Disclaimer: Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto. Elements from 'The Last Starfighter' © Universal Pictures. None are used with permission.

Author's Note: This is based on the 10th and 39th entry in Silent Magi's Randomness series, and portray a Naruto universe in a science fiction setting, where aptitude in jutsu and certain bloodlines are remade as weapons systems on their craft. The main reference to the Last Starfighter in a more practical Death Blossom AOE attack, which is Hinata's anime-only vacuum blade ability realised in spatial combat. In real terms, it doesn't use hugely powerful shots, but the sheer amount of them and the precise targetting used on them… means they don't need to be.

NARUTO: SPACING OUT

Chapter 1: The Final Frontier

The Bijuu-class Battlecraft… An ancient group of nine AI-supported universal combat craft that were known for their almost organically grown design, built around a gyro-stabilized ball, nicknamed the Bijuu Ball, which acted as both a cockpit and the escape pod, keeping the crew safe even if the rest of the craft was as good as lost.

The way the outer hull was grown, rather than built, meant that they had the unusual ability to reconfigure for any purpose, as well as almost instantly repair any damage. It's weapons capability was limited by the pilot's imagination, being able to fabricate anything that they could think of.

This became quite a problem for Konoha Planetary Defence when the Kyuubi, the on-station Bijuu-Class ship, abruptly refused pilot command and attempted to fabricate and drop an Armageddon-class device on Konoha's central colony planet. Konoha's planetary governor, and the head of the KPD, Minato Namikaze managed to wrestle control of the Kyuubi back and cancel the command, only for a hidden craft to use the damage to the Kyuubi's cockpit in the recovery to attack the cockpit.

All that was found inside, alive, was a single baby, the son of the pilot of the Kyuubi, Kushina Uzumaki. However, suspicions were thrown about, not helped by the security blackout on what had happened during the attack, and an incident within the Hyuuga compound causing the loss of the telemetry data from several weeks before and after that day, when it was chosen quite by accident to be used as supposedly current telemetry data for the Konoha System's planetary defence net, which was claimed for a fake investigation.

None of this mattered to Naruto Uzumaki, as he played a game of Pong with the Kyuubi's AI, waiting for his slot to be announced. He was losing valuable time before his certification test, but he couldn't help it, since most of the ways to hurry along the inexorably slow ATC room. Admittedly, it was during one of these delay periods that he'd fabricated the KS-1 Kitchen Sink Dumbfire Bomb, after remembering a comment made on the radio about throwing everything at them except the kitchen sink, and had mused why they had to stop there.

Admittedly, it was basically a sink with an unstable highly explosive substance in it, which the Kyuubi assured him could be found within a kitchen sink if certain people were to actually use the kitchen. Naruto didn't ask who, just knowing that the damn thing blew up rather spectacularly when it's integrity failed, which could be anything from 30 seconds from when the sink was ejected to a whole five minutes. A few of the poorer cooks in Konohagakure actually wondered why Naruto actually collected some of the more caustic kitchen accidents after that.

Naruto looked at the planet below him. He was soon going to be part of the Konohagakure Planetary Defence Squad, if he actually passed certification. He looked at the two empty crew spots in the heavily shielded cockpit bubble of the Kyuubi. The ship itself was built around it, the cockpit design known as the Bijuu Ball. Due to it, a Bijuu-class ship, of which there were only nine known, could actually spin the outer craft, without the crew moving at all, and bring it's main guns to bear on a pursuer.

The most lethal version of that technique was called the Death Blossom, as the outer hull spun and rolled, practically uncontrollable, and fired it's weapons until the batteries went dry. According to Kurama, the ship's computer, the only reason the Death Blossom was a last-ditch suicide attack was that there was not a tactical support unit installed, the seat for them being one of the two crew slots.

Naruto didn't plan on installing one, since, so far, all the members he'd met of the Hyuuga clan, who were the genetically engineered crew members who had been made for the job, all had an ego the size of a capital ship or their personality was drier than a desert planet.

The other crew position he'd not filled was of co-pilot and, ostensibly, gunner. However, thanks to what happened before he got it, Fleet Command had locked down most of that functionality, leaving him with just standard ordinance and whatever prank weapons he could think up. Ergo, the KS-1 was created.

He stopped his game as there was some kind of fight breaking out in the command tower area, before a slightly pained sounding officer notified him that his authorization to enter had finally been processed, and they would be rotating out the staff due to an accident in the tower. As he passed by the room, he noticed 'Old Man' Sarutobi, the planetary governor, watching his personal guard lead off the staff of the command tower, as a new group of control room staff moved to take their place, with the old ones unlikely to return.

"Let me guess, Old Man..." Naruto asked on his communicator, "The fact that I was ship watching instead of coming inside is why they're going planet-side for a few weeks..."

"Very much so, Naruto..." Sarutobi replied on the same channel, "They'll be reminded that any craft belonging to Planetary Defence should be given priority at all times, not just when a third of it is on fire, and the pilot is required to eject. Even the most insubordinate of the control room staff knows that, if there's a high chance the crew will die if they don't get inside NOW, They get inside as soon as possible… Admittedly, they really have problems with the definition of 'a third' sometimes..."

When he arrived in the hangar, Naruto watched as the outer shell of the Kyuubi dismantled itself, turning into a medium-sized carry-case, as the Bijuu ball compacted into the handle for the case. That was part of the secret of the Bijuu-class ships, that there was not very often an actual ship left lying around, before heading to the simulator deck.

He had to turn in a better score than the past ten times, or he'd risk ending up drummed out of the Planetary Defence corps. Once he got to the deck, he waited in the observation area, knowing they'd not let him in without explicit authorization. And he didn't even need to know that, even with a request submitted beginning of the day, he was at the bottom of the stack. He looked towards Sakura, the girl he hoped to be his girlfriend, except for the fact one of her personalities loathed him with a passion.

This mental quirk made her race a godsend in tactical planning, being one of the few races that could do complex calculations like 'hot' jump coordinates while in the middle of a battle outside of those genetically engineered for things like that. She'd scored consistently highly in simulator runs, but Naruto knew that her race had a real problem with their personality shifting on a dime, so she'd make a good co-pilot, but only on certain days, with no pattern to them, at all.

He thought about one of her race, that had their mind sub-divided into four. Last he knew, they were working with the colony security corps, being fitted with some bionic arms to allow themselves to do four things at once, and were only ever let out if it was really essential, because they constantly rambled about conspiracies, with at least one of their personalities being considered insane as a result. He sighed, paging through the simulator runs to find that one of the members of Gai's squadron, Tenten, doing a run. He then noticed a light flashing on the case beside him, calling up Kurama on his comm.

"Hmm... I want you to suggest something..." Kurama offered, for him to look towards Iruka, "Plug my case into the simulator, so I can upload my specifications to the simulator, as well as some things for her to fight..."

"Iruka-sensei, Can you reset Tenten's run? She's already in a team, so I want you to do something for me..." Naruto called out, for Iruka to listen, before he connected the case up to the simulator, effectively putting the Kyuubi into the simulator, calling someone for him to shut off, on the simulated Kyuubi, the lock-out. They then set a modifier on the simulator, Naruto looking puzzled, as he noticed a list come up of the weapons known to Fleet Command, with several of the lower power ones already ticked.

"Authorization to disable lockout…" Iruka stated, looking towards the other instructor on duty, and they entered a code, the computer scanning their eyes, before 'This lockout is only removed for simulation purposes only. Full removal requires the authorization of the Hokage' appeared. Tenten would be running with the Kyuubi at full power...

Tenten looked puzzled when she was brought back to ship, only for her to be assigned a new craft. She looked puzzled as she paged through the weapons loadout. What kind of ship on the fleet registry had everything excluding a kitchen sink, complete with a plausible way for it to be weaponized?

"You will be flying a simulated run against the Datara. You are required to evacuate a captive member of personnel, located here. You will be graded on time before you are destroyed. You will also be graded on every weapon you use during this sortie," The commander stated. Tenten just smirked. What else would you use this much firepower on other than the dreaded capital ship that was supposedly the fleet battleship that commanded the Bijuu-class ships?!

"Hmm… What's this function?" Tenten stated, as she noticed the fact it could remain locked onto a target even without line-of-sight, the system simulating an S-Rank tactical unit for this purpose. She then got notification from the tactical unit that a hatch was opening on the Datara. The hatch was permanently closed a fraction of a second later. Tenten took out a pad, crossing something off, before she heard a pinging, and continued down the list.

As soon as she passed by the location marked, she recovered whoever the white haired woman was, then looked at her mission requirements... 'Mission Success: Survive OR The Datara is rendered safe. Mission Failure: Loss of recovered personnel.'

"OK, So, Rendered safe..." Tenten stated, grinning. She had so many weapons, and a wide target selection...

Iruka and Mizuki looked horrified as they watched the ship considered the scourge of the galaxy be destroyed in ten minutes flat, as Tenten used everything including a welded shut kitchen sink full of what they hoped was plasma. When Tenten left the simulation, the observing officers were looking even more horrified than they had before, since they actually knew she'd been piloting the Kyuubi…

And had proven that, if she was the tactical officer on it, it would be able to defeat anything in the galaxy.

"While I do have to say that it does prove she is one of the few people who, with the right tactical backup, could be a good fit for the Kyuubi, She is unlikely to be assigned as your tactical officer in the near future..." He whispered as he disconnected the ship's computer from the simulator, before stating, in his normal voice, "I didn't think you could use weapons in those configurations… and what's with the kitchen sink?!"

"The KS-1 Kitchen Sink Dumbfire Bomb… You put a classified substance into it, weld it shut and wait for the contents to cause a dangerous reaction," Naruto stated, handing over the plans he'd made for it. Iruka went pale. Naruto was using the toxic substances created when people went into the mess halls with a severe inability to make food to create unstable ordinance? And it worked?!

'Kurama, Why did you make it a rescue run?' Naruto asked the Kyuubi.

'The… tactical unit in the Datara, Kaguya Otsutsuki… I wanted to test if there was a way to viably remove her from the Datara,' The Kyuubi explained, 'Tenten may have done more than prove that she is the new most dangerous thing in the galaxy... I may have found a way to save ALL the Bijuu from Datara...'

When Tenten approached them to get her debriefing, Iruka took her aside for a moment.

"We loaded classified ship data in as your craft, to test the fact that you seem to be highly capable with most known weapons loadouts," Iruka stated, "You showed we need to amend that..."

He then pinned a badge to her tunic, which was a set of crossed lasers with a starburst behind them, a few people knowing that was likely a star detonating. It was a badge that indicated that, if she was assigned as the weapons officer on any craft in the known galaxy, she was certified to use anything in it's loadout. For her to be permitted, that still was restricted by her commanding officer. Anyone who had that was on the fast track to a gunship or gunnery position on a larger craft, since they knew all weapons.

"You are now cerified to operate any weapon up to and including apocalypse-grade capital ship weaponry... and the kitchen sink to boot," He stated, "May God have mercy on anything you get a lock onto."

When Gai came to meet her a short time later, he saw the badge and froze. She'd actually passed certification on everything?

"Naruto decided to upgrade her certification test to use the unmodified Kurama. She passed." Naruto overheard Iruka state, "Do not let her know about the fact. I also wish to add that she has a slight amendment on her certification, in that, in her test, she successfully used everything including a kitchen sink as a valid piece of ordinance,"

"You mean to say that she's certified..." Gai stated.

"To hit the enemy with everything including the kitchen sink," Iruka nodded, the testing authority adding later, to the testing list, the KS-1 as 'Abnormal ordinance (unguided, not part of required test criteria). Yes, We even have a kitchen sink on here. So?'

"I understand why Iruka forbade us from meeting again..." Kurama mused in his head, "I didn't modify the weapons loadout or what I know of the Datara's tactical capability. All she did was look down my weapons manifest, call it up next to her, and check them off as she used them. She made the battle more like ballet. An incredibly lethal ballet. There was no time during the entire fight that Datara actually got a firing solution for long enough TO fire,"

Naruto nodded. He knew Kurama's weapons were mostly disabled, with the lock-outs being inaccessible to him. Well, It could create, on the fly, more weaponry than most people could fire in a battle. Tenten had found a way to prove that there was someone who could find a use for every single weapon Kurama could find for them, up to and including the KS-1.

"Naruto, you're next..." Iruka stated, not noticing Tenten look as she saw what ship he was using, and remember which ship she'd used during her run against Datara.

"Fuck… Well, that explains why the craft was classified..." Tenten muttered, watching Naruto's run carefully, putting up information on his loadout, and the comm chatter.

'OK, Naruto, you will be doing a simulated run with a partially disabled tactical unit.' Mizuki announced, Tenten frowning. So, he'd be half blind, 'You will be doing a run against a capital ship…'

She swore. A capital ship run with limited tactical data?! Even with that weird targeting mod the ship had, he'd be torn apart. She went to Iruka, showing him the communications log, and she sent a message to the proctors as Naruto's run ended very quickly with no damage to the capital ship. Tenten didn't even need to know. She knew that all capital class weapons had been 'disabled except with authorization', and Mizuki hadn't given it. He'd given the exact opposite.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. You failed to even damage the assigned opponent," Mizuki stated, accepting the lockout module for the Kyuubi, and setting it to maximum lockout, "You understand what this means?"

Naruto nodded and headed away from the simulation decks, Tenten having not just noticed what Mizuki did, but also what buttons he pressed as he did it. That one action would be pivotal in the future...

"What do you mean he's already been failed?" Iruka stated to Sarutobi, "I have a signed report by the examination board showing his run was sabotaged by Mizuki,"

"Naruto was dispatched to the colony for permanent civilian assignment a short time ago," Sarutobi stated, "The Kyuubi has had all weapons capability removed,"

"Mizuki assigned him a capital ship run with only garbled tactical data. He was shot out of space before he could get his weapons going. Even with the partial lockout he had, with even a D-Rank Tactical Unit, he could, possibly, have scraped by with a partial..." Iruka stated, putting the data on the desk. Sarutobi looked at him, noticing ID data, polling it.

"Let's see… Tenten… Passed full weapons certification… High reliability..." Sarutobi stated, "Hiashi, Can you give me the location of Mizuki's craft?"

"He went to the colony one minute ago, approaching the location of… Very odd…" Hiashi stated, "Any particular reason he'd want to contact Naruto?"

Mizuki looked at Naruto.

"If you're sure..." Mizuki stated, "She did test well with it..."

Naruto nodded, having already given up his comm and other equipment after being drummed out of the KPD, handing the case to Mizuki, before he headed out. Fleet Security arrived a few moments later.

"Mizuki notified me that he could look into giving Tenten the Kyuubi, under a new registry..." Naruto stated, "With how badly I did in that simulation run, and how well she did..."

"Mizuki is heading toward the Disputed Zone rapidly. He is not heading towards Tenten's current location..." Naruto heard over the Fleet Security member's radios.

"Please stop him would you? If he attempts to eject anything out of the ship, please recover it immediately..." The head of the team stated, before looking towards Naruto, he took out a portable simulation rig, "Thankfully, you connected the Kyuubi to the simulators... We can do a field run, with your actual ship data..."

An hour later, he was presented with the recovered case-mode of the Kyuubi, an unknown ship having been barely detected waiting for Mizuki. The fact it matched specifications with one used in the assassination of Minato Namikaze was the final nail in the coffin for Mizuki. He'd admitted Tenten had been a perfect scapegoat for why Mizuki needed the Kyuubi in it's undeployed state. Meanwhile, Naruto had been given the test with a functional tactical unit, and had earned the expected passing grade, then was given it with the Kyuubi not locked out. The two grades were averaged and his final score rated on that.

"Dammit… Mizuki password locked it," Iruka stated when they tried to disable the lockout, for Tenten to walk over, having been there as part of the evidence against Mizuki, for her to pick the lockout up, tap out a code, unlocking it.

"He did it right in front of me, remember?" Tenten stated, "Naruto, If there's ever a time when you need a co-pilot… Consider me,"

Naruto nodded. He now needed to find a tactical unit, since he doubted she'd go in blind. And right now, she was much more what he wanted than Sakura had been...