Here it is, my third crossover and my first Naruto Crossover. I hope you enjoy!

Aerial Legionnaires

A NarutoxArea 88 Crossover Story

Chapter 1: A Pair of SLUF's

The pair of Ling-Temco-Vought A-7E Corsair II's cruised through a clear blue sky as they hunted for their land-based prey. Loaded down with bombs, missiles, and enough 20mm ammo for their cannons to start and finish an aerial knuckleduster, the two planes looked seriously menacing. In the cockpit of the trailing SLUF, the pilot took his hand off of the throttle and reached up to grab the bandanna hanging from the D-ring that attached his G-suit to his desert tan Nomex flightsuit.

Lifting the tinted face shield of his brown painted HGU-2A/P flight helmet with the black hourglass in the middle, the red-haired and seagreen-eyed young man (I can't actually remember Gaara's real eye-color and don't feel like going to the Naruto-Wiki to find out) shifted his head to his left and glanced at the orange-tailed identical aircraft hanging about fifty feet from his port wing. Smothering a snort at the image painted on his wingman's vertical stabilizer, Gaara no Sabaku wondered for the umpteenth time where his best friend had gotten the idea for the design painted there and how he convinced old man Gustav to have one of his more artistically-inclined mechanics paint the image on his buddy's tail.

"He probably paid the artist a couple of grand to get it done. But was charged an exorbitant amount of money by that greedy bastard McCoy for the paint!", grumped Gaara as he made a slight adjustment to his trim with the trim tabs before retarding his throttle just a bit.

Knowing that it would not be a wise decision to ask the unpredictable pilot lest he get an earful from said pilot, Gaara kept his curiosity to himself. Hearing his radio squawk for a minute with the report from Tango Red Flight with news about action in another part of this arid desert Gaara called his wingman.

"Naruto, you catch the traffic about Zero-Zero section?"

"Yeah, I got it. That lucky dobe Kazama strikes again. This time he scored sixty grand by downing those three -17's. While we're up here toting around these bombs and searching for a good target, Shin and his Unicorn get all the damn action. My next plane is gonna be a gawddammed Crusader! At least then I know that I'll be flying a true fighter!", griped Naruto Uzumaki, the blonde-haired blue-eyed, and whisker-marked pilot of 'Tango Orange'"

"Hey man, be happy with these SLUF's, I'd rather be flying this than that Thud I originally bought and flew for three months until those Grails hit and caused me to nail the Thud Ridge of the Desert!"

"Yeah, I remember that mission. I got tasked to cover Playboy Simon and his Super Sabre as he engressed with the bearded Buddha. I didn't know that one of those dammed rebel 57mm anti-aircraft guns had snapped one of the hydraulic lines in my Scooter and caused me to auger in as I was on final to Double Echo. Luckily I hit pretty flat and skidded down the runway before I stopped. To top it all off, after I climbed out of the cockpit and was walking away, the damn thing blew and sent shrapnel into my ass!", snapped Naruto with a growl as he savagely yanked his stick over to maintain their separation.

Gaara smothered a chuckle as he thought back to the ribbing the other guys had given him as he entered the briefing room with a tentative step and gingerly sat down in a chair near the back of the room. Even Commander Vashtarl was trying and (not)succeeding in hiding his humor at Naruto's misfortune through the shades he always wore. Before he could comment on it, Naruto cut back in and announced that he had contact with the bandits they'd been told to expect.

"Tanuki, contact ten o'clock high at fifteen; speed: 480 knots. Looks like a group of Frescoes with evil in their hearts and malice on their minds. Wonder if they're protecting the rebel armored brigade we were told about?" stated Uzumaki, his voice all business.

"Dunno but lets give them a welcome they won't forget...if they survive that is. Tanuki's got the Southern group."

"Kitsune's got the Northern. Knockers up, master arm on, tracking...tracking... tracking... Fox Two missile away!"

Gaara stared emotionlessly at his radar display while listening to the seeker head of the AiM-9C Sidewinder search for a lock on one of the two targets. When he heard the growl of the seeker segue into a choppier pitch, he knew that one of the bandits was gonna soon be dead. Double checking that his master arm was on, Gaara no Sabaku smashed his thumb down on the pickle button on the top of his control stick and made his announcement.

"Fox two, trailer of the second group; there goes the snake!"...

Area 88 Dining Hall. Four Hours Later

Still clad in their flightsuits and sweaty from their skirmish with the rebels, Naruto and Gaara entered the dining hall to grab some chow. The red-haired and green eyed Gaara quietly listened as his friend and wingman expressed his frustration at the enemies hit and run tactics. Mentally agreeing with his friends' opinion, the twenty-five year old mercenary pilot looked around the room at some of their fellow mercenaries.

Across the way leaning in his chair with his arms crossed over his stomach trying to catch a quick nap was Greg Gates, the Bearded Buddha. A maestro at air to ground attacks with either his A-4 Skyhawk or his A-10 Warthog. Two tables from where Greg rested in his green flight suit sat the American Mickey Simon in his midnight black flightsuit as he told a pair of nuggets about a swirling dogfight he'd been in a few days previously with a quintet of Fishbeds. Gaara knew that Mickey, who flew an F-14A Tomcat sans RIO, was embellishing the tale quite a bit to impress the newbies and shook his head. If they were foolish enough to believe ninety percent of the bullshit Mickey was spewing, then they weren't long for this world.

At the other end of the room, Gaara saw the youngest-and only VTOL qualified-pilot of this Foreign Legion; the exiled African Prince Kim Aba as he gently smashed his head into the table while looking at the repair receipts for his damaged AV-8B Harrier II given to him by the gray-haired older man standing by the table with a semi-smug yet fatherly look on his face as he consoled the teenager. Before Gaara could say anything, his section lead yelled at they old coot.

"Oi, McCoy you greedy old bastard! Those Sidewinder C's you sold me were pieces of shit! It took me four of those 'McCoy' specials to down one fucking Fresco! I thought you said they were in good shape? Gawddamit, are you trying to get me killed out here so you can make money off of my corpse? Next time have Gustav and his people triple-check the damned seeker heads. For my next sortie, I want the all-aspect Sidewinder E's, so you better not sell them all to Simon and Kazama or I'll 'inadvertently' drop a 500-pounder on your shop! Got that old man?", snapped the irate pilot.

Gaara saw Simon swivel in his head their direction as he made preparations to comment on Naruto's tirade and gave the Tomcat driver a shake of his head to forestall the rage that was Naruto's unleashed temper that was sure to come if Simon was allowed to add his two cents. Looking at the rest of the pilots in the room Gaara let his gaze linger on a light haired pilot in a pale blue flightsuit sitting by himself near the wall. Though the man didn't speak often, his words carried an impact all of their own when he did speak; like he was doing now.

"McCoy, replace Uzumaki and Sabaku's C model Sidewinders they have left with the E models I bought from you the other day. I will make do with their C models.", came the quiet voice of the Ace of Area 88, the pilot of Zero-Zero Sections' F-8 Crusader: Shin Kazama.

"Aww Shin, come on! You're costing me my business!", growled the shopkeeper at Shin before turning his attention to the still fuming Uzumaki.

"And for you information Naruto, those heatseekers were in A-1 Pristine condition before they were mounted on your SLUF!. You must've done something to cause their malfunction!"

Gaara caught Naruto by the arm as he took several menacing steps towards the old man and restrained him before speaking to the weapon dealer in his own soft voice.

"If that is correct McCoy, then I must've done something wrong as well. My Sidewinders malfunctioned as well. Thankfully, despite the deplorable success rate of the merchandise you've sold myself and my friend since we arrived, we've improvised, adapted, and overcome your gross negligence in parroting the quality of your products. At least the bombs we purchased from you in bulk and all the 20mm ammo we've expended since then have performed as advertised..", replied Gaara as he felt the anger spilling off of Naruto ebb.

Once Naruto had calmed down enough, Gaara thanked Shin for his generosity and the two continued over to Alicia the cook to fill their plates. With their plates overflowing and their cups full of juice, the two continued over to a table. Sitting opposite each other, the pair acknowledged the trio of Skyhawk pilots drinking coffee at the next table who were a part of Kazama's section during a big mission. For the big missions, Gaara and Naruto usually flew with the other Area 88 Crusader pilot Boris.

Digging in, Naruto and Gaara concentrated on their food and listened to the numerous and disparate conversations between pilots as the words floated on gentle currents of air. Within a few minutes, their plates were empty of the generic fare that Alicia had prepared (including Kim Aba's least favored meal time antagonist; sauerkraut). Drinking from their plastic cups of generic powdered juice, Naruto and Gaara leaned back in their seats and waited for their food to digest.

Sighing loudly in an effort to relax, the blonde pilot gazed at his red-haired friend while linking his fingers across his stomach. Recognizing the look in his friends eyes, Naruto wondered why Gaara always looked like this after eating a meal in this desert hellhole they'd come to. Forcing his mind away from the present, Naruto thought back to his previous life as a private pilot for his godfather's executive transport business back home. Remembering the times he'd hung out with his friends after another flight with some annoyingly wealthy douche bag with an overinflated ego about his or her self-importance. Or traveling in one of the retired C-2 Greyhounds to deliver much needed supplies to another small village during some of the worst weather he'd ever seen since he'd gotten his private, commercial, and instrument flying licenses when he was sixteen.

'Hey Gaara, remember the last time Kiba and I came to Suna to hang out with you and have some fun in the desert with our RUV's?", asked Naruto as he propped his left ankle up on his right knee.

"Yeah,, you some how convinced your godfather, Captain Jiraiya to loan you not one, but two civilian C-130 Hercules' and brought almost your whole crew down. Kiba and Kin got into another fight, your cousin Tayuya decked my brother Kankuro for grabbing her ass, your other cousin Karin almost got into a fight with Sakura and Ino over Sasuke (who thankfully did not come). Neji and Tenten disappeared to go fool around only to come face to face with Konohamaru, Hanabi, Moegi, and Udon having their own party behind that old abandoned sandstone hut they had found. I had to keep Temari from making Shikamaru a castrato because he insulted her outfit. And Chouji almost burned the burgers he was grilling for everyone when Ino took off her shirt and left her in a sports bra and shorts. What about it?", replied Gaara as he stared out the window.

"Dunno man, was just thinking about how Hinata looked that day as we watched the sunset before starting the bonfire. Wasn't that a great day and night?"

"With all the problems we had during the day while we weren't tearing up the sand dunes, the night ended up saving the experiences. I hate to say it but Matsuri and I missed the bonfire though. And before you ask, it's none of your damned business why we missed it. Otherwise, I'll have to tell everyone why my father stormed through the house at four in the morning yelling and waking everyone up. I don't think Hinata would like that reason becoming common knowledge.", stated Gaara in his ever present monotone.

"Shit, I'd; forgotten about that. Hopefully Neji and Mr. Hyuuga will never find out about that. I got cussed out by my mom, godmother, and adoptive godsister after Tayuya and Karin spilled the beans on the table the week after we came back. My perverted godfather had to spend that night in the hospital when Godmother Tsunade found him scribbling in his notebook about what happened. Thankfully, my dad remained neutral during the whole discussion and didn't say anything afterwards. I think he did not want to antagonize my mom and the rest by saying something that could have gotten him consigned to the couch.", griped Naruto as he remembered the night in question.

"Oh, interesting. Did Tayuya and Karin get off scot free?"

"Nope, my dear, sweet, hella strong godmother, and godsister Shizune got the whole truth from someone and dragged them down to her office to administer 'that' test. I heard that Mrs. Hyuuga, Mrs., Yamanaka, Mrs., Haruno, and Moegi's mom arrived soon after. Of course, before I could find out anything, Mom told me to grab Konohamaru and the Learjet and fly out to Bee's island to pick up Mei Terumi so she could make it to the set of her and Koyuki Kazahana's new movie. Mei had escaped her entourage and the paparazzi to vacation with her boyfriend before Bee went on tour again.", answered Naruto before taking a sip from his cup.

Gaara nodded before crossing his arms over his chest and tucking his head down to grab a nap before Commander Saki 'The Psycho' Vashtarl called for the pilots to attend the evening mission briefing. Deciding to do the same since the scuttlebutt said that the 'alleged' mission was gonna be a helluva ballbuster, Naruto tilted his chair back against the wall and propped his feet on to the table top before linking his fingers behind his head and letting his eyes drift closed. As a past master of getting to sleep quickly, the quarter-century old pilot was snoring loudly in 23 seconds.

Across the room, the Ace of Aces gazed at the two young pilots as they napped. Shaking his head, Shin waved Gustav over and told him to download his remaining heatseekers and load them on the missile racks of Sabaku and Uzumaki's planes. Gustav didn't question the request and sent one of his newbie mechanics to pass Shin's message to the rest of his mechanics' crews. Of course the messenger embellished the specifics of the reward if they got it done quickly when he told his co-workers.

Within less than five minutes per SLUF, the empty multiple and triple ejection racks (MERS and TERS to the uninitiated) on the pylons were downloaded, stripped of the old arming wires, cleaned, reloaded with fresh new Sidewinder E's from Kazama's stash, and returned to their locations. In addition, the planes were filled up with JP5 and had a pair of 500 gallon drop tanks attached to fuselage weapons station. By the time Naruto and Gaara had been awakened by the sounds of their fellow pilots rising from their seats and heading for the briefing room, their planes were rearmed, refueled, and sitting in their shared revetment eagerly awaiting their pilots' arrival.

Shaking themselves to awareness and wiping the crud from their eyes, the two young pilots ambled over to the stainless steel, always hot (sometimes scorchingly so), never empty coffee urn and waited in the grouping of pilots needing a caffeine 'pick-me-up' before listening to Boss Saki and Roundel as they spoke about the upcoming mission. Eschewing his usual coffee time ritual, Naruto threw back a sizeable gulp of the strong brew only to gag as it torched his throat. Gaara shook his head and chuckled as several of their fellow legionnaires laughed their asses off at Naruto's misfortune. Spotting the ubiquitous pocket flask being passed around by one of the others, Gaara held his mug out for a shot of alcohol (brandy this time) when the flask traveled in his general direction for a short period of time and was rewarded by a healthy dollop before returning his attention to Naruto as his friend recharged his mug and held it out to the flaskateer for his own shot while sheepishly scratching the back of his head with his free hand and laughing along with the others even if the joke had been on him.

"Naruto, my friend, you shouldn't be in a place like this. With your sunny attitude and 'aw shucks' personality, you should be somewhere making people laugh and forget their problems for a second. What the hell am I saying, your personality and attitude are tailor-made for a place like this where sudden death can strike from anywhere! You light up the lives of these devil-may-care pilots living it up in the desert using only their skills to stay alive mission after deadly fucking mission. In a way, I envy you, yet I can't help that our friendship did a lot for these guys. With me holding my emotions in and you letting your emotions out to be seen to enlighten others, this place is perfect for you.", mused Gaara as he winced when the liquor hit his insides.

Choking a bit on the semi-smoky aftertaste, Gaara held up his mug in an appreciative salute to the honored flaskateer and nodded before taking another drought of his 'modified' cuppa java and heading in the direction of the exit followed by Naruto and the others.

Zero Two Thirty Hours: Tango Orange Revetment.

With an appreciative glance at his missile load-out of E-model Sidewinders and F-model Sparrows, Naruto thanked Kami that Shin, the Area's Top O' the Roster Ace, would be generous enough to trade his newer, all-aspect Sidewinders; for Naruto and Gaara's rear-aspect only C-models even though everyone knew that Shin, more than any other pilot here, wanted to make his 1.5 Million bucks (cash, ducats, moola, greenbacks, Benjamin's, dinero, etc, etc, so on and so forth) and get the hell out of here to return to his fiancée. Shaking his head to get the image of a buxom and voluptuous bluenette haired girl out of his mind lest he get distracted, Naruto opened one of the access panels on his mount to check the feed trays for his pair of 20mm cannon ammo. Seeing the big brass casings of the 20MM Armor Piercing Incendiary rounds gleaming in the dimmed revetment light like old jewels nestled like gargantuan cigars sitting in an ancient humidor waiting for the moment when he tightened his trigger finger against the trigger on the front of his control stick to unleash armor piercing incendiary hell on any poor enemy asshole that gets within his gun range, Naruto felt like he was riding tall in the saddle like an old western lone gunslingin' sheriff riding a dusty trail into some no name town full of black hats, rogues, and cutthroats with itchy trigger fingers so he could clean it up the 'OLD FASHIONED WAY!'.

"Hehehehe, all I need now is an old fashioned Colt Peacemaker like the ones the sheriffs wore in the old Western movies; I used to watch with my dad and the old pervert when I was a child.", chuckled Naruto as he closed the access panel and continued his walk-around inspection of his subsonic battle chariot.

"Uzumaki, I can get you a refurbished Colt Single Action Army with an original 'Dirty Harry' Callahan shoulder holster and 2500 rounds of ammo for a small fee. What do you say to that deal?", asked Old Man McCoy as he passed by the concentrating pilot.

The young blonde just flipped the old black marketer the 'single digit midget' in response to his inquiry and continued his pre-flight walkaround inspection.

When he finished his inspection a few minutes later, Naruto stood at the foot of his planes' built in boarding ladder and looked over at where Gaara was already making the climb up to his 'office'. At the top of the ladder, as if he felt his friends' gaze, Gaara halted and gazed back at Naruto with one of his rare smiles and gave him a thumbs up. Naruto returned with his own before starting his scramble up the ladder. At the top of the ladder, Naruto placed one hand on the top of his ejection seat and the other on the glare shield over his instruments and using his strength and agility lifted himself up and over the canopy rail before rotating his body ninety degrees; allowing the blonde to enter his cockpit without placing the sole of either of his flight boots on the bottom of his Martin-Baker Ejection seat and already aligned with the leg tunnels so all he had to do was drop his butt to the seat, stretch his legs and he was in and ready for it when his crew chief started hooking all of his belts up to his torso harness and g-suit.

Once all his connections were secured and his belts were tightened, Naruto accepted his helmet from the mechanic and placed it on his head, lowering the tinted face shield as he did so. Hooking up his communications lead, boom microphone, oxygen mask, and g-suit to their respective places, Naruto tighten the chin strap and accepted the gentle slap on the back of his helmet from the mechanic as he wished him good luck before sliding down the outside of the legs of the accommodation ladder and retracting it back into its fuselage location. Verifying that the guy was clear, Naruto checked his watch before rolling down the sleeves of his flightsuit and slipping his hands into the black nomex flight gloves he wore. It was getting close to launch time.

Raising the dark face shield up to reveal the clear face shield underneath, Naruto glanced over at Gaara and exchanged a nod. Putting his left hand on his throttle and allowing his fingers to overlap and rest on the engine igniter button, Naruto watched the mechanic in front of his plane start a-what would be to some complicated and unable to be understood-series of hand signals that Naruto knew like the back of his hand. Seeing the one he was waiting for, Naruto advanced his throttles into the engine start zone and waited for the high pressure air cart hooked up to his Short Little Ugly Fucker of a plane to start. When it did light off with the loud moan that crescendoed into the signature roar, the blonde rested his left index finger on the igniter and started pressing the necessary buttons in the correct order with his right hand to prep his plane for the burst of high pressure air it was about to receive. Once he was sure his plane was ready, Naruto glanced over at Gaara's plane again and saw the subtle nod from the other pilot. Lifting his right hand out of the cockpit, Naruto gave the mechanic the signal to start the flow of air. The man nodded and gave someone off to the side out of Naruto's line of sight another signal and soon, the tone of the huffer cart changed into a deeper moan as the switch was flipped and several hundred pounds of high pressure air traveled through the flexible hose and into his engine.

Feeling the turbine start to slowly rotate as the air hit it, Naruto shifted his gaze to his instruments. Finding the one he wanted, he watched it intently with his deep blue eyes until the pressure reached the desired level. Giving it an extra second to atomize the JP5 into the combustion chamber a bit more, Naruto squeezed the igniter switch and started feeding fuel to the controlled fire starting somewhat aft of him. Hearing a click followed by a sound he knew all to well, Naruto advanced his throttle and fed the hungry beast enough food to wake it from its slumber. Hearing a dull moan Naruto grinned. His beast was awake and it was not happy at being disturbed. Giving it some more fuel to feed its increased hunger, Naruto heard the second most beautiful sound in his world: the pissed off growl of a just awoken engine of a battle-tested and battle-ready Ling-Temco A-7E Corsair II coming to life.

Ohh, that sound sent Mach 5 hypersonic chills up and down his spine at every time he heard it!

With an experienced ear from the countless missions he'd flown in his 'Short Little Ugly Fucker' and from the other fast and slow jets he'd flown in the nine years since he'd first gotten his license, Naruto recognized the minute when his engine had settled into its usual at idle thrum and cut off his mental skylarking to concentrate on checking all of his gages and getting his navigation system up and running. Once he was confident every thing was running in the top .5% of efficiency, Naruto shifted his eyes to the kneeboard strapped to his right thigh where he could see anything from radio frequencies to weapons loadout to map coordinates with a glance. Checking the notes he'd taken during the mission briefing with the information from the same meeting in his head, to make sure they jelled in a smooth manner, Naruto lifted his head and waited for the mercenaries in the other revetments to start taxiing out towards the runway.

"Tanuki One Tango, Kitsune Niner Tango you up on this frequency?"

"Niner Tango, One Tango copies your traffic. Checking the mission profile from the Psycho, looks like we got a barnburner of a mission this time, Naruto.", replied Gaara as he shifted his eyes to the picture of Matsuri he kept taped to an empty space of his instrument panel for luck and to remind him who he's fighting to return from this desert hellhole to.

"Yeah, I gathered that from the amount of cash, Commander Saki was offering for completing this mission. $45k is a respectable amount of money and will go towards helping pay off our contract so we can get out of here sooner. Although we're still paying off the planes we bought when we got here all those months ago.", commented Naruto as he released his brakes, activated his nose-wheel steering system and started to pull his Corsair out of the revetment as he followed the directions of the line handler in front of his aircraft.

For the next few minutes both young men concentrated on what they were doing as they followed the conga line of mercenaries and their disparate aerial fighting machines. A trio of Saab Drakens in front of the line, six North American F-5A Freedom Fighters turning on to the runway in pairs, a couple of A-4P Skyhawks and Greg's A-4M Mongoose followed by another-older model-A-7 Corsair II belonging to a new pilot that neither Naruto nor Gaara trusted as yet. Listening over the radio the pair could hear the already airborne Kazama and Simon in their respective F-8 Crusader and F-14 Tomcat heading towards the enemy. Behind them came a couple of Israeli made Kfir's that belonged to a couple of Area 88 veterans.

To the gathered eyes, it was an 'Air Gaggle' of planes from different eras of modern powered flight. In the back of his mind, Naruto figured that his godfather, retired naval aviator Captain Jiraiya would approve of the sight. Vowing to purchase a cheap camera from McCoy when he could afford it, Naruto gave a happy sigh. Even though Gaara and he were aerial mercenaries-Aerial Legionnaires if you will-in a desert war trying to survive to the best of their abilities, to him this was a good time to be a man who loved to travel the blue skies.

"I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth.", started Naruto as he turned his Corsair on to the runway and lined up on the left side to give Gaara room to pull next to him for their formation takeoff.

Holding the brakes and running his flight controls through their full range of motion to check for any binding that would hinder his fighting abilities, Naruto cast a glance outside his cockpit across the darkness to see his best friend gazing back at him through his helmets' lowered clear face shield. Lowering the tinted yellow face shield of his own orange HGU-2A/P flight helmet with the image of the nine tailed demon fox of legend on the side, Naruto gave Gaara a thumbs up (which he returned with his own version of the infamous 'Single Digit Midget' ) and listened to the radio techs in the tower.

"Alright Uzumaki, you and your buddy Sabaku are cleared for take-off. Get the hell off of my runway and go do your jobs!", came the affectionately guttural growl of their employer, Commander Saki Vashtarl, First Prince of Asran.

"Awww go sit on it and spin, Saki! We're gone. Just have our money ready when we get back.", jested Naruto.

Over the radio, Naruto could hear the other radio technicians expressing their amusement and figured that his response to the base commander wasn't the only insubordinate and insulting one they'd heard tonight. When he heard Saki's laugh, Naruto knew that he'd been correct. Glancing over at Gaara, he twirled index finger horizontally against the side of his helmet. Seeing the familiar jerking gesture that Gaara made, Naruto had laugh.

"He's right, not counting Boss Saki; those guys in the tower are a bunch of happy masturbators! I'd hate to see what they would do if any female pilots decided to drop in, though I hear that Saki's baroness cousin is a shit hot stick and a good lookin' babe to boot. Wonder what would happen if she were to sign up with our merry band of mercenary marauders.", thought Naruto as he advanced his throttles to the stops and released his brakes.

The pair of stubby fighters slowly started to accelerate down the runway, gaining speed and momentum with every passing yard of rubber-scarred concrete. Three hundred yard down the ribbon of white and the wind whistling beneath their wings was causing the craft to get light on their nose gear. Both pilots felt it through their nomex flight gloves and knew that soon the nose would lift from the ground and the beasts they controlled would transform from lumbering and snarling badgers on the ground into the graceful hawks they were.

Upon reaching their assigned altitude with the rest of their section, Naruto and Gaara pulled their throttles to the power setting that was the optimal compromise between speed and fuel efficiency. With their landing gear retracted, the two gape-mouthed warbirds became streamlined aerial carnivores hoping to feast big as they commenced their search for the prey of the day.

The pilots were hungry, the dinner bell was ringing loudly and the chef was preparing his specials.

Frescos, Farmers, and Fishbeds oh my!

And that my friends, brings a conclusion to the first chapter of my newest story 'Aerial Legionnaires. I hope you enjoyed it. More will come soon.

This story will be something of a salve to soothe a broken heart. Last week, I lost my 3 year old red nose American Pit Bull Terrier Azonia when some injuries she received two weeks ago when she jumped out of a moving truck and was dragged for about a quarter mile down the road. Azonia did get scratched up pretty bad and I was frantic when I saw how hurt she was but I hoped she would overcome the inflicted injuries. Sadly, the infection coursed through her body and she died in her sleep the night of April 4th.

I will deeply miss my beloved pit bull. I had been caring for her when I found her as a hungry and abandoned 6-8 week old puppy in my driveway back in December of 2008. I know my dog is in a better place but I wish she could have been able to move with me to Louisiana where a job opportunity opened up for me.

Rest In Peace my dearly beloved partner. I will miss you.

Azonia Laplamiz-Smith,

1 December 2008 – 4 April 2012

Knightewolfe

Knightewolfe's Den

April 2012.