First shot at a cooped story with the awesomely talented DimiGex. I highly suggest you look her up for more Naruto stories.


"Go on soldier, shift your shebs!" Fynta screamed as she hauled Vik up by his pauldron and shoved him towards shelter. Her feet were slipping in the mud as the deluge from a sudden storm raged around them. Purple lightning spread out parallel with the ground and Fynta dove for cover. The electricity that filled the air just above her head sent a tingle up her spine. She could see the boots of her soldiers disappearing ahead of her, Jorgan at the front, but Dorne and Theron were lagging behind.

Rolling over onto her back, Fynta unholstered her Verpine and began firing down her body to provide cover for the others. This was supposed to be a simple rescue op, snatching Theron back from the Revanites. They hadn't been prepared for the man himself to be at the shabbing place when they raided it. "Theron, do you have eyes on Dorne?"

"Yeah, got her with me," Fynta's comms started buzzing in her ear and she swore.

"Sir, come in, can you hear me?" Jorgan's rough voice cut through the interference to settle the nerves that put her teeth on edge. "Everyone is back, no casualties, just you three. Get here now, Fynta."

"You heard that right, you two? Quick goofing off and move!" Fynta could see Theron's hair cresting over the ridge, his arm thrown over Dorne's shoulder for support. Fynta was beginning to scramble to her feet when the air was sucked from her lungs. It didn't make any sense, her helmet was locked in place, environmentally sealed, nothing could get through. The next thing Fynta knew, she was on her back gasping for breath as white light flared around her.

"Fynta. Fynta come in. damn it woman answer me!" She couldn't answer, could barely think. Only one thought was conscious in her mind as the white light began to darken around the edges. Aric Jorgan. Everything went black.


"I don't even know where this stupid plant is supposed to be," Naruto grumbled as he walked through the forest. Team Seven was on yet another D-rank mission to find some kind of medicinal plant. As soon as Sakura heard the name, she'd begun rambling off its uses and places where it could be found but Naruto had tuned her out. He hadn't paid attention at the academy so why pay attention now? It couldn't be that hard to find a plant with purple streaks on the underside of the leaves. Could it?

Kakashi-sensei had brought them here then told them to split up and find the plant. Something about testing their survival skills rather than their teamwork. Naruto hadn't been listening to that either. He was going to find the plant first and show Sakura that he could be just as good as that idiot Sasuke.

Not terribly far from where Naruto was complaining, Kakashi sat nestled in a tree with his favorite book. The plant his team was looking for grew at the base of this particular tree and eventually, all three genin would find their way here. Kakashi didn't feel bad for not telling them where to find their objective. They needed to learn to do things on their own; that was the whole point of training.

So while his genin trained, Kakashi sat with his legs stretched in front of him, reading. He ran his fingers reverently over the familiar pages, single eye tracing the lines he knew almost by heart. Kakashi had just got to one of the best parts when something caught his attention. A small flock of birds rose from the trees, screeching their displeasure. He narrowed his eye and heard a pop of noise from the same direction, then the forest fell quiet again.

It's not my problem, a tiny voice whispered in the back of Kakashi's mind. Except, it was. He was a jonin of the Leaf and if there was a disturbance that could even possibly affect the village, he needed to investigate. That, and his genin were somewhere out there. Briefly, he wondered if Naruto was the cause of whatever the disturbance was. Probably. Sighing, Kakashi tucked the book away in a pocket, forced chakra into his feet and sprang in that direction.

Naruto continued grumbling under his breath about stupid low ranked missions and kicked idly at a branch on the ground. Suddenly, there was a deafening crack up ahead. Frowning, he increased his speed toward the sound. He came into an opening and found three forms sprawled on the ground. The boy never considered they might dangerous as he darted forward. Two of the figures were wearing white and black armor like he had never seen before. It looked heavier than the flak vests that jonin wore.

"Hey, are you okay?" Naruto approached them. He thought the white armored bodies might belong to women but he couldn't be sure since their faces were hidden behind masks. The third was definitely a man, probably handsome by female standards, wearing a red coat. "What happened to you guys?" The man's face was bruised and battered but there weren't any enemies that Naruto could see. He was just about to reach down and shake the man's shoulder when he heard the chirping. It was almost like a bird but none that Naruto had ever heard.

Fynta took a deep breath, more of a gasp, but it felt good. There may as well have been fire in her lungs and her head was pounding. "Fierfek," she rasped, forcing her eyes open. The leaves above her looked just like the leaves that had been above her before, but the sky was all wrong. It had been storming while they made their escape from Revan, yet now, the sun was shining. How long had she been out?

"Shab." Fynta pushed herself into a sitting position, head swimming, and fought down the urge to vomit. "Sitrep," she said with a swallow. "Everyone still alive?"

The boy froze as one of the figures started to move, sitting up slowly and propping a hand on the strange looking mask. Her back was to him, so Naruto was pretty sure he had managed to stay undetected. Fynta's comm crackled painfully in her ear and Elara's voice filled her helmet. "I'm here, sir. Unharmed. I think."

As he watched the forms stirring, something else caught Naruto's eye. Naruto picked the item up. It was about the size of a book but thinner and heavier than it looked. The chirping sound was coming from whatever this thing was. Naruto turned it over a couple of times in his hand trying to figure out what the sound was. "What the heck is this," he asked no one in particular.

Then the man at Naruto's feet spoke, rolling over with a groan as he did so. "I'm here." Naruto wasn't sure who he was talking to, but the man sounded rough. The other woman was moving now and Naruto took a step back, still holding the datapad.

"Hey, put that down." Theron grunted, scrambling unsteadily on hands and knees towards the little boy with the yellow hair. "That doesn't belong to you, kid. Hand it over," the man growled. Fynta sighed and pushed herself slowly to her feet, all the while reminding herself to talk to Theron yet again about his people skills.

The kid took a step back, hugging the device to his chest. "Not until you tell me what it is." Fynta looked on with some amusement as Theron lunged for the boy who kicked one foot off the ground and launched himself into the tree branches above.

"Oh," Elara said as she joined the others looking up into the tree.

Fynta nodded as she tracked his progress through the limbs before finally stopping to squat and to peer down at them with two bright blue eyes. "He's a shabbing Padawan, Theron," Fynta said, pulling off her helmet and shaking out her braid. The cool breeze was pleasant as it ruffled through her bangs and cooled her face and neck. Some important detail tickled the back of her mind but it wasn't until she locked eyes with Elara's that she realized what it was. Rishi was a tropical planet, hot and humid. This place was . . . nice. Crisp air and the smell of flowers on the wind.

"Sir," Elara began but Fynta raised a hand to stop her.

Hooking her helmet on the back of her belt, the woman who had woken up first cupped her hands over her mouth to shout up to the little Jedi in the trees. "Hey kid. We're Republic soldiers, we won't hurt you but I need you to come down and answer some questions for me."

The boy's head tilted slightly to the right and his face split into a wide grin. "Soldiers huh?" He leapt from the tree, turned a flip, and landed lightly on his toes. "Where's the Republic?"

Fynta spared a glance for her two companions. Elara had moved off to explore their immediate surroundings, datapad in hand, while Theron caught Fynta's eye and shrugged. Squatting down to put herself eye level with the boy, Fynta looked him over carefully. He moved like a Padawan but that orange jumpsuit was not the regulation brown robes she was used to seeing the younglings in. Something wasn't sitting right in her gut. "Where are we exactly?"

The kid's eyebrows pulled together as he squinted at her first, then the others. "Did you hit your head or something? How can you not know where you are?"

Theron snorted and crossed his arms, coming to stand just behind Fynta. "This kid sure talks a lot."

Fynta ignored him, instead, looking over her shoulder at Elara. "Dorne, got anything for me?"

The medic shook her head, still staring down at the device in her hands, "No sir, I can't find any records that match this flora." The woman's blue eyes were full of wonder as she looked up at the trees around them. "It appears we've ended up on an uncharted world. Although, I'm not sure how. Do you remember anything?"

Fynta shook her head and turned back to the boy. "Listen kid, it looks like we're a little lost."

Theron muttered irritably, clicking his back teeth to switch through all the main frequencies his comm implant could usually pick up, trying to find some way of contacting base. Finally he had to admit defeat. "I can't get through to command, Fynta."

Ironically, waking up on another planet wasn't the weirdest thing that had happened to her that day. If it was uncharted, then, of course Theron's frequencies wouldn't work. Later, when she figured out where the shab they were, Fynta would try her encrypted line to see if she could reach Jorgan. Until then, this kid would have to do. "Mind giving us directions to the nearest city."

"No way, I don't know you. You could be rogue ninja or something." The boy took a step away from her and stood with his feet apart, ready if she made a move to attack.

Putting her hands flat on her thighs, Fynta pushed to her feet in silent frustration. She didn't have time to play with the wayward Padawan, not when Revan was still a threat to her squad. Turning away from the unhelpful kid, Fynta addressed what was left of the six men she'd left base with. "Theron, just leave the datapad, it's a burner anyway. Dorne, we need to find civilization and figure out where we are."

Naruto stomped his foot and followed after the three adults, "Hey! You can't turn your back on me. You see this?" Fynta glanced at him briefly to note he was pointing at a piece of cloth on his head. Satisfied it wasn't a weapon, she resumed trying to plan out their next move while he raged on. "This means I'm a leaf shinobi! My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I'm gonna' be the next Hokage, the greatest ninja around!"

There were a whole lot of words in there that Fynta didn't quite catch, but the one she did peaked her curiosity because it was the second time he'd mentioned it. She faced the boy and put her hands on her hips. "What exactly is a ninja?"

Naturally, it was Dorne who spoke up from where stood scanning the horizon, helmet back in place in order to run her mapping program. Her voice sounded disturbingly robotic as she spoke through the filters in her helmet. "Sir, if I may, I believe a ninja is a form of archaic warrior. Quite skilled if I understand it correctly."

Fynta reconsidered Naruto and crossed her arms while he beamed up at her with the cutest blue eyes she'd ever seen, bouncing excitedly in his toes. "Archaic, that's sounds awesome!"

"Yeah, sure it is. Means outdated, kid," Theron remarked, planting a palm on the kid's face and shoving him a safer distance away. "Can we shut him up? His voice alone is going to fry all my implants."

Naruto's expression went from enthusiastic to livid in a second. "You can't treat me like that." Fynta turned to explain that they really needed to figure out where they were and how to get in touch with the rest of their squad when she was brought up short. His hands were flashing in a sequence of gestures that were moving too quickly for her to follow, letting the datapad crash to the ground. Then he shouted something about shadow clones.

Two more versions of the boy popped into existence and Fynta reacted, slinging her rifle off her shoulder and training it on the one in the middle before her brain could process what she was looking at. Her sudden tension alerted the others and in the blink of an eye Fynta was flanked by Theron with his blaster and Elara with her rifle. "Easy kid, what are you doing?"

"Sir, he's just a boy," Dorne said hesitantly.

The last thing Fynta wanted to think about was a galaxy full of self-replicating Jedi. "You remember us at that age?" She asked without taking her eyes off the boy, boys. Every member of her squad had been trained killers by the age that this boy was. Jedi, Sith, or soldier, it made no difference to Fynta.

"Nobody gets to disrespect me," one of the Naruto's growled. "When I'm the Hokage everyone will have to acknowledge me."

It was at this point that Kakashi arrived, pausing in the shadows of the trees to take in the scene in front of him. Two clones and Naruto were facing three strangers who had weapons trained on the boys' chests. The stranger didn't seem to want to hurt Naruto but they were clearly on edge. Naruto could have that effect on people.

One of the women had an interesting marking around her right eye. It was almost like a bullseye but Kakashi had never seen it before and had no idea which clan or village she might belong to. He could probably take them out or at least scare them off but their weapons gave him pause. They didn't seem likely to kill Naruto but that wasn't a risk he could take. Kakashi quickly dispatched a clone to the village for backup and was preparing to move when he heard a sound behind him.

Three shuriken glinted in the sunlight as they flew toward the strangers. Kakashi had pegged the strangers for trained soldiers and as he expected, they reacted to the new threat. Fynta turned into the attack, moving in an effort to cover the armorless man. She wasn't quite fast enough though. The shuriken clattered off the women's armor while one embedded itself in arm the man raised to protect himself. There was a moment when time seemed to slow, then several things happened at once.

"Get down, Naruto!" Sakura's voice rang out and the blond boy flattened himself on the grass. For once, obeying orders without question. Maybe because it was Sakura and not Kakashi? The jonin didn't have time to worry about why.

"Damn brats," Theron spat, cradling the injured arm to his chest as his teammates reached him. Fynta glanced over her shoulder to make sure he was alive before swinging her weapon toward the genin again.

The other woman on their team was beside them, fussing with the weapon sticking out of Theron's arm as blood began to darken his sleeve. Their attention snapped up when Sasuke stepped forward and began weaving signs.

"Fire style: Fireball—" The Uchiha yelled.

Kakashi moved before the boy could finish casting the jutsu. He appeared suddenly in front of his students, putting himself between them and the perceived threat. "Enough," he growled, placing one hand on Sasuke's chest and pushing him backward. The protests began immediately. "I said enough." Kakashi's tone was deadly and the jonin felt all eyes turn toward him.

Eye-smiling at the newcomers, Kakashi raised empty hands. It would be foolish to assume him harmless for not having a weapon but maybe they wouldn't know that. It seemed unlikely that they wouldn't recognize him on sight this close to Konoha. "What did you do this time, Naruto?" Kakashi's hand itched to raise his headband and release his sharingan but he didn't want to escalate the situation if he didn't have to. Maybe these three were innocent travelers and maybe they were enemies. Their answers would determine whether or not he let them live.

Fynta balked, resisting the urge to take a step back from the man who simply appeared in front of her. Lana Beniko had a way of doing that and it pissed her off. Her trigger finger twitched until the man raised empty hands and . . . the shabbing lunatic was smiling at her, she could tell by the way his one dark eye creased around the edge.

"What the hell kind of Jedi are you people?" She asked, raising her head slightly to take in the new players. The man's head, human she assumed from the parts of his face she could see, tipped to the side much the same way as the boy's had earlier. Maybe these people were part of that offshoot academy that had been spreading through the rumor mill. The one where Jedi could marry, have families, and take on as many Padawans as they could handle.

The newest arrival certainly didn't look like any Jedi Master she had ever seen. His clothes had the look of a uniform and, though she couldn't be positive, Fynta got the impression that his green vest was more than a simple fashion statement. He had the same cloth on his head as Naruto but it covered his left eye. How he could possibly see anything with that thing hanging down in his face was a mystery. Surely a cybernetic eye would have been more convenient. And if that wasn't bad enough, a mask covered everything from his nose down.

Fynta was momentarily transfixed by the guy's gravity defying hair before pulling her attention back to his question. Sparing a glance at the blond haired boy again, Fynta cleared her throat before the boy could answer. "I'm Major Fynta Wolfe, Republic special forces. Commanding officer of Havoc Squad." She wasn't ready to introduce the others yet, not until she understood who exactly she was addressing. If they knew her name, fine, she wouldn't give up Theron and Elara's identities so easily though. Fynta's face was all over the blasted holonews anyway.

Theron swore as Elara pulled the shuriken from his arm, leaning back on her heels to study the weapon she had just excised from the wound. With a sigh, Fynta lowered her rifle barrel to the ground, ready, but safe, "It would appear my companions and I have gotten lost in your forest. I really need to get to a holo to contact the rest of my squad, we don't want any trouble with your people, Master. . . ." She paused, hoping the man would be forthcoming with some information of his own now.

Republic special forces? Havoc Squad? Though Kakashi didn't know those terms, commanding officer was clear enough. He glanced at the woman with a new measure of calculation. "What happened to the rest of your squad?"

Kakashi barely got the question out before Naruto butted in. "You mean you don't recognize him? Everyone knows Kakashi-sensei." The boy pushed himself up, completely oblivious to the tension entering Kakashi's shoulders at the mention of his name. Fynta's grip tightened on her rifle instinctively when the kid rose to his feet. If he started duplicating again, she would have no choice but to respond with force. She couldn't risk her squad's life, even for a kid.

"Shut up, baka." Sasuke rolled his eyes at Naruto, while Sakura moved forward to get a better look at the strangers. Kakashi mentally face palmed. Why had the Third Hokage given him such foolish genin?

Theron grunted as he got back to his feet, waving Elara away when she tried to examine his arm further. He leaned in to whisper something when Fynta held up and hand, watching the interplay between the kids that surrounded the adult. One of them had pink hair, really pink, like bubblegum. Fynta almost smiled, remembering a time when she'd gone through a similar phase.

When no further noise came from the kids, Fynta focused on their master, teacher, whatever and considered whether or not she was at enough of a disadvantage to answer the question. Or if she even had an answer. Kakashi-sensei, the name sounded Twi'lek despite the obvious lack of lekku. While she considered her options, Elara stood, removed her helmet again and held out the weapon. "Simple steel, sir."

Fynta took the weapon and turned it between skilled fingers a few times before eyeing the man again. Jedi hadn't used steel in thousands of years. Where the shab were they? Holding the blade loosely as not to be perceived as a threat, well, more of a threat, Fynta answered the question. "Not entirely sure, that's why I need to find some form of communication, I'm missing half." Maybe the idea that there were more soldiers out there like them would buy her some time to figure out what was going on.

"Did your radios stop working?" Kakashi asked, wondering how advanced their technology was. The answer would help him narrow down where they were from.

"How do we know you aren't spies?" Sasuke looked at Fynta challengingly, face set in the dark scowl only an Uchiha could perfect.

Kakashi half-glanced over his shoulder and rapidly counted to ten under his breath before speaking. "That's it. Not another word from the three of you or I promise you're going to do nothing but run laps around the village for the foreseeable future. Not even a D-rank mission," he glanced meaningfully at Naruto.

Radios. Fynta hadn't heard that word since the academy when they were forced to train with those blasted handhelds. Glancing at the raven-haired boy briefly, Fynta decided it was best to simply ignore the kids and focus on the adult. It was hard to decide just how much to tell this Kakashi-sensei, who she was starting to think might not be a Jedi after all. Perhaps this was a planet like Voss where the native population was naturally Force sensitive. Fierfek. Fynta hated being at a disadvantage.

Three kids and a skinny guy in little to no armor. Fynta decided to take her chances. Flipping the safety on her weapon, she slung the strap over her shoulder and crossed her arms, meeting the man's stare with a subdued amount of defiance. "Perhaps," she responded at last. Theron's implants should have picked up a signal by now and if Elara was removing her helmet, it meant she'd given up on reaching someone as well. They were truly stuck. "We forgot to change the batteries," Fynta replied with a shrug.

Theron stepped closer to her right side, casting a warning glance that she ignored. His arm was pulled tightly to his chest, sleeve rolled up to expose the quick bandage job that Elara had managed before taking up her post again. The man looked like osik, they still hadn't managed a proper medical exam since busting him out of that compound. Whatever was going to happen here, Fynta wished it would happen soon. She had men to find and a wounded SIS agent to tend.

"It looks like you ran into some trouble before you got yourselves lost," Kakashi said, glancing at the man whose name had yet to be given. "I can take you to the hospital and get him treatment, but you'll have to surrender your weapons. Just until we can get this all sorted. You are still strangers, after all." He shrugged almost apologetically.

Fynta looked at Dorne then back to the man. "We have our own medic, a place to finish her scans would be welcome though," she responded, intentionally bypassing the thinly veiled request for information.

Taking a hesitant step forward, hands out by her sides, palms up, Fynta dipped her head to the man. "We appreciate your willingness to help. I'm going to hand over my rifle now, as are my companions." Reaching up slowly, Fynta took hold of the strap on her shoulder to slide it down her arm and hold it out to the man. "Ever shot one of those before?" Last thing she wanted to do was deal with the fallout if these people shot themselves. Judging by the knives, she was guessing blasters weren't an everyman's weapon here.

Kakashi reached for the weapon Fynta was holding out to him. Had he ever shot what? The Copy Nin assumed she meant the weapon and ignored the question with a casual shrug, taking it from her hands. He swung the strap over his shoulder. At a faint sound, Kakashi turned and inclined his head to the three ninja who appeared suddenly from the trees. Fynta, placing another weapon on the pile growing at Kakashi's feet, muttered something under her breath that sounded like shabbing mystics but he ignored her.

Fynta nodded to her teammates, Elara forfeiting her weapon without hesitation while Theron simply glared at everyone for a few heartbeats before finally pulling his blaster from his hip holster and flipping it around to hand it off. Fynta and Elara followed suit, though watching her Verpine blaster hit the ground at the other man's feet tugged at her heart. Even if she lost the others, she'd be getting that one back.

Izumo, Kotetsu, and Genma seemed totally at ease as they watched the scene but Kakashi knew better. His shadow clone had brought reinforcements with more than enough skill to subdue the strangers. "Hey Wolf," Genma offered with an easy grin that made him appear nonthreatening. The senbon between his teeth revealed the lie, however. "Imagine meeting you out here."

"Do I-" Fynta began even as Kakashi offered a soft 'yo' in response. The pair turned to look at each other in confusion. Genma had been referring to one of the many code names Kakashi had used on ANBU missions with him.

Before the situation could be figured out there was a resounding crack and Sakura and Theron screamed. Their pitch was almost identical. Naruto gasped and dropped the weapon that he'd picked up from the pile of blasters. It was Fynta's Verpine, she'd forgotten that one didn't have a safety switch. The ground in front of Theron had been destroyed and there was an impressive crater smoking at his feet. A few inches closer and his leg would be gone. "I-I didn't-um," Naruto stuttered as Kakashi rounded on him.

"Over there," Kakashi pointed vaguely toward Sasuke, "and do not move until I tell you that you can." Genma was laughing, the stranger was cursing, and Kakashi was looking at the weapon with new respect as he tried to figure out what it was. He counted to twenty before turning back to them. "Sorry about that," he eye-smiled though he was cringing beneath his mask. "Kids," he chuckled and shrugged.

"Di'kut," Fynta growled, putting her hands on her hips and leveling the white haired man with a glare. "Don't you guys at least teach your kids basic firearm safety?"

Kakashi raised one eyebrow in her direction. "Let's call it an accident and move on." What in the world was firearm safety? He divided the weapons between himself and Genma, who was still chuckling between Naruto's pale face and Theron's red one. "Come on, we'll show you where you can get some medical attention and we can figure this all out."

They were halfway back to the village before Kakashi realized he'd never told Naruto he could move again.