I had this idea floating around my head for a while now, so I decided I should actually write it out and see where it goes. If you've ever wondered what it would be like if the Naruto universe was set in a galaxy like Star Wars, or Firefly, then hopefully you'll like this story! Enjoy


Trying to multitask following the directions on a map, and navigate the crowded passages of the busy spaceport was shaping up to be a much more challenging task than Naruto had expected. Scrunching up his face, he ran a hand through his golden hair as he took another look at the data pad in front of him.

"What? If that's the Northern wing, then how could that-" his muttering to himself went largely unnoticed by the busy crowds around him, all too preoccupied with their own business.

He looked up from his pad to look around at the nearby building and stalls, trying to get his bearings. What he saw was less than helpful. Tahoko was a largely unimportant port, though a fair amount of trade did take place there, ensuring that it was always bustling with people. That doesn't mean it was bustling with reputable people. All manner of characters where doing business, from slimy looking parts salesmen, to cheap weapons dealers, and everything in between. People sold fabrics beside junk dealers, all doing whatever it took to bring home enough money to pay for dinner.

Humans could be seen mixed in with innumerable other races, from the tall, monkey-like Sarutobi, to the giant Akimichi. Naruto thought he even saw a Nara, but that could have just been the way a shadow had been cast by a loose piece of cloth caught by the wind.

The port was an open-air one, with no roof, or even any walls really. The stalls of the vendors where assembled mostly from metal frames, with cloth sections serving to shelter the owners from the harsh sun. While not a desert planet, it could definitely be called arid, and working exposed all day would be the height of foolishness.

None of this, however, helped Naruto. The spaceport was really just a spaceport by name, the reality is that is was at best a handful of landing bays, scattered in among the city of tents made by people looking to buy and sell wares. Located several kilometres outside of the nearest settlement, there were little to no civilians going about their daily life. Everyone had a purpose for being there, and this made it a very noisy, and confusing place to be, especially for Naruto. His upbringing didn't involve many crowded markets.

Finally giving up on his own navigating abilities, he tried asking several nearby business owners for help.

"Excuse me! Could you point me to Docking Bay 4c?"

The first four people he asked didn't even dignify him with more than a grunt of dismissal. He clearly wasn't a customer, so they had no interest in a conversation. Eventually a passerby was able to giving him a general direction however, so with a quick but enthusiastic 'thank you', Naruto took off. His knapsack slung over his shoulder, he ducked in and out of the crowd, trying to look for a more telling mark of his destination.

Before he could find anything definite, he heard his transponder buzz. Reaching into one of the numerous pockets in his black pants, he pulled out the decrepit machine and glanced at the message.

Through the many cracks on the device's old screen, the words he saw were not encouraging. 'We leave in 30 minutes, with or without you.'

"Damn it!"

With a newfound urgency, he picked up the pace. You see, for the first time in his life, he had a job. He had been asking around the captains and pilots that passed through the port about any available positions on crews for the past two weeks, with no luck. Just when he was considering using what little remaining money he had to buy passage off this rock and try his luck elsewhere, he heard of someone looking for an extra hand on his ship. A cargo pilot had passed on how to contact a ship's captain who had lost a crewman and was looking for a replacement.

They hadn't met face to face yet, but they had arranged to meet at dock 4c for Naruto to join the crew, on a trial basis. He would tag along for a job or two, and if he couldn't keep up, then they'd drop him off at the nearest spaceport. He wasn't exactly sure about what kind of work he'd be doing yet, but he didn't care; Naruto did not intent to mess this up.

Just as the panic of the ensuing deadline was settling in, he caught sight of a signpost with an arrow, and the number 4c. Relief washed over him as he turned to follow the sign, now in view of the docking bay. Each bay in Tahoko was essentially a large, circular wall, two stories high, with no ceiling. A solid pad in the centre acted as the landing pad, while the edges of the ring were often used to stack crates of cargo that had been unloaded, or were to be loaded. The sandstone circle had an obvious set of metal doors that shot open at Naruto's approach.

As he stepped into the bay, he immediately started looking for his (hopefully) future employer. Instead, he ended up looking at the ship in the centre of the building.

The Raikiri was unlike any ship model that Naruto was familiar with (which admittedly wasn't many), both in design and condition. Most of the ships seen around here are bulky, mass produced cargo carriers, decades old and hardly holding together. The Raikiri though, was a whole different machine. In shape, it was similar to an arrowhead, though with a more sleek build. It was a long, thin, semi-flat vessel, that formed an aerodynamic point at the front, followed by a long, thin 'neck' that gradually widened out, until the back third of the ship gave way to two 'wings' of sorts, making for a blade-like edge that ran along both sides of the ship. The ship was silver in colour, with bright blue lightning-bolt patterns running across the hull, that all seemed to originate from the front point of the ship. The cockpit could be seen close to the front, visible only by the narrow strip of clear plating for the crew to see out of. The boarding ramp folded down from the belly of the ship, near the back, while the front was supported by two landing struts that would retract upon takeoff. All in all, it looked roughly 70 meters long. Big enough to fit a small crew comfortably, with a decent sized cargo area and engine room.

Unable to keep an excited smile off his face, he resumed his search for the captain. At the base of the landing ramp, he could see two people loading crates of supplies. About to approach them, he stopped short at a voice from behind him.

"Quite the ship, isn't she?"

Whirling around to meet the new voice, Naruto caught sight of a tall man with silver hair, sticking straight into the air. He wore a typical spacefarers outfit, with a sturdy navy blue jacket over a pair of black pants, and fingerless gloves on each hand. He wasn't looking at Naruto, but rather, the ship. A mask covered the bottom half of his face, and a headband covered his left eye, but from the little exposed bit that Naruto could see, the man seemed to have a content smile on his face.

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah-wait!" Naruto sputtered out, caught off guard by the sudden appearance. Between the mostly empty hangar, and the way the man was looking at the ship, Naruto took a stab in the dark. "Captain Hatake?"

Moving his gaze from the ship, he turned his head to look at the blond young man in front of him. "Yes that's me, but you can call me Kakashi if you like." Extending his gloved hand, he concluded, "You must be Naruto."

Seeing the signal, Naruto likewise reached forward and grasped the offered appendage in a firm handshake.

"Nice to meet you Captain! What can I do to help?"

Giving the boy a friendly smile, Kakashi gestured for Naruto to follow him as he headed towards the Raikiri's boarding ramp. "For now, you can help carry those crates up the ramp, and stack them in the cargo hold."

Nodding eagerly at the task, Naruto quickly headed over to the two crew members that he could see already working at the job. Before he could get a word in edgewise however, the dark haired boy addressed him without taking his eyes off his work.

"Move those four crates up the ramp and to the left rookie, we want to be off this rock in fifteen minutes."

The dispassionate voice made Naruto hesitate. He had been going to introduce himself first, but given that reaction, he supposed it could wait for once they had taken off. He didn't want to push his luck and turn a disinterested shipmate into an outright hostile workmate, after all. So, with a quick nod of his head, he got to work.

The crates were heavy, heavier than he had expected. Fortunately, Naruto was no slouch when it came to brute strength, so with a few good heaves, all the supplies were loaded, and they were ready for take off. The heavy lifting in the hot sun did, however, prompt Naruto to take off his dark orange, long sleeved land-speeder jacket, that had black trim along the zipper, and tie it around his waist, leaving only a black undershirt covering his torso.

With everything on the ship that was supposed to be, he made is way up the ramp one more time, his heavy brown boots thumping their way up the metal incline. He hadn't really had a chance to meet the crew yet, so now he supposed was as good of a time as any. As the last person up the ramp, it closed behind him, leaving him in the cargo hold.

The area was essentially a large, open circular room, with a walkway around the edge about ten feet up from the main floor. The edges of the room were mostly pallets of crates and other equipment, while the centre was mostly cleared of any clutter, save for four beautiful speederbikes that Naruto hadn't quite had a chance to check out yet. Before he could indulge himself, he was cut off by a woman's voice calling out to him.

"Hey, Newbie! Where did you put the grav trolley you were using for the crates?" A young woman with distractingly bright pink hair was walking across the floor towards him. She had on a pair of tan capris, black gloves, and a red vest that was zipped up to just below her collarbone. Her voice sounded friendly enough, which was good for Naruto, because he had no clue what she was talking about.

"Pardon?" His clueless face wasn't helping.

"The grav trolley, where'd you put it?" Her friendly voice was slowly morphing into an impatient one.

Naruto could see this conversation wasn't going to go his way, so he decided that he was better off just being direct. "I didn't know there was a grav trolley, I just loaded them by hand."

Now her impatience turned to disbelief. "You expect me to believe that you carried those in by yourself?"

Not quite sure how to handle the situation, Naruto just nodded hesitantly. "Well... yeah. The other guy with the black hair told me to carry the crates up here and stack them over there, so I did." He rose his hand, gesturing to the stack of supplies.

The girl seemed to be balancing on the line of annoyance at him making up nonsense, and believing him. After a few seconds, she evidently decided that he looked genuine.

"Those crates weigh almost 200kg a piece, how did you do that? You look human to me, and you don't look big enough to toss around that kind of weight."

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know, I guess I'm just sturdier than average." He was just relieved that she believed him, and wasn't going to keep hounding him for the trolley.

Her face stayed blank for a moment while she wrapped her mind around what she heard. After a moment, she just shook her head and grinned a little. "Well, use the trolley in the future. As the ship's medic, I don't want to have to have to patch you up if you hurt yourself."

Flashing a wide smile now that the situation was resolved, the blond nodded. "Sure thing! I'm Naruto by the way!" He reached his hand forward.

Returning the smile, and the handshake, the girl spoke up. "Sakura Haruno. I'm in charge of the engine room, and as I said, the med bay."

"Nice to meet you!"

Sakura glanced down at her checklist and clipboard for a second, made a mark on it, then set it down on a nearby shelf.

Glancing back at Naruto, she asked, "Want a tour of the ship?"

"That would be great, thanks."

"Alright, follow me." Sakura started walking towards the back of the cargo bay, where there was a lift that went up to the second floor walkway. Following her onto the lift, Naruto took a moment to untie his jacket from his waist and put it back on. Now that he was on the ship, he had cooled off nicely.

Once the lift had stopped at the upper floor, Sakura went into a sort of 'tour guide' mode that Naruto actually found very helpful.

A single door lead to the very back section of the ship, that opened as Sakura entered a code in the panel next to it.

"This is the engine room, this is where I am most of the time, unless someone gets hurt. If you need me for something, feel free to stop by, but I prefer it if people stay out of the engine room. There's a lot of complicated machinery that I don't want anyone touching."

The room was full of things that Naruto had no clue how to operate or read, but he could identify the engine itself, as the large cylinder that ran parallel to the floor, going the length of the room. It was covered in gauges and screens, as well as lights, but most of those things meant nothing to the newest addition to the crew. He was no mechanic.

Stepping back out of the room, Sakura continued her orientation tour. She lead Naruto around the walkway, which made a full ring around the cargo bay, to the archway that marked the hallway to the front of the ship. The hall ran the length of the narrower part of the ship, with doors on the left and right, all down the hall.

The first four rooms they past were the crew quarters, that were nothing more than a simple room with a bed, a desk, some drawers, and a bathroom. Sakura and the dark hair crewman's quarters were on the port side of the ship (left), with Sakura closest to the back, while Kakashi's and now Naruto's rooms were on the starboard (right). Kakashi's cabin was closest to the cockpit, leaving Naruto's room across the hall from Sakura. Naruto just took a second to toss his knapsack onto the bed in his new room, before rejoining Sakura in the hall.

Beyond those, the next pair of rooms where the med bay and kitchen, with the kitchen to the right, next to Kakashi's room, and the med bay just across the hall. The medical bay was made up of two beds near the centre of the room, and lots of surgical equipment and various medications and drugs on the surrounding shelves. The kitchen was just as straight forwards, with a stove, a sink, some cupboards, and a table for four. There wasn't much left from what Naruto could see, only two more doors, three if you counted the one at the end of the hall, which Naruto assumed must lead to the bridge.

The next two doors on the tour were little more than closets by Naruto's definition of the word, with the port room being just enough space to fit equipment for doing laundry, and the starboard just being the entrance to the escape pod airlock.

Finally, they stopped in front of the final door of the day. Before she opened it, she gave Naruto a look over her shoulder.

"This will be your first time really meeting Sasuke, won't it? However me might seem, don't take it personally. He'll warm up to you." She advised. Before Naruto could ask her more about what she meant, the door opened, and she stepped inside.

The room he followed her into wasn't large, but it didn't feel cramped either. To the left and right, there was a forward-facing chair, situated behind a half circle of consoles and panels, with more displays mounted on the wall beside the chair. Some of the controls Naruto was familiar with, others went right over his head. The masked captain of the ship casually sat in the chair to the right, with his one leg up on the other, reading an orange covered book. He gave the two newcomers a friendly smile, then went back to his reading.

Straight ahead, down two steps, was the pilot's seat, front and centre by the view screen. In it sat the dark haired boy Naruto saw earlier, 'Sasuke', if he heard that right. He must have heard them come in, because before they said anything, he swivelled in his chair to face them.

Sakura took that chance to introduce the two boys. "Naruto, this is Sasuke, our pilot. Sasuke, this is Sai's replacement, Naruto."

As he did with the other two, Naruto extended his hand to Sasuke and gave him a grin. "Nice to meet you!"

Sasuke didn't respond to the hand, instead he crossed his arms and leaned back. "Great, another human oaf. Try to keep up, we don't have time to be covering for any incompetence from you."

Seeing that he wouldn't be as friendly as Naruto had hoped, he withdrew his hand as he processed Sasuke's words. He looked human to Naruto, but the way he spoke...

His eyes widened in mild surprise. At closer inspection, he could see some scale-like markings close the the boy's collar, on his pale skin.

"You're an Uchiha." He had never met one, but he remembered studying the famous fire spitters as a child.

If Sasuke was impressed he figured it out that fast, he didn't show it. Instead, he just snorted and turned back to his controls. "Exactly. So remember, try to keep up."

That conversation was evidently over, as Sasuke began to bring the ship's systems online for takeoff. Sakura excused herself and headed back to the engine room, while Kakashi just gestured for Naruto to take the seat across from him. A quick look let Naruto know that his new station was mainly responsible for long range sensors, as well as the star-charts, and navigation. Normally, the operator would plot the most reasonable course for the trip, while the pilot would follow it. He doubted that they'd expect him to take over that on his first day, but he was fortunate enough to at least already know how to use most of the equipment at that station.

It only took a minute or two for Sasuke to have the Raikiri ready to go.

"All systems check out, ready to depart." The bland voice from the front of the room droned out.

Nodding his head, Kakashi closed and stashed his book. "Good. In that case, let's get on our way!"

With that cheerful exclamation, the engines powered up. From Naruto's seat, he watched out the view screen as the sandstone walls of the hangar seemed to drop out of sight, and soon the whole sea of tents and buildings that made up Tahoko were shrinking below them.

Once they were well above ground, Sasuke plunged one of his levers forwards, and he felt himself get pushed into his seat a little as the ship rocketed forwards, up into the sky. In a matter of minutes, they had cleared the planet's atmosphere and where pointed towards the dull, black of space.

Flipping a switch on his console that Naruto assumed must be the ship's PA system, Kakashi began to speak.

"Alright, we're fully fuelled, fully stocked, and fully staffed. Time to get to work. We've been hired by the Subaki Mining Corporation to investigate one of their outposts that has gone dark. We'll check it out, then report back to Subaki, lending assistance if possible. The outpost is inside the Fire Alliance's territory, but it's not a very busy corner of space, anything could happen. It'll take us three days to get there. In the meantime, business as usual."

Flicking the switch back to the 'off' position, he turned to Naruto. "Well Naruto, you've got three days to learn the ropes. You ready to get started?"

Unable to help himself, a wide grin spread across his face. "You better believe it!"


And that's a wrap! Drop a comment to tell me what you think, hopefully people like the premise!