A/N: I officially love Mass Effect! I severely disliked the ending, but after what I've just learned, there is hope! There's a TON of DLC on the way, spread out over periods of time, mind you, and I look forward to each of them. I won't reveal my source (lets just say I heard it from a friend of a friend of a friend) an Ima so happy! Now, I suggest you play the Ashes of War DLC for Mass Effect 3 before reading this...

...or you will be hopelessly baffled.

Never have I seen a finer avatar of bravery...and foolishness.

~Javik.

Stasis

After a long and lengthy firefight, Cerberus had been driven from Eden Prime. Mostly. There were still squads scattered throughout the region, squads that could converge on their position at any given moment. All the more reason to pry open the pair of stasis pods that lay before them. They'd gone through a great deal to find and protect the pod from harm, both of them, but now, all of that effort was about to pay off. Two survivors were contained within these pods. Two survivors of a long forgotten race. About to be freed from stasis for the first time in fifty thousand years.

And Commander Shepard would be the one to do it.

"Are you ready, Shepard?" Liara Ts'oni asked.

"As I'll ever be."

"You sure we should be doing this?" James Vega, the third member of their squad, eyed each pod with wariness trepidation. "I get the feeling these guys might be more than a little cranky after we wake them up, ya know?"

"I appreciate your opinion James, but I'm opening them."

When all was said and done, Commander Shepard opened the pods. Yes. Pods. As in plural. As in more than one. Because there was not one. There was another, smaller pod, beside the first, the first being the larger of the two. Using the access code he'd managed to decipher through the visions, he opened them both. According to Liara, one stasis pod contained a Prothean. The other, well the ther contained something that was not a prothean. Weapons, perhaps?

There were two stasis pods.

Frome one, emerged the one they sought, the one he'd seen in his visions, The Prothean.

From the other emerged...something else.

The second entity was even stranger than the first. He looked almost...human. But that was impossible. Absurd. The human race was in its infancy during the days of the Prothean Empire. For this creature to be human was an impossibility. And yet he was just that. He wore armor like the Prothean, but it was clearly tailored towards that a humanoid creature might wear, and appropriate for his slim build.

His blue eyes were like an icy wind, carving a swathe of destruction through their very souls. His blond hair ragged, nearly obscuring his penetrating gaze. The whisker marks that tripled either cheek were more akin to deep furrows than whiskers for either side of his face; because as he opened his mouth to speak, a feral hiss fled from his lips like a creature chased from his den. He made several gestures, and when the landing party continued to gawp at him in amazement, he threw up his hands in exasperation.

The Prothean seemed a great deal more calm, and thus, Shepard conversed with him. His two squadmates however, James and Liara remained fixated on the unamused blond as he tried to extricate himself from his stasis pod. Tried, being the operative word. What happened was he somehow got tangled by his own two legs, effectively face-planting against the bulkhead. Not gently.

He lay there for a moment, groaning piteously.

"He's actually kind of cute." Liara mused to herself as he picked himself up off the deck.

"I wouldn't call 'that' cute." James remarked, training his rifle on the blond. "Look at him! He's some kind of freak!" Liara had to admit as she looked upon him, he was indeed a little...odd, given his strong resemblance to the human race. In placement of his ears, a pair of orange-orange!-kitsune ears jutted just out of the yellow mane that was his hair. And if that weren't enough, if the ruined state of his black and crimson armor were not enough, there were the tails.

Nine of them.

The nine tails of orange fur emerging from just above his amor's backside port. They coiled about him, as if sensing his distress. He raised his hands and saw that they had become claws the fingernails having sharpened themselves into razor sharp edges. He stared at them, at himself, at them, and back at them again. He said nothing. They said nothing. There was a silence. He clacked his fingers together once, twice, three times, the sharpened nails emitting a strange, rhythymic hum as he forced them into a fist and back again.

He touched a hand to his head and shook it, as if to clear his mind of misbegotten memories.

...what the hell happened? The last thing he remembered was the the sky, blackened with the Reapers. The pod. An explosion. A defiant snarl from somewhere outside. Then, only darkness. Sweet, blessed darkness. It felt like only yesterday. But it was not yesterday. He knew this, and yet he could not believe it. He'd awoken to a world changed. A world in which he was ancient. A world in which he should have been dead.

"Just what the hell is he?" James mumbled. "Wait...he is a he, right?" The soldier glanced to Liara for confirmation, as though he expected her to make sense out of this oddity standing before them. It was a small, feeble wish, and it was in vain.

Liara offered a shrug. She'd studied the Protheans, not whatever strange creature this was. He certainly looked to be male, but she couldn't be sure. Her species did have one gender after all, so she wasn't one to judge. Apparently, neither was Vega, because a rock bounced off his helmet. A rather large rock. Thankfully, the Lt. wasn't harmed by it, but his pride was his helmet

"Ow!" The soldier yelped, staggering backward. "Did you see that! He just threw a rock at me!"

"You might have deserved that one." Liara remarked, noting the smug satisfaction on the blonde's face

James nearly fell over.

"#^%6&*!" the blond spat still more gibberish at them, his features twisted into a rictus of fury. Liara offered a shrug to show that she didn't understand. The stranger gave a strangle sound of exasperation and hefted another rock at James. He threw it, but this time, the boulder was accompanied by a sharp blast of biotics.

This time, Lieutenant Vega really did fall over.

The blond turned and barked something at the Prothean who, until moments ago, was conversing with the commander. Now the prothean approached, laying a hand upon the shoulder of its comrade before the blond could ellicitate further.

...ridiculous!" The blond finished exclaiming, whiping around to glare bloody red daggers at the two of them. "Where are the others, Javik! Why are they not here! Why are we confronted with these inferior species after so many years in stasis!"

"We are the only survivors, my friend." The prothean, now known as Javik, answered.

His companioned wailed.

"And still we are surrounded by these inferior species!"

"Hey!" James exclaimed! "Where do you get off saying that!"

"Silence, primate!" The hybrid snapped at him. "I meant what I said!"

"Inferior?" Liara took offense at that. "I-wait, you can understand us?"

The blond spat something that sounded a great deal like an alien obscenity and jerked his head in the direction of the Prothean.

"My friend has made it so that I can understand your languages...asari." He spat the word with venom.

"You'll excuse me if I take offense to that." Liara quipped dryly.

"And I take offense at you!" The strange hybrid glared at each of them in turn. "A human, and an asari! We find ourselves surrounded by primitive races! I suppose you'll want us to meet the Turians and the Hanar next?" His eyes flashed red for a moment, flickering between sapphire and scarlet and occasionally melding into violet. Liara marveled at it. Was this how his species conveyed their anger? Their emotional state? It was hard to believe that he was anything other than human...

"You're forgetting the Salarians." Liara admonished.

"The lizard people evolved?" The blond blinked quizically, his anger momentarily forgotten. He and the prothean exchanged a shared glance, one of surprise, disbelief, and just a bit of amusement. It was hard to believe that these two, so alien in species and race, were comrades in arms.

"I believe they're amphibian." Liara folded her arms before her chest.

"They used to eat flies." Javik, the prothean, remarked. He glanced sideways at his companion. Just as your kind once roamed the plain." The blond stiffened at that but would not honor him with a response.

"They used to eat...what?" Now it was James who struggled to contain his disbelief. Liara sympathized. But her amazement stemmed from something else entirely. From what the Prothean had just said, this being wasn't what she thought it was.

"You mean you're not human?" Liara interjected, wide-eyed. "If you'll excuse me for asking, what species are you, exactly?" Unbidden, she reached out, stroking his ears. The prothean froze, a warning frozen on his lips. The hybrid's tails, all nine of them, reacted. Violently. They slapped her hand away, nearly breaking the asara's wrist. Liara hadn't realized what she'd done until she'd done it, and she winced at the the abrupt rebuttal. It wasn't her fault. Not realy. She'd just been so curious, and they'd looked so very soft and...and...

"Did you expect me to purr, asari?" The blond asked blandly. "Did you think me a common house pet?"

"I'm sure Liara didn't mean anything by it." Shepard inserted himself in their arguement. "I'm sorry if she's offended you in any way."

"As she should be." The hybrid alien growled at the asari before returning "You are the leader of this little band, I take it?" When Shepard nodded, a modicum of repsect could be seen in the alien's eyes, Liara noted. It wasn't far above disdain, but still, it was something.

"I'm Commander Shepard." He extended his hand. The hybrid glanced at him askance before pressing on.

"What race are you?" Liara blurted suddenly.

"Liara!" Shepard sighed in disbelief.

"I was only curious...

"Whatever race I was is no longer relevant." The blond snapped back, his inner-warrior assuming control. "I am Prothean. My race has served under the Prothean Empire since the days of old, just as I have since the day I was born." His eyes became wistful. "I am probably the last now...

The Prothean laid a hand on the hybrid's shoulder.

"You are not the last."

His words seemed to hearten the blond. He nodded, sucked in a breath, and pulled his arms behind his back. He straightened, and seemed to grow taller from it; drawing on a new source of strength to continue onward.

"Just how old are you, exactly?" Shepard asked.

The blond blinked.

"I am young, merely an infant in terms of my species." He answered, staring at the ground with a grimace of self-castigation. "I'm only five hundred years old."

James whistled.

"Damn."

Liara guffawed.

Five hundred?

He didn't look a day over twenty! But, goddess! Was he handsome! Wait, what? What was she thinking? She shook her head in an effort to clear it but to no avail. Her thought proccess remained clear, and yet it was suddenly muddled. Did she find this strange nameless alien to be attractive? Was he exuding hormones of some sort? No that was silly and stupid. Dangerous.

"I know you've lost your people," Shepard began, "You must be grieving. But my people are dying right now. And I need your help. But it isn't safe here. Will the two of you join us?" Liara found herself hoping they would. Fervently so. Not just because she was looking at a real, living Prothean, but because of something else. She couldn't, quite put her finger on it, but it was something. She needed to look into this hormone idea. If this alien was indeed actively exuding hormones, even on a sub-concious level, then it would prove disastrous for the mission.

"You fight the Reapers?" The blond and the Prothean turned as one. They didn't even exchange a glance this time. They seemed to share consensus on such matters or so she thought. They certainly seemed to share a strong dislike of Lieutenant Vega.

"Yes." Shepard answered.

The Prothean seemed to consider this for a moment. Then he nodded.

"Then we will see."

"My name is Naruto." The blond identified himself. "And if Javik wishes to go with the human Commander, then so shall I."

A/N: MWAHAHAHA! Just finished playing the new DLC for Mass Effect 3! It. Was. Awesome! That being said, the ending for THIS Mass Effect might be a tad bit different in this story, all things considered. I won't spoil anything for thos of you who have yet to play it. It is implied that Naruto either through some mishap or error on his own part, landed in the realm of the Protheans during the reaper invasion, or, and I really don't think this option is viable, he isn't human at all, as the soon to be used decision matrix might suggest. And if you will recall (excuse the spoiler!)as Javik said, during his time, all races called themselves Prothean when united under the empire.

Okay, explanation over.

And for those of you who think I can't finish a story to save my life...I JUST FINISHED THREE. TODAY! Eat it! Ahem. Rant over. If you like this story, have an idea or comment, or just like the idea in general, feel free to review! It goes a long way towards the creative proccess, believe me! It should be amusing to see how Naruto adapts to the "primitive" races hint hint wink wink...

R&R! =D