Disclaimer: I own neither Halo or Naruto. They are the properties of Microsoft and Masashi Kishimoto, respectively.

Strange World

The sky above was a bright, vibrant blue as the leaves of the surrounding trees created a much closer ceiling of greens and browns. The rustling of leaves as the breeze flowed through and chirping of birds created a soft symphony of nature, while the illuminous sun up high over the light spattering of clouds spread warmth throughout. In this spot, it would not have been difficult for a person to imagine they were peacefully laying down in the middle of a North American forest on Earth. Master Chief and Cortana, however, knew better than to believe that. The crater the Spartan created via his drop from orbit spoke for itself.

"You still with me, Chief?" Cortana's voice seemed to originate directly from the inside of his head ‒ an effect of the chip implanted in his skull.

"I'm fine," came the usual stoic response. Shortly after, his armor unlocked, giving him free reign over his movements once more.

The UNSC AI waited until the super soldier raised himself up to his feet before speaking again. "You know, one of these days you're going to land on something as stubborn as you are."

Chief grunted at the statement and recalled Sergeant Johnson said the same thing, but he refused to bring up that little piece of information. The death of the man who he had considered his first friend outside the Spartan program was still a fresh wound. The effects of cryo-sleep made it feel as if it was just yesterday Guilty Spark had shot its laser into the marine's chest, even if much more time had passed. The Spartan, instead of acknowledge Cortana's words with anything more than a guttural noise, quickly focused on a different subject. "How long were we drifting?"

If she noticed the tiny hiccup in his attitude, she didn't say. "Right down to the important details." When met with silence afterwards, she finally answered. "The Dawn logged us aboard for four years, seven months, and ten days. We've been gone for a while, John."

Master Chief was already walking around and investigating the surroundings of his landing spot when her words froze him in his tracks. He brought his hand to the back of his helmet and removed the chip, allowing her to assume her holographic form. It was both the sorrow in her last sentence and the fact she referred to him as 'John' that he took notice of. "Cortana..."

There was a brief silence before she spoke, her face showing a reluctance to indulge on the subject. Apparently not wanting to look at him directly, she shifted her head and gaze toward the ground. "I was put into service eight years ago."

"Eight years..." The Spartan repeated the words with the feeling he should know their importance, but couldn't piece it together.

Cortana, however, did it for him as she looked back up into his visor. "AIs deteriorate after seven, Chief."

A laconism lasting longer than before wedged between them as Master Chief absorbed the information. Eventually, after several seconds in thought, he began immediately pointing toward a possible solution. "Halsey."

Cortana's voice took up a pleading tone. "Chief-"

"She can fix this," he continued, ignoring whatever she was going to say. "If we could find Halsey-"

"Chief!"

His companion's raised volume caused him pause, but only for a moment. "She made you. She can fix you." The frown on the AI's face only grew as her eyes returned to the dirt. She did not respond, however, giving the sign for the Spartan to continue. "If we can just get back to Earth, we can find Halsey and fix all this."

To that, his AI companion looked back to him, her light blue eyes locking with his through the visor. When she spoke, it was slow and precise. "Don't make a girl a promise, if you know you can't keep it."

Master Chief could only quietly stare at her in reply, pondering the truth behind the statement. It was not to last, though, because at the end of the day when he made a promise, he fought to keep it till the end. After all, one could only achieve success if they tried. Concluding there was nothing of value in the surrounding forest of his landing site, he straightened himself and spoke with a voice of authority. "We need to get to the Dawn and see if there's anything we can use."

After only a second, Cortana nodded with a sad, but slightly hopeful smile. Though she could not currently see him through the helmet's visor, she could almost feel the new, burning determination oozing off him. And when John-117's mind was set, there didn't tend to be much that could stop him from reaching his goal. "Ready when you are, Chief."

Approximately forty to fifty individual pieces of metal, ranging in sizes equal to or greater than a closed fist, had fallen upon the Village Hidden in the Leaves. And while the injured numbered at twenty-seven, with three being in critical care, there had not been a single death by the debris. Property damage had been high, but that was no more a minor inconvenience in the opinion of the Sandaime Hokage. The lives of his people were much more valuable. So, while it was most definitely a miracle that the population had been spared much sorrow, he did not know whether to see this as a sign of good fortune or a prelude for things to come. Hiruzen Sarutobi had never been a devoutly religious man, but his old age had given him both the wisdom and experience to see when events were merely the beginning of a chain.

His eyes narrowed as he looked over the assembled group of five Anbu Black Ops ninja standing in his office. Team Rho, as was their designation, was currently the most highly rated Anbu team in Konoho. Their leader, going by the codename 'Tenzō', was adorning the mask of a cat with red markings poking out from all around the border. With the sole exception being Danzō Shimura, his true identity was a complete mystery to everyone but the Hokage himself. His unique...talents, were why he and his team were currently there awaiting the briefing of a mission only the best of the best should be given.

"You all know why you are here." Sarutobi said it more as a statement of fact than a question. When he received hasty nods from all five ninja, he blew out a puff of tobacco smoke and continued. "I have received early reports from farmers in the outskirts about the falling object from earlier today." As he spoke, he stood up from his seat, opened one of his desk's draws, and took out a map of the local area. "Assuming they are correct, then it is not a meteor like we believed."

This news visibly caused each Anbu to stiffen. Tenzō was the first to voice his concern, bowing before talking. "Hokage-sama, if it is not a meteor similar to what records tell us, then what is it?"

"These are accounts from country farmers, but if they are to be believed, then the object is not made from a kind of rock at all. It is instead made up entirely of metal." He didn't think it was possible, but he watched as the ninja stiffened even more from the shock. He took another puff from his pipe before he dropped the biggest part. "To complicate things further, they say it appears to be man-made. The reports tell of strange writing painted on the side of the object."

At that moment, one of the Anbu to the right released an audible gasp. It was barely heard and to anyone else it would have likely not been noticed. But the fact the woman, a member of Konoha's elite corps trained to yield all emotions, did so said more than a million words. "Hokage-sama," spoke Tenzō, his voice ever so slightly shaky. "Am I to assume Team Rho is being dispatched to scout out the object and confirm these reports?"

"Yes you are, Tenzō." The aging leader of the Hidden Leaf unrolled the map across the surface of his desk and pointed at a location just Southeast of the village. "The object landed around here, about twenty-two kilometers away. You are to observe the object and report back everything you find as soon as possible. If it is man-made as the farmers claim, you are not to attempt entry. I will dispatch two teams of Jōnin to investigate further if it comes to that."

"Hai, Hokage-sama! Is there anything else we should know of before we depart?"

Sarutobi nodded, but an expression signifying deep thought crossed his face. "Yes, there is one more thing. If this does happen to be artificial in nature and you come across any... survivors, of a sort..." He paused for only a moment before turning his gaze away from the map and to Team Rho's leader. "You are to abandon the mission immediately and report back directly to me. No one else is to be informed. And under no circumstances are you to make contact. Understood?"

"Hai," was the collective response from all five ninja in the room.

"Dismissed." Even before he finished the wave of his hand, the members of Team Rho had disappeared from the room, leaving nothing but the smallest of breezes in their wakes.

The Sandaime Hokage took the opportunity to finally let out a long-held sigh as he sat back down in his chair. He did not bother to return the map to its original place just yet, instead opting to swivel the seat around and peer outside the large window that displayed his home village. He used several minutes to simply admire the view, all the while puffing at his tobacco pipe. Eventually, he turned his gaze upon the obnoxious stack of documents piling up on the side of his desk. With a grunt, he returned to his duties, realizing that even the most bizarre of times still had the boredom and headache of paperwork. If only there was an easy solution that required clones...

—

There were never enough times to show hatred for hospitals when it came to Naruto Uzumaki. Whether it be the all-white rooms, the terrible food, the awful smell of medicine and sick people, or the absolute boredom of staying there, he despised every bit of it all the same. So, when he found himself in Konoha's one and only hospital, he couldn't stop the grimace from crossing his face. Even if he was there to visit a couple friends.

The blonde stepped up to the reception desk, his expression never changing, and called out to the nurse sitting behind it. "Hey lady, can you help me find someone?"

The woman, her dark brown hair rolled into a single bun, looked at the origin of the question and cringed at who she saw. Of course, given her job description and the fact the person standing in front of her was still a Konoha-nin, she kept herself from acting out of line. "Who exactly are you looking for," she asked with a hint of rancor.

Naruto, however, ignored the nurse's snide attitude. He was more than used to it as this point in his life. "My teammates; Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha."

"Right..." The woman quickly began typing at her computer in the hopes of ridding herself of the teenager. Fortunately for Naruto, it helped him get his answers faster. "I have a Sakura Haruno registered on the second floor, Room 208. The Uchiha kid is right down the hall, Room 215."

Hearing the locations of his friends gave the blonde a wide grin, bearing his teeth as he began walking to the nearest staircase. He made sure to avoid glancing at the nurse's face while he went on. "Thanks!"

The teenager was up on the second floor and reading over the room numbers in less than a minue. As he searched for the first, he took notice of the various men, woman, and children who had been injured when the strange metal from the sky had fallen over the village. He had taken a breath of relief earlier after learning there had been no deaths, but had quickly made his way to the hospital after hearing one of his teammates had been injured. The news had gone so far as to make him nearly forget about the ramen bowl-sized piece of debris that had just barely missed him by several yards, causing an impact that blew him off his feet. Now that he thought about it, he had originally intended to snatch it up as some kind of souvenir. He made a mental note to go back for it when possible, even if it was buried inside the rubble of a building.

The thought of the endeavor long kept a smirk on Naruto's face until he came across his first stop, Room 208. Now with a much more innocent smile, he practically barged through the door. "Sakura-chan!"

What the young blonde saw inside, however, caused his lips to flatten. Sakura Haruno was currently laying on the hospital bed, surrounded by her parents and Team Seven's sensei, Kakashi Hatake. Her entire right arm from shoulder to wrist was encased in a thick white cast and the right side of her head was covered in bandages. Here and there, red splotches of blood managed to seep through, visible but clearly having long dried. Only a fraction of her natural pink hair was visible and it appeared to have been cut to chin length, likely by the doctors due to the necessity of treating her head injury. In retrospect, she wasn't that bad off and the injuries only appeared to be worse than they realistically were. But Naruto was never one to take things lightly when his precious people were involved.

Under normal circumstances, the pinkette would have probably grew enraged and started yelling at the blonde for his brazen entry into her room. Today, though, she merely sent a cold glare at her teammate, a poking vein on her forehead showing the agitation of his shamelessness. "Naruto..."

The young ninja standing in the doorway, however, remained unmoving and unfazed by her annoyance. His eyes were wide and contained a clear worry of her well-being. "Sakura-chan, are you alright," he asked with a little panic in his voice.

The obvious concern displayed by the blonde quickly brushed away Sakura's anger. Sure, he had come bashing through the door and yelling her name like his usual idiot-self, but now he was genuinely shocked and troubled by her current state. If anything, she had been more annoyed that another person had seen the condition she was in. She may not have thought anything of Naruto, but she was still a woman, all things considered, and her public image remained important to her. "It's... I'm alright, knucklehead."

Kakashi nodded in agreement before walking over to the boy and placing his hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Don't worry too much, Naruto. It isn't as bad as it looks."

Naruto looked up to his sensei, the worry in his eyes put slightly to ease. "What happened?"

Sakura's mother, Mebuki Haruno, answered. Her voice was filled with even more concern than the boy's, which was understandable. "One of those pieces of metal crashed into our home and made the ceiling come down in Sakura's room."

The news gave the blonde a renewed sense of panic, but the tight grip from Kakashi reminded him the incident wasn't as severe as it sounded, calming him back down. "The doctor said she should be fine in no time."

"Her concussion will have to be looked over for some time," claimed Sakura's father, Kizashi Haruno. He was currently seated on the edge of his daughter's bed, facing the room's single window. "But they say the medic ninja can heal her broken arm and skull fracture quickly." Though his voice still contained the natural fatherly worry, he held himself much better than his wife, having a strong confidence in Sakura's recovery.

Taking in all the reassurances from the various people in the room, Naruto released a deep sigh before looking back toward Sakura with a big, toothy grin. "Alright! I always knew you were tough, Sakura-chan!" He raised his hand and gave a thumbs-up. "Hurry up and get better so we can show everyone, ya'know!"

She was a little flattered by the praise, but at the same time she could not help but cringe and raise her voice at the person it was coming from. "Of course I've always been tough, you idiot!" She picked up the bed's pillow with her good hand and threw it at the blonde's face. "Now will you get out of here?!"

Naruto giggled like a kid even after the pillow contacted with his face and fell to the floor. With a wave of his hand, he turned around to the doorway and walked back to the hallway outside. "See ya later," he managed to exclaim before the wooden door closed behind him. Now out of Sakura's hair, he once again began looking over the numbers of all the rooms and followed them in the right direction. Next stop: Room 215.

—

Sasuke Uchiha, sole survivor of the famed Uchiha clan, stared out the hospital room's window in a daze as he sat up in his bed. But he was not paying attention to the world outside; it was his internal thoughts that were keeping him distracted from the medical facility's unbearable boredom. More specifically, it was his recount of Team Seven's last mission. Not even recent events pondered his mind, for unlike the many others under care, his injuries had been ascertained in the Land of Waves, not by some random junk falling from the sky.

The raven-haired boy's memories of his time spent on that bridge, fighting inside Haku's prison of ice mirrors, was as vivid and clear as ever. He could still feel the pain of the countless senbon piercing his skin and the following blood loss he endured. When he had fallen in Naruto's arms, he had been so very sure he was going to die. And if he were to be honest, he sincerely believed he was giving his life for the team. It boggled his mind how at that very moment he was almost at peace with his demise, knowing it might have given the others a chance to survive another day. Because now, when he recalled every moment of that experience, it instead filled him with anger and disgust. Not with Naruto, Zabuza, or even Haku, but with himself.

He was so weak and helpless. So pitiful! How was he expected to fight and kill Itachi, his brother and the man who murdered his clansmen, if he did not even have the power to defeat a ninja of the same age as himself? To make matters even worse, the one who powered over him had never received official training by a shinobi village. His adversary may have been privately trained by an S-ranked missing-nin and one of the infamous swordsmen of Kirigakure, but it meant little to the young Uchiha. None of that, however, compared to the icing on the cake. The final straw was the outcome of that fateful mission. The fact that Naruto was apparently the one who took down Haku before Kakashi's final strike made him livid!

Sasuke, at his current strength, was lower than the dead last of his academy class. And for him, this was beyond unacceptable!

The abrupt knock on the door shook the teen out of his thoughts. He shifted his gaze to the entrance of his room and unclenched his hand from the bed sheets, not having noticed he had done so. "It's open," he deadpanned.

No sooner had he finished did the door burst open, giving way for the very blonde ninja that had been plaguing his mind. "Hey, what's up?!"

The Uchiha could only frown at his teammate, the very sight causing him to wonder how the dobe managed to defeat Haku. It was the last thing he wanted to be bothered with right now. "What do you want, loser?"

Naruto grimaced as he walked over to the side of the bed, his jubilant attitude turned down a notch. "No need to be a stuck-up jerk, Sasuke. I'm just here to see how you're doing." He lifted his hand to chest height and pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. "Kakashi-sensei is here too. He'll probably come by when he's done checking up on Sakura-chan."

Sasuke was just about to loudly declare his perfect health and demand the blonde leave before the last comment peaked his curiosity. "Sakura is here," he asked with a cocked eyebrow.

His teammate's face took on a more innocent look. "Didn't you hear? Sakura-chan got hurt by that stuff that fell from the sky." He scratched the back of his head with a small smile, as if he was embarrassed by what he was going to say next. "She's really tough! She had a ceiling fall on top of her and all she got was a broken arm!"

A grunt was the only acknowledgement Sasuke gave. It was good to hear his teammate was okay and did not get easily taken out by some freak accident. However, at the end of the day he did not care too much about the pinkette as long as she wasn't killed. The girl always spent too much time fawning over him rather than focusing on her training, and it annoyed him to no end. Not only did it often hinder his own attempts to train, but her weakness as a teammate also carried over to his effectiveness as a fighting force. She was going to have to wise-up sooner or later and start taking her role as a Kunoichi seriously, otherwise people were going to get hurt, possibly even killed. Her participation in Land of Waves, or should he say lack thereof, was a perfect example.

"Talking about that stuff from the sky, did you see that big thing?!" Naruto suddenly jumped up in excitement at just the memory of the event. He continued speaking when the Uchiha provided a simple nod. "What'd you think of it? Cool, right?"

Sasuke merely shrugged his shoulders. "It was just a big piece of crap that fell from the sky. Nothing cool about it."

The blonde crossed his arms and frowned again. "You're no fun."

An agitated cringe formed on the raven-haired teen's face. Before he could retort, however, another knock sounded off from behind the closed door. Seeing no other choice, he reluctantly gave whoever it was permission to enter. "Come in," he sighed.

The door squeaked open slowly to reveal the silver hair and face mask of Kakashi Hatake. He lifted his hand in greeting with an eye-smile. "Sasuke. Naruto."

"Sensei," was the instant response from both his students. As a result, the two gave each other a pair of rude snickers.

Konoha's copycat ninja chuckled at the display and stepped inside, closing the door behind him. "I see you're both getting along as usual."

Naruto's lips twitched into a smirk, while Sasuke simply snorted. "The dobe was actually just about to leave."

The blonde scowled and stuck his tongue at the Uchiha, but quickly turned back to Team Seven's leader. "Iruka-sensei is getting me ramen today, so I better get going before he changes his mind!" He laughed devilishly, then began heading to the door for his exit. "See you later, Kakashi-sensei! You too, Sasuke!"

Sasuke waited until Naruto was long gone before he shook his head and cast his gaze out the window on his right. "Idiot."

Kakashi sighed. "You should consider yourself lucky Naruto came to visit you. He isn't willing to come here for just about anyone."

The Uchiha grunted again in response. As if he should have felt honored that a loser would come and see him. He'd rather have had Sakura or, kami forbid, Ino Yamanaka come and see him. Choosing to rid himself of that thought process entirely, he switched to a different topic of conversation. "When am I going to get out of here?"

The Jōnin snorted. "Well, that's actually the reason why I'm here." That snatched his student's attention right up. "Doctor said, as of right now, you're free to go."

Sasuke looked at his sensei for a moment in surprise before closing his eyes with a cold, but satisfied smile. "It's about time."

Cortana thought this world was the strangest planet she had ever set her figurative feet on. Not because of how different it was from Earth and the UNSC's many other colonies, but because of how similar it was to Humanity's homeworld. It was not an exaggeration when she felt a person could have found the woodland they were in and believed, with all their heart, they were taking a stroll in an American forest. It could have been the foliage that appeared uncomfortably like Oak trees, the near-perfect gravity and climate, or perhaps the blue color of the atmosphere that looked exactly like Earth's. What made things weird, however, was when they encountered the first signs of animal life. The creature had passed about a dozen yards away and when Cortana asked Chief to get closer out of curiosity, what they saw was none other than a rabbit. A real, authentic-looking rabbit someone would have expected to find back on the homeworld. To say this did not intrigue the AI was a blatant lie.

"We must be thousands of lightyears away from Earth," she said matter-of-factly. "The odds of finding a species that evolved to anything close to something back home are astronomical."

The Spartan nodded in agreement as he stepped over the trunk of a fallen tree. "The sooner we get to the Dawn, the faster we can figure out where we are."

"And where here is," she added. As the duo continued onward through the alien forest, Cortana kept silently observing any form of wildlife they came across. It was indeed fascinating to find other animals similar to those found on Earth, but every single one only added to her growing confusion. The state of life so far on this planet should have been a statistical impossibility. Rabbits, hawks, snakes, and deer... If she didn't know better, she'd have thought the Spartan was walking through an animal preserve. Several minutes passed before she spoke, but her words had nothing to do with what had taken up much of her thoughts. "If my calculations are correct, the Forward Unto Dawn crashed right over the next ridge."

Chief did not reply, but that was simply because there was nothing to say in response. He had always been a man of few words, so Cortana simply took his silence as an acknowledgment. For the next fifteen to twenty minutes, she waited patiently for the supersoldier to traverse though the landscape until, eventually, they crossed the top of a small upward slope and caught a glimpse of the Dawn. "She's certainly seen better days."

The Spartan once again only nodded as he studied the wreckage sitting about a quarter of a mile to his North. Even now, after over an hour had passed, small fires still lingered in and around the vessel, the several stacks of black smoke rising in the air serving as their testimony. The parts of the ship in contact with the ground were blocked from view by the surrounding forestry, but the sheer size of even half of the Dawn gave much to be seen. The once worthy light frigate was now coated with jet black scorch marks, yards-deep dents, and sections of ripped open bulkhead. At least a quarter of what had remained of the hull after the events at the Ark had been taken as sacrifice for the battered ship's entry through the planet's atmosphere. Master Chief's and Cortana's home for the last four years laid before them as nothing more than a burning pile of scrap metal, more than likely to never visit the void of space again. The mile-wide valley around it now served as its final resting place.

"Looks like she remained intact for the most part," the AI declared. "If your luck's still holding up, we might be able to find something still working."

Hearing this, Chief hesitated no more continue the trek and took his first steps since stopping. "Only one way to find out."

CHAPTER END

Author's Note: Welcome back, readers! I see a lot of people so far liked the prologue; got that many favorites and follows after only 200 hits, which is pretty damn good in my eyes, haha! Seriously, though - I'm glad people are getting into this. I have a really cool idea for this story that I don't think none of you are going to see coming, at least when it comes to the major plot points, and I can't wait to share it all with you guys! So with that said, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

On another note, I want to address a few things really quick. First, the truth is I know a heck of a lot more about HALO than Naruto, though that is not to say I don't know a good amount about the Naruto-verse. I simply know more about HALO lore than Naruto lore. That said and done, it is a lot easier to research detailed information on Naruto than it is for, let's say, Halo lore you can only get in the books. And though I've read quite a few, I haven't read them all. Point being, please bear with me!

Finally, to you guys asking me story-related questions like: Is genjutsu going to be effective against MC? Or... Is the Didact, Infinity, etc going to be in the story? To you guys, I have just one answer: Wait and see! :)