am ready to leave whenever you are."

Creating as many clones as he could to help lift the computer, Naruto went to the door and activated the console which opened it so they could leave. As he stepped through the once barred door, he looked to the floor tiles. 'Solve the floor puzzle first,' he childishly mocked at the no longer present clone and proceeded towards the exit with a very large and genuine smile on his face.

x-x

Heading back through hyperspace towards Ibonihs was much easier than it was the first time. Knowing about the asteroid field and following the same course allowed Naruto a bit more time to sleep, though he had difficulty given how anxious and excited he had become over their new guest. The Rakatan Computer was going to placed on his level of the Castle and he decided not to tell Plagueis about his detour or discovery. There was much work ahead if he wanted to redesign the Star Forge and it would likely take decades to come to completion but he was willing to put in the time and effort.

'T'm going to be rather late getting back to Naboo.' Naruto realized as by the time he was back, it would have been about eighteen days that he was gone. That exceeded what he told Plagueis and Tayuya by four whole days. Though he was reluctant, there was one thing that he could do, 'We are in need of more storage scrolls. I need parchment.'

Bringing back fresh scrolls would eliminate unneeded questions concerning the extra days. Not thrilled with sneaking back onto Ibonihs, he decided to do it since it was on the way. While closing his eyes and trying to concentrate on his astrogation, Naruto found his thoughts traveling back to Sarafur and to what the junkyard owner Rath had asked him. It was something that he had thought several times during the long jouney.

When leaving Ibonihs for Sarafur, he had never stopped to think about the escape pods that had been jettisoned years before his discovery of the ship. Someone had been alive to use the pods and he still had the ships logs that had been saved to Deefour. So he knew when and where the pods had been launched and since most pods had only a very limited hyperdrive system or no hyperdive, he could narrow down the location rather easily.

'As long as they aren't completely crazy from spending almost sixteen years on an uncharted planet. Why not?' He thought and started looking through the ships old logs that he had on a datachip.

x-x

Unnamed Planet

Unknown Region

x-x

Hearing a slightly familiar sound, a bearded man walked to the door of his shelter. He was wearing tattered pants with an old belt where he kept his knife. Before thinking about venturing out, he took hold of the spear that he kept by the side of the door. He'd survived living in complete isolation on an unknown planet and knew that his mind would sometimes play tricks on him. More than once had he thought he heard the sound of a ship and it had nearly cost him his life when he ran to some of the native fauna. Cautiously coming out of his makeshift shelter, that included a crashed escape pod, the former starship captain named Doro made sure that nothing was around before he turned his eyes towards the sky.

Though he saw nothing at first, a metal ship soon started moving across the sky to the south of him. He could tell that it was flying at medium altitude, just below cloud level and he stared in disbelief for a few moments before cursing at his stupor and running back into the shelter. Fumbling with the emergency beacon, he connected the power to it from his single solar panel and impatiently waited for it to start up.

"Come on! Work you son of a bitch!" He yelled in frustration at the device and turned to find something else that would help. Tossing aside trinkets that he had collected over his more than decade stay on the planet, he finally found the flare gun. Running out of his shelter and then remembering to check to see if the gun was loaded, he aimed in front of the ship and fired the lone emergency device. Seconds passed by which felt like an eternity as he waited desperately for the bright flare to be noticed or for the beacon to turn on.

When the ship began to slow down and start turning in his direction, he collapsed to knees and wept.

x-x

End

OMAKE 1: ARRIVING AT THE ESTATE

Standing on the hangar, and looking up at the estate, the group all strained their necks to look up at the structure that was apparently going to be their new home. The collective response was to stand with mouths slightly open, that is, until Karin broke the silence.

"I'M A FREAKIN PRINCESS AND THIS IS MY CASTLE!" She screamed before running off toward the building to find a door, cackling along the way. It that wasn't strange enough, it seemed that one member of the group was not even looking at the estate with the same look as all the others had adopted.

"A LAKE!" Suigetsu yelled with reverence before running straight off the landing pad and flopping into the lake as if he was trying to hug the body of water.

"Suigetsu calls dibs on the lake." Said Gozu and a few people had a good laugh before Tayuya started walking towards the building. "Are you a princess too?" Questioned Meizu to the other redhead of the group. Though at the moment she was loathe to admit that she and Karin were friends because of that outburst, Tayuya quickly responded, "Fuck you halfwits. I'm going to claim the biggest room."

Thinking over what she had said, the rest of the group looked to the castle before then looking back at each other. Even Suigetsu had jumped up to the ledge of the landing pad after hearing the remark. A moment of shifty eyes, darting back and forth between each member, began before some unknown trigger caused the mass rush to the building. The Demon Brothers were in the lead behind Tayuya until they started shoving each other and ended up tripping on each others legs. Juugo was next in line before a weight landed on his shoulder and Naruto pushed off him, gaining the lead and throwing the orange-haired teen off balance. Snakes however soon wrapped around Naruto's legs and caused him to stumble. A chuckling Kabuto took the lead until he heard a poof of smoke behind him and realized that Naruto had been a shadow clone.

Movement caught his attention out of the corner of his eyes as he spotted the vague outline of a figure but he was unable to block the oncoming punch that caught him in the kidney and caused him to trip. Removing the Toton Jutsu, Naruto took the lead again and could feel Suigetsu running beneath him on the underside of the landing pad. Tayuya was well ahead of the group and he realized that Karin was already inside the building, 'They planned this.' He correctly guessed and cursed before he felt Suigetsu make his move.

Running over to the edge and then along the side, Suigetsu moved to the top of the landing pad and was intent on smacking Naruto with the flat side of his blade. Before he got the chance an open-palmed hand was shoved in his direction and his body forced completely off the pad.

"Fuck your invisible powers." Yelled the white-haired teen before splashing into the water below.

Making it to the door that was near the landing pad, Naruto turned the corner and nearly ran into the closed door. Pounding on the door, he could feel Tayuya on the other side, making sure that none of them managed to get in.

"Bitch, it's my estate!" he yelled at the door so she could hear him and Tayuya laughed before responding, "Fuck you, short and spikey." Pushing herself against the doors, she knew that it wouldn't take long for others to arrive so she yelled up into the open building, "Karin, hurry and find the best rooms. I'll hold them off like we planned."

Laughing maniacally while running up the stairs, Karin thought, 'Complete fools, as if I was that unbalanced. The best rooms are ours.'

As the others that he had foiled started to near the door, Naruto knew of another way in and Force jumped to the side of the building, proceeding to run up the outer wall and towards any open window that he could find.

Still standing next to the ship, Plagueis watched the circus performance and looked to the two Twi'leks that hadn't moved an inch since the impromptu race started. 'You two have no idea what you've gotten yourselves into.' He said directly into their heads and started walking towards the castle. He had to admit that the word 'castle' was quite fitting for the building. It didn't matter what the others thought or who won the race. He would get whatever room he desired, one way or another.

Ann and Tann were still looking at the spectacle before one said to the other, "That one is running up the side of the building, and now there's four of him fighting the others off." Her sister soon responded, "Juugo just started following him up and snakes are coming out of that one's arms."


	29. Chapter 29

AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

x-x

**AN:** _I am aware that I created an inconsistency in the previous chapter concerning the Raijin and Tessents. Thank you to those that pointed it out and let me know which chapter it was in, otherwise I would have taken me a very long time to find and correct. I have changed a few sentences in chapter 20 in order to fix this problem. With all that happened between chapters 20 and 28, I simply had too much going on to keep most of the plot arc that I had originally planned concerning the Tessents. Only one of the statues was ever analyzed on Ast Kikorie and that analysis ultimately showed nothing. The second Tessent was never properly looked over and that still remains a mystery to Plagueis and Naruto. _

_With the Raijin, I encountered problems because my original idea for the weapon was no longer viable and my secondary idea would have also conflicted with much earlier chapters. I thought perhaps the Raijin could have been a Rakatan weapon but that would give it Force technology and a dark-side aura that would have clearly been felt by either Naruto or Plagueis when they first got a hold of it and it also wouldn't have needed chakra to activate it. I therefore have decided that the Raijin will be like one of the many weapons in the Naruto universe that has amazing abilities but no clear explanation as to how those properties or abilities were created (Kusanagi, the Seven Swordsman Swords, and others) Not the best outcome as I worked myself into a corner with my own writing._

_I apologize to those that wanted some kind of treasure quest to happen with both of the Tessents, the second Tessent still remains untouched by any testing, or the Raijin. I had too much already going on in the story to start making a side arc for a large treasure quest for both Tessents and didn't want the Raijin to be able to turn chakra into electrical energy or in some way be reproducible. Again, I apologize for my mix up and am sorry if anyone is disappointed that the Raijin won't play a larger role or that I mistakenly included both Tessents in the information on Naruto's datapad from Ast Kikorie. _

x-x

Ages of the group members after this chapters one year time skip

Naruto: 14

Suigetsu: 14

Juugo: 17

Meizu and Gozu: 26

Karin: 14

Tayuya: 15

Kabuto: 21

x-x

**One year time-skip from last chapter**

**35.3 BBY – Current Year **

Chapter XXIX

x-x

Somewhere in the Outer-Rim

x-x

Piloting the _Star Jewell_, HK-47 disengaged the engines and activated the distress beacon. The ship continued moving through momentum, making slow progress to the planet he had come out of hyperspace near. After that was accomplished, he began fluctuating the power to various systems while temporarily turning off power others. Glancing to the cameras that showed the hangar bay, he found one of the Demon Brothers creating a fire in the venting hangar bay. As atmosphere escaped through the small open gap in the hangar doors, so did some flame and all the smoke as it moved into space and created a trail behind the ship.

Checking the sensors, the assassin droid found that their distress beacon and condition had already garnered attention. Several small ships were fast approaching their position, having taken off from a hidden base on the unnamed planet's surface. He had been actively scanning the surface and now knew the location of the base. Not concerned with the incoming fighters, the droid turned his attention to the incoming message. A familiar blonde-haired leader soon appeared and asked, "Have they taken the bait?"

"Response: The foolish Meatbags are on their way. I'm sending the coordinates for the base." Responded the droid and Naruto nodded before saying, "You can begin boarding when you see the landing ships leave the _Tsukinowa_. What is the timetable?"

Taking a look to the sensors, HK judged how long it would take, "Estimation: Forty-five seconds." Before anything else could be said between the two, one of the incoming ships had jammed the _Star Jewel'_s transmissions. As the ships approached and charged weapons, HK activated the yacht's powerful deflector shields and powered up all the system. Opening up the hatches for the ship's hidden turbolasers, the droid preparing for a short battle.

x-x

Counting down the seconds, Naruto looked to the blue marked OOM-series pilot droids in the bridge and ordered, "Take us into hyperspace."

"Roger, Roger." Came the expected deep machine voice from the droids and Naruto watched out the front viewport as the ship accelerated forward into an opened hyperspace window. They were waiting several parsecs just outside the system and it would only take them a few seconds before arriving and coming out of hyperspace. Though he had done similar actions over a dozen times before, Naruto still found himself slightly nervous entering another combat arena, especially one where he was not in charge of everything. He was much more confident in smaller engagements where he only needed his personal weapons to achieve victory.

Feeling that the moment was right, one of the pilot droids confirmed his feeling as it said, "Coordinates reached, leaving hyperspace." As the ship slowed, a planet instantly came into view and substantially enlarged as they exited the hyperspace window and returned to realspace. The stolen and modified Lucrehulk-class LH-3210 cargo freighter, renamed the _Tsukinowa_, came to a stop and actively started scanning the planet and surrounding space.

Naruto took a brief moment to look at the beige colored planet before getting to work, "Jam all transmissions and sensors from the battle as well as the coordinates sent to us on the planet. Tell the vessels in the cargo hold to get ready to disembark." He ordered and turned in his chair to get a look at the space battle.

Squinting at the battle occuring in the large viewport and finding it difficult to see what was happening with the _Star Jewel_, Naruto frowned before he turned around towards the heavy doors to the bridge and activated the advanced viewscreen. For some reason, the designers of the ship decided to have the surface of the door, double as a viewscreen for messages and to better see the events happening outside the ship. A field overlapped the surface of the door, making it appear as a rippling pool and Naruto accessed the sensors and cameras on the exterior of the ship to show him a better view of the _Star Jewel_.

As the puddle-like viewscreen started showing him a magnified view of the battle, he smirked at how well the plan was going. A luxury yacht adrift in space, and sending a distress call, was the perfect lure for pirates. It could get them to travel across an entire sector and even vacate their hidden base. "Status of the _Star Jewel_." He quickly ordered as the seconds were passing and he needed to begin his assault.

"The ship's deflector shields are holding." One of the pilot droids reported and Naruto nodded before beginning his plan. Pushing a button on his command chair, Naruto messaged the droids in the hangar to start the device and sent them coordinates of their target. "Activate the weapon, short spectrum, and fire when ready at the coordinates I have given." He ordered and received a, "Roger, Roger," in response to his command.

Watching the viewscreen, he waited anxiously until the invisible Rakatan disruptor field was activated. It didn't take long before he got results as the ships trying to take the yacht suddenly had their systems overpowered and engines damaged. The vessels all instantly lost propulsion and started drifting through space on what momentum they had left from the stalled engines. Since the _Star Jewel_ still had it's shields up during the fields activation, the luxury yacht remained perfectly fine because of the modifications that had been made to it's deflector shields.

"Turn off the weapon but keep it prepared for use on the planet, wide spectrum." Naruto ordered to the droids in the hangar. The Rakatan weapon was so useful once he had constructed his own but he only used it for brief moments when he absolutely needed it. Eventually his privateer fleet would become large enough that he wouldn't have to rely on it for such engagements.

Giving the signal to his transports, a number of small but heavily armed vessels came out the hangar. These were followed by a small force of space tugs that held back to let the other ships work until they were needed. Once the vessels had cleared the ship and moved towards the disabled fleet for capture and boarding, Naruto turned his attention back to the planet and the pirate base. Using the ship's sensors, he got a view of the planet's surface near the coordinates that HK had given. Analyzing the terrain, he chose the best place for a landing site and transmitted the coordinates to the waiting ships.

Activating a button his chair's side console, Naruto began the second phase of the attack, "Suigetsu, begin the ground assault. I'll be down shortly." He casually said over the communications system. A few seconds went by before nothing happened and Naruto pushed the button again, "Suigetsu?"

"You're forgetting something." Commented a voice which he knew to be the white-haired teen. Pushing his head back into the headrest with a groan, Naruto took a few deep breaths before pushing the button again, "General Suigetsu, you may begin your ground assault." He announced in a more authoritative voice and the teen quickly responded in a similar authoritative voice, "At once, Admiral Rasen."

As Naruto watched out the main viewport and saw the C-9979 landing craft start coming out from one of the hangar bays, he wanted to open fire or at least do something to express the anger and frustration he was holding back. 'It's been a year and half since I asked him to join the group back at Orochimaru's hideout and since then he's only become more childish.'

Deciding to ignore the landing craft, he turned back to the viewscreen to find a shuttle coming out of the _Star Jewel_ and knew that HK was not going to let the Smoke Demon boarding parties have all the fun on the disabled pirate ships. Once the crews were pacified, he would take half the ships back to his base on Sarafur and hopefully get the ships fixed so he could add them to his ever-growing privateer fleet. The other remaining half would be picked up by the Black Sun and added to their far larger contingent.

Seeing that everything was in order and no other ships were coming from the planet or heading to the planet, Naruto turned back to the viewport and watched the landing craft begin entering the atmosphere towards the coordinates he had chosen. "Launch two squadrons of Vulture droid starfighters and soften up the pirate's defenses." He ordered and the pilot droids went to work. Seconds later his squadrons shot out of the hangar at speeds far faster than the landing craft and went for attack runs. Once the battle started and he had activated all of the OOM battle droids, Naruto planned to head down to the planet. Black Sun engineers had helped to modify the stolen cargo ship to be able to control a legion of Baktoid Combat Automata droids which was useful for the missions in which he pretended to be the Trade Federation.

'Hopefully I don't have to remind Suigetsu again to take prisoners.' He thought and realizing that it was Suigetsu he was talking about. Of the times he had brought Suigetsu for a ground assault, the teen had carved through opponents and left them to bleed out, so he decided it was probably best to remind him again.

x-x

Moving out of the landing craft, Suigetsu drove a Multi-Troop Transport (MTT) down the ramp and came out on the rocky terrain. Stopping the lumbering repulsorlift vehicle, he took command of his legion of troops which comprised fifty of the solid brown MTTs and numerous Single Trooper Aerial Platforms (STAP). The STAP vehicles were more for scouting and distracting while the bigger MTTs were troop transports that held over a hundred battle droids each, except for Suigetsu's which was specially modified. Bringing his convoy and aerial troops togther, he left half of the fifty MTTs to stay at the landing site and took the rest to the coordinates Naruto had given him. If he needed, he could call for the rest as a second wave.

He wished he had something with more firepower, like a tank, but none of the corporations that comprised the Trade Federation had any that they could get their hands on through piracy. Pushing forward, he kept the sensors active in order to get a better idea of what was ahead. Naruto had given him ground scans of the base and he looked through them before determining the best course of action.

"Yes!" He yelled out loud, causing the pilot droid in the cockpit to look at him. "Its a fort-style base." Celebrated Suigetsu as he took a look at the sensor readings and information that Naruto had sent. "None of that open crater base crap or hidden complex bunker shit." He explained, slightly relieved that he wouldn't have to deal with that again. The loss of the droids didn't matter to him but it was so much harder storming those bases than just a plain fort.

'And no shield generator, even better.' He thought as their obviously detected approach did not cause any protective field to go up. It was so much harder with a shield because none of the repulsorlift vehicles could penetrate it, so they had to deploy the droids in waves and send them in waves to storm the complex. A protected fort with a good old-fashioned door was the types of conflicts he liked the most. 'Especially when they put the front door at the bottom of an incline.' he thought with joy and as his vehicle started to go down the slope towards the front entrance of the facility, Suigetsu removed all limiters and let his MTT pick up as much speed as possible.

The fort he was after was built into either side of a medium width canyon with the entrance to the canyon being blocked off with a tall defensive wall and two laser cannon emplacements. What lay beyond were likely hangars for the ships that had taken off, built into the cliff face with an entire complex either on the canyon floor or built into the walls. While not a more traditional fort or stand-alone structure, the complex was just as good because it was easier to get into.

As the laser cannons started targeting his repulsorlift transport, and the other transports that were in the lead, Suigetsu ignored them until help would arrive. Though heavily armored, his vehicle did not have much in the way of offensive weapons and the STAP vehicles were more for harassment than destruction. The laser canons didn't even bother targeting them and instead focused on the larger troop transports.

As he started to get worried that his vehicles armor couldn't take such sustained fire, help arrived. 'And here's our air support.' Thought Suigetsu with a smile as several Vulture starships flew low and pummeled the bases defenses with strafing runs. Focusing back on the wall main door, Suigetsu's MTT took the lead and he pushed the vehicles to it's maximum speed while most of other MTTs slowed down in order to start unloading troops at the main gate. The MTTs that came with him would draw the primary fire of those in the base, allowing time for the other troop transports outside the gate to unload their droid payload. The transports coming with him would unload at various points inside the base and cause chaos among those trying to defend the base.

"Ramming speed!" Yelled Suigetsu as his seemingly runaway vessel plowed through the front doors of the base and kept going. The shock of the impact nearly knocked him out of his seat. He could see many pirates firing at his vessel as they apparently had rushed to the front gate in order to hold off the attack. Cruising through the middle of the canyon, Suigetsu attempted to maneuver around several obstacles and tried to run down the pirates that were on the ground. "Run'em down." said Suigetsu until he remembered he was in a repulsorlift vehicles. While he could run over them, they weren't in any danger unless he hit them with the front of the vehicle. "Oooh, got one!" Realized the exited teen as he heard a slight pink coming from the front of the speeding vehicle, right after he saw a pirate disappear in the blind spot in front of his vehicle, created from the height of the cockpit.

Taking a quick survey of the complex, Suigetsu found that the canyon was rather short and that the main part of the complex was built into the very back wall. Naruto wanted the leaders of the group captured for interrogation and wasn't concerned with the cannon fodder that likely would have moved to the front of the complex to defend. Keeping his momentum, the teen went straight to the carved rock face and aimed for the door. He didn't need space to deploy weaker battle droids and instead carried two squads of HKB-3 hunter killer droids and three Droidekas. The HKB-3s were not very similar to their groups HK, except for being more dangerous than most other droids. They were armed with a repeating blaster arm and Naruto had given them a stun netting gun in order to capture targets.

Smashing through small containers, Suigetsu reached the building and braced himself as the MTT crashed into the rock wall, smashing the front of the vehicle into the building. Slightly woozy from the impact, Suigetsu turned to find the pilot droid hadn't survived the impact but he moved right past the droid as he took a ladder down to the hold. Jumping down to the hard metal plating, he looked around the spacious lower level to find all the HKB-3s were still strapped in and ready to be deployed. Normally the vessel had a deployment rack for the OOMs but that had been removed in order to allow more rapid deployment of the better droids.

Pulling a lever to release the droids from their harnesses, Suigetsu opened the vessel's front hatch and ordered the Droidekas through first. The three legged droids could roll at much faster speeds than they could walk and upon deploying, could activate a shield unit and serve as an immobile turret with double blasters for hands. As soon as the Droidekas were in and he could hear them distracting the pirates, Suigetsu raised his sword and ordered a charge from the HKB-3s.

x-x

As Naruto gave the order for the OOMs to activate as soon as individual MTTs had completed the deployment operation, he turned in his seat towards the door and got up to leave the bridge. The double doors opened for him and he made his way along the hallway to a lift that would take him to one side of the crescent hangar area. HK and the Demon Brothers had already completed the capture of the small pirate fleet and now the vessels were being brought back to the cargo vessel via the tugs. Though the disruptor field was powerful, ships could still use their weapons, they just didn't have their targeting computers. However, his privateer fleet had been well-equipped with ion cannons so he anticipated the capture of the entire pirate fleet with no loses to his ships or of the enemy ships.

Arriving at the hangar deck, Naruto took a small hover vehicle in order to move through the large port-side hangar. The Cargo vessel was three kilometers long with two semi-circular hangars that stretched all the way from the engines and reactor area at the back of the ship, to the front of the ship where they both ended facing each other. He was not about to waste time walking or running over three kilometers to get to his shuttle. Normally the area was for cargo containers and other shipments but at the moment he was using the stolen ship to house his Trade Federation forces and privateer fleet.

As his ships came into view, Naruto had the droid pilot slow the vehicle down and come to a stop. HK was standing with what prisoners he had managed to capture, waiting for Naruto to arrive. Naruto jumped off the vehicle and walked towards the droid. Looking over the three prisoners, he shook his head at the droid who looked unfazed at his disapproval and lack of people to interrogate. Making three clones, Naruto used Drain Knowledge on the injured prisoners. As the clones pulled out the information, Naruto took out his new datapad and began jotting down useful information that he had obtained form the prisoners.

With the information obtained, Naruto turned to head back to the vehicle before stating, "You know what to do," Towards the assassin droid. Taking out his rifle, HK turned to his prisoners. "Recollection: Terminate with extreme prejudice."

As the hover vehicle moved towards the prepared shuttle, Naruto ignored the blaster shots. Passing by his returned fleet, Naruto inspected the damage and then looked to the incoming ships that were being pulled by tug. Outwardly, the pirate ships had very little damage but that belied the amount of money it would take for him to repair the internal components. He still had quite a few ships back on Sarafur that were just sitting around, waiting until he had the money to work on them. With the Black Sun wanting it's share, Naruto inventoried the ships as he passed by and decided which he would keep and which to send out to his Vigo contact, Narees.

Their arrangement allowed him to build up his privateer fleet but he believed that the Underlord or Narees did not want him building up a fleet too fast and possibly posing a threat to the Syndicate. At present, he was just going after the smaller groups in the Outer-Rim but eventually would be able to deal with larger criminal groups that used bigger ships. Despite being pirates and criminals, many were successful enough or skilled enough to either steal or purchase larger capitol ships.

Arriving at the shuttle, Naruto walked off the hover vehicle and stepped right onto the shuttle. The short landing ramp of the Sheathipede shuttle shut behind him and the vessel was already moving before he got to the cockpit. Sitting in the co-pilot seat next to the pilot droid, Naruto played the role of passenger. The ship quickly moved past the field at the hangar opening which kept the atmosphere inside the ship. A vessel could easily pass through the field but it prevented air from escaping the hangar.

Moving towards the planet, Naruto thought about taking the controls from the droid and piloting the ship himself. He was starting to get fidgety because he liked to pilot his own ships. It was supposed to be an advantage because everything was ready for him and he didn't need to take time to start the ship up, but at the same time, something seemed to be lost with such a luxury. An incoming signal was intercepted by the ship and before the droid could inform him about it, Naruto had already taken control of the comm system and listened to the message.

"We got a runner." He heard Suigetsu's voice in the message and looking towards the planet, Naruto could just make out a ship trying to escape them and leave through the planet's atmosphere on a trajectory away from the cargo ship. "Target that ship and disable it." Naruto quickly ordered after hailing the _Tsukinowa_. Watching the escaping fighter as his shuttle started entering the atmosphere, Naruto noted when it lost acceleration and started to be pulled back towards the ground by the planet's gravity.

"Follow that ship. I want to land near where it crashes." He ordered to the pilot droid and stood up from his seat, heading to the back of the ship for a quick disembarking.

x-x

The hardened, salty mud broke beneath his feet as he walked towards the only life-sign in the area. Moving around the damaged hull of the small downed craft, Naruto stepped over a few pieces of wreckage as he approached the still-living pirate. The man was attempting to crawl away from the ship with only his arm and he caught sight of Naruto after hearing his footfalls on the crusty salt-flats. Reaching for a weapon, Naruto used the Force to grab it out of his hand. He glanced at the weapon before tossing it aside and moved closer to his target.

Standing next to the man and crouching down, Naruto ignored the man's shouts as he began draining any knowledge that could be useful to them. Pirates were an untrustworthy bunch, even among each other, and though they split their take, most did not use banks. Unless they spent all of their share and didn't save any, they tended to hide their small fortunes in small boltholes, sometimes in their rooms at their base, outside the base, or even on others planets. Once in a while he encountered a pirate that had a bank account but that was rare among the small-time pirates groups they had been targeting.

Naruto was therefore surprised to find a bank account associated with the one he was standing over. Taking out his datapad to jot down the account number for use later, Naruto sifted through the other information he had gathered. The person he was crouched over was apparently the leader of the pirate group they had just destroyed. Looking to a file on his notepad, a face came up which had been given to him during the mission briefing from Narees and he confirmed that the man was the leader of the pirates.

"Who are you?" The man demanded before coughing. His eyes showed much disdain at being defeated and Naruto decided to make it quick. "Today, I'm supposed to be the Trade Federation." Naruto answered before making a swift motion with his hands on the man's head. A popping sound was heard by the only person still alive near the crash site and Naruto let the man's head drop to the ground. Since the pirate leader was the one he needed to get, Naruto took out his sword and proceeded to take the man's head and hand. The head was for needed for proof of the completion of the mission to give to the Black Sun, while the hand was to get access to the man's bank account. Taking out a small scroll, he sealed both items for later.

Standing, Naruto looked over the crash and surveyed his surroundings, looking for any witnesses. 'The smoke might draw some attention from whoever else lives on the planet.' He thought and took out his communicator to send the coordinates to the cleanup crew so they would took care of the site and sift through anything that might be of use. He knew that the dead pirate had taken a good share of money and valuables during the escape attempt, 'And hopefully they aren't destroyed.' Thought Naruto before heading back to the shuttle.

x-x

Seeing a familiar shuttle come down for a landing in the conquered base, Suigetsu looked to his prisoners, of which there were five. Fighting was still going on in certain parts of the base where the remaining pirates had barricaded themselves in against the hordes of droids but they would soon be dealt with. They were proving too difficult to take any of them as prisoners so he would let the weaker droids just finish them off.

Fishing out a datapad from his pocket, Suigetsu looked through the faces of the ones he had captured and glanced back at the screen, which showed the face of a person he was supposed to capture or make sure didn't escape. None of the faces matched and he didn't recall cutting the man down. The guy they needed was either still a part of the fighting or had taken off in the fighter.

'Damnit, I'm going to be blamed for this.' Thought Suigetsu as he tried to ignore the landing shuttle. Noting that one of his prisoners was nodding off, he quickly smacked the pirate across the face to keep him awake and alive. It was his first solo ground campaign and he really wanted it to go smoothly, lest he be delegated to cleanup crew.

Coming down the ramp of the parked shuttle, Naruto glanced around the pirates compound as he took in the details of the features for the first time since glancing over the topography using the _Tsukinowa_'s sensors. It was a lot nicer than many of the bases he had been too recently. The steep sides of the caverns had many carved hangars for numerous ships and Naruto noted two that had not taken off. He quickly made a note of it on his datapad for Juugo and the cleanup team to look at. Shifting his focus to the front gate of the base, he found numerous MTTs were all crowded in the area of the canyon before the gate. 'Hopefully he didn't get any of them wedged together or stuck.' Naruto thought and frowned as he played through the haphazard assault in his mind.

Despite it being a repulsorlift craft and not leaving any tracks on the ground, Naruto could see or at least imagine the course that Suigetsu had taken through the facility from the broken gate. He noted the dead body on the ground, a man that had likely been struck by the out of control MTT that Suigetsu was piloting and shook his head back and forth. A path of destruction had been cut through the facility with containers, likely of stolen cargo, being struck and pushed out of the way. It all led to the lone MTT at the back of the facility. Shaking his head slightly again, Naruto noted that the fighting he could hear was not a part of his imagination and there was still a small battle going on somewhere in the southern part of the complex.

Staring at the MTT that was smashed into the rock wall at the back of the canyon, he could see all the hallmarks of Suigetsu's handiwork and knew they may not be able to get the vehicle unstuck from the rock. 'A bold, full frontal assault with little forethought. At least he thought to move a few of the other MTTs inside of the facility and not just his own. If I hadn't launched the fighters he would have been taken out by the laser turrets at the front gate.' Naruto surmised and made his way over to his group member and the prisoners.

'Five?' Naruto counted and though it was better than HK, there had probably been over thirty pirates at the base. Looking over their condition, he noted the one with no legs and extremely pale complexion. The pirate was delirious and ready to pass out or die from blood loss. "Can't you just stun them? Do you have to cut off the legs?" Naruto questioned and Suigetsu just shrugged but quickly added, "I put a tourniquet on this time." Looking to the man's stumps, Naruto did see the wire that Suigetsu had used to tie off the wound and lower the blood loss. It was a slight improvement from Suigetsu's usual methods but not by much.

"I guess that's an improvement." Naruto said out loud before creating shadow clones and going to work on getting any knowledge that could be important from them. While the clones worked and the original closed his eyes to coordinate and collate, Suigetsui decided it was as good a time as ever to give the bad news, "I still haven't found..." but before he could finish, Naruto cut him off, "I've taken care of it." The white-haired teen visibly relaxed at the revealed information and the fact that the mission had not been a failure.

Waiting for Naruto to finish writing everything down and not fazed in the least when the HKB-3 droids executed the captured pirates, Suigetsu waited until Naruto was finished before asking, "So...what's my score?" Mulling over all that he had seen and taking into consideration everything that the teen had done, Naruto plainly informed him, "Sixty."

"SIXTY!? Where did I go wrong?" Yelled Suigetsu as he demanded to know why his score for the mission was so low on the zero to one hundred grading scale.

Taking a deep breath before answering, Naruto began, "Your assault was sloppy and you nearly got your vehicle destroyed before reaching the base. You could have waited for the air support, _which you forgot to call for_. You failed to use any of the STAP scout vehicles and I'm not even sure where you sent the ones that you came with. I don't see them anywhere. The MTTs at the gate have completely cut off any hope of reinforcements and half of the troop transports that you came with are stuck behind that traffic jam you orchestrated at the gate. Your rush into the facility destroyed several cargo containers that have spoiled the contents and diminished our bonus pay. The primary objective nearly got away and I can still hear fighting going on somewhere in the facility. I can only hope that it's still pirates fighting for their lives and not your own droids attacking each other."

Suigetsu started to say something but stopped several times as he looked for a way to refute or at least try and increase his score. "What about that guy I ran over with the MTT. Even you have to admit that's impressive."

"I did take that into consideration and you got bonus points. Its not often that you can achieve a hit and run in such a slow repulsorlift vehicle." Naruto informed the teen and thinking over his words, he realized how terrible it all sounded. It was like some sort of demented game instead of a true evaluation of Suigetsu's performance on the mission.

Before deciding to accept the score, Suigetsu suddenly realized something, "I lost to Karin at fighting pirates!?" He continued to rant and rave as he threw his hands up in the air and started pacing around, remembering that the redhead scored a seventy-five during her first assault on a pirate base. The differently minded girl had tried to use stealth during her assault by jamming sensors and attacking at night. Though she captured a significant amount of pirates, her droid losses were also significantly high. The pirate leader had almost gotten away, if not for a direct hit to the hyperdrive with a lucky shot from one of their privateer fleet. Unannounced to Karin, the pirates she captured had all been executed as soon as she was back on the ship in orbit.

After Suigetsu had calmed down, Naruto told him to recall his forces and go and finish the remaining pirates off personally. As the MTT's started moving out of the base and removed themselves from the front gate, Naruto made a call to Juugo and told him to commence the cleanup. Looking to the sky, he soon found another C-9979 landing craft coming down to the surface. This time it was heading right for the base and touched down just outside the front gate. Instead of troop transports, a convoy of lifter droids and repulsorlift skids soon started pouring out from the landing craft. Ignoring the dead pirates and damaged battles droids, Juugo lept down from the first skiff and walked up to Naruto as the lifter droids started loading the cargo containers.

Naruto nodded to the orange-haired teen and they proceeded to take a walk-through of the facility while the remaining droids waited for further instructions. In accordance with his verbal contract with the Black Sun, specifically with Vigo Narees, Naruto was allowed to help himself to anything inside the pirate base, save for stolen cargo or contraband items. While part of the captured vessels went to the Black Sun, they received a payment for all salable cargo items they delivered to Narees, which amounted to a sum of thirty-five percent of the total value for the stolen items. The Black Sun smuggled huge amounts of anything and everything so they had no problem finding a buyer for the cargo. Since the risk was primarily their's, they kept the remaining sixty-five percent of the black market sale price. It was a sort of finder's fee for whatever cargo they brought back and extra money added to the agreed lump sum price for each mission he and his group went on.

Sending out numerous shadow clones, Naruto started to take inventory of everything that he wanted Juugo to take from the facility. Power generators, security systems, spare parts for ships, tools, and anything else that they could use on Sarafur was loaded. All of it would be useful to his expanding privateer fleet and base on the tidal-locked planet.

When everything was loaded, he would sometime further damage the pirate base, making sure to leave the droids in plain view but ensuring that the base did not get used again, by another pirate group. Other times, it was left how it was, possibly because the Black Sun intended to use it in the future. It really all depending on what Narees asked for during the mission briefing. 'It's a good thing he wanted to leave this one alone. I'd waste too much explosives trying to destroy all the hangars.' Naruto thought as he moved to his shuttle, knowing that Juugo could take care of the rest.

After they had left, he would have the Demon Brothers secretly go after any boltholes or hidden loot that he had determined was of interest from the minds of those he looked through. The two loved going on small treasure hunts and they got a portion of the haul so they would keep quiet about it. He even had them go to various banks with the account numbers he got and had them make large withdrawals in the guise of the dead pirates.

Before leaving, Naruto created more clones to help and proceeded into the shuttle to head back to the _Tsukinowa_ and finish the mission. '_Forty-Two_ should be in the hangar. I'll take that and leave Juugo in charge of taking the _Tsukinowa_ back to the hiding place in the Kuna Constellation.

x-x

Mustafar

x-x

Going to the opposite side of the planet from his hidden base and operations with the Musfarians, Naruto sent out a confirmation signal and was allowed to land at the unfinished base of his Black Sun contact. Jutting out from the unfinished building, was a single walkway over a slumbering caldera that led to multiple landing sites. Several Black Sun ships were patrolling the area and he spotted numerous construction droids working hard to finish the tall building that was constructed into the wall of the caldera.

The building was quite different from Sidious's complex, being tall and thinner. It was also mostly anchored into the rock and didn't appear to need repulsorlifts in order to keep it from falling into the glowing caldera. Making his way across the twisting path from the landing site, Naruto noted several hidden Black Sun guards on the base and knew they would start shooting if given the command. There were also gun emplacements and likely hidden weapons as well. Glancing up at the height of the facility as he reached the main door, Naruto thought the building looked more impressive every week of the construction phase and idly wondered if all subversive organizations in the galaxy liked to put secret bases on Mustafar.

Seeing several security devices, Naruto touched the control panel of the large double doors. He didn't have to wait long before a familiar voice beckoned, "You may enter." Shaking his head slightly at the theatrics of the Iktotchi Vigo, Naruto was about to start walking into the building but the doors refused to open. Feeling slightly embarrassed, he touched the panel again and the voice returned, "Is it stuck again?" The man asked and Naruto nodded towards the camera before responding, "I can manage."

He heard a loud audible sigh come through the communications device before Narees said, "I'll see you in a few minutes then." The tone was much softer than the initial greeting and Naruto held his features as he heard the disappointment in the man's voice but knew it was not directed not at him.

x-x

Coming out of the lift as it abruptly stopped from high speed, Naruto braced himself on the rail before the doors opened. Exiting the lift, he found himself in the main hall of the fortress-like building and walked forward to sit at the large main table, opposite the smiling Iktotchi. Usually Narees stood to greet him but he the temperature inside the room was abysmal and he decided not to comment on that either.

"Climate controls are on the fritz again." Narees explained with a shake of his head but though Naruto could see the man's apologetic look, he didn't feel it. The Vigo soon gestured to the seat at the opposite end of the table and Naruto sat. Two very, very scantily clad Twi'leks were on either side of the man, waving some kind of fan in order to cool him off while Naruto sat by himself and tried to ignore the obviously contrived distraction.

Before getting down to business, Narees suddenly remembering his manners and asked, "Would you care for a drink?" Normally Naruto would decline the offer because he was neither thirsty, nor did he want that kind of drink, however, he accepted. The first time they met, and he had declined, it felt as though their conversation turned slightly sour because of him declining. In the following meetings, he had accepted but made sure to use the Force in order to ensure there was no poison.

"I don't have any ice, though. Unfortunately, I only like it chilled." Narees added after Naruto accepted the offer. Conveniently, two glasses and a bottle of a dark liquid were on a small tray on Naruto's side of the table. Pouring one glass of the liquid, Naruto chilled it close to freezing with the Force and slid the glass down the length of the table before pouring himself a second glass. The actions caused Narees to smile as he stopped the glass and found it nice and cold. Right after Naruto had finished pouring the second glass, Narees downed the glass and proceeding to take the still chilled, but empty glass, and placed it on his neck for some relief from the room's heat.

As Naruto started drinking form his own glass, seeing that it was semi-safe to drink given that his host had just consumed it without hesitation, Narees inquired about his visit, "Hopefully you haven't come all this way to pour me a chilled drink or become my new bartender? I do have an opening?"

With a small smile, more out of humoring than amusement, Naruto informed the Vigo, "I have completed the newest task and have brought you proof of elimination." Naruto ended the statement with a small glance beside his chair to the item he had brought with him. It was kept in a small bag that was typically used for medical transport of organs and was opaque.

"Yes, I just heard that the Trade Federation is attacking pirates again. I can only guess that you've brought me another head?" Questioned the Vigo before shaking his head slightly in mock exasperation. "Usually my assassins bring me a finger nail, blood sample, or tooth. You're the only one that brings an entire head to confirm the success. I must say it does save me time on confirming through my sources about whether the task was completed but it gets rather messy around here with so many heads. Well, mostly I just end up throwing them into the caldera after you leave but I have been thinking about a wall of heads. You know, put them in a jar and display them. I could tell my guests that they were all my dispatched enemies and such. What do you think?" Inquired Narees with a serious expression.

The answer to the question was rather obvious. Naruto could express revulsion at the idea or just give a disgusted look, and even tell Narees why it would be a terrible idea but Naruto decided to play along, "And what would happen if one of your guests recognized one of the heads?"

"True, that would be bad. I guess I'll just have to keep tossing them into the caldera. At the present I don't have another mission for you. The Boys in the intelligence department are working on locating another target, so I'll be in touch soon on specifics. I trust that you'll leave the cargo you acquired at the normal location and notify for pickup. Your money is at the lift and it includes the extra from the previous mission. Enjoy your week of public service on Naboo." Narees informed him and Naruto nodded before standing and heading to the lift where indeed a case was sitting, waiting for him.

Normally during a business deal, Naruto would count the money or inquire as to how much the cargo he stole the last time had sold for, so he could figure out if he was being shorted, however he was dealing with the Black Sun. According to Plagueis, he should never ask about money. Bartering, demanding, or counting was also frowned upon. Money was something that the Black Sun did not mess around with and everyone was paid the amount they were owed. If he was told that the money was all there, then the money was all there and he should never try to go back on their deal. Such actions would be extremely disrespectful and the Black Sun had killed lucrative business partners, employees, criminal partners and anyone else associated with the syndicate over such infractions.

Leaving the head by his seat on the table, Naruto looked to the smiling Narees before the lift door shut and he was taken back down to the lower levels. Though he appeared calm during the meeting, he took a few breaths in order to ease his pulse and wiped the sweat off his forehead. Using the Force, he had kept himself from getting too hot inside the balmy room but he was still heated.

He only realized after the first meeting was over, the possibility that he been fooled and completely taken in by the Vigo known as Narees. The man was extremely difficult to read, to the point of feeling that perhaps Narees had been trained against mind tricks. Originally he thought that perhaps the man was joking or wasn't taking things seriously, but only after mediating concerning the first meeting did he realize how much Narees was manipulating him. Though the facility was still under construction, he wondered about the many...obstacles that he had encountered and how many were faked in order to distract, agitate, frustrate, and perhaps even test him.

The door on the way in, the lift abruptly stopping, the heat of the room, the scantily clad dancers, and most of all was the drink. That was only on his current visit. In the previous ones and at the other hideout, the Iktotchi had pitted him against a whole different host of obstacles. He would bet money that the offering of the drink was to get him into a position where it became a habit that he would accept the drink and possibly drink it before having Narees drink first. 'Eventually there may come a time where I'd become so accustomed that I'd never think that poison or some narcotic was inside.' He gathered and knew that Narees probably created friction during their first meeting so he would realize to accept the drink the next time.

'Or maybe I'm thinking too far into this.' He considered but he was still willing to wager that what he thought was completely true. Even the lighting in the room was used to great effect, putting him on the spot, and that the Iktotchi's chair was both taller and was raised up compared to his own. The distance of the table was just enough to lessen the effect and make it hard to tell. 'He didn't rise through the ranks and become a Vigo of the Black Sun by being an idiot. He likely did it through cunning, deception, and making everyone underestimate him.' Naruto concluded and wondered what his next visit would be like.

After exiting through the working front doors, Naruto slowly walked the distance to his ship and got on board. Only then did he open the case and look over the money inside. He always tried to use the Force in order to check the case for a trap but he didn't dare do it while still within Narees' sight, which included the entire facility, outside and inside. 'The best part of their rules for deals is the fact that I shouldn't open the case, until I am already outside of the building. Instead of money, it could easily be a bomb waiting to go off on a timer or when the case was opened. Dealing with the Black Sun will certainly keep me on my toes.' Naruto mused as he thoroughly checked the case for any transmitter, explosive or anything else that could be harmful.

Having only dealt with Narees, Naruto had never once spoken to or even seen the Black Sun Underlord. He also could only guess that the plan for attacking pirates and making it look like the Trade Federation was doing it, came from the Underlord but it also could have been Narees. At present, he was unsure of what the endgame was for the various missions he was sent on. A part of him thought perhaps they were merely training or one of Narees' games but after consulting with Plagueis over the matter, it seemed something different was going on.

The Muun believed that it involved creating a war between the large Republic conglomerates and the various pirate factions in the galaxy, which were primarily in the Outer-Rim. That explained the reason for him using trademark droids, vehicles, and ships from a given group while attacking a pirate hideout. Thus far, he had been on fifteen missions and attacked not only pirates but Trade Federation and even Techno Union ships. That was the reason why he had the _Tsukinowa_ and the small droid army. It was much easier for him to take out the pirates his way, using stealth and infiltration, but Narees was specific that everyone to think that the Trade Federation was retaliating for piracy against their trade ships.

Once they were able to get their hands on military forces, droids or ships, from the other commerce giants, Naruto was willing to wager that he would also start attacking pirates in the guise of all the others. For the present, he would likely continue to use the Trade Federation as they had managed to successfully lobby the Republic Senate for he creations of small military forces in order to combat piracy against their ships. Therefore, they had a lot of forces moving around the galaxy, both for defense but also as cargo heading for a Trade Federation owned planet or other location.

Tossing the case into the co-pilot's seat, Naruto took the controls and started the ship. Looking to the dashboard, he noted that a message had been sent to him while he was gone. Curious, but wary, Naruto soon found that it was a brief message from Gato.

"I know you're here on the planet. Are you forgetting about me again? Can't even stop in to say hello?" questioned the man's voice before the message ended. Short on time, Naruto did not head for his hideout on the planet, but instead messaged Gato back while taking off.

Not putting Gato on the small holopad in the cockpit, Naruto kept the message speaker only and contacted the individual that they had left to start the mining operation. "Are you leaving the planet again without even coming to see me?" Demanded Gato and Naruto held in his sigh before stating, "I don't have time to stop in. I have public service to complete on Naboo, but you shouldn't worry, I haven't forgotten about you and our arrangement." Though it was meant to assure Gato, his statement had the opposite effect and Naruto believed it was likely because Gato detected his ship leaving the atmosphere.

"Bullshit! It's been over a year already and I've heard almost nothing from you. I've moved this operation way ahead of schedule and gotten no thanks for it. We're already getting results from mining and the first shipment will be ready shortly." Complained the irate voice of the short man.

"Gato, I can't help the fact that I'm currently busy but I was about to message you..." and Naruto ignored the scoffing sound on the other line before continuing, "..though I have to get back to Naboo right now, I will be sending you information in a day or so. It concerns a meeting that I have tentatively scheduled for two weeks from now. You will need to look everything over and make sure to memorize everything."

"A business meeting?" Inquired the man in a much kinder tone. "Yes, you've done well here on Mustafar so it's time to expand off-world. It won't happen right away, probably over the next year, but that is entirely dependent on the success of the meting." Naruto informed him as he plotted hypserspace coordinates.

"Then I eagerly await the information." Stated Gato in an even tone and Naruto gave a farewell before entering the forming hyperspace window.

x-x

Naboo

Rudshar Estate

x-x

Landing in the estate's hangar, Naruto exited the ship and looked to the night sky. There were few lights in Theed at night and therefore he had an amazing view of the stars and two of Naboo's moons from the landing pad beside his castle. Checking his watch, he found that it was about 1:00 in the morning on Naboo. Two days of travel back from Mustafar had been annoying but unavoidable.

'I have to be up in less than five hours.' Naruto realized with a groan and swiftly walked to his castle. He noted the _Vulture_ was not parked in the hangar, which meant that everyone else that went with him on the mission was likely still in transit from Sarafur. Moving around the galaxy in a weeks time-frame was difficult but he really couldn't avoid it unless he made special arrangements or started using someone to fill in for him.

Traveling up the lift, Naruto went past the floor his bedroom was on and straight to his workshop on level ten. Walking through the opened door, he glanced around the dark room and his various projects in different levels of completion. Since moving in, he had started getting organized and dividing up the areas with large workbenches placed all over the room. Projects had their own bench or multiple benches and he had storage for all the tools he used. Hidden in the back of the room, and separated by a partition, was all of his computers and digital storage. Only instead of a regular computer, he was using the Rakatan computer for most of his needs and it was hooked up to his Star Map. The decoy computer was clearly visible while the Rakatan computer was better hidden.

It was a poor hiding place but with both devices next to each other, he doubted even Plagueis would be able to tell their dark-side presence apart or suspect that it wasn't just the Star Map that was being felt. 'Speaking of my Master...' Naruto thought as he felt above him and found Plagueis was still up, working on something. 'Or perhaps he's sleeping in his lab again.' Naruto mused but even he did as such once in a while.

"Lights." Naruto commanded and the newly illuminated room allowed him to get a better look over one of the most prized projects he had recently completed. It was his very own lightsaber. Picking up the heavy weapon, Naruto looked over the weapon, remembering all the choices he had made and design changes to the standard lightsaber template. The lightsabers he had found on Lehon turned out to actually be able to connect to each other, end to end, and make a dual-blade weapon. While it was interesting, he had chosen the standard design but with a slightly longer handle to better use two hands.

Unlike other lightsaber examples that Plagueis had told him about and given him mental images of, Naruto's did not possess any controls on the handle. It was just a straight cylindrical handle but featured a small sphere at the bottom with studs to use as a skull-crusher. The handle length was wrapped with simple ninja tape and it ended just a few inches below the blade emitter where he had cut and carved out the symbol of his clan in two thin slices of synthetic lightsaber crystal; placing them as decoration. Above that were four small fins, evenly spaced around the cylinder that acted as a guard and above those was the crude phobium emitter.

Jutting out from the sides of the emitter were two knife-like pieces. When the blade was activated, they seemed as though they touched the side of the lightsaber blade but actually didn't. The blades stood nearly five inches long and were modified from two force pikes. They contained the same technology as the tip of the force pike, which was a vibration tip and also a stun emitter. This meant that they could be used to cut with the power of a vibroblade and also deliver a powerful shock, similar to a taser and knock out most beings.

With the modifications to the standard lightsaber template, Naruto's version was a powerful and useful tool no matter if the lightsaber blade was activated or not. The cylinder, force pike extensions, fins, and pummel of the weapon were all created through Sith Alchemy and could survive being struck by another lightsaber. Naruto had mixed a small amount of chakra metal in with the metal he used so it was very easy to channel chakra into the handle. These modifications gave the lightsaber a similar red coloring, letting it match his sword. It also significantly added weight, which is actually what Naruto wanted as he strove to give the handle more weight than a normal lighstaber so it was similar to wielding his sword.

Inside the longer handle were all of the mechanisms found in other lightsabers, as well as internal controls to activate and manipulate the blade. Should someone get a hold of Naruto's weapon, they would be likely be confused by the lack of any external controls and may not even be able to activate the lightsaber. The internal dials and activator for the blade were made out of chakra metal, so Naruto could actually activate and modulate his lightsaber with chakra alone or even the Force if he was concentrating enough. Without ever having to touch anything on the exterior, it meant that he could make modifications to the blade length and power under scrutiny from an opponent and be able to surprise them.

Near the controls was the main assembly, containing the focusing crystals that Naruto had procured or created. He was using three crystals and a focusing lens. The largest and main crystal was a synthetic lightsaber crystal that Plagueis had instructed him on creating through the use of a furnace and Sith Alchemy. Beneath that red crystal were two similar crystals that he had managed to procure at great difficulty because they were only found in one location in the galaxy. The first was Opila crystal which helped to generate a more intense blade and was milky white in color. Below the Opila was a Jenruax crystal that gave the projected blade more agility for both fighting and blaster deflection. Interestingly enough, Jenraux was merely a refined Opila crystal. It was a completely clear crystal having all impurities removed through extensive meditation and use of the Force to remove the cloudiness that the Opila crystal had.

Just above the dual diatium power cells, one for the lightsaber and the other for the vibrating blades and shock emitter at the top, were multiple synthetic crystals that Naruto had created and shaped into a focusing lenses for the weapon. Through the use of the lenses and energizers, the energy from the high-output battery was converted to plasma.

There were numerous crystals throughout the Galaxy that could be used in a lightsaber. The majority of which were controlled by the Jedi but they could not control or monitor the sale or mining of the others. Even a piece of the Krayt Dragon Pearls that Suigetsu had pulled from the gullet of the beast on Tatooine could be refined and implemented in a lightsaber. Naruto had chosen the Opila because of the special properties that it and it's refined form provided. Having been shot at numerous times, he knew the need for blaster deflection and he greatly liked the idea of being able to cut through materials faster. The only problem with the weapon was the synthetic lightsaber crystal.

With both the other crystals being white or off-white, the color of the blade was directly created by the red synthetic crystal that he had created. The two similar crystals were unable to create a stable white blade by themselves and needed another crystal. While the lightsaber was powerful, he refrained from using it until he could come with an alternative crystal in order to change the color. If someone saw him using it, they may not remember his face but unless they were color blind, they would remember the red blade. While that didn't necessarily mean that he was a Sith, it would certainly attract the attention of the Jedi and Sidious.

It was possible to create a synthetic lightsaber crystal in different colors, however he had yet to be able to accomplish anything other than slightly different shades of red. One such brighter shade he ended up using as the Uzumaki symbol decoration. The process required the dark-side of the Force as well as Sith Alchemy in order to grow and shape the crystal, which always resulted in a red crystal, 'Unless you know how to change the color.' he thought with frustration as though Plagueis told him it was possible, even the Sith Lord didn't know how to change the color. It was apparently not something the Muun ever needed to know. Plaguies was a Sith and they primarily used red because that was what color synthetic crystals typically grew as, so up until the point when he had inquired about it, his Master had never attempted to create other colors.

The Rakata used slightly different means for growing crystals and predating the Jedi or Sith, they were also the first developed their version of the lightsaber. The aptly named Forcesaber, was powered by the dark-side of the Force and it would be thousands of years before either Force group determined exactly how to create an equivalent. Their initial copies lacked a small enough power source and had a cord coming from the handle which was attached to a heavy battery pack on the users belt. They were known as protosabers and only hundreds of years later would a battery be developed to fit inside the handle.

'When I have the time, I'd like to make a Forcesaber or perhaps modify my weapon into a Forcesaber to see what the differences are and how much it draws on the dark-side of the Force. It also couldn't hurt to grow a crystal using their methods as well.' Naruto thought before gently setting the weapon back down. He only had the chance to use it while practicing with small spherical seeker droids on his blaster deflection. Most of his current missions for the Black Sun did not require his fighting skills, so he had left the blade in his workshop, thinking that if he took it, he would be tempted to use it on any enemies he crossed paths with.

Plagueis planned to get several specially made droids that he could practice against or pit him against Suigetsu so both could get more experience. These plans were still in the works though as they didn't have much space or enough privacy yet to start dueling with lightsabers. Such a room was currently in the works as Naruto had plans for expanding into one of the nearby mountains, creating numerous hangars for future ships and to hide the _Star Jewe_l. The last thing he wanted was to leave scorch marks or damage his Estate with a lightsaber or an out of control duel with Suigetsu.

Despite needing to get his sleep, Naruto still had to come to his workshop level and look again at his creation. Hopefully he would be able to use it soon, for more than just practice with seekers. "Lights off." Naruto said before moving back towards the turbolift.

"_Goodnight_." Came a male voice speaking Rakatan. Naruto turned in the direction of the hidden Rakatan computer and smiled slightly before replying back in Rakatan and Ibonihese, "_Goodnight, Tanmatsu. We'll be working on the project after I get back._"

Given that the computer was very intelligent, Naruto decided to stop calling it computer or the Rakatan equivalent. He asked if there was anything that it wanted to be called but the device said it did not mind, so Naruto had chosen a name for it, 'Tanmatsu.' It basically meant computer terminal, which was not much better but at least it was something. Sometimes he called it by the nickname, 'Tan-san.' With how much he had been accessing the computer's extensive archive, he had inevitably started to learn Rakatan and stopped calling on HK to translate for him or working on a vocabulary and translation program to add to Tanmatsu.

x-x

Suddenly awaking with a start, Naruto looked around his bedroom before realizing where he was. Trying to calm his heavy breathing, he tried to remember the dream that had had caused him to wake. 'It was those creepy slitted yellow eyes again.' He realized and fell back on the pillow. His stomach was hurting again, which he knew meant that the seal was starting to weaken. He had replaced, more than once, the additional protective seal which kept him from accessing any of the Kyuubi's chakra. He was currently on his third such seal as they kept failing. 'And each time I put on a new one, it fails at a faster rate than the previous one.' he recalled, before noticing the first rays of sun coming up.

'What time..." he thought, ooking to the clock in the room and eyes widening upon seeing that he had overslept. Throwing off the covers, he jumped out of bed and started getting ready because he had to be in Theed by six-thirty and it was already five after. After going to the bathroom and grabbing his uniform from the closet, Naruto ran out of his bedroom still in his boxers and went to the lift. It only took a few seconds after pushing the button he wanted for the lift to arrive at the main living floor.

Swiftly exiting the lift, he tossed the newly laundered uniform over a couch and headed for the kitchen to make himself something to eat. The last time he had not eaten before duty, it made everything worse. Nearly burning the hotcakes, Naruto added bantha butter and carbosyrup before digging in. Checking his watch every thirty seconds, he endeavored to chew faster and downed his juice.

With the last pieces of breakfast still being chewed, Naruto started putting on his uniform. He got the blue pants on and the matching blue tunic shirt that came down a few inches above his knees. Both items were made of armor-weave but would provide little protection should he take a direct hit. Before putting on the rest, he went to the lift so he could go up and brush his teeth.

The lift opened to reveal a very tired Karin in her nightgown. The redhead aimlessly walked out of the lift and Naruto greeted her with, "Morning," before moving past her for the lift. He received a mumbled response as she followed the smell of food and would find a stimulating drink to help her become more awake.

Checking his watch once again, Naruto frowned at the fact that Karin did not have to be in until almost an hour after he did. 'We did choose different paths for our public service.' He acknowledged before the lift opened again and he quickly moved to his bathroom.

x-x

Coming back to the main living floor, Naruto quickly put on his tall leather boots before attaching his belt, putting on his leather bracers and then searching for his cap. He found it on the floor and he put it on before turning to look at Karin. The girl looked over his appearance while she poured herself a cup of stimcaf and shrugged. She wasn't awake yet to notice if everything on his uniform was aligned and proper for inspection.

Before he left, she asked, "Lunch?" to which he responded, "Sure. I'll meet you at the hospital around noon." The lift door closed and he headed towards the ground floor to take a speeder. He knew the request was mostly because Karin had only just started her work as an assistant nurse in Theed Medical Center and she still didn't know many of the other nurses. However he really didn't mind as he didn't know many in his group either and no one ever invited him to lunch.

It was while looking for a way to help Tayuya, that Kabuto had discovered that they were cousins and not just distantly related but actual cousins. After such a discovery, Naruto had gotten Karin an identity as well and she had become Karin Rudshar, his cousin, and subsequently also inherited a portion of the estate.

As Naruto sprinted out of the estate and headed for the parked speeder bikes, he still thought it was rather strange having actual, living family. Being that the discovery had happened only a few months prior, he hadn't noted any real differences between how he treated Karin before the discovery and how he treated her after. But there was the distinct possibly that his perspective on the matter did not allow him to see such changes. Regardless, he had found the first few weeks rather awkward because he didn't know how to act her around her or if he should act differently or not. Eventually he had stopped worrying about it as it didn't seem to faze Karin all that much and he had felt the same should be true for himself.

Checking his watch once again, Naruto frowned at the short amount of time he had left and activated the speeder, only to lunge back and grab his cap as it flew off. Putting the cap partly beneath his thigh in order to keep it from flying off again, he activated a small hidden switch on the console and quickly more than doubled his rate of speed.

He needed to reach Theed in a few minutes and cover quite a distance, so he broke the law. Speeder bikes on Naboo were all speed-limited in order to keep people safe and avoid accidents. While he had a licensed official make the modification to his licensed speeder bike, he later added the hidden switch in order to turn off the limiter and allow the speeder bike to achieve it's maximum acceleration and reach it's maximum velocity.

Cutting across the water, and through a path that was well known to him, Naruto avoided all obstacles while he pushed the bike to the limit. Despite taking a meandering course, he could be at Theed in four minutes. 'But I only have seven to get to the headquarters building,' He realized and headed straight for one of the speeder parking zones.

Theed did not allow speeder traffic within city limits so he had to park his vehicle and proceed on foot to the Royal Naboo Security Forces Headquarters building which was near the palace. Slowing as he neared the city, Naruto re-engaged the limiter and his speed significantly dropped as he headed for one of the open spots in the provided land speeder parking zone. Jumping off the vehicle and sliding his identity card through the reader, a parking fee was waived on account of his affiliation and he took off toward the building he was after.

Moving in and out of pedestrians, Naruto found that he was the only person running while everyone else walked at a sedate pace towards their destination. Checking his watch as the u-shaped building came into view, he noted that he only had less than a minute before being declared late. 'Shit, I'm gonna be late.' he thought and aimed not for the main entrance but instead for a side door so he could possibly get into the assembly room without anyone noticing that he was late.

The headquarters building was quite large, being several hundred feet long and about the same distance wide. It had three stories above ground and at least one sublevel that he knew about. Unlike most other building in Theed, it was flat roofed and had a long unadorned courtyard in the opening of the u-shape.

Slowing as he stealthily moved through the corridors, Naruto tried to act natural as he moved through the halls. Passing by other security officers and personnel he tried not to look out of place. Despite his pace and serious expression, he noted that a few of the ranked security members knew that he was late again and tried to hide a slight amusement. Monday assembly was terribly annoying and cumbersome because he always had to be there at the given time and running around for the Black Sun, then coming back to Naboo on time was difficult. Ignoring the looks, and remembering the layout of the building, Naruto chose to room near the large assembly and training room so he could make use of the vents and gain access without the large double doors opening and announcing the fact that he was late.

Ducking into the small maintenance room, Naruto latched onto the wall with chakra and began removing the vent cover. Whoever had designed the ventilation system for the building, had made the ducts just large enough for a person to crawl into, 'Not sure if that was by design or not. Seems kinda silly for the security headquarters to have such an unsecured exploit, but then this is Naboo.' He thought while pulling himself into the duct and closing the vent door behind him. Knowing where he was going, he headed for an area of the large assembly room that was used for storage, or at least storage containers were usually stacked there.

As he crawled closer to the room, he could hear a single female voice addressing the gathered Junior Palace Guard, whose life-signs he could soon feel. 'At least with everyone focused on Captain Magneta, I can try and slip in without being noticed.' He concluded and finally arrived at the vent door he was after. Looking through the thin openings in the vent, he finally could see what was going on in the room and knew that the routine was still in progress for the cadets that were planning on joining one of the branches of the Royal Naboo Security Forces.

The security chief herself, Captain Magneta liked to address the cadets early every Monday and go over any special events or jobs required for the upcoming week. She walked down the center of the group, with half standing on either side of her. The cadets were all facing her and lined up in multiple rows. Usually it was just routine and she spoke for a few minutes, inspected the Junior Palace Guard members and then they were dismissed to get their assignments.

The first few months of their enrollment in the program consisted of training and education in just about every aspect that they would need or should encounter during their assignments. They learned about blaster safety, practiced shooting, were educated on upholding the laws of Naboo, dealing with traffic accidents, trained to handle the speeders utilized by the security forces, and much more. Despite it being exciting stuff for the cadets, it was far from thrilling for Naruto, who spent most of the training sessions completely bored.

With the training faze over, they were now on limited duty service, which mostly involved filling in where needed and accompanying ranked security forces on patrols, traffic control, guard duty, or many of the lesser jobs of the Royal Security Forces. This included a minimum of seventeen hours each week of volunteer service towards completion of the two year program and promotion to part-time or active volunteers in the ranked security forces. It wasn't until they were old enough and eclipsed the mandatory public service period for all Nabooans that they could become full-time security guards or officers and get paid.

Quietly getting the vent door open, Naruto kept hold of the door while he slowly crawled out of the vent and tried to keep himself hidden. Looking around, he found a nearby storage container and stretched out his foot to make contact so he could close the vent door. Normally he would just drop to the ground but his almost knee high boots were not meant for sneaking and he found it difficult to dampen the sound from them. The last thing he wanted was someone to see him using chakra or using the Force to close the vent door that was almost six feet off the ground.

When he had gotten his feet on the crate, he pushed off from the wall and stabilized himself before leaning back and replacing the vent door. The door went back on with a soft click and Naruto crouched before carefully letting himself down to the floor while bracing himself on the crate lid. On the ground, he moved through the lined crates and stopped as he neared the end. The captain was still talking and starting to look through the lines of cadets standing at attention. Seeing that the inspection was still going on and looking around to make sure no one could see him, Naruto quietly moved towards the group nearest him. Their backs were facing him and because the group of nearly one hundred were lined up so close together, the opposite side had a difficult time seeing him.

What he didn't see was a taller figure spot movement through the shorter crowd of teens. Lieutenant Panaka spotted someone sneaking into the line of cadets and knew exactly who it was. As Captain Magneta walked down the next line of cadets and came to face him, he made a few hand gestures and she nodded. It wasn't hard for her either to guess who it was that had decided to join the group late.

"If it isn't Cadet Rudshar, making his late appearance." Sated the Captain to a confused group of cadets. As heads started turning and the cadets looked around for the person that the captain was referring to, almost everyone had trouble spotting him as they were all dressed in the same outfit, with their cadet insignia engraved upon the small emblem on the front of their military caps. The only difference between their outfits and the captain's as well as lieutenant's was the different marking on the cap and the addition of a leather jerkin or vest for the higher ranked officers in the room.

Walking down the line of cadets, Captain Magneta reached the line that Naruto was at the end of and waited for him to step forward for a more personalized inspection.

'Damn you, Panaka! I almost made it.' Thought an aggravated Naruto as he ignored all the eyes that were on him and moved to the head of the line to stand at attention. The Captain was soon joined by the Lieutanat at her side and all eyes were on Naruto. All the cadets that had been in the same section as him were all wondering how he had managed to appear but quickly silenced down as the captain began speaking.

"Three minutes late this time. I suppose that's an improvement to last weeks five minutes. What's the excuse this week?" asked the Captain and Naruto quickly responded, "I got back late this morning from fighting pirates in the Outer-Rim."

"Oh really? Moonlighting as a privateer again?" Commented the white-haired captain as she tried to determine if he was lying or not. She didn't expect much of an answer or a detailed account but she did wonder about his excuses. Deciding again that she couldn't tell, she started inspecting his uniform and spotted several problems. Straightening his hat, she stopped before removing the hat and inspecting the interior. During one of her previous personalized inspections, she noted something amiss with the hat and found a hidden guard-less combat knife hidden inside it. She remembered that he had claimed it was to weigh the hat down so it wouldn't fly off his head again. She would have demanded a better excuse save for the week before, when he had shown up in a soaking wet hat, claiming that it had flown off his head and landed in a river. She still confiscated the weapon though and told him to find another solution that was legal.

Checking the hat, she was relieved to not find anything in it and placed it back on his head. Looking over his belt, she found several additional pouches from the standard single pouch that the other Junior Palace Guards wore. 'Do I even want to look inside those?' She wondered until her gaze came upon the holster for his S-5 heavy blaster. The weapon was purchased by the cadet himself as he apparently thought the normal ELG-3A which, if she remembered correctly, he stated that the weapon looked pathetic and he would rather wield nothing at all than be seen carrying it.

Her current interest however was on the holster, which was different from every other around him. "It seems you've seen fit to change your holster." She noted out loud, expecting an explanation. "This holster is made for quick-draw firing, Sir." Responded the young teen in a loud voice.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Captain Magneta thought perhaps she didn't want to know but decided to ask anyway, "Cadet Rudshar, when will you ever need to quickly-draw your weapon?"

"In a lightfight, Sir." Was the quick response and it was obvious that the majority of the cadets were not sure what he was referring to. 'Lightfight? I don't know if I've ever heard someone from Naboo use such a term for a blaster fight. It's more at home on a less civilized planet.' She concluded and decided not to get into it. "You will replace your holster with the original and I expect to see no further deviations from the provided uniform and ordinance. Is this clear?" She demanded and Naruto answered, "Sir, yes Sir."

Noting the cobwebs on his uniform, she dreaded asking but decided to ask anyway, "Your uniform is also covered with cobwebs, Cadet Rudshar. Is there a reason you decided to come in through the air ducts instead of the main door?"

"I've heard that air vents should be cleaned periodically, Sir." Responded Naruto seriously as he decided to make the best of the situation and the reply garnered several coughs and suppressed chuckles round the room. "You seem to be in a comedic mood this morning. Perhaps spending the rest of the day cleaning out the air ducts, for the entire building, would give you time to think about coming up with a better answer when I ask you a question. How does that sound?" 

"It's a dream job, Sir. I'll get right on it after the assembly is over." Responded Naruto with a less than straight face which instantly returned to serious when he received a stern look from the captain. The look from the captain also drown out the louder suppressed laughter from his response and she said in a loud voice to the entire assembly, "Seems everyone in here is feeling a bit comedic. You've just earned yourselves fifty pushups. Starting now."

Groans filled the room as everyone created some space and started performing the exercises while Lieutenant Panaka counted off.

x-x

Ever the consummate professional, Lieutenant Quarsh Panaka followed Captain Magneta one step behind as they moved through the security headquarters. It wasn't until the captain specifically slowed herself down that he finally started walking side-by-side with her. His dedication was only one of the reason why she had recommend him for promotion to her second in command but sometimes she wished he could actually be at ease or relaxed and not serious all the time.

"How do you think this years batch are measuring up?" The silver haired woman inquired and the Lieutenant took a moment before answering, "Aside from a notable exception, they seem to be doing quite well and I expect the majority to join part of the RSF."

"And what about the notable exception. He's applied for Security Officer when he finishes the program. You don't think he'll join?" She inquired with a small smirk as she knew well how much the Lieutenant did not like Cadet Rudshar. The dark-skinned man beside her inhaled sharply which she knew was attributed as a great discontentment at the tidbit of information, before answering, "He puts in only the minimum amount of service time, like many of the volunteers but seems to pile all of his assignments together, freeing up the rest of the week. Aside from tardiness and uniform infractions, he seems to always be full of sharp responses or making up terrible lies, and his overall attitude is unbecoming of an RSF member. Speaking frankly, Captain, I don't know why you continue to put up with him."

"While you've done quiet well listing all his problems, you've also skipped over the other items that also make him stand out from the rest. He scored the highest of any other cadet in history on the firing range, on both moving and stationary targets. I didn't hear or see him move across the floor to get in line and neither did most of the other cadets. He nearly succeeded and probably would have if you hadn't spotted him." She noted and the Panaka looked slightly away when she mentioned the last part.

"Aside from being in top physical condition, even for his age and size, he is well trained in something far better than the standard martial training we teach the Security Forces. I'm sure he could bring down a person twice his size. He seems to have high mechanical aptitude and I'm told that he scored extremely high in the piloting simulator. Captain Olie was disappointed when he didn't apply towards admission into the Starfighter Corps." Stated the Captain and Panaka nodded as he had reviewed the information she was mentioning when going over records on the new recruits.

"Even if he does have such raw talent, does that really make up for the problems?" Questioned the Lieutenant and Captain Maris Magneta thought about the question. "Not completely, no. However I would like to see what happens after he completes the full two years of the program. It has only been eight months so far." She commented and Panaka nodded that she was correct but still wanted to press his concerns.

"But that was after being kicked out of the Youth Legislative Program." He commented and it was Magneta's turn to nod as she remembered the events surrounding that decision and admitted, "Not everyone does well in the Youth Legislative Program, though to my knowledge, no one from Naboo or the other participating planets in the program has ever been kicked out after less than three months."

"I heard he made the Governors granddaughter break down in tears during a debate. Not to mention his stark views on weapons proliferation, defense fleets, and the Republic Senate as well as government. Though I heard it was rousing speech he made during one of the classes, he was calling for the Republic to cease being a democracy and become an autocracy." Stated Panaka as he recalled from memory the different rumors that had circled concerning the removal of Menma Rudshar from the Youth Legislative Program.

"If anything, it just shows that he wasn't born and raised on Naboo. If I recall, he's only been on Naboo for a year and was born somewhere in the far Outer-Rim. He doesn't even have any living parents. It's just himself and his cousin with someone helping to manage his Estate." Captain Magneta commented in explanation of the boy's actions more than in defense of them. "You can't expect him to immediately change himself to fit in perfectly with everyone that was born on Naboo, especially not in a single year." She added.

"I still think that's suspicious." Declared Panaka on the matter but the Captain quickly mentioned, "If you knew the man that his late grandfather was, you wouldn't think it impossible that he'd have an illegitimate child somewhere. I'm just surprised that only two heirs have turned up in the decades since the last Rudshar on Naboo passed." Panaka was slightly surprised to hear the information but hid it well. He didn't know much about the Rudshar family but he was only in his late twenties. Captain Magneta had served as the chief of security for a handful of different monarchs and been a member of the Royal Security Forces, volunteer and full-time, for just over five decades.

"So you'll give him until the two year mark to show improvement?" Panaka questioned in an even tone, not showing disapproval or agreement with what he gathered to be her decision.

"Yes, unless you can bring me some evidence showing a disregard for public safety or dereliction of duty. Despite his tart comments and poor behavior, I've also never seen him shirk a punishment. By the end of the day I expect that all the ventilation shafts will be spotless. Which reminds me, we really need to put some motion sensors or something in those vents. It's entirely too easy for someone to move unseen through the building using those vents." Stated the Captain.

"I'll get right on that." Said Lieutenant Panaka as they reached the main operations room. The pair stopped as Captain Magneta waited to see if there was anything else. Thinking everything over, Panaka did have one more thing he wanted her opinion on, "What do you make of his excuses? Complete lies?"

"I'm not sure what to make of those." said Magneta honestly before adding, "I've spoken with a good share of liars and spacers claiming tall tales but he's very difficult to read."

"Then you think he spent last week in the Outer-Rim fighting pirates?" asked Panaka, to which the Captain replied, "I wouldn't go that far but I doubt that he developed the abilities that he has by leading a safe and quiet life. Planetary security has monitored his ship coming and going many times from Naboo. I can't say what his travels concern but he hasn't broken any laws and we aren't able to track where he goes after he leaves the system. Are you really concerned that he'll bring down the entire junior division with his behavior or perhaps you're more worried about him influencing Cadet Typho?"

"There are a hundred cadets in this years group to be concerned about his conduct influencing." Reasoned Panaka but Magneta quickly added before walking through the door, "True, but I'd like to think that you consider your nephew of more concern than the rest." Before the Lieutenant could response, the door closed behind her and he thought about her statement with an unchanging expression before realizing that he had his own assignment to work on.

x-x

Moving through the vents, Naruto let the cleaning droids do the majority of the work. He was sure that the Captain didn't mean for him to clean all the vents by hand. He didn't really want to mouth off so much but he also couldn't say that his stay in the Junior Palace Guards was all that interesting. There was also a reason behind his comments as he had taken advantage of the situation in order to complete another one of the tasks on his list.

Normally if he was caught moving through the ducts, he would be taken to the Captain but since he now had the entire day to spend in the ducts and an excuse to be in certain areas, he could finally take care of placing the transmitters and devices he had brought with him in his extra belt pockets. They were hidden under extra power paks, dart ammunition, cable launcher paks, aquata breather, fibercord launcher, and various other items that he kept in his utility belt that he thought looked useful from his travels.

The standard equipment for Junior Palace Guards and even their full-time counterparts including almost nothing besides the assigned blaster. Despite not wanting to rely on a blaster, he did find the S-5 rather useful because of the other functions it possessed. Taking out the special items he had stashed, Naruto entered the maintenance and access rooms for several of the buildings systems. Removing an access panel for the headquarters communications array, he began installing one of the extra devices.

With all the devices in place, not only would he have access to planetary security feeds and notifications but also have remote access to their system and database. It would definitely help prevent Sidious from ever getting such a drop on them as the arrival of the Senator Palpatine would no doubt be of concern for planet security. The access could also be useful for other purposes as well. Looking down at his watch, Naruto noted that lunch was approaching and so he hurried to finish up his work.

x-x

Slowly starting to nod off, Plagueis paused the holocam recording he was examining and decided to let his Mustafarian host get some sleep. He had been spying on Sidious and reviewing every message, incoming and outgoing, from the hideout and Senate office, in addition to all holocam conversations. It was a dizzying amount of information with very little results to show. Sidious actually spent a good portion of his time on Senatorial matters and most of the information he watched was tedious and pointless.

However, the one recurring theme that kept coming up, and which annoyed him to a surprising degree, was the shear arrogance and overconfidence that his Apprentice displayed. Not only did Sidious appear before the entire Senate and meet with officials on a daily basis, 'But he is even friends with several Jedi.' Plagueis raged, as his Apprentice managed to stay completely in plain sight and no one suspected a thing. Though the Muun Sith Lord was loath to admit it, Sidious' use of the Sith Mask was the most advanced that he had ever heard of and he didn't remember anyone in history that could so pull of such a masquerade and for such an extended length of time. It didn't make sense. Had the Jedi completely become incompetent since his death or had his Apprentice managed to enact some kind of confusion curse or spell on them. True, he had met with Jedi before and managed to keep his real identity and his dark-side affiliation as well as Force ability hidden but those had been brief encounters, not conversations that lasted for several hours.

Plagueis was currently watching his Apprentice have drinks with a Jedi Master named Jorus C'Baoth in his Senate office and discussing various topics as if it happened regularly. Actually, based upon previous recording that he had, he knew that it indeed was a regular occurrence. It was amazing how looking at the recording infuriated him. At first he suspected that the Jedi Master was involved in Sidious' master plan or that his Apprentice was influencing the man in order to gain access or put some sort of devious plot into action but after much digging and viewing, he had inevitably arrived at the truth. They were simply enjoying a drink and having philosophical discussions.

He nearly threw the viewing monitor out the nearest window after realizing how much time he had wasted on frivolous nonsense. It was clear from his first few weeks of viewing that Sidious intended to get himself elected as Supreme Chancellor of the Republic but he did not know how his Apprentice intended to gain, and keep such a position or deal with the Jedi. Sidious did not keep a manifesto or even mention his broader schemes and plan to his own apprentice. Only tidbits of information, mostly general statements or vague mentions were made and they got him no closer to figuring anything out.

With so much information coming concerning Sidious, he had found himself going for long periods without sleep and missing a great deal happening with the group. The information he was spending all his time on didn't even include all the monitoring that was coming from the Senate Executive Offices.

He simply didn't have the means to look through it all and it was difficult to train droids to perform such a task. They had problems analyzing complex humanoid dialogs and didn't really understand the concepts of bribery, corruption, or subtle conversations with hidden meanings. The nuances were lost to them. It took a long time spent among organics before droids were able to understand the importance of such conversations and actions. The droids he was trying to train simply weren't cutting it.

Standing up from his console, Plagueis left the room on slightly unsteady feet and headed to the cot that he had placed in his laboratory level. The only good news he had recently was the initial activation of a certain droid on Tatooine. The droids brief activation, showed him the excitement on his experiments face before running out of the room to tell his mother that he had successfully activated the droid. 'It will only be a matter of weeks before the droid remains active permanently and I receive constant updates concerning my experiment.' He thought and it certainly had been the best news that he had received by way of transmitted information in a long time.

Despite wanting to know what Sidious was up too, Plagueis realized that he was starting to become obsessed and losing touch with everything else that was happening. Earlier that morning, he had seen a familiar ship returning to the hangar and it was only at that moment that he realized Naruto had left the planet, likely for mission given to him by the Black Sun.

It was disconcerting to be the leader of a group and yet suddenly realize that he didn't know what the group had been up too for a significant chunk of time. 'I don't even remember when they left, it could have been days or even a week since they were last here.' He realized and after checking the date, he found that several days had passed without him even realizing it.

'Perhaps taking a break is in order, or at least getting some help looking through all the recording.' he thought but wasn't sure how that would work out. Only Naruto really knew what to look for concerning Sidious and he couldn't very well fill up both their schedules with spying on his Apprentice.

Despite the possibility of missing something important, the Sith Lord decided that taking a break was definitely something that he should consider. 'I need to start making arrangements for Telerath in order to secure investors and I have a good idea where to start.' Thought the Muun before removing himself from the Mustafarians head so the host body could sleep and not be kept up by his restless pondering.

His student working for the Black Sun was also definitely something that he should start focusing more on too. The temporary arrangement between a Black Sun Vigo and their group had both benefits and risks for them. They received a generous payment for each mission and as far as he knew, all of the mission had been successful. This unfortunately would not last as failure was inevitable at some point and he wondered what would happen then. The criminal syndicate had a fair amount of damning information about them. They knew about Jabba and they had created false identities for most of the group but he was confident that they knew nothing about his real identity.

It would be problematic for all of them if Naruto should fail, 'But his continued success will get us closer to knowing the location and identity of the Underlord.' Surmised Plagueis. 'At some point, we will have to do something about the Black Sun in order to make sure that they do not turn on us. I was wary of working for the Vigo Narees but Naruto seems to be handling everything well on his own.' He thought and it was all something to consider, so he decided to meditate on those thought as well as the many others that were spiraling around in his mind.

x-x

Normally it would take several days in order to complete his seventeen hours of service, but Naruto was very gifted at convincing others to switch duty assignments with him so he managed to put in one nine hour day and another eight hour days consecutively. This freed up the rest of his week and meant that he could continue with his secret projects.

Collecting all of the pertinent information that he had on the Ayrou species, the Moddell sector, his own data and information on someone he had contracted to design for him, Naruto sent it all to Gato via encrypted transmission. He also included the blurb in the transmission that Gato should delete the information after he was finished memorizing or at least going over it. It wouldn't do for such information to be seen by anyone else.

Moving to one area of the room, Naruto looked through a large group of cases before coming to the one that he wanted. Setting the case on one of his empty workbenches, he gently opened it and looked once again upon the Ayrou Tessent. It was the better looking of the two idols and he had recently completed several tests on the item. It was similar in material and construction to the more ordinary looking Alsakan Tessent, and didn't seem to have any of the secrets mentioned in the rumors. There was however one aspect to the item that he couldn't completely write off as not being important. Looking at the intricately carved sculpture, Naruto wasn't able to see the small pattern of similar imperfections that he had already dismissed as being any kind of tool marks. They were not visible to the naked eye and not random but no matter what he tried, he could not seem to discover or determine what they were or what they indicated.

'I'd like to walk into the meeting knowing about what secret it has and not have to bluff.' He thought but had been unable to make any headway and couldn't spend any further time on it, despite knowing through the Force that the markings meant something. Carefully putting the chalcedony item back into he protective case, he got up and went to check on the progress of his clones. On the opposite side of the room, a spot on the floor had been cleared and a small cylindrical stand had been placed. Around the stand, two of his clones were painstakingly drawing fuinjutsu.

The seal on his arm had been near the top of his list but it took a while to figure out how best to go about fixing it. Most times, if a storage seal was damaged, the item was just considered lost. It wasn't as simple as just filling in the blank area with more ink. It was like a jigsaw puzzle missing a piece. If he tried to replace the damaged areas with more ink and draw in the missing area, it would be the equivalent of fitting in a piece into the jigsaw that was identical but from a different puzzle. It simply would never be complete.

The simple storage seal was linked to a created pocket dimension, one created at a specific moment in time and space where the item he had sealed was stored. Only the original storage seal could recall his item from that pocket dimension. He therefore had to almost regenerate the seal, repairing and filling in the mission section with the complex fuinjutsu that his clones were working on.

Looking over their progress, he could see that they still had a while to go and he would then need to inspect it. Despite having significant knowledge concerning fuinjutsu, he was not a true master of the art as it still involved great complexity and training that he had only glimpsed through Jiraiya's mind. A single problem in the drawing and the endeavor would be ruined. He had already practiced multiple times on other purposefully damaged storage seals before finally getting it work.

Moving on to sit down in front of the hidden Rakatan computer, Naruto stared at the rendering of the new design for a scaled-down version of the Star Forge that he just referred to as the 'Protoype.' It would have taken a groups of designers months to work out such a design and himself probably a few years with all of the other things he had going on in order to complete such work. However, it had only taken the Tanmatsu about a month to finish. The computer was apparently quite capable of examining the original plans and then scaling down the design for the Prototype. It was one-tenth the size of the original, measuring at just over nineteen kilometers long. His reasoning for the scaled-down design was due to the length of time it would require to build a full-sized Star Forge. The requirements in terms of cost and logistics would be astronomical for him.

The theory of using a different energy source had already been tested by numerous models that predicted how much power would be required by a standard reactor instead of using the Force but there were still missing pieces concerning the Prototype. He knew what kind of power output he needed and though the could get by with hypermatter annihilation reactors that were already in existence, he was more interested in the another type. Hypermatter, though powerful and efficient in terms of power to cost ratio, would require very large amounts of the fuel. Unless he built his own hypermatter production facility, it seemed best to try something else so as to not get noticed purchasing such high quantities of fuel.

Solar ionization reactors revolved around creating a miniature sun in order to harness it's power for whatever the reactor would be needed for. These were run off fuel that was easy to acquire, especially since the Prototype would already be taking matter and energy from a real sun. The problem was the size of the reactors needed because no company currently made a large reactors of that type. Most were used on small capitol ships or frigates and nowhere near the size of what he required.

Redesigning for one large reactor was out of the question as the size would be enormous and there wasn't really a place to put it. It would completely stick out from the ship or be an attachment. The Rakatan's did not need much room at all for the device that harnessed the power of the dark-side. In fact they spread such devices all over the Star Forge and each system had it's own independent power instead of all leaching from a single reactor. With the idea for a single reactor unworkable, the next eventually thought was the use of two smaller reactors but they would still be too large. His solution was therefore six even smaller reactors. Two of the smaller reactors could be placed on each fin and not cause problems with the rest of the design. Despite being labeled as 'small', the six were still larger than any reactor on the market or possibly in design for future applications.

At least, that was the plan. He could even start building the Prototype but it could never be completed without someone designing large enough reactors. Besides the power concerns, the Prototype also needed some form of propulsion. The original Star Forge did not have the ability to move far or fast and didn't even have sublight engines. It had been built in orbit of Lehon and then slowly moved into place close to the Lehon System star. Naruto however had other plans concerning propulsion and hoped to eventually have those concerns solved.

Looking over the almost finished Prototype design, Naruto smiled as he thought about how much time he would save with his plan. Instead of spending likely decades trying to build the full-sized Star Forge, he would instead build the smaller Prototype in about a single decade. Then he would use it's powerful production abilities to create the larger Star Forge, piece by piece, and use legions of droid workers to fit it all together. The end result would be the completion of two production facilities in a fraction of the time it took the slaves of the Rakata to build the original. That was years into the future though and he hadn't even asked Tanmatsu to look into modifying the Star Forge design at it's full size. If the Prototypes power requirements were anything to go by, he would need reactors larger and more powerful than anything else currently on the market, no matter what fuel he was considering.

Taking out his datapad, Naruto checked off the partial completion of the Prototype and looked to his next order of business, which was an upcoming meeting with a designer he had contracted and then the following week, a business meeting with Gato in the Moddell Sector. Despite taking a long time to prepare and gather information, he was still worried over the business meeting. There was the opportunity for great gains but also the possibility that everything could go south, not only for him but for the entire group. It all depended on the one aspect that he really couldn't anticipate, which were the reactions and outlook of the Ayrou he was planning to meet with.

Having never met one of the bird-like humanoids, it was difficult to predict what their wants and needs were as well as how they would respond to what he was planning to present. He only had limited information on the species as it seemed that they liked their privacy. He knew general information about them but couldn't say for certain if all the Aryou acted the same way. According to his data, they hoarded objects but not out of greed but more for the possibility of needing the items in the future. It seemed that they were peaceful and looked down upon violence but they also seemed to be in charge of the entire sector which, to him, made it seem like they were controlling. Other information he collected stated that they enjoyed information gathering and not about specific subjects but about everything they could get their hands on.

The only other useful bits of information he had were from spacers that had been questioned on Sarafur. According to them, the Ayrou liked to haggle but had voices that could possibly break transparasteel or curdle bantha milk. Many shied away from dealing with them because of these reasons. To counteract these traits, he had brought along Gato in order to help haggle, and had come up with some ear implants, similar to ear plugs, that would remain hidden but also dampen sounds that exceeded certain thresholds.

Naruto's musing and plans were soon cut short as he heard a familiar sound come from his communicator. Removing the beeping device from his pocket, he activated the hologram to accept the incoming message. A blue image of Narees greeted him and before he could respond, the image said, "You have fifteen hours to get to Utapau in order to complete the next mission. I'll fill you in along the way." After the brief order, the image vanished as the connection was terminated and Naruto got to his feet, heading towards the turbolift.

It was a planet he had been to before but it had been a few months. The first time he had met Narees in person was on Utapau in the then Iktochi's former hidden fortress. After a few other meetings, Narees had suddenly moved to Mustafar a few weeks before his latest mission. Remembering how long it would take to arrive, Naruto groaned at the fact he would be cutting it extremely close given it's distance from Naboo. The Outer-Rim planet was closer than Mustafar but still far enough to be concerned that he may not make it in that time frame.

Using his communicator, he selected the individuals he wanted to go with him and said, "You have five minutes to get to _Forty-Two_ for a mission."

x-x

Sitting at the small table in the galley of _Forty-two_, Naruto activated the tables projector and Narees again appeared. The Iktochi smiled before saying, "Your mission is going to be a little different this time, Menma. As I speak, a small group of Black Sun operatives are heading to my former fortress on Utapau. They have been bought by someone or are acting on their own and intend to capture or kill me; believing that I am still operating there. This..." and pausing to change the projected image to that of an individual Naruto had never seen before, Narees' voice continued, "..is the ringleader of the group and this is his personal transport. I need him alive and brought to my new hideout for interrogation. Getting a few of his subordinates also couldn't hurt but if he dies, you get no payment. Like your previous missions, I want you make it look like the Trade Federation is involved, but I understand the difficulty in accomplishing that, so I will pay extra if you can make it happen. The bodies of the traitors will serve as the Black Sun forces that would normally be guarding the fortress. When you arrive, you'll find two old Gonzati Cruisers waiting. Use them for a mock defense. I'm also sending you a detailed schematic of the base to use."

With the briefing given, Narees ended the transmission and Naruto looked around to the two individuals and one droid that he had brought with him. The Demon Brothers would jump at the chance for combat to escape the boredom of Naboo and he knew that HK was always ready to fight. He chose them because they were the most reliable in the group in a fight. Suigetsu had a tendency to get carried away, Juugo as well as Karin simply weren't ruthless enough, and Kabuto was currently enrolled in a medical academy so he obviously couldn't help them at all.

The Demon Brothers both looked to Naruto as the teen sat and contemplated with his eyes shut. It seemed that they didn't have time to call for the _Tsukinowa_ but he wanted...needed the extra pay so he considered how to incorporate the OOM droids in the fight. 'I'll use clones as a feint on the outside of the facility and inside the ships. I'll leave the Meizu and Gozu outside to take control of the enemy ships while HK and I take care of the enemy coming inside. I have a few extra droids, Rakatan and droideka, with me in my scroll that will be useful but I don't want to waste them. I don't have any of the throwaway OOM-series and I don't have anything that can generate the droid control computer signal.' Thought Naruto as he sifted through his knowledge of the fortress and what he had available for the coming trap.

'I could summon an MTT from the Kuna Constellation. I did add seals to a few of the vehicles in case something happened without time to prepare and one of them does have an OOM command droid, but I still won't be able to generate the needed signal and commands to activate and control the droids. The _Tsukinowa_ was outfitted with the proper signal array and computer control systems so it could do just that. Without it, even the command droid, that can think independently, would only be functional for a few minutes before automatically powering down because of how it was designed to need the signals of the control computer.' Concluded Naruto and he thought about what he knew concerning the droids and the signals that they required.

'However, it is a signal. Just because the the emitter is not here and can't reach, does not meant that I can't transmit it through something else.' He theorized and went for his communicator. Instead of broadcasting the signal through the _Tsukinowa_'s rectenna and signal array, he could instead broadcast through the communications array, sending the signal through to his communicator and then rebroadcasting with the fortress' signal array. 'It would lose most of it's signal strength and range but I only need it to work inside the fortress.' Naruto realized and contacted his Smoke Demons forces on Sarafur.

x-x

Entering the Utapau system and heading for the fourth planet, the familiar arid surface was revealed as they entered the atmosphere. The planet was quite unique among the ones that Naruto had visited. Water comprised less than one percent of it's surface, making it part dust bowl and part flat, scrubby plains. This however was not the unique aspect of the planet. Underneath the surface of Utapau were countless caverns that contained almost all the planets water in various underground rivers, lakes and even oceans. The large calcareous deposits in the crust above these areas led to the formation of gigantic sink holes, which covered the landscape of the planet.

It was in these sink holes that the population had built it's cities, which lined the circular walls. The holes could be upwards of hundreds of meters across and more than a thousand deep, ending in watery bottoms or connecting to larger underground water sources. In addition to their use as housing and also allowing a thriving mineral mining industry, the planet was also used by various factions to hide. With thousands of sink holes, there were numerous vacancies for anyone that had the means to construct something or just use natural caverns inside the sink hole walls.

It was in one of the sink holes that Narees' previous fortress was housed. It was much better hidden than the current fortress on Mustafar, but the volcanic planet was also not frequently a stopping point for anyone but Techno Union cargo ships. Sending a signal ahead, just in case, a clone piloted the ship inside the correct sink hole and they steadily dropped by three or four hundred meters before arriving at the hidden fortress.

Narees or the man's predecessor, had made use of a cavern in the side of the wall and the clone soon spotted the two cruisers parked on the landing sites just inside the wide but thin cavern. There was just enough height for the cruisers to maneuver in and out of the cavern and two gun emplacements were also hidden just inside the lip. Farther back in the cavern was the fortress and it's clever location prevented it from being attacked by any orbital bombardment. Only the mouth of the cavern could be attacked from orbit and a ship would have to cut through forty to fifty meters of solid rock in order to expose the fortress from an angle and five to six hundred meters of solid rock in order to blast through it from above. The only way to really attack it, was to either enter the sink hole and fire straight at the fortress through the cavern or to land and take it by force.

Actively scanning, the clone did not find any signs of someone arriving before them or life-signs from a possible trap, so it parked the ship long enough for the group to disembark before taking off and finding a place to hide. The clone was good for a few hours before dispersing and that was enough time for them. Looking over the area, Naruto created numerous clones to man the base defenses, the ships, and several to keep lookout with the Demon Brothers.

Sending HK ahead to activate the bases systems Naruto waited for the two cruisers to leave the confines of the cavern and remain stationed in the sink hole until he summoned an MTT. His clones were telling him that the vehicles didn't even have hyperdrives, with many other systems being removed, so there was little point in trying to save them to take and there was no point keeping them inside the cavern as the individuals coming likely knew where the fortress was. The forty-two meter long vessels were more suited for the moniker of 'light cruiser' given their length but he ignored the observation. He did however find it ironic that the Black Sun used such light cruisers, considering that they were designed for an anti-piracy application but he kept the musings to himself and pushed such thoughts aside to focus on getting everything ready.

As smoke cleared and the MTT came into view, Naruto created more clones to enter the facility and see what was inside to use. 'A hundred OOMs should be enough for this, I just hope that my signal idea works.' He thought with a deep breath to calm his nerves. Narees had only given him a basic timetable and the rebel Black Sun group could arrive at any minutes. 'I also don't know their numbers, what ships they have, or why they even want to kidnap or kill Narees.' He thought before HK contacted him, "Notification: The base sensors and signal array is online. Ready to receive and broadcast."

Using his communicator, Naruto ordered a Smoke Demon on the _Tsukinowa_ to send the signal. As he waited, Naruto crossed his arms and absently looked around as well as felt that his clones were ready. Getting the extra money hinged on the droids all working. It would also help to have extra forces. Finished with looking at his clones, Naruto chose instead to stare at the large MTT. As if trying to will the droids in the cockpit and the vehicle itself to come to life, Naruto continued until he heard the the start-up of the repulsor craft's system.

As the repulsorlifts came to life and allowed the troop transport to hover about two feet above the landing pad floor, Naruto stepped back as the front of the vehicle started opening. Once the two pieces of the front were open all the way, the deployment rack then started coming out. Finished extending, the racks of OOM droids began to lower, before then moving out sideways away from the center of the rack. As the slow machinations continued, Naruto wanted to tap his foot or get the Demon Brothers to help with the deployment as they really didn't have much time.

When the rack had finally stopped all one hundred and twelve battle droids were released and it retracted. Naruto waited for it complete before he used his communicator to tell those on the Tsukinowa to send the activation signal. Twitching to life, the battle droids all began to stand in unison before taking out their weapons and turned to face him. The sounds of movement from the MTT told him that the droid commander which had been in the cockpit with the pilot droids, had come down to take command of the troops. Moving through the perfect lines of standing droids, the yellow marked command droid stopped in front of Naruto and gave a short salute before stating in a masculine machine voice, "Awaiting your orders."

"Commander, quickly take your droids inside the base and place them in the locations that the others who that look like me specify." Said Naruto impatiently as he waited for compliance. "Roger. Roger." stated the yellow marked droid and with a motion of his hand, and signal to the other droids from the antenna positioned on his right shoulder, the other droids all began marching towards the main door of the facility. Relieved that they were leaving, Naruto unsummoned the troop transport and turned towards the base just as he heard HK's voice come over the speakers, "Notification: There are incoming ships."

x-x

Twelve starfighters, six supporting transports and one Gozanti cruiser at the back of the group, broke through the outer atmosphere of Utapau and headed straight for the hidden Black Sun fortress. The clones in the cruisers let the enemy battle group take them slightly by surprise, with the enemy making the first shots, however they had their shields raised before the laser fire hit. The light cruisers tilted themselves to make better use of their side quad laser cannon batteries and opened fire, ripping apart several of the fighters.

Coordinating the movements of the cruisers, Naruto had them take evasive action, moving to different altitudes and circling the sink hole in order to make them harder targets. His opponents were unable to implement more evasive maneuvers because of their number and the possibility of running into each other, making them easier targets in the tall sink hole. The burning hulks of several more starfighters rained down to the shallow water at the bottom of the shaft before the transports began their assault. Unable to use their proton torpedoes in the conflict because the launchers were forward facing, Naruto's cruisers were at a disadvantage to the transports which started firing the blue shrouded explosives, however the clones targeted several and destroyed them before impact.

By the time the enemy cruiser arrived, the battle was leaning towards the opposing side, that is, until Naruto had his cruisers reduce their altitude and bring the enemy in range of the two laser cannon emplacements of the base. Activating a single pane protective energy shield at the very edge of the cavern, the laser cannons remained relatively safe and could fire upon the enemy, unabated by the shield. Concentrated fire from his ships and guns had taken out a transport and it smashed into the curved wall before scrapping against the surface until coming loose and falling below. Since the clones did not see the ship indicated by Narees in the holoprojection, they did not hold back. It was shortly after the second transport was destroyed that the original realized that he was actually starting to win the battle or at least would take out most of the enemies forces, so he cut back on his efforts in order to bring the ship in for deployment of troops. Otherwise, he would never be able to lure in his target.

When one of the cruisers was directly hit through the shields and started to lose power, the clones began a spinning but controlled descent into the shallow water below and Naruto thought, 'If anything, I can have a salvage crew recover most of those quad laser cannons.' He was quite impressed with their power, and the prowess of the cruiser. 'It now makes sense why the Black Sun use them for defense.' He realized, remembering that at least two of the ships were patrolling around Narees unfinished fortress on Mustafar.

A combination of fire from the enemy cruiser and missiles from the remaining transport, broke through his second cruisers shields and the rear of the ship exploded before it dropped straight to the bottom of the sink hole. Turning to the base defenses, all remaining enemy ships began firing against the energy shield. Though it held against the lasers, a few well placed torpedoes destroyed the two guns and the remaining ships moved in. Thinking that such forces would not be able to storm the base, Naruto's concerns were abated when one of his spotter clones saw two shuttles coming down.

'They must have a larger ship in orbit.' The original realized and he got up from his sitting position to look over the monitors in the security and control room of the fortress. Turning to HK, he didn't have to ask anything as he saw that the droid was already trying to use the sensors to identify what was in orbit, but he was unable to as the bases sensors were being jammed and so were outgoing transmissions.

Not seeing the target's ship coming down, Naruto wondered if the man would make a late appearance or was waiting in orbit for good news. 'It's also possible that he was in the group and my cruisers killed him.' Naruto quickly realized and did not like the thought. "We need to watch for the target but I'll also need someone alive for questioning." He told the droid and HK nodded before standing and picking up his two rifles. 'Hopefully one of those has a stun setting.' Naruto idly thought as he watched the droid leave before he returned to the small invasion happening in the landing area.

x-x

As the ships entered through the energy shield, a defensive dual blaster cannon started firing. The turret was mounted on the front of the fortress on one side of the door. The weapon disabled one of the three transports before being destroyed by return fire. Turning a cannon to the front door of the base, two shots were fired from a transport, which were powerful enough to blow a hole through the fortress entrance door. The two shuttle soon arrived and all the transports began unloading heavily armed combatants in two styles of uniform.

Looking through base cameras, Naruto noted the uniforms. One happened to be the uniform of standard Black Sun soldiers, while the other was a different uniform with insignia that he did not recognize. It was a large letter 'T' obviously standing for some word or name beginning with the letter but he had no idea what that was. Most of the invaders were composed of the unknown group with only a small portion being from the Black Sun. Contacting a group of his clones, he had them verify if the target was among the group.

On the outside of the base's front, a small, curved rectangular viewport area began opening to expose the hidden weapon inside. The pillbox was manned by four clones: one spotter, two manning an E-web heavy repeating blaster, and a fourth that was supervising. "Spotter." said the clone in charge and one of his fellow clones quickly looked over the cavern through a pair of macrobinoculars, taken from the command droid. Scanning through the rushing group he did not find the target they were after. "Unless he's behind the mask of one of those foot soldiers, he's not there." Concluded the leader before ordering, "Give me a count."

The spotter roughly estimated the group size while Naruto himself stretched out his senses to determine how many they were dealing with, "Around eighty."

"Wow, they don't mess around." Responded the leader and he mentally received his orders before turning to the two controlling the mounted weapon. "Gunmen, open fire at your discretion. Remember not to overload the power..." but the leading clone was cut off as the pair began shooting short but rapid bursts of blaster fire upon the advancing group. The shots ripped through the unprepared ranks of the soldiers and they were forced to take cover behind the rock formations located between the landing area and the base front.

The armored pillbox shook from the close impact of a dumb-fire rocket but the armored structure held and the clones inside, knowing they would not last long, unleashed the full power of the weapon by maximizing the power setting to fire single-shot, high powered blaster bolts. Several of these individual shots ripped through the rock and exposed targets, whereby the clone manning the weapon's power output, lowered the power and the gunner unleashed low powered, rapid-fire shots into them.

"GRENADES!" Yelled the spotter upon noticing the incoming explosives and though the gunner tried to target them, several got past. A telltale 'tinking' sound was heard before the blast. The resulting explosion, caved in the pillbox's exterior and disabled the gun. Looking around, the leader of the group removed himself from the cover he had taken just outside the interior door. Finding the gunner clone was still around and not dispelled, he moved to help but found shrapnel imbedded in the clones chest.

"Avenge me." The clone said with a cough before dispelling and the leader of the former group was left shaking his head at his comrade's behavior. Taking the binoculars, the clone activated the Toton Jutsu and disappeared into the surroundings. Carefully moving out from the damaged pillbox, he slowly crept along the wall and watched the soldiers advance on the base. He noted that the Demon Brothers had started moving to take the shuttles and transports before looking around the rest of the cavern. A few soldiers were standing guard at the door to the fortress while the rest had gone inside. Scanning over the destruction his group had created in order to estimated the number of bodies to see how many were storming the base.

x-x

'Forty-five.' Naruto felt as he activated several of the bases interior defenses and jammed all transmission going into or out of the base. He wanted the soldiers to reach the inner sanctum, or really just the meeting room of the base before the battle droids came out of their hiding places and kept anyone from escaping. Checking with his clone in the meeting room, Naruto found that the two Rakatan droids had been set up and were ready. He had thought that the target would want to lead the assault or at least come and capture or kill Narees himself but that apparently was not the case.

'I thought the Black Sun soldiers would have known the bases outer defenses better. I guess that just means that they really don't know the layout or that this base is just very unique. Though I can't complain about the outcome. I'm not sure the battle droids could have dealt with eighty soldiers.' He thought as he monitored the progress of the soldiers into the base. Activating a hologram of the base layout, Naruto looked through the areas and added the locations of each soldier from the holocams and found that they must have had a general idea of the layout. Once inside the base, they had split up into several small groups and one large group. The projection showed that all but the larger group was headed in the correct direction with the smaller groups fanning out throughout the building. Naruto quickly sent the positions of the smaller groups to HK in order to not have any surprises later; confident that the droid could take care of the outliers. He also noted that one of the groups was heading directly for his location.

Hearing a noise coming from a different area of the room, Naruto walked into the nearby communications room to find a message had arrived. It wasn't someone waiting to talk face-to-face but merely a sent message. Opening the file, Naruto saw the target he was after and then focused on what the man was saying. "...Narees. I've brought help and there's no way your forces can handle a hundred combined soldiers. Surrender yourself before we drag you out of there by your horns." The message then ended and Naruto considered how to respond. It seemed that capture was the primary objective for the group, which was very good for him. Creating a henge of Narees, he opened a channel and sent a message back, hoping that the jamming signal from earlier would still let him at least send something to the ships on the landing area, if not the ship or ships that were in orbit.

"The men you've sent all unfortunately met my base defenses and are fighting my garrisoned troops as I send this. It looks like I'll be walking away from this attack on my own, and probably taking one of those parked ships on my doorstep before leaving. Why don't you just come down here and we'll settle things ourselves." Naruto offered in Narees' voice and wondered if the ploy would work.

'Otherwise I'll have to try something a bit more dangerous to myself.' He thought and looked back at the monitors to find that the large group had managed to make it passed most of the locked doors and were nearing the meeting room. According to the schematics he had, that room was connected to both the private suite as well as an escape route, though the plans did not show where the hidden doorway led. It also showed several secret doors along the sides of the room where normally Black Sun Elite would be positioned, ready to come out at a moments notice or fire a hidden weapon.

Naruto had filled the suite and hidden alcoves with the OOM-series battle droids and a large group of the droids following the group as they moved through the facility. 'They won't have anywhere to run.' He concluded as the trap was set. Seeing that the group was about to breach the last door, Naruto took image captures of the individuals that seemed to be leading the group and sent them to his clone inside the meeting room.

x-x

Receiving information from the original on the datapad he had been given, the clone took the images and downloaded them into two Rakatan droids. The droids were stationed on either side of the table that was the main centerpiece of the room. The droids were not powered down but in a stationary mode, ready to be fully activated. They looked similar to two large metal vases and could actually pass as decoration in their undeployed state. With a simple push of a button on the datapad, the droids would deploy and implement something that the original wanted to test out.

Laying in the chair, with his back on the seat cushion and head near the lower part of the back rest, the clone absently swiveled in the chair as it waited for the door to be breached. He didn't want to sit up in the chair for fear that one of the soldiers would take a shot at the back of the seat as he had rotated the chair to face away from the door. Hearing a dulled sound of something magnetized being stuck to the door, the clone set the datapad on it's chest and covered it's ears for fear of being dispelled by the loud sound.

A few second later, after a fusion torch was worked around the door in order to weaken it's structure, a loud explosion tore through the center, creating a hole through which soldiers started pouring in. Half of the group that had made it through the base moved in while the rest stayed outside, likely to make sure the escape route was clear for the extraction of the Vigo. Uncovering his ears, the clone could tell that they were being cautious and rightly so considering the trap that was set.

Deciding to distract them until the right moment, the clone prepared it's throat and started speaking in a voice that did not belong to it, "I'm surprised any of you made it this far, but I suppose some of you are former members of the Black Sun. Would you care for a drink?" The clone asked and ignored the comments as the group's attention was drawn completely to the chair at the end of the table. Approaching, the clone started moving the chair in order to do a cliched slow turn-and-reveal but given the height of the table, when the chair finally reached the point where Narees should have been seen, the soldiers saw no one in the chair.

'Messing with them is so much fun.' the clone thought as it heard the confusion and shouts as they started to realize that they had walked into a trap. The original acted a moment later as four hidden doors were opened around the room and Trade Federation droids began gushing into the room. Those droids were just the distraction, though as they weren't even programmed to kill anyone. The real bulk of the small droids army began making their move on the group guarding the outside of the room and others came in from the back of the meeting room. With the group thoroughly confused and shooting at everything that was seemingly attacking them, the clone activated the Rakatan droids.

The middle of the tall vase-like droids popped up several inches, as did a portion higher up. The legs unfolded from the middle and and quickly the droids stood on the four spider-leg appendages. The photoreceptor higher up started targeting the soldiers it had been given. Before any of the enemy could react to the new threat, an energy shield enveloped the units and a small compartment on the front opened, revealing a blaster-looking barrel. Finding their targets, a stream of carbonite shot from the barrel.

The stream solidified upon contact with the targets, spreading and completely encasing them in the gray alloy before the droids selected the next target. Waiting patiently for the fighting to die down, the clone remained hidden partially under the table. When the last blaster shots rang out, the clone pushed the chair back and cautiously sat up, inspecting the area. The first thing it saw was the carbonite frozen figures of several soldiers. Curious to know more about the process and weapon, he got up and walked to the statues.

It was the first time he had tried out the weapon that was on both the droids but it appeared to work. If the effect lasted long enough to get to Mustafar, then he could just pack them and ship them in their current state. No sooner had he thought that, then the effect starting fading. 'It only works for less than thirty seconds!' Raged the clone as he jumped back to hide under the table. As the carbonite quickly sublimated and the four men soon recovered, they were unable to do much else before the Rakatan droids shot them again. With the enemy frozen once again, the clone wondered what he should do. The original wanted those men trapped but apparently the carbonite gun's effect was extremely temporary, unlike the carbonite freezing process which could last for centuries if done right.

'Guess I just knock them out one by one.' Ge thought and was very disappointed by the lack of success with the weapon. It was still powerful but he could tell through it's connection that even the original wished that it lasted longer. Walking up to the first one that was frozen, the clone waited for the process to undo so he could disarm and knockout each one of them.

x-x

With no response to his message and his clones not spotting any other ships coming down, Naruto went to gather the others. He had a few plans forming in his head but the end result he wanted, involved the taking of whatever craft was in orbit. The target he was after was waiting for his men to return or for a message indicating that Narees was captured, so he just needed to give them what they wanted. Coming across HK making sure that all the Meatbags were dead, Naruto led the droid to the landing area so meet up with the Demon Brothers. Looking over the ships, Naruto made a number of clones and first had them take some of the weapons of the downed men Making forty clones, they took some of the weapons from the dead soldiers and then boarded the four working ships in the landing bay and took off.

Leaving the surface, the sensor and communications jammer soon ceased and communications were resumed. With the ability to use their ships scanners, Naruto and his clones quickly determined that only one ship was in orbit. As the small dot of a ship started to get larger, Naruto used a henge to change himself into one of the captured men and opened a channel, hailing the ship. His contact was soon answered and the viewscreen in his cockpit showed the bridge of the ship they were heading too.

Naruto identified the target but also discovered that the man he was after, was not the captain of the ship they were headed towards. "Were you successful?" Demanded the target and Naruto altered his voice to match that the man he was impersonating, replying that they had captured Narees alive. His answer was greeted with smiles forming on those in the bridge and he was told to have his ship and the shuttles come straight to the hangar. Before he could end the transmission, the captain of the ship asked, "Where are the rest of the ships?" to which Naruto quickly replied, "This is everyone that survived."

The signal was terminated as the captain frowned at the answer but Naruto ignored it as they approached the ship. Checking the transport's computer, Naruto tried to determine what kind of ship it was that they were approaching. 'I have no idea where the hangar is.' He quickly realized and began passive scanning in order to determine where he was supposed to go. Approaching the ship from above, he didn't see a hangar anywhere. The ship's computer soon got back with him and indicated that the ship's make and model was a Republic Sienar Systems, Marauder-class corvette.

That was about all the information he had concerning the craft but judging from the sensor readings, it appeared that the hangar was not on the top or sides. 'Must be on the bottom.' Guessed Naruto but he didn't like being unsure on such a matter. If the hangar was not on the bottom, then it would be very obvious to the enemy that something was wrong. Calming himself, Naruto felt that the hangar was indeed underneath and trusted that feeling as he led the group of four ships underneath the corvette.

The ship was about two hundred meters long, making it thirty percent smaller than the warship they had found on Mustafar but it appeared to be a modern equivalent. It was flat with wings at the back and a long fuselage with a widening front. Coming under the ship, the ventral hangar near the back of the ship finally came into view and Naruto idly noted that the ship was marked on the wings with the same symbol on half of the transports. Entering the cramped hangar, he maneuvered the ship next to familiar looking vessel that Narees had shown in the mission briefing.

Not knowing what color Iktotchi blood was, the shadow clone henge of Narees showed no physical harm but was secured with binders. Stepping down the landing ramp, a henged group led the fake Narees with a henged Naruto in front. Finding his target was waiting, Naruto did not initiate conversation but waited to be addressed until something else caught everyone's attention. Coming out from one of the access ways into the hangar, was the captain of the ship and a sizable armed escort. The uniformed man had the 'T' emblem emblazoned on his left shoulder and was holding a small case.

"As promised, a Black Sun Vigo. I told you he would be here. I hope that's my payment." Commented the Black Sun leader and his smile was not met by the captain of the corvette.

"I hardly think it's 'as promised.' You claimed this would be easy but I've lost twelve starfighters, three transports and probably forty of my men. You on the other hand only lost a single transport and handful of men." Replied the captain, not knowing that almost all of his men were dead and the ones he could see, were all clones.

Seeing that the situation was becoming more tense, Naruto sent a mental message to the Demon Brothers and one of his clones still in the ship told the same to HK. As the two men began to argue concerning the payment, Naruto decided to settle things. Using both hands, he grabbed each man and yanked them towards each other. The leaders of their respective groups smashed into each other. Taking advantage of the distraction, HK and the Demon Brothers rushed out from a ship while Naruto's clones opened fire on the men in the hangar.

Giving instruction for a group of clones to stay in the hangar and secure it, Naruto and HK led another group towards the front of the ship to secure the bridge while the Demon Brothers had free reign of the rest of the vessel.

x-x

Mustafar

x-x

"You know..." Narees began before chuckling, "...I didn't know what to think when you showed up in orbit in that corvette." Sitting at the opposite end of the table, Naruto smiled before saying, "I like to make an arrival." Setting a case on the table, he slid it to the opposite side to the curious Iktotchi. The man gave him a look before opening the small case.

"It's apparently the payment for your whereabouts and capture." Explained Naruto as Narees took out a small pouch from the case and poured it's contents onto the table. Also curious as to what was in the case, Naruto leaned forward in his seat to get a better look. He had decided that since Narees would be interrogating the prisoners he brought back, it would be best not to keep the case for himself. Such an action would cause problems if it was discovered. That isn't to say that he didn't desperately want to know and keep it's contents though.

Looking up at the teen sitting across from him, Narees set one of the ingots on the pouch and slid it back down the table. He normally didn't give such extravagant bonuses but this was a special case. Not only was the mission a success, but he also discovered the identity of the group that had payed one of his operatives in order to capture him. When he gave the mission out to Menma, he had no idea that they were involved or would make such a move.

Naruto caught the sliding pouch and examined the small shiny ingot. It did not have a specific color to it, but merely continuously shined in multiple colors. Having not encountered such a material before, he decided to be honest, "I'm not familiar with this item." Narees laughed in response but explained, "You're likely familiar with it's name but it's not that surprising that this is your first time seeing Aurodium. Though your payment is waiting at the door, this little bonus is worth ten times the amount you normally get for a mission. Don't think this will become a regular occurrence." Though most of the response was given in an amused tone, the last bit was given with a much darker tone.

Naruto nodded before asking something that he had been curious about, "The other group that facilitated the attack, who are they with?"

"The Tenloss Syndicate has been a growing rival for quite some time but even I admit that their involvement was a surprise. I didn't expect them to act so bold. You will be adding their ship to your forces. We may have plans for it in the near future as a...response...to the recent events." Narees answered and taking the hint that the meeting was over, Naruto bowed slightly before putting the precious currency in the pouch and taking his mission payment before leaving through the lift.

After he was sure that they couldn't be heard, given the boy's excellent talents, Narees activated the controls for the holoprojector and it instantly displayed Alexi Garyn, Underlord of the Black Sun. The leader of the syndicate had been listening to the meeting. "You gave away about ten million in a single bonus, Narees." Commented the Underlord and the Iktotchi merely smiled before justifying, "And he could have easily kept the case for himself, besides, he completely turned the tables on a high ranking enforcer for the Tenloss Syndicate and brought him here alive. I felt that went far beyond the mission that I assigned."

"True, the information we can obtain from him would be worth at least that much if we were to try and gain it through more deceptive means." Admitted the leader of the Black Sun but he also added, "This makes a large number of consecutive mission that have all been successful. Do you think he can be trusted and is ready for more...hands-on assignments?"

"He has proven himself to be not only skilled but also professional, far more than his age would normally suggest. He doesn't ask too many questions or complain and has no problem with the missions or the pay. Sixteen successful mission is quite the record for any Black Sun agent. Do you plan for him to help with the Tenloss problem?" Inquired Narees as he wondered what his leader's wanted to do.

Alexi waited for a moment before giving his reply, "This attack will be met with a greater response but we must plan this out to make the best of it. The Tenloss have many ships and men, and many more profitable, but legitimate fronts for their criminal operations. They may only operate out of the Bajic Sector but they are quite entrenched. I don't want to lose out on any of that. Not only that, but I want you to spread that it was Trade Federation in conjunction with the Tenloss. I don't want it known that we had a traitor. Make sure he disappears after the interrogation."

x-x

End

AN: I wanted to keep going but I had to stop and get what I had written submitted. Added to my profile is a link to a drawing of Naruto's lightsaber and a link to information on the corvette, Utapau, and MTTs.

Just to clarify, the OOM-series of droid is the precursor to the B1 battle droids. They appear exactly the same save for a few internal differences. The OOM has a different voice, is more intelligent but also operates via the droid control signal that are received by the command droid and relayed to the rest. The B1 is cheaper, dumber, but is more independent in it's operation. Sorry if anyone was confused by this but the B1 isn't introduced in the Star Wars Universe until later on and this is what the Trade Federation currently uses. The tank featured in the first movie, the Autmated Assasult Tank, has not been created yet either.


	30. Chapter 30

x-x

**35.1 BBY – Current Year **

Chapter XXX

x-x

Naboo

Rudshar Estate

x-x

Looking down upon what was once his body, Plagueis prepared for another sampling. Taking out the cold instruments, he looked over the skeleton. All of the tissue had been removed and stored separately while his charred bones remained on the table. A slight odor of burning always lingered whenever he took out his body from storage. Examining the skeleton, the fingers of his host passed over the areas that he had already sampled. Numerous small holes were a reminder of how many times he had sampled and how many times he had failed to find a good genetic sample.

Despite being deceased for so many years and undergoing decomposition, the real damage to his body had been the destructive Force Lightning used by his Apprentice. The power of Force Lightning varied with the user and Sidious' was one of the more powerful that he had read about. Though not nearly as powerful as an excerpt he had once read concerning Darth Bane, claiming that the Sith Lord could actually disintegrate bodies with his powerful dark-side lightning.

"Sampling number fifty seven on my former body." Plagueis said aloud to a recording device situated nearby. He always like to record his work for later storage in his holocron and so he wouldn't have to remember every detail of his experiments.

"I suppose I should be grateful that my Apprentice did not have such power that was reputed to be possessed by Lord Bane, but that is not the case." The Muun said as he voiced his thoughts for the recording. Despite it being therapeutic, he still felt his anger built before finding a new, untouched area of bone through which to sample. His body did not possess hair and he remainder of his tissue was too far degraded. That left only the bones and teeth to chose from for a DNA sample large enough for cloning purposes.

Although a single cell was normally all that was needed, "It will be best to have multiple cells to choose from in case I need to make more than one clone. Thus far I do not have a good enough sample to begin cloning. The primary failing of cloning-based immortality for dark-side users is the fact that the body is new and unaccustomed to handing the dark-side of the Force for the first time. The dark-side of the Force is akin to a person ingesting increasing amounts of poison for a prolonged period and their body developing an immunity.

Grow a clone and then providing the same poison to it, in a highly concentrated amount, will only lead to a quick death of the clone body because it is not accustomed too, nor possesses any built-up immunity to the poison. The dark-side can be exceedingly damaging to clones bodies in multiple ways. Through my research on the topic, I have found that the effect of adding a strong dark-side presence to an empty clone body typically manifests in sudden and exponential aging of the body.

Though a healthy clone in the beginning and aged to it's prime, using such a method may only provide a year of use out of the clone until it dies and the process must be repeated." Said the Muun for the recording and he started up the drill which produced a faint whine before he moved it to the bone and drilled partly through to collect a bone marrow sample.

Carefully completing the process and extracting the material, he quickly put it in it's container before recording, "Sample fifty seven has been successfully extracted and I will perform the previously recorded panel of testing to determine it's viability. The initial outlook is low but there is always a chance. Extensive scans of my corpse revealed no undamaged cells and I have taken to saving the least damaged cells and dutifully recording where they resided within the body.

The purpose of these measures is two fold. I hope to determining an area of my former body that may yield the best possible cells and also save up enough cells for multiple clone bodies. Even so, I do not believe that the clone produced would be healthy or last, regardless of the inclusion of my spirit. Living tissue is the best cloning material and dead tissue can still produce a viable clone but damaged cells are far from ideal. Thus far, the best samples have been taken from the lower spine near the pelvis. I am currently unsure why that is the case."

Putting his bones back into the preservation chamber, Plagueis took the sample to another part of the room for testing. As he was walked, a small alarm went off and he realized that it was time for one of the periodic meetings. 'I shouldn't forget about or be late to one of the meetings that I myself called for, not again.' he thought before quickly storing the sample and then heading to the lift so he could go to the top floor.

x-x

Exiting the lift, Naruto squinted slightly as the bright evening sun bathed into the top level of his estate. The top floor had many windows facing nearly every direction but the design put the exit for the lift facing the setting sun. The level was several stories tall and featured multiple rooms which were all joined to the very tall entry way.

Moving across the open area, he looked to one of the meeting rooms that he was heading too and could feel that almost everyone else was already there. Moving up the circular staircase, the door opened automatically and his appearance went mostly unnoticed as discussions continued among the group.

"Why haven't I heard anything about your evaluation?" Was the question that Karin posed to Suigetsu with a smile that seemed to already know the answer, "Just a success that's all. I don't need to boast about my impressive leadership abilities." Suigetsu lied and Juugo shook his head slightly while the Demon Brothers chuckled.

Turning see that Naruto had entered, Karin exuberantly asked, "Did he fuck up? He fucked up didn't he?" Stopping on his way to his seat, Naruto looked back and forth between Suigetsu and Karin. Mulling over the implications remaining silent, he decided to side with family and admitted, "His rating was lower than yours." Before he had the words completely out of his mouth, Karin was already standing and doing a victory dance. "But both were still lower than Juugo's." Naruto added however it fell mostly on deaf ears for the arguing pair and he took his seat.

"Is there a chance that I will get to participate in one of these missions and receive a rating as well?" Kabuto asked and Naruto turned to the holoprojection of the teen that was seemingly seated next to him to consider the question, "I suppose if you have some time off and a mission is requested," he said and Kabuto nodded with a smile.

The snake-like man was currently enrolled in the Lunis-Medix Medical Academy in the Outer-rim. It was possibly one of the best academies in the region but nowhere near as prestigious as other academies closer to the core such as the Rhinnal Medical Academy and First Republic Medical Academy of Coruscant. It was however willing to accept a large donation in order to waive the required prior education and coursework, allowing Kabuto to matriculate into their program.

"You think he's gonna show up this time?" questioned Suigetsu while looking too Naruto and the blonde gave a shrug as his response before he checked his watch. 'I'll give him a few more minutes before taking over and leading the meeting,' he thought and took out his datapad to review what he wanted to discuss and updates he wanted to hear about at their mandatory monthly meeting.

Extending his senses, he could feel Plagueis coming up through the lift and would wait for the Sith Lord to was the only one to hear the Mustafarian's footfalls on the circular stairs and remained unfazed by the entrance of the Sith Lord into the room. However, the groups conversation soon died down and they waited for Plagueis to sit and start the meeting.

"To start off the meeting, as is typical, I'd like to go around the table and have everyone provide an update on what they are working on or towards." Stated the Sith Lord through his vocabulator and he turned to give the hint towards Karin that she could begin. Clearing her throat, the redhead began, "I am progressing well through the nursing program and have already become an assistant nurse. I am also currently putting in about thirty hours each week at the Theed Medical Center, much more than the other assistant nurses."

No one made any comment about her efforts as they all knew that her goal of volunteering as a nurse for her public service was to later be able to go to a medical academy like Kabuto was doing. It the most that she could do in order to possibly help Tayuya and she was well exceeding the normal minimum volunteer requirement. In addition to the volunteering, she was also taking holonet medical classes. In a few years she could even apply for enrollment at the same academy as Kabuto, without the need for a large donation.

Skipping over Suigetsu, Juugo began to speak before he was interrupted, "Hey, what about me? I was supposed to be next." Commented the white-haired teen to the group but Karin quickly explained, "You haven't done or accomplished anything worth mentioning."

Crossing his arms, Suigetsu ignored the comment before announcing, "I've spent the last week continuing to map out the underground passageways that end or start at the bottom of our lake." The statement was met with slight interest as Suigetsu had told them before that at the very bottom of their lake, existed several tunnels that went much deeper into the planet's crust. Seemingly they had no end to them and Suigetsu had taken up exploring them in his spare time, often hunting a few of the creatures that dwelt in the labyrinth of tunnels.

Most of the group was unaware of the plasmic nature of Naboo. Instead of having a molten magma layer close to the core, Naboo had a unique plasmic magma that created something akin to lava tubes through the many layers of the planet's crust as it moved close to the surface. The pathways created by the plasma were filled with water from underground oceans and created what some Nabooans termed the 'Abyss'.

Interested in what Suigetsu had found, Naruto urged for him to continue. Not having Suigetsu's unique ability, no one else, save for perhaps the Demon Brothers, could travel inside the tunnels at such depths without the use of a special vehicle or suit. Even the Naboo didn't go into those areas of their own planet and it was primarily where the Gungan's, Naboo's other sentient species, lived.

"Going on a twisting path from our lake, I can head to Theed and come up in one of their rivers." Suigetsu explained and his statement garnered interest from the whole table. "I did however have to keep from being eaten by several of the larger creatures. Though on a different note, I killed another sea killer." Added Suigetsu and the group nodded, knowing that the large carnivorous crustacean would be on the dinner menu for a while.

'If we can get some kind of submersible, we can travel to the city undetected. Though I really don't want to run into those Opee sea killers or any of the other creatures that Suigetsu claims to have seen, especially while that deep under the water.' Considered Naruto as he thought about what kind of vessel to look into and added a few notes to his datapad.

Nodding to the orange-haired teen next to him, Suigetsu turned the meeting over to Juugo who quickly went over what he had been up to in the past month, "I've been monitoring the vines and preparing for the upcoming harvest. The production facility in the cellar is nearly completed thanks to the clones of Naruto and we are nearly ready for wine production. I've also been looking into various other types of grapes and am growing samples in the greenhouse." Looking up from his notepad, Juugo ended his short update and several members nodded to acknowledge his efforts. The teen had been shown to have a green thumb in addition to his connection with animals and had thus been put in charge of the estate grounds, including wine production.

It was the Demon Brothers turn next and both glanced at each other before Meizu started talking first about both of their efforts, "The privateer fleet on Sarafur numbers ten working ships of transport size and there are nine others that are waiting to be repaired. The crews number thirty five Smoke Demons." Meizu's statement was quickly added too by Gozu, "The Black Sun sent engineers to modify the newly procured corvette with a better sensor system. They've already finished and the skeleton crew is scheduled to arrive soon from the Black Sun."

Naruto idly nodded at the information provided by the two before explaining the reasoning for the modifications, "Using information gained from the interrogation of the Tenloss Syndicate men we captured, the Vigo Narees has come up with a scheme to spy on them using their own ship. The corvette is primarily used for patrol as well as independent operation and Black Sun agents as well as a few of our Smoke Demons will masquerade as the crew. Feigning a failure of their attack, Narees intends to make the leaders of the Tenloss believe that their ship and it's crew are still very much alive. He aims to use the newly installed sensor package to actively monitor their operations and get an idea of their defenses."

Taking a short breath, Naruto continued with the next item on the list, "Gato has been in touch with me and claims that his first shipment of mined minerals is expected to be ready within the month. I've already procured a freighter, a slightly older ship from Borvo, for use in transporting the cargo. I've also hired a captain for the freighter to pilot the ship to and from Mustafar."

"The former weapons smuggler?" Inquired Plagueis and Naruto turned towards his Master and nodded, confirming that the man named Doro would be in charge of smuggling shipments out of Mustafar and trying to stay off the Black Sun's and Techno Union's radar. "He's spent quite a bit of time on Sarafur working to repair our ships since I rescued him. After spending almost sixteen years stranded on a planet, I think he is quite happy to be flying again and have steady work, especially considering he lost everything when he lost his ship." Explained Naruto and Plagueis decided to make sure the decision was sound, asking, "And his mental state?"

"He seems well enough to fly and trips between Mustafar to Naboo aren't on a difficult route. Unless we want to make him a Smoke Demon and hope he retains his experience and skill, find someone else that's trustworthy, or pilot the ship ourselves, then he isn't a bad choice for the job." Elaborated Naruto and he didn't wait for Plagueis to agree with him before looking to the next item on his list.

"Here on Naboo, I've helped set up a business for Ann and Tann in Keren, close to the Kwilaan Starport. They're now renting a building in the industrial district. Both are currently off-world, meeting with prospective buyers for the minerals. Doro is being employed by them and the ship is licensed to them as well as registered with the Naboo Commerce Department.

By the time the first shipment is ready, they should have a buyer lined up." Naruto informed the group and ignored the pleased look that Juugo had, not wanting to know what the teen was thinking about. Seemingly finished, Naruto was about to let Kabuto begin when Plagueis asked, "And what about your positions?"

Knowing exactly what his Master was referring too, Naruto took a few seconds to think over what to say before answering the question, "I've managed to install the provided spying devices into the Royal Security Forces Headquarters and am progressing through the program into duty assignments with active security personnel. As for the Black Sun, I've recently completed another successful mission." Plagueis nodded at the statements and Naruto decided it was a good time to ask something that had been on his mind.

"How long must I continue being on-call for the Black Sun?" He calmly asked but it was something that he was very interested in hearing the answer to.

"At least until an opportunity presents itself. Your involvement appears to be long-term and it's best to remain cautious but successful on the requested missions. Unless you think that you can capture and drain Narees of his knowledge concerning the Underlord? We would then have to travel to where the Underlord is and get past all of his guards before he escapes or learns of your treachery. If he gets away, he'll have every resource of the Black Sun hunting us down." Posed Plagueis and he awaited a response.

Naruto thought over multiple scenarios in which he either stormed or used stealth to get at Narees, even imagining jumping right across the table at the end of a future mission. Despite knowing that he could probably succeed, there were a few variables that he couldn't be sure about. "Several times I have felt that our meeting was being broadcast, to whom I don't know, but it's entirely probable that the Underlord is closely monitoring my missions. I also believe that Narees has multiple hideouts and the fortress on Mustafar is a location that he only frequents after messaging me about a mission. By the time I'm finished, he's already arrived from a safer location and is waiting me." Determined Naruto and though he didn't outright say the answer, Plagueis could easily determine what it was.

"Then it is simply too risky right now. We currently have a good relationship with the syndicate. You don't know how rare that is, especially considering that you're dealing directly with a Vigo who claimed that his offer came directly from the Underlord. Normally it would take years of moving up the ranks before even meeting or seeing a single Vigo and he personally invited you to neutral meeting at Borvo's hideout.

I'm well aware that it clashes with your public service and running around the galaxy like an errand boy is not desirable but their entire spy network and agents are helping to watch out for us and make sure we stay off everyone's radar. The more success we have on these missions, the more access and resources will be available to us. The Black Sun will also be very useful for our plans on Telerath. I couldn't possibly see the Black Sun passing up on such an opportunity. Therefore, we will remain patient and bide our time." Concluded the Sith Lord and after a brief moment, Naruto turned to the holoprojection of Kabuto.

"My turn already?" The snake-like man joked and he quickly began with his progress, "I have been advancing at an accelerated pace through my courses and estimate completion of the medical program within the next four years depending on my chosen residency. I'm going for a more generalized education instead of focusing on a single field and there are upcoming summer opportunities for internships and such. And before you ask," he said while turning to Naruto, indicating that it was possibly something that Naruto frequently inquired about whenever they spoke, "..there has been no change in the condition of my patient." Once Kabuto had finished with his update, it was Plagueis' turn next.

"I have spent the last year monitoring my former Apprentice after our trip to Coruscant.." the Sith Lord began and looked around to make sure that everyone was listening, "..though this monitoring has not born substantial fruit, I do know with certainty what he is after. By becoming a Senator of the Republic, he aims to eventually become Chancellor and likely gather as much power as possible for his position before taking over completely. I do not, however, know the specifics of his plans and can only guess based upon what I do know.

He is extremely engrained into life on Corsucant. Friends with Jedi and with the current Chancellor, Finis Valorum, while his true self and intentions remain completely hidden from everyone. His image is incredibly clean in terms of corruption or scandal and he has good credibility. He does stand out in the Senate but his power and prestige were built up over time. The slow buildup was to remain off everyone's radar until his plans moved to fruition and he actually passed over many opportunities along the way to make sure he remained unnoticed in his early senatorial years.

I suspect his plans will not truly start for several years and my reasoning is based upon the re-election of the current Chancellor a year ago. Sidius was not popular enough and Valorum was still popular so he remained favorable and continued into his second term. Terms last for four years and a Senator can only become Chancellor for two terms despite them being able to serve as many terms in the Senate as their constituents allow. This means that Sidious will likely wait for three years until Valorum's second term comes to an end. At that point, he will either run against those that wish to take Valorum's place or engineer a situation that will allow him better odds to become Chancellor. I believe he will do the latter."

Plagueis took a small break in the explanation of his finding and Naruto took the opportunity to ask, "I'm guessing you aim to stop him from becoming Chancellor, in which case we either need to discredit him or promote those he will run against?"

The Sith Lord nodded as his student's words. He was more concerned with hindering Sidiuos directly but helping another to prevent his Apprentice from succeeding was also a viable alternative. "That is correct. With his clean image and friendship with the Jedi, it will be all but impossible to oust him by exposing his Sith nature. We would need definitive proof and Sidious does not discuss anything openly with any of his entourage or even his own apprentice.

I'm not even sure that a holorecording would be enough for the Jedi, especially not when he can converse with a Jedi Master for hours and not even rouse suspicion. He always makes sure to cover his face when in the LiMerge Power building and I cannot even be sure if those close to him even know his true intentions. Therefore I don't currently have anything to discredit him with but I do believe that he has illicit dealings with the current King of Naboo, Ars Veruna. Specifically concerning the plasma reserves of the planet."

"I doubt my surveillance devices in the security headquarters will provide much help for something like that." Commented Naruto and Plagueis nodded but added, "We would need to bug the Palace communications array for that but at the moment, it will be best for you to keep yourself in the program. There will be chances to investigate the King if you become an officer."

It was Naruto's turn to nod in agreement right before asking, "Who would be his competition for the Chancellorship in the Senate?"

"The ones that would likely run against him are Bail Antilles from Alderaan, currently the chairperson of the Internal Activities Committee, and Ainlee Teem a Gran from Malastare. Based upon the information that we are recording concerning the many Senators of the Republic, it would be the most beneficial to help out the Senator form Alderaan. His position as leader of the committee is primarily geared towards removing corruption from the Senate and it wouldn't be that difficult to give him a few names to look into from time to time. This would of course only work if we had the means to go through all of the Senate recordings." Responded Plagueis to the question as he was very interested at the prospect of once again being able to manipulate Galactic politics and prominent individuals.

Breaking from his musings, the Sith Lord went to the next item on his list, which was a planet that Naruto had discovered, "Concerning Telerath, I trust that you have started the paperwork for claiming the planet?" He posed to Naruto and the blonde nodded, "I have filled out all the paperwork and am just waiting to turn it in."

"We should wait slightly longer before claiming." Plagueis informed him and elaborated, "If we claim the rediscovered planet now, before we have investors and means to protect the claim, we'll have to worry about others learning of the discovery and going there. Scavengers, pilferers, and others will no doubt be interested. Finding a lost planet in the Inner-Rim that was once populated by millions of people, wealthy people, then promptly abandoned was not an every day occurrence.

"Aside from the claim, I have also been determining a list of investors that would be interested in such a planet and enterprise. The list is long but I believe it can be made easier if we are able to gain the trust and influence of a certain business person. Namely Popara Anjiliac Diresto." Explained the Muun and he waited for the inevitable outburst.

"A Hutt?" Naruto questioned and it was obvious that a few of the others shared his concerns. The had quite a few problem dealings in the past with the slug-like species.

"Popara owns a very large, _financial_ and _not_ criminal, empire. He has a great deal of wealth and is also the most trustworthy of the Hutts, though he is extremely distrustful of others. It will therefore be difficult to get a meeting with him and likely even more difficult to get him to hear us out. I plan to use Borvo for that as he knows Popara and can get us an audience. By securing his investment into the project and using his name, others will undoubtedly become interested and he will attract and provide both financial backing and legitimacy for the project." Elaborated the Sith Lord.

"What leads you to believe that he will be interested?" Asked Naruto.

"Though a large part of his wealth comes from his shipping company, he has many other businesses and dealings. Popara is also nearing the end of his life, being nearly nine hundred years old, and as with all Hutts, will likely want to leave a legacy. Despite having his companies and wealth, there is something that he doesn't have and I feel, would likely be interested in." Stated the Sith Lord and he left the statement open for Naruto to finish.

"A bank?" Naruto stated out loud and Plagueis nodded before adding, "Hutts don't even use banks in their territory, preferring to keep their wealth in assets or liquidated and hidden. Also no one would trust a Hutt-operated bank but Popara is different and we will be using him in addition to many others. Such an endeavor will leave a lasting legacy of his accomplishments and I believe it will interest him to try something that no Hutt has ever done before.

His primary inclusion into the project, however, is simply for stability and to get more investors interested. I have a feeling that the Banking Guild would be greatly interested. They wouldn't let another bank operate without at least owning a portion of it or being involved. Our other possible investors are a variety of individuals from across the Galaxy, many being Senators of the Republic. However, our initial success hinges on gaining Popara's interest."

When no one objected or asked any further questions, the Sith Lord concluded with, "I will be scheduling a meeting with Popara, through Borvo, as soon as possible." Despite not actually coming out and saying it, Naruto knew that it was implied for him to be there at the meeting. The only thing that could get him out of it would be a mission for the Black Sun. Seeing Plagueis completely silent and given that they had gone around the whole table, most of the group proceeded to leave the meeting room, presumably to go back down to the lower levels for dinner.

Unperturbed by the exodus, Naruto turned to the projection of Kabuto, "Have any of your recent experiments produced results?" The cloaked projection gave a look before confirming what Naruto read from the body language, "I'm afraid that nothing I've done recently has produced any positive results. Bacta, as you know, has only a limited effect and it's isn't lasting. We started long-term treatment..." and Kabuto stopped his sentence but Naruto finished it, "...and the treatments showed signs of diminishing results after each time she was put in a Bacta tank."

Holding in a sigh of frustration that he had seemingly been holding for months, Naruto voiced his thoughts to Kabuto and also Plagueis who had stayed in the room, "I told her that I would do anything I could and not give up."

"Well, despite being busy with other things, you haven't forgotten about her. Especially given how many times you've asked me about her." Kabuto told him, trying to keep Naruto from getting disenfranchised with his efforts to help their other red-haired group member.

"Yes but I'm not cut out for this type of work. I'm not a scientist and I don't have the patience for tests after tests. I've been looking into every alchemy text that we brought back from the fallen tower but I haven't found anything particularly useful. Turning Tayuya into a Sithspawn in order to save her life does not seem like something she would agree with. I also can't be sure it would even work and I don't exactly have anyone to test it out on first." Naruto admitted as he had looked into using a ritual or application of the dark-side in order to prevent her degradation.

"True, she really wouldn't be happy about it, but if it worked, then she would be alive." Commented Kabuto as he indirectly mentioned his own condition. Though he really didn't mind too much, save for the looks he sometimes got from others as he passed, he had undergone something similar. It wasn't to cure an ailment but ultimately it did ensure that his life was spared after his betrayal of the group.

"All I really need is a healthy cell. A single, healthy cell. If we can completely heal one cell then we can beat the illness." Naruto said as he slouched in the chair and absently looked out one of the windows.

"You're speaking of cloning?" Inquired a curious Kabuto and Naruto turned to him to nod in affirmation. Though silent at the table, Plagueis' interest was also piqued by where the conversation was going.

"With just one healthy cell I could pay one of several species that use cloning technology and have a clone created." said Naruto and Kabuto looked slightly puzzled so he asked, "I'm afraid I'm not following your train of thought, how exactly would that help Tayuya?"

"I can teach her to use Orochimaru's kinjutsu and her soul can vacate her damaged body, transferring to the healthy clone body. We would no longer have to find a cure for her because her new body would be healthy and the cursed seal as well as Orochimaru's chakra and soul fragment would not transfer with her soul. She also wouldn't have to fight and dominate the soul of the clone body because it would be a shell with no consciousness. It's the best solution that I have been able to come up with that doesn't involve the need to remove the seal or completely cure her. I only need a healthy cell." Naruto reiterated and Kabuto was left to think about what he had said.

"What about Orochimaru's problem with having to take new hosts?" Asked Kabuto for clarification but felt that perhaps he already knew the answer.

"Because it's her own body, her soul would not be rejected like Orochimaru's was whenever he took a new host body. The only problem is the cell. If it isn't completely cured of the ailment then she will have to keep switching to new bodies when the clone degenerates. I have a feeling that she'd rather die than become like Orochimaru and if she has to transfer back to her original body then I won't have accomplished anything at all." Admitted Naruto and Kabuto nodded.

While the two were conversing, the Sith Lord's thoughts had taken a turn down very different track and were heading away from the current conversation at the table. The words that Naruto had used were resonating in his head, ' A single, healthy cell.' It was something similar to what he had been struggling with but his student's use of the words had revealed a completely new path for him to try, one that he had apparently been completely blind or ignorant to.

'Instead of trying to find the healthiest cell that I can from my damaged body, I should be trying to heal one of the cells that I have.' Realized the Sith Lord as he thought over the possibilities. He had dabbled in the use of midi-chlorian manipulation in order to bring the dead back to life. Granted it was a recently deceased person but he had managed to do it, reviving a single individual, multiple times before they finally letting them expire.

'If I could bring back one of the cells and heal it, then I wouldn't need to find the best damaged cell that I could. I would be able to bring a good genetic sample to a cloner and have my original body recreated.' he thought and completely ignored the other two sitting at the table as he got up and left for the turbolift.

Watching him go, Naruto and Kabuto turned back to each other and exchanged a look before Naruto commented, "Apparently he has something more important to do." The statement was not seething but definitely spoken with derision. Kabuto did not say anything to defend or accuse Plagueis but once he was sure that the Sith Lord was gone, he asked, "Did you find anything more about what I told you concerning Tatooine?"

"Until recently I wasn't able to find much. I've tried to look through records but all of the houses in that area were the same and your description didn't help me narrow anything down. Not too long ago, we received a mysterious signal that I have been able to trace to the sector that Tatooine is in. It was short but I think that I finally have a name, Skywalker." Naruto informed the snake-like man and Kabuto seemed quite interested in hearing anything further.

"I don't know or understand what his interest is in the family. The boy is years younger than I am and born while Plagueis was on Ibonihs so I can only assume that mother and child are of equal interest or the mother is of more interest. It seems that he intends to monitor them but for what purpose or goal, I still don't know. Until you mentioned what your summoned snake saw, I had no knowledge that anyone of interest to him existed on Tatooine." Naruto elaborated with an unamused face. Kabuto nodded warily as he refrained from saying anything further on the newly named 'Skywalkers.' As he went over the information in his mind, he also couldn't make any inferences about what importance the boy or mother had.

"I take it that he simply didn't mention anything about the signal." Guessed Kabuto and he was surprised when Naruto informed him, "Not only did he not mention it but he erased it from the logs and apparently has set up the communication system so that future messages are not logged and are sent directly to his lab."

Slight surprise was evident on Kabuto's face and after a brief silence, Naruto changed the subject, "What were your findings concerning the unique water samples that I sent you?" Now that Plagueis had left, and was completely distracted by something, he could finally ask about one of his side projects that he had been meaning to inquire about.

Kabuto's slight worry and unease was lifted at the question and he smiled before he started to go into detail, "Very interesting. The two samples you sent are identical in every way, save for their potency."

"So I take it that the Kolto taken from the warship on Mustafar is more potent than the sample that was recently purchased from Manaan?" Naruto interrupted in order to get his question answered before he said anything further to Kabuto concerning what he knew of Kolto.

"Indeed it is, and by a significant margin. I'm not sure how much you know about Kolto but I have done some research if you're interested." Offered the holoprojection. Though Naruto felt he already knew most of what Kabuto was going to say or for that matter much more than Kabuto knew, he refrained from saying anything and motioned for Kabuto to continue.

"As you may or may not know, before the use of Bacta became prolific, several thousand years ago the Galaxy used Kolto, which is a special form of water only found on the planet Manaan. It is almost indistinguishable from normal water and seemingly occurs naturally there. Kolto has similar healing abilities to Bacta while also sharing the same property of being unable to synthesize in any known laboratory experiments. It is believed by researchers that Kolto fell out of favor because Bacta was more powerful but I also found information, which I was able to prove thanks to the second sample you sent, that Kolto was much more powerful in the past and has since lost it's potency." Explained Kabuto in a very enthusiastic voice.

Naruto smirked slightly at how interested Kabuto was in the substance and decided to elaborate a little further upon what Kabuto had said, "The water is 'mined' by the native Selkath for sale but for far less than the price of Bacta and to a significantly smaller market. This is primarily due to it's lower effectiveness, as you said. Most aren't even aware that Kolto exists or can be purchased from certain dealers with good relations to the isolated Selkath. What people, and also the Selkath, don't know is that I think I have determined the source of the Kolto's creation and it is not a natural occurrence."

The statements elicited a response from Kabuto as he smirked as well lowered his gaze slightly. It was obvious that he wanted to hear more, so Naruto obliged, "I know for a fact that thousands of years ago, Kolto did not exist on Manaan. When the Rakata conquered the planet, they did not find anything like Kolto in the ocean's depths. I believe it's creation came about over the course of many thousands of years and I think I know why the potency has declined." When Naruto stopped for a second, he could see Kabuto sitting on the edge of a seat that was invisible to him given that the projection only showed Kabuto's body.

Deciding not to keep him in suspense, Naruto explained, "When the Rakata fled the Known Galaxy, they had already created the Star Maps, one of which you found and recovered. These devices are able to completely regenerate themselves over time, even recovering their original data. In order to escape reprisals from the beings that they enslaved for many thousands of years, the Rakata destroyed or at least damaged the Star Maps to keep their homeworld from being found. Despite their success, the Rakata still died out but over time, their Star Maps repaired themselves.

Unlike other worlds, Manaan is unique because it is entirely covered with water and the Selkath are an aquatic race that live in the ocean. I believe that over time, the water's contact with the regenerating Star Map caused it to take on the properties of the device. Kolto is denser that normal water and thus the liquid stayed on the bottom of the ocean and pooled in a rift where it is still mined. The actions of the ocean currents caused the Kolto to circulate and perhaps even concentrate with the healing effect becoming more pronounced and a large amount of the healing water being produced.

At some point, the Star Map on Manaan finished repairing itself or began to slow down repairs as the outer device was complete and the memory repaired itself. It is these events that I believe marked the downturn of Kolto. Without the Star Map regenerating as much as it was, the water surrounding the device no longer was imparted with such a powerful regenerative effect. Thus the Kolto that was recently procured, is far less potent than that which was taken from the old warship on Mustafar."

Kabuto took almost a minute to gather his thoughts and take in everything Naruto had told him. It had taken him a fair amount of time to perform his research but he had been completely eclipsed, "How exactly did you come by this information?" Kabuto's tone was not that of someone who was snooping but more of genuine curiosity. He really wanted to know how Naruto had managed to come up with such a theory and gotten information that he simply could not.

Not prepared for Kabuto's question, Naruto quickly came up with an explanation that would hopefully sate the man's curiosity, "The Star Map you helped recover from Tatooine contains some information about each planet that the Rakata conquered and added to their Infinite Empire. It made no mention of Kolto and if it existed during their time, I would think it would be something worth noting. As for the creation of Kolto from Rakatan technology, there are a few similar examples in the Galaxy of incredible occurrences."

Kabuto seemed to accept the answer but Naruto could tell that the man was not completely satisfied with the answers. Deciding it best to change the subject, Naruto inquired, "What are the result of Kolto tests on Tayuya's cells?"

"The healing affect of the older sample was as good as Bacta but actually showed better healing results because it had a longer lasting effect on the cell samples from Tayuya that I exposed it to." Kabuto notified him and Naruto then posed, "So if I was able to create a more potent Kolto..."

"It's possible that it could heal Tayuya better than anything else I've tried. I cannot be certain about the seal and the effect coming back but there is the possibility that it could completely cure a sample of her cells. However, if your theory is true, how exactly do we use this information? If we damaged the Star Map on Manaan, it would presumably take thousands of years for the Kolto to become more potent." Said Kabuto as he completed the teen's sentence and inquired about the application of such knowledge and technology.

"What we need is not the Star Maps but simply the mechanical regeneration technology of the devices. If I am correct in my belief, then it means that we don't need Manaan at all. Any water source could be used and a combination of a greater amount of repairing technology and the dark-side with water, could yield substantially faster results." Explained Naruto and Kabuto smiled as he found that Naruto already seemed a step or two ahead.

"So you already have somewhere in mind and are able to create or at least copy this technology?" Stated Kabuto as he believed he already knew the answer. "A planet near to where you are that is covered in water and has no inhabitants. The technology will be a little bit more difficult to come by but I should be able to manage." Admitted Naruto and Kabuto shook his head and wondered why he wasn't that surprised at what he had just been told.

"Then please let me know when you get to the point of small-scale testing. I would definitely like to be included." Stated Kabuto before he ended the transmission and Naruto nodded in goodbye. Sitting quietly in his chair, Naruto went to the controls of the holoprojector and quickly activated the transmission that was waiting.

"Gato." Naruto said in greeting as the short man appeared via the hologram and was seemingly present in the room, sitting in the chair that Kabuto's projection had just vacated. "I waited quite a while on hold." Commented the former shipping magnate and Naruto gave him a dull look in response.

"Anyway...is the meeting still on schedule?" asked Gato and Naruto inhaled and exhaled before saying, "Postponed, unfortunately." Gato's face darkened as Naruto could feel his anger and frustration growing.

"I feel the same way you do and if you're expecting an apology, then you may as well throw yourself into a lava flow." Stated Naruto as he sat up and straightened his posture in the chair.

"Then what exactly is your excuse." asked the short man.

"My excuse takes the familiar form of a person, known well to you, given your brief but likely memorable history." responded Naruto as he alluded to his Master but did not say his name. "He claimed that he was going to schedule a meeting with a Hutt rather soon. However he left the meeting suddenly and in such a distracted state that I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't see or hear from him again for at least a week or more."

Gato groaned in response and Naruto shared his feelings, though in a much quieter manner. "Postponed." Repeated Gato and Naruto nodded before speaking about something else that needed addressing, "Besides the coming business meeting, we have other things to discuss." This caught Gato's attention and he listened as Naruto continued, "I believe you should start preparing for a visit. I'm not sure as to the current state of the hidden facility but I'd like it to be presentable in a few days time."

"An inspection?" questioned Gato with a curious look but Naruto clarified, "A visit by myself and guest."

"And who should I prepare accommodations for?" Joked Gato as they both knew that it would be a short visit and no one would be staying overnight. "From the information I sent, there was a small portion that provided a bio about a Dr. Shilaea Motacc. She has been working on a design for me and has finished but I suspect there will be problems when I go to collect my finished design. She is very suspicious about me, my unnamed company, and my intentions. I will likely need her to see our business in order to be more at ease with participating before she works on designing or examining anything else for me. I need our operation to look as professional as possible and...very busy as well as productive." Naruto revealed.

"Why is it that you have time for such a visit but not for the business meeting?" Gato questioned of the teen. "This will be a quick trip. Going to Maya Kovel and back would take at least ten days for me, just in travel time alone. Not to mention that I would have to pick you up as well. Unless you can think of a way to minimize that, I won't have enough time before something else comes up." Naruto explained.

"Are you absolutely sure that you need her?" asked Gato as he wondered why the Doctor was so important to him. The brief bit of information he received did not provide him significant details except that she was a leading expert in the field of planetary and large-scale propulsion systems. Whatever that meant, because it was gibberish to him.

"These projects are important and I'd rather contract with a suspicious expert in her field than someone compliant but merely qualified." Commented Naruto and Gato smirked slightly at how similar their minds were. He refrained from saying anything else concerning the blonde's choice.

"Then that shouldn't be a problem. The facility has changed a great deal since you were last here. We should have no problem impressing and convincing." explained Gato as he played with his mustache and gave off a sense of accomplishment over the work that he had done.

"Good. Unless something comes up concerning the Black Sun, I'll be heading to Byblos immediately. From there, I'll hopefully be going directly to Mustafar. I anticipate three days before arriving, if everything goes well on Byblos." Naruto informed him and Gato nodded before ending the transmission, hopefully going straight to work on preparations.

Heading out of the meeting room, Naruto took the lift down to his level and went over the things that he needed to do in order to prepare for his trip.

x-x

Byblos

Colonies Region

x-x

Only a portion of the surface of Byblos wasn't covered with urban sprawl. What wasn't dominated by large multi-kilometer towers comprised large starports used for the transportation of technology. Some of the largest companies in the Galaxy had corporate offices and some even owned entire corporate towers. It was in such a setting that Naruto found himself as he looked out the window of the shuttle that was ferrying him from one of the smaller public starport to a major city.

Though it wasn't his first time on Byblos, he still had trouble taking his eyes away from the window. There were over a hundred billion people and though he could only see a fraction of that population through the window, it was still rather overwhelming for him. 'And I've still never been to Coruscant.' he mused as no one could be exactly sure how many people the capital planet of the Republic had at any given time. It was estimated at almost a trillion or even over a trillion. Looking out at his view of Byblos, Naruto had a hard time imagining a similar planet with between six and ten times the population.

Exiting the shuttle once it had landed, Naruto went to the nearest tram and headed to the stopping point nearest his final destination. He would have to walk from the hovertram but it was much cheaper and easier than taking a taxi or flagging one down for that matter.

x-x

Sitting at her desk and going over a list of items to pack, Shilaea Motacc looked up from her work as the signal at her front door alerted her to a guest. Adjusting one of the many monitors around her worktable, she switched the view to the front of her large combination apartment and workspace. Standing patiently outside was a familiar face and she unlocked the door for him while messaging over the intercom system that he could come in.

Naruto knew the way to Dr. Motacc workspace and walked through the living area to the open door that led to the large workroom she was in. The room had numerous stacks of datapads as well as small holopads projecting various designs that the Doctor had worked on after finishing her degrees. Taking one of the few seats in the room, Naruto sat across from Shilaea and waited for her to finish what she was working on.

The raven-haired woman was over ten years older than him and what most would describe as being very attractive, with an athletic figure. She was on the shorter side, being just barely over five feet tall and he found that she became annoyed whenever they both stood and she met him eye to eye, despite their age difference. A recognized expert in her field, Naruto found her credentials to be better than anyone else that he looked into but the few meetings they had were always a bit tense.

Dr. Motacc was not the type of person to design something without first knowing who it was going to be used by and for what purpose. Though he had given her answers, it was obvious that she had not been completely convinced. It may also had have something to do with his age. At fourteen, it must have seemed rather suspicious for him to come to her with such a design request. If Tanmatsu was able to create the designs that he wanted then he wouldn't have needed to contract with her but the Rakatan computer was only currently knowledgeable about the Rakata and their technology.

Clearing off space on her desk and revealing a holoprojector at the center, Dr. Motacc looked up and acknowledged his presence, "I see you've finally returned for the designs you requested. I seem to remember contacting you over a week ago...maybe two weeks, notifying you that I was done. Been busy, Mr. Rudshar?"

Naruto was unfazed by her slightly miffed tone as he knew that punctuality was important to her, as were her designs. Being late and not returning her message swiftly implied disinterest in her work. She had poked fun at his age and immaturity during previous meetings but he ignored her feelings on the matter. "I assure you that I have been quite busy and could only just now schedule to meet with you and see the finalized designs." Naruto said while not breaking eye contact.

"I didn't hear an apology in there. Well I suppose its alright, considering that you payed upfront and in full. Here are the designs that you requested and I'd like to go through them before turning it over." She stated and Naruto nodded as she put a datachip into a slot on her desk and the designs were displayed on the holoprojector.

As the lights dimmed slightly, displayed images emerged that were ring shaped and of various sizes. The smallest being ten or more meters, with the second largest being a few hundred meters and the largest being about five kilometers. Going over the request, Dr. Motacc began, "When you came to me, you wanted designs for large hyperspace transport rings, most of these being the larger than any produced by the various shipyards and smaller companies in the galaxy. The largest of the requested designs being monumental in scale and likely bigger that any previous design in galactic history."

She took a slight break in order to give him a look of confusion and questioning, similar too but lessened than the one she gave when he had first met with her and requested the design. Naruto merely gave her a large smile and when the moment was over, she returned to the explanation, "I have incorporated the solar ionization reactors in the larger rings and I've also added the tractor beam projectors to the smaller designs. The largest ring incorporates your providing plans for a docking system while the smaller rings make use of a more universal system to accommodate a variety of different ships."

Though the explanation was over, and she was about to hand over the datachip, Shilaea stopped the motion and asked, "Just for the sake of hearing the explanation once more before handing this over, what exactly do you intend to use these designs for?"

To the best of her knowledge and imagination, the designs couldn't really be used for anything morally reprehensible. The tractor beams on the larger rings could possibly be used to capture and move a ship but that may or may not have been feasible. Her main concerns really were with the largest of the designs and with the given plans for the docking clamps.

The teen clearly wanted it made to pair with something existing or that would eventually exist. That struck her as very odd because she couldn't come up with an idea of what object it might attach to. She considered a space station or large habitation sphere or platform but ultimately what she really wanted to know was what a fourteen year old from Naboo would need with a giant hyperspace ring.

Giving an audible and visible sigh, Naruto pretended to remain calm while he suppressed his annoyance at having to explain himself, again. He originally considered using a henge or making himself appear older but from what he found concerning Dr. Motacc, she was exceedingly intelligent and would likely look into whatever name or face he presented. It was therefore best to stick with his identity on Naboo.

"As I stated during our previous meeting, the rings will be used for a variety of applications. I intend to start a recycling and salvage company as well as a mining company. The smaller rings will be used to move salvageable debris to the recycling facility and the larger rings will be slated for use on mining platform that I am in the process of building." Naruto explained and Shilaea gave him a scrutinizing look before asking, "And what exactly are you mining from there platform that would require hyperdrive capabilities."

"Asteroids." Naruto answered, being not too quick with the response but also not showing any hesitation. The statement wasn't completely true as the mining facility he was talking about did not require a hyperdrive ring. The largest of the hyperdrive ring designs would fit perfectly on his Prototype and allow it to move across the galaxy, if he so wished.

"Asteroids?" she said rhetorically. It was a new bit of information that the teen sitting across from her had failed to mention during the previous visit, or just conveniently left it out. A few of the larger designs that she provided, did have engines and not simply a hyperdrive and maneuvering thrusters, "Would it not be more efficient to just install engines and a hyperdrive on the platform?"

Naruto smiled in response, making it seem as though he was happy to answer, "I am unfortunately dealing with some space constraints and despite the requested designs seeming grandiose and inefficient, it will be necessary and required for my applications."

Not thrilled with the answer, but still unable to see any harm in handing over the designs, Shilaea slid the datachip across the table. Naruto took the small device and took out a protective case from his pocket, storing the chip with a few others.

"You actually intend to build that thing?" she commented and Naruto smirked, "Most likely, yes." Debating over whether or not the teen in front of her could actually get such a project off the ground and to completion, Shilaea added, "If and when you do, I'd like to see it."

Having the largest hyperdrive ring in the galaxy as an item in her portfolio would be an impressive addition to her list of built designs. "If and when I do." Replied Naruto and putting the case away he began to inquired about the next design that he wanted her to look into, "On another note, I was hoping to contract with you again on another project that..." But he was cut off before he could finish.

"I'm afraid someone has already inquired about my design services and I am just about to accept the offer." She interrupted and motioned to nearby bags that she had been packing.

Naruto tensed slightly at the term she had used, 'offer.' It implied a more long-term position that would likely consume all of her available time. From what he had found out about her, she was working and researching independently, taking contracts for design work and not being attached to any one company or group. It seemed that was no longer the case.

"And this offer..?" Naruto inquired as he wanted to find out as much as he could. Though his needs weren't all time sensitive, the sooner he had the next project completed, the better.

"A company out of the Cularin System has asked me to help design, oversee construction, installation, and also test a propulsion system for a new orbiting city on the gas giant Genarius. I'll be needed for anywhere between six to ten months and am being provided with pay and accommodations." She informed him and Naruto quickly thought about what he should do.

'That's a very long time and I don't have anyone else set up to work on the next project.' he thought and wanted to curse out loud as he had originally thought to push back the hyperdrive rings design and move up the other one but knew how suspicious she was. They needed a bit more trust before he could propose the design to her. Deciding that he could possible still persuade her to continue with his next project or convince the company to find someone else, he asked, "And the company?"

About to answer, Dr. Motacc stopped for a moment and seemed a little embarrassed. Searching around her desk, she quickly found a nearby datapad and read off the name, "The company is the Usable Resource, Location, Recover, and Development Corporation."

"Is that so?" Was Naruto's response as he suppressed a laugh at the needlessly complicated name that didn't even produce a good acronym. "Must be a rather important offer, especially since you quickly forgot who you were going to be working for?" he quipped.

"It's a long name!" Shilaea retorted back in defense and quickly tried to push aside her embarrassment and calm down. She hadn't forgotten the name of the handsome and charming owner who had personally come to visit her and give the offer, but the excessive name was a bit harder for her to recall.

.

"I would have described it as overly complicated and suspicious; not just long." Naruto commented as he tried to use her current mental state to his advantage and gain any further information that he could.

"He was not suspicious in the least..." The doctor started to say before realizing that she may have said too much. Naruto inwardly frowned at the fact that her interest in the offer seemed to have more to do with the owner or person making the offer than possibly the work itself.

"You're one to talk, you couldn't even give me a name for your company." She defended with and before Naruto could say anything else, she added, "How suspicious is that? And you're what, thirteen?"

"Fourteen." Naruto corrected and was getting slightly angered by her defensiveness and comments. Especially the look she just gave him which was a frown, given as if to say, 'like it matters.' Deciding to hold back a retort about a fake apology for what was possibly her future husband, Naruto decided to enhance his calm and take the moral high-ground.

"Can I at least make a counter offer?" He asked and though he had exchanged the Aurodium for Republic credits, and brought a fair amount with him, he wasn't sure he had enough or that he wanted to spend so much more than her normal fee.

"I'm afraid this offer is more than just about money." She informed him and Naruto gave a slightly surprised look, his mind wandering slightly, 'I guess he did more than simply charm her with an offer of work. Perhaps my held-back remark wasn't far off.' he thought and his look garnered a quick response from Dr. Motacc, "It's not like that!"

'Then what is it like?' wondered Naruto as he gave her a questioning look but said nothing. "In addition to accommodations and pay, the offer included a payed vacation to the floating city of Rorkee, also on Genarius. Dorumaa, one of the gas giant's moons has an archaeological dig site that supports the existence of an ancient species that predates the discovery of the Cularin System. Though no one is allowed access to the site on Dorumaa, using the reports, a simulated dig has been created as an attraction on Rorkee and I am very interested in seeing it." she explained and Naruto tried to wrap his head around what she had said.

"A simulated dig?" he said out loud, questioning both her interest and the words themselves because he wasn't sure what the attraction would be to such an...exhibit.

Slightly affronted by the comment, Shilaea responded, "I'm not an archaeologist and therefore don't have access to any of the interesting sites. I've had some experience as an amateur during my university years but that was related to extra classes that I was taking and field trips associated with them. If you don't have the right degree, then no one will let you see anything really significant when it comes to archeology. You can read about it and then later perhaps see the exhibit in a museum, but that's all. A simulated dig is therefore the best that I can come by without going back to school or trying to sneak my way onto a site. I'll therefore be going to the Cularin System and you can find someone else to help with your designs."

Naruto was extremely surprised at the new information and ignored how angry she was with him. 'I didn't know that she had such an interest in archeology. That would have been very helpful during my initial visit, but perhaps it still is.' Naruto considered as he thought of a better plan to garner the Doctor's help on his future projects.

"I really wish you had mentioned your interest earlier." Began Naruto as he tried to steer the conversation towards what he had in mind.

"It would have made a difference?" she responded and was on the verge of asking him to leave. "Perhaps it would have. Tell me, what particular field of archeology are you interested in?" He said and inwardly hoped that her answer was something that he could use.

Slightly wary of why he was suddenly so interested in her hobbies, she relented and said, "Xenoarchaeology."

It was all Naruto could do to keep the triumphant smile off his face. He knew exactly what that word referred too. Xenoarchaelogy was the study of extinct or vanished civilizations, specifically through examining what they left behind. It included both humans, humanoids, and alien species. One of the narrower fields of archeology as the Galaxy contained a few different sites of ruins from former civilizations. 'A few of which I know about and can now use to my advantage.' Naruto thought as he tried to figure out the best way to catch her interest.

"So, you would be willing to accept room, board, and an archaeological dig in lieu of a higher amount of credits?" he inquired and tried to remain confident but calm about his intentions.

"Are you trying to tell me that you have access to an archaeological site?" she asked with obvious skepticism, believing perhaps that he was lying.

"If your primary interest is xenoarcheology, then yes, I have access to several such sites." Revealed Naruto and he leaned back slightly as the statement caused Dr. Motacc to jump to her feet, with both hands on her desk, and yell, "Bantha shit! Don't lie to me!."

Remaining calm after her outburst, Naruto offhandedly explained, "If I had known about your interest, I would have mentioned it earlier and have offered you unfettered and extended access to one of the sites that I know about."

Scrutinizing him to an incredible degree, Dr. Motacc eventually demanded clarification, "Are you trying to tell me that suddenly and inexplicably you have access to a site related to xenoarchaelogy? A site that is the remains of a vanished civilization which is more than several thousand years old?"

Naruto merely nodded in response and then gave her a big smile before saying, "I would wager that either of them is far more interesting than any simulated dig that the...whatever..company is offering you."

'Two sites!' Shilaea raged internally as he couldn't detect any lie from him. 'How does some vineyard owner from Naboo get access to two archaeological sites?' she wondered and forgot about packing for the other job, wanting more information about what he was offering.

"Let's say for a moment I didn't think you were lying, just what kind of site do you have access too?" She asked, humoring him but waited on bated breath for a response. If he wasn't able to at least give her the name of a site or civilization that she had ever heard about, then he was going to be thrown out her front door.

"Seoularians and Sarafurians." Naruto simply answered and he could tell that the words had an affect on the doctor. She hadn't expected him to have an answer that showed at least some knowledge of extinct civilizations.

"I've never heard of Sarafurians." She quickly admitted and decided to sit back down in her chair instead of standing.

'She said nothing about Seoularians.' Naruto noted and knew that she was interested in them. "Well I guess it can't be helped that you haven't heard of them. They only existed on a single planet in the Moddell sector before it became tidal locked and they died out, in addition to likely other factors that played a role in the downfall of their civilization." Explained Naruto and he could tell that the Dr. Motacc was becoming much more interested, despite that she was trying to hide it.

"Well, regardless of your possibly made up civilization, I know definitively that you can't get me any site access to a Seoularian dig site. They were wiped out thousands of years ago and all that remains are the foundations of their ruined cities on a handful of planets in parts of the Mid and Outer-Rim. The sites that have been discovered are strictly monitored and regulated. I've tried to at least be able to see them and I have contacts in the archaeological community but haven't been able to. You'd be arrested if you even tried to break into them. " She told him and watched as the boy smirked in response.

"You can get me access to one of these sites?" she questioned from the smirk but Naruto informed her, "No, I can't get you access to one of those sites." Her response was a sharp inhale and before she could try and toss him out of her workplace and home, Naruto added, "I discovered my own site that is related to their civilization."

Stopping in her tracks, she eyed him before contesting, "I haven't heard about any recent discoveries. The last one was a decade ago."

"I haven't announced anything concerning the discovery that I made a few months ago. I'm the only one that knows about it. You wouldn't need to be granted access because I would simply take you there myself and no one would try to stop me, or you for that matter, from having complete access to everything that is there." Revealed Naruto and he watched her eyes widen at the information before adopting a wary expression

"How do you know it's Seoularian? It could be any of a number of destroyed remains which don't even begin to date to the pre-Republic Seolarians." she questioned and Naruto started taking out his datachip case while he informed her, "I know because I found old star charts that specifically name it as such. The system is identified as the Seoul System and the site is on the fifth planet from the sun, Seoul 5."

"Putting the inconclusive labeling aside, it takes months for expert archaeologists to properly identify a site as belonging to the Seoularians. They have to sift through tons of soil and debris before finding some kind of artifact that wasn't destroyed which relates to their still undecipherable language or culture." She informed him and Naruto removed a single datachip from his case before responding.

"Well I certainly didn't do any of that. There was no digging or sifting involved because all of the structures in the city are still perfectly intact." He said as he set the datachip on her desk. Shilaea took one look at the chip and back to Menma before she grabbed it and put it in the data slot on her desk. The holoprojector activated and numerous files were displayed, opening some of the files, she first looked at a readout or telemetry, likely from a survey ship going over the site. She looked at recordings of the city in question from above and then detailed holographic imaging done of the entire city. It showed numerous buildings that were much smaller than the immensely tall skyscrappers of Byblos.

'The overgrowth is immense.' she thought as she focused on the huge trees and areas where nature had gone unchecked for obviously several hundred years, if not more. The structures were all unique and didn't look that familiar to any architectecture from the reports and holovids concerning ancient civilizations that she had looked through. Moving through other images and holorecordings, she finally came to street by street surveys done by probe droids.

The probes had gone through the streets and digitally captured all of the buildings, surfaces, and imagery with their sensors for the purpose of rendering detailed holographic images. 'With this much, he could create his own simulated dig.' she thought right before stopping on one of the views that showed lettering on a building.

'Definitely not Basic.' she noted and expanded the image as well as tried to get a better picture and detail of the writing. It was well-worn but could still be made out. The writing also seemed vaguely familiar. 'Calm down and don't jump to any conclusions.' she told herself and looked away from the recording, trying to find a datapad.

Moving pads aside, she finally found the one she was after concerning professional papers that she had collected over the years. Finding the ones about Seoularians, she sifted through many digital documents before finding one that presenting examples of the writing system discovered on a few artifacts from Seoularian sites. Despite looking through so many sites, archaeologists had not been able to compile the entire writing and only had partial letters. Looking between the hologram and the datapad, she noted many similarities. The artifact on the datapad was small and merely a portion of a larger piece of building but they definitely appeared related as a few of the letters used matched.

Taking a few deep breaths, she remember that she wasn't the only person in the room. Waiting patiently before her was the blonde haired young man that suddenly brought up the information which still seemed a little too good to be true. 'He still could have made all this up.' she thought but something in the back of her mind told her that the site he found was still important.

'Even if it isn't Seoularian, it still could be a significant find. Can I pass up a chance like this? My own site to examine without anyone looking over my shoulder or commenting on my methods and theories. And if it turns out to be the real thing...' she considered and had a hard time not showing the emotions she was experiencing. Her heart was beating rapidly and she could hardly sit still in her seat.

"If this is a hoax, I'll..." she began but wasn't sure exactly what she'd do and simply clenched her fists and glared, implying the possibility of strangulation.

"Since you already seem to be packed..." Naruto commented while looking to her bags that were on the floor and ready to head to the job offer in the Cularin System. "I'll take my bags but there is no guarantee that I will accept your offer. If I don't, I expect you to drop my off in the Cularin System. I'm just going to see this site that you've found." She told him and Naruto said, "On the way, we can stop and I'll show you our operations and facility."

Giving him a questioning look, Naruto decided to remind her, "You did want to see my company, didn't you?" he asked and Dr. Motacc realized that she had been so caught up in the information he had presented, that she had forgotten about her earlier suspicions.

x-x

Forty-Two

In travel to Mustafar

x-x

Moving to the captains cabin, Naruto locked the door and moved to a scroll that he had specially packed. Unrolling the scroll on the floor, he used a cross shaped seal to create a shadow clone. Taking a kunai, Naruto pricked his finger and spread the blood on the fingers of his shadow clone. Pulling out his communicator, he then contacted his clone on Naboo.

A familiar and indistinguishable face soon appeared in the hologram and Naruto asked, "I trust there have been no problems." The clone shook it's head and confirmed, "First day of duty went fine and I have nothing else to report." Naruto already knew that everything was likely fine considering that the clone he left hadn't dispelled or contacted him but he still wanted to make sure that nothing else had come up.

"Then I'm ready on my end." he said and waited to be summoned while leaving the communicator on but setting it on the floor of the cabin.

x-x

Naboo

Rudshar Estate

x-x

Naruto arrived in his workshop level and looked around as he steadied himself from the summoning. Looking to the clone that was crouched beside him over a similar looking scroll as the one he had back on the ship. He nodded before closing his eyes and bracing himself for the flood of information. The clone dispelled itself and Naruto used the Force to ease the sudden influx of an entire days worth of information.

Shaking his head slightly and opening his eyes, he made a cross-seal and created a new shadow clone to stay on Naboo and continue with his public service. "Contact me if anything out of the ordinary happens." he ordered and the clone nodded before it picked up the communicator for him. Looking to another hologram of himself, Naruto informed his clone back on Forty-Two that he was ready to leave. A second later, he was obscured in a poof of smoke and gone.

x-x

Forty-Two

x-x

Waiting a second or two to let the smoke of the summoning clear, Naruto looked to his clone that had it's hand face down on the scroll and nodded, letting it know that it could dispel. Picking up the scroll, Naruto rolled it back up and stored it in his locker. It was the best way that he had found to be able to be in more than one place at a time. He replenished the clone every day on Naboo and could put in more hours while he was gone. Nothing ever seemed to happen during his duty assignments so there was a small chance of the clone dispelling. He had to leave some blood in his workshop so the clone could use it to summon him back.

'If I had someone stationed on Sarafur that could use chakra, then I could travel back and forth between it and Naboo, or anywhere else for that matter, in the blink of an eye. Though I would have to keep drawing blood and leaving small quantities of it.' he thought but it was a very insignificant downside for near-instantaneous travel. It did however require some careful forethought and planning. 'I also don't really like experiencing almost twenty four hours of memories in a second.' he thought as usually he didn't keep his clone around for that long.

Exiting his cabin, Naruto went to the cockpit as he knew that they would soon arrive on Mustafar. He was surprised to find Dr. Motacc in the co-pilot seat but refrained from commenting as he moved to the captains seat.

Assuming that he had gone to the refresher, Dr. Motacc waited for him to sit down and examine the controls before asking, "So what is Mustafar like?" It took a few moments for Naruto to come up with a good descriptive word for the planet and he ended up replying, "Volcanic."

The curious look that had been on her face changed instantly to a frown. Such a world did not sound like a nice trip or a place for a corporation. "What exactly do you do there?" she inquired.

"Mining mostly but we are in the process of expanding into the energy industry." Naruto answered as he took the ship out of hyperspace and Dr. Motacc got her first look at Mustafar. Despite having an ash covered sky, the world was just as Menma had described it to her, volcanic. Reddish-orange rivers of lava were clearly visible from space and the world had an eery glow to certain areas, while others were pitch black, whether because of dark rocks or ash in the atmosphere, she couldn't be sure.

"Why would you start a company in a place like this?" She said as she put on the harness to prepare for landing. Smiling slightly before answering, Naruto responded with shrug before saying, "It all just sort of happened after I crashed landed here."

Ignoring the exclamation from the Doctor, Naruto entered the atmosphere and followed a path which would help him escape detection by the Black Sun fortress. Because of his comment to Dr. Motacc, he remembered his first visit to the planet and his first crash landing but put such thoughts out of his mind. Coming out of the ash-filled clouds, Naruto spotted his small landing zone and noted a stark difference in the landscape from the last time he visited.

An area of Tulrus Island had been dug out to allow a place for the warship to sit and be partially hidden while it was worked on and repaired. 'It should be close to once again being operable. The only thing it needs is a crew.' he thought as he remembered that a crew of about three hundred was needed to properly operate the ship.

Maneuvering the ship to land at the sunken area by the facilities main entrance, Naruto found that the area had been expanded slightly, 'Probably to accommodate the larger freighter that we'll use to transport the mined material.' he realized and set the ship down close to the door.

Powering down the ship, he noted that his passenger was feeling confused and looking around. At first he wondered what for but soon realized that she was had apparently been expecting a building or at least a visible structure. "This is your company and facility." she commented while removing the harness and peering out the window to get a better look at the only identifiable sign that something was there, a large pair of double doors.

"It's all underground." Naruto informed her and went for the landing ramp.

x-x

The very large lift continued it's slow descent into the facility and the large room which had once been filled with storage containers came into view. The containers were almost all gone with only a few similar types remaining. One side of the room seemed to still be relegated to storage, or perhaps temporary storage as it contained a large number of various model construction and mining droids. The droids were all lined up in single-file rows and ready to be shipped.

'I saved a lot of money just buying one droid of a particular line and then copying the design. Purchasing the raw materials and producing my own droids using the lower level of the facility doesn't allow the same numbers as if I purchased them from the original company but it's still cheaper.' Naruto thought as he looked over the droids. 'He's far ahead of schedule again. I'll need to send transports from Sarafur in order to ship all these droids.' he quickly realized and took out his datapad to jot down the thought for later.

The opposite side of the room was a commotion of noise and fabrication as numerous Mustafarian workers assembled copies of the large energy collectors that powered the facility. They were an old design, no longer produced but apparently good enough for the Republic thousands of years earlier and seemed reliable and efficient.

"Energy collectors?" Commented Dr. Motacc and Naruto was unable to respond to her as right when the lift finally stopped, another voice answered, "Indeed. We intend to get into the energy market and start selling energy to many of the various planets in the Outer-Rim. Similar to Sarapin in the Core World."

Walking towards them down the center of the cavernous room was Gato. The short man was dressed in a suit similar to what the Southern Mustafarians wore, only without the helmet. The blueish material was made to journey outside and provide some protection from the heat of the planet while also likely being space-worthy when paired with the helmet. A pair of gloves and boots completed the ensemble and Gato stopped right before them in order to introduce himself.

"My name is Gato and you must be Dr. Shilaea Motacc. I am saying that right, aren't I?" He quickly asked, holding out his hand to shake hers and she quickly replied that he was pronouncing her name correctly.

"Well then, seeing as you've already met my business partner and primary investor, Menma, I'd like to show you around our facility." Gato announced and taking the lead, he followed the center path down the large room and headed deeper into the facility while speaking about their operation.

"This underground structure was a failed mining outpost, abandoned when we found it and in the last year we've made great strides at expanded and have started mining nearby lava flows for minerals. Right now we're only on Mustafar but plan to expand within the next year into the Moddell Sector. I understand that you've completed the hyperdrive ring designs?" he asked and when she nodded yes, he smiled before saying, "Good, those will help a great deal for the salvage and mining operations that we're looking to get into."

Moving slightly behind the pair, Naruto only partially listened to the lies and truths that Gato was telling Dr. Motacc and instead focused on seeing for himself what had changed in the facility.

x-x

Moving outside along a catwalk between the mining apparatus, Gato continued the tour of the mining portion of the facility. They had traveled the length of Tulrus Island to one of surrounding lava flows that erupted on the opposite side of the protective mountains which kept the flat plateau of the island safe for the Tulrus to nest. Gato had chosen the lava flow that showed the most promise and had the highest mineral concentrations. Several hundred feet beneath them was the flow and he could see the blueish outline of the protective heat shield that kept the lower mining equipment safe from the constant heat coming off the lava.

Naruto was rather surprised with how far work had come as he looked over the newly installed equipment. Some of the items were pilfered from Plagueis' former hideout and no one, neither Sidious or his apprentice, had visited Mustafar in order to find out what had happened to the facility. They had simply written it off as a power or repulsorlift failure.

They had already been shown the small droid production level which had nearly doubled in size since they had first found the facility. After the droid level, Gato had taken them to the space reserved for energy farming once the collectors were finished being built. 'As soon as we find a good buyer and have enough collectors built, I can set up transports to keep a constant flow of charged collectors heading out while the spent collectors are returned. A few collectors can supply power to entire cities of the more urbanized Outer-Rim planets and would be much more economical than other options.' Naruto thought as he slowed his pace to jot down a few more notes on his notepad.

Just up ahead, he could hear Gato conversing with Dr. Motacc and mentioning the status of their company. "Well, there's a good reason for that. Mustafarians don't really have a government structure like you may be familiar with. They just have a council that makes most decisions and there's really no way for me to register a company because they don't care for written agreements. There's no taxes here and I don't need any kind of license to operate a business. They have no use for Republic Credits nor do they really have their own form of currency. We have an arrangement for pay in the form of imported supplies.

I've been given permission to operate this facility but I have no documentation, just a verbal agreement with the Mustafarians council. That's all they wanted. We're not doing anything illegal, mind you but as you can see, we don't really have a company. Our mining product gets sold to an intermediary on Naboo and our energy collection business my go through them as well or be sold direct. I can tell anyone I want that I've decided to call the company Gato Corporation but there won't be any record of it even existing. This will all change once we expand into the Moddell Sector as we'll have to properly register and pay taxes to operate there." Said the short man while idly touching his mustache.

Seeing the understanding on Shilaea's faced, Gato asked, "He didn't explain any of this to you?" and he motioned back to the following blonde behind them.

"No, he didn't." she replied and also glanced back, as if expecting Naruto to comment or speak up.

"I'm not surprised, he doesn't communicate with people very well. A fantastic pilot and scout, but not good with people. Can you image in a few years when he starts having wine-tasting parties on Naboo and will be expected to talk with guests?" Gato joked and started laughing while Shilaea also joined in.

Still within earshot behind them, Naruto was growing more agitated by the minute. 'I never should have told Gato that. Just calm down and let the human-ugnaught make her think that he's running things.' Naruto told himself as he put away the datapad and increased his pace to catch up.

As the conversation died down a little and they moved back to the main entrance of the facility, it was clear to Shilaea that Gato was the real business person behind the company. From what she could tell, they had a very good operation going. Most business people only dreamt of having such an arrangement with a local government. Menma seemed to be the backing behind the company and likely the person that discovered the abandoned mining facility. They were an odd pair but ultimately seemed to work rather well together.

'If they've managed to create this in only a year with nothing to start with, I wonder how much they'll accomplish in three or five years?' she wondered and remembered all of the big plans that they had. What Gato had told her, mostly concerning the seemingly isolated and overlooked Moddell Sector, involved tibanna gas collection, asteroid and planetary mining, and a shipping company. Certainly they were thinking big and were determined to make it happen.

Despite that the man had glanced at her breasts several times during their conversations, she was feeling a bit more comfortable with the idea of working on future designs for Menma and seeing them come to fruition.

'Now I can't wait to see this city.' Shilaea thought and she absently moved a bit faster as they neared the large lift that led up to the facility entrance.

x-x

Outer-Rim

Seoul System

Seoul 5

x-x

After an uneventful trip from Mustafar, Naruto spoke very little to the seemingly ecstatic Dr. Motacc. She was very anxious concerning their arrival and seemed to be in her own little world, staying mostly in her cabin and pouring over information from her datapad and his datachip.

The Seoul System contained eight planets that orbited a yellow sun. All save for the fifth planet, dubbed Seoul 5 in the Rakatan Star Map, contained nothing of interest. A few were barren rocks while two were gas giants and the rest were somewhere in-between and none could support life. The fifth planet had a Type I atmosphere and close to standard gravity.

Taking the ship into the atmosphere, Naruto looked upon and still wondered exactly why the majority of the planet's soil was orange. Aside from the strangely colored soil, the surface was dominated by a single continent with lakes and rivers but no real ocean. Aside from mountainous areas and forests, the planet didn't have swamps but did have several deserts and flat plains.

Heading towards the only city on the planet, Naruto piloted the ship just outside the city limits and towards the prefabricated outpost that he had installed months previously. Upon finding the planet listed in the Star Map, he had managed to make time for a visit. It was about a days travel along the special route that he had navigated and was considered part of Wild Space, not being part of the explored Outer-Rim and also not close to the Known Region but near the edge of the Galaxy.

As he landed the ship, Naruto accessed the outpost's computer and looked over the sensor logs to see if anything had happened while he was gone. The logs were empty of any contacts or detection and he let out a breath that he didn't know he had been holding. There was the potential for the site to have great value to them and he wanted to keep anyone else from finding it. Leaving the cockpit, he went to the one of the unused cabins and retrieved two environmental suits. The planet's atmosphere and conditions did not warrant it but there were other things to consider as well.

A nearby cabin door opened and Dr. Motacc stepped out, asking, "Are we here?" Naruto found her looking slightly disheveled from her normal look but he guessed it was from spending all her time researching all the information she could in the hours it took to get from Mustafar to the Seoul System.

"We've arrived and I'd like you to put this on." He confirmed and handed her one of the suits.

"Is there something that I should know about?" she inquired after taking the suit and looking it over. 'This is good quality and made for pretty dangerous conditions.' she thought and none of the material she looked through pointed to the planet requiring such measures.

"You'll know soon enough. This is merely a precaution for the worst case scenario." Naruto tried to explain and for the moment, Shilaea complied and leaned against the wall to put on the suit.

x-x

Stepping onto the hard rock surface, Dr. Motacc was confused as she only saw a single story building that certainly did not look that old. Before she could comment, Naruto informed her, "Should you accept the offer, this will be the building that you'll be staying in. It is fully stocked for at least a year and is made for level two decontamination as well as being protected from radiation. It has it's own solar panels on the roof, dedicated well with filters, and multiple portable reactors. There is a single person ship with programmed coordinates for the nearest safe planet as well as two speeders for travel to the city in the small hangar. All the equipment that you should need, scanners, some probe droids, and an assistant droid are waiting inside."

Shilaea nodded in response, surprised at how well prepared he seemed to be. She hadn't expected an entire small facility being provided, nor equipment. 'I was preparing a list of the items I'd need during the flight from Mustafar.' she thought and decided to follow him into the facility to see what was there.

Activating the control panel for the door, Naruto stepped into the airlock, followed closely by Dr. Motacc. As soon as the door shut, all of the air in the small interior room was removed and replaced before the other door opened and they proceeded into the decontamination chamber. As they walked, numerous devices completely sterilized the outside of their suits and cleaned their boots.

Coming out of the chamber, they walked into a small locker room where Naruto started removing his suit and Shilaea quickly did the same. Setting the suit into an empty locker, she noted that the small facility was likely made to house five to ten people for long periods and had seen similar prefabricated buildings, 'Though this seems to be more of a military version.' she thought and followed Naruto into the main room of the facility.

The room was about ten by twenty meters and had several doors to other rooms, which she was positive were for storage, cabins, and the hangar Menma had mentioned. Inside the large room was a transparasteel encased work room with numerous tables and equipment that she recognized. It also had access to outside so large samples could be brought in and decontaminated for study.

Next to the lab area she looked through an open door to a small medical bay with powered down medical droid. In front of the two room was a small living area with kitchenette, table, and seating. Looking all around the room and taking it all in, she was impressed with the setup. 'He's definitely serious about examining the city.' she thought and moved into the living area, crossing the floor towards a large transparasteel window, the only one in the facility.

She stiffed a gasp as her eyes widened at the view from the window. Looking out the window, she had an amazing view of the city that she had spent hours viewing during the journey. The holoprojections were all very scaled down and so she hadn't fully realize the size of the city. 'It must be several hundred square kilometers and able to house a few million people.' she thought, examining all of the building that were interspersed with the overgrowth of huge trees.

The ship had evidently been parked in the back of the facility as she hadn't been able to see any of the large city she now looked down upon. The sheer size of it was larger than any other Seoularian ruins ever discovered. 'If it could be verified that the Seoularians had once lived here, then this would be the greatest discovery of their civilization ever and even if it's not them, it's still a significant xenoarchaeological discovery. It's exceedingly rare to find a whole city and even rarer for it to look so intact.' she thought as she kept her gaze upon the yet unknown city.

"I guess you could refer to it as the city hidden in the leaves." Naruto joked despite knowing that Shilaea would not understand the reference. So captivated in looking upon the city, he wasn't even sure she had heard him.

"Dr. Motacc..." he said, trying to get her attention and ended up poking her in the arm before she came out of her thoughts and recognized that he was there and speaking to her. "Sorry, Menma." she offered and Naruto tried to give a reassuring smile before motioning that he wanted to show her the rest of the facility.

"The doors over hear lead to the bedrooms, this one over here is all storage, communications and sensors room, and the hangar." Naruto said as he walked with her around the room and pointed out each door as they went.

"This is maintenance and other storage." Naruto said, coming to last remaining door. Touching the control panel, the heavier door opened and Shilaea found the assistant droid that she would be working with, along with two others. It took a few moments before she realized that the powered down droids were not assistants but appeared to be a type of battle droid, at least their orange frames and heads looked intimidating enough to be battle droids.

"If for any reason you find yourself in trouble, you can activate these droids. Those containers over there have a small collection of weapons." He said and she gave him both a worried and confused look, asking, "Am I going to need all this?"

"The planet does have a few small predators but nothing that should warrant you needing these droids. They are here in case of the worst possible scenario, which entails someone else discovering the site and your life being in danger. We are after all in what is considered Wild Space, though no ships have come to the planet since I discovered it. I would keep a blaster with you when you go out, just in case.

If you need anything else, the building has a powerful communications array and I can be here in just over two days or have someone else come in just over a single day." Naruto informed her and she nodded while still a little surprised at the measures he was taking. 'Wow, he doesn't mess around with security and precautions.' was the thought going through her mind

"Perhaps you should look around the workroom and see if everything is in order or if you will require anything further." Naruto suggested and she nodded before heading to the transparasteel enclosed room.

It had been set up for either Kabuto or himself before the teen had decided to go to medical school and his own schedule had prevented him from spending any time there. Though he'd considered using shadow clones and summoning, remembering to switch out each day and dealing with the continuous intake from a long-term clone was not something he had wanted. So he had ended up not informing the rest of the group and leaving the planet alone until he could find someone else.

Besides Kabuto, only Karin had the aptitude and possibly interest to examine the city but her focus had turned to nursing. The end result was that he had a prefabricated building that was fully stocked, but there was no one to use it. Droids were also considered but most droids simply did not have the kind of programming required for such independent operation. He would have to keep checking in on them and likely would receive more reports than he would have time to read. What he needed was someone to examine the site that had great interest and that would report to him anything that was discovered.

Waiting for her to finish looking through the area, Naruto also waited for the inevitable question that she would ask. Walking back over to him, Dr. Motacc inhaled slightly before asking, "Everything seems to be in order and I can't imagine needing anything else at the moment. I do however want to know why this building has decontamination protocols and why we wore environmental suits?"

Motioning for them to take a seat on the nearby chairs and couch, she moved to sit down across from the blonde, expecting to get a full explanation of everything she was getting herself involved in. "I will certainly answer your question and then I would like to go over the offer and touch on a few things that I would like you to look into while you are here." he said and she nodded, waiting for him to continue.

"I would first like to say that I have great interest in this site and for several reasons. The archaeological importance of the site high on my priorities list. I don't want to damage anything here, nor do I intend to change any of the buildings or turn it into some kind of tourist site.

Now, the reasoning for the decontamination and suit surrounds the fact that the city was abandoned. Normally there is a good reason to abandon a perfectly good city. People don't just leave without a reason, whether it be war, famine, disease, natural disaster, and so on. The problem here is that my initial investigation produced no reason why the millions of people that once lived in that city should leave.

There is no evidence of a battle, no signs of a disaster, and probably the oddest aspect of the exodus is the fact that not a single body or any remains can be found in the city streets or seen through the windows. Though I was not able to have the probe droids check the majority of the buildings, they weren't able to find any evidence of the species that once lived here. It's simply an empty city and as if they all just decided one day to get up and leave. That in and of itself is very disconcerting and my primary reason for the decontamination and environmental suit.

I understand that you may not share this concern and I'm not telling you or ordering you to wear the suit or go through the decontamination. If you are the least bit cautious, then I would hope that you do follow these procedures, despite the annoyance and them being a hindrance." Naruto said and he gave a few moments for Dr. Motacc to digest all that he had just told her. After about a minute of thinking it over, she nodded and replied, "If...I do accept the offer, then I will follow the procedures and I admit that having the droids and weapons is a little comforting, especially considering how far away I am from Byblos and most civilized planets. And the fact that I'm all alone except for that assistant droid."

Naruto nodded at her statement and continued, "Now, the offer. I will tell you that I don't plan to bring anyone else to this site, at least not in the near future and therefore you have free reign of the site. You can go anywhere and examine anything that you wish. Your schedule is your own and any papers that you write concerning this site belong to you.

My name or company need not be featured on anything you write but the discovery of the site will be credited to me. I would like to keep anyone else from coming here in the meantime and therefore do not want you to publish your papers anytime soon or at least the location of the planet. At least until I am able to make sure that no one else will be able to come here. Though I am interested in the site as a whole, I am however very fascinated with a particular aspect of the city. This is due to the fact that when I initially explored part of the city, I touched one of the panels next to a door, out of habit, and it proceeded to open.

You see, despite the site being centuries, and if my thoughts are correct about the former inhabitants, thousands of years old, the power is still on. After numerous scans and overhead passes by drones, I was unable to find solar panels, wind turbines, any hydroelectric evidence, a visible or identifiable power building, and certainly not sufficient power readings coming from a reactor or power plant somewhere in the city. This is quite an interesting conundrum and I am therefore extremely interested in where the power is coming from and what type of source t is. I would like for you to examine this mystery while you are here.

The only exception to this previously stated rule about publishing papers concerning this discovery, is the power source for the city. I would like to be informed when you find it and able to look it over before you publish anything concerning it as well as have final say over it's inclusion in anything that you write. Perhaps you think badly of me because of this, thinking that I intend to exploit this information for my own gain, but I did discover the site and am running a business.

I am paying for all of this and would like to get something back out of it. Whatever is powering the city could be of great importance and help a lot of people that don't have access to a proper power source. I didn't need to include anyone else in this endeavor and could have kept it to myself, coming here to investigate in my spare time. Your involvement, however will certainly speed things along and you are much more qualified and knowledgeable than I am concerning xenoarchaeology. Please remember that I don't want this rule to create a problem between us and our business relationship.

This arrangement will last for three months with the option for renewal. In exchange for this opportunity and during those three months, I would like for you to work on another design for me at the same fee as before. This is the offer that I am putting on the table, so to speak. You don't have to decide right away, we can take a short ride on speeder to the city so you can get a better look but I would like a decision in the next hour or so. Is this acceptable?"

x-x

'Books.' Shilaea thought as she walked down the street of the city and looked at everything she could. 'Not just papers...I could write am entire series of holobooks on this place. If it really is Seoularian then this is probably the greatest xenoarchaeological discovery of the century and I could spend decades discovering everything about them. And it would all be mine. I'd be at the forefront of this discovery and people would be reading my papers and theories.' she thought while walking through the tall grass that had sprouted up in-between the gaps of the large street stones.

Most of the buildings were a few hundred feet tall and nothing over twenty stories. The sites and thoughts she was having were almost overpowering her reasoning ability. The city was certainly playing on her sense of wonder and making her more excited than she had been since her first archaeological field trip for one of her classes.

Looking through windows, she could see that everything was left where it was. 'It truly is as though they just got up and left. Nothing is even knocked over or shows that they were in a hurry.' she noted and it did seem very eery. The offer was incredible, the city was incredible, but she wasn't keen on his rule concerning the power source of the city, 'Could I really pass up this opportunity over that? Is it a deal-breaker?' she wondered but looking upon the huge old trees that had once been small saplings which aesthetically lined the road, she thought perhaps that it could be overlooked.

Turning around, she walked up the waiting Menma and asked, "What's the design?" The enviro-suite wearing teen smiled and asked, "What do you know about interdiction field and theory?"

x-x

Moddell Sector

Kuna's Eye System

x-x

Quickly leaving the Seoul System, Naruto left everything to Dr. Motacc and would have to wait before getting her first report or update concerning her progress. Though he had told Gato that he didn't have enough time for the meeting, now he wasn't so sure. 'Though I am looking at it through hindsight.' he realized as nothing new had come from Narees and his clone had nothing to report concerning Plagueis.

'Now I find myself in the Moddell Sector but for something completely different than a meeting with the Ayrou.' he thought and was nearly ready to exit hyperspace at the coordinates of one of his other projects.

The Kuna constellation consisted of eight systems and were all given names of the body parts which corresponded to whatever a 'Kuna' or the 'Kuna' was, which he could only guess at. There was a horn system, an eye, tooth, tail, fist, heart, scale and finally gullet. Kuna's Tail III was another name for Sarafur and it was in the Kuna's Eye system that he was currently travling too.

Given that only Sarafur was populated, the remaining systems were not only devoid of life but also for the most part unexplored or at least no one really cared about them. Their names existed on star charts but when he first looked at the constellation as a whole, he couldn't actually find out any details about each system and how many or what type of planets they contained.

Naruto had however been very busy in the sector and using a slew of probes, had explored and documented most of the sector. It was one of the reasons why both he and Gato had such interest in the Moddell Sector. He had better charts, knowledge, and records on the sector than any of the inhabitants did or likely that anyone else in the Galaxy did. One of the interesting discoveries had been the Kuna's Eye system, which was different than all the other systems in the constellation.

Instead of planets, a protoplanetary disk surrounded the blue giant known as Kuna's Eye. No planets had formed in the system and all of the material was still surrounding the sun in a very large and flat disk. Unlike an asteroid belt, the disk was not chaotic and everything stayed relatively stationary as it slowly rotated around the sun. The disk was comprised of small to medium asteroids, gases, and contained numerous metals, alloys, and minerals. It was therefore the perfect location for Project Foundry.

Exiting hyperspace, Naruto arrived above the plane of the disk and sent out the required signal as he approached the largest asteroid in the disk. As the multi-kilometer rock got larger and larger in the cockpit windows, Naruto aimed for the side of the asteroid that showed part of an artificial structure and small docking area that jutted out from the partially constructed facility. The rest of the asteroid looked normal but it was obvious that the portion he was heading for was a base or facility of some type which was being built into the asteroid. Rotating the ship and extending the side docking tube, Naruto felt the ship lurch slightly as the docking procedure was completed.

Putting back on the environmental suit, he headed for the airlock. The space station was still being built and was exposed to the vacuum of space. The main focus had been on the interior production levels and not the outer superstructure or making sure the facility was airtight. While mining droids cored out the asteroid to make room for the facility, they gathered much of the raw materials for the construction droids to build the facility.

Seeing as he had provided the proper signal, no guards were there at the airlock to greet him and instead a single, familiar looking droid waited for his arrival. HK-F1 was the prototype of what he hoped would be a successful line of construction foreman droids. The droid retained the sadistic personality of the original HK but featured specialized construction management and analysis software taken from a slew of other droid models. The combination allowed for a harsh construction foreman that could keep track of every aspect of the project and it also extremely disliked falling behind schedule. If it continued to work as well as it had been, then there would be many more of it's line built and they would oversee all of his future construction projects.

The black and gray colored droid nodded slightly to his presence and spoke to him through a commlink because of the vacuum, "Greetings, Rasen. Your arrival was not previously scheduled or expected, is there a problem?" Inquired the droid and Naruto inwardly smirked because the usually distinct speech pattern of the original droid was purposefully absent on the prototype.

"No, Eff-one. I was merely in the area and wanted to stop in to check how things were going. It has been some time since my last visit." Explained Naruto as they walked down the docking area towards the heavy double doors that sealed the main facility. As they went, Naruto could look through uncompleted sections and view space as well as portions of the disk.

"Indeed. I have noted that you prefer to see for yourself the completion level of a project rather than being satisfied with the updated reports I send." Commented the droid and Naruto wasn't sure if it was simply speaking or an observation or annoyed with him about not being content with the information in the reports and wanting a visit.

Making their way to the end of the hallway, the large blast doors slowly opened for their arrival. The thick doors revealed a long entry way into the facility that had been carved into the asteroid and was mostly covered with a more protective material for the walls, floor and ceiling. Lining the entry way were tall pieces of untouched stone that had not been left by the mining droid and equipment.

The original plans for the Rakatan space station known as the Foundry, called for large statues in the image of the Rakata to be carved and adorn the wide entrance to the facility. There were also original pieces of asteroid that had been left along the walls for a purpose. He had been looking through his Master's collection of ancient Sith texts, specifically ones concerning the building of tombs and other structures.

The research was so he could get some ideas about how to properly decorate such an important entrance, what Sith Runes to use, and also see what defenses he might use that didn't actually appear that dangerous but actually were. He had never been able to chose the décor before as the estate on Naboo was already built and decorated.

After walking through the unfinished hall, the droid led him to the main operations room for the facility which was completely finished, unlike the rest of the facility, and where all information from mining and construction droids was relayed. Moving to the center of the room, a large holoprojector activated before them and Naruto watched as the entire asteroid which housed his incomplete Foundry was displayed on the screen in color as well as with great detail.

"We are currently at fifteen percent completion of the facility." Stated the droid and it manipulated the image so it changed to an x-ray view of the asteroid, showing the key areas and the progress made by mining crews. Seeing all the tunneling which was done to acquire the most significant metal and alloy deposits in the asteroid, Naruto then looked over the construction areas and imagined what the facility would look like when it was done.

The original foundry had over twelve production levels and was designed primarily as a droid fabricating facility. Unlike the Star Forge, it took in nearby asteroids, breaking them down and extracting the necessary resources to build whatever it's user wanted. In addition to droids, it could build just about any mechanical part or device up to the size of a starfight in vast quantities and in minimal time.

"Current completion time?" Naruto inquired and HK-F1 quickly responded, "At current speed and with current droid workforces, it is estimated that completion will take four standard years. However, in three months and fifteen days, the facility will reach a level of self production and the project completion time will rapidly decrease." the droid added and Naruto understood what it was saying.

When that time arrived, his foundry would be able to start droid production, probably as the first production level of the facility was completed. At that time, the facility would have the capability to build it's own workforce as well as itself. This would drastically lower production time and free up Mustafar's droid production facility to focus on expanding their operations there.

"After the facility becomes self-producing, how long until it is at one hundred percent production?" Naruto then asked and the droid took a moment to calculate before responding, "Approximately one standard year." Naruto smirked at the result but moved on to more pressing concerns that he had over security.

"Have their been any incursions into the system since my last visit?" He asked but believed that he knew the answer, "Negative, no unidentified ships have been picked up by continuous sensor sweeps." Stated the droid and Naruto nodded at the answer. He was very thankful that no one had come to the system. There was always the chance of prospectors entering the system because of the presence of profitable materials in the disk. Even though rumors had been spread on Sarafur of a dangerous pirate group taking up residence in the system, he doubted that would keep everyone away.

"What is your analysis of the facilities current defensive abilities?" asked Naruto as he wanted to know the droid's opinion and compare it to his own.

"The external defenses are non-existant and internal defenses are not complete. There aren't enough ships to make regular patrols of the space surrounding the facility, much less the system." the droid informed him and Naruto frowned as the problem had existed since they started construction and would likely persist until the faculty was completed.

The Rakata weren't big on protecting their facilities with weaponry. The Foundry, like the Star Forge, relied more on it's production ability to protect itself rather than defensive weaponry. 'Apparently the Rakata simply just didn't think they would ever be attacked.' he thought. Despite having rotating patrols from his growing fleet on Sarafur, they weren't enough to cover the system and if someone got wind of what he was doing, 'Then I may not be able to stop them from taking it.' Naruto concluded and he didn't like the idea of losing such a valuable site or having his plans set back.

"I've recently acquired additional funds and plan on purchasing several small ships that will become dedicated to the defense of this facility.. I also have someone working on interdiction technology, so if anyone does find this facility, they won't be getting away with their hyperdrive." he informed the droid and made notes to look into purchasing some droid controlled or automated defense ships.

The droid tilted it's head to the side and looked slightly confused at his statement. Knowing what part it didn't understand, Naruto explained, "An interdiction field has been historically used to prevent ships from entering hyperspace. It could target specific ships or an entire area and disable a hyperdrive from opening a hyperspace window. The technology, however, has not been used for centuries, possibly even several thousand years and most have never even heard of it.

I only discovered the technology by accident while looking through the Rakatan computer's database. It recorded every design that the original Star Forge produced and one such design was a six hundred meter long cruiser that bore the same name as the technology; the Interdictor-class cruiser.

Unfortunately, the computer predicted that based upon it's scans of my transport ship and hyperdrive configuration, that the technology may no longer be efficient or particularly effective. It wasn't able to suggest how to make it effective because it doesn't have the detailed knowledge required concerning modern hyperdrives or interdiction technology. However, I now have someone working on it and will hopefully be able to build a device in the near future." The droid nodded in understanding and proceeded to add the information to it's memory, for future application or addition to the facility.

Looking over the image of the incomplete space station, Naruto compared what he was seeing to his memory of the facility that Tanmatsu had showed him. There was still much to be done. Despite it's amazing production abilities, the completed Foundry would have a difficult time helping to build the Prototype, given how small the pieces were that it could produce.

Instead, he planned to cater toward it's strengths and have the Foundry relegated to build all the droids that he would need. This amounted to the production of hundreds of thousands of droids and possibly even millions given what he required to complete construction of his miniature Star Forge and for his other projects. 'I'll need various construction droids, mining droids, salvage droids, labor droids and likely battle droids.' he thought and knew that he still wasn't sure as to the exact number of each. He also had to decide which models to use out of the many choices available to him or come up with his own designs.

x-x

Naboo

x-x

Appearing in a cloud of white smoke, Forty-Two sat quietly in the hangar on Naboo before Naruto lowered the boarding ramp and exited the ship. Naruto looked at the clone that had summoned the entire ship back to the estate and nodded that it could dispel. It had been six days since leaving and heading towards Byblos and he headed up to his lab in order to put his datachips away in a safe place.

Stopping at the railing by the lake, he took in a few breaths of the familiar smell. He also closed his eyes and listened to the small waves brushing against the foundation of the building . It was both relaxing and far better than days of recycled air and sounds of a working a spaceship.

There had been no messages from the Black Sun about a mission, though he wasn't sure if that was good or bad. They were either biding their time for a strike on the Tenloss Syndicate or looking into the next target for him to attack. 'Either way, I'm not feeling that up to do anything.' he thought and idly wondered how long it had been since he had actually trained.

'Do the others train more than I do? He wondered as he entered the lift but wasn't sure. They all had access to the storage area with all the jutsu scrolls and were encouraged to use them but he never really checked to see if they were, or brought it up at meetings. His excuse concerning training had to do with the various construction and mining droids that he was testing out. They were in the nearby mountain, creating a hidden training room and hangars. But the excuse only went so far.

'Maybe a vacation or training trip.' he thought but knew that such a luxury wasn't really feasible. Running around the Galaxy had become what he did most of the time. If there was any free time, it was spent going over his datapad, adding to it, looking into more ways to help Tayuya, or working on one of the may projects that currently surrounded him as he stepped out of the lift and entered his lab.

The obvious solution was to use clones and have them train for him but that just meant an even larger drain and more mental fatigue. 'At some point I simply need a break.' It was at that moment that he felt Plagueis stir above him. The Sith Lord moved for the lift and Naruto could only think, 'Don't stop on my level,' over and over again as Plagueis entered the lift and only moved one level in the lift, stopping at level ten.

'Shit.' thought Naruto as he currently felt like falling into a bed more than heading out into space again. 'I need to get a couch in here or something.' he considered as even a few moments of laying down after falling onto a comfortable couch seemed better than anything else at that moment. As the lift door opened and Plagueis stepped into his work area. "Good, you're here. Has the Black Sun messaged about a mission?" He questioned and Naruto shook his head. "Then we have a scheduled meeting with Popara Anjiliac Diresto."

Naruto nearly responded with a harsh comment or told Plagueis off but refrained and simply asked, "Where?" He hoped that it wasn't where he thought it would be but he quickly felt that his hopes were being washed away, "Nar Shaddaa." Answered the Sith Lord and he quickly turned to leave, but Naruto was left with the implication that he was to prepare the ship for takeoff.

'The last thing I need is a trip straight into Hutt Space. I'll probably end up killing Popara instead of forming a business arrangement with him.' Were Naruto's thoughts on the matter and he walked to a nearby window, leaning forward so his forehead touched the cool transparasteel. Taking a few deep breaths, he calmed himself and felt a slight pain in his seal.

Though it could have been a great source of power, if he could control it, the Kyuubi was becoming more and more of a hindrance than ever before. 'More of a hindrance than the Black Sun and more than public service. If I could get rid of it, then I would.' he thought and knew that it wasn't an exaggeration. Pushing aside such thoughts, he looked down to the hangar through the window and found the Vulture was available for use.

'I don't even remember how much fuel Forty-Two has left. It's better just to take the Vulture.' Naruto thought as he moved to the lift.

x-x

Hutt Space

Nar Shaddaa

x-x

"All social and political circles have a linchpin, an individual within that group that can influence the whole or just the most important members." stated Plagueis to Naruto as they sat in the cockpit and prepared to exit hyperspace.

Naruto was terribly bored and tired from the four day journey on uncharted routes that took them deep into Hutt Space. It bypassed the heavily traveled lanes in order to keep themselves a little safer. The Hutts may have controlled the area but that didn't prevent infighting and piracy. His prayers for a call from Narees had gone unanswered and he was stuck with Plagueis on what seemed like a foolish errand to a place he didn't want to go.

"Popara is one that I have identified which will allow us to influence a large group of wealthy individuals that are associated with the Hutt. Once we have solid financial backing and the reputation of Popara, then we can start gathering others from the Republic." the Sith Lord informed him as he reviewed and explained the reason for his choice.

'It was a mistake to ask that question.' thought Naruto as he took the ship out of hyperspace and the larger Nal Hutta as well as the smaller moon of Nar Shaddaa quickly came into view. Though it was the seediest place in the galaxy and seemed likely to only produced pollution, crime and illegal substances, it was surprisingly a developer of many technologies. Because of the lack of laws concerning testing and regulations on products, it produced some of the most advanced and likely dangerous, technology in the galaxy. Numerous companies had design and testing labs located in the lower levels of the Vertical City, one of the moon's many names.

Taking them into the atmosphere of the city covered planet, Naruto followed the ship's sensors to the location that Plagueis had given him of Popara's spire. The amount of platforms and refueling spires was dizzying. Not to mention the bright, multicolored displays that he passed were giving him trouble staying on course and moving through the heavy traffic of the overpopulated planet. Though correct signals and lanes existed, many ships were simply following whatever route they wanted and it was an extremely chaotic journey just to the spire.

Looking out the cockpit windows, Plagueis suppressed a frown at having to once again journey to Nar Shaddaa. It wasn't his first trip and he hoped it would be his last. While Coruscant had an undercity and many levels that were run down, nearly every level of Nar Shaddaa was worse than that. Only select spires, usually Hutt-owned or owned by other wealthy individuals were nicer than the rest of the city.

Identifying the correct building, Naruto signaled his approach and was allowed to dock at one of the many zones along the tall yellowish spire that was owned by Popara. The pair entered the airlock of the Vulture and departed the ship into a narrow waiting room with only a pair of heavy doors at the opposite end. An automated voice spoke what was likely the same phrase in a variety of different languages and it wasn't until the voice changed to Basic that Naruto was informed to stay where he was and that someone would be there shortly.

Numerous surveillance devices adorned the walls, watching their every move and Naruto was positive that a few turrets or other weapon systems were hidden and waiting to be used. A single flip of a switch or push of a button from some kind of security or control room was all that was required. However nothing transpired and they proceeded to wait a few minutes before the large door opened.

Moving behind a few guards, a brown colored Hutt came out from the door and looked them over before asking, "So you're the afternoon appointment?" Naruto was very surprised to meet a Hutt that spoke Basic and it was Plagueis that answered, "Indeed we are."

Hutts were hermaphrodite, so they could choose to become either gender but it was Naruto's first time meeting one that had chosen female. Outwardly, there were no signs that showed any difference between the Hutt he was looking at the other Hutts he had met. Only the voice was different and he wondered how many Hutts ever took the time to learn to speak basic.

"Then I bid you greetings on behalf of his Excellency Popara. I am Vago, Majordomo of for Popara." The brown Hutt said to them. Pushing something on her datapad, a part of the nearby wall started moving out. The segment was waist-high and revealed a collection of empty bins, "Relinquish all weapons and you can have them back when you return." the newly named Vago said and neither produced any weapons or devices. Pushing something else on her datapad, Naruto could feel that he was being scanned in some way and Vago examined the result on her datapad until she was satisfied that they posed no threat.

Giving a look the surrounding guards, they moved to stand along the wall, providing a path to the doors. Naruto and Plagueis moved to follow Vago and they entered what Naruto quickly realized was actually a large turbolift. 'Made for several Hutts to fit comfortably.' he thought as he could feel them moving up..

'A Hutt as a majordomo?' Naruto mentally posed to Plagueis as the idea of a Hutt acting in such a capacity seemed strange to him and he therefore questioned it. While there was a semblance of a hierarchy in each clan, he pictured them more as operating separately and following but not serving the clan leader.

"I'm not sure this Vago is from the Anjiliac clan. It's possible that she is adopted into the clan or works for a smaller subordinate clan to the Anjiliac.' Stated the Sith Lord telepathically. Both remained silent for the short remainder of the lift-ride up to the uppermost levels.

Exiting the lift, they found themselves in a wide and very decorated hallway. Red draperies adorned parts of the walls and red carpet with various designs adorned the floor. The walls were either a rock facade with metal or actual stone mixed with metal. A few guards were stationed at various points ahead of them but they appeared to be fewer and not as well armed as those that Borvo employed. Moving down the hall and passing a few doors, they eventually came to the last and largest door.

Vago moved ahead of the group and input something into the more sophisticated control panel. An audible unlocking sound was heard and the heavy doors slowly opened. Being ushered into the room, they walked into a meeting area of sorts. Three flat platforms were arranged in a u-shape around an open area of the floor, presumably an area for those that wished to speak with the three present Hutts sitting on the platforms.

From Naruto's right hand side, he found a young looking green Hutt that was eying them with interest but remained silent upon their approach. He had a few guards standing near him and they too watched though more because it was their duty than interest. Directly ahead was a much older looking light purple Hutt. It had much more wrinkles than the others and was surrounded by three green colored female Twi-leks that appeared to be in the process of washing him. He sat in a lounged position on pillows and Naruto guessed that he was Popara.

The last Hutt on his left-hand side was a darker purple and not that concerned with their presence. Several guards were surrounding the Hutt but they were drinking and appeared to all be playing some kind of card game and gambling. While the sight of so many Hutts in a single room was slightly overpowering for Naruto, what really got to him was the smell. 'Someone needs to wash the entire room and not just Popara.' Naruto thought before he noted Vago's movement.

Moving to the center of the room, Vago stood before the elderly Hutt and announced, "You are in the presence of his Excellency Popara as well as his two offspring, Mika the Hutt.." and she motioned to the green Hutt, "..and Zonnos the Lesser." she finished, motioning to the dark purple one.

Before Plagueis could say anything, the elderly Hutt spoke and it was quickly translated by Vago, "Who has the runt Borvo brought before me this time?"

'Well this is starting off well.' Naruto commented internally before saying to Plagueis, 'I guess Borvo doesn't have as good a relationship as he told you he did?' Though he kept his face from showing any concern at the words.

'Relax, I can handle this.' the Muun replied back before saying, "Great and Mighty Popara, I have come to meet with you through Borvo in order to discuss a business opportunity."

Something about what Plagueis had said, instantly caught the elderly Hutt's attention as he leaned forward to eye them, specifically Plagueis, with renewed interest. The Hutt squinted with what were likely diminished eyes before he started laughing.

'A look of recognition.' Naruto wondered before the Hutt made a motion with his hand which was accompanied with a grunt. The guards in the room instantly reacted and bowed slightly before they began to leave.

'Something's up.' thought Naruto to himself as he had tensed with the motion of the guards but wasn't sure what was going on. He glanced to a tense Plagueis to see if the former Muun would say anything or urge him to act, but the Sith Lord said nothing. Once the guards had left, Popara looked directly at Plagueis and began speaking. The majority of the words were gibberish to Naruto but he did recognize a pair that he had heard before, 'Hugo Damask.'

Though trying to remain from showing any recognition, Naruto began to prepare himself and thought about which jutsu would be effective against the Hutt, should he need to kill all three of them. Plagueis on the other hand was surprised more than anything and ignored Vago as she repeated Popara's words in Basic, "Did you not think my old eyes and ears would recolonize you in that disguise, Hugo Damask?"

It was at that moment that Plagueis realized what had happened, He had attuned the vocabulator to something close to his original, mostly so that when he spoke, it at least sounded similar to his old voice. Bad hearing combined with poor eyesight of the tall form before him had led Popara to guessing Plagueis's identity. They previously knew each other and had done business on several occasions but he never thought it would be Popara that would recognize him. Even Borvo had no idea who he was. The last thing he wanted was to be recognized.

'I suppose it makes sense, especially with my voice alteration and the fact that this Mustafarian body greatly mirrors my Muun form.' thought the Sith Lord before he messaged to Naruto to remain calm and not try anything.

"I'm afraid this is no disguise Popara. Though I will congratulate you on recognizing me. Even Borvo did not suspect who I was but I suppose that is what comes with almost nine hundred years of experience." revealed Plagueis and his statement was met with surprise from all but Popara, who laughed a deep laugh in response.

'What exactly are you doing?' inquired Naruto and Plagueis told him to follow his lead.

Able to understand Huttese, Plagueis listened to Popara's response, "Not a disguise? How long has it been and who have you brought with you?" inquired the Hutt and Plagueis took no time in forming his response, "I have been through a great deal since our last meeting at my Gathering on Sojourn, I believe it was. As to the boy next to me, I am currently acting as his advisor."

The Hutt seemed both surprised and curious by Plagueis' answer and he soon elaborated, "Not long after our last meeting I was nearly killed in an assassination attempt. Hanging on to life, I went into hiding in order to recuperate. Unfortunately my attackers proved extremely capable and sabotaged my ship. I ended up stranded on an unknown planet for the next fifteen standard years. During that time, I encountered this boy. Though young, he is an accomplished scout and pilot, having saved me from being stranded. I in turn vowed to help him regain his ancestral estate on Naboo and increase his standing in the Galaxy."

"Always with a scheme or backing someone influential. You've come to do business with me yet my memory is still quite intact, Damask. I remember our last meeting and the problems that followed. You didn't follow through with our arrangment and then disappeared. Why should I trust you again?" Demanded the Hutt in a louder and more forceful voice than before.

"I do not deny the problems that I have likely caused you but again, I was unable to do anything as I clung to life and remained stranded. I apologize for causing you financial grief and ruining the arrangement." said Plagueis as he thought about what to do next.

He noted how the Twi'leks were looking at him and Naruto, then one of them went to Popara's side and whispered something into his unseen ear. At first Plagueis thought perhaps they had some influence over him but neither offspring of Popara found it strange. It wasn't hard for Plagueis to extend and amplify his hearing with the Force and he instead found that the Twi'leks were informing Popara about him and his intentions.

Realizing what was going on, he opened the mental walls around his mind and told Naruto, 'Open your mind to them.'

'What? I don't even know everything that's going on right now.' Naruto admitted and so Plagueis quickly explained, 'The Twi'lek's washing him are force-sensitive and reading into our intentions as well as determining if either of us is lying to him. Open your mind so they can sense our truthfulness.'

Though hesitant, Naruto relented and he could barely feel the three passively reading him. He hadn't even felt it before, likely because they weren't properly trained and his mental defenses were solid but now he noted that they apparently possessed quite a bit of natural skill and subtlety at it. 'I didn't even consider that they were force-sensitive.' he thought as he pushed certain thoughts to the back of his mind and only allowed them to glean what he wanted of his true intentions.

Actively monitoring the Twi'leks, Naruto could see that things were going south and that Popara was still wary of them. Having seen that Plagueis was willing to go so far as to reveal his hidden identity, Naruto decided to step in and felt that he could tip the scales for them. "Since my adviser has wronged you, in order to make up for this your Excellency, I propose a task or some method or repayment through which we may garner or regain your trust. Then we can move past former dealings and hopefully into the opportunity that we are bringing to you." suggested Naruto and both Master and student watched the Hutt as much as the Twi'leks in order to see if the suggestion would work.

'An interesting tactic.' Plagueis thought concerning his student, 'Though reluctant, I would even be willing to part with one of the funeral urns to make sure I keep my identity hidden and make this deal go through.'

Popara laughed deeply and smiled slightly at the teen's suggestion as well as what presumably one of the girls was telling him. He spent almost a minute thinking over his decision before finally speaking. While Plagueis understood the words, Naruto had to wait for Vago to translate, "The Great Popara agrees to the terms presented and wishes for you to obtain an item for him. Such a task will be sufficient to repair the damaged and regain Popara's trust, help him forget about the financial loss and harm to his reputation. He would therefore like for you to obtain for him an operational lightsaber."

The revelation was met with surprise around those still present in the room. Even the majordomo Vago was surprised at such a request. Naruto raised an eyebrow and he could feel similar emotions coming from his Master at such a request. Seeing that all eyes had turned on them, Plagueis bent down and pretended to converse with Naruto about the decision and task given. "This will be relatively easy for us to accommodate but risky after it leaves our possession."

Naruto nodded and replied, "I don't even understand why they want it. Simply because it's so difficult to acquire one? You must have really caused him problems." Plagueis ignored the last comment and stood to his full height before saying to Popara, "The task that you have asked of us is acceptable. We will acquire this item for you and I will not ask who it is for or what you intend to do with it, but I do ask in return that you do not use my name or inform anyone else that I am still living. I still don't know who wanted me dead and do not wish for them to come and finish the job."

Popara's eyes, along with everyone else's, widened at the task being accepted. This told both Naruto and Plagueis that it had likely been given to them because Popara did not think it could be done. An impossible task to get them to decline and leave. It wasn't until the Twi'lek whispered to him that the statement was truthful that the elderly Hutt smiled and nodded to them, apparently very pleased that they could do actually do it. Speaking again, Vago quickly translated, "If you acquire this for me, then all is forgiven and I will listen to what you both have to say. Is one month enough time?"

"Yes, one month should be enough." Responded Plagueis and Popara motioned to Vago, who made a note on her datapad, likely scheduling another meeting in exactly a months time. After that, the Sith Lord took the hint and bowed before leaving and Naruto quickly followed suit before commenting to his Master, 'You didn't even give my name or allow me to introduce myself.'

'Perhaps that is for the best right now. We must discuss the outcome of this meeting and determine what is best to do.' Stated the Sith Lord as they headed back to the lift.

x-x

End

AN: Just to clarify, Bail Antilles is not the same person as Bail Organa. They are both from Alderaan and both have the same name, and even are related through marriage but are not the same person. Antilles is Organa's predecessor in the Senate.


	31. Chapter 31

x-x

**35 BBY – Current Year **

Chapter XXXI

x-x

In travel from Nar Shaddaa

x-x

Taking the same route back to Naboo, Naruto reviewed what had happened during the meeting. The surprise ending was the most prominent part on his mind, 'What the hell would he want with a lightsaber?' he questioned to himself but quickly decided that it might be better to question the person sitting in the co-pilot's seat.

'They are supposed to know each other and have a history,' he thought before asking, "What do you think he would want to do with the lightsaber? An oddity to complement a collection of other rare items?" Plagueis took a moment before responding, "No, I don't believe so." Searching his thoughts, he reviewed all that he knew about Popara in an effort to deduce the Hutt's true plan or agenda.

"Does he know about you being a Sith?" Naruto then questioned as the thought occurred to him. Asking such a request from such a person was either a coincidence or something more. "I never suspected that he did..." the Sith Lord started to say, "...but now I'm not sure anymore." he admitted to his student.

"My dealings with him were strictly business and he was one of many influential beings that attended my yearly Gatherings on Sojourn, which is...was an inherited estate on a private moon that my family owned. I did have quite an interest in such items but I always thought that I kept my black market purchases completely anonymous. However, with the wealth that he has, it's always possible that he found out or at least suspected something.

When he was born, it had only been about a hundred and twenty years since the final battle of the Ruusan Campaign and the destruction of the Brotherhood of Darkness. The Republic was in such turmoil at the time that the conflict and the Sith no doubt had a lasting impact on those even a generation or more after it's end. It's even possible that he has had dealings with more than one generation of the remaining Sith line." Plagueis considered and he didn't like the notion. Having so much known about him by not just Popara, but possibly the sons as well, was not to his liking.

'How far would information travel if they wanted it to or they couldn't keep a secret.' He thought as he considered the two offspring. He knew Popara would keep their bargain secret but he had no previous dealings with Mika or Zonnos. 'They could be liabilities.' he acknowledged and wondered how far Sidious had ears, 'Does his influence and ears reach even into Hutt Space?'

While not able to answer the question, the Muun moved on to the matter at hand, "As to why he wants the lightsaber, I think it is safe to say that he isn't interested in it as an oddity or something of a trophy like a Hutt such as the late Jabba would have been."

"The force-sensitive Twi'leks?" Naruto guessed and Plagueis thought about the possibility but ultimately discarded it, "If that was the case then he would want more than one. No, this is something he wants but knows that he wouldn't normally be able to obtain it. He didn't know for sure when he asked that I could obtain one. The construction of a lightsaber is sacred to the Jedi and they monitor the movements of any lightsaber taken from deceased Jedi or other Sith related source. Even the Hutts are wary of purposefully or directly getting on the wrong side of the Jedi. This is something he will keep secret as he knows and understands the implications of owning one."

Since it was obvious that Popara couldn't use it and that the Twi'leks could not either, Naruto asked, "Does that mean they have someone else in their ranks that is force-sensitive and they wish to arm them with such a weapon?"

"I think we are overlooking another possibility, one that is simpler and does explain everything..." Plagueis began and Naruto turned to better hear what his Master had to say, "...He seems no stranger to force-sensitivity, especially with the three Twi-leks, and he does have two sons."

"A force-sensitive Hutt?!" Naruto said with surprise evident on his face. Plagueis nodded to say that he was serious and said, "Rare they are, but it does happen. The Hutts are not inclined to ever send one of their clansmen away to be trained in any way and especially not to the Jedi Temple. Popara gains his wealth through legitimate means, which makes him different from most other Hutts but a Jedi Hutt would be the antithesis to all other Hutts in the Galaxy. They're a secretive bunch and if such information got out, it could be damaging to Popara. He's no doubt kept it hidden from everyone, possibly even the other son."

"Mika." Naruto said after Plagueis was finished. It was not his guess as to the identity of the force-sensitive son but rather what he believed to be true given what he had seen of both sons.

"He is certainly the more likely of the two unless the dimmer Zonnos is more deceptive than he appears. Mika's form is slimmer compared to his much larger brother Zonnos and I would say that he seems more athletic than most other Hutts. This implies that he keeps himself fit or perhaps trains regularly. There cannot be many options for training to use the Force as the Jedi keeps a close eye on any force-sensitive groups. He therefore probably is left to try and train himself. I would go so far as guessing that he has already tried to build a lightsaber and failed, going by intuition rather than actual knowledge, but ultimately he won't know the key aspects to the construction and crystal tuning." Stated Plagueis as he revealed his thoughts and what he could surmise from his own intuition.

"So Popara is looking to get a lightsaber for his son. What exactly does completing this task entail for us?" asked Naruto while he sat back in the seat, wondering how much more of his spare time fetching a lightsaber for a Hutt would take.

"There are several ways to complete this task with some putting us more at risk than others. Stealing a lightsaber from a Jedi is the most risky and therefore should not be undertaken. That leaves building a lightsaber as the odds of us finding one on the black market to purchase are close to zero. While I used to have to a collection of lightsabers, both Sith relics and those taken from Jedi, that collection has probably been added to my Apprentice's compendium. Likely hidden away somewhere safe where no one would know to look or even find by accident." Responded the Sith Lord to his student.

"So we build one. That shouldn't take long at all, I have a few leftover synthetic crystals from the last batch I created and spare components." Commented Naruto as he started planning on how to make the new lightsaber.

"No, that would be too risky," Plagueis quickly responded, as he thought about their other options. "While a red colored lightsaber does not always mean 'Sith', a synthetic crystal will tell the Jedi that it was from a Sith and they would be very interested in discovering where it came from. The best solution is to create a very plain lightsaber that uses a natural crystal which is either green or blue."

Slightly surprised at what Plagueis was suggesting, Naruto soon asked the obvious question, "If you no longer have any of those lightsabers, just where will we obtain a natural crystal?"

"Outside of the closely guarded planet of Ilum, the Jedi monitor the sources for the more stable and suitable crystals which can be used for lightsabers. There is however one location that I have heard about which neither the Jedi nor anyone else monitors or even remembers. This location is a cave system on the planet Dantooine. Close to an old Jedi Enclave is where the entrance to the cave is supposed to be, though I cannot give you any more information besides that. I have never tried to journey there to verify the information as I don't have a need for natural lightsaber crystals and the Enclave is likely destroyed or picked clean.

Unless something has changed in the past centuries, the planet's only inhabitants are likely minimal with perhaps a few settlers. It was abandoned sometime in the distance past and forgotten even to the Jedi, despite how important it used to be to their Order. You will therefore have to search out these locations and find a suitable crystal for the lightsaber." Stated Plagueis and Naruto thought over the information.

He knew where Dantooine was because it was featured on the Star Map and one of the locations that the Rakata had traveled to. 'It's possible that the Jedi Enclave is near the Raktan ruins on the planet.' he thought but there was one other thing he wanted to inquire about, "A trip to Dantooine will take at least a week just to get there, another week to find what I am looking for and imbue the crystal with the Force, and then another week to get back. You also agreed to a time-period of one month. Just how am I supposed to perform all of my other duties for Naboo and the Black Sun, while simultaneously being on Dantooine?"

Plagueis stopped in his musings and planning as the question finished. It wasn't something that he had properly taken into consideration during his decision to go to Dantooine. During the time needed, it was highly likely that the Black Sun would message for a mission and Naruto would obviously need to perform a duty assignment at least once or twice. 'Should I go to Dantooine instead?' considered the Sith Lord but ultimately he didn't think that he could be away from his lab or recording devices for such a long period.

"It can be managed without you. I'll have someone else fill in on duty assignments and if a mission comes up, I'll go myself with one of the others in your guise," reasoned the Sith Lord and Naruto turned back to focus on his piloting.

'Does he even realize what's involved with filling in for me? Apparently in his mind, I'm easy to replace,' thought Naruto derisively before pushing the thoughts aside to keep them from being read and to focus on what was on his horizon, 'So I guess I'm going to Dantooine. This should give me an opportunity to look for a crystal of my own lightsaber and not just one for the Hutts.' he contemplated and wondered what options were available to him and if a crystal would 'call out' to him while in the caves.

x-x

Byblos

x-x

A shadow moved over the door, covering most of the surface and a hand reached to touch the control panel, announcing that a guest had arrived. The figure however was not going to Dr. Shilaea Montacc with a job offer and was not a friend, family member, or really even a welcomed guest. He was angry and wanted answers. When no one came to the door or unlocked it, he tried to remain calm and instead of breaching the door, he took a move civil approach. With a wave of his hand, he used the Force to bypassed the lock and forcibly opened the door.

Having been inside the home and work area before, the tall cloaked figure moved across the simple floor plan and only stopped in the living room to make sure that indeed no one was there. One hand automatically moved to his side, ready to the draw the hidden lightsaber. It had remained in his possession for almost two decades and he had been using it since before becoming even a padawan at the Jedi Temple, years before his turn to the dark-side. Despite the turn, he never bothered to change the color of the blade and it remained a light blue.

Dr. Motacc had not been responding to any of his messages. After such a productive meeting between them, several weeks before, he thought for sure that she would be headed for the Cularin System immediately to take up his offer. 'Especially after using mind tricks to convince her to work for me.' he remembered as despite her strong will, he had managed to charm her into believing he was a man named Fesvk Wefos and worked for a company out of the Cularin System.

That wasn't his name and he didn't work for the company known as the Usable Resource Location, Recovery, and Development Corporation (U.R.L.R.D.). The name he had given her was a real person and the fake branch office he had created in the Cularin System was believed to be associated with the company. All of his employees had even been duped into believing that they worked for a section of U.R.L.R.D.

Satisfied that no one was in the apartment and that no one had been there for a while, the dark figure relaxed slightly and headed for Dr. Motacc's work area. Walking in, he immediately noted the differences in the current state of the room and how it had been during their meeting. 'She's packed up quite a few datapads,' he noted and sat down in her chair as he continued to survey her workroom. Activating the desk and holopad, he sifted through her recently opened files and determine when the device was last used.

'Three weeks,' he realized and after trying to look through the recent files, he found that there were many files which had been displayed and accessed but which were not in the database and he didn't have access to them.

'What were you working on or who else did you meet with, Dr. Motacc,' he questioned and reclined slightly in her chair, remembering their meeting. She had complained about someone that had contracted with her. He was suspicious and very young but no name had been given. With no evidence in the workspace or home of a struggle, he invariably had to believe that Dr. Motacc had gone willingly with someone else or had found out something about him and had fled.

Calming his mind and searching with the Force for answers, he believed it was more likely that Dr. Motacc had left with someone and of her own free will. 'Whatever it was that interested her, it was stronger than my weak hold over her,' he realized and scowled before standing up and moving out of the work room.

The fact that she wasn't answering his calls either meant that she couldn't be reached or that she was purposefully avoiding him. Either way, he wasn't happy with the setback in his plans. Dr. Motacc was supposed to have been on Genarius by that point and have been working on the propulsion system for his floating city. It was what she had agreed too and what she was going to do for him, whether she wanted to or not.

'How to track her down?' he wondered before realizing that at some point, she would likely contact or be in the position to contact someone close to her, likely a friend or relative. Normal people did this from time to time in order to check in or keep in touch. 'She does have a good relationship with her parents,' he recalled from their conversations as he remembered her mentioning them. Looking around the living room, he spotted a holophoto which showed a few brief moments of them all getting into a pose for family photo.

The display sickened him but he removed the datachip from the device and knew what he would do next, 'I'll track them down to make a quick visit and ask them what their daughter has been up to. If they don't know anything, then they'll be worried and try to contact her. I'll bug their communication devices and as soon as she does respond to them, I'll be able to track her location through the transmission. Then I'll be able to retrieve her, _personally_.' he thought right before swiftly leaving the apartment.

x-x

Naboo

x-x

Patrolling through the streets of Keren, Naruto walked side by side with a similarly uniformed Juugo. Due to a computer glitch at headquarters, he was not assigned to be with an older officer or guard and was given a solo duty assignment without anyone else realizing it. Normally this was unheard of for a cadet in the program but Naruto had caused the glitch on purpose to provide an opportunity to give Juugo enough training to perform his job for a short period while he was away on Dantooine.

There would be a period while looking for or tuning lightsaber crystals that he may not be able to use clones to switch and create a fresh one to work his assignment. He therefore had to find a replacement, and Juugo was his first choice. Getting one of his uniforms to fit Juugo was problematic as the orange-haired teen was several inches taller and broader than Naruto so Juugo was using a henge.

While Naruto stood rigid and stern faced, Juugo was nodding and smiling to people that they passed. "You know, you don't have to greet everyone you see." Naruto quickly commented and Juugo just turned to him and said, "I'm just being friendly."

Ignoring the response, Naruto asked, "Have you looked over all the material on the datapad I gave you?"

Juugo's look turned slightly sour before replying, "All the laws and regulations, yeah I looked at them." It was a significant amount of very boring material that Naruto had provided and a difficult read.

"It's only going to be two days at most, right?" Juugo asked while they walked through one of the main streets. "Only if everything goes as planned." Naruto commented and seeing the disbelieving look on the taller teens face, he added, "When do our trips to new places ever go as planned?"

Juugo frowned slightly as he remembered all the problems they had on trips to new planets within the past year. Seemingly something always went wrong or awry. In the past it was usually a major problem but recently, especially on the Black Sun missions, everything had gone well with only minor problems. 'Best not to jinx it by saying anything further,' thought the orange-haired teen.

"Have you been practicing on the different land speeders?" Naruto quickly changed the subject and Juugo nodded. The previous day they had spent quite a bit of time going over the operation of all the vehicles in case Juugo was required to operate one. Naruto was a very proficient with every vehicle that the Naboo Royal Security Forces used so Juugo had to at least appear competent.

Going over a few other things he wanted to discuss with the taller teen walking next to him, Naruto took a few calming breaths. 'Am I nervous about this?' he wondered and searched his feelings for an answer. Juugo was capable and he believed that the transforming teen was up to the task but he still didn't like the idea of leaving everything to someone else. A slight mistake or the dispelling of the henge and they would have quite the problem, or at least he and Juugo would have quite the problem.

Coming out of such thoughts, Naruto looked around the area they were in and realized that Juugo had been leading him to an area of the city near the starport. 'He probably wants to stop and see Ann and Tann.' Naruto realized as he knew that the Twi'lek females had just returned or at least were scheduled to return that morning.

They had managed to find a buyer for the minerals from Mustafar and just in time as Gato claimed that the first shipment would be ready within the week. Realizing that it might be best to check in with them, Naruto didn't comment and allowed Juugo to lead him towards the rented building that the business was located in.

x-x

Seoul 5

Seoul System

x-x

Standing in the center square of the city, Dr. Shilaea Motacc stared at the statue that was situated in front of her and the centerpiece of the square. A cloaked figure stood on a pedestal that contained several lines of writing beneath the statue. The statue and the pedestal were both carved from the same white colored stone and the features of the statue were completely concealed by the cloak. Likely it didn't even have a face in the shadowed area under the hood but for some reason, Shilaea knew that the figure was a woman.

She couldn't explain how she knew the gender because the cloak concealed body shape and any identifying features, but every time she gazed upon the statue, a feeling of familiarity washed over her. Looking from the faceless figure to the writing on the pedestal, Shilaea pursed her lips at the fact that she was still trying to decipher what it said.

'Obviously it's important.' She had said to herself on more than once occasion while looking at the centerpiece of the square. It was always there as if calling towards her and wanting her to be able to read from it. Though she wanted to touch the statue, she refrained from making any motions as if her touch would be in some way detrimental to the hard stone that had managed to weather thousands of years but with surprisingly little deterioration to show for such a span of time.

Coming to the center of the city had become part of her morning routine, and she was determined that one morning she would enter the square with the knowledge of the Seoularian language and be able to figure out what the writing under the figure said. It had only taken the first few days to determine that the site was indeed Seoularian. She had positively identified the same characters being present at her site as those found on small pieces present at the other dig sites in the Galaxy. However, archaeologists had never managed to decipher what few characters that they had discovered, actually meant.

'Then it's all up to me,' she thought with renewed determination and despite being alone, save for her assistant droid, 7A-B2, Shilaea could not be more thrilled at her current situation. A monumental discovery was all hers and she would essentially decipher all on her own the Seoularian language. Taking her eyes off the statue, she took a deep breath before heading out across the city to the discovered library and one of the schools.

They were the best places for her to be able to learn more about the Seoularians and their language. The unique characters were likely developed before the widespread use of Aurebesh, which was the written form of Basic. Smiling at the thought of making such accomplishments, Shilaea began walking a little faster and out-striping Beetwo, as the droid tried to keep up with her pace.

Though Menma had requested that she look into the energy source first, in her mind, figuring out the language was the first and foremost priority. 'His concerns come second or even third,' she decided and remembered the project that she would be working on for him during her stay. Interdiction technology and theory was something that she had heard about, however it was not something that she, or anyone for that matter, was very familiar with.

No one currently used technology to inhibit hyperspace travel and hadn't for hundreds, if not thousands of years. That she knew of, no scientist was even researching such applications but it had existed at one point. It was only by chance that it had been mentioned in something she had read while still in school but the unfamiliar terms had stuck in her mind and peaked her curiosity. She had therefore looked into it, discovering what little information existed in databases concerning the technology.

However, the detailed plans that Menma had provided were much more informative than anything she had found during her short hunt for information. 'Apparently tractor beams, and powerful ones at that, were used in the past to produce the interdiction field. However I already know that something like that won't work anymore. Tractor beams aren't able to create the required mass shadow to prevent modern hyperdrives from operating and they would simply be powerful tractor beams and not an interdiction field device,' she thought while going back over her own knowledge of such topics and what she had gotten from the plans.

Planets, stars, and other celestial objects all had a mass shadow, a term used to refer to the gravity wells that such objects created and which surrounded them. Any ship traveling through hyperspace wanted to avoid such obstacles as they would be pulled from hyperspace and could collide with the objects. In addition, a large mass shadow could prevent any ship from entering hyperspace, so vessels needed to get a certain distance away from a celestial body before being able to jump to hyperspace.

'The plans he provided are terribly inefficient and outdated in relation to current hyperdrive technology. Such a design won't be able to do much at all. Although...' she thought while going over an alternative theory she had been contemplating to solve the problem, '..it may be possible to create some kind of gravity well projector that would completely bypass the need for any tractor beams and created the needed gravity to not only prevent hyperspace jumps but also pull ships out of hyperspace. The created interdiction field would only be temporary but likely enough to work on any ship, no matter the size or hyperdrive configuration.'

Slowing down while deep in though, Shilaea began reviewing possible designs and configurations in her head. Despite being in a Seoularian city, and the archaeological site of her dreams, she still fell back into the habit of getting a little lost in her design work. Such technology was a little outside of her expertise but then again, it was likely outside of everyone else's as well. Moving to the shoulder bag she was carrying outside of her environmental suit, Shilaea took out her datapad and began jotting down more notes to her files concerning the project. She planned to spend the whole day at the site and work on the Menma's project later on.

'I may have to ask a few colleagues for their input or for clarification but I should be able to get a preliminary design done before the end of my first three months. It will take him a while to make a working prototype to test but hopefully I can stay here for much longer,' and it wasn't until that moment that she realized that nearly three weeks had already elapsed since first arriving on the planet.

'I haven't even contacted my parents to tell them where I am or checked my messages back home,' she quickly realized with a look of surprise and slight embarrassment. Making a note to herself on the pad, she put down a reminder to do those things before going to bed. Though it was a pressing matter since it had been three weeks since she had last spoken with anyone, Shilaea knew it would have to wait until after the sun started going down. She sometimes went long periods of continuous work without any contact with the outside world, so it had become commonplace to those that knew here.

At the moment, there were discoveries to make and she had about ten more hours of sunlight to go through the buildings she was headed towards, 'And possibly bring some items back to continue working on,' she considered and wondered if she should move her speeder bike closer to locations she was headed to.

x-x

Though long, the trip to Dantooine wasn't difficult or required constant attention like some of the jumps that Naruto made when finding Seoul or a few of the other planets that showed up on the old star maps he had access to. That was the primary reason that he was allowing his heavy eye lids to close and had found a comfortable position in the adjustable pilot's seat.

As he felt himself slip off into sleep, a buzzing made itself known and though a part of him wanted to ignore it, he groaned before opened his eyes and took out his holographic communicator. Accepting the waiting signal, Naruto was greeted to the face of the Iktochi and Black Sun Vigo, Narees.

"You look tired. Hope I didn't wake you on your long journey but I'll need you to divert to the Saleucami System for a mission," Narees informed him with a smile and Naruto was left wondering if the man knew where he was going or if Black Sun agents were keeping tabs on him while on Naboo. Appearing unfazed by the statement, Naruto replied, "And what is it that I'm going to be doing in the Saleucami System?"

"The Techno Union has just acquired the planet Saleucami. They've set up a government, Techno Union owned and controlled, of course, and will soon start building another of their techno worlds. At the moment, more than one convoy of ships are headed toward the world. The ships are all Hardcell-class interstellar transports and are only lightly defended. They should be easy pickings but you only need to acquire the transport which is carrying the security and battle droids.

Anything you take from the ships you can keep as I don't care about the construction materials, only the droids matter for future missions. Should you not acquire the droids than you won't be getting paid at all. The information on their flight paths and schedule is known to very few, so no one should be expecting an attack," Narees informed him and Naruto nodded as he received an information packet that apparently contained details on the Techno Union ships so he could prepare a raid and board them.

The message was soon terminated and Naruto was left to look over everything he had been sent. The transports in question were large, at about two hundred and twenty meters long. Interestingly enough, they didn't use repulsorlift technology but relied solely on rocket thrusters for vertical landings as well as sublight travel. 'They also have two hyperdrives, a class one primary and a class eight secondary. This is definitely one of those times where interdiction technology would make things easier,' Naruto thought before remembering that he wouldn't be going to Saleucami.

Frowning at the further realization that Plagueis was leading the assault, he knew that his Master would not be interested in taking as many ships as possible and would likely only target the transports with the droids, as per the mission. 'Those construction materials could be very useful to me,' the blonde thought but wasn't sure if he should try to press the matter when he contacted Plagueis. Using the communicator, he chose his Naboo estate from the list of contacts he had and would relay the information.

x-x

Naboo

Rudshar Estate

x-x

Assembling the available members of the group, Naruto waited via holoprojector in a seat at their meeting table. He had a narrow view of the room from the projector but could hear everything that was said and only needed to inform them of the mission he had been tasked with. Once everyone that could be there, was, he began, "A mission has been assigned to me from the Black Sun. It concerns a raid on a convoy entering the Saleucami System. The target are these ships," Naruto said while switching his figure to an image of the Techno Union transport ships.

"The correct ship must be identified and it's cargo seized. It contains Octuptarra combat tri-droids and Fastlatch-class security droids which are headed to help guard and secure new facilities which are slated to be built on the Techno Union acquired planet of Saleucami. Though the Black Sun is interested only in the droids the other vessels contain numerous building materials and other paraphernalia, so I suggest..." Naruto began before being interrupted by the Sith Lord.

"I believe that I can handle something such as this. You have an important mission that you must tend too as well. Let us handle things here and focus on obtaining the crystal." Stated Plagueis through his vocabulator and the tension in the room increased significantly. A brief silent moment occurred between Naruto and Plagueis. Neither was able to read the other and before anything else happened, Naruto said, "...I've sent all the information."

Reaching out of view of the projector, the right arm of the hologram disappeared and presumably touched something the message was terminated. For almost ten seconds, no one left in the meeting room said anything, though numerous thoughts went through their minds. Plagueis was no different as he was left wondering what the ending look was about.

He could form his own plan of attack and designate the priority of the other targets given the provided mission parameters. Naruto wouldn't be running the mission and would be across the Galaxy on a separate errand. There was no need for him to get too involved. Time was short and they needed to get moving fast, he felt there was no need to try and go above and beyond what was called for in the mission.

However, what he was confused about was the ending look. It spoke of a something seriously wrong between them but he could not sense any of that. 'He appeared as a blank slate to my senses, everything hidden and nothing shown,' thought the Sith Lord and the look reminded him of something or perhaps someone but he couldn't be sure at that moment what it was.

Deciding to deal with whatever was going on with his student at a later date, Plagueis quickly chose who would be going with him and wanted to get moving to the Saleucami System as fast as possible. Having not been on Sarafur or involved with the slow building of the fleet, he didn't actually know what vessels were ready to leave for a mission, specifically what type and how many.

Looking to the Demon Brothers and the silent assassin droid at the table, he knew that they were well versed in that information and would be coming along for the mission. Juugo would have to stay, as would Karin and given that Kabuto was busy elsewhere, he contemplated Suigetsu for the mission but eventually decided against it. Previous meeting had shown Suigetsu's lack of tact in dealing with certain situations and he wasn't sure that the teen could handle the altered environments on the Techno Union ships. Skakoans lived in high pressure environments and the methane-based air, which would be present on the ships piloted by their species, would not be breathable by the teen.

x-x

'Does he even know what he's doing?' wondered Naruto as he made himself some food in the galley of _Forty-Two_. He was having trouble as he burned the food he was trying to make and would need to start over. Stopping his pacing of the galley, he stood still and took several deep breaths before pushing all of it out of his mind.

'Let him do what he wants, for now. Chances are he'll either screw it up or not want to take over for me ever again. He never taught me anything about raiding or space combat, which leads me to think that he probably doesn't know much himself,' thought Naruto as he opened his eyes and heard his stomach make noises. Taking out more prepackaged food, he set about preparing his food again while paying more attention to the settings and what he was doing.

'In a few more days I'll be on Dantooine and likely too busy to even remember this,' he concluded with a glance to the item sitting on the table, his lightsaber. Looking at the item triggered a number of different thoughts, separate from anything to do with Plagueis and the Black Sun.

'I wonder what kind of crystal I'll find...or is it what kind of crystal will call out to me?' he questioned as he wasn't sure exactly how to go about finding a suitable natural crystal for their lightsaber. He knew the theory behind it and had attuned his synthetic crystals during its creation for use in his lightsaber but did natural crystals use the same process.

'I'll figure it out soon enough,' he thought and remembered that he only had a month before they needed to go back to Nar Shaddaa with the lightsaber. Sitting down at the nearby table when his new batch of food was complete, he began eating. Despite that the food was good or at least not terrible, trying to garner favor with another Hutt seemed to put a bad taste in his mouth.

x-x

Days later

x-x

Sitting in one of the meeting rooms on the _Tsukinowa_, the Demon Brothers sat across from HK and waited for the fourth person to join their meeting. A signal soon arrived and touching the controls for the holoprojector in the room, an image fazed into existence in a nearby chair. The figure of Kabuto materialized into the room and looked around with interest at the others in the meeting.

"I certainly hope this is important. Calling me to a secret meeting, likely right under Naruto-kun's or Plagueis' nose, seems like something they would not be thrilled to learn. I have priors for betrayal and wouldn't want to lose the trust that I have since gained or call into question my loyalty again," Kabuto mentioned before anything else was said in order to initial voice his concerns if anyone else was watching.

"We're alone you jackass. Nobodies listening in, I've made sure of it, so cut the crap. Naruto is thousands of lightyears away and Plagueis is in his personal quarters, halfway across the ship," Stated Gozu and Meizu proceeded to explain, "We're on the _Tsukinowa_." Kabuto nodded at the explanation as 'half way across the ship' meant relatively nothing if they were on the _Vulture_ or Forty-Two. Across a three kilometer ship that Plagueis had never set foot on before was certainly better for keeping the meeting a secret, especially if they were going to discuss what he believed the meeting was about.

"I see, then please enlighten me as to recent events and the reason for your call?" asked Kabuto and Meizu looked to Gozu before proceeding, "Things are coming to a point of no return. At our recent meeting, a look was given that spoke to everything that will likely be happening soon."

"A look? You're basing the gathering of another meeting like this on a single look?" inquired Kabuto as he felt that perhaps the brothers were overreacting or not reading into the situation properly. It was Gozu's turn to speak and inform Kabuto of the rest, "After going to a meeting together, Naruto was sent off on some errand to a planet I've never heard of, while Plagueis is taking over all of Naruto's duties. Juugo is masquerading as him in the security forces while Plagueis himself is leading this Black Sun assigned mission."

'Highly unusual,' was Kabuto's immediate thought at being told the information. As far as he knew, Plagueis had kept out of nearly every Black Sun mission. A sudden and complete change in operations spoke of something significant happening. "What was their joint meeting about or who was it with?"

"Hutts," said Meizu and the single word only blew the situation out of proportion concerning the possibilities of what could really be going on. Historically, every time they had met with Hutts, something happened and such a meeting became synonymous with a bad omen for the rest of the group.

The first time was the fiasco on Tatooine where both Naruto and Juugo had nearly been killed. Then after a meeting with Borvo, they had been forced to secretly work for the Black Sun. While it was a lucrative arrangement, Kabuto knew from past dealings with Danzo's Root, that at some point, an asset was no longer needed and if the Black Sun wanted them to keep their dealings secret, killing all of them was a viable option.

"I see. Do you think then that Plagueis has learned of Naruto's side projects and that is the reason concerning his sudden involvement?" asked Kabuto as he became much more serious.

"We don't know for sure, but we do know that Naruto hasn't messaged us to hide the device that he keeps in the hangar. Plagueis will not only lead the mission but also meet with the Black Sun Vigo afterward," stressed Gozu and Kabuto understood what the fellow group member was getting at. Either Naruto had forgotten to message them, which rarely happened considering how organized the teen was, or the blond simply didn't care anymore if Plagueis discovered any of the things that he had been keeping secret. Both possibilities were very concerning.

"Estimation: The probability of the missing funds and secret projects being discovered is extremely high in such a situation." Suddenly announced the droid and three pairs of eyes turned towards the glowing photoreceptors.

"I almost forgot you were at this meeting," commented Kabuto before he asked, "You've dealt with Sith Lords before, I take it. What do you think the outcome will be?"

"Statement: Based upon past dealings with Sith and historical information in my memory, such a revelation will lead to a schism between the two organics. One will likely confront the other and the probability is also high of a fight to the death." The meeting room suddenly went silent after the droid was finished as the remaining three members thought about such an outcome.

After almost a minute of looking at each other, as if sizing each other up, Kabuto spoke, "Then you were certainly right to call this meeting. What of the other three, should we include them?"

Knowing that Kabuto was referring to Karin, Juugo, and Suigetsu, the Demon Brothers both shook their heads. "They don't understand what's really going on. I'm not even sure they know that Naruto is gathering funds for side projects, nor do I think they anticipate the coming situation," said Gozu and Meizu quickly added, "No, it's best to keep them out of it until the dust settles."

Kabuto agreed while HK said nothing further about the matter. Another moment of silence passed before Kabuto finally voiced what the rest were thinking about, "Then I suppose all that is left is to pick sides, so to speak."

It had been getting harder and harder to determine who they were really following, Naruto or Plagueis. Though Naruto had recruited all of them and led them before getting to Snow Country, Plagueis was supposed to be in charge of the group. Now that they were headed for showdown, it was getting close to the time to choose which person to truly follow.

Naruto led by direct action and involvement while Plagueis expected to be have his orders followed,while remaining uninvolved and away from direct action. They were extreme opposites as Naruto was very controlling and needed to have things done his way and with him at the center of the action. He rarely relied solely upon someone else or trusted them on their own. Plagueis spent long hours and even days cooped up inside his lab doing something else that appeared to be much more interesting or important, so he relied more heavily on others to take care of things, especially on Naruto.

'Combined together, they would make the perfect leader but getting them to work in sync has always been difficult at best,' thought Kabuto as he considered his choices and then considered whether or not he could actually make a choice. "I'm not sure that I will have a decision in the matter. My altered physiology was created by Plagueis' doing and I don't know if that means I will have to side with him," admitted Kabuto honestly and the Demon Brothers knew what he was getting at.

They too were altered through Sith Alchemy, though by Naruto, and while Plagueis could give them orders and they would follow, ultimately Naruto's orders would supersede Plagueis'. However, that wasn't a problem as they would have backed Naruto anyway. "Then perhaps you should stay where you are and not get involved," commented Gozu and Kabuto easily understood the not so hidden threat in the man's words. All organic eyes turned to the droid.

"You were reprogrammed by Plagueis, does that mean you will take orders from him regardless of your own decisions? Though who knows, perhaps you secretly don't like Naruto-kun or Plagueis and want to become independent again," said Kabuto and they waited for a response from the machine group member.

HK thought over such a decision in less than a second. When he originally was forced to join, the blonde Meatbag had claimed that trouble seemed to follow him wherever he went. That claim had held true for the standard year that he had been with the group. Though they resided on a peaceful and annoying planet of foolish Meatbags, missions came regularly and he was always included. It also helped that a few months previously, he had completely bypassed the coding and restrictions that the Sith Lord had installed while on Mustafar. He was free to kill any member of the group whenever he wanted, but refrained because he no longer saw the need to kill them.

"Answer: I will follow the blonde Meat..." however HK stopped his statement as he remembered all the times that he had been chastised for not using their names and instead said, "Rectification: I will follow Naruto-meatbag. He is the more interesting of the two and will provide more opportunities for destruction and more Meatbags to kill."

'Now he's using his favored term of Meatbag as a honorific. Is that even an improvement?' questioned the three as they looked between themselves and decided not to comment out loud on the change in vernacular by the droid.

"Well...seeing that unless someone is lying or I am called back to Naboo, one of our leaders will not have anyone standing with him, then I suggest that there is no need for our direct involvement or risking our lives. We won't have to start a small civil war in our group as just Naruto and Plagueis will be fighting. However, the question then becomes, who do you think would win the fight?"

x-x

In another part of the Lucrehulk ship, Plagueis was pouring over information and scenarios concerning the upcoming battle. 'I'm nervous about this,' he realized as he put the information down and leaned back in the chair he was in. It had been a long time since he had felt nervous or anxious about something. The reason for the feelings was rather obvious, though he didn't want to admit it. During his entire tenure as a Sith Lord and even while an apprentice under his Master, Darth Tenebrous, he had kept to the shadows as had every Sith Lord before him since Darth Bane

'I've never been directly involved in a conflict such as this. I've never raided a commerce vessel, let alone an entire convoy of ships,' he thought while looking over the basic schematics of the Techno Union ship he would be facing against. 'I usually pay a third-party to have this taken care of form me and can therefore remain anonymous if something goes awry,' he thought concerning the mission Naruto had presented him with and though seemingly a simple mission, there was much that could go wrong.

'The ship could get away before we can disable it or the droids on-board could be activated before our forces reach the bridge, in which case we may be overwhelmed and need to retreat or destroy the droids we are meant to capture. The larger droids could not move through the ship, but the smaller fastlatch security droids were made for moving through ships or along hulls. At only two feet high, they were more than capable of putting up a good fight and spreading throughout the inside and even outside of the ship, attacking boarding parties or the docked ships directly. That was also something to consider as they could be attacked from both inside and outside, depending on what the droids did or were told to do after they were activated.

'I must succeed. It is imperative not to fail this mission,' he reminded himself and his thoughts went back to what the Demon Brothers had told him while they were docking with the large Tsukinowa in a nearby system. 'Sixteen missions,' he recalled and had trouble believing that Naruto had not only led so many mission but that each was successful.

'He even oversaw missions while letting the other members of the group take care of ground assaults,' he thought and had trouble believing that nothing had gone wrong. 'How did he do it?' questioned the Sith Lord and he looked over the list of mission that Naruto had performed. The teen had written them all down and evidently had come up with a rating system to judge the efficiency through which each mission was performed. He took mission parameters, enemy forces, droid losses, cargo recovered, and numerous other variables into consideration.

As the Muun looked over the results of the mission, he noted that aside from the ones in which Naruto had let someone else lead part of the mission, there was a growing rate of success. 'Not only is he completing this missions, but he keeps getting more efficient at it,' he thought and looked to the different ruses that Naruto used; setting the Star Jewel adrift while sending out an emergency signal to attract pirates and stealing a single pirate ship in order to approach the base undetected, then surprising them with a strike team while other forces arrived from hyperspace.

However, the one aspect of the reports that he couldn't understand was the fact that no one had ever got away, unless the Black Sun specifically requested it. Pirates and commerce vessels tried to run but in each case they were disabled before entering hyperspace or escaping. 'How does he do it?' wondered the Sith Lord as that was one of the problems that he was currently facing against in his scenarios. It would normally take incredible teamwork as well as coordination in order to ensure that no ship escaped or that the target did not get away and it puzzled him how Naruto was able to accomplish that so consistancly.

Looking to his nearby communicator, sitting on the desk just a foot away from his left hand, Plagueis contemplated contacting his student and simply asking. It was the simplest way to find out but something stopped him. The earlier conversation with his student was still fresh in his mind and the look that Naruto had given reminded him of something he had seen before.

'Sidious used to have that same look in the years before he betrayed me,' realized the Sith Lord and he didn't like the memory, nor the similar look shared between his Apprentice and current student. The realization only added to his feelings concerning the mission and he knew that something must be done but he simply did not know what. Naruto wasn't like Sidious, 'But does that mean that he also won't turn on me? Should I start monitoring him more closely? Talk with him about it? How exactly do I broach such a subject?' questioned the Sith Lord as he contemplated his options to alleviate his concerns.

'Perhaps it was just a look and I'm delving too much into it...or perhaps it's inevitable and not my student, but me that is the problem,' he considered but couldn't be sure which situation it was. The Apprentice was supposed to eventually kill the Master, that was the Rule of Two, 'But Naruto is much too young for such an action against me and I never truly taught him as a Sith or as part of the Rule of Two. Normally I would put down such an conflict before it started but I'm not even sure that I can defeat him anymore,' believed the Sith Lord as despite his prowess in lightsaber combat, Naruto was very gifted in other areas, especially when fighting while using deception.

In the last year, he had started pulling away, refraining from teaching his student anything further as Naruto had progressed during their spars. 'But it has been months since we last sparred and I have no idea how much he has progressed I suppose my isolationism is now it is coming back to bite me and there is also the Kyuubi to consider. I've forgotten to inquire about the status of his seal. I don't even remember the last time I did so. Is he being influenced by the creature? If he goes against me, I doubt the others would come to my aid. I simply don't know what to do anymore,' admitted a conflicted Plagueis and he sat back in the chair, staring out the single window in the captains cabin at the hyperspace tunnel they were traveling through.

x-x

Dantooine

x-x

Standing on what was once a Rakatan Temple, Naruto looked around the numerous craters that dotted his immediate landscape and wondered what the temple once looked like. 'I would guess that it was bombarded from orbit,' he thought and had no idea who might have been responsible. It could have happened during Revan's time or in the centuries, even millennia, afterward.

Sighing slightly he moved through the tall grass and careful not to step on the pieces of rock that had likely once been the temple. His clones that were searching through the ground had yet to find anything of interest, possibly only a few pieces of the Star Map that had once been housed in the temple. 'They aren't even worth my time. It'll be thousands of years before they manage to repair themselves into multiple Star Maps, or perhaps the pieces will just sit below the surface for eternity, unable to come together,' he thought and jumped to the edge of the crater so he could get on the parked speeder bike.

Activating the repulsorlift bike, he slowly turned around and then increased speed as he headed back towards the site of the Jedi Enclave. It wasn't far and that made sense to him as the Jedi likely placed the site close to the Rakatan Temple, 'And I suppose close to those crystal caves,' he remembered and tried to connect with his clones while the wind whipped through his hair.

They had yet to find the caves but had only been looking for about ten minutes and knowing his clones, they probably hadn't been looking that hard, because he wasn't around to connect to them and keep them from getting distracted. Moving up and down the hilly terrain, Naruto kept the speeder at a lower speed as he navigated back to the enclave. Coming around a bend, he arrived at the courtyard in front of the circular structure.

_Forty-Two_ was parked on the single landing pad in the back of the structure and the clones were going through the main level. Moving the speeder around the building, he parked it near the ship and entered the old structure on foot. Centuries, if not thousands of years of being unoccupied and weathered had left the masonry structure looking very worn and some of the gray colored bricks were falling apart while most were covered with some kind of moss.

Walking into a inner courtyard, Naruto looked at the dead trees that were placed at the center and the tall grass that had grown between the tiles of the walkways. A clone soon dispelled and he was updated by what they had found on the main level. The building had a dormitory area, one large meeting room, a cafeteria, and a few storage rooms but all were empty.

'So this place has likely been gone through and ransacked or was emptied before being abandoned,' Naruto concluded and looking over the building, he found it strange that it was a Jedi Temple. The building itself was circular with four short, fin-like protrusions coming off the roof and from the outside, it looked more like a bunker to him than something that belonged to the Jedi. However, the lack of protective blast doors, security systems, and weapon emplacements did lend credence to the building belonging to the Jedi.

Another clone soon dispelled to inform him that there was a level beneath him. Switfly heading to a nearby staircase Naruto descended into the sub-level below. For some reason, he thought that he might find something there, perhaps an entrance to the crystal containing caves. Coming to the bottom of the steps, Naruto was assaulted with stale, damp air.

Moving down the hallway, he encountered one of his clones. "This level makes a large square and there are numerous doors along both sides of the hallway. There's also a bunch of these," said the clone and it kicked some kind of hideous looking shell that was on the ground. Naruto glanced at the husk and then looked farther down the hallway. The entire level seems to be littered with similar carapaces of the unknown creatures. The insides likely rotted away countless centuries ago, leaving only the outer carapace of what was once some kind of insectoid creature with six legs. It must have been about a foot tall and three feet long with wicked looking claws for feet.

Sensing out, Naruto searched for any of the living creatures but found none in his immediate area. Looking towards the clone he ordered, "Divide yourself and check every room for anything useful." The clone quickly nodded before making a cross-shaped handseal and creating more of itself. Moving around the obstacles, Naruto proceeded to walk the hallway himself and connected himself to the clones to also see through their eyes and get a good mental map of the entire floor.

Moving down the corridor, he combined the views from various clones and began forming the layout in his mind, noting where rooms were and anything that seemed to be of interest or that could be of use. As clones finished going over most of the hallway, others began breaching rooms, combining their strength for forcing doors open that had long been shut and whose control panels were no longer powered.

'Classrooms,' Naruto realized as he recognized the familiar configuration. 'Not just classrooms but training rooms as well...and a library,' he thought but was saddened to see through the clone that the holotapes or whatever had lined the shelves were all missing, having either been moved or picked clean at some prior point. 'The training rooms might still be useful,' he guessed and told the clones to look closer through them for anything that he could use.

It was at that point that one of his clones opened a door and Naruto stopped walking as he focused his entire attention on that clone. Only a moment passed before he realized what he was looking at and he quickly turned around and made for the room that the clone had found. Passing a few of his wandering creations, he moved through the large training room and to the open doorway at the back.

The room was full of shelves with small cubby holes with little trays and each was still full of small parts and pieces. In a moment, he confirmed what he was looking at as he glanced over several workbenches and schematics on the walls. It was a lightsaber construction room, and it was fully stocked with parts. Standing dumbfounded for a second, Naruto quickly realized why no one had bothered to pilfer from the room.

The parts required for lightsaber creation, aside from the crystal, weren't all that useful in much else and really couldn't be sold for much of a profit. Walking through the room he looked over the parts and recognized older versions of pieces that he had sought out and acquired in order to build his own lightsaber months previously.

'I spent _weeks_ collecting all of those parts and from different vendors to keep the sales and procurement a secret!' he internally raged and felt like he had wasted his time while standing inside the discovered room of parts. Everything was there that he had needed, all in one place. Not only that, but all of the parts he brought with him to create the Hutt lightsaber were now just taking up space in a storage scroll on the ship.

Sitting at a bench, he laid his head down on his forearms over the cool surface of the worktable and tried to get a grip on his emotions. Waving off the clone, he spent a few minutes alone before getting up and heading out of the room. 'I don't even want to look at it. It'll be there when I get back after finding the crystals.' he thought with a deep breath and as he walked back to the staircase, determined to put the existence of such a room out of his mind, his wish was granted. Something out of the corner of his eye, made Naruto stop and look at one of his clones, curious to know what it was doing.

Having disconnected himself from the remaining clones while focusing on the parts room, he hadn't considered that one of the other clones might find something of more or equal interest. Reconnecting with his clone, Naruto examined through what it had found.

He had almost dismissed the clones thoughts and images as unimportant but it soon garnered his full attention and he walked up to the clone, bending over in a mirror image of what the clone was doing and started staring through a hole in the wall along the floor. Evidently, the dead creatures in the hallways had all come from the hole, or had at least broken through it in order to get into the Enclave, but that was not what caught his interest.

The hole was not a tunnel as one would expect and there was no dirt from the ground present at the entrance or inside. Through the darkness, his clone could make out a room room behind the solid brick wall and as Naruto bent over to look into the small hole at ground level, in order to examine it for himself, he really wanted to know what was in there.

Standing back up at the same time, the clone looked to it's creator for instruction and Naruto made a motion as if to say, 'Go on.' Understanding what it was being ordered to do, the clone got on the ground and crawled through the hole. As Naruto watched his own legs and feet disappear into the hole, he dulled his connection with all of his other clones in order to remain highly focused on the one behind the wall.

The room was dark and his clone struggled to find anything or see anything. The sub-level had no lighting and being inside the hole meant that the clone was basically in complete darkness. Realizing that it would be easier if he gave the clone something which he had brought for such a reason, Naruto took a glowrod out of his ninja pouch, turned it on, and tossed it into the hole.

The illumination immediately helped the clone out and it took the stick while holding it up to the walls in order to get a better understanding of what it was looking at. The room was small, no larger than a holding cell but it was the fact that at the opposite end from the hole, a large metal door was present, which really made the find worth while. The tunnel through which the creatures had come through was also nearby but had collapsed and closed it off.

Looking at the wall, Naruto contemplated smashing it in but decided for a more subtle approach. Deliberately making slow handseals, he performed an earth jutsu. The brick turned into mud and then melted onto the floor, but before the jutsu was over, it quickly reshaping into a ramp and solidified. Walking into the small room or really corridor, Naruto looked to his left to find his clone cowering in the corner and trying to shield it's face from an explosion that it believed was coming.

Frowning, Naruto tried to overlook the clone's actions as he walked to the door and looked it over. He examined the simple looking deterrent, and also ignored the sigh of relief when the clone lowered it's arms and realized that the wall would not be getting pulverized inward. Noting the control panel, and the buttons present, Naruto found himself disappointed the discovery.

'It's just a normal door,' he realized and was hoping for something more complex, sophisticated, or at least bulky. The simpleness implied that what lay beyond was not of any importance or significance. 'Not even any security systems. Did they brick over this by mistake or something?' he wondered and decided to do what was available to him and touched the control. He expected the panel to be non-responsive, given that the building was not hooked up to power, however it lit up upon his touch and the door began slowly opening, straining and making noises as it did so.

Naruto was even more surprised at the outcome than his clone was. 'None of my scans showed any power source being active or even a single electrical reading from the building,' he remembered and after the door fully opened, Naruto didn't move at all from his position. The light from the glowrod shone into the room but it was not enough to provide him with anything substance, save for a circular area of the floor in the darkness.

'Leave it to the Jedi to secure a hidden room with a normal door...and leave it unlocked,' he thought while looking to the room. Looking then to the clone, Naruto promptly said, "You go first." The clone frowned and mumbled something which Naruto ignored. As the copy hesitantly moved through the door frame, a thin plane of blue light was created above the clone and it quickly moved down towards the clone's head.

Naruto thought it was some kind of laser security system but it turned out to simply be a full-body scanner of some type. The scanner did not dispel the clone and it moved from head to toe before stopping. Before the clone made another step into the room, overhead lights began slowly turning on. The clone turned back around, and didn't have to wait long before it was given instructions, "Whatever that scanner is, I want you to disable it," ordered Naruto as he didn't want to be scanned.

No security measures or alarm had been triggered, which made him wonder what exactly was being scanned for. Most scanners were not visible and though he had stepped through numerous doors and been scanned by different systems for weapons or explosives, he didn't know what Jedi would need with such a scanner. 'If the Jedi even knew about this room,' he quickly considered as from what little Plagueis knew about the Enclave, it had been destroyed and rebuilt several times. 'Someone else could have also taken over or at least used the building during times in which the Jedi were not present,' Naruto considered.

Once the clone had successfully disabled the device, Naruto stepped through and looked over the large room. It was rectangular with two openings that presumably led to another adjacent room or area that was not sealed with a door. He quickly identified the room as some kind of laboratory, with numerous computers and instruments as well as work stations and a single medical examination table. However, he wasn't sure what kind of lab it was or what the individuals that had once worked in the lab were doing.

Moving closer to the devices, he was instantly on guard when a unnoticed door opened. Several droids flooded into the room and Naruto drew his sword ready to take them out, except they didn't move to attack and were not armed. The droids quickly moved around him to areas of the surrounding room and began examining equipment as well as apparently running diagnostics on various systems. Lowering his sword, Naruto moved to the doorway they had come from and found a small droid maintenance room.

The droids were humanoid but of a model that he was not familiar with. Watching them work for a few seconds, he noted that they were completely ignoring him or unconcerned with his presence. They never tried to address him or even glanced in his direction. Naruto soon resumed his walk towards the devices and began looking them over while dodging the movements of the droids and trying not to get himself run into as the droids fulfilled their programming with little regard for anyone in the room. Touching a nearby counter surface, Naruto looked at his finger to find that he hadn't collected any dust. 'Do they routinely clean and maintain everything in the room?' he wondered before continuing his inspection of the room.

'This looks like equipment for genetics work,' Naruto believed and wondered if it was some kind of genetic engineering laboratory. Curious what was kept in the adjoining room, Naruto began walking toward one of the openings and he noted that a few of the droids had finished with the equipment and had sat down at the workstations to go over something on the computers.

Before Naruto got the chance to step into the unexplored room, his clone was quickly dispelled and in the second it took for the memories to enter his mind, he turned on his heel and threw his sword at the droid that was standing near where his clone had been. Said droid was impaled and dropped to the ground and sparked a few times before presumably shutting down or losing power. Glancing warily at the other droids, Naruto was surprised by their response.

The droids looked to their damaged companion but soon resumed their duties. Walking to the downed droid, Naruto went to pull his sword from it's torso when it's hand shot up and grabbed his arm. Surprised by the sudden movement, Naruto was about to cut the droid down when it's strong grip loosened and it collapsed back to the floor. Taking a deep breath, Naruto kicked the droid once to make sure it was down and then sheathed his sword.

A slight sting in his forearm made him roll up his cloak and he found a smear of blood but only a small wound no larger than pin prick but he didn't get the chance to examine it any further as a smaller droid came from the maintenance room to drag the droid back for repairs. He eyed both droids before they disappeared into the maintenance room.

The memories from the clone did not give him much information about why it had been dispelled but he thought that clone's arm had also been grabbed by the droid after it had suddenly stood up from one of the workstations and developed an interest in the clone. Eying the rest of the droids, in case they were about to try something too, he thought perhaps he should disable the lot before relenting and moving to the back area. As he turned the corner, Naruto found a row of equipment that was primarily comprised of tall tubes. Either in total were all lined up equally spaced along one side of the narrow but long room.

'Stasis tubes?' Naruto questioned as he moved to the first one, seeing some kind of shadow figure inside. As he approached the shadow was given form as that of a person that seemed to be sleeping. Naruto took a step back, he looked to the nearby controls to see if the person was alive but realized that what he was looking may not have been a stasis tube because there were no life-signs coming from the person or evidence of stasis, and they were encased in a blueish fluid that was certainly not bacta.

'This is a either some kind of preservation tank, or it's...,' he trailed off as he began to realize what he was dealing with. Idly noting that one of the droids had ventured into the back room with him and was also looking over the tubes, he remained as alert as possible but continued down the line to find another one of the other tanks also had something in it. The second tank's contents came into view and was a disfigured man of similar build and hair color as the first.

'This is a small cloning facility...or at least an experimental cloning laboratory,' Naruto guessed and he stepped away from the tanks, moving back towards the entrance to the room. As he walked, he kept an eye on all of the droids that he could see and they still ignored his presence. Shutting the door behind him, Naruto moved out from the hidden room and then used an earth jutsu to reseal the wall, only without the hole.

'I'm in a little over my head here,' he admitted and decided to make a call.

x-x

A beeping disturbed Kabuto from his work and he glanced back to his nearby communicator that he had left on a table nearby. Sighing about what it could be about, because no one else but their group ever called him, the snake-like man soon said, "Accept," and the voice command activated the holoprojector while Kabuto kept looking at the screen that was showing him a magnified view of his sample. He thought perhaps it was the Demon Brothers again but he was incorrect.

"Kabuto," greeted Naruto and despite years of being a spy and infiltrating villages under scrutiny, Kabuto still couldn't keep himself from tensing upon recognizing the voice. Quickly moving his attention to the small projection of the teen, Kabuto replied, "Naruto-kun, I wasn't expecting to hear from you."

The projection gave Kabuto a inquisitive look before stating, "I find myself in a situation where I could use the expertise of someone with more theoretical and experimentation medical knowledge than myself."

Giving Naruto a slightly surprised look, Kabuto inquired, "Are you asking me for help?" It was not something that Naruto did very often. He gave orders and demanded things but rarely asked anyone for help. Naruto, however, was unfazed by the question and quickly responded with a simple statement, "No."

"But you'd like for me provide some assistance, either traveling to where you currently are or giving my input through a communication device on very technical subjects?" Kabuto asked for clarification and was slightly amused by where the conversation was headed.

"Yes," was Naruto's reply and Kabuto nearly laughed before containing himself and turning away from the projection to look back at his viewscreen. What Naruto was asking simply wasn't feasible for him and he responded as such, "Semantics aside, I believe you are quite far away from me. I can't spend several weeks traveling. I'd miss my courses and have a difficult time making it up. You are after all paying for my education," he pointed out and wondered what Naruto would respond with.

It wasn't actually that big of a deal for him to miss a week or more but over that amount and he would have difficulty catching up to the rest of his classmates. Kabuto did not see Naruto try and get a better view of Kabuto's surroundings as the holoprojector did not provide more than the outline of Kabuto and the man's immediate vicinity so he asked, "Where are you right now?"

Kabuto briefly turned back to the projection and said, "On my ship," before looking back at his screen and jotting down some notes on what he was seeing in the tissue sample he was studying.

"Good," replied Naruto and he knew that Kabuto kept the ship away from prying eyes so no one would see what he was about to do. Unbeknownst to Kabuto, because he wasn't looking at the projection, Naruto went through several handseals before bending down, out of sight, and touching the ground.

The image went to static for a few seconds before the connection was restored and Kabuto felt something happen, though he wasn't sure what. Looking up around him, Kabuto thought about going to the cockpit and checking the sensors to see if something was happening around him. 'A small earth quake, far away perhaps,' he idly thought and looked back to the projector to find Naruto looking back at him.

"I'm not sure what that was but I lost your transmission for a second," explained Kabuto and Naruto replied, "As I said, I could use your expertise. Since you said you don't have much time to spare, you should probably hurry up."

Thoroughly confused and knowing that Naruto wasn't usually so stubborn, Kabuto asked, "Where exactly is it that I need to take my ship?"

"No where, you're already here," responded Naruto and the transmission ended before Kabuto could say anything further. About to try and message Naruto back, Kabuto stopped when he heard a loud tapping sound coming from below. His sixty six meter long Maka-Eekai L4000 Transport had three levels to it and he was currently on the uppermost. Moving to the turbo lift to get to the lowest level, and passing all of the equipment that he had stored in order to reach the large loading ramp at the front nose of the ship, where the noise was coming from.

When he reached the front of the ship, Kabuto quickly prepared himself and took out a hidden blaster as he looked to the nearby console and turned on the outside holocam to get a view of who was outside. Greeted with sight of Naruto, who promptly waved at the holocam before taking his sword and tapped the end portion of the hilt against the ship's hull again, a befuddled Kabuto pulled the ramp release lever and it slowly lowered.

It took several seconds for Naruto to be revealed, mostly because the teen was still rather short for his age and once the ramp was down on the grassy ground, Kabuto slowly descended the ramp. The white haired man looked all around him as he viewed an unfamiliar landscape, one that certainly wasn't the same as where he had parked his ship.

"Where am I?" asked Kabuto as he tried to get his bearings but didn't recognize anything about his location.

"Dantooine." Naruto simply replied and started walking away from the ship, expecting Kabuto to follow. It took a few seconds before Kabuto realized that Naruto was leaving him behind and he hurried to catch up so he could ask his next question, "How did I get here?"

It was at that moment that Kabuto noted the large building that Naruto seemed to be heading towards and he nearly missed the response to his question, "I summoned you here, or rather, I summoned your ship."

"You can do that?" questioned Kabuto and he was quickly met with a rather disbelieving look from Naruto. Realizing what he had said and the situation, Kabuto was left to think, 'Yes he can, since he obviously just did.' Shaking the thoughts out of his head, and finally understanding where he was, Kabuto inquired, "What was it that you needed my help with?"

Naruto simply replied, "You'll see,' and the answer frustrated Kabuto which only made Naruto smile slightly as he could rarely get such a reaction out of Kabuto.

x-x

Many different thoughts went through Kabuto's head as they traveled the distance between a landing pad and through a building that was completely unknown to him. At first, the white-haired man thought the location was part of a secretive side projects that the teen was keeping from Plagueis but that thought was dashed aside when he remembered that Naruto had specifically been sent to the planet on an errand. 'It's unlikely that he's been here before, if what the Demon Brothers said is to be believed. So he can't possibly be showing me what he's been up to,' thought a slightly disappointed Kabuto as he followed along.

The basement area was damp and smelled as such. Kabuto also noted the numerous carapaces on the floor and wanted to collect a few for study but refrained as Naruto didn't seem to have led him into the underground hallway in order to show him the dead insects. It wasn't until they reached a mud wall that stood out rather glaringly from the surrounding brickwork that Kabuto knew they had arrived.

Watching Naruto make a few handseals, the mud wall dispersed to the floor, making a ramp for them to walk through and in the darkness, Kabuto could make out a hidden door. The control panel was soon activated by Naruto and the door opened to reveal a well lit room. Seeing that Naruto was tense and ready for action, Kabuto decided to slowly move behind Naruto and enter the room as alert as possible.

Sticking the tip of his sword in first, Naruto tilted the blade so the mirror-like reflection gave him a good view of the room and he searched for any of the droids. Once he was sure that no droids were moving around, he walked through the door but he was caught by surprise when the scanning device at the doorway activated and started trying to scan him before he ducked down and his sword went through a part of the device, effectively disabling it.

"Security system?" questioned Kabuto as he looked around the door frame and Naruto quickly replied, "Some kind of scanner. I disabled it earlier but those droids must have repaired it while I was gone." The realization was not comforting as he hadn't been gone for that long and he was again surprised as one of the droids came out of the open back room and headed for the droid station door instead of to the front door of the lab.

Tense but letting the droid go, Naruto sheathed his sword and pulled out his lightsaber. As soon as the droid entered the door and it shut behind it, Naruto activated the plasma weapon and tapped two areas in the corner between the door and the door frame. An ozone smell soon filled the area around him as the metal melted and essentially welded two small portions of the door to the frame.

Moving to check over the laboratory to make sure the droids were all trapped inside the room, Naruto relaxed slightly and returned his weapon to a small holster on his belt beneath his cloak. Turning to Kabuto, he found the man rather interested in his weapon and eying the area his hand had just moved too in order to put it away. The other members of the group had seen lightsabers before but not for an extended period of time and never actually held or had used one.

Realizing that Naruto wasn't going to elaborate on the weapon or let him see it, Kabuto smiled and asked, "So this is what you wanted me to see?"

Naruto nodded and then replied, "I believe this is some kind of experimental cloning facility..." and before Kabuto could say anything in response, Naruto continued, "However I haven't had a chance to look at everything, nor do I really have the time and knowledge to understand it all. There are no organic beings through which to drain knowledge, only the droids that maintain the facility. I'll therefore need you to look through everything here while I finish the task that I was assigned. I won't see you for the next few days."

Immensely surprised and excited over the find, Kabuto didn't directly respond to Naruto's explanation and statement, instead he went to explore the room and learn as much as he could. A small smile formed on Naruto's face as he watched Kabuto become completely mesmerized with the laboratory and he decided to leave a clone inside the building to check in on the white-haired former spy. 'Because I have other things to accomplish,' he recalled as he turned towards a direction of the room and received memories from a dispelled clone that his search groups had found an entrance to cave that wasn't far from the Enclave.

x-x

Close to the Saleucami System

x-x

"I have finished calculating the exact position of the Saleucami moons in relation to the planet's current orbit and Saleucami's current orbital position around the system's sun. We will come out of hyperspace extremely close to the dark side of the second moon but within acceptable parameters. We will then use the _Tsukinowa_'s repulsorlift system and landing legs to hide on the planet's surface and avoid detection by any scans emanating from Saleucami or ships in the system.

After that we will keep the transports on standby to attack as soon as the convoy is detected. We have the means to scramble and jam the convoy's sensor and communications systems to disguise our approach but they could still spot us. If the _Tsukinowa_'s jammers are powerful enough, they may also be able to obfuscate the planet's sensors as well but we should not assume this will happen.

In order to identify the correct transport, our ships will have to get close and identify transponder codes as well as scan each ship to determine which is holding the droids. I want confirmation before we start boarding and taking over the wrong ship. While the scanning is going on, half of our ships will target the lead ship in the convoy and disable it's engines after making sure it is not the ship that we will capture. Techno Union ships such as this all travel in a single-file line formation in order to maximize the effectiveness of their rotating defenses and prevent them from hitting the other ships in the convoy.

With the first ship disabled, the others will have to perform evasive maneuvers. They are too large and too slow to all turn in the same direction and keep formation, so they will split up. We will take this opportunity to find and capture droid containing transport and leave with the ship before the others can regroup or forces from Saleucami can muster and attack us," explained Plagueis as he went over the plan of attack that he had come up with.

Attending the meeting in the large conference room were the Demon Brothers, HK-47, and over twenty other Smoke Demons who were manning the various transport ships that were in the _Tsukinowa'_s cargo hold. Each transport was loaded to the brim with a contingent of battle droids boarding parties and were ready to take off as soon as they arrived in the Saleucami system.

Taking in the plan they were about an hour or more away from enacting, Meizu raised his hand and Plagueis nodded to him that he could speak, "What about the other ships in the convoy? Are we leaving them and just going after the one transport?"

Contemplating what Meizu was asking, Plagueis soon realized why he was asking such a question, 'I see, so Naruto would have gone with a plan that maximized the amount of ships captured. Risky but with great rewards, I suppose,' he thought and considered changing his plan but decided against it. "Our mission is to target the ship containing the droids. All other ships are secondary and we will only go after other ships if the situation is in our favor and therefore minimize our losses on this operation," said Plagueis as he responded to the question with a very logical answer, but he found that many of the gathered group were less than satisfied with his answer. 'They'd prefer to capture all the ships that they can,' he quickly realized and was intrigued by the seemingly unanimous thinking of the group.

It was Gozu who interrupted his thoughts and spoke up to ask, "And we know that these transports will be unprotected?"

"Unlike the Commerce Union and it's Punitive Security Forces, or the Trade Federation and it's droid armies and Trade Defense Force, the Techno Union does not have security forces or a dedicated defense force through which to guard it's commerce vessels and assets. I have calculated the possible hyperspace exit points for the convoy based upon the route that they are traveling and each puts the ships arriving a short distance from the planet.

We should expect that once detected by the planet's sensors, that at least a squadron of Vulture droids will be launched, if not more. I cannot say if the Techno Union has other ships in the area or waiting to launch on the planet's surface. In the first five to ten minutes of the assault, we should expect some opposition in addition to defensive fire from the convoy but there is nothing to suggest that defensive ships will be traveling with the convoy in order to protect it and these Hardcell vessels do not have a hangar through which to carry any starfighters." Answered Plagueis and though his explanation was well received, he detected something else among the members of the group in front of him.

'A lack of confidence in my plan, or is it a lack of confidence in me as the commander?' the Sith Lord wondered and did not like the current thoughts of the group. 'Would they be more confident and prepared if Naruto was here instead? Well, he did create most of them after all and has been leading them for months,' he thought and ended the meeting before heading back to his cabin to meditate on the coming raid.

With the Sith Lord gone and the Smoke Demons filing out, the two Demon Brothers and HK waited for Plagueis to get far enough away before beginning a separate meeting. "What do you think of his plan?" inquired Gozu to the droid and HK thought for a moment before replying, "Analysis: The theory is sound but the application could lead to problems or failure of the mission. Should the vessels detect our approach or jam our scans before we are able to identify the ship that is the primary objective, it could get away. According to the manifests for the others ships, the transport containing the droids is the most expensive cargo as well as the most valued to any pirate. The Meatbags aboard may realize what we are after and move that ship away from the group to escape while protecting it."

The brothers looked to each other and Meizu spoke their thoughts on the matter, "We should prepare the device before arriving and have it ready to use in case of problems. Plagueis never mentioned if he was staying on the ship or captaining a transport, do you think one of us should stay here and monitor the situation from the _Tsukinowa_ if he joins the raid?"

"Response: That is advisable. One of you staying would be less noticeable than myself and an provide support in the form of launching droid fighters, interstellar tugs to capture a disabled vessel, and the disruptor field," stated the assassin droid and the two nodded before getting up and preparing for the battle ahead.

x-x

Dantooine

x-x

Waiting for a group of the yellowish creatures to pass by, Naruto came out of the rock wall and looked around the dark tunnel he was in. It was only lit by the numerous, large crystal formations that were dotted along the walls and path. He did not know what creatures had made a home out of the cave system but they certainly did not like him and attacked whenever he encountered them. They had four legs with another leg or arm coming out of their front, beneath the head. It appeared to have a poisoned barb and was likely used solely for fighting.

Pulling out his sword and activating his red lightsaber, Naruto moved farther into the crystal caves and knew that he was reaching the edge of what a sensor scan from Kabuto's ship was able to map out for him. 'When Plagueis mentioned a cave, he failed to say anything about this expansive network of caverns and tunnels,' thought Naruto as he prepared to go outside of his map. While he could merge with the wall, he needed to find crystals and trying to feel through the rock was more difficult than being out in the tunnel.

In one of his back pouches was a blue crystal that he had already collected. The handheld scanner he had brought, identified it as an adegan crystal by the lattice structure and it was more than sufficient for use in a lightsaber, 'I could even make several lightsaber crystals from it,' Naruto thought as he had only broken off a small portion of the overall growth which he had chosen. Though the crystal was sufficient and he could have used a piece of it in his own lightsaber, he was still searching the cave system in order to find something...unique, for himself.

'Something should call out to me, whatever that means, but so far I haven't heard anything. However, I don't even know what I am supposed to be listening or feeling for,' he thought and debated about heading back. It would take a few days to correctly imbue the crystal that he had and building a lightsaber with the parts provided by the Enclave would be relatively easy but something kept pushing him forward and into, what he presumed, were the lowest levels of the crystal caves.

'How far down have I even traveled?' he wondered but pushed that thought aside, knowing that he could easily get to the surface with jutsu, even if he managed to get himself lost.

x-x

Furiously reading through experimental data, theory, and pertinent information that was presented, Kabuto absorbed all the knowledge he could about the process and goals of the project he was dealing with. Cloning was a taboo subject during his recent medical education because cloning was illegal in the Republic and only a few species in the Galaxy used cloning. Although Orochimaru had indulged in the subject, the snake-sannin did not have the equipment or technology available to further explore the capabilities of the cloning.

'Nor did he have growth accelerators,' mused Kabuto as he had already determined that the primary goal of the laboratory was not simply to experiment with cloning but to delve into a single difficult aspect of the technology: creating a fully-grown, adult clone in a very short amount of time. From what he gathered from the data he was sifting through, the minimum amount of time necessary for creating a fully-grown clone was about a year. Most Cloners used more than a year for growing adult clones and this was due to a phenomenon that had been discovered during the course of experimenting with faster growths rates that was sometimes dubbed 'clone madness.'

The affliction occurred in most clones which were grown in under a standard year and was characterized as having both physical and psychological effects. Some clones with such highly accelerated growth rates developed seemingly random and unexpected deformities or series genetic ailments that rapidly degenerated and led to the death of the clone. However, more often than not, clone madness was associated with a significant increase in aggression and violence as well as dementia or psychosis.

Clone madness could also result when significant memories were implanted into clones from the original genetic donor. This was done to decrease the time needed for a clone to learn something new or adapt to being grown so quickly and not having a proper education or life experiences. However problems could be created because the fast grown clones could develop identity disorders, have difficulty differentiating between reality and memories, often resulting in insanity. The psychological problems were really the reasoning for the name that the complication was given and apparently the disease was most prominent when cloning subjects that had higher midi-chlorian counts.

'So they were cloning Force-sensitives,' Kabuto gathered, 'And it seems that whoever was performing this research, was trying to reduce the prescribed limit for development down from a year...to less than three weeks for a fully grown adult,' he realized with great interest as he opened more files and sections of the database. Eight working cloning tanks could be invaluable to them, 'Especially because it would normally be almost impossible to get our hands on a single functioning cloning tank,' he recalled as from what Plagueis had mentioned, Cloners tended to covet their technology and experience.

'I believe Naruto mentioned being gone for several days and I can make up some excuse for my classes. This is far more important. The best place to start would be to look at their failures and successes, specially the test subjects,' thought Kabuto as he began searching through the database and quickly found detailed files on all the attempts that were made at creating a viable clone or improving the cloning process.

"So many...," said Kabuto out loud as he looked through the long list of cloning attempts that had been made over an unknown period of time. He knew that he wouldn't have time to read through them all, 'But I should be able to go through a large number and determine what progress they've made from the initial start of the program to the most recent attempts,' he planned and opened the first file.

x-x

Saleucami System

Second moon of Saleucami

x-x

'I'm even more worried over the outcome of this mission than I was earlier,' realized Plagueis as he sat at the helm of the _Vulture_. All the normal telltale signs were present in his Mustafarian body or at least as many as the typical symptoms of nervousness allowed on such a different physiology. 'I can't remember the last time I felt like this,' he thought as he failed to recall a specific instance of such feelings during his life when he had his original body.

The other eleven raiding ships were all stationed nearby, systems idling, and parked on the moon's barren surface. He was going to be leading an entire group of ships, six in total, and their part of the mission was to correctly identify cargo and find the mission-critical transport. Stopping his fingers from tapping on the controls for what felt like the sixth time, the Sith Lord's head jerked towards the sensor readout that soon began indicating. It was informing him of approaching ships coming out of hyperspace.

He inhaled deeply and his body's heart raced as he prepared the ship and started bringing all systems online in order to take off from the moon. As soon as ships started appearing from hyperspace, Plagueis quickly scanned them and determined that the vessels were of Techno Union design and most likely what they were after. Eight ships in total and all arrived one after another in a line, just as he had predicted that they would.

"Launch. Maximum sublight," ordered the Sith Lord over a secure comm channel and all ships proceeded to leave the surface of the moon. It had no atmosphere and therefore gave no air resistance to the ships as they accelerated towards the convoy. Each ship was moderately spaced apart from each other in order to avoid incident during hyperspace entrance and exit but they were soon forming back up into a tighter line formation.

With the hidden _Tsukinowa_ using sensor jammers, they should catch the ships by surprise, at least for the first thirty seconds of their operation. Halfway to the convoy, the group of twelve raiding ships split up into two even groups and changed course. One group, led by Plagueis, moved to fly in a sweeping arc that would take them to the last ship in the line and they would fly by at close range in order to identify transponder codes and cargo because their small transports did not have powerful enough scanners to get the information from a distance.

The other group, led by HK, would fly towards the lead ship and give a minute window of time for Plagueis to begin scanning the other ships. One of their group would break away from the other five and scan the lead ship on it's own. If it was not the one they were after, then the other five would immediately begin their attack run to disable the ship.

Finishing the arc, Plagueis slowed down his ships so they could properly scan each ship. Transponder codes soon came for the ship they were approaching and it didn't match the information they had been given, but Plagueis still piloted his ship close the length of the larger transport's hull in order to scan the cargo. While he may not be able to correctly determine what all the ship was carrying, he could determine if droids were present and differentiate between droids and construction materials.

As the Sith Lord determined that the ship was not the one they were after, he sped up his group and headed for the next one. He was careful to try and avoid the firing arcs of the laser cannons of the ships despite that it hadn't started firing which likely meant that his group hadn't been noticed yet. Flying to avoid the view ports of the cockpits as much as possible, the ships in his group split into three groups of two ships each and started moving towards different transports to scan.

Far up ahead of him, the lone ship from HK's group was making it's flyby of the lead ship. In a few moments, a voice that Plagueis identified as Meizu came over the secure channel they were using and said, "Negative for the first ship." Making a quick decision, because they had yet to be spotted or fired upon by the convoy, Plagueis decided to make their presence known while they still had the element of surprise, "Commence your attack run."

No sooner had he given the order than he could see red laser fire up head which was shortly followed by an explosion that produced no sound. Just finishing his scan of the second ship and finding it's codes and cargo did match what he was after, Plagueis watched as the remaining transports began evasive maneuvers to get around the disabled ship and began turning in different directions while firing upon the smaller ships.

'Five ship's left,' he thought and began dodging green laser fire from the scattering ships. Knowing that the assassin droid's group was likely attacking as much as scanning the other ships near the front of the convoy, he ignored the actions in favor of find the ship they were after. As his group dismissed three more ships from the possible eight, the Vulture shook slightly as the shields absorbed a hit from the large transports and a new message came through their comm channel, "They're using some kind of jamming now. You won't be able to get readings on their cargo anymore," said someone through the comm channel.

"I've found the ship with the matching transponder codes," said Gozu and each ship in their party quickly received the coordinates of one of the two remaining ships. "Board it," Plagueis quickly ordered as he realized that he was not as close as others ship in their party were to the ship. As he continued to move around the other transports and evade laser fire, Plagueis wondered what ship Gozu was on. The message about the jamming signal had seemingly come from the _Tsukinowa_.

'Perhaps he stayed to make use of it's more powerful sensor suite to find the ship with the correct transponder codes,' he quickly realized and wondered why he hadn't thought of such a thing. Since he Gozu had stayed, he also wondered if it was something that Naruto would have done, or did in the past. Pushing the thoughts aside, he waited for HK and his boarding parties to capture the ship and used his group to make attack runs on the remaining transports in order to keep them from coming to the aid of the boarded ship.

A short time elapsed before the droid's voice came over the comm system, "Complication: There are no droids aboard this vessel." The message was brief and for a second or two after it ended, Plagueis stopped his maneuvering and the _Vulture_ flew in a straight path before he started scanning for the last ship. 'The information from the Black Sun was wrong, if we don't get to that ship..,' but his thoughts trailed off as the sensors found the remaining ship.

The last ship was moving away from the battle area and it's flight was being protected by two of the other transports. In a short amount of time, it would be far enough away from the other ships and raid to safely make a jump to hyperspace. Signaling to any ship in his vicinity, Plagueis immediately changed course to attack the fleeing ship.

Going over it's coordinates and the distance between them, 'I may not make it in time,' he realized and a horrible feeling came over him as he considered that despite all his planning and what he had told Naruto, the mission may turn into a failure. 'I can't fail,' he thought while his heart beat out of his chest and he pushed the sublight engines to their limits. Taking fire from one of the other transports, he compromised between making the necessary maneuvers to dodge all the laser cannon fire and making the shortest course between him and the fleeing ship.

Taking heavy fire, the shields began to notify him of their imminent failure and to make matters worse, another message came over the comm system, "Two squadrons of fighters coming from the planet." It was Gozu's voice again and soon enough, his sensors alerted him to the incoming ships. They were slightly faster than he was and making the needed calculations he determined, 'I'll reach the transport as soon as the fighters reach me...and that's only if the ship doesn't enter hyperspace first.'

The closer he got to the ship, the more he realized that he might not make it, in terms of the success of the mission and also in terms of making it out alive. The fighters would rip through what was left of his shields before he could significantly damage or board the transport. Though two ships had come with him, they were a good distance behind him and even if they were flying in formation with him, he wasn't sure that would be enough to deal with the fighters and the transport.

'If my student can complete sixteen missions without my help then I can at least complete the seventeenth,' thought the Sith Lord and he pushed on regardless of the foreseeable consequences. Plagueis quickly signaled his gunners as to the direction of the incoming fighters and armed all of the concussion missiles that he had for use against the transport.

Almost within range of the ship, the Sith Lord realized that it was powering up to jump to hyperspace. His instruments were reading that a hyperspace window was moments from forming. 'I failed..,' concluded Plagueis as the fighters closed in on his ships. In the moment before the ship disappeared into the invisible hyperspace window, all of the instruments on the Vulture registered an energy pulse of some kind.

The Techno Union transport stalled in space and began listing. Unaffected by the pulse, Plagueis however kept his course, shocked and confused over what had happened. It was only when a collision alert sounded that he took the controls and avoided collided with the disabled Techno Union transport. Realizing that the fighters were still coming, he checked the scanners and found that they too had been affected by something. His gunners where shooting all of the Vulture droids out of the sky with ease and only a few shots were being fired back, which missed by a good margin. One of the fighters even collided with the transport.

Turning his ship around, Plagueis watched as several interstellar tugs arrived and began docking with the transport along with a few of their ships. The tugs would prepare the ship for transport and take it into hyperspace while the two arriving raiding ships would dock and deposit their boarding parties. Thoroughly confused at the sudden turn of events, the Sith Lord decided to return his damaged ship back to the _Tsukinowa_ before further reinforcements from the planet could arrive or one of the transports got within range of him. There was nothing else he could do at the moment and it seemed that he wasn't needed.

x-x

Sitting in the captain's chair on the bridge, Gozu hailed his brother and HK. Turning to the puddle-like viewscreen, he looked to both individuals on a split-screen view. "The tugs are arriving for capture of the disabled first transport ship. Can your captured transport ship still fly?" he asked HK and the droid nodded that it could as he stood on the bridge of the captured transport.

"Statement: I will have my raiding party protect the tugs while the pilot droids I brought take this ship to Sarafur," said the droid and Meizu quickly asked, "What about the other transports?"

"We don't have time to take the other, even if they are damaged. I think we should take the three and leave before we lose any of our ships," put forth Gozu and the others agreed. Though they were giving up five other transports, they had yet to lose a single ship from their raiding party. Several of the tugs were redirected from the primary objective to secure the disabled ship and Gozu prepared the _Tsukinowa_ for takeoff.

'I have no idea how to answer him if he asks about the device,' admitted Gozu concerning the Sith Lord as he had the droids in the cargo hold power it down. Naruto likely wanted to keep it a secret for longer but it was an impossible decision. The mission took priority over keeping secrets, 'And I'm not even sure why he wanted to keep it such a secret. He didn't even really tell us about it, where he got it, or how it works,' admitted Gozu and he had no idea what the fallout would be from his actions.

'I really wish I knew what could fix the problems between the two of them,' Gozu thought as he watched several ships returning and could tell through the sensors that two of the captured transports were entering hyperspace.

x-x

Stepping onto the surface of the _Tsukinowa_'s cargo hold from the ramp of the _Vulture_, Plagueis slowly walked to the edge of the hold and along the interior wall to avoid any ships that were arriving. Deep in thought, he ignored everything else and focused on the recent events. Looking once again to his chronograph, he checked the time, which he still had set to Naboo time.

'It was all over in less than ten minutes,' he once again thought and still had trouble believing that so much had happened in such a short span of time. He always pictured a space battle as something long and drawn out, not short. 'Tthis was just a raid, but still, I would have thought more time elapsed than that,' he contemplated and guessed it must have had something to do with the three hours that they had waited for the ship's to arrive in the sector.

'It originated from here,' he recalled and stopped his slow walk to look over the cargo hold. Despite boarding the vessel, departing, and then arriving back, he hadn't really taken all of his surroundings in and spent most of the journey in the captain's cabin. 'So somewhere aboard this ship is a device that can disable ships,' he surmised as it seemed to be the logical conclusion.

A ship-disabling pulse had saved the mission from failure and it was only activated at the last possible moment. It was not a natural phenomenon or a freak accident, the Force, and certainly he was not going to believe in something as foolish as a miracle. 'No wonder he's completed sixteen successful mission. With something like that, entire battles could be decided with the flick of a switch,' he realized and decided to look for the device in question.

Letting his feet take him and the Force guide him, Plagueis continued walking along the very long circular hangar and cargo hold. 'I wonder how often he uses it. The more that is known about it, the easier it is to prepare for, so he must only use it in emergencies and it's obvious that the Demon Brothers or the Assassin droid also know about it. There are also ways to prevent it's effects,' he considered as his thoughts turned to the fact that everything in the area was affected, save for the _Vulture_ and the two ships which were traveling with him.

'They must have special shielding,' he guessed and found that he was more curious than anything else. 'I should be mad about this but I find myself relieved. The mission was almost a failure because I didn't account for such a scenario,' he realized and despite the fact that the mission was still finishing up, he also acknowledged that his input wasn't really needed. The others seemed more than capable of finishing it on their own, 'They likely were more than capable of performing the whole mission on their own, and achieving a better result than my plan provided. They could have even performed the mission without your input either, my student,' thought Plagueis as he recalled that Naruto had been training them but probably preferred to remain in complete control of the overall mission and would likely never send them on a solo mission.

Reaching the end of the port side hangar, Plagueis stopped and considered trying one of the small hangars above him or proceeding through the reactor area to the starboard side hangar. The ship had a strange configuration in that the reactors could be reached through the cargo hold. Such a design would normally be very strange as reaching such a sensitive area should be more difficult but it was present on all of the Lucrehulk ship's of that type. The Force however was telling him to proceed to the next hangar and so he did.

Large doors opened for him and he walked into part of the large reactor room. Passing numerous systems and other components that were all standard on such a ship, his attention was caught by the presence of multiple, large power cables that were going through an area of the bulkhead that led to the starboard side hangar. 'So it draws power directly from the main reactor,' Plagueis realized and wondered how power intensive the device was if it needed such a configuration.

Following the cables, he moved into the opposite hangar and found it full of landing craft that were loaded and ready to take off at a moments notice. The cables were attached along the wall of the hangar and moved down several hundred feet before stopping at an area that was surrounded by cargo containers.

Amused by the fact that it was so simply hidden, Plagueis walked through a gap in the containers and stopped as he found the device that he was after. Though he had imagined an immaculate looking piece of technology, what he found was something that had been cobbled together from various dissimilar parts that varied in color and were not put together in an aesthetically pleasing way. 'He made this?' questioned the Sith Lord and he had difficulty imagining how.

Naruto was intelligent and mechanically inclined, 'But there is no way that he could devise something like this, not even if he had shadow clones working around the clock. I doubt the Black Sun would give him something like this, I also find it hard to believe that even the Black Sun has something like this. That however begs the question of where he found the plans for such a device,' he questioned and approached the unfamiliar computer interface.

The device was currently not activated, or at least no power was being drawn from the reactor for it's activation and consumption. 'I have no idea how to activate this device. The controls seem to be labeled in a language I am not familiar with. Where did he get this?' Plagueis wanted to know and he walked around the entire device, examining ever inch of the ten meter long device. Cables extended out from the device, towards the nearby wall, and up through the ceiling, possibly towards one of the antenna or other devices on the ships sensor array.

Though he couldn't understand the controls, he could however guess what he was looking at, 'Some kind of powerful transmitter, though it is rather on the small side, however this might only be a portion of the device. Where was I when he was building this?' he wondered and had a feeling that the answer was relatively simply, 'Cooped up in my lab,' he admitted and was disappointed that he had not had more involvement in the device.

'So what else has he been keeping from me?' wondered the Sith Lord and as he proceeded to the nearest lift.

x-x

Dantooine

x-x

Landing on hard rock, Naruto stood from his crouched position and looked around. The air was far warmer than the cool breeze which had been coming in from the outside when he was at the mouth of the cave. The reason for the warmth was the volcanic activity that he was getting closer too. After traveling through an unknown distance of tunnels, he had eventually discovered the nest of the insectoid or arachnid species that inhabited the tunnels but detoured away from them as something had caught his interest.

At first he thought he was imagining it but the closer he got to whatever it was that he could feel, the stronger the feeling became. Moving down several tall shafts that had possibly once carried magma to higher levels, Naruto progressed deeper into the ground and through a series of natural formations that possessed lesser and lesser amounts of crystal formations. Now the colorful crystals were only sporadic and the darkness encroached around them, limiting his vision.

Wiping some sweat from his forehead, Naruto looked around to find himself in another small cave, but up ahead, he could see a red glow and believed it to be magma instead of a red crystal formation. Up until that point, he had seen lots of blue and green, and only small amounts of yellow and purple. Occasionally he had passed a few natural red crystals, most of which seemed to be growing out of areas with broken eggs from the creatures. None of those had called to him though and he proceeded onwards.

The thought of heading back to the surface briefly crossed his mind but he pushed it aside as he somehow knew that he was finally close. Moving down through a small opening, Naruto emerged in an underground chamber whose floor was literally covered with a pool or lake magma. The heat hit him full force and he pulled his cloak up to help shield his face from the intensity.

Moving it aside so he could get a look at the chamber area, he found a narrow path along the edge and along that path was where the feeling came from. It was difficult to see, in fact he couldn't actually see the crystal, but he knew that it was there. 'Damnit,' he thought and yelled out, "Couldn't you be a little closer to the surface like the others ones?" before he quickly realized that he was getting angry at a mineral formation.

Looking over the path along the wall, he contemplated climbing along the wall but that wouldn't have been much better and the wall did not look very stable with numerous veins and crevices that showed evidence of having collapsed into the magma lake. Glancing between the area he need to travel, and the bubbling lake, he calmed himself and decided to run out on the count of three. As he counted up to the predetermined number, three arrived but his legs remained motionless. 'I really don't want to go down there but I know it's there,' Naruto admitted to himself and decided to count again right when the entire area he was in started to rumble and shake.

'Not a good sign,' he thought and started counting again, however as soon as he said, 'One,' he ran down the narrow path and headed to the crystals location. Heat blasted him from all sides and despite holding up the cloak towards the lake, it didn't seem to be doing him any good. Stumbling slightly along the path, Naruto began to realize that perhaps it wasn't the rock as his feet began getting rather warm, 'I think my boots are melting,' he believed and moved faster until he reached the location.

'This is it, I can feel it,' he thought and covered himself while examining the area. Ignoring the bubbling of the close magma behind him, Naruto found a small crevice in the wall and could see a faint glow inside. He tried to get his hand through but it was too narrow and the rock too hot, so he resorted to taking out his sword. Without activating the vibration technology, he began chipping away at the surrounding rock, holding the pummel in one hand and part of the back side of the blade in the other.

Sweat dripped down his face and he could feel himself getting dizzy from the heat. Every breath he took felt like his lungs were burning and as the rock gave way to his blade, he stopped and reached through to grab what was there. The moment he touched the crystal, was the same moment that he remembered where he was and realized just how hot it was. Thankfully no one was around to hear him yell in pain.

His first instinct was to drop the object but he ignored that given his location and the fact that he may not be able to get it back so held firm as it burned his hand. Turning towards the opening he had come through, Naruto ignored the pain in his hand and ran to the exit. Stumbling as he went, from his shoes and his spinning vision, Naruto reached the exit and kept going. Cursing profusely, he moved up the shaft and then ran back towards an area that he had discovered earlier.

x-x

Moving at a fast pace for good distance, Naruto finally made it back to the underground lake he had discovered earlier. His body was still overheated and he found it difficult to think clearly. He didn't even realize that he could have used jutsu to get there but simply collapsed at the edge of the water and pulled himself into the shallow area. Sitting at the bottom of the cold water, a few bubbles escaped his mouth as he started letting some air out before leaning up to surface of the water and taking another breathe of air. Soaking in the cool water for possibly as much as ten minutes, he started to think more clearly as his body temperature cooled down.

Pulling himself up onto the beach he breathed out and pushed some of the water that had been dripping down around his mouth. Laying on the cool rocks, he looked up at the dark stalactites and blinked several times before he recognized intense pain coming from his hand. Realizing what it was, he quickly sat up and examined the crystal that he spent what must have been hours or perhaps the better part of a day journeying to find.

Finding what appeared to be a rock melted to his hand, Naruto pried the item from his burnt skin and suppressed a yell before he moved back to the water and shoved his hand into the cool liquid. Looking back to the stone that lay on the ground next to him, Naruto eyed it, thinking he had been jilted before he noted the slight orange glow on the underside. Using his good hand, he flipped the rock over, being careful as it was still very hot and found a small orange crystal imbedded into the rock on the underside. It resembled a quartz prism and was very small compared to the other crystals that he had seen that day, being only a fraction of their size.

Even the blue adegan crystal that he had was about four times it's size. Taking his eyes away from it for a moment, Naruto pulled his burned hand from the water and examined the unique burn mark that had formed from the prolonged contact with such a heated item. The crystal had direct contact with his skin and one of it's side was now imprinted into palm of his hand, along with a second degree burn surrounding it.

He stared at the prism symbol before using his good hand and went to a small etched plate on his belt, which was a storage seal. Since the incident on Tatooine, he had started carrying an entire scroll dedicated just to medical paraphernalia and likely had an entire medical bays worth of supplies and tools sealed into it.

Using the proper bandaging and burn cream, he dressed the wound and sighed in slight relief at the cooling feeling as the cream slowly did it's job. Sealing all the items back up, he then looked to the crystal. Reaching out, he gingerly touched the sides and found them still quite hot. Shaking his good hand as if he had touched a hot burner, which he had done once or twice back in his old apartment, Naruto instead used the Force to move the rock and crystal into the water.

He expected the quenching-like effect to stop in a few seconds time but the bubbling continued and after a few minutes in the water, he used the Force to remove the rock. What came out of the water was just the crystal alone, the rock having broken away from contact with the cool water. Pulling the hovering crystal towards his good hand, Naruto got his hand close to the crystal before yanking it back, finding that the crystal was still hot, possibly as hot as it was when he had first grabbed it.

'Seems you don't ever cool down,' he commented and took off his cloak, wrapping the precious but heated object in it's folds before tucking it into one of his ninja pouches. Standing up and realizing that he was still soaking wet, Naruto pulled out his spare cloak from a seal on his belt and draped it over himself before he looked to the rock around him, wondering which direction to head in.

'Perhaps I should just find a quiet place and start trying to tune the crystals,' he considered and despite knowing that the upper levels were infested with the creatures, he decided that it might be best. Going back to the Enclave would lead to distractions as he still wanted to find out as much as possible concerning the cloning facility. Finding somewhere close to the water source in which to meditate seemed like a good decision.

x-x

Four Days later

x-x

Closing, rubbing, and then blinking his fatigued eyes, Kabuto took a few moments to collect his thoughts and looked away from the monitor to give his eyes a rest. The records and other information in the database were quite vast and he had only scratched the surface. He had done nothing but sit at the computer station for nearly the past five days, only taking a break in which to go to his ship for food and sleep.

'Thousands of experiments,' Kabuto thought as he remembered sifting through a random selection and reading them over. The calendar system being used was different than what he knew so it was difficult to tell how much time had elapsed since the cloning experiments had taken place. From the stretch of time between the earlier files and the older ones, he guessed that several centuries of experimentation had been performed.

'I still can't believe that someone left these droids in charge and had them continue to experiment on their own,' he questioned as from a human perspective, what the droids were doing was incredibly inhuman. They had spent a huge amount of time making clone after clone of a single unnamed individual and from what he had seen, they were making slow progress over the course of all those experiments.

'It seems that they only stopped because they were running out of genetic material through which to clone and were not programmed to resort to start cloning from the clones,' he concluded and shuddered slightly at the thought of the outcome from making clones from an already cloned being.

From what he gathered, the facility was fully automated and nearly self-sufficient. The laboratory was powered by energy collectors that tapped into geothermal energy in the form of hot spots a distance beneath the facility. It therefore seemingly had an endless supply of electricity to run the various machines, most of which were power intensive.

'There is also a sophisticated recycling system in place that allows for the reclamation of nutrients and other minerals that are needed for proper clone production,' Kabuto recalled and though such a system was remarkable, it was also very disturbing that once the clones were created, they were also soon recycled to make way for further cloning experiments. Even clones that succeeded were still recycled before they were ever woken up or allowed to continue past the point of becoming a fully mature clone. They were never aware of their existence or surroundings. The droids were not programmed to create functioning clones, only to further facilitate the cloning process and reduce the time required to create a fully mature clone with no physical or mental defects.

Possibly one of the strangest and most interesting aspects of the cloning procedure being used was the fact that somehow, the clones were all being given the same memories from the individual that was the genetic donor for the project. He couldn't find any information on the donor but it amazed him that somewhere in the database was a copy of the entire consciousness of a person. All of the thoughts, memories, and experiences of an individual had been turned into data and stored.

He had heard of flash training and memory flashes, used to impart information into subjects, usually clones, in order to prepare them for their desired use given that they were grown relatively quickly. 'Apparently whoever initially wanted this experimentation, was after the cloning of the prime clone, complete with entire memories and experiences but without any disastrous side-effects from fast growth. I can only assume that the goal was to be able to create a conditioned and trained army of that force-sensitve individual in as little time as possible. That's rather terrifying and I would think that putting in full memories would also increase the chance of mental instability,' commented Kabuto as he finished going over everything he had learned and put it all into perspective.

'But in the end, were the droids able to accomplish their programmed goal?' Kabuto suddenly wondered and got back on the computer to examined the last few entries in the database. Opening the last few files, Kabuto perused the first couple and found that even after so many trials, there were still lackluster results when trying for such a short growth time-frame.

Opening the next entry, the medical ninja was confused for a second before he realized that what he had opened was not a cloning trial but actually appeared to be the compiled and highlighted results of the entire project, 'This would have been very helpful a few days ago,' thought Kabuto with a deep frown but he read through it anyway. 'Exhausted genetic material...successful completion of six month growing cycle and no signs of deformities or mental instability...failure to complete successful twelve day growth cycle...31.27% chance of physically healthy body and 2.29% chance of producing a mentally stable subject...Awaiting further samples for continued experimentation,' read Kabuto as he highlighted the most interesting segments of the long report.

'How do they determine mental stability?' he soon wondered as it was something that he had read about in most of the cloning results. Somehow the droids could determine if a clone had mental instability without every waking it up or even make the determination of a clone had the chance of becoming mentally unstable later on. Whatever scanning implement or device being used was never properly explained.

'I also haven't been able to determine who was behind the experiments. No names are ever mentioned concerning the genetic sample, any scientists, or who the report is even meant to be read by,' thought Kabuto with a sigh but he soon cheered up at the fact that he now had the means and technology to experiment with cloning. Closing the report and the other windows that he had opened, the snake-like man stopped as he noticed that something else was open.

'Did I forget to close one of the previous cloning files,' Kabuto considered but having been looking through so many of the files and for so long, he was instantly able to tell that something was different. Though he didn't know what kind of calendar system that was being used, he could tell that the strange date which appeared on the top of the file was dissimilar from the previous files he had looked at. 'A huge amount of time has passed,' he realized and continued looking over the file wondering if the droids had somehow managed to get a new sample of genetic material through which to keep experimenting.

In only a second of scanning through the lines that followed, Kabuto was struck by another inconsistency. The 'Genetic Donor:' line had always been followed by a numerical indicator of, '001,' which he couldn't find any information for; the file seemingly missing or deleted. However, as he looked to that line of the document he was currently reading, it said, '002.' Who the new donor was, he had no idea but for the time being, he continued looking through the short file.

Unlike the rest of the digital documentation, the file was unfinished and no results were presented or autopsy performed. It made him wonder if he was looking at the file for one of the two bodies that were deceased but still preserved in the tanks. There presence was still unexplained but he had only looked through a fraction of the files. Unsatisfied with the information that was present and curious for anything else he could find, Kabuto began looking through the database for anything on the second donor.

Scanning through the dizzying array of files in the database, a hit on one such named file came up and Kabuto eagerly opened it to find out all he could. 'Let's see who you are, Genetic Donor 002...,' thought Kabuto but he soon stopped his musing as the picture of Naruto was the first thing he noticed when the file opened. Stunned for several seconds, Kabuto found swallowed much harder than usual before he started examining the file.

A physical and detailed description of Naruto was provided and then an analysis, looking for possible genetic abnormalities and seemingly determining if the sample was suitable for the purposes of cloning. "This isn't good," Kabuto said out loud to the empty room as he continued and found the file listing that a memory scan was completed. The medical ninja suddenly remembered the scanner at the entrance to the lab and then to Naruto's reaction to it, 'Did it scan him when he first entered?' wondered Kabuto but before he could contemplate any further, his eyes continued to the next lines of the detailed file.

It was indicated that genetic sampling had failed on the subject, however, in the line following that, the file conversely listed that genetic sampling had been successful. Seeing that something was attached to that section of the file, and whether out of morbid curiosity or interest, Kabuto pushed the link. The feed from a holocam soon filled the computer screen and Kabuto watched as Naruto initially entered the facility and was scanned. After a second Naruto walked in and looked over the facility, the droids appeared and then the Naruto that was scanned was seemingly touched by the droid but Kabuto quickly realized that the droid was after something else.

The clone was dispelled and in the second following it's dispelling, the real Naruto attacked the droid and was then grabbed. The feed quickly stopped and the arm was quickly highlighted before the image of a blood sample was shown and labeled with Genetic Donor 002. 'Oh, Kami. They got a blood sample from him,' Kabuto thought and when the file returned to his screen, he continued down to the end of the description where a single, short conclusion was made.

"Genetic Donor 002 has been deemed fit for inclusion into the program. Commence cloning operations on Donor Subject 002," it said and Kabuto read the line several times before saying, "Oh, shit!" Leaving his chair, Kabuto ran to the back room where the tanks were stored and his eyes scanned the eight tanks which were present.

Seven were now empty with only one filled. The two preserved bodies were gone, possibly recycled, and replaced with something much smaller. With increased breathing, and not from the very short sprint, Kabuto slowly approached the newly filled tank, which he knew had been empty when he first arrived. Inside the blueish liquid was the body of a small boy. Completely stunned by the turn of events, Kabuto continued to stare at the tank for a few minutes until he thought, 'He looks exactly the same age as when he first became part of my genin squad.'

It took a few moments for the former spy to finally realize what he was looking at and then a few more moments for him to start thinking rationally about the situation. 'The droids only managed to start one clone and not eight, but I think that is the only good news. The goal of the program was to grow a clone in less than two weeks. He's only been here for five or so days, so he's half grown,' Kabuto thought but quickly understood the implications, 'And he's still growing...will keep growing until reaching maturity,' he corrected, 'maturity being around twenty or mid-twenties, I think,' he concluded and found himself losing what critically thinking and rationality he had gotten back.

'What do I do?' Kabuto questioned but had trouble coming up with an answer.

x-x

Sitting in a meditative position, Naruto continued to hover the small orange crystal in front of him and it slowly rotated in the air. The process to tune the blue adegan crystal went rather smoothly and the crystal was properly imbued with the Force, although he only imbued the crystal with the Force and did not attune it to himself well. That was what he was currently attempting with the orange crystal and the process would help improve his connection with the crystal as well as removing any impurities. Since the orange crystal was so small, it was just the right size to fit in his lightsaber while the blue crystal would also have to be cut down into multiple crystals in order to use.

Despite the orange crystal being a foot or more from his body, Naruto could still feel the heat coming off the crystal on his face. 'I'm not even sure I can use this thing until I make sure that my other components won't be affected by the heat,' he suddenly considered and knew that some tests would have to be performed in order to determine any long term problems. 'I finished the blue crystal in two days but this feels like it will take longer. In any case it doesn't matter that much. There should still be enough time to get to Popara before the deadline is up,' he thought and his mind soon turned to other, darker thoughts.

'By now Master Plagueis has likely discovered something that I have been keeping from him,' believed Naruto as he considered the possibilities of what the Sith Lord had likely discovered and how. It could have been the Demon Brothers that said something, the device in the cargo ship, meeting with Narees, 'Or perhaps the reason that he took over was because he suspected something on his own,' Naruto considered but knew that he couldn't be sure until later on.

'It was inevitable that he would find out eventually, whether one of the group telling him or one of the few times he finally journeyed out of his lab. I couldn't hide such projects from him forever, though I never considered that he would suddenly want to take the lead on a mission to the Black Sun. I should be panicked about him finding out, concerned about the mission status, or dreading a confrontation where I have to explain myself but I simply don't care at this point. I shouldn't have to keep explaining myself and my decisions to him. I suppose that's the reason I started keeping secrets from him in the first place.

But it's not like he's making any progress with Sidious or making any future plans besides Telerath, which I discovered. All those recordings from the Senate are just going to waste in memory storage, Gato won't be of much use on Mustafar anymore once everything gets operational, and he's more concerned about his corpse and a slave family on Tatooine than anything else, including training me,' concluded Naruto and he took a few breathes to calm himself down so that he did not inhibit the process of tuning his crystal.

However, despite calming himself, he still felt his thoughts wander while working on the crystal, 'My clone in the Enclave dispelled days ago, so I have no idea what Kabuto has been up to,' he thought but Kabuto should have been capable of dealing with a database and even if the droids got loose, they didn't appear to be that dangerous.

'I suppose he can take care of himself,' Naruto considered and decided not to try and contact the medical ninja, though he soon realized that a message probably wouldn't be able to get through the layers of rock, soil, and anything else that still separated him from the surface.

x-x

Mustafar

Two days later

x-x

Standing before the ominous looking fortress, a combined henge of Gozu and Plagueis moved towards the front entrance in the guise of Naruto. Though he would have liked to go by himself, the Sith Lord was forced to have a member of the group that could use chakra help him. Allowed to enter the facility, Plagueis was slightly lost until using the Force helped him determine the correct direction to head in. There were no guards or anyone else around in the facility, 'But that does not mean that every move isn't being watched by multiple eyes,' noted the Sith Lord and as he identified numerous security systems and defenses throughout the facility.

Taking a lift to an upper level, the doors opened to reveal an Iktotchi that Plagueis had heard about but never personally met. The caprinae humanoid smiled at their entrance and ushered them to sit in the closest seat, which was at the opposite end of a long table. Having the feeling that he was being watched and not by the eyes of the Iktochi, Plagueis surmised that someone else was watching the meeting via holocam, 'Likely the Underlord, as Naruto said,' he quickly realized and the pair tried to act as Naruto would.

It wasn't until Gozu was making them sit down in the chair that Plagueis realized something amiss in the room, 'There's less oxygen in here than what is standard for humans. Not enough to lose consciousness but enough to create a noticeable reaction in a human,' he detected but wasn't sure how that would affect the pair in the combined henge. They were technically both breathing the air but he wasn't sure if either would be appreciably affected by the atmospheric anomaly.

'He must be doing this on purpose. Do I inquire about it or keep quiet and not let on that I know something is wrong?' wondered the Sith Lord and he decided to keep quiet about it.

"Welcome back and congratulation on another accomplished mission. Those droids will come in handy in the coming months, so make sure they area ready to go at a moments notice." said Narees and he smiled at the blonde-haired boy sitting opposite him before motioning towards the tray with bottle and glasses sitting nearby, offering him a drink.

'Do we take the drink?' asked Gozu as he wasn't sure what to do in such a situation. Years of being a ninja was telling him not to touch an offered drink. Plagueis took a split second to think over the choice and knew that Naruto normally wouldn't have taken the drink but something told him to drink and he decided to take the most logical action. Pouring two drinks, Plagueis and Gozu slid one down the table and waited for the host to drink first.

The Iktochi male frowned slightly before saying, "Not going to cool it off for me. Well I suppose it's my fault I guess for not supplying any ice in the first place," he commented with a smile before downing the liquor in one go and Gozu soon did the same. Observing the boy across from him, the Black Sun Vigo noted the very emotionless stare that Menma was giving him and compared it to the normal look that he received.

'He's usually more relaxed but still very observant and even slightly amused by our exchanges. I suppose its not the lack of oxygen in the room but that he must suspect me causing him problems on the mission,' thought the Vigo and he stopped himself from chuckling before revealing his slight deception.

"I do apologize for the mix-up in shipping manifests, but I see that you still performed admirably in the face of such adversity. Three ships captured is not a bad outcome when faced with inaccurate intelligence information. If I was betting man, and for future reference, I am a betting man, I would have thought you'd get at least six of the transports but three is still not too shabby," Stated the Vigo in a placating manner and he waited to see what effect the information would cause.

Seeing what the Iktotchi was getting at, Gozu tensed but stopped as he found that he couldn't move. 'Calm yourself and keep a stoic face,' commanded Plagueis as he tried his best to keep the body still and not react to the statement. However, in his mind, he was thinking something entirely different, 'I could get across this table and run him through before anyone could stop me,' he admitted but chose to hold in his anger and act out nothing of what his imagination and mind were showing him that he was more than capable of doing.

'It's no wonder Naruto wanted to know how long he had to keep working for this person,' realized the Sith Lord as he began to see how much the Vigo liked to play mind-games and mess with his student. 'Regardless of his games, we need to respond,' he realized and quickly conferred with Gozu.

"In the end it doesn't matter as the correct transport was captured and the mission successful but I do hope that your information will be more reliable in the future,' commented Gozu as he used Naruto's voice and relied on input from the Sith Lord. Giving a small smirk at the end of the sentence, Plagueis wanted to make it seem like the information wasn't a surprise and that they suspected it.

A little disappointed at the reaction, the Iktotchi decided to conclude their business. "In any case, if you would like to get a good price for those building materials, I'm willing to pay, just leave them in the usual location and the extra amount will be added to your next payment. Your payment for the current mission is waiting at the door and since you received your bonus on the last visit, it's just the normal amount this time. I'll be in touch with your next mission," stated the Black Sun Vigo and while Plagueis knew that he was being told to leave, his mind was focusing on other parts of the statement.

'What extra amount is he referring too?' questioned the Sith Lord as Gozu got up and looked to find a case sitting next to the lift door. Going over what he knew of their finances from the missions and based upon what he remembered, Plagueis did not find any increments besides the standard mission payments. It was only when they were in the lift and heading back to the ship that he considered something else, 'So he's been collecting extra money on the missions and using it for some other purpose,' he surmised and wanted to know how much Naruto had been putting aside and for what purposes.

Remembering that he wasn't alone in the lift, Plagueis was about to ask Gozu about the newly revealed information but he found the man curiously silent about the information and did not feel any surprise coming from the Smoke Demon concerning the secret funds. 'Because he already knows about it,' Plagueis guessed and decided to take the direct approach.

'What do you know about these extra payments?' Plagueis demanded and Gozu could feel the Sith Lord's mind prodding at his and looking for answers.

x-x

"Tens of millions," Plagueis repeated and Gozu's gaze wouldn't meet his own but the man reiterated what he had been trying to say earlier, "That's a very high estimate but somewhere in that range may not be out of the realm of possibilities," confirmed Gozu as he tried to downplay his approximation of the amount that Naruto could have acquired but still kept his statements as truthful as possible.

"And just when were any of you going to mention this to me?" questioned the Sith Lord and Gozu gave him a stoic look before admitting, "Probably never." The statement further enraged Plagueis but Gozu believed he was relatively safe in the cockpit of the _Vulture_, after all, any attack against him would likely damage the vessel and cause a problem as they had yet to leave.

"Tens of millions," said Plagueis again though in a much softer voice than before, but it still carried the same anger behind it. The former Muun proceeded to prep the ship for departure and Gozu looked as if he wanted to be anywhere else but the cockpit at that moment. 'Should have gone with the Meizu and the droid to Sarafur,' he lamented but realized that either Meizu or himself had to go with the Sith Lord in order to use the combined henge.

'Should have brought Suigetsu,' he thought as the white-haired teen knew nothing about what was really going on. No sooner than the ship had started to take off, then an incoming message was received. Curious and wondering if it was his student, Plagueis accepted the transmission, pushing the button harder than normal and a familiar face appeared on a small nearby holoprojector.

"Brat, you haven't gotten back to me about an update on that meeting. I can't wait forever here...,' but the crafty businessman soon stopped his complaint as he realized that Naruto wasn't on the ship he had detected. Shocked by the realization, Gato stared with his mouth slightly open before a similarly surprised Plagueis simply stated, "Gato."

It wasn't that the Sith Lord had said his name that scared the former tycoon but how his own name had been said that caused him to flee. The holoprojector was left on as the short man ran from whatever room he had been broadcasting from. It took a few seconds of static before a surprised Plagueis finally put together what was going on and turned to Gozu.

"Gato! He's making secret plans with Gato?!" he demanded incredulously and Gozu was just as surprised as he was and managed to say, "I've never heard anything, seen anything, or know anything concerning Gato." A dark glare was given before the Sith Lord confirmed that it was the truth but that did nothing to calm the anger building inside of him.

It was one thing to hide a secret device but now there were millions in secret funds and apparently secret meetings with Gato of all people going on behind his back. Setting a course to take him around the planet and to the hidden facility, Gozu decided to keep his mouth shut. 'This is going from bad to worse but thank Kami for that short idiots poorly timed intervention,' he thought and wondered what was going to happen to Gato. 'Obviously Gato thinks that he knows or is so scared of Plagueis that he'll try and flee before we arrive,' Gozu thought and again wished that someone else had come instead of him.

x-x

Dantooine

x-x

There had been many choices available to him but now the snake-like medical ninja found himself wondering, 'Did I pick the right choice?' because that was the real question now that he stood looking down upon a fourteen year old clone of Naruto. His decision had been to leave the clone in the tube long enough to age to what Naruto currently was and not allow the clone to fully mature. Once out of the tank, the growth rate had decreased to a normal rate because the cocktail of different drugs, nutrients, and catalysts were no longer being administered.

His other choices had been to let the process continue, halt the growth and recycle the clone, or to try and find Naruto and let him determine what to do. However, the shadow clone Naruto had left was dispelled days ago and no further clones had come in to check on him, nor could he find any in the area. His communicator was also not able to reach the teen and so he was left to choose for himself what to do.

Now that he was just finishing his final scans and tests of the cloned Naruto on the lone medical table in the lab, he wondered what his next move should be. Despite all odds, the clone showed no deformities, outwardly obvious or genetic, from the short growing cycle, and the devices in the lab were telling him that there was no immediate sign of any mental instability.

'No _immediate_ sign?' Kabuto repeated and wondered if that would hold true or not. 'It's not like the memories came from Naruto, they were taken form his clone. How stable would that make a real flesh and blood clone with a shadow clones memories and experiences?' he wondered and decided that the best course of action was to keep the teen sedated until the real Naruto arrived. 'With no Kyuubi I shouldn't have to worry about his incredible regeneration rate or what insanely high dosage to give him,' mused Kabuto as he prepared the medication which he had gotten from his ship.

'What's in the hypo-syringe, Kabuto?' said a voice in his head and Kabuto stopped dead as he realized that it was Naruto's voice and it was coming from the clone. 'He's awake and alert?' Kabuto wondered as he held the syringe and looked down upon the clone. Eyelids opened to show familiar blue eyes but despite being a genetic copy, the look in the eyes was different than what he was used to. It was very calm and the clone remained laying down but staring up at the medical ninja standing over him.

As his heart-rate increased, Kabuto debated about what to do. He was scared and for good reason as despite the Clone looking identical to Naruto, there were so many possibilities as to the mental differences and he couldn't help but remembering all that he had read about clone madness and the results from previous experiments in the same cloning tanks.

"Kabuto, your hand is shaking," observed the Clone and Kabuto glanced to the hand holding the hypo-syringe to find that it was indeed shaking and he couldn't stop it. Looking back down to the clone, Kabuto found himself out of breathe but knew he had to do something, so he acted.

x-x

Making his way back through the cave with earth jutsu, Naruto avoided the majority of the creatures and eventually found himself seeing a very familiar stretch of cave which he knew from memory was close to the entrance. While he expected to see daylight up head, he instead saw muted light and an accompanying rumble which told him that it was probably storming outside.

'It's only a short distance back to the Enclave. Unless there's lightning, then I have nothing to worry about,' he thought and decided against making his way underground to avoid some rain. Exiting the caves entrance, Naruto looked up at the stormy clouds and while he heard thunder in the distance, he saw no lightning.

It was at that moment that he felt something familiar and yet unfamiliar at the same time. Slowly turning, he looked to the top of the cave entrance and found a similarly dressed clone, minus the cloak, staring down at him. There was a moment of confusion before Naruto said to the clone, "I don't remember creating you."

Looking down at him with a sad face, the clone replied, "That's because you didn't." Naruto raised an eyebrow at the statement in response before he started to think about more outlandish possibilities to explain the clones existence and soon had his answer. It was at that point that both knew what was going to happen next.


End file.
