Full Summary:
Sakura and the Akatsuki are the first generation of supersoldiers. Created to fight against human rebels, the civil war is interrupted when alien space ships suddenly appear in the outer reaches of the galaxy and begin killing off any human life that they find. With the Bijuu out for genocide, Sakura is called back into service with Spartan Squad Alpha - nicknamed the Red Dawn. Leaving behind her college friends (Naruto&co.), she returns to active duty in order to somehow save the human race.
Years later, with the Human-Bijuu war in full swing, Naruto and Co. have been recruited to be a part of the next generation of the Spartan Program. With Hidan as their Drill Sergeant and a 20% success rate, they thought their lives couldn't get much tougher.
Until Sakura turned out to be their commanding officer.
Pairings: Itachi/Sakura (main), Naruto/Hinata, Shikamaru/Ino
STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN NARUTO OR HALO
Prologue:
Earth year - New Age, 3021
Federation year - 336 (since the start of human colonization)
Humanity's population had outgrown what Earth could support. And so as humanity has always done, they sought new frontiers. Spreading into new galaxies, they began colonizing other planets, those that were capable of supporting life. Each of these tertiary planets held new and foreign species, yet none of them were sentient like the humans.
They called themselves the Inter-Galactic Federation. And as humans always do, there were those who chaffed under the government. The outer colonies felt disconnected from the older, more settle planets. They were looked down upon as being barbaric, rugged, space-age cowboys with little education or sophistication. It was no surprise when they called for independence.
The Spartan program was originally intended to counteract the rebels of the outer colonies. Hitting two birds with one stone, the Spartan program would test the military's first generation of genetically-enhanced supersoldiers and crush the rebellion. However, before the Spartans could be put to that use, something else encountered the outer colonies.
They were called the Bijuu.
Federation Year 329 - Seven years prior
New Harvard University was located on the planet Haven, in the city of New Harmony, one of the first of the Federation colonies. Classes at this prestigious university specialized in medicine and research. Recently, the university had signed an agreement with Ames Military Academy, merging the classes between the two colleges and giving the military students the opportunity to have a back-up career in the civilian world. This also gave Ames medical students to have a more in-depth education before being sent into the field.
A group of college students exited the building, some wearing backpacks, a few merely carrying a notebook and pen. It was the beginning of a new year, and they were all excited about starting their sophomore classes. They were laughing among each other, and the blonde one pouted while the dark-hard boy rolled his eyes. The tall pinkette whispered something into her friend's ear, and the shy girl blushed until her entire face was red, while a platinum-blonde girl snickered evilly.
"Sai! Why do you have to be such an ass!" The blonde one whined, his child-like face conflicting with his tall, muscled body, the shirt he wore reading 'Louisville Lacrosse - Go Toads!'.
The boy he was talking to, Sai, scowled and ducked out of the way of an attempted-chokehold. "Dickless, you have the grace of a toad. How appropriate."
"For once in you life, can't you just call him by his name and save us all some grief?" The other dark-haired boy grumbled, rubbing his ears. "Naruto! Stop screaming."
"Teme..." Naruto growled.
"Sasuke, I will call Dickless a name that is relevant to him." Sai said casually, ducking out of the way as the blonde lunged.
"I don't know about that..." The pinkette sang in a teasing voice.
The shorter girl paled. "Sakura, no -!"
"I'm pretty sure Hinata can vouch otherwise." Sakura grinned evilly.
"You think we don't recognize your little 'glow' every morning, hm?" The other blonde girl teased, tall and thin, wearing a sweatpants over her cheer-leading outfit. Her tank top read 'Harvard Cheer' with plenty of sequins and an image of pom-poms embroidered on the pockets of her sweatpants.
"Inoooooo!" Hinata squealed.
Both Hinata and Naruto blushed bright red while the rest of the group laughed. The unofficial couple stammered denials as the group halted at a crosswalk. Around them the city glowed with neon lights and hover-cars. New Harvard campus was merged with the city around it, dorms sitting above shops and cafes, educational buildings sitting next to inter-galactic corporate skyscrapers.
When Sasuke and Naruto were freshmen, they had been among the first crossover students from the AMA (Ames Military Academy) in New Harvard, still students and not yet soldiers. Both were from a long line of military service, Naruto the son of a famous general, and Sasuke the son of the Uchiha family, who were practically military royalty. Sai was civilian-born, an art student, soft-spoken but with wicked wit. Hinata was the daughter of the Hyuuga corporation, an inter-galactic government contractor that specialized in technological security and inter-planetary communications. Ino was also from a civilian background, but her grandfather was an important politician in something-or-other, and managed to help her get into New Harvard.
(Sakura never told them where she was from)
They crossed the street and entered a cafe that doubled as the common room for the college dorm that took up the floors above it. Meeting them there were the other members of their group, sitting in a corner of the cafe known as 'their spot'. The low-lighting highlighted the bright fushia couches with velvety black pillows that had silver sequins. The walls were tiled with blue glass that caught the neon lights that filtered in through the windows, causing the cafe to almost glow. Projection screens floated a few inches above the tables, waiting to take their orders.
"Yo." A lazy kid called to them, laying horizontally across the sofa, inhaling a sweet-smelling mint-colored Nic-Stick.
"Lazy ass." Ino muttered as she walked over to him and sat on top of his chest. "The gang's all here, Shika-kun!"
The boy coughed and pretended to attempt pushing her off, though everyone knew he never would. Everyone could see the adoration in his eyes when she wasn't looking. Unfortunately, everyone but Ino seemed to realize that Shikamaru had it baaad. They were unofficially the school's OTP.
"Whipped!" One of their other friends coughed into his fist.
Ino glared at him. "Kiba, don't make me rip your ears out."
Shikamaru was the youngest in their group, a child genius that was sent to college at the ripe age of sixteen. The Federation probably would have put him there sooner, if he hadn't tried so hard to keep his genius hidden. Eventually his father - just as smart as his son - ratted him out to the government and had him shipped off to the AMA. And for all of his smarts, he still did not have the courage to ask Ino out. He was eighteen now and about to start his junior year, yet still younger than his sophomore friends, all of whom were nineteen, near twenty.
(Except Sakura, who never spoke about her age)
Kiba was what people called a Modkid. Body implants were the latest rage, and he had traded in his human ears for dog ears, which sat on top of his head and twitched at every sound. He had extended fangs too, and the dual impact of fluffy ears and bad-boy fangs made girls melt to putty in his hands. He was an unashamed womanizer, also an AMA soldier boy, who was following in his family's footsteps by joining the military's Hunter Program, a combination of military police and inter-planetary bounty hunters.
He was almost as much of an asshole as Sasuke. Almost. Sasuke was an antisocial jerk, who had no qualms breaking girls hearts. Naruto was his only friend, probably because the blonde had forced himself into Sasuke's life when they were both kids, and now the Uchiha boy would never escape him. The two of them were inseparable, save for when Hinata was concerned. Before the Hyuuga girl had stolen Naruto's heart, Uzumaki and Uchiha were a renowned pair of fighters in NewHarm's fight clubs.
That was how they had met Kiba. There were plenty of AMA boys who liked to practice their fighting skills in underground fight clubs that filled up New Harmony's abandoned garages and warehouses on Friday and Saturday nights. It was thought that the Academy knew about the fight clubs, but did not shut them down because it allowed the boys to practice fighting in a less-controlled environment than the school could legally provide. The three boys had nearly set the school on fire several times with how much trouble they got up to when left alone.
At one point Kiba and his uncontrollable libido had gone after the hottest cheerleader in New Harvard, the one and only Yamanaka Ino. What a lot of people didn't know, however, was that Ino is one smart cookie. She had verbally ripped Kiba a new one in the middle of the college courtyard and Shikamaru, who had been studying/sleeping under a nearby tree, had immediately fallen for her.
Ino had met Hinata in the gym locker room, when she had overheard some of the more catty girls making fun of Hinata. However all girls knew that a cheerleader was not someone to mess with, and Ino practically breathed fire at the bullies. And that was how Ino and Hinata became friends.
And then, second semester, they were all assigned to the same dorm.
Including a mysterious pink-haired girl that no one had ever seen on campus before.
Sakura was a mystery to everyone. She was good at almost everything, incredibly smart and athletic, and was aiming at getting into the New Harvard medical school. She was tall and she was beautiful, but strangely serious for a woman of her youth. Whenever asked about her background, she carefully manipulated the conversation away from the subject. No one knew who she was or where she was from before she had showed up in NewHarm. Shikamaru, the paranoid genius, had even tried to hack into the school's network for her files, but found nothing.
Ino and Hinata had accepted her regardless, at first forcing her to stay in the common room and socialize. At first Sakura had been hesitant, quiet and low-voiced, tense and a little awkward. Eventually she learned to fit in, and could proudly say that she was less socially awkward than Sai (who had been pronounced a hopeless cause by Ino).
"So, where does everyone wanna go eat?" Ino, the social leader of the group, asked loudly.
"Chinese." Sasuke grunted.
Kiba wrinkled his nose. "Ew! Let's go for that new place with the cuisine from Corinthia Colony."
"I actually prefer Greer Colony food." Shikamaru said.
"But Chinese is a traditional Earth cuisine!" Naruto said dramatically. "It was a long history of emperors and dragons, long before we set our sights in space - "
"Dude, that has nothing to do with food." Kiba rolled his eyes.
"Alright, let's take a vote!" Ino announced. "Raise your hand if you want Chinese," Sasuke and Naruto, "Corinthia food," Hinata, Sakura, and Kiba raised their hands, "Greer food?" Shikamaru shrugged.
"Alright, we're going to the Corinthia place." Ino nodded, ignoring the unhappy faces of Naruto and Sasuke.
The group all filed out of the common room/cafe and onto the city streets of New Harmony. The days on planet Haven lasted thirty hours, so at 23:31 hours, they still had plenty of time before sunset. As the sun (star 082 of solar system 1324, second system of Earth colonization) began to descend on Haven, New Harmony lit up with the nightlife.
The city was ablaze with argon lights, flashing neon colors in the common Proto-Euro-Orient (which was basically a mixture of the old languages of Earth - English, Spanish, and Chinese). Hover cars zoomed by, both on the ground and in the sky-streets, a cleared level in the city which was basically a floating freeway. Humans walked by from all over the galaxy: Corinthians, with their skin stained orange from their planet's intense star; Iwa people, who could barley be distinguished from other humans save for their slightly-wideset eyes; Greers with stout bodies from their planet's heavy atmosphere; Mizu people with sharpened teeth (although that was just the fashion of their world).
Most of the humans were not too different from their origins on Earth, with only one or two features distinguishing them from others.
Sakura walked beside Hinata on the floating sidewalks built from plasterglass, keeping the pedestrians safe from the traffic of the hover-cars. The restaurant they entered was called Lek'Gar, named after one of the famous cities on planet Corinth. The group sat down at a large table off to the side, their fingers tapping across the projection screens to send in their orders to the kitchen.
A large screen was projected in the middle of the table, hovering a foot above the plasterglass. Kiba brought up some silly space-net video, while Hinata and Naruto made goo-goo eyes at each other across the table. Sasuke glanced at his best friend and made a disgusted face at the love-struck blonde, while Ino and Shikamaru got into yet another argument over military intelligence. Sakura eventually joined the conversation, Sasuke and Kiba were talking about the latest workout schedules posted by the Academy, and then their food arrived. Hinata turned to Sakura and asked her about an upcoming festival downtown, and Ino immediately butted in and swore to find the pinkette a proper date.
When the boys had nearly bankrupted the restaurant with all the food that they ate, the group pitched in with the bill and exited the restaurant.
"Who knew Corinthians had blue corn?" Kiba laughed as they made their way back to the dorms.
"I really like that noodle-egg thing." Hinata said, furrowing her brows as she attempted to remember the name.
"It's called Ga'mol." Sakura said. "Egg noodles fried in Elmsy sauce, served with a Loona cutlet."
The rest of the group blinked.
"You read that off of your photographic memory, didn't you?" Shikamaru drawled.
Sakura smiled sheepishly.
"Mah, if it weren't for Lazy over here, I'd have labeled you the genius of this group." Sasuke sighed as he began to walk away.
They continued down the street, walking down the block back to the campus. Between the skyscrapers, two towers stood above the skyline, on opposite sides of the downtown area. One was the main building for the Ames Military Academy, the other was the center of New Harvard. The sunset glittered across their windows, lighting the city up like a jewel.
The group crossed a street and onto another street that had been nicknamed 'Dorm Boulevard', due to the amount of high-rises that were actually dorms belonging to the New Harvard-AMA merger. The street itself was closed off, save for hoverbards and lightscooters, due to the traffic of students that were constantly coming and going.
"Whoa, look at that piece of hardware."
Sakura was interrupted in her musings as Naruto pointed down the street. The group paused to stare at a person parked outside of their dorm.
"That's a military-grade bike." Sasuke murmured in awe, and all of the AMA boys practically salivated at the sight. Military-grade meaning petrol-nuke-fusion powered, as the Federation had a monopoly on petroleum in the galaxy.
Sakura froze and peered around Sai's shoulder.
The bike was black, with what was basically armor-plating. It's tires were as wide as her hips, the seat was low, and the streamlined body was built for speed. It's rider looked like he had just pulled in, revving the engine unnecessarily. He wore a plain outfit, black jeans, a leather jacket, and a black helmet with red flames.
She would have known it anywhere.
"Stay here." Sakura ordered, her voice unnaturally low and surprising her friends by how cold she sounded and the dark expression on her face.
They glanced at each other in confusion as Sakura stomped across the street, shoulders back, chin up, and suddenly much scarier than the girl that they knew. No one had ever seen sweet not-so-little Sakura loose her temper, but the air was practically frigid as she approached the biker.
"The hell are you doing here?" She hissed as she slammed her hand on the bike's dash.
"Nice to see you too, Birdy." A deep voice drawled through the visor, his hands reaching up to remove his helmet.
"Don't call me that." Sakura snapped, meeting his gaze.
The man before her was extremely tall, at least two meters (seven feet), slender but muscular, with eyes so dark they seemed black, and ebony hair that was shaved close to his head in a GI cut.
"I'm here because they're calling you in." He held out something that looked like a small circuit board, as thin as a unit card, and as wide as a small notepad.
"I'm out." She snapped. "I did what they wanted; I earned my way out."
He didn't bother to lower his arm. "You can never 'get out', little Bird."
Sakura glared at him and reluctantly took the Comm. She pressed her thumb to the identity pad, and a projection flickered to life. A screen opened up before her, made out of pixels and light, numbers and letter running across it in military jargon.
"Should have known they'd never let me be." She muttered.
The man smirked. "What made you think they would? This is the Federation. And you... you are their property."
"Shut up, Crow."
She was silent for a moment as she glared at the Comm projection in her hand, reading the information that was presented to her on the screen.
"Sakura? You okay?" Ino's voice called.
She glanced up and saw her friends lingering in front of their dorm, only six or so meters from her position, but they felt oceans away. A year. For a year she was allowed to believe in this farce, in a dream about being a normal girl, at a normal college, with normal friends and normal pastimes. But she knew that she was deluding herself. It was only a matter of time.
"You have ten minutes to gather your things."
Sakura turned back to the one named 'Crow'.
"And then we're heading back to base."
"Dammit." She hissed. "There had better be a good fucking reason for this."
"Oh trust me, there is." Crow grumbled in a way that made her stomach drop. She didn't miss the way his eyes flickered over to her friends, studying them.
Sakura glanced between her friends, and the digital file in her hand. Her fingers tightened around the object, knuckles white. She gave a jerky nod.
The bike's engine revved as Crow put his helmet back on and took off down the road, probably to make a circle around the city while she got her things.
"Sakura...?" Hinata asked her as the pinkette pushed past her friends into the dorm, running to the lift.
"I'm fine." She muttered as she breezed passed them.
"Wait! Sakura!" Her friends called after her as she was elevated up to her floor. She could hear a few of them scrambling to get onto the other lifts and follow her.
She locked her room when she entered it, and began hastily going through her drawers. Tearing off her clothes, she changed out of her school uniform and into a pair of black leggings - except these leggings were made with a synthetic material called 'neuro-lace', better known as a skin-suiting. It was a centimeter thick, and glimmered with a scale-looking pattern, and one could dull a knife trying to cut through it. She pulled on a long-sleeved shirt with the same material, and over that a leather jacket.
Her friends reached her room as she was tying her combat boots, banging on the door and demanding answers. It sounded like it was just Ino and Hinata, the boys probably wanting to avoid emotional girl-drama.
She didn't answer the door.
Eventually she heard their footsteps retreat down the hallway. Sakura kept her mind blank as she slipped a knife into each boot, and then another one at her hip. She glanced into the mirror, pausing at the medium-length pink hair that so many civilians were envious of. Most people thought that she dyed it. No one realized it was because of genetic interference.
.
.
.
"Holy shit, Sakura?!" Naruto nearly fell out of his seat when he glanced up at her.
The entire group of friends stared at the pinkette as she exited the lift, walking through the common room and looking like a completely different person. In place of the skirts and dresses she used to be fond of, she now was in a leather jacket and combat boots. She seemed larger, colder, a stranger.
Even the stoic Sasuke froze when he noticed that she had cut off all of her hair.
Her pink strands were in a pixie-cut now, cropped close to her head in the back, the longest strands framing her face. She carried herself like a soldier, walking with lithe, even footsteps, almost stalking. She didn't pause to speak to them as she exited the dorm, a loud revving announcing the arrival of the biker Sakura had spoken to earlier.
They watched through the glass doors as the rider tossed another helmet at her, and she easily caught it. Sakura gave the bright pink helmet an unamused look and glared at the rider. They watched as the mysterious biker shrugged his shoulders and Sakura huffed, donning the helmet as if she did it every day.
She glanced back at them with an apologetic look before flipping down the visor and mounting the bike. The biker glanced into the windows, his helmet hiding his face, but they could tell he was looking at them too.
Then the engine roared and they were gone.
.
.
.
Crow had been right.
Things had gone to shit, apparently.
As she stared at the maps and case files on the screen, Sakura had a hard time believing the data she was reading. The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) was the in charge of most of the Federation's black op groups. With the Outer Colony Resistance (OCR) gaining power in the outer regions of the galaxy, the Federation was getting antsy. The SPARTAN program was created to put down the rebellion before it gained ground, but due to complications in funding and relations between the labs and the military office, things had been delayed. The resistance continued to grow, and the Spartans had barely begun their training. And now, just at the Spartans were getting their feet wet in battle, something else showed up.
Something big.
Her green eyes were impossibly wide as she scanned the pictures that their probes had sent back to intelligence. The black void of space was interrupted by huge flames and gaseous explosions as the OCR ships were attacked. The enemy ships were shooting bolts of some sort of glowing energy, the larger motherships accompanied by fleets of smaller cruisers, built for speed and battle. It had been a massacre.
"It wasn't us." One of her teammates muttered as he crossed his arms and stared into the projection with a severe frown.
"I can see that." She replied.
The Spartans may have been sent in to fight against the OCR platoon, but it was not the Spartans who made it there first. The ships that were attacking the rebels were of a completely inhuman design. Sleeker, streamlined, but painted in bright colors, absolutely without regard to camoflouge, but probably because these ships had fucking cloaking devices - they could go completely invisible.
It should have been impossible. Like something out of a sci-fi thriller videogame.
But there they were.
Aliens.
/:/::/ ONI/ENCRYPTED/ONI - FILE - CLASSIFIED LEVEL RED/:/::/
/:/:/SPARTAN PROJECT - GENERATION 1/:/:/::/
.../:/ {Test Subject 087}:/:/::/
Origin: System 435 - Planet 056 - Spring Colony
Name: Haruno Sakura
Code Name: Nightingale
Acquired: Taken Fed. Year 309 (orphan)
Age: Acquired at 6 Fed. years, currently 29 Fed. years
Training: 89% success rate - 9/10 kill rate
Augmentation: Success - 287 of 300 survivors; 49 terminated
Eyes: Green
Hair: Brown [insert] Turned pink after Augmentation
Height: Biologically 1.6m / 5'4ft - After Augmentation 1.8m / 6'2ft
Weight: Biologically 45.4kg / 100lbs - After Augmentation 63.5kg / 140lbs
Status: Active - Alpha Squad
Position: Beta leader - Sniper - Close combat
Comments: It's interesting... She is nearly the opposite of her peers. Efficient and deadly, yes, but she is not as... anti-social as the others. She acts like a human, not a robot. Quiet, intelligent, tactful, but she is not emotionally stunted from the training processes. No need for the AI mind modifications.
/:/::/ ONI/ENCRYPTED/ONI - FILE - CLASSIFIED LEVEL DOUBLED RED/:/::/
/:/:/SPARTAN PROJECT - GENERATION 1/:/:/::/
.../:/ {Test Subject 113}:/:/::/
Origin: System 1324 - Planet 086 - Haven Colony
Name: Uchiha Itachi
Code Name: Crow
Acquired: Taken Fed. Year 311 (replaced with clone)
Age: Acquired at 5 Fed. years, currently 28 Fed. years
Training: 99% success rate - 10/10 kill rate
Augmentation: Success - 19 of 300 survivors; 49 terminated
Eyes: Black
Hair: Black
Height: Biologically 1.7m / 5'8ft - After Augmentation 2.1m / 7'0ft
Weight: Biologically 58kg / 127lbs - After Augmentation 93.0kg / 205lbs
Status: Active - Alpha Squad
Position: Alpha leader - Spearhead - Tactician - Close combat
Comments: It looks like Dr. Tsunade was right, despite the scandal. He's the perfect soldier. He took to the Augmentation like a fish to water. The other test subjects follow him without question. He's smartest, the strongest, the fastest, and he doesn't talk back. Definitely is as emotionally stunted as the rest of the test subjects - suggest for the AI modification? He'll definitely get a leadership position. Request for Alpha Squad.
AN: This will be a short story, maybe five chapters at most. This is my first attempt at Sci-Fi, despite the fact that I am a huge a Halo fan. Most of the stuff is easy to understand, but if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.