It was raining and the skies were gray which perfectly reflected the somber mood that Naruto felt as he walked down an untraveled corner of road. Eventually he decided to take a break from his walk and instead rested his back by a tree. The blonde twenty-year-old looked for the worse, his once short hair was now matted down by dirt and grease. His blue eyes had heavy bags under them while also being rimmed in red. Where once he had worn bandages to cover up his prosthetic right arm, now it was gone which revealed the white skin underneath.
His clothing was covered in mud from travel as he had been out in the woods for over a week now with no true wish to head back to his village just yet. Kurama had tried to console him during this time, but nothing helped. Naruto wished to be left alone to sulk in his depression. His only true thoughts were if he'd just been there, then none of it would have happened.
Just three weeks ago, his entire world had been turned upside down in but an instant. Naruto reached into the pouch hooked to the back of his pants and pulled out a picture. In it was both Naruto who looked quite happy with the girl next to him. She had long dark hair and pupiless lavender eyes. The girl looked quite content. Her name was Hinata Hyuga.
She had died three weeks ago.
Naruto growled in frustration before he pocketed the photo and stood up. He held his hand out and a spiraling blue ball of pure chakra formed before he rushed to a tree and slammed the sphere into the trunk in a quick act of catharsis.
The tree trunk snapped under the attack as the ball sheered through the tree like a warm knife through butter. This was quickly followed by a second blue ball forming in his hand which he slammed into another tree. With two trees toppled, Naruto screamed into the sky in frustration and more memories of what happened three weeks ago, flooded back into his mind.
Since that time, he had left the village with his friend Sasuke to get his head straight. All that it really did was cause him to think about all of what had happened in the past three weeks that had gotten him here…
Three Week Ago
In front of the village gate, Naruto stood waiting for the return of Team 8 and his girlfriend Hinata. They had been gone for over a week in a recon mission on the borders of the Land of Fire. As he waited, he started shifting from one foot to another in order to alleviate his boredom at waiting.
"Hey, Naruto, you've been here for thirty minutes already. How long are you going to wait?" Kotetsu asked. He was one of the two guards sitting in the booth by the gate to the village. He had long spiky hair and a goatee with a single bandage over his nose. He and his associate both worn the village shinobi uniform.
"Yeah, wouldn't it be better to just wait in Ichiraku's for Team 8 to show up?" Izumo asked. He had dark brown hair that covered his right eye.
"Nope. I'm gonna wait right here for all of them." Naruto replied stubbornly.
"Your funeral." Izumo replied. Kotetsu nudged his friend in the shoulder playfully.
"Ease up on the kid, he is obviously waiting for a certain Hyuga heiress." Kotetsu teased. The two guards laughed at this.
"Oh shut it. I don't see either of you dating anyone! And besides, what did you do this time to make Kakashi send you off on guard duty?" Naruto questioned with a mischievous grin. Kotetsu and Izumo looked sheepish at this.
"Well, we still haven't figured that out just yet." Izumo replied.
"I thought it was because we always get this posting." Kotetsu added.
"True enough. It's boring here, though. Just wish that we'd at least get some action, get what I'm saying, Naruto?" Izumo asked.
"Yeah. Not a lot of really good missions lately. Nothing has been happening." Naruto replied. It had been a few months since he'd last gotten a mission that had some challenge to it and even then, the ninja who had been trying to kill him had barely put up any real fight. They were just really weak compared to him. Then again, everyone but Sasuke was considered weak to him.
Naruto just hoped that Sasuke would come back to the village from his mission soon, he really wanted a sparring partner who could actually hold up against him. "So, have you seen anything interesting by the gates today?" Naruto asked.
"Nah, been really slow today. Just the regular merchants and a few travelers, other than that, nothing." Kotetsu replied as he leaned back into his seat. Izumo also tried to find a more comfortable position like his partner.
"Then I'm happy that I don't have your jobs right now." Naruto said. It was an hour later that Naruto started getting nervous. Sure, some missions took a while to accomplish, but a simple recon mission only took a week to accomplish. They should've been back by now. Naruto quickly grew bored with waiting for Team 8 and so he quickly activated his sage mode which changed his eyes yellow and his pupils into cross shapes in order to gauge how far away the team was.
He quickly grew concerned when he found only the chakra of both Kiba and Shino. Both Akamaru and Hinata were missing from the group. With a switch of his focus, Naruto moved his sensing further out. It was there a mile further that Naruto found the dimming chakra of Hinata being surrounded by thirteen different people, each with a high chakra capacity. Next to her, with almost no chakra was Akamaru. Naruto looked at the two gate guards. "Get a stretcher here with doctors and a vet." Naruto ordered.
"What?" Izumo asked.
"Just do it." With that, Naruto took off past the large gate and towards where Kiba and Shino were first. When he quickly caught up to them, he noticed that Kiba was missing his left arm and blood was draining profusely from his stump. Shino had multiple cuts over his body, and yet he seemed to be doing much better than his teammate who he was helping walk. The two quickly noticed Naruto and they became slightly relieved.
"Naruto, you need to help Hinata and Akamaru! If you don't, then they'll die!" Kiba shouted at the blonde. Naruto nodded and kept running past the two. In an effort to move faster, Naruto pushed chakra into his legs until he was speeding through the woods. When Naruto was only a half mile away, he felt as if Akamaru had just died. He didn't know how, but it reminded him of Neji's death in the war.
A push more, and Naruto made it to where he could hear the battle occurring. This was quickly followed by him feeling as if someone had just crushed his body and sliced his neck. The connection he felt with her, the feelings, and the pain all culminated in him screaming as if he had been affected by whatever happened himself.
He made it onto the battleground and saw before him multiple ninja that were unaffiliated with any village. All of them looked like thieves. But he ignored that in favor of what he saw now. At one of the bandit's feet were two bodies. One was the corpse of Akamaru. The dog's once white fur was now stained red with blood. Next to him was Hinata, or at least what remained of her mutilated body. The thief that stood over her body was gripping her decapitated head in his hand, with a bloody knife in the other.
He grinned in triumph which was made worse by the multiple scars on his face that pulled the sides of his mouth into a lopsided grin. He seemed to be the leader of this group due to the slightly better clothes that he had compared to all the other bandits.
"We finally got ourselves a working set of Byakugan! We are going to make such a profit off of this." The bandit loudly exclaimed. Naruto's breath came out ragged as his yellow eyes kept switching back from Hinata's head, to the bloodied remains of her body which could only be identified as her body due to the torn strips of clothing. Then he looked at the man so proudly displaying her head like a trophy.
"You killed her." Naruto said while glaring at each of the bandits. The group quickly turned to look at Naruto. All of them seemed extremely cocky until they took a good look at the young blonde. That was when they realized who it was that stood before them.
"It was just for money. We live in hard times, what with there being no jobs around for people like us. So what if we had to kill one person, we'll at least be able to eat some good food instead of what we have now." The bandit with Hinata's head replied. Naruto's fists clenched hard enough so that his nails drew blood.
"You killed her for money? You ended one's life for a little money. She had hopes, dreams, and many loved ones. And you ended it. All. For. Money!" Naruto shouted the last word out as he felt Kurama growl in the back of his mind.
"Who was she to you?" The thief asked.
"I loved her." Naruto then let Kurama's chakra envelope himself. When he did so, wind blew about the area from the release of chakra and each one of the bandits was absolutely terrified at what type of monster they had unleashed. Naruto formed a Rasengan in his hand and let the blue orb swell to the size of a basketball. In a burst of speed that most of the ninja in the area could barely even see, Naruto had shredded through half of the group with the remaining half trying to run away in an effort to escape this incarnation of rage before them.
Barely any of the bandits got far as they were all torn apart until there was only the scarred man with Hinata's head in his hand. He tried to escape, but Naruto stood before him encased in flaming golden chakra that moved about him like flames. The bandit quickly held up Hinata's head in an effort to possibly appease the monster before him. Naruto grabbed him by the wrist and squeezed until a crack was heard. The man scream and his hold on Hinata's head disappeared and let the head fall.
A claw of gold chakra came out of his stomach and caught the head gingerly before it hit the ground. "You killed her." Naruto stated with a horrifying calm. It was like all the anger that had been there had disappeared entirely. Now it was like all that was left was a wall that revealed nothing.
"I did! Please don't kill me! I just needed the money and if I had known that she was related to you, then I wouldn't have gone after her! Please, just let me live!" The scarred man begged. Naruto's grip grew tighter and the bones in the man's wrist began to pulverize. This brought him to his knees.
"You would've gone after someone else instead." Naruto looked into the man's dark eyes, and he saw that the man would've done so. He was desperate, and desperate men were willing to do everything. "I'm going to destroy you." Naruto placed his hand onto the man's forehead and began forming a Rasengan. In but a moment, his head exploded open and left a swirling blue ball in it's wake.
Naruto cancelled the Rasengan and let the man's body fall to the ground limp and lifeless. Then he grabbed Hinata's head from his chakra claw and looked at it before falling to his knees and sobbing. The flaming cloak that was covering him now dispersed.
He heard footsteps behind him and a few audible gasps, but he ignored them in favor of cradling Hinata's head and letting out all of his pain. The shinobi behind him witnessed this with some measure of pity, sympathy, and horror. All around the woods were the bloodied remains of the bandits that had been shredded by the young man in front of them.
It was one week later when the funeral for Hinata was held. Her body was buried next to Neji's with a pristine white slab marking her grave. The funeral had been attended by many in the Hyuga clan, the other rookie teams, Kakashi, Tsunade, Kurenai, and Naruto. Even Sasuke had managed to show up in support of Naruto.
The went by quickly with many tears shed, and all that was left afterwards was Naruto staring at Hinata's grave, unmoving. He had shed all the tears that he had, now he just felt drained from all of it. He had been standing at the grave for an hour since the funeral occurred, and the thought that if he had been there faster, then he could have saved her.
Naruto looked up at the sky to see that it was gray and cloudy, perfectly matching the somber mood of the moment. He heard the crunching of grass behind him, but he didn't bother to check and see who it was. "How are you doing?" The voice of Sasuke asked.
"Fine." Naruto quickly replied. Sasuke walked until he was by Naruto's right side looking down at the grave.
"I wish I could've helped. There was too much damage. I'm sorry." Sasuke stated. His black cloak flapped in the breeze as wind began to pick up in the area. The dark-haired young man understood Naruto's pain all too well.
"It's fine. I understand but I just want to be alone for a while, a long while." Naruto replied. Sasuke put his remaining arm on Naruto's shoulder in some form of reassurance.
"What do you plan on doing?" Sasuke asked. Naruto sighed and looked down once more at the grave.
"I'm going to leave for a while, take my mind off of everything. I can still feel it…" Sasuke looked at his friend in confusion.
"What can you feel?" Naruto's hands balled into fists at this question.
"I felt her die. It was unlike anything that I had felt before. Everything that she felt before she died was something that I felt. And you want to know the worst part of it? It was that she was thinking of me as she died." The revelation that he had felt Hinata's death so thoroughly had been pervading his mind for many days. It just wouldn't leave, which made Naruto fear that if he had felt Hinata die, then what would happen if his other loved ones died as well?
"I wish that I understood it like you did, but all I have is the memory of my clan and parents being killed by Itachi. I don't think that I could understand fully what you may be feeling, but try to avoid going down the path that I did." Sasuke consoled. "I'm here if you need me for the next few days, and I'll go with you if you plan to leave the village for a while." Sasuke replied.
"Thanks, Sasuke." All Naruto received in response was the crunch of grass and dirt as Sasuke walked away. He stood at the grave for another hour before finally leaving for his apartment. When he made it to the gate of the cemetery, Naruto spotted a familiar masked man with gravity-defying gray hair and a scar going down his left eye. He wore a set of black clothing due to the funeral.
"Hey." Kakashi greeted in a calm tone.
"Hey." Naruto replied. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I wanted to see how you were doing?" Kakashi asked.
"Terrible. I just want to get away for a while. Could you have someone take care of my apartment while I'm gone?" Naruto asked. Kakashi nodded at this.
"Got it covered. Would there be anything else? Or would you like me to alert the others that you're leaving?"
"Don't tell anyone until I'm gone, I just want to do this by myself. I'll see you later, Kakashi." Naruto stated. With that, the blonde walked away from the cemetery and towards his apartment. It was a long walk full of contemplation for the future, but Naruto made it to his home and entered it. Inside, he quickly began to busy himself with packing clothes, and supplies for his journey. Once he finished packing, he walked over to his dresser in his bedroom and looked at one of the pictures on it.
It was of Hinata and him together. Naruto felt sad nostalgia well up within himself before he took the picture out of its frame and pocketed it. When finished, Naruto shouldered his pack and headed to the door of his apartment and looked back on it once more. With a flick of the lightswitch, Naruto closed and locked the door of the apartment and headed off to the Uchiha compound in the village where he knew that Sasuke was staying.
The trip to the Uchiha compound was a quick one. It was also a lonely one as many people tended to avoid the almost deserted compound due to all of the death that had happened here. Where Naruto entered, he headed towards Sasuke's house with the goal of leaving the village in mind. Much to his surprise, Sasuke was waiting for him on the porch of one of the abandoned houses with a smirk.
Now that Naruto had a closer look at the dark-haired man, he noticed that Sasuke seemed a lot older in some ways than before. As if he had been shouldering the world. "Didn't think you'd be waiting outside for me." Naruto remarked.
"Idiot, I know you very well." Sasuke replied with a smirk. "Do we leave tonight?" Sasuke asked. Naruto nodded in reply and Sasuke stood up and walked over to his friend. "Then let's go before anyone tries to stop us." And so, the two friends walked out of the compound together and down the road towards the gate of the Hidden Leaf.
"Sasuke, does the pain ever really disappear?" Naruto asked.
"Not really. It's been years, and yet I've still not gotten over my family's deaths. What about you?" Sasuke asked.
"It hurt when I lost all those people that I knew, but I managed to overcome it. This though, it's different." Naruto replied. Sasuke nodded at this in agreement.
"Then we'll deal with it together."
The two walked the rest of the way out of the village in silence with none in the village the wiser at their sudden disappearance.
One Month Later
In the dark reaches of space, a ship flew towards an unknown destination in the far reaches of space. The ship wasn't an extremely large one, and it actually was mainly a smuggler's ship, but it had a reputation as being one of the fastest in the galaxy. This ship had a rounded design that ended with three squared prongs in the front that were each painted red which contrasted with the white paint job of the ship. Two engines on the back propelled the craft forward, though the engine on the left was damaged quite badly.
The middle prong of the had a one-way glass view that surrounded it. This was the cockpit. Inside of this cockpit, a woman in a set of simple armor over a black shirt and pants, piloted the ship to the best of her ability. Her dark hair was pulled up into a ponytail with the rest of her bangs framing her face. Her blue eyes scanned the area she was in in some effort to land on a possible planet before the engines cut off.
"HK, how far are we from that planet?" The woman asked. Behind her, an orange rust-colored droid monitored the navigation computer. His head turned to the woman.
"Statement: Master, we are to arrive at an unknown planet within five minutes. On the surface, we might be able to land and make repairs." The droid replied. The woman pressed a few more buttons on the ship before shouting.
"T3, how are the engines holding up?!"
"Revan, we must land, the engines can't take much more use before they break down!" T3 replied in beeps and squeals. Revan felt her ship shudder as multiple alerts came up on the screens of the ship.
"HK, take over, I'm helping T3. Try to land us." Revan got out of her seat and ran to the back of the ship and into the engine room where she saw a droid with a round disk shaped head with a large glowing blue eye worked on the engine which had smoke coming out of it. The droid had a short body that had a diagonal squared body that was held up by two wheels in the back, and two arms with wheels that were attached at the shoulders.
From his main body, a small arm was doing its best to repair all the damage that it could. The droid heard Revan and turned his head to look at his master. "What are you doing here?" The droid beeped out.
"Helping. Now move over and tell me what I can help fix?" Revan asked as she moved in next to the droid. T3-M4 pointed his small arm to three separate spaces.
"Here, here, and here. I'll work on the right, you work on the left and we'll meet in the center." T3 replied. Revan pulled a tool from her belt and quickly began her work of jury-rigging the ship back together. T3 did the same and their progress was going quite well.
Frankly, all of this damage was due to some earlier ships that they had encountered. These ships were something that Revan had never seen before, gigantic, dark, and in a way, they seemed organic in their design. What had really frightened Revan was that these ships were like an empty hole in the Force. She would have considered them to be a Sith weapons if not for the fact that they didn't radiate any of the classical dark feeling that a normal Sith ship would give off.
It was either by luck or the Force that Revan had survived that one encounter which had damaged her engine. She would not like to have another encounter anytime soon. "HK, how are we looking?" Revan asked.
"Annoyed Response: If this is about my ability to fly this vessel, I assure you that we most likely won't die as of now. I hope that it isn't what you are about to ask." HK replied.
"I meant about how far are we from the planet?" Revan asked.
"Response: About two minutes, Master." Revan sighed at her droid before continuing her work. They could all survive this if they kept going at this rate. The real problem was if the ship they had encountered would continue to follow them. After another minute of repairs, Revan saw the engines let out a flurry of sparks which made her shield her face.
"Damn! Every repair we make is set back by more damages." Revan said as she went back to fixing the engine problems.
"We just need to hold the ship together for a while longer." T3 announced. Revan quickly tried to fix everything she could see, but unless they landed, this engine would keep damaging itself.
"Statement: Prepare for imminent landing in one minute!" HK-47 announced. Revan and T3 were both relieved at this information. It was when Revan turned her attention from the engines, did she finally notice something about the planet that the small group was entering. It felt like the Force was enveloping this planet, and even being created in a way, from it. But one of the things she noticed, well, more like nine things she noticed on this planet that were exuding the Force.
They felt immense, and they were moving constantly. If she ever got the chance, she would have to find out whatever these things were. And also, see if it was anything that she would have to take care of just in case. The sound of the landing gear coming into place put Revan's mind at ease as the ship eventually landed upon the ground. When the ship did so, Revan got up from where she had been kneeling and walked towards the cockpit. In the cockpit, HK-47 was busy turning off all the nonessential functions of the ship.
"Good job, HK." Revan praised.
"Joyful Statement: My pleasure, Master!" HK replied as he got out of the pilot seat. "Is there anything that you require?"
"Just watch the ship. I'm going to try and explore our new surroundings." Revan replied. She was about to walk out of the cockpit when she heard a boom. This was followed by a large high pitched squeal from T3 which made both the woman and the droid run back to the engine room where they found pieces of the engine scattered about with T3 standing in the center shaking in shock.
"Query: What have you done now, tin can?" HK asked.
"I didn't do anything, you rust bucket. The engine fell apart after the stress that it was put through, no thanks to your piloting." T3 sniped back.
"Looming Threat: Don't make me pull my blaster on you." HK warned.
"I'd like to see you try, rusty." HK was about to pull his blaster off of his back when Revan got between the two. She found it quite humorous whenever the two bickered, but she couldn't have them killing each other now.
"Hey, don't go about destroying one another. I need you both to keep this ship together." Revan said. HK holstered his blaster rifle quickly while T3 felt quite pleased with himself as he went back to work trying to fix everything. "T3, tell me how the engines look after I return to the ship." Revan ordered.
"Got it." T3 replied.
Revan nodded and went to the main hold of the ship to grab a brown robe that had been left on one of the two seats facing the holo-map projector. She put the robe on and checked her belt for everything that she would need. One was her communicator, the other was a tool kit that had been very helpful over the years. It was a black box fitted to the back of her belt. But one of the more worn items on her belt was a silver hilt with a button on the side.
That was Revan's lightsaber which marked her as a Jedi.
Revan down the corridor of her ship and then down the ramp to the forest that surrounded her. The minute that Revan's boot touched the ground, she felt as if her connection to the Force was amplified tenfold. It was an indescribable feeling that could only be related to the time when she had been on places like Korriban, Dantooine, or even the Star Forge.
With a smile, Revan kept walking through the forest that she was in, each step was another into the unknown, but Revan wasn't worried. She had her lightsaber strapped to her hip and the Force by her side. While walking, Revan thought about how she got here in the first place. It was all due to memories of her past deeds coming back to her.
This was all due to how her mind had been wiped by the Jedi council during the war as she had been at the time one of the main instigators of the conflict. This mind wipe had managed to bring her back on the path of the light side, and eventually over time her previous memories had started coming back one by one. Some of these memories Revan cherished while others brought on great guilt inside of herself. It was one of the memories of guilt that had spurned her to leave her friends behind in order to find the one that turned her to the dark side of the Force.
It slightly saddened her when she remembered how she left each of her friends behind. Carth, Mission, Canderous, Jolee, Juhani, Bastilla, and Zaalbar. She had said her goodbyes and had given each one of them a job to do while she was gone. This was all due to her broken memories leading her to a planet that she had traveled to before she became a Sith. Sadly, that wouldn't be happening for a while due to her encounter with those organic looking ships.
Revan found a path in the woods that she followed as it showed the signs of human design. It was another five minute before she found herself at a village which surprised Revan slightly. She didn't realize that this place would already have sentient life. Then again, should she really have been surprised on such a Force-sensitive world like this? Revan stepped into the village and noticed that there wasn't anyone here in the area which put Revan on her guard. Empty villages usually meant that something bad happened.
Revan closed her eyes and felt outwardly with the Force until she found two people hiding in one of the houses. There wasn't anyone else nearby that she could sense. She walked to the house that had the two people hiding inside and slid the wooden screen door open and stepped inside. The interior once may have looked quite nice, now though, it was a mess with furniture knocked over and a man with a knife that was embedded into the back of his head.
After carefully stepping over the body, Revan sensed out the two people that were still hiding in this house. Quickly entering into the bedroom of this home, Revan walked over to the closet and opened it. Inside were two young human children, one was possibly five while the other was a girl that might have been eight.
Both pushed themselves back when they saw Revan, the fear that radiated from them was quite clear to the woman. She put on a soft smile and kneeled down to the two of them. "Hello, my name is Revan. What are your names?" Revan asked.
The boy had black hair and seemed a lot more distrusting of the woman unlike the brown-haired girl next to him. "I'm Yuki." The girl nervously replied. Revan smiled and nodded at this.
"That's a nice name. Could you possibly tell me what happened here?" Revan asked.
"The bad people came. They took everyone that they could before leaving. They didn't find us." Yuki replied. Revan kept her smile up for the children, but internally she found this news to be troubling.
"Did the bad people take your parents?"
"They took mommy. Daddy fought them off but we don't know what else happened. We haven't left where we hid for a while." Yuki stated. Revan put her hands on each one of the children's shoulders in a comforting gesture.
"Could you tell me where these bad people may have gone? If you do, I might be able to find your mommy and the rest of the villagers."
"They went back out the front gate of the village. That's all I know since me and Kuro hid." Yuki said. Revan nodded at this as a plan formed in her mind.
"You two have been very brave." That put a smile on both the boy and girl's faces. "I want you to both get some food and then hide back in this closet after I've left. If I'm not back by tomorrow with your villagers, then I want the both of you to head to the nearest settlement nearby. Can you do this?" Revan asked.
The boy and girl nodded at this and Revan stood up and the children eventually followed her as she walked into the main room of the house. The two children quickly ran off to the kitchen and began rummaging through some cabinets for food. Revan just stood guard and sensed for any other people in the area. When the children came back, they ran back to the bedroom and back into the closet.
Revan took her leave from the house and went to the front gate of the village. She noticed many recent footprints and began jogging after the trail. If she was lucky, she'd catch up to the people who took this village.
She was right in a way, it took a half hour, but she tracked the footprints when they went into the woods where she noticed much of the grass and bushes had been trodden upon. Revan pushed her senses out and felt fear emanating from further in the woods. At this point, Revan unclipped her lightsaber from her belt and held the familiar handle in her hand.
The rest of the way through the woods, Revan was careful about her movements in an effort to make it to where these villagers were while hidden. She heard the sounds of people further in and Revan hid behind a tree as she looked at multiple men and women in dark clothing sitting by a fire. Surrounding this fire were multiple cages. Revan could feel all of the feel coming off them which slightly angered her. Even if she was a Jedi, she could still feel outrage at slavery regardless of what planet she was on.
"Where are we dropping these people off? I kinda forgot." One of the women asked.
"One of the slaver rings by the ocean. It promised a good price for workers." One of the men replied. "Now through the cargo their scraps." The man ordered and the woman got off of the fallen log that she had been using. She then grabbed a small bag off the ground and went to each of the cages before tossing some old bread inside.
Revan sensed out how many of the enemy that she would have to deal with. It seemed that there was only ten of them in total. That would be easy to handle. Revan stepped out from her hiding place and calmly walked to the group. "Hello. I was just in the neighborhood and I was looking for some villagers that were recently kidnapped." Revan greeted. The group turned to Revan and unsheathed their weapons at the woman.
"Who the hell are you and how did you get here?" One of the men asked.
"We can resolve this without violence, can't we?" Revan asked nicely with a small wave of her hand. The man that replied to her became ridged before replying.
"Yes, this can be resolved without violence." The bandit replied in a monotone. His compatriots looked at him in confusion.
"What are you talking about, Shinji?" A blonde woman asked before looking at Revan, "You put him under a genjutsu, didn't you?" Revan was slightly confused with the term, but if it meant Jedi mind trick, then this woman was correct. These people were definitely ones to keep her guard up against.
"We can resolve this, can't we? Just release the prisoners and I'll be on my way." Revan ordered with another wave of her hand against the blonde. The woman shook her head before glaring at Revan.
"Kill this bitch! She tried to put me under a genjutsu." The blonde ordered. Revan sighed in disappointment before she pressed the button on her lightsaber and with a snap-hiss, a purple blade of light ignited from it. The group looked at Revan's lightsaber in awe, and greed at what price a blade like that could sell for.
"New order: whoever gets me that sword will get part of my share when we sell this cargo." The blonde stated which made the others' thoughts fill with that of greed. Revan saw the group charge at her and so she held her hand out at them.
With a small push of the Force, a storm of blue lightning flew from her fingertips and attacked the five slavers that tried to kill her. Each man and woman fell to the ground twitching which put the remaining five on guard.
"Careful, this woman has some tricks up her sleeves." The blonde stated. Revan internally snorted at the obvious statement. She definitely had some tricks up her sleeve, that was for sure. Revan was alerted by the Force to someone charging at her from the left and so she ducked under the ninja who swiped his sword at where her head had once been. Revan made one clean swipe at the man's gut and walked away from him as he fell to the ground.
"Trust me, I have a lot more tricks." The blonde gritted her teeth before putting her hands together and making a few signs with her hands. She then slammed her hands to the ground and it was like a wave of earth came charging at her. Revan held her hand up and Force pushed the wave aside before striding forward as the earthen-wave slammed into the trees behind her.
The three other ninja charged at Revan and swung their swords at her. Revan sliced one of the swords in half before kicking the woman in the chest with a Force enhanced kick. She slid and dodged a sword strike to the left and spun around on her heel with her lightsaber aimed at the man's head. One quite slice later and his head fell to the ground before quickly being followed by his body.
The final ninja was unable to make a strike as he felt like his throat was being choked by an iron grip. He dropped his sword and grabbed at his throat as darkness began clouding his vision until he lost consciousness. With that final man defeated, Revan turned her attention to the woman who was looking quite nervous.
"You may have defeated my group, but you won't defeat me!" The blonde shouted before making a few hand signs and inhaling deeply. She was about to release a fireball from her throat when she felt herself being choked. Her eyes widened as she realized that her fireball technique had no way to escape her body. Then she felt her body getting warmer and warmer until she felt the grip on her throat release.
The woman fell to the ground and coughed out smoke from her burned lungs before she collapsed as well. This left Revan alone with all of the prisoners. Revan quickly cut the cages open with her lightsaber before clicking on the button which caused the purple blade so hiss back into its hilt. "Do any of you need healing?" Revan asked.
"Yamamoto needs some help!" A young man replied before leading Revan to one of the cages which contained an elderly man who was on the floor of the cage. Revan kneeled down to him.
"Where are you hurt?" She asked.
"My ankle. I think I twisted it when they were taking us here." Yamamoto replied. Revan nodded and placed her hands above the older man's ankle and pushing the Force into it to heal it. Within seconds Revan's work was done. She smiled and stood up before holding her hand out to the man. He took it and Revan pulled him onto his feet.
"Thank you for saving us. Who are you?" The man asked.
"My name's Revan. I was just traveling and I encountered your village first but there wasn't anyone there. So, I investigated and found two children who told me that all of you had been taken. And that's how I'm here." Revan explained.
"Then thank goodness that you found us. Now that you've helped us, what do you plan on doing?" Yamamoto asked. Revan scratched her head and thought about this. She hadn't had any plan other than to find the lost villagers.
"No idea." Revan replied.
"Then stay with us for the night. We'd all be grateful if you had dinner with us under our roof." Revan smiled at the hospitality and accepted it.
"Then lead the way." Revan replied.
On another road, two young men walked together. One had long dark hair that went to his shoulders while the other had spiky blonde hair that had grown out slightly after a month of continuous travel. He wore a red haori with black flames at the bottom which denoted his affiliation as a sage. He had received it as a gift from the toads just a little under two weeks ago.
"Where are we going, Sasuke?" Naruto spoke up in order to end the silence between them.
"We are doing an investigation of the recent forest. There have been more reports of bandits that have been growing over the years. You would know about this by encountering them a while ago." Sasuke was considerate to not bring up Hinata's death directly. That was still an exceptionally poor topic to talk about with him which was a reason that he rarely brought it up.
"I understand." Naruto replied quickly. "Any settlements near the area?"
"Just a few small villages. Nothing too complicated but remain on your guard." Sasuke replied. Naruto smirked at this.
"Really, we need to remain on our guard? I would think that most people should be afraid of attacking us. After all, we are the two strongest beings in the world. Anyone who bothered trying to attack us would be an idiot." Naruto stated. Sasuke shrugged at this.
"Didn't stop a few people from trying to do that." Sasuke remarked. "Would you care to spar after this job is finished?" Sasuke asked.
"Yeah, I'm up for it. I just hope that you haven't gotten slow on me."
"We'll see." Sasuke said with a smile. It was good to see that Naruto was bouncing back to being the happy-go-lucky idiot that he used to be. It was a slow process, but getting him out of the village an into the country really helped. Sasuke looked down the road that they were walking and saw that ahead of them was the red gate of a village.
Sasuke quickly activated his Sharingan, which turned his right eye red, and scanned for any threats before deactivating it. "Nothing ahead that I can see. What about you?" Sasuke asked. His paranoia had grown slightly over the years of traveling and dealing with people that wanted to kill him. He realized that part of his paranoia had been transferred over to Naruto in the form of scanning each settlement that they encountered with sage mode.
Naruto's eyes turned golden and the pupils became crosses before he replied. "Just a bunch of normal civilians, and…" Naruto's face took one of surprise, "one sage. Sasuke looked at Naruto and his hand went onto the hilt of his sword.
"Should we be worried?"
"No idea." Naruto replied, his eyes had turned back to their normal blue. It was exceptionally rare to meet anyone that could use sage mode. Those people that could were always exceptionally strong.
The duo made it to the gate and saw all of the people that were moving about the village in their daily chores. When the two were seen, multiple villagers stopped what they were doing to look at these two newcomers. "Not that warm of a welcome." Naruto stated.
"Just don't do anything stupid." Sasuke said.
"Who are you two?" One of the villagers asked.
"Just two traveling shinobi. We heard that there was a bandit problem in this area and decided to take care of it." Naruto replied with a grin.
"You're too late. That problem was taken care of already." The villager replied. Naruto and Sasuke felt disappointment at this. They traveled all of this way to do nothing. Just as they were about to leave, a woman's voice announced itself.
"Hey, don't leave just yet!" Naruto and Sasuke stopped in their tracks and turned to look at the newcomer. She was a woman with long black hair in a ponytail along with black robes. She seemed to have an ethereal beauty for some reason that Naruto couldn't fathom. The minute that she got close to the two, Naruto didn't really understand why, but he activated his sage mode and felt the natural energy that flowed around the woman. She was a sage, just like him!
"You're a sage as well!" Naruto said excitedly. Sasuke put his hand on the hilt of his sword once more and quickly scanned the woman for any sudden moves that could mark an attack. The woman stopped and looked at Naruto with some confusion.
"What do you mean? I'm not a sage." She replied.
"But you have all of that natural energy surrounding you. How could you not be a sage? That would just be impossible." Naruto asked. The woman thought about this before replying.
"Would this natural energy be something that surrounds everything?" The woman asked.
"Yeah, exactly."
Revan looked at all the villagers who were watching this interaction. "Could all of you allow us to talk in private?" Revan asked. The villagers accepted her request and left the three alone in the street to converse. "Where I come from, we're called Jedi. But now that you're right there, could you answer one of my questions?"
"Yeah, sure. What would you like to know?" Naruto replied with a grin. Sasuke sighed at how trusting Naruto was at the moment. They had no idea as to who this woman was. She could be a spy that was just trying to get information from the two of them.
"Why is it that you are one of nine other great powers that I can sense with the Force on this planet?" The woman asked as she looked Naruto up and down. Naruto and Sasuke looked at one another with some worry. They hadn't had to deal with anyone that could sense a Tailed Beast before.
"How-" Naruto was interrupted by Sasuke.
"You're not from this planet, are you?" Sasuke asked the woman. She seemed slightly surprised but resigned herself with a smile. Naruto looked at his friend as he had no idea as to what Sasuke was doing.
"You're correct about that. Though I'm surprised that you were able to figure that out. This planet didn't seem advanced enough to know about space travel. How did you know?" The woman asked with interest. She seemed to hold no hostile intentions, but Sasuke didn't trust that smile on her face for a single second. He'd met enough women over the past few years that had tried to seduce and then kill him.
"Multiple reasons. One would be how you weren't able to figure out that nine great powers would be the Tailed Beasts. Anyone who would be as strong as Naruto thinks you are would have heard some of the stories behind them. Another reason would be because of how you talked about sage mode, or at least your version of it. I've never heard of anything called the 'Force' or a 'Jedi' in any of my travels. You also mentioned the Tailed Beasts in a planetary scale which people of this world wouldn't think about. And finally, we've dealt with people from space before." Sasuke finished.
"Well then, my name is Revan. What's yours?" Revan asked.
"I'm Sasuke. My friend over there is Naruto. Now why are you here? I'd like to know now instead of later." Sasuke asked in a demanding tone. Revan still seemed extremely friendly even with the hint of a threat from the raven-haired man.
"My ship was attacked during my journeys. I was forced to land here in order to make some repairs. It will take a while before they're done." Revan replied. Sasuke looked at Revan with some disbelief. Ships that could fly in space? Seemed very unlikely unless…
"Take us to your ship." Sasuke ordered. "That's the only way that we can be sure that you're telling the truth." Revan nodded.
"That sounds reasonable. Are you always so serious?" Revan asked.
"Yeah. He may act like he has a stick up his ass, but that's just Sasuke's default mood. Don't let that bother you. He's still a nice guy." Naruto stated. He received a slap against the back of his head by said person. Revan giggled at this interaction while Naruto rubbed the back of his head.
"I'll assume that both of you have known each other for a long time?" Revan asked.
"Yeah. We've been best friends for years."
"More like I was forced to be best friends with this idiot. He won't leave me alone." Sasuke corrected. Revan walked past the two and waved after them to follow her. "Where are you going?" Sasuke asked.
"You wanted to see my ship. Didn't you?" Revan asked. Naruto followed after her with a reluctant Sasuke in tow. He was still wary of the woman before him, and it didn't help that he felt that she was hiding something from him.
"Hey, Revan, can you tell me how you use your sage mode? It's so rare that I ever see anyone who can actually use it." Naruto asked the woman as he caught up to her. Revan smiled at the blonde's enthusiasm of the subject.
"Well, the Force is an energy that surrounds, covers, and penetrates all things. It just needs someone who can feel and channel it in order to use to make things happen." Revan replied.
"Like what?"
"Well, for instance, one of the most basic abilities of the Force would be telekinesis." Naruto scratched his head at this.
"That means to lift things with your mind, right?" He confirmed. Revan nodded. "Is that it? Can it make you stronger?"
"Yes. It can be used to bolster strength and durability. The full possibilities still haven't been truly discovered yet." Revan finished. "But that is just the abilities of a Jedi. What about you? You have constantly referred to the Force as 'sage mode'."
"Sage mode is really easy once you master it. Originally you have to learn how to meditate while being really still and feeling the natural energy around you. Once you master that step, you need to pull it inside of yourself and you'll enter sage mode. But there are the risks to it…"
"Like what?" Revan was slightly concerned about these risks.
"There are multiple different types of sage mode, the one I learned had the risk that you could turn into a frog statue if you let the natural energy overwhelm your body. I heard that the snake version of it would turn you into a snake if you lost control." Naruto remarked off the top of his head.
"Sounds dangerous." Revan muttered.
"Not really for me anymore. I've mastered sage mode so I don't really need to worry about the risk." Naruto said in an effort to put Revan's mind at ease.
"Any ability can become dangerous if you overuse it." Revan stated.
"Revan, tell me, you're from space, so does that mean that there are other beings out there in the stars?" Sasuke asked. Revan turned her head to Sasuke who had been walking a pace behind the two the whole way.
"Yeah. There are more sentient species out there than I can remember. And new ones get discovered every once in a while. Why do you ask?"
"Are there any beings out there that could threaten this world?" Sasuke asked.
"Yes." Revan replied with a finality. "But that doesn't mean that every species out there is bad. It's just a few that you should really be worried about. Especially the Sith. They are known for conquering other worlds." Revan finished.
"What are the Sith?"
"Dark beings that can also use the Force, just like the Jedi. And they aren't one species, they are an idea, which makes them much more dangerous." Revan said with a weary tone. Sasuke picked up on this quite easily.
"You've fought them before?"
"Yes. My order is opposed to them, and I have issues with them due to personal reasons." Revan said in a tone that was meant to end the conversation. Sasuke understood and backed off of his interrogation for now.
"Naruto, could you tell me what these Tailed Beasts are? You and Sasuke talked about them earlier, but I would still like to know more." Revan asked.
"Umm, the Tailed Beasts are nine beings made from chakra, an energy that is inside of every living being, and were originally created from a being that was made from natural energy." Naruto stated.
"And what does it have to do with you?"
"Well, our villages have almost always been in conflict. During these conflicts, any edge in military power was used. Since the Tailed Beasts didn't wish to participate in these wars, humanity found a different solution. They sealed the Tailed Beasts into human beings." Naruto said. Revan quickly figured out what Naruto meant as she now began looking the blonde up and down.
"You have a Tailed Beast within you? Is it even safe for you?" Revan asked with concern. She had no idea what shoving a Force-being inside of a person's body would even do to someone. And putting a being of the Force within someone seemed like a Sith technique.
"Nah, Kurama and I and best friends. If there was anything wrong, then I'd have died as a kid." Naruto replied which made Revan think of more questions. One of them for instance was how anyone could put a being inside of a child, the other was if this being was sentient. Revan made her questions known to Naruto.
"I don't feel like talking about the first question yet, it's personal for me. And Kurama is intelligent. He's much smarter than me, that's for sure." Naruto stated. "What's space like? I mean, visiting other planets." Naruto clarified.
"It's something amazing. Every planet that I've traveled to has had a different culture. A different way of life. Maybe if you wanted, I could take you with me." Revan remarked. Naruto was silent for a moment before he replied.
"I'll have to think about that. I'll get back to you later."
"Don't think too long, otherwise life will pass you by." Revan stated sagely.
"I won't."
As the group stepped through the woods, they eventually found themselves before a large spaceship. "Welcome to the Ebon Hawk. Both of you stay right there while I take care of some things onboard." Revan said before she walked up the landing ramp and into the ship. Naruto and Sasuke turned to one another.
"Naruto, what was that about earlier?" Sasuke asked.
"What do you mean?" Naruto replied.
"I'm talking about how you seemed interested in Revan's offer of leaving our world. Do you really want to leave?" Naruto scratched the back of his head in nervousness.
"I don't really know what I want to do. I mean, this month that I've been away from the village has done a lot for me. But I just feel like I need to keep moving, or else that pain catches back up to me. I don't know if I want to leave with Revan, but if I do, I'd tell you first." Naruto said. Sasuke nodded at this.
"I understand. But running from your problems isn't going to solve them. It's just going to delay it for a while longer." Sasuke remembered the nights for the first three weeks of their trip in which Naruto would just go out into the woods and vent. Sasuke had wanted to do something to help his friend, but he knew that he'd just get in the way, so he would usually wait by the fire that he would make for Naruto to show back up.
Revan eventually came back down the ramp and waved for the two to join her. When they walked into the ship, Naruto and Sasuke were greeted to the sight of what seemed to be a metal man.
"Statement: Master, are these the two meatbags that you were talking about?" The machine asked.
"Yes, HK. These are Naruto and Sasuke." Revan replied.
"Who are you calling a meatbag?!" Naruto demanded to the metal construct. The droid turned his attention to Naruto.
"Condescending Reply: You, Meatbag. You are an endoskeleton covered in skin, tissue, and muscle, ergo, you are a meatbag, Meatbag." HK said with much humor in his voice.
"I'll turn you into a scrap heap you rust bucket!" Naruto stated to the droid.
"Excited Threat: I know all the weak points of many bodies of different species. Human especially. Would you care to try me?" HK said. "Query: Master, may I dispose of the Meatbag?" Revan smiled at this as the situation seemed way too funny. It almost reminded her of Malak whenever he interacted with the droid.
"No, he's a friend." Revan replied which slightly disappointed the assassin droid.
"Depressed Statement: Very well, Master." Sasuke viewed the metal man with some interest. It seemed like a type of puppet, yet his Rinnegan didn't see any type of chakra strings controlling it.
"What is that?" Sasuke asked.
"Statement: I am a superior machine built for the delicate art of assassination. You will find none others of my skill. No meatbag could match my superior skills, and no droid could hope to have a modicum of my programming." HK-47 replied proudly.
"What is a droid?"
"Annoyed Response: A droid is an artificial being that is made from circuits, metal, and programming. Honestly, it is quite sad to see a civilization that is still in the dark ages of space exploration." HK said. Revan walked into more of the ship and waved after Naruto and Sasuke to follow her.
"I'll deal with you later, rust bucket" Naruto stated before he followed after Revan. Sasuke and HK shared a look with one another.
"Query: Is that Meatbag always so stupid?" HK asked.
"Most of the time, yes."
"Humbled Response: I feel sad for you." With that, the two caught up to Revan and Naruto who were in the main hub of the ship. Naruto was having the time of his life looking at the hologram projector which displayed a map of the stars.
"Which one is us?" Naruto asked as he poked his right hand into the hologram which wavered when he did so. Revan quickly noticed how his right hand was a pale white compared to the rest of his body but she chose not to comment on it. Revan helpfully pointed at a small star on the edge of the map.
"That's where we are right now. We technically are out of charted space, my map updated itself when we came here. Pretty big galaxy, isn't it?" Revan stated.
"Yeah, it really is. Makes me feel a little small to tell you the truth. But there is so much to see. There are so many people that I could meet out there." Naruto said excitedly. Revan was happy about how the blonde before her was acting. It was really endearing, and she had only just met him a few hours ago, which was surprising to her. Guess that was the random occurrences of the galaxy.
Though one thing troubled Revan and that was how she could easily sense a pain that radiated from the blonde. He may act happy, but the sadness that radiated from him was quite a lot to take. What must have happened to him to cause this would have been great, and with his connection to the Force, he should've been tainted with the dark side. Instead, he just felt completely free of the shackles of both the light side and dark side. He was perfectly at balance.
Revan wanted to know more about this enigma before her as he could help her in her quest to fight her greatest enemy. She hadn't forgotten about her original task, it was still a massive priority to her, but she would save that for now in favor of talking with the two men before her.
While Naruto felt at balance, Sasuke was a completely different story. He had a similar feeling like Naruto of being above either side of the Force, he still seemed darkened in a way. It wasn't back, but it tainted him.
"Who are the newcomers, Master?" T3-M4 asked through his beeps. The group turned to look at the little droid.
"I'm Naruto, and this is Sasuke. What are you?" Naruto replied.
"Naruto, how in the world could you possibly understand what the thing was saying. All it did was make a bunch of beeping noises." Sasuke asked incredulously. Naruto looked at Sasuke in confusion.
"He's speaking our language. How can't you understand him?"
"I don't know." Sasuke replied to his friend. Revan looked at the blonde in a new light. Droids weren't beings that were connected to the Force, and yet he understood what T3 was saying. That was very strange. She'd have to investigate this matter further, until then, she just chalked it up as a different version of Force translate.
"I'm T3-M4. The best technician that our ship has, along with being the best droid."
"Condescending Warning: It would be quite unwise to continually insult me. Accidents always happen to useless droids." HK said while clicking his fingers into his palm. T3 just ignored the threat and continued talking to Naruto.
"It's a pleasure to meet you." The droid then looked to Revan, "Master, the engines are going to talk many weeks or even month to repair unless we managed to get entirely new parts. That's all I can give you." Revan became worried when she heard the mention of engines.
"You meant engine, right? We only had broken one during the flight." Revan asked hoping that she misheard what T3 said.
"Nope. Engines. The second one took damage that I only noticed when I decided to do some routine maintenance on it. We'll be stuck on this rock for a lot longer than originally expected." Revan leaned on the holo-map and sighed.
"Just my luck." Revan muttered as she looked down at the metal grill of the floor. She closed her blue eyes, calmed her breath, and thought on this. While it may have seemed like a bad situation, she could always use this time to explore this new world. It wasn't a complete loss. Her enemy would be waiting for her in the same place where she had met him the first time, all those years ago.
Revan opened her eyes and looked at her two guests. "Since my plans of leaving anytime soon have changed, I have a new proposal…" Revan began.
"What would that be?" Sasuke asked.
Revan grinned at this. "I want you two to take me with you for a few months as my ship gets repaired. I want to see this new world with my own eyes." She looked at Naruto and smiled, "And I can teach you some things about the Force that you don't know about." Revan finished.
"And are you telling the truth?" Sasuke asked. Revan was about to reply when Naruto interrupted her.
"She is. Kurama said so." Naruto stated which caused the raven-haired man to visibly calm down.
"Then I guess that it's a deal." Revan said.
And with that is my newest crossover which to be honest…it's going to be big for reasons that you will all figure out eventually. I'm quite happy with how this turned out as it got me out of my writer's block. Hope you all enjoyed. And to tell you all the truth, I've been playing way too much KotOR and KotOR 2 for the past few weeks. And yeah, that beginning was extremely dark so...would that make me a huge asshole for pulling that off?
Don't answer it. Either way...Stay frosty my friends.
P.S. Gonna start working on that RWBY crossover I had since I've delayed that for long enough. This is for all those people that messaged me about it.
Have fun!