Naruto 1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Oh, yeah people! I'm back! After my last story, I didn't have time to do another one 'till summer, but I've been writing this for awhile. It's all pre-made, except for a few chapters. I'll be changing the characters in the search, so if you search through the Naruto archives like I do, it'll be there for a week then change, so if you're interested in this, story alert it now or you'll lose it!**

**Yes there are many influences from all sorts of different anime/manga to list a few: Jojo's bizarre adventure, , Bleach, Rosario Vampire, and Zatch Bell plus a lot of Kung Fu movies.  
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**But now presenting my latest story: **

Soldier 6

** Chapter 1: Red**

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The smell of gunpowder awoke me from my daydream. I used the arm guard of my shirt to wipe away my sweat. I looked up into the dusty Mars sky, it was a bloody red.

Red. I never knew I could have such a hatred for a color. Red blood spilt, red tattered flags, red land, red lasers, red oil. Just Red. I'm so sick of it, that's all I ever see anymore. As I sit in this trench, this three foot deep ditch in the ground, "protected" –and I use that word loosely—by sand bags, cement blocks, and barbwire thrown on in a hurry in some other battle that I don't know or don't want to know about. But it happened, it's there, and it's a nice place to rest, but otherwise this is what I call home. Sad isn't it?

Maybe I should introduce myself, I'm Soldier 6. I used to have a real name but I've lost most of my memory. The only reason I knew "Soldier 6" is because that what it said in my holo-band built into the left armguard of my armor. Its purpose is to hold important information such as our ranks in the military and company, a small personal computer. The year is 2150, and Earth is in the middle of a territorial war on mars. The reason we're fighting is because the Earth was hit by a large meteor in 2080, thus making the Earth look like a mostly full Crescent Moon. Humans still live there, but due do crowding we've moved onto the Moon and made colonies there. The problem is we started to crowd there too. So in an effort to move, we thought Mars would be a prime spot. We sent a rocket containing a machine called the Exous. It was 5 times larger than the Eiffel Tower and is as wide as Texas, California (height wise) and Oregon lined up in a line. Its mission was to use its large mainframe to create robots built to make the Environ-bubbles that the moon colonies needed to sustain large amounts of life. It was experimental and was not tested completely but the United Continent Embassy of Earthlings (UCEE) wanted to launch it anyways. Idiots. But Exous was Suppose to make Environ-bubbles as large as Russia.

Suppose to being the key words. It gained self-awareness and deemed Humans scum that needed to be wiped out. After transmitting to the Earth and Moon colonies it declared war, it started making War-bots. Go figure. In the 70 years since, our weapons have become more complicated and bigger. There are regular humans fighting as but the need the helmets that help regulate oxygen and body suit/armor that allows them to fight at a comfortable atmosphere. But to add to this armada, they created MWs, or Mutant Warriors. That's where I come in, given the ability to breathe on the rough Mars terrain, these warriors were the elite. Each given powers due to their genes being changed, some powers are common and some unique to the person. My powers are super-strength, speed, command over elements, in-born durability and endurance, the ability to copy anything I see, and something logged into my holo-wristband as "Wolf Spirit" But it had no description or even how to activate it. I've also been gifted with a large sword shaped like a cleaver and its hilt located near the top of the sword where the flat edge is; on the very bottom of the hilt is a large ring. It's very wide, at least 16 inches and is 5' 9" almost as tall as my 6ft body. It's a little heavy but because of my strength it's easy to carry around, the battles gave it a serrated edge.

My ranking out of 100 is 73. But there are some really strong ones that level 100. They are some scary MW's. The sad part is that there are maybe 10. This rating system doubled as a hierarchy among soldiers and the urge to rank-up. I guess I'm respected, but since I lost my memory I don't really know, anyone I see around here is Human, MW's of my rank or lower, or dead, either way I don't really care. It's that simple.

I play with the pulsar weapon in my hand, and adjust the sword on my back. I nonchalantly look over my shoulder and see "Normas" quite a ways from my position. They're small and the weakest Exous made. They're about 6 ft, and are like foot troopers, there are a lot of them and they specialize in sweep tactics and frontal assault, frontline fighting, and hold laser guns making good mid-range blasts. They overpower us in numbers but aren't that bright, mostly kill on sight. Backing them up is three land "Tanks" and an air-type one. Yippee. They're dumber than Normas but are a walking armory on wheels or wings. Large guns sported on their backs blow out larger lasers and are more of a threat, but their slow and recharge time gives you a one-minute window to duck attack or do whatever. But they are nothing compared to the next level, called "Noahs". There are MWs that are captured by the Exous and literally re-wired, usually low or mid-level that are brought in and mechanically enhanced. They then take the position as General or Admiral and not afraid to attack humans. The real scary part is that their level gets jacked up to level 85-96. I'm glad the Exous haven't figured out how to turn them to 100s or we would've lost this war. There about 20. But for some reason they aren't seen on the frontlines much. No idea as to why. Some rumors say they are stored in hyper-sleep tanks until needed.

The enemies I see aren't that much of a concern but it could be irritating if they find me. Hmm. But I guess what they say is true, you can't mix business with pleasure. Even though the Exous made some foliage before gaining self-awareness, the thick dark purple trees with the blue leaves isn't gonna provide that much cover. What an annoyance.

As I debated about giving up my location and fighting what would otherwise be small fry, or running away and somewhat guaranteeing my survival if they don't see my of course. Decisions, decisions. But luckily for me, that decision was made for me, I see another one of our soldiers calmly walk up to them, almost as if he doesn't see them. Using my holo-band I do a generic scan, showing the enemies in the area and the soldier. He's a level 53 MW, but he's as big as a 15 year-old. It isn't long before they open fire, he raises a hand and the sand on the ground jumped up, blocking the lasers. I'm stunned, you'd think you've seen everything in war, but an incident like this was amazing. But the MW doesn't stop the surprises, the sand around him rises in harmony with his hands, he casually flips his palms towards the Exous and the sand obeys him like an attack dog. A sand tidal wave engulfs them like a fat man with donut, breaking the chassis of the machines and effectively slips inside the gashes. The air Tank is steaming, literally, it prepares a stronger laser shouting out "Blastfire" as it charges and shoots at the MW with incredible speed. Without even moving the sand around the fighter jumps up and forms a protective shield, just in time too. It negates the large blast while the rest of it burns and displaces the landscape. A large explosion rips out from the shot being blocked and a shockwave knocks me back from my seat. I can't breathe for a moment while my body corrects the rhythm in my diaphragm before I go back watching the epic battle before me. The sand didn't have a burn, and it transforms from a sphere to a claw with purple coloring and marks. I swear I could hear laughing, was the MW actually_ enjoying _this? He imitates the claw with his right hand and shoots it forward, like a puppet the sand followed its master, when the fighter brought down his hands, it came crashing down, slashing through the Tank's hull, electricity discharges and it explodes, taking out some Normas, paralyzed because of the sand gumming up it's inner workings.

The other two tanks look at each other, assessing the situation; they cock their turrets and fire a barrage of shots. The sand creates a sand in front of the running MW, using his hands to collect more and more sand. He jumps up into the air and raises his hands above his head, once he's higher than the Tanks, another laugh, and he buries his opponents, the shear weight crushing them like soda cans.

I come out from the trench and approach the MW who I can now see is a boy. He notices me from a distance; my guess is that he can use the sand like radar. Now that I get a better look at him, he seems so serious and dark. It seems impossible that he would even laugh, let alone smile. His armor is chipped and broken, covering his left leg, right knee (barely), arms, parts of his abdominals, and shoulders. The under armor covered what was exposed with rips here and there. Under armor is a durable fabric armor, or as I called it just-in-case-you-do-something-stupid-and-get-blasted. It grips the wearer tightly and is easy to move in, it improves your power and\or muscle output and doubles as light metal shielding built to withstand falls, lasers, punches, etc. the point is, it's hard to break. The bodysuit armor had a hexagonal design and tinted red. Evidence he's been here awhile and probably fights hard. He takes off his helmet, revealing that he was indeed young, his most defining features had to be his sea-green eyes rimmed with black, saying that he doesn't sleep much and red hair complete with the red tattoo on the left side of his forehead.

"Hi," I say, boy, my socializing skills have minimized since being in this war. "I'm Soldier 6 of the Kohonagakure country, 18th company, 4th division, MW rank: 73. I recite the usual manner of introduction behind my helmet. For some reason that's one of the things I couldn't forget. The boy shoots me an odd look, and I remember I have my helmet on. Oops, I take it off and catch my reflection in the eye shield, whoa, it's been so long since I've seen myself I almost forgot that too. I remember I have one red eye and one black eye, gray spiky hair, and a mask covering up to my nose.

"I am Gaara Sabaku, of the Sunagakure county, 100th company 38th division, MW rank: 53," another odd look. "Soldier 6? Is that your real name?"

"No, but I've lost my memory, but according to my information, I've been in this war 18 years and anyone who did know my name is either dead or someplace else." He nods in understanding then brushes off the sand on his armor covered leg.

"I see…" He trails off for a minute and looks at me for awhile, like he's deciding something. "If you want, you could join my group." I look at him in surprise, amazed someone with such a scary disposition even had a group.

"Sure…Thanks"

"No problem, I know what it's like to be alone." for some strange reason that comforts me.

* * *

We walked for awhile before reaching the campsite; I could see four people with their armor off. The first was a raven-haired 15 year old boy who had onyx black eyes and looked like he could have anyone he wanted, but currently looked a cross between annoyed, emo, and murderous, he was dressed in cobalt blue under armor showing some muscles, that looked like they were going to hurt the boy next to him.

He was quite the energetic one, and I'm betting that he was annoying the dark-haired one. He had spiky blonde hair with ocean-blue eyes and a large smile talking loudly and proudly about something while waving his arms clothed in a yellow under armor.

Next, is a pink-haired girl with emerald green eyes and a high forehead, she was currently rolling her eyes at the blonde's behavior. She had some muscles showing through green under armor. The last was a brunette with chocolate eyes looking quite disturbed at the blonde's cheery attitude, and dressed in white under armor. In truth? They looked like a bunch of Power Rangers. The group turned and waved at Gaara and looked with curiosity at me. I waved at them awkwardly and unsure. How do I get myself into these messes?

The blonde suddenly jumped up and shook my hand excitedly, my arm feels like it's about to fall off! "I'm Naruto Uzumaki! From Kohonagakure, 100th company 38th division, MW rank: 55! My powers are high stamina, endurance, cloning, turning my clones into weapons, and energy mastery!" He said proudly giving himself props. After my arm recovered, the dark-haired boy turned to me.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha, the rest of here are from the same country and division, MW rank: 55, powers; Copying, lightning and fire mastery, super-speed, flying, and iron skin." I heard him distinctly sigh, I moved on, not really knowing what to make of it. The pinkette resumed this painfully long and necessary process. Hey, if you're gonna be fighting with them you better know what to watch out for.

"Sakura Haruno, rank: 52, super-strength, analyzing, healing powers, and intelligence." I nodded noting her powers down. And the last girl started.

"Ten-ten, just, Ten-ten, rank: 51, powers; well, basically anything that has to with weapons, I can analyze a weapon just by looking at it, summon them, adaptation, which is knowing how to use it just by touching it, and accuracy." An interesting mix, a weapons master, a nurse, 2 forward hitters, and a long-range specialist, that's a nice balance.

"I'm Soldier 6, also from Kohonagakure, 8th company, 4th division, rank; 73 powers: control of elements, super-speed, super-strength, can copy anything, and a good sword master." I absent-mindedly grabbed it and adjusted it out of habit.

"Rank 73!" Sasuke and Naruto asked together, I knew they were rivals by the way they glared at each other.

I turned towards the girls and Gaara, "Rivals, huh?" They nodded and laughed at those two's antics.

"18th company, that means you've been out here for 18 years," Sakura deduced.

"So long I've forgotten my name" I rubbed the back of my head in embarrassment.

"Can I see your sword?" Ten-ten asked me, eyeing my sword like a fan girl. I slung off my back and let it naturally fall, the huge weight cracking the Martian terrain. If I didn't know anything about MWs I say there was no way Ten-ten could lift such a massive sword, but she merely touched and a light emitted from her, obviously her adaptation power going to work. She took it in her hands and quickly destroyed a large boulder with a single slash. We all looked at the destruction went "Ah," and returned to whatever it is we were doing before.

When you're in this war, it's real hard to be surprised. You just get used to the constant battling and savor the moments when you aren't. Blood spills, that's what happens you just look at it and go "Oh, well" and soldier on, You'd die real quickly if you didn't manage to put up a front, or something to hold on too, so you remember what you're fighting for. A picture, a memory,-- something—or you start wondering why you're alive, and we can't have a depressed, suicidal soldier on our hands, we're trained to either beat you or kill you, because once you get shipped off to Mars, there is no return ship, not until the Exous is destroyed or the planet blows up, you choose. Fear, anger, and apathy seems to be the only thing we truly feel.

"You know if we are going to have you in our group, you're going to have to spar with us to get a good sense of your fighting style. I mean we do protect one of the toughest battle points. The one valley before the armory, and hospital outpost." Sasuke says grimly.

I feel a shiver creep its way up my spine, my senses go numb for a second, and I turn towards Sasuke my voice masking the true extent of my fear. "You mean…Death Valley?"

Death Valley. One of the toughest and bloodiest battle points on Mars, so many rumors fly around that place it'd make a general up and puke. The reason it's so bad is because a lot of deliveries are made through there, for both sides, seeing as it stretches through 1/3 of the planet. It's shaped by two large cliffs that give you ample ambush locations. So far we've secured on cliff, and 15 miles north is the other cliff, taken over by the Exous. "Aren't there like, 45 other groups watching that?"

"Yeah," Gaara replied "We rotate every few weeks. If they should somehow get our cliff, they come to this location, and climb this mountain face behind us before they get to our buildings. We were positioned here so if that happened we could stall them and call for reinforcements."

I noticed that he said 'stall' not 'stop', and I think that's an accurate word. If they get through, they'd go full force and overpower us. I looked at the mountain separating us from the building and I surmised it would take at least 30 hours to cross it, but then again the Exous aren't human, they won't get fatigued and have different levels of speed.

* * *

After some dinner, Naruto, Gaara, and I go away from the camp to get to our sparring, or evaluating as the case may be. Naruto smiled like a fox, "Okay, no holds barred, or you won't make it to standards, just try not to kill any one. The match stops if you lose your bandana, or if you take ours!" the aforementioned pieces of cloth tied around our armor, I fiddled with it to make sure it was tight, but comfortable.

We stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Suddenly Naruto launched forward, creating four clones in a 'V' formation. He held out his hand towards one and it transformed into a dagger. Then a clone jumped up and came down, foot out. I grabbed its foot easily pulled him down and kneed it in the gut. I disappeared in a puff of smoke, but quickly, a fist came out of the smoke as another clone punched right through it. I turned around so it attacked the sword, and I followed through with a kick to the face. I then noticed a clone behind me as it jumped into me while changing into a large 2x4 throwing me to the ground. The real Naruto with a dagger was flinging himself forward to grab my bandana, but I quickly drew my sword, destroying the clone in the process. I came at him with a right-to-left uppercut, breaking the dagger with little force. I gripped his collar and held him in the air, "Is that the best you got, what was that?" I asked feeling victorious.

"A distraction!" The Naruto I thought was real disappeared and I looked around. Wait, where'd Gaara go? While I wondered, sand lassoes surrounded me, holding me firmly in place. I dropped my sword as the sand threatened to crush me. Gaara melted upwards, the sand rolling off him, revealing a disappointed look. He scoffed as he gripped the knot that held my bandana I place. I laughed at that moment, he looked up at me, surprised and his eyes widening, I used that moment to disappear.

"A clone!" He jumped back, but I transformed from a sword to a MW again and grabbed his leg. He summoned a block of sand to separate me from him. "I see, so acting on our own isn't gonna cut it." He melted back into the sand, and the ground trembled. A growl and then 100 Naruto clones came out of the ground like a bunch of zombies. One used the chance and punched me in the chest, sending me back through the air. I forced my foot into the ground leaving a long ditch as my leg slowed me to a stop. The other clones I destroyed before weren't that strong. I looked carefully, and saw a thin layer of hardened sand around the hands and feet, looks like it's giving them more speed and strength with Gaara supplying the sand.

It was hard to see who a clone was and who the real one was. I guess I'll have to destroy them all. I dragged my feet back and forth, creating an electrical charge; I used that to make a pathway through all the clones. I glided over the sand at high speeds following the electrons, and with the added speed I easily dispatched 40 of the clones. The sand started spiking up and almost impaling me. Now that the sand's so protective, I must be coming up on the location of Gaara. I jumped up high in the air, using my control of the wind to swirl it over my sword, I pointed my sword downwards, and the ground was starting to come up fast. When the sand penetrated the ground, I shouted "Hurricane stab!"

The wind unwounded like ripples through water, the energy ripped through everything like an explosion, effectively destroying the clones. I flew by following the wind and snatching the bandana off Naruto's neck. My attack also unveiled Gaara, blowing his protective sand everywhere. I descended and tried to backhand him, yet the sand shield interrupted me. A spike shot out, I blocked it with the wide side of my sword, using it as leverage I landed back on the ground. Gaara looked exhausted, but I guess creating super-gloves for all the Narutos spread him thin. With that shield surrounding him, another hurricane stab might not do the job. '_But… it's a gamble, but if I could do it I might win_.' I thought. I jumped to the right as a wave of sand flew towards me; I flipped to my feet and readied my sword. A tail emerged from the shield as the boy yelled "Sand Bullet!"The tail whipped and shot volley-ball sized balls of sand at high speeds. Even if this is just a friendly spar, those things could leave a welt, or break a bone. I need to slow those down! I sheathed my sword quickly, and started gathering wind in one hand and water in the other, I waited for my chance.

Closer…

Closer…

**Closer…**

**NOW!**

I shot both water and wind at the same time as I yelled "Water Vortex!" The water followed and mixed with the wind shooting forward, and soaking the bullets. Gaara jumped out of the way, fearing the sand shield might deteriorate. Using the chance I activated my super-speed and caught up to him in seconds. I reached for the cloth but as I expected, the shield was going to work. I think it's time to use my ace in the hole. I touched the sand the sand in-between me and Gaara, and in a quick second it all receded. Gaara looked surprised as I grabbed his bandana. "I win."When we returned to the rest of the group, they had their mouths wide open. "Stop that or you'll be eating sand." I joked.

* * *

We went back to the others who looked like they just had their minds blown out.

"How, when –I-wha?" All of them stammered.

"When did you change into a clone and how did you control the sand?" Sasuke finally managed to put words together.

"Like I said, I can copy anything. I changed into a clone after the first clone attacked me. After I had a feel for what it felt like I changed. You noticed that I never blocked with my hands? It was a quick copy, meaning it was a bit unstable, but it got the job done. The sand took a bit longer to analyze, but it seems as if Gaara shifts his energy through every grain and control in large numbers meaning that wide spread attacks are his specialty. But it requires a constant stream of energy, so by putting in energy going in an opposite direction, I stopped the flow for a few seconds." Even after explaining they looked mystified.

"You really are a high-level." Sasuke said.

Well, we're going to need you in 2 weeks, by Friday, we're gonna be on patrol, and word is that there's going to be a Noah." Ten-ten informed us. All of us paled and shivered. It was obvious none of us had even seen one, let alone face one.

"Any idea who?" Naruto said; his earlier happy demeanor serious. Ten-ten checked the message on her holo-band, the translucent light blue screen popping up, showing a man with silver slicked-back hair, and a devilish smile. A split screen showed the same man but his skin was black with a white skull tattoo on his face, and the design traced his body representing his bones.

"His name is Hidan…says his powers are body enhancement, speed, strength, durability, carries a scythe, can use a 'curse' doesn't really go into detail, and has attacks with a graveyard theme. His level is now… 90." Ten-ten's voice kept lowering in volume and spirit with each piece of info. Looking around, the whole group lost its pep, and switched into a mode that included seriousness, hopelessness, and anger. I had to do something to lighten the mood.

"Well, I guess that means we'll have to train hard for the next 2 weeks. So who's with me?" I put my hand in the middle smiling at everyone, encouraging them to join me. Naruto put his hand in first, followed by Sakura, Gaara, Sasuke and Ten-ten. We flung our hands in the air with hardened resolve and determination, after, we turned in early; we had a big day ahead of us.

* * *

In those two weeks we all trained hard, and taught and learned new tricks and combination and personal things. You know, for example, little mental notes when interacting with each other. Like, don't tick Sakura off. Ever. Period. End o' story. While sparring Sasuke said a crude comment, next thing we know Sakura shattered the ground in a 20 yard diameter, debris flying everywhere. And Sasuke was two inches away from it being his face. I taught Sasuke how to the electric stream, a pathway of charged electrons that can get you in the enemy's face real quickly. It went smoothly since we both have lighting mastery.

Ten-ten spent most of her time working on the weapons, improving them, expanding the range and amount of ammo, upping their power concentration to make them more deadly, and building new weapons within hours.

I also got to see Naruto and Sasuke fight. No wonder they were rivals, everything they did, the other could counter. They went on an hour before one even landed a hit, or it was an all out melee without much blocking. It was exciting to say the least. But their intuition about the next attack also made them an excellent team, being synchronized perfectly made a great combo, where their attacks could only be described as art.

* * *

One night, I also found out why Gaara doesn't sleep. I had awoken because Naruto was snoring and stretching so much that his hand hit me in the head. Being thoroughly annoyed, I left the tent and went out into the cold night. Under armor sure is a nice protection from the biting winds. I saw Gaara sitting there, armor on and everything. I know he noticed me, after copying his powers I knew almost everything he could use it for. But what made this time different is that he was shaking. "Naruto wake you up?" His voice was shaky too.

"Yeah, but nothing like a night walk." I plopped myself down and got a look at his face, it was stricken with fear and sweat covered his face. "You okay?"

"Yes…no." A long sigh seemed to compose him a bit more, but his usually stoic look was completely gone. "I was created to have the upper-hand in battles, with Mars being a large, empty desert. But my radar ability never shuts off. So I can feel the thunder of the machines, sometimes I can even "see' everything. So I know exactly when someone loses their life and usually how. I can see everything. You know the saying ignorance is bliss? It's true, on so many levels."

I knew I couldn't relate to him, I've always had the ability to shut off my emotions and powers. "So you put on a strong face to protect the others from worrying about you."

"They shouldn't waste their time and energy trying to fight something they can't do any thing about."

Why does that sound familiar?

I was about to say something when my brain pulsated, a huge headache quickly overcame me, it was like a bomb went off in my head, it was so painful. I fell on the ground, gripping my head, trying to ease the pain. Gaara was looming over me shaking me in such shock. I looked up at him, and it wasn't him, it was a boy with black hair, one red eye, the other was over shadowed, and blue and orange clothes, as I looked up in utter confusion a scar in the shape of a six appeared on his face, right on his cheek."Why?" he asked in a distorted voice. "Why?" He asked louder. I blacked out.

But in a few minutes I was conscious again. Gaara looked relieved and scared. I couldn't feel the night air, instead I felt an emotion I couldn't describe, but I knew it wasn't good.

"You okay?" He asked. "There was huge vibration coming from you."

"I think it was one of my memories." Gaara looked at me with an expression I couldn't describe. He told me to go to bed, and I really couldn't argue, whatever it was it completely drained my energy. I inquired about him, but he insisted that he was fine, and that it was something he's become used to. But in all truth, I think a 15 year-old shouldn't have to be used to knowing when anyone dies. Afterwards we didn't really talk about it, I kept his secret, and some nights we just hung out not saying anything but understanding everything.

* * *

Finally the day came, we moved early and quickly to Death Valley, seeing other parties on the way, I could only assume everyone got the message about the Noah. We arrived at the cliff, many human soldiers and MWs alike looking at the other cliff full of the Exous. We all tried to wipe away any emotion and steeled ourselves for what might come, death, injury; we knew it was bound to come. After what seemed like forever, the Exous soldiers on the cliff parallel to us. Our armor was on and repaired thanks to Ten-ten going to the armory we were so desperately protecting, the armor was 70% stronger and lighter than before. I could see the Normas and Tanks crowding on the cliff, their cold, emotionless face-plates staring at us, but we knew they were staring at death.

During this time, I've never heard such silence, and such loudness. The wind wasn't blowing, the sand stayed still, but my thoughts ran rampant through my head, and I could feel tension and emotion emanating from each human. Suddenly, we all cried a battle scream ripping the serene setting. The Exous charged down, and the impact if the tank belts and mechanical feet stamping the ground, it sounded like an earthquake. Throwing our hindering emotion and caution to the wind, barreling down the cliff. I held my uzi-87 blaster, a semi-automatic laser-gun and ran straight forward. I took aim and fire three shots at the Normas in the front line, destroying two instantly and the other hit the ground before exploding, lucky for us, taking out another few Normas that just happened to be near it.

Shots were coming towards me and I fluently dodged them, I was getting close, almost to the point where I had to switch to close combat and holster my gun. I raged on, blasting as many as I could, behind me I hear more shots and cries from hit soldiers. I didn't flinch; I did what I had to. At least that's what they inscribed in my holo-band. I not sure if I put it there or if it came with the armor, but it said clearly and boldly, "It's going to be bloody, but no matter what, you must go forward." My voice in my head was repeating it, telling myself that I'm still human, well, kind of. I snapped back to reality just as a tank had its barrel in my face. Crap.

"The Power of YOUTH!" a familiar voice rung out. In an instant the barrel was crooked and shot off ten Normas to the side of it. Oh, no. A man appeared me, he was my height, strapped in spandex-tight under armor with barely any other armor on it. I paled in annoyance, if there was anything I didn't (and couldn't) forget, it was Guy. He was owner of the bowl-cut, huge eyebrows, obsession with youth, and a high level, like me. He had super-speed, strength, and good in hand-to-hand combat. He is also my "Self proclaimed Rival" even though he's 3 ranks below me. Unfortunately he doesn't know my name either, we just met in a battle one day a little after I lost my memory, but he says in the place we were born in we sparred, but I doubt it. That was mostly because of the insane score (18-70 with him in the lead my butt.). "What's the matter 6? You don't usually space out like that."

"Nice to see you too, Guy" He twitched at my apathetic attitude.

"As my rival, you can't be that aloof!" He jabbed his finger in front of my face.

"Whatever." I knew my Lackadaisical attitude annoyed the crap out of him, he's usually so gung-ho about everything, so he wants me to be too. I personally would kill myself than be like him.

"HEY!" The Tank Exous' electronic voice interrupted our conversation, "you ruined my cannon!" It raised its ruined cannon and dropped it in hopes of crushing us. We looked sideways, shooting a menacing glare at him. It was amusing to see him realize his mistake. In a split second he was kicked in the air by Guy, and I cut him into pieces, we regrouped with the falling remains of the Exous behind us.

"How rude." We both said. As we continued to fight, if that's what you call it, back-to-back both me and Guy fought off whatever Norma tried to attack us. But in reality Guy punched them out and I shot at them. We talked calmly even though we were in the middle of that mess.

"I've joined a new group." I started.

"That's good. I've been training some young ones as well, there are over there" I glanced to the east, two boys were fighting with taekwondo. One looked like a mini Guy, the other was a long haired brunette with an intense disposition. They were standing in the same position we were, and kicking and punching their hearts out.

"They're good" I commented.

"They should be! They were trained by the fabulous me!" I rolled my eyes. Just then, I felt a shiver run up my spine, looked like every Earthling could feel it. The Exous ceased fire momentarily to look towards the Exous' mountain where this feeling was coming from.

It was the Noah. Standing at the top of the mountain, I could make out a smile and focused eyes bearing down at the battle.

I sent a message to everyone via my holo-band saying, "_Finish this quickly and leave the Noah to my troop-S6"_

All the human soldiers and MWs pulled out all the stops to clear the battle field. Grenades going off, heavy rifle fire, dead pulled out of there, in 10 minutes time the valley was a large carnage of metal. Soldiers rushed out of there, stealing guns and ammo from the now obsolete Normas.

I regrouped with everyone in front of the mountain, everyone was pretty much unharmed, and I noticed Sakura had blood on her hands and a disappointed look on her face, but the real battle started now.

The Noah jumped all the way from the top of the mountain to 50ft from us, power was oozing out of each and every pore, and it had an almost suffocating effect. "**Which……one…..wants…to…DIE**!" His deep and sickly voice resonated, kicking up wind as he screamed.

"Sakura, Ten-ten, Gaara, stay back here, Sakura your medical skills will be needed, Ten-ten you provide cover us and Gaara, you cover defense." I said, already making a battle plan.

"You should stand back here too, 6." Sasuke said, "This'll be the perfect battle to up our levels." I was about to protest, but Naruto jumped in.

"Yeah, let's go all out." With incredible speed Naruto summoned out four clones. Looking past them, the Noah smiled and raised his scythe, He scratched out a circle in a 5ft diameter from him.

"You'll never make me cross this line, and if you do, well… that'll make this more fun!"

Naruto smiled at the challenge. He ran out and surrounded the Noah easily; the Noah dodged a punch coming from hid left by leaning back. The clone planted his palm in the ground, using the momentum and spun his legs around, in hopes of kicking the Noah's face. Unfortunately, the Noah ducked out of the range of the helicopter kick and punched the clone in the face. Keeping the tempo, he shot back up and elbowed another clone in the stomach. The other clones came from behind and latched on to his arms. Without wasting time, they changed into chain and balls, effectively pinning him down. The real Naruto burst forward from the sand and punched the Noah in the stomach. Breaking through the fishnet armor, but it didn't seem to mind. I barely heard a gasp before the Noah swung both the iron balls at him. Naruto showed true mastery of his clones and with a thought they turned into pillows. But that did not deter the Noah from launching a kick, thinking quickly Naruto grabbed the pillows and softened the blow. Amazingly it still had power to send Naruto many feet away and his head was about to hit the sand, using my experience I moved my hand in such a way, it softened the sand and made it look like Naruto slid towards Sasuke when I was actually transporting him back to us. He gave a quick look of thanks and stood up. "Sasuke, when you attack be careful, he seems to have metal lining his skin."

"Yeah, I saw, that punch should've sent him flying."

"Must be why he's so sure he won't move from that spot."

"I think my iron skin could have some impact, but we might have to use 'that' formation." Sasuke pulled out his black katana. I could tell they were about to do something really powerful.

"Three minutes should be enough time" Even with their backs to me, I was sure they'd kill the Noah.

Blasting forth, Sasuke got right in the Noah's circle and punched him so hard it spun around. Sasuke jumped and flipped so his face was upside down and parallel to the Noah's. He slashed the Noah, and thanks to Sasuke's iron skin, the combined weight and velocity made a slight scratch on the Noah's shoulder. Landing just outside the circle, Sasuke readied his blade. "You actually managed to scratch me…impressive." The Noah cradled its new wound with its hand.

"Yeah and that was just a warm-up," Sasuke smiled, taking advantage of the Noah's surprise, he threw another slash, this time he was serious. The Noah was going to jump back, but he realized he was at the end of his circle. My eyes picked up a hint of a desperate face, but it hardened and it crossed its arms in a guard. As the sharp sword passed the through its hardened skin a growl erupted from its mouth. Even though it was to fast for the others to see, I saw an electric bolt from the sword and discharge once it hit the Noah's legs but stayed there. The fact that it didn't immediately follow to the ground made me more curious of Naruto's and Sasuke's plan.

Right then I felt a power spike, coming from Naruto! Blue energy whirled around in Naruto's hands, gusting around. No wonder Sasuke turned the Noah around, whatever they were planning; it needs ample time, and a distraction.

"You're good." The Noah complimented just before throwing a wide swing. Sasuke ducked and grabbed on to it. Once it was parallel to the rest of Noah's body, Sasuke used both his feet and double kicked it in the face, again the Noah stopped short of the line. Counting the time passing on my holo-band, Sasuke had 45 seconds left.

"They just might win this!" I cheered.

"This is bad," Gaara said behind me.

"What do you mean?" I looked back, seeing Gaara with sweat on his face, his hands shivering; he sensed something, something bad.

"Spit it out!" Ten-ten said worrying for her friends' safety.

"His power has been slowly dropping off, at first I thought it was the wounds and the fighting, but the sand in that circle has been building up. I first noticed it when he refused to leave when Sasuke slashed his arms."

"Right, he did say present a challenge, for the sole purpose of upping the 'fun,' so why is he backing off, no slash is better than taking it." I deduced.

"And Sasuke is right in the middle, if it's some sort of trap or beam Sasuke would be injured badly." Gaara said gravely. I got into action, using my copying abilities to assess the sand.

Wait Gaara, this doesn't seem like an offensive energy, if he had to store energy, wouldn't make sense to change the fundamentals of it? Even when I attack, I have to change some of the properties if I want it to be water or fire. What I'm feeling is just pure energy."

"Alright!" Naruto screamed, his creation done. They looked like blue dragon talons extending from his fingers, they looked sharp and it emitted a blue light.

"Finally!" Sasuke yelled as he flew into the air above the Noah, he raised his hands above his head, lightning spurting from his palms.

"So your partner intends to attack from that distance? I'll jump out of the way!" He bent his knees and stood straight up. When it wasn't in the in the air, it looked down, A spiral of electricity kept it down with magnetism.

"I figured you'd do, so every time I hit you I transferred my electricity in to you, building up until I told it to release. Oh, did I forget to mention that Naruto's attack comes from underground?" At that moment, Naruto sunk his new talons into the ground, a few seconds later, a dragon head appearing below the Noah, the dragon's mouth open and teeth bearing. In tandem, Sasuke threw his arms down towards the enemy, a strong lightning bolt shooting from his palms, hitting its mark just as the Dragon snapped its mouth shut like an alligator. The Noah's blackened blood-oil spurt out. The gruesome sight would be too horrible for words to an ordinary person, but even the young warriors seem to know the sight all too well.

The electricity evaporated the blood just as soon as it hit the dragon's face. Even though the Noah was modified, it still hurt to see a fellow soldier die. As soon as the bloodcurdling scream stopped, the boys stopped their attacks. Sasuke floated down and away from the corpse. A stoic look was on his face.

A comfortable silence floated across the land, no sand picked up, no blasters in the distance, no dying cries, machinery clicking into place, no sounds of struggling, no anything. I don't know what was worse, the silence before the battle where you expect death, or after death has made its mark.

This silence had a different feel though; it scared me and calmed me. I knew why no one was talking, and even though the reason was awkward, it was still nice to not have your body react to everything.

Suddenly, we heard it… a heartbeat. It got louder and faster, it seemed to be breaking my ears.

Thump. Ba-dump. Thump-thump, ba-dump, ba-dum ba-dum…BUMP! BUMP! BUMP!

"_**Did you REALLY think I was DEAD!**_"

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**A/N: Ooh, cliffie! Wonder what happens next…**


	2. Don't Underestimate Me

**A/N: And we're back! Time for the next chapter, the exciting conclusion to the Noah fight! And yes, I do refer to the Noah as an it, so it can get somewhat hard to follow, but stick with me here, there's a reason.**

**Don't Underestimate Me**

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"_**Did you REALLY think I was DEAD!**_" Out of nowhere a skeletal claw emerged, its pointy claw thrusting at Sasuke's turned back. Gaara and I acted quickly; he put up a large and a yard thick wall…and yet the claw smashed into it. Its speed dropping, but a crack formed, and sure enough it broke through. Placing the wide side of my sword towards it I stopped it in its tracks. But man is it heavy!

"Ahrgh, Arr,.. Gra, S-Sasuke! Move!" He disappeared using his speed. At that moment I turned the other way, letting the claw go right by me. It went by and stopped short 9ft of the others. I breathed heavily, I couldn't believe it broke through one of Gaara's thicker shields, and it took almost everything I had just to stall it! The sand wall fell and we regrouped, wondering what was going on.

"Soldier 6… the energy is gone from the sand, but I think it's been absorbed by him!" Gaara said with his breath ragged from summoning the huge wall so quickly. We all looked to the direction of our enemy.

As soon as the smoke cleared, a collective gasp came from our mouths. The Noah had changed from look from a human to the black skeleton form we saw in the hologram before, with some differences. On the back of its hands sprouted 5 bone blades in the shape of a claw. It looked like it worked like some automatic grappling hooks you would see in batman, except these came from the top of his wrists. Spikes came out of its shoulders and followed down its back gradually turning into bumps. It looked like it grew an extra jaw bone that the Noah wore like something a knight would where to protect its jaw. The worst part is, we only know it hasn't shown all the cards in its hand.

"So, tell me, which one of you wants to go first?" His voice was darker and even sicklier than before, if that's possible. I looked at my team; silently I told them that we all needed to go. They nodded and everybody but Gaara went charging at the monster. I upholstered my gun and shot at it, being more cautious than before. It hit it, but it looked like it didn't hurt the Noah at all. Ten-ten slipped on some brass knuckles with 4 huge spikes on it and smaller spikes around them. She turned out to be surprisingly agile as she threw punch at it while jumping awkwardly to avoid a slash from those claws. But the new Noah bent backward and balanced its weight on those back spikes, allowing it to double-kick her. Luckily she summoned a metal shield, but it did smack her pretty hard. She then threw 10 kunai at it. The Noah shot the claw, and we could see it had an outstretching line connecting the claw and the body. The claw clamped down on the knives, but failed to notice the explosive tags and they blew up in its claw. The long connector was charred and what was left of the hand was the palm, and the pinkie.

But suddenly metal alloys stretched out to replace the missing fingers before turning white like the rest of the hand. Fortunately the claw pulled back before it could attack her again. Sasuke came from the back, sword electrified and started swapping slashes with the monster. It suddenly spun around, the spikes knocking the sword out of his hand, once it was done spinning, it launched a kick, but using his ingenuity, Sasuke rolled on the Noah's leg and came slamming his heel into the hip. The Noah wavered a second, allowing Sasuke to jump in its face saying "Giant Fireball Jutsu!" A blast of fire erupted from his mouth. The reaction blew Sasuke away a foot, he watched the blaze engulf the Noah, but a claw arrived from the fire and tried to grab Sasuke, and this time, it was faster! Another Sand wall protected him, and sand senbon exploded towards the Noah, causing it to back up. It jumped to get away but the senbon followed it up, me bringing up the rear. Using the wide side of my sword I said "Wind push" which increased the speed of the senbon. At the speed they were going it was sure to pierce!

A grin appeared on its face, then it said "Tomb shield!" At that moment, what looked like a sarcophagus appeared and opened, collected the senbon and closing.

Out of the corner of the Noah's eye, it noticed a giant shuriken and caught it with its palms.

"Surprise!" Naruto said as he changed into his human clone form and went to slash him with his Dragon Talons. Thinking quickly, the Noah separated them with an enlarged claw, using the force to back up and fall to the ground. The sarcophagus came in between Naruto and it, and we heard "Open" The sarcophagus obeyed and shot the sand senbon it caught from before at us. But apparently it forgot that it wasn't a weapon and the sand dissipated, the Noah growled and the shield vanished. It saw lasers coming from its side and it used its right claw to expand a protect itself. When it couldn't hear anymore lasers, it lowered its claw and saw Sakura a foot away, gloved fist ready to punch.

"Ha! What can you do little girl? If I can stand lasers to my chest, what can a wimpy punch like yours do?" Needless to say, it gravely underestimated her and we all took a very intelligent step back.

"CHA!" A chakra-empowered punch to the Noah's stomach made the sound of metal crunching, and Sakura made the follow through punch lift the modified body in the air. We could feel and see chakra pass through its body and out its back, the power made a slight impact in the Earthling-claimed cliff. I'm not sure, but I think I saw the Noah's eyes roll into the back of its head.

I nodded to Sasuke and we both ran to Sakura's location. She saw us and gave us a nod, to finish up her combo and start ours, she jumped above the Noah and sledge-hammer kicked him to the ground, just before he landed, I slapped my palm on the ground and said, "Canyon Quake." A crack ran from my palm to under the Noah. Its consciousness returning, it saw it was falling in my trap, so it outstretched its arm and shot out its claws to the side of the canyon, scraping it to a stop. It didn't notice Sasuke flew to the bottom and started collecting energy around him. He looked up at the Noah and yelled, "Lava Spout!"

Concentrated lava pooled around his body, and then shot up at high speeds, right up at the Noah! Sasuke Iron Skin allowed him to not get burned, even though he directed around him. The Noah felt the heat rise below his feet, so he looked down. It made a 'tsk' sound and pulled back its extendable claws and said "Cross Block!" Just as the lava was a foot away, a giant crucifix as tall as him appeared. It looked as if it belonged to a graveyard for Billionaires; it was colored black with a light gray trimming it, and red and gold jewels making an alternating pattern, going towards the middle where a large blue circular jewel was located. When the lava impacted with the cross, the force pushed him up and out of the canyon, but I noticed the lava seemed to be absorbed by the jewels. Landing on an elevated rocky plateau in the middle of the valley it got up and planted the cross in the ground and tool out the blue jewel. "Now you'll see one of my greatest attacks!" We regrouped and saw the red and gold jewels turn black and the whole thing melted in the ground. Suddenly, a tremor knocked us off our feet.

"What the hell was that!" Naruto said turning his head back and forth. Then in the distance, a low growl reached our ears, we tensed up, since it seemed to come from everywhere.

"It's from underground!" Gaara exclaimed, we jumped off the ground, just in time too, because a bony hand stretched from the Martian sand, slamming down and pulling the rest of it up. There we saw a skeleton with some mechanical parts and armor climb out of the ground. Sand was pouring out of its eye sockets and other orifices. "Shit… we're surrounded." Gaara said solemnly. We looked around us Metal from destroyed Normas and Tanks flew to the remnants of killed human soldiers like magnets, replacing any missing parts and providing armor of transforming into weapons.

"This is Resurrection!" The Noah said from atop his perch, "Any dead material in the area of one mile radius gets combined into an army of zombies!" He laughed. We all got in a back-to-back formation going over what we could do.

"Man, this is something out of a bad horror movie." Naruto said, quite freaked.

"If we fight in close-range we could be overwhelmed, and using big and long range attacks could spend what little chakra we have left!" I reasoned, internally agreeing with Naruto's earlier comment.

"I could use my sand but with this many, it'd be like you said, draining. Then I wouldn't be able to provide cover, we can't have that against a Noah." Gaara said, his stoic face showing hints of fear and frustration.

"Looks like I'll have to do it." Ten-ten spoke up.

"You sure? Sakura said worried.

"Yeah, I use weapons, which don't spend my chakra, and I'll you guys to back me up should things go bad. Just get up in the air and let me worry about down here." We understood, so Sasuke took flight carrying me with him, and Naruto summoned two clones to turn into jet packs for him and Sakura. We all flew up and landed on the Earthling cliff, far enough away to not get hit by any stray ammo, and close enough away to observe and provide help if needed.

The zombies seemed curious about the lack of enemies so they focused o Ten-ten, waiting for her move. From her pack she took two scrolls, and unrolled them in a circle around her waist and collar bone, a foot away from her body. I noticed kanji on them as they encircled her, and then she said "Double Dragon Fireworks!" The kanji turned from ink to many different types of guns, all seemed to be modified. Then, two maces with medium length hilt/rod appeared in her hands. Without wasting a second she swung the mace rods and the spike ball sitting on top of it shot out, a strong looking chain connecting the weapon and rod, much like the Noah's main weapon of choice. The spiked mace instantly cracked a skull. Literally. The shattered remains of the skull clicked against the other zombies, watching the body separate and return to scrap. The mace returned to the launching rod with a click. And the floating guns took aim. A ripple of lasers blasted forth, each laser shooting right in the middle of the forehead. The hit zombies fell apart like the first one.

"Good thing they don't come back alive like in the movies." Naruto commented, and a whap and "Ow Teme!" could be heard. But we knew Naruto was - in his own way—trying to cheer us up, and Sasuke needed to take his worry out on someone.

The zombies knew that if they didn't attack they'd die (again) so they rushed forward. Ten-ten spun around with the mace shooting out, producing a circle that smashed though some more zombies. She then jumped in the air, collecting her mace and the guns moved and shot erratically but accurately while moving in concert with her. Landing in a clearing, a zombie jumped as soon as Ten-ten shot her chained mace again, it slung its sword at her, but it didn't know about Ten-ten's ingenuity. She used the rod to block the sword, and then maneuvered the chain to go horizontally through the skull, effectively killing it. We watch as the chain cut through skulls and the mace bash 'em. The guns were still firing with insane speed, accuracy and precision. I looked to the Noah, it seems as though he was completely level-headed, but I bet on the inside he was having a cow.

As soon as the last zombie fell, Ten-ten looked composed, besides the few drops of sweat on her brow. The Noah jumped down, a few yards from Ten-ten. "Well you took care of my army with ease, but I won't underestimate you again." He got a reply of gun magazines falling and new ones popping from a scroll to replace them.

"I'm ready anytime you are ugly." She smirked.

"You underestimate me this time, lasers can't hurt me." Ten-ten just 'hmphed' in response and shot a laser at the Noah, the blast ran straight into it and was forced back a step with a grunt. It recomposed itself, its stomach had a bit of skin pushed in by about an inch and a half. The Noah held the hole in disbelief.

"Sorry, but you underestimated me, and yourself. I have the ability to build and modify weapons. These are my special guns that are masterpieces, even if they're weak compared to your Exous armor, this ammo power is the equivalent of a large canon. So I can still collapse parts of your body, giving you indents like that."

"I wasn't expecting that…" The Noah thought out loud. It also didn't expect all 40 guns cocked and fixed on his position. They shot, and it stretched it bone claws to make a shield. Since it really wasn't a part of its body it wouldn't hurt and it reformed if it chipped. But I gotta say, that looked like it hurt. Ten-ten used this chance to jump as its vision was compromised, using the mace and shot diagonally to its right, completely missing its head, the other crossed over the chain and did the same but on the left side. "Ha, you missed!"

"Not exactly…Nexus Cut!" The point where the chains crossed was the Nexus, and it went from Ten-ten to the Noah. "The chain is lined with micro-blades, super small, but extremely sharp." You didn't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out what would happen if the blade-laced chain reached you. The Noah quickly screamed "Tomb Shield" and the sarcophagus appeared right as the chains were starting to close on him from the side, it couldn't open to absorb the chains, which was a plus on our side. The shield was somewhat holding up, but the edges were being sliced with a horrible screeching sound, the Noah jumped back from the attacks' range, just as the shield collapsed and was sawed in half. Dust covered the two from our sight, but we heard sounds of the guns firing off, slightly illuminating the dust cloud from the inside. The two fighters jumped out from the top dust cloud.

Somehow in the scuffle, Ten-ten lost most of her guns and the two maces, only 3 guns were left. But the good news is, the Noah had a few new dents in its shoulders with some spikes broken off and cracked, left leg, back, and just above the right hip.

My guess is that it charged forward when Ten-ten was blinded and somehow managed to destroy the guns, but not without being shot a few times. As the Noah was in the air, it stretched its bone claws out five yards and set its arms to the side and slapped its hands together, the bone claws were imitating his move, right where Ten-ten was! She fired a few times before cutting the connections with the guns and threw some kunai, and since every action had an opposite and equal reaction, she flew to the Exous cliff.

Gaara quickly softened the landing by controlling the sand to reach up to her and slowly guide her down. She nodded in our direction as a sign of thanks. The Noah landed and smirked "I've gotta admit, this is the most fun I've had in awhile. But it ends now." It raised the blue stone from earlier, "The energy stored from the cross can actually split by taking out this jewel. It can fire a huge blast that's very large and wide. You have now other power than weapon modification. You're doomed."

"I still have two more guns and these ones will beat you." Ten-ten said confidently.

"Bring it on!" The Noah yelled. Ten-ten obliged and took out a dark red scroll and unrolled it. There was some smoke as the weapons were summoned. We waited as the smoke cleared, I was holding my breath. We all were surprise by what we saw next, this was including the Noah. Two shiny black 2000 model 9 mm gun. We couldn't believe it. Something that ancient was expected to beat an advanced Exous? If lasers couldn't even phase him, what will bullets do? I don't know what Ten-ten was thinking. "Ha ha ha! Heh ha! Ha ha ha! Ha! ha! After all that talk about beating me…and this is your plan? What the hell? Ha ha! I think it's time I ended this game!" Ten-ten looked at us and mouthed, 'don't move'. It aimed the blue jewel at Ten-ten and said "Final Resting Place Blast!" A black laser was fired, completely blocking our sight of Ten-ten and the blast was as tall as the cliff that Ten-ten was pinned against.

"Gaara! Status!" Using the sand to see what we couldn't, he then breathed a gasp of fear.

"She raised her guns and firing!" As soon as he said that, we heard the sound of 2 guns firing at the same time, and we saw a blinding white laser emitting from the bullets and it was a 1/4th bigger than the Noah's blast canceling each other out.

After the smoke cleared the Noah fell to his knees in disbelief, "H-how? H-h-how can it be?"

"It's simple really" Ten-ten said in a condescending voice, "I modified them. The difference is… that in today's weapon, the chemicals and matrix that control creation and launching of the laser is very hard to mess with, if you do it wrong, it could blow up in your face. So there are limits to what you can do. But the simple mechanics in these guns give me 98 percent more freedom in modification. In other words, if the modern guns could indent you, these will create a volleyball-sized hole in your chest!"

All of us on the cliff looked at each other. It was obvious none of us knew about these guns. Sasuke rubbed his iron hide, and from the look on his face, he knew one hit from those and he'd be dead.

Acting quickly the Noah shot its bone claws on either side of Ten-ten and gripped tight. He jumped in the air a bit and started to spin around; the remaining spikes made it seem like a buzz saw! If he hits Ten-ten at the speed...it won't be hurt as much if she fired and it could finish her off!

But Ten-ten, she's laughing. She crossed her arms and fired shot at the connectors between the Noah and the claws. It stopped immediately and blood-oil spurted from it in a "X" shape and the liquid came from its mouth. I was gasping at this turn of events. The Noah retracted its claws and it looked like hell. "How d-did *cough* you know-"

"Your weakness? Well, as an accurate shooter I've developed perfect and discerning eyesight. When you were falling in the chasm, I noticed when you tried stop yourself; I saw that your left claw was slower. The only reason it would do that is because when I blew up your left claw and connector! Even though it healed it took minutes longer for your connector, and even though you're black coloring makes it hard to see injuries, my eyesight could see burn marks on your left side." The Noah's eyes widened, telling all of us she was right. "When ever your connectors are hit, your body takes proportional damage."

"Wow" Naruto said, "I never knew Ten-ten was such a Bad-ass Kick-Asser." Needless to say, we all agreed.

"Give up." Ten-Ten said, eyes cold towards the half-dead creature. Me and the gang went down, surrounding the Noah from behind, but still maintaining distance.

"Stay away… or I'll blow up!" The Noah said desperately.

"Too bad you don't have a bomb." It looked to Ten-ten who held a gun to his head; she must have sneaked up on it while it was focused on us. "Did I forget to tell you? Silly me, but I can analyze any weapon I touch. When you charged at me in the dust cloud I managed to scan you."

"You!" It stretched its claws at her but since it was heavily damaged, it was much slower, so Sasuke and I slashed its claws off. In the quick slashing we opened its abdomen, oops. A scream erupted from its throat from the pain. And inside we could see a metal part where its heart was suppose to be, I saw Ten-ten tense.

"Naruto, use your claws to pull that out!" Since it was on such short notice, Naruto made a thin membrane of chakra with only 4 inch nails and snatched the part out. Wires still connected to the main body fought him as he stepped back to fully detach it, so Sasuke electrified his sword and easily cut through the wires. The color faded from the Noah's eyes, and the black tattooing instantly changed to human color.

Through a tired eye its real pupils came forth by fading in. "Thank you" a sickly voice sounded. But it wasn't 'crazy-sick' like before, but 'cancer-sick'.

"Ten-ten, what is this?" Naruto looked at the part in his hand.

"Basically, it's the mainframe. The Exous wanted to use the MW's powers while controlling him, so they couldn't turn him completely mechanical. To override the human soul, they put that in him, it makes a chemical that boost bloodlust while sending messages to their brain that controlled intents, but allowed the MW to fight normally."

"Yes…but I won't live long since that was connected to my heart. But I must tell you my message." It—no, he, told us. "The Exous is making three bombs. Each with the power of 6 nuclear bombs, and it's designed to kill anything biological. One's for here, and one for Earth, and the last for the moon." We all gasped. "It will be done in 8 months, and if its calculations are right, and they usually are, only it and a few really high levels will survive. It will then take the knocked-out high-levels and create more Noahs. So it can wage war with other life forms and gain the advantage. It even is creating another Exous to rocket to other planets and create a base there. Luckily, it isn't programmed to happen 'till 6 months after the bombing." My eyes were wide with disbelief, the others had the same reaction, and Gaara was even shaking. After a violent cough he continued with the bad news. "One last thing…Sasuke Uchiha?" The teen keeled down, "I'm sorry, but it has your brother. He told me to tell you that he was sent on a top secret mission to go behind enemy lines, recon, and destroy assembly lines. He was caught, but it hasn't started assimilation yet, it's saving him for after the bombing. He told me this when I was still Exous, so I never thought I'd do this. But he used the Sharingan to hypnotize me to live a little longer and do this. He took both Naruto's and Sasuke's hands, and the dark color arose again, only to be transferred to Sasuke and Naruto. "Take my power…you'll need it. I was a level 50 mechanized to 85, it'll be helpful. Naruto Uzumaki, they're coming for you and Gaara, I don't have to say why.

The ex-Exous body shriveled up as the power left him, his originally gray hair turning into a blinding white. When he was done he was breathing hard but it was pretty useless without a whole heart. "I'm sorry for all I've done." And with that he died peacefully with a smile on his face.

Shortly after, we buried him. He was a true warrior to the end.

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**A/N: Didn't expect that twist did you? So now what are our heroes going to do? Review and stay tuned!**


	3. Twitchy

**A/N: Chapter three and still going strong!**

**Chapter 3: Twitchy**

There are so many emotions going on in my head right now, and I feel like I'm going to puke. Camp was still silent. This silent had a different fell though; it scared the living shit out of me, yet it was calming. I knew why everyone was not talking, and even though the reason was awkward it was one of those things that had to be done. We had to. A fellow human? Yes. An Exous fighter? Yes. A trapped soul? Yes. Yes it's that simple, and yet… it's not. What he said hinted that the Noah's are consciously watching as they do these things, probably putting them through a lot of Mental and Emotional damage.

Sasuke and Naruto were fighting out their emotions somewhere slightly out of sight, ever since "the talk" as we now referred to it, the power they absorbed boosted them to level 60. And everyone else was at camp. I was sitting there thinking too much (as you can see) Sakura was checking over Ten-ten to make sure there was anything too serious going on. Ten-ten was building new guns from metal scraps collected after the battle, and polishing her old guns that she used in the battle. Gaara was pseudo-sleeping, as he liked to call it, where he was resting and looked like he was sleeping, but he was still half awake due to the sand powers he couldn't turn off.

If there's anything I've learned from losing my memory, it was that thinking too much depressed me. But I couldn't help it.

It was no wonder no one wanted to speak, because what would we say, really? That the image was burned into our minds? So are many other disturbing images we've witnessed. That everyone did a good job? What kind of job is this? This "Job" that turns us into monsters here, and when we get back to society we'll be rewarded with medals that represents what we've gone through? And then the people we've fought so hard to protect will probably fear us because of our powers or what we've done, or both! How we couldn't protect so-and-so from his fate?

Fate, what a fickle word. Sometimes I wonder what kind of god would hate his children enough to put them through hell, and then afterwards because of what we've done in order to survive and fight another day, or because of what we are we'll be sent to hell anyways. The only thing I can say to that is: We're ready. Gaara can't sleep because he probably witnesses millions of deaths each day. Sasuke and Naruto live for and because of each other, even though they fight, there is genuine care. Sakura often tells me she has nightmares about the people she can't save. Ten-ten doesn't have a family name, so I imagine she has no family to go back to. I don't either since I can't remember, but I often wonder, did they give us up at birth so we could be trained to kill? Do they even care? Or did they give us family names for a sense of belonging?

…

…

What about my name? And what about that boy I saw? Who was he? Why was he asking me 'Why'? Did I lose my memories on purpose to escape the pain of knowing? What life did I lead? Do I even want it? Did I ever? Am I crazy? Or crazy because of the crazy world I live in? But in a crazy world I would be normal…and since I'm normal I'd still be crazy because I'm different for my normalness.

I need to stop thinking.

I was becoming twitchy, and I was messing with my sword like I had OCD, moving it from my back to the ground, wiping sand from it, flipping it over, and then putting it on my back; rinse and repeat.

"6?" I looked to Gaara who had one eye open to look at me.

"Yes?"

"Stop it; your indecision is driving me crazy. You've been doing that for the last hour."

"Sorry."

I decided to stop messing around and set a direction for us. A plan was needed, mainly because I was bored. I went to retrieve the battle jockeys and we all sat down. "So, what now?" Sasuke asked, and he was a bit more sullen since he got the news.

"Well as we all know, there is a huge bomb being designed to wipe us out. This "bio-bomb" is gonna be done in less than a year, and we've probably got the Noah's attention focused on us for taking out one of their own."

"Should we tell Earth?" Sakura asked.

"I don't think that's a good idea, the Earthlings could go into a panic and in search to stop this threat they could send nukes, taking Mars and us along with it, and there'd be no guarantee that the Exous will be in the 'dead' category." In my experience, people would rather find a quick solution instead of a well thought out one so as not to make mistakes. "What about the soldiers?" I asked.

"No," Sasuke chimed in "They'd launch a full-scale assault, raising suspicion on Earth and the Moon, and the Exous could learn we're on to it."

"Plus with the captured bodies, more Noahs could be made, worsening the situation." Ten-ten added. I nodded taking in all their thoughts into consideration. There have been some assaults on the Exous HQ, some die and some are never heard from again until they show up as Noahs. That's probably how Hidan got turned into a Noah…Wait…that's it!

"The Noahs!" Everyone jumped. "Ten-ten did you analyze the Noah heart? How does it relate to the Exous?"

"Yeah, it's like the Noahs are characters from a video game; it controls them by linking to the heart and uses the character's fighting style to points it wants cleared. Why?"

"That's how we're going to beat the Exous!"

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, it seemed to me that she was very intrigued.

"Well it's common sense that's how the Exous manages the other Exous troops right?" They nodded, "It's like a scooter compared to a car. The troops a simple to manage, just point a shoot, simple as that, like a scooter. But an MW..."

"It's much more complicated, like a car! In cars you constantly have to correct it or it'll go off the path, plus you have to refuel it, turn on lights, keep good care of it, and should anything happen to it, you're screwed! Naruto shouted, I was surprised he was the first one to get it.

"Correct, didn't you guys ever wonder why no back-up came? Or why they pulled back?"

"It's to free up resources, like a computer in order to do a complicated task. I'm assuming since the Exous modified things in the brain to unlock more power, it had to keep the body breathing manually." Sakura said.

"Yes, so what if we did an invasion, but first we'd have to destroy as many Noahs as we can and capture their mainframes."

"Why?" They all asked, not exactly excited about the idea of facing another Noah.

"What if we could transform the mainframes into power draining modules, confusing the Exous?"

"Confusing it?" Sasuke asked while raising an eyebrow. I was surprised they weren't getting it.

"All right, let's go over it again. Noah sightings are rare because…"

"It's takes up resources and concentration." Sakura finished.

"So controlling, or having Noah Mainframes on at the time we invade will…"

"Slow the Exous down!" Gaara said.

"Why don't we tell, like, 500 soldiers to attack too?"

"All it takes is one impatient person, and besides, I think this is more suited to MWs. If we could get a secret task force together and tell a few higher ups to get weapons and information, we could do a Noah hunt, and then attack directly."

"You have connections?" Gaara said.

"Remember, I've been here a long time, even if I've lost my memories, other people haven't."

The kids looked at each other and shrugged.

We went up to the armory we were protecting that was on the other side of the cliff and walked in. A female soldier acting as a receptionist looked at the rag-tag crew that had just walked in the door and knew right away we were MWs. "Can I help you?"

"I'm looking for Iruka," I said smoothly, using my good looks to make this go over easier, "and maybe a night with you?"She was enchanted in my spell; I looked to the others and gave them a thumb up. Gaara look as disturbed as someone like him can get, with a subtly twitching eye lid, Sasuke was stoic, but he couldn't hide the faint blush, Naruto was pretending to puke, and the girls looked embarrassed to know me. All of them were looking anywhere but towards me.

Mission accomplished. We got shown to Iruka's office and I got to have some fun embarrassing the kids. The tanned man looked up from his paperwork and dropped his jaw. "Oh joy, the two most troublemaking people I know in one room; Naruto and 6. I knew today was going to be a bad day."

"Nice to see you too, Iruka." I said slightly disappointed at our welcome.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto glomped the man, and as a result; knocking him and his paperwork down.

"Well, Iruka, we have some business to discuss." I said.

"Right, well how about you guys go to the training room and Ten-ten, as usual you have full reign to get whatever guns you want." Ten-ten looked like a kid in a candy store and didn't hang around another second. After he peeled Naruto off him and sent him with the others, the tanned general got some coffee from the machine that was conveniently located behind his desk. "Students, what are you gonna do?" he gave a melodic laugh and I laughed along with him. Iruka was one of the kindest and most-respected men in this sector. He knew how to handle a gun and even though he wasn't a MW, he thought like a sly fox and fought like a demon, and at the end of the battle he would take any injured and haul them to the nearest medic, I would know, I was one of those he carried.

"Iruka, I have to ask a favor, and this is absolute Top Secrecy, so secret, the Earthling government doesn't know."

"Come on 6, what crazy plan have you come up with now?" This was another reason he was a general, he cut through the bullshit real quick. I proceeded to tell him my plan about the invasion. He was quiet at first, not interrupting and nodded every once in awhile to show he was listening. I saw the slight tightening of muscles and veins popping on his forehead.

After I was done he looked at me seriously, looking for any sign of deceit. When he finally opened his mouth, it was the response I expected. "6…You're bat-shit crazy, and so is this whole damn plan you've cooked up out of getting fucking lucky to survive the trashing you got from a Noah! A Noah, 6! You're lucky you didn't lose anyone in the battle! Good fucking god!" I took the chastising because I knew him, but after he calmed down and 2 coffees later, he was willing to help. "What is it that you'll think you'll need?"

"Files, a lot, MWs above the level of 45, and…I think I need Naruto's and Gaara's too."

He spit out his coffee. "What for!"

I leaned over to and spoke very lowly and seriously punctuate my point, "When the Noah turned back to normal he told Naruto and Gaara that the Exous were after them and they knew why. I didn't ask them because it was clear they did **NOT** want to talk about it, but I need to know why so I can protect them."

Iruka was in shock, his eyes dilated and his whole body was shaking. "How could they know? It was supposed to be an absolute secret. Only the highest ranked know about the project."

"What project?"

"How could they know? How?"

"Iruka, I know you care about Naruto like a son, but what are you talking about?"

"How could they know?" Iruka was now a broken record.

I took him by the shoulders and shook him to knock him out of it. "What Iruka? What project?"

"The Biju project." I heard from behind me. It was Gaara and Naruto, both looked dead serious. Iruka looked ashamed. I knew they knew that I just wanted to protect them so they continued, alternating the explanation. "The military wanted to create stronger soldier, stronger than 100-level MWs."

"So they took 100 soldiers and implanted them when there were babies with creatures that were basically chakra, each with the estimated power to take out 8 100-levels. Since there were only 10 creatures, they injected a fraction of their power that was supposed to grow to full maturity as the babies finished developed. Out of the 100, only eleven survived."

"No one knows what happened to the 10th and 11th babies, it was assumed they died later on. But Gaara and I were classified as the 1-tail and the 9-tail due to the creatures we harbored. We can release some of the creature's energy and use them in battle, it's part of the reason why I heal faster…"

"And why can naturally control sand, most of the time it pops up without my control, acting as a natural shield. Because the creatures still live in us, if we die they die." I didn't know what to say.

After that, Iruka gave me the information and implanted it in my holo-band, Ten-ten picked up 150 new guns, go figure, and Iruka being the mother hen he was, for extra protection, he gave us newly designed armor, called the ANBU set. It wasn't like full body armor, it was like our under armor, but Iruka said it offered more protection than our regular armor and under armor combined, it allowed free movement and looked had a gray top, but mainly was black with the secondary color down the arms, sides, and the pants were black with shin guard that covered the whole shin and buckled in the back. There were armguards that were the same design, with a chest plate under the tank-top-like shirt, the black gloves had small knives at the fingertips, and this allowed a more bestial appearance and allowed us the opportunity to shred some serious metal. And for personalization we got scarves that were the color of our choice. Iruka said it absorbed 12 percent of chakra-made attacks, it may not be a lot, but every little bit helps. I packed more armor in a pack that Sakura had. And, boy, women packs were basically black holes, I don't how many I packed; it just didn't seem to get full. I assumed this is how she managed to pack enough gauze and medicine to treat an army. Overall I think we looked like cooler Power Rangers, but rangers all the same.

Man, I'm a dork.

**A/N**: **PLEASE READ! I was just trying to write from the soldier's point of view, I'm not messing with any deity. Many 'Nam Vets that came into our classroom have said the same things. **

**On a lighter note, I really think that Soldier 6 is a personification of me, I'm dork, a natural leader, I think too much, and have a sarcastic humor. But I like writing like this, it's kind of like putting my thoughts down in writing while still offering to the story. And I tried to get all deep in the beginning, you tell me, do you think it was good?**


	4. Bitch Squad

**A/N: Ok, fourth chapter, now the fun begins.**

**I don't own, Naruto or any other fighting influences used in fic.**

_Flashback_

'Thoughts'

**Any other font will be explained in the story**

* * *

**Bitch Squad**

I moved another purple-blue leaf out of my way as my mood worsened. What am I doing out here again? Oh yeah.

_I was skimming through the new information in my holo-band when Sakura walked up to where I was sitting. "You know 6, I know a couple of girls that are pretty powerful. I call them the Bitch Squad." I raised an eyebrow, silently asking why. "Trust me you don't wanna know. But if it interests you, one of them is Gaara's Sister." A sudden shift of sand rose up a foot in the air._

"_What!" came the cry of Gaara, who had the unfortunate chance of overhearing our conversation._

"_If it makes Gaara that worried, I'd like to see why."That was code for: If it annoys Gaara, this is going to be fun._

No one told me they were stationed in a forest of Martian trees. The small spaces were making me nervous of the chances of escape, and also unleashing bigger attacks. But if Sakura says they'd be good to our cause, I believe her. But, Gaara's sister, it makes me think (and you know how dangerous that is) I heard of some instances of whole biological being donated before being born, I guess it makes it easier to graft powers into them as an embryo. It's kind of sad, but a least you'd have a real connection to someone. And with news of the Jinchuriki project, I guess you'd need it. The news of the project rattled in my head still, the sullen faces of Naruto and Gaara as they recited it, as if they practiced it. I knew there are layers to the Earthling government and under those layers lay secret projects, to make 'progress.' But to me, it's kind of disgusting, because it makes us seem almost as heartless as the Exous which made Noahs. But what happened to the 10th and 11th subjects? I guess they died.

**SWACK!**

A branch swung and hit me right in the face, but I guess that's what you get for not paying attention. "Alright, they should be around here." Sakura said from the front, "Hey Pig! Temari! K-" Sakura was cut off as a shadowed figure tackled her into a bush.

"SAKURA!" Naruto and Sasuke screamed and went after her and the attacker, but a blinding high-pitched screech paralyzed us. I tried to signal to Gaara but he was already knocked out. Damn! What do I do? Before long, I was seeing in tunnel vision, and it was closing. Damn it!

I opened my eyes to find myself in a dark space, I saw nothing but black for what seems like miles, and I was standing on nothing, or that's what it seemed since it was just blacker below me. Were we transported somewhere? No…I think, I'm in my mind. Is this some sort of trick? I turn my head wildly, looking for something …anything! Then…the boy from before shows up again. "W-who are you!" I scream, but everything seemed far away, even my voice, time felt like it had weight and it was stacked on me, I was atlas, and time was the sky I was doomed to hold forever. I see his face clearer now, even as I feel that I'm losing myself to the darkness, his left eye is shadowed over again and even with one eye visible, his emotion made it to me, it was like a mix of pity, a burning emptiness, and maybe pain.

But despite my heighten paranoia, I feel familiarity rush into me, helping me lift the heavy time. While I was debating my action, he raises his hand to my chest and I see orange chakra cover him, and flowed from his outstretched hand to my chest. Instantly I feel an enormous rush of power my body was glowing white just like his orange glow, pain shot through me, and I knew my body couldn't handle this power injection. Breathing heavily I collapsed to my knees, the boy took a step back and the chakra immediately formed a sphere around him. I was amazed as the darkness receded and I could see the orange-red terrain with purple-blue trees. He pointed to me, then the orb, "Do you want me to do it?" I asked, still panting, he nodded. I tried to ask again who he was, but the burning in my body told me I needed to expel some of this power. So I stood clumsily, letting it seep through my pores, creating a white-silver orb similar to his. I could feel myself being drawn to the real world. I turned back to look at the boy, but he was gone.

My eyes opened with a jolt, I was still emitting chakra, and the screech was massively reduced, it sounded so far off in the distance now, but it's still there, meaning the others are going to be out for a while. I didn't dare remove the protective orb, I'd probably get knocked out again, what I need to do is find Sakura, so she can awaken the others. Walking past the bush where we were ambushed I activated my Sharingan, Sakura's pink chakra was 10 yards away, along with another with a vast amount of chakra, it surrounded us, so she must be the one causing the screech. I grabbed my sword off my back and ran towards them.

What I saw was not what I was expecting.

"Ahh! Ino! Stop that! Ha, ha ha! No!"

"Tickle, tickle, tickle!" The one with the vast purple chakra said, Ino, I guess, as she tickles the pinkette. I was behind a bush wondering what to do, but that decision was made for me. "Come out, I know you're there."

What! How could she know? I was stealthy! But I got my answer when the bush I was hiding behind suddenly dissipated and turned into chakra, some of it returned to her. "Was that an illusion?" I made my way to her and I could make her features out more, she had long platinum blonde hair with a fringe in front of her left eye, pupil-less sky blue eyes focused on the girl in front of her. She was dressed in the regular armor, but it was tattered, and you could see the under armor, plus it looked like she cut the under armor so her mid-section showed, she obviously was pretty and she wasn't afraid to show it.

"All of it was an illusion; you've been in my range for awhile…remember when you got whacked in the head?" She giggled at my expense, and I frowned.

"Vividly. So that was you?"

"More or less," She went back to Sakura, who was recovering from the 'attack', "My, my, my, still as ticklish as ever, huh, Sakura?" she said in a teasing voice.

"Shut *gasp* up, pig." She looked quite mad.

"Where did you get this stylish armor! It looks so cute on you!" Sakura blushed at Ino's attention. I just sweat-dropped.

"So, Ino, How big is your illusion range?" I broke in, steering the conversation back on track.

"Well that depends, if I just sit in one spot and have some back up, about 1 mile around, but of course stretching it out like that renders me kind of immobile and the quality isn't very good, so I usually lead the enemy in circles and when they get tired, we ambush them, but to do illusions in battle 5-6 meters."

"Maybe I should formally introduce myself I'm—"

"Soldier 6, Kohona, rank 73, elemental, sword, 18th company, yadda, yadda, yadda, I know."

I raised my eyebrow in interest, "How do you know that?"

"I'm Ino Yamanaka, rank 53, same company and country as Sakura here, powers; Illusion, mind transfer, short-range mind reading, about 10-15ft. That kind of depends on the intensity of the thought, and finally, light manipulation."

"Short-range mind reading, that explains it. Well, I'd like it if you allowed everyone to get up."

"Oops, almost forget about them." She said in her teasing voice again. I looked to the surroundings and my Sharingan noticed trees made of chakra, although it was a small amount, I guess that's how she could really utilize all of her chakra reserves. The only thing that her chakra didn't touch was the sky.

We went back to the others, and man, did they have a headache. Sakura gave them some medicine from her medical pouch and they were better, but still cranky as hell. "Ow…" Naruto moaned, "Anyone get the number of the tank that ran me over?"

"Seriously." Sasuke agreed in his own ways, you could tell he was slightly annoyed that he hadn't noticed the genjutsu.

"So where's the rest of the Bitch squad?" Sakura turned to Ino as she crossed her arms.

"Must you call us that?" Ino sighed. Sakura just raised an eyebrow, silently answering 'yes' and asking her question again. "They're coming, I used my powers to create a large gray rock, when it disappears it means 'come to my position'. They should be here shortly. I inwardly commented that they were highly organized.

"Gaara, any vibrations?"

"Yes, a weird one," He knitted his eyebrows together, in confusion, I took this as a bad sign, "It stops and starts, but it doesn't feel like someone's jumping, there's no deeper impression, It's coming from behind us! 30m…25m…20…15…10…5…" two more figures popped out, and before any of us could react, one glomped Gaara, the other glomped both Sasuke and Sakura. The dust rose up and temporarily blinded us.

After the smoke cleared, I saw two girls who had a cocky smile seemingly tattooed on their faces. It looked like Ino's when she teased Sakura. One was a tall, dark blonde, she had a slight tan going on, had on light purple under armor, and she was slightly muscular, she easily lifted Gaara, gourd and all, and shook him back and forth, left to right; his legs were waving around like he was a rag doll. By the way he looked; it was obvious he was in pain and embarrassment. The second girl was as tall as Sakura with long red hair, one side was combed and the other looked teased. She wore black rimmed glasses in front of red eyes, a very dark purple under armor on, and what looked like…Short shorts? She laughed as both people pinned beneath her complained loudly, but none of it seemed to reach her ears.

Ten-ten, Naruto, and I stood sweat-dropping at the scene in front of us. Ino simply fell over laughing, which caused us to double sweat-drop. Gaara used his sand to separate the older girl's arms and escape, he gasped loudly as his lungs grasped for air. Sakura and Sasuke used their combine strength to throw off the red-headed girl and stand up immediately. The others and I were up to triple sweat-drop. Sasuke moved behind Naruto and held him by the shoulders to shield him form the red-headed menace; Sakura did the same with me. "Come on Sasuke-kun, Saku, it's been so long, don't I get a kiss?"

'Quadruple sweat-drop everybody! We've broken the record! Everybody clap!' I thought ruefully. I craned my neck to look at Sakura, she was blushing madly, that or it was anger, Sasuke too, but I'm sure it was more anger. And being me, I just had to add fuel to the fire, "Well aren't you two popular?" I said.

"Shut up." They said as they double punched me so I was looking like an ostrich with my head in the sand and my feet sticking straight up. This time, everybody sweat-dropped. When I got my head put of the sand, the taller tan girl looked to me as she held back the trashing red-head. I was starting to understand why she was muscular.

"Well hello handsome," I saw the red-headed girl look at me, and I took a wise step back, "I'm Karin, MW rank 55, 100th company originally from the land of sound, powers; bite healing, speed, sensory, and another secret I like to keep quiet." She said. She took in my gray hair, "So what are you? 60? 70? Aren't you a little old for this?"

I can see why Sakura called them the bitch squad.

"Don't you think you're a little too young to be dying you're hair and too immature to be chasing after loves-that-never-will-be in revealing clothing?" I answered in a fake happy tone, "Besides, didn't your mother ever tell you it's rude to ask an adult their age, and base it off their natural hair color no less?" I lectured.

"I thought that was with women, like my Saku!" She tried to glomp Sakura but was caught by the other women.

…Does that sentence sound weird to you?

"Don't worry, she's just lust crazed all the time." The dirty blonde talked in a sultry, but mature voice, "I'm Temari Sabaku, rank 54, wind mastery, super-strength, and speed. Also, I'm Gaara's older sister." She introduced herself as she started messing with Gaara's blood red locks. Poor Gaara, his hair just seemed to have natural grease in it, sometimes it's good, like after a battle, with a swipe of his hand it's back in place, but in this case it was being used against him to change his look to emo punk rocker. When he groaned loudly he unfortunately caught our attention.

Temari had put his hair in a faux-hawk.

...

We tried, we really did. But we couldn't help but laugh. And laugh…and laugh…and holler…and laugh…And boy howdy, it was a knee-slapping, side-splitting good time!

After the laugh fest and many death stares/threats by Gaara we eventually stopped. Needless to say he relaxed it back to it's original form, but I noticed he didn't really mind Temari messing with his hair, I guess it was evidence of a family bond…thing; whatever you want to call it.

Taking advantage of the silence I told the girls my plan. And guess what they said?

"You're Crazy." Yep.

"Yeah, I've been getting that a lot lately." I deadpanned.

"But it just might work." Karin chimed, adjusting her glasses. Ino and Temari turned to her with upturned eyebrows.

"Really?" They asked.

"Yeah, sure, I mean it's crazy but no one has been able to come up with something that complicated, it couldn't reveal what we're doing to the Exous and give us a chance, no matter how small and insignificant it is." 'Gee, thanks' I thought. Leave it to the resident crazy to make sense of it and make it seem not so crazy. I guess their logic is just like that.

"That and you want to get with Sasuke…" Temari interjected.

"…And Sakura," Ino said, finishing for her. She put a protective arm around who blushed at the turn of events.

"Well that too," At least she truthful about it, but then she wiggled her eyebrows at them and Sakura face-palmed while Sasuke looked stoic (not including the twitching of his eye of course), but surprisingly Naruto was getting mad. I was wondering how the hell crazy met those two when Ino turned to me.

"Well 6, Sakura and I met in the training facility back on Earth when we were growing up. I was like her body guard," She stopped to duck an angry punch from Sakura, "We met Karin and Temari on Mars and we hit it off. Sakura saved Karin from death when we first met, and Sasuke saved her from a tank when an ambush went bad. She couldn't choose between them so she chose both. But I guess it's true that no good deed goes unpunished." Oh. Well, at least she's not just randomly lusting after people. But I'm still not used to this mind reading thing, but I had a hunch that she couldn't turn it off, like Gaara.

Man, what is it with our government and it's consistency with powers that come with no off switch? Is it too much to ask?

"So, back on topic, will you join us?" I said while I unconsciously adjusted my arm guards. They exchanged glances and nodded. Excellent, now all we have to—

"Don't get so excited, you have to pass our test." Ino said, all business-like.

"Test?"

"Yes, every team has a mandatory test the person must pass to have us join or you join us. It's not really a written rule, but we MWs do it anyways." Temari said. I turned to my team; they had tested me, but hadn't said it was a test. I guess it was true to form for them to be lighthearted like that. "Each fight holds a lesson to be learned, and since time is of the essence, tomorrow you will go against all us in one-on-one fights. At the end of each fight, we'll allow a 2-hour break. And if you fail to beat one of us, well, good luck and good-bye. But if you beat all of us, we'll ask you what the lesson was, you get one guess." She continued. I was slightly ticked that they had made this some sort of complicated pass-fail thing. But then again, Naruto and the others went easy on me. I'm sure there was a lesson, I just…never thought about it. I saw Ino grin, I instantly knew she was reading my mind…and probably laughing at my naïveté.

And I guess I couldn't blame her.

* * *

That night, we all set up camp, Ino Temari, Ten-ten and Sakura in one, Sasuke and Naruto in another, Karin got her own (guess why), and Gaara and I in the last one. He was propped up on the wall lost in his pseudo sleep. I was pleasantly surprised when he said the tent floor lessened his 'awareness' since he wasn't on sand directly.

I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about the boy I saw in my mind, he seemed younger than me, but I felt such attachment. Was I friends with him in the training facility? I had to have been, it would explain his age. And when I noticed that in the 2 times I saw him, his left eye was lost to the shadows. As if the boy didn't want me to see. I subconsciously rubbed my Sharingan eye. It looked far too different from my other eye. It was red with two black dots that left a small trail, while my other was black, you know, normal looking. But I couldn't turn it off like Sasuke could his. I looked through my Sharingan eye and looked at my body, I had my regular blue-white chakra, and within it I saw the orange chakra, it didn't mix, but rather flowed through my keirakukei (chakra lines throughout the body) and surfaced every once in a while and disappeared quickly, it circulated so fluidly, as if it belonged.

Then I remembered the orb jutsu he showed me in my mind. I didn't move my head, but my eyes to where Gaara was, making sure he wasn't too awake, he was a breathing statue. I closed my eyes and let the chakra seep through my pores, controlling it into a sphere around me; I opened my eyes and saw the silver-white orb again. It had protected me from the illusion, well part of it. I reached up stealthily and tried to touch it. My hands slipped right through it. In the back of my mind a comment quietly muttered something. I couldn't quite make it out, as if it were from someplace else. Following a hunch I kept trying to touch it, with both hands.

And I heard it again, "It should be solid" It had an echo-like quality to it.

And I realized… it was from a memory.

"6…" A whisper so low I wasn't even sure I heard it. I looked to Gaara who had his eyelids open the slightest bit, but his bright sea-foam green eyes made me follow the line of sight towards the entrance to our tent. I gave the slightest of nods.

Gaara and the rest had a silent but understood language, he was saying someone was there and both eyes open meant that they've been there awhile. Whoever it was quiet enough to not immediately wake Gaara or put me in battle mode. By leaning my body so I could grip the zipper with out moving and making noise, I gave a slightly-louder-than-usual breath. One that couldn't be heard outside, but said to Gaara 'Get ready.' He imitated the breath giving me the go ahead.

I ripped the zipper down revealing Ino, and at being discovered, she jumped in surprise. "Heh, hi." I could hear quiet laughing breaths from Gaara, yet no change in his face. "Wow you guys were so quiet you didn't even think until the last possible millisecond." I blinked, we didn't think? But I guess we just understood.

"What are you doing here?" I whispered as I got out of the tent and zipped it up.

"I heard a voice, one that comes from your thoughts, and I knew it was coming from you, but it sounded different, darker, in pain." I instantly knew what she was talking about, the boy, but I wasn't thinking of him talking.

"What boy?" she asked, I flashed a mental picture of him when we were in my mind.

"Oh."

I knew Gaara was extra aware, trying to 'feel' our conversation, so I asked her "Can we speak in thoughts?"

'Yes' her voice came from her mind and it sounded weird, but I started to thought-talk.

'I lost my memory, a long time ago. But lately I've been seeing this boy' I chose my memories and sent them to her. A way to describe it would be like sending an e-mail with an attachment. It was weird, but felt natural.

She nodded, but some confusion was evident on her face. 'Close, but no. It was more guttural then this'

'More guttural?'

'Yeah, maybe something from your subconscious is manifesting in the form of this boy' I checked her information in my holo-band quickly.

'It says that you can travel into the mental plane, can you see and uncover memories?'

'Yeah, if they remember parts of it, why?'

'I got part of a memory when I…did something' I thought, intentionally keeping the orb jutsu I did earlier out of my mind.

'I don't want to spend too much chakra, we do have to face each other tomorrow, but I can enhance it so you have a bit more of the memory.'

I'm not gonna lie, I was a bit disappointed, but a clip of info was better than none. 'Okay.'

She reached her hands up and her fingertips to my temples and through my Sharingan I could see purple chakra flow down the kenkikurei in her arms and make its way to my head. 'This might hurt since your memories are locked' she thought, and as soon as I heard her, it felt like spikes were being driven into my brain, I gritted my teeth and felt like screaming but it was like my mouth was sewed shut. The terrain in front of me disappeared and was replaced with a huge room. It was all white but about 20 feet up it dissolved into darkness. I tried to look at my hands but I couldn't move them. I realized I was lying down, apparently breathing heavily.

I remember now, I'm seeing but I can't move, this is a memory that I'm viewing. I'm not as I am on Mars than here. Then that boy leaned over me looking beat up, he smiled widely despite his appearance.

He looked the same as in my visions, but he had both eyes, and they were red like the first time I saw him. "Man, this new jutsu you created is awesome!" He adjusted orange goggles on his head.

I felt myself smile. "Yeah, it's multipurpose too! It can be used like a shield, genjutsu cancellation, and who knows what else!"

"Yeah," He sat down as I sat up, "But I like the fire one you created even better, where do you get these ideas?" He said.

"Really? I think it needs work…it's unstable." I brush dark locks out of my view, I guess I grayed faster then most, even for a MW.

"Hm…" He made a noncommittal sound.

"Are you worried?" He turns to me trying to rid himself of emotion, he nervously fidgets with his goggles. "That's your tell you know, I can always tell when your nervous or when you're getting ready to use to your jutsu."

"Thanks for the sagely advice." He retorts angrily, but he lowers his hand from the eye-wear.

"I know that deployment is soon, you've been trying to drag these sessions longer and longer because of it."

"Am not."

I rest a hand on his shoulder and squeeze, "It's not good to keep these things inside."

His jaw clenches and he turns to me, "Then promise we'll be on the same squad. We do have great pull around here…" He mutters the last part but I hear him fine.

I chuckle, "So that's how you're able to reserve the practice rooms for an insane amount of time." He gives a sheepish smile. "You're so transparent."

"Hey!" He playfully punches my shoulder. He looks off into the distance, and I look into my hands, they seem a pit paler, but I guess fighting in the sand gives a bit of a tan. I put a pinkie finger right in front of his face, making him jump a bit, but he recovers and looks at me.

"If it's that important to you, then I will, Obito."

"Thanks…brother." he wrapped his pinkie around mine and smiled a thousand-watt smile. We stand up, and I can feel the familiar weight of my sword, but it feels weightier. "Let's do it again!"

"Where do you get the energy?" I say more to myself than him. He focuses and the orb jutsu surrounds him. I walked around and scrutinized his work. I reached out and touched it, feeling some resistance, but my fingers still slip through. "Almost, you've got the basic idea, but it should be solid."

The memory fizzled out after that and I felt like I was being thrown back to consciousness. Ino removed her fingers and watched me gasp like a fish out of water. I ran to the bushes and had a second meeting with my dinner. I as I stood there, I started evaluate the memory, it _was_ more informational, but it was vague. At least I got a name…Obito.

After I was done, I still felt like the virtual ping-pong ball used between two finalists in holo-table-tennis. Let me tell you, that's not a good feeling. I looked back to the camp to see Gaara outside along with Sakura and Ino. All of their faces shared a worried expression.

Despite my saying that I was fine, Gaara held me down as Sakura gave me a check-up. Ino stood by for support. 'So he was real' she thought to me. I almost jumped at the mental statement but being trapped by sand has the amazing ability to keep you where you are. Who knew?

'Yeah but it doesn't explain the other voice you heard.'

'No, your mind is pretty locked so I can't do anything else.'

'What if he's communicating with me?' her silence let me told me she didn't know what to think. 'I saw that he had two eyes, unlike my visions, what does that mean?" she shrugged slightly.

I have no clue either, maybe I should just leave my memories alone for awhile and focus on the task at hand. 'Maybe that's for the best.' I heard Ino agree with me, trying not to worry the others by saying it out loud.

I was exhausted with the night's ventures, and I swear I slept like a corpse afterward.

* * *

I woke up in the middle of the day and the team regarded me with quick, worried glances. I had told Gaara, Ino, and Sakura to keep quiet about last night, but I guess they didn't. I couldn't blame them though; I guess I would spill if I had to go through Sasuke's silent but unnerving glares and in combination with Naruto's, and Karin's pestering. We walked out to a giant clearing bordered by the Martian trees and I small cliff with a large rock face seemingly floating on the sand. The surrounding area was about a mile in diameter, give or take. The Bitch squad went a little away from me, presumably to decide the lesson or who goes first. I adjusted my ANBU armor and turned to my team, "So any tips?"

"Don't get your ass beat." Sasuke said with all the seriousness of a heart attack. I knew he had more experience with them, so he must have had some sort of idea of their abilities.

"Just do your best, they have a few tricks up their sleeves, so don't let your guard down." Sakura offered.

"Here, Ten-ten shoved more weapons into my leather pack that hung off my belt, "These should help."

"Sand may work against the other two, but don't overuse it, especially against Temari, we trained together, she knows how to fight against it." Gaara advised.

"I know you'll do fine, believe it!" Naruto gave me a thumbs up. I smiled behind my mask, closing my eyes to signal the testament, and everyone gave a smile in return.

"So, 6 you ready" I turned to find Temari at the ready."

"Yeah." We went out o the middle of the clearing and since both teams knew we could control wind, they took refuge behind a few rows of trees. I saw on Temari's back was what looked like one of those fold up fans, except this one was huge! Like 20 times the hand held size, it was held firmly against her back by a thick belt around her torso, "So, you want to go hand-to-hand first, no need to break out the weapons yet." She nodded and tossed her fan back towards the trees, implanting itself 10 feet away from the beginning of the forest. She gestured to me, "I like keep it on my back when I'm not using it."

She shrugged, "To each his own." She got in a fighting stance, I did the same.

She rushed forth sending preparing a punch, I used my left hand and sprung it up and threw it off course. I went with an uppercut and she used her other hand to slap it down while jumping to kick at my shoulder, I crouched down and out of the way while keeping my torso parallel to the ground so my sword wouldn't get stuck in it. I launched myself forward shouldering her in the gut. While being sent back, she managed to elbow me in the face. I ignored the pain in my jaw and put my hand on the ground down to land, Temari was skidding a bit so I ran towards her hoping to catch her off guard with shuriken.

As expected, she bent her body out of the way and snatched one of the weapons and prepared to throw it at me, but I caught up with her using my super-speed, but the strength she held was even in her finger tips, allowing her to toss it a high speed. Sidestepping so it bounced off the arm guard, I used the momentum to swing her around by the wrist I had in my hand, but she countered by burying her fist in the ground, stalling the move so she could grab me with her previously captured hand, and threw me. Good thing her range of motion was limited so I got thrown only 15 feet, and I landed fine.

Neither of us had broken a sweat, we were saving it for later. "You need to stop holding back, just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I don't know how to take a punch!" To punctuate her point she ran over with super speed in a crouched position and tried to uppercut me, I used the arm guards to absorb the hit, but physics demanded I shoot up in the sir. So going with the flow, I rose up and flipped, on the way down I came with a hammer kick to the ground cracking the terrain and sending boulders into the air. Temari had jumped out of the way but was being followed by debris. I quickly wove some hand signs and said "Earth Clone Jutsu." Out of the debris came clones with rectangular, brick-like hands, all aiming for the blonde.

One clone went to slam both brick-hands on both sides of her head. But she landed a kick right in its chin with her super-speed; she then hooked her arm under another clone's arm and threw it into another. She finally landed firmly and ducked as one clone aimed for her head. It soon tried to kick her when she was crouched but she started into a back flip, when she rotated on her hands she made sure to kick its head off. Looking down she saw a shadow that was not her own, she jumped away in time as a particular heavy clone landed on both feet, crushing the ground beneath it. Temari landed a side kick, but caught it and held it close to its body. She tried to wrench it away but it held firm, then she saw why. Before it attacked I had another clone attach a paper bomb onto it.

It exploded with a fury, lighting the already orange sky into a vivid display of blood red, yellow, and a light orange. I watched from my hiding place I went into when she was busy with the clones. I waited patiently and tried to look through the smoke. My Sharingan found her, and my eyes widened. Temari seemed to be covered with what looked like wind, the fire dissipating into it. "Fire can't burn if it's covered with Carbon Dioxide." She smiled smugly. I ordered the last two clones to go after her, she jumped kicked one in the stomach and followed it with a three-hit combo of punches in the jaw, head, and solar plexus. She ran to the last clone, coming at it with a punch, but the clone knocked it away with its right and followed her arm with its hand in a chopping position. Instead of backing up, she moved in, still effectively making the hand miss its target. She used a roundhouse on the clone, and it was powerful, making it fall back a few dozen feet, backside parallel to the ground and still sailing, she jumped so she seemed to be hover above it. She reared a punch and just before it connected I jumped out of my hiding place…from inside the clone! Using my super-strength and speed I punched her in the stomach so hard, you could hear the 'whoosh' from her lungs. She landed near the tree line and her iron fan.

"You said you could take a punch, how was that?" I taunted.

She spit a little blood from her mouth, "I'll admit, that was crafty," She stood up as if I hadn't winded her, "but now it's time to get serious." She reached for the fan and opened it with flair. Wind was swirling around her, causing her dark blonde hair to fly around. I did the same with my sword.

It looked like two tornadoes swirling around us, we walked forward and the tornadoes touched, ripe with chakra the nexus had sparks flying. Our wind nature power seemed equal, but we both knew it was how you wielded it that matters. The tornadoes subsided until a light breeze remained.

Then in the blink of an eye, we ran forward meeting halfway, I swung my sword and she immediately folded the fan and let it meet my weapon. Sparks similar to the two tornadoes shot out. With my Sharingan I saw a magenta-purple chakra was around her fan, which means that there wind upgrading her attacks. But that was okay, because I was doing the same, it was common knowledge that lining your attacks with your element advanced the overall strength, it was also easier and quicker to launch elemental attack, which is what she did next.

She opened her fan and shouted "Gale Force". When she brought the fan down, the chakra came at me, it kind of formed a shape, it's hard to describe, but it was like the business end of a boxing glove, it came quickly and caught me. And I found out that not only was it similar to a boxing glove, it felt like one too. As I was in the air, I lifted my sword to counter and relieve some of the pressure. I got into a baseball-bat-hitting position, and as I swung the flat of the sword and said "Wind Push". It was as like Temari's Gale Force attack but it was shaped like a thick crescent moon, and if it hit you, it was like hitting a wall and 80 mph. She jumped out of immediate danger, but she was still pushed back. I hit the ground running and used the sharp end in the same motion and yelled "Slicing Wind".

All you could see was a white translucent knife of wind coming at Temari. She stood her ground and leveled her fan and let it rip while shouting "Wind Scythe". I watched as what seemed like the wind had tentacles that cut anything it came in contact with, including my attack. Thanks to my Sharingan I could see it and arm my sword with a fast spinning current so I could bat away most of the tendrils of wind. Some of them came below and behind me, slicing me up pretty good. Three slashes on my arm, five on my legs and one on my left shoulder and a small scratch on the back of my hand. I was breathing a little heavier but for some reason I felt extremely drained.

I bent my knees a little and focused my chakra, flaring it up and spreading it to my limbs. Temari moved forward closing her fan and moving it to hit me, I jerked my sword to block; it was not the end of her attack though. I noticed too late that it was sideways, so Temari opened it up and smacked my ribs, wind enforced too. I went flipping in the air. I caught my self and slid backwards, another wave of fatigue caught me and I dropped to my knees. This was no ordinary fatigue, not even close, everything seemed blurry, sounds came with a static. Crap! There goes my vision, good thing my Sharingan's not just for seeing, so I can still see the colors, flickering like a flame. Somewhere far off there was a sound, I couldn't decipher it, but the color stretched like a boxing glove and I knew what was coming. I controlled the chakra in my legs to move and it responded slowly. I got clipped and I was sent through a tree.

This is totally scaring me, I seem to resemble a rag doll, I was taking huge breaths but it did no good. I forced my head to look up and I saw the magenta-purple flame coming forward. Chakra swirled around a dark space, I recognized it as her fan and it was coming towards me, it was enclosing—so close.

A dull thump was heard, and now since she was closer her words weren't complete gobblity-gook, "Huh, sand?"

Yep, If I can't move my body then I'll move my chakra, "Gaara! You can't help him!"

"It's not him," That's what I meant to say but it sounded more like "Hitti's nozts bim" I stared right at her.

"You shouldn't be able to see me…" She trailed off but I knew why.

"Zoe's fishes fourer hootfin" Translation: "So this is your doing."

"You guessed it." Jeez, she must have done this a lot if she can understand me. "How is this wall here? How can you see me? You must have quite the mental strength."

"Fat zand Fartygun" Translation: "That and Sharingan."

"I see…" She got that out before I willed sand spikes out of the ground, "Man you're like a downed dog that who still growls if anyone comes near." Better than a dead one in my opinion.

As I kept her a bay with sand, I focused some of the Sharingan on my body. Beneath the white-blue chakra of my own, and the mysterious orange chakra, I picked up small hints of Temari's chakra. I focused on it. Trying to get my colored sight to magnify the intruding chakra, and there it was.

In my bloodstream!

Oh crap. That's what she's been doing! She's been deoxygenating my blood, making me more tired because I can't get enough oxygen. It must have happened when she cut me, offering access to my blood and pulling out oxygen.

But apparently while I was being shocked as all hell, I let down my sand guard. That is the one good part of having powers that don't turn off, even if you're almost down for the count, you're still good until a comrade comes. I hear, "Wind Wall!" and I see a mini tornado of chakra come to my rag doll body and pick it up, the wind slices me, it's like little scratches, but a lot of little scratches can be bad too. Damnit! What can I do?

"**Use it against her…"**

'That voice, so dark… so guttural! You must be what Ino heard!'

"**Correct."** It answered. The way it spoke was like a deeply voiced gentleman you see in movies just before he brings the poor girl to his apartment and cuts her up. You know, Smooth with a hint of mysteriousness, throw in some contempt, dash of power, and why the hell not? Put some Dark overlord in there and stir until boiled. **"Your sarcasm is impressive…Given the situation…" **It paused, **"I can help you."**

I was in a bad situation getting worse; I don't see how a little help could make things worse. 'One question,'

After what seemed like forever to consider it answered. **"Go ahead."**

'Are you something like Obito?' I heard a surprised sound, which seemed out of character for Mr. Sooth and Deadly here.

"**A presence in your mind…yes, but I stem from somewhere deeper in you, the Obito presence doesn't."** That left more questions then answers but I accepted it.

'Okay, then get me out of this.' I felt myself shrinking back in my mind, looking through my eyes, but not like they were my own, like looking through binoculars, there was two circles that overlapped slightly but still could be identified as circles. The dull senses I had were getting even duller. I realize I was now on the inside looking out. Then everything went black after that.

* * *

Temari stopped the jutsu to let 6 down. But not for pity, but because the way he was breathing changed completely. No gasping for air, but a calm sort of breathing. As the wind started to die down, she saw something come out of the translucent wall. It was a gust of wind! Coming straight from the Wind Wall!

It pushed Temari back, it was painful, but it was not necessarily lethal. She looked up and saw 6's usual playful demeanor completely replaced. His normal eye was now red but with a slit like a predatory animal. She could feel her jutsu still in affect, so how is it that he's standing? She tapped twice on the sand with her right foot and eight times with her left, it was a message to Gaara to check things out.

But she didn't need to. The others could feel a difference in their friend and a shiver down their spines. "His chakra amount enormous! It's Noah Level!" Karin said, shivering and sweating so much that her glasses were the equivalent of the wind shield on a rainy day.

Sasuke's Sharingan was activated and he was wide eyed, "It's a different color. There's some White, like usual, but there's mostly Blood Red." Naruto was right next to him tightening his grip on Sasuke's leg, to calm both himself and Sasuke, since the only way you could tell Mr. Stoic was scared was if you knew him very well.

Naruto had a very special bond with his friends, if one was in trouble he'd get a gut feeling a rush there without a second thought, but it was like even though 6 was right in front of him, their hearts weren't connected. Sasuke noticed Naruto shaking and gave a reassuring squeeze to Naruto's hand. Had it been a normal soldier, their hand would've been broken.

Sakura was next to Ino who was currently gripping her head, "So many," She whispered.

"What do mean?" Sakura asked since they were both shaking, her instincts telling her to run. She held Ino as she leaned against her.

"There are many presences in his mind." She bit her tongue to not tell about Obito, which was between 6 and her. But she could sense, 6, Obito, and the thing she noticed the night before, but it was louder, stronger, and so sad.

Gaara could feel each step 6 took was stilted, unsure. He knew the extent of his sister's jutsu. He should be rag-doll-like instead of puppet-like. "That's barely 6." He said, everyone turned.

"Barely?" Ten-ten said, metal in her pouch was jingling as if they were shivering.

"It's his appearance, his body, but something's controlling him like a puppet. Karin, Sasuke! Remember everything you can about this chakra!"

"No problem…" They both said, but everyone knew what the unsaid was; "Because it's unforgettable." The color, the amount, everything.

Gaara bumped sand under Temari's feet three times, telling her to go on the defensive; he added an extra bump after a slight pause, meaning to be extremely careful.

6, other rather 6's body, moved the sword in the wind push position, except the sharp end was facing Temari, "_**Crescent Moon Cut**__…"_ A disturbing of 6's voice coupled with the Dark presence said quietly, but right now it was the loudest thing any of them heard. Any stilted motion was absent as the possessed man swung the sword, due to muscle memory the presence didn't need to fight with the body's fatigue and rough transition into control.

The attack seemed to cut any sand or rock that stood in its way. "Wind Scythe," Temari called, she put all she had into it and it bounced off the attack like rubber. She tried to move but Wind seemed to take the form of shackles and wrap around her feet. She couldn't break out with her super strength and it was spinning so fast she couldn't match it with wind in the other direction.

"I surrender!" Temari called to 6. Desperately hoping she could get through to him but the Cut came still, it was too late. "AAAAAHHHH!"

CRACK

Wind splayed around everywhere, it was like a concussion bomb and knocked everyone back.

…..

….

After the wind died down everyone opened their eyes and ran to the scene. Temari was still in one piece. She looked up at 6 still obviously under someone else's control. "_**Gotcha"**_

Needless to say, everyone was mouths as foot warmers. They dropped that low.

"WHAT!" Was the collective replay.

"_**Even if I was darker than 6, I'm still 6."**_

"This doesn't make any sense." Naruto said rubbing his temples.

"Are you the part that 6 lost when he lost his memories?" Ino asked bluntly. The dark 6 replaced his sword on his back and turned to her.

"_**Yes and No"**_ Ino rubbed her head, _**"Sorry. I'm sure my consciousness is quite loud." **_ She closed her eyes and nodded. _** "I can put up mental walls whenever I come out."**_

"That'd be great, thanks." She blinked, "Does that mean that you're the one who caused 6 to lose his memory?"

"_**Yes and No"**_

"Do you have any intent to overtake 6's body?" Sasuke asked.

"_**Yes and No"**_

Do you have any relation to the Biju Project?" Gaara asked suddenly.

"_**Yes and No"**_

Naruto had had it, he flapped his arms up and down in frustration saying, "Are you going to say anything besides 'Yes and no'?"

"_**No. Oh, wait, since I just said 'no' and that's different, but I still don't intend to say anything else. Yes and No. Don't you just love logic?"**_

All of them did a cartoonish fall and the dark 6 laughed. They silently agreed that he certainly still was 6. _**"Relax, I'm just here to help 6." **_Even in this lighter mood his voice was dark and could make the Noah Hidan shrivel up and die.

"Well since your different from 6, maybe you have a name?" Temari asked.

He seemed to consider this before answering, _**"Void."**_

Everyone thought it was appropriate enough, his voice was devoid of anything except bloodlust, and he was the only one who could fill in the that was 6's memories.

"_**I have to go back to 6's subconscious now, he'll have a headache and, you still have to deal with the deoxygenating jutsu, tell 6 what happened." **_He already knew they were going to keep this quiet. _**"The quest for his memories is important, and I only remember certain things. Please don't impede him. I will tell him my existence anyways. You remember his medical needs?" **_He directed at Sakura, she nodded. Behind his mask one side lifted in a crooked smile, and he flicked his wrist in a wave right before the normal eye turned to onyx black and his eyes rolled to the back of his head as he fell in a crumpled heap.

Sakura rushed over and started taking car of the scratches as Temari deactivated the jutsu. A few minutes later 6's eyes flicked open. "Man, I have a headache from hell," He paused to take a headache-relief pill from Sakura, "what happened?" Everyone exchanged glances. It wasn't a good sign in his opinion.

"Well…"

* * *

I was slacked jawed. I couldn't believe what they were telling me. "So, in a nutshell, you have a split personality that apparently knows something about your past, is a prankster, and is arrogant." Sakura diagnosed.

"And he won't tell me why?"

"He said he only knew certain things, maybe he wants you to do it on your own." Sasuke suggested.

"Can you sense him now?" I asked Ino.

"He's deep in your psyche, and it's like he's sleeping with his eyes open."

"Huh?" Naruto and I said.

"What she means is that people with split personalities have a dominant personality and another that is unaware of the dominant. But in this case the personalities see and feel everything that goes on. Interesting." She was going into nurse mode now, she seemed to be thinking really hard.

"Well I guess I'd rather have him sleeping than talking, too weird."

"Anyway, you've got to fight Ino next so rest while you can" Temari yawned. She sat down next to Ten-ten and used her lap as a pillow and promptly fell asleep. Ten-ten would've moved but Temari's got at least 40 pounds on the girl.

"She's got the right idea." Naruto relaxed in a tree that Sasuke took refuge in and snored as soon as he fell asleep.

"That sounds nice," I said, "You guys will wake me up 15 minutes before the fight starts, right?"

"Yeah, so you stretch out and shake the sleep away." Ino said. I just smiled. 'Ino'

'Yeah?'

'You seem scared.'

'I'm not.'

'Bullshit'

'Ok, when you transformed, there were such blood lust and Void's mind seemed…overpopulated, with memories, more like sound clips.'

'What did you hear?' There was a long pause.

'Someone in pain and…'

'And?'

'It sounded like you were dying.' I forced myself not to jump. I looked over, she was talking to the rest of the group with a smile. I wonder how she does that.

* * *

**A/N: DONE! Finally, the chapter was a bitch to get out! I'm hot and my back hurts, I'm going to eat and relax. Review!**


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Naruto, Adventure, Sci-Fi