LORD OF SPINES

Now I know I haven't updated in a while…ages…years….millennia whatever but the fact is that I can't really apologize as I'm not sorry. I have had a shit load going on in my life for the past while and when I actually have time to write I never have the inspiration.

So here I am letting you know I'm not dead and haven't given up. It may take me till the sun burns out but I will finish these fics.

Typical right when he gets back, he sticks me with a monster like this. I should be getting paid to edit these!

Addendum made on 26th july 2009: I'm back big as life and twice as ugly

CHAPTER 3

Naruto watched Kerrigan wearily as the infested woman brooded. The trick Tassadar had played on her had enraged the woman. Naruto had to admit that was pretty easy these days. She used to be calm, cool and collected. Now she was vicious, passionate and short tempered. He knew for a fact he liked this Kerrigan a little more…but that was mostly because she generally seemed to want to kiss him when her blood was warmed.

They were currently riding in an Overlord back to the main hive cluster, bypassing the newest outpost on Char. Naruto settled back as his psychic senses could practically taste Kerrigan's rage, hate and frustration at the slight Tassadar had given her. Naruto gave an inaudible sigh; it was going to be a long trip.

-

Forty minutes later, Main hive cluster

Naruto, as always, shadowed Kerrigan slightly behind and to her right as she angrily stalked into the main Hive. He walked past several Larvae and drones, the Larvae simply eating or going somewhere to morph into something useful, the Drones feeding growing Larvae or other countless tasks. He passed an Eye that turned to stare at him for a moment before looking back the way he had come. He shuddered. Eyes: Giant humanoid eyes that hung inside only the biggest of hives, connected to the walls by thick strands of membrane. Out of all the different and strange looking beings among the Zerg, only they gave Naruto the creeps.

Kerrigan stalked into their personal part of the hive. Here activity was almost nil and large sections of an old Terran base had been incorporated into it. Even though they were Zerg now, they had once been human and needed occasional Human comforts.

Kerrigan finally spoke, ranting to herself in a snarl "Insufferable Protoss coward! Tassadar cannot evade my wrath forever! I shall find him and cut him into..." she was cut off by Daggoth's perpetually calm voice.

"Kerrigan, Naruto, Zasz is dead!" Naruto stiffened; Daggoth wouldn't have said that unless something was different about it, as Cerebrates could always be reborn. Kerrigan merely snorted.

"Oh? It is a pity that Cerebrates cannot truly be killed. I expect the Overmind will reincarnate him soon." she said in a dismissively snide tone.

"No," Daggoth reprimanded lightly. "He will not. The Protoss have devised a new attack; one to nullify out reincarnation and give pause to the Overmind itself."

Naruto felt a surge of excitement go through him. This was interesting; this meant powerful Protoss, which in turn meant a good hard fight. Naruto enjoyed this news greatly despite Zasz's death and the Overmind's apparent discomfort.

Kerrigan frowned "So Tassadar's plan was just a diversion; I should not have underestimated him so." she mused while rubbing her chin.

'Well,' thought Naruto 'At least she isn't angry anymore.'

Daggoth spoke again his voice grave "Without its Master, Zasz's brood has run amok and even now threatens the hive Cluster. Cerebrate, you and Naruto are to eradicate the rampaging brood and stem any further damage it may cause. I will deal with the Protoss myself." Daggoth's presence faded.

Kerrigan looked over at him with a slight frown "Will you be fine by yourself?"

Naruto smirked slightly "Why? You worried I might go off and die, leaving you all alone with only the drones for company?"

Kerrigan snorted "Hardly, but the Cerebrates don't make for such entertaining conversation and they're not as useful to me as you are. Don't get yourself killed Naruto." with that she walked away.

Naruto frowned slightly, wondering if Kerrigan actually cared for him as a unique individual or as just a more useful member of the swarm to be discarded when it was most useful to do so.

He shook such thoughts from his head; he had a job to do.

-

Naruto was on the move almost as soon as his feet touched the ground. As the Overlords dropped off the four Hydralisk behind him, followed by a small grouping of Zerglings then finally the Drones.

Naruto ran straight into the centre of the rogue Brood's small hive cluster they had set down near. He shot six Zerglings while he was moving then shoved his fist into the brain case of one of the heretic Hydralisk. His own Hydralisk fired into the now attacking enemy Zerg. Naruto noted that without the coordination usually provided by Cerebrate and a Cerebrate's supporters, these heretics were slow and uncoordinated and displayed no tactics.

The Zerglings rushed into the small hive as the Hydralisk destroyed the remaining structures. One thing about actually facing enemy Zerg, they at least knew where to strike. The Hive started to quiver and shake and the simply deflated, collapsing in on itself and the other structures followed as the Cerebrate took over. He directed the Drones to create two new hives and two creep colonies. Naruto sat back as the Cerebrate got to work managing the swarm. Within a few minutes a hive had grown, resources were harvested and a Spawning pool, Evolution Chamber and a Hydralisk den had been grown. Now with almost fifty Zerglings and about a dozen Hydralisk with a quarter hour wait after the buildings had been created, Naruto was once again on the move.

The place where Zasz's brood had set up shop was one long rocky valley sloping down, with the unaffected Hive on the high end of the valley Naruto was attacking. The next closest Hive cluster was situated almost a kilometre away on the valley's left wall.

Naruto ran ahead at the unnaturally fast pace he had since his days as a Terran test subject. Now augmented by his upgraded physiology, he almost blurred across the landscape. He came to a stop on a low hill and observed the target as the Zerglings and Hydralisk caught up to him. Back at the Hive cluster the Cerebrate had severely increased resource gathering by producing nothing but drones. Once that had been done, defensive structures were built, more units were built, upgrades evolved and new structures grown. The Cerebrate estimated by the time this attack was over, the next would have air support in the form of Mutalisk.

It was never wrong. Since the Cerebrate was essentially all brain, it could micromanage these things to such a degree they happened basically at the same time. Due to being paired with both Naruto and Kerrigan, this Cerebrate was far more adept at growing, maintaining and defending a hive than its brethren as the Overmind's children controlled the actual battles.

Naruto meanwhile was having quite a bit of fun. He had bull rushed the Zerglings straight into the heart of the hive, drawing all attention to themselves while he and the Hydralisk came in from behind and obliterated the defenders. Naruto's face was graced with a small smirk right before he dived to the side as a long spike shot up from the ground and retreated, the creep almost instantly repairing the hole.

Most of the sunken colonies had been eradicated with only a few deaths among the Zerglings. Naruto rushed towards it, his speed carrying him well ahead of the brainless organism's attempts to kill the intruder. He leapt up into the air, spinning over it and fired several shots down into its mouth. It quivered and died, quickly melting back into the creep.

As Naruto watched the rest of the structures die, several drones arrived. The Cerebrate, always an opportunist, was going to let pre-existing creep go to waste. While it cost nothing for the stuff to grow out over the land so the Zerg's organic buildings could be built, it took time and that was something that should never be wasted.

Naruto watched for a moment as the new hive was starting to grow before ordering with a single thought the survivors of his initial attack force to wait until the hive was suitably built up till they returned to the main cluster.

Naruto arrived back quickly to discover an entirely new force waiting for him: A mixed group of Zerglings, Hydralisk, Mutalisk and over a hundred of the Scourge. Naruto grinned as he practically watched the Hydralisk evolve before his eyes. As was with the way of all new Zerg hives, the more complicated they got, the more advanced their brood got. He watched as every single Hydralisk before his eyes shuddered and convulsed before growing more spines and seeming to grow in size as their armour thickened and darkened in colour.

He grinned and with an almost subconscious command, the new attack group followed him. Daggoth had a reason for sending Naruto on this mission alone. The younger of the two infested Terrans could control the Zerg as long as a Cerebrate helped him do it, even then his control range was small. The Overmind had speculated that Naruto's abilities which were still mostly locked away and were fairly unused by the boy himself due to preference for physical combat would not be orientated to control and command, but to attack.

The Overmind had experienced a spilt second of Naruto's true mental capabilities on Tarsonis. The backlash had been painful, something it had never felt before. The Overmind had told Daggoth it's suspicious that Naruto may well be after his infestation, one of the most powerful psychics in the entire sector, not including the elder Protoss and the Overmind itself. Daggoth had wondered why the Overmind didn't simply assimilate Naruto's abilities; the Overmind had replied that Naruto was more useful this way and that his abilities would not greatly benefit the swarm if added into their genetic code.

The Overmind suspected that it would be difficult to even assimilate Naruto, as his healing ability was far more advanced than any Zerg thanks to his tenant. The Overmind in its brief glimpse at the Kyuubi's equally colossal mind had led it to believe that the only reason the infestation had worked in the first place was because the Kyuubi had approved of the changes that would be brought upon its host.

Naruto was however blissfully unaware of the speculation and scrutiny he was generally under. His general demeanour of being simply content with his position in the swarm and happy to fulfil any orders he was given as long as they led to a good fight. The Overmind found itself oddly pleased that such a complicated and, by design, unique individual amongst a species that was basically the same all across the board was almost no different from his common brethren.

Back upon the surface of Char and in the present, Naruto charged towards the next base. He had commanded the leftovers of his initial group to attack the small heretic base near them with a thought and it had been easily wiped out. He was now about to lead an attack into the second last base, leaving only the main Hive cluster to be exterminated.

He crested a small hill and without even stopping, fired a shot into the face of a Hydralisk. As the beast collapsed the Mutalisk swooped overhead, the oddly shaped flyers which consisted of a worm-like body with the head placed between two leathery wings with an underslung tail from which fired its Glaive Wurm, a small organism which struck one target only to bounce off and strike another and another.

The Mutalisk descended on the base, slaughtering the smaller Zerg, as such resistance was light at first. The Zerglings were designated to attack the sunken and spore colonies, organic buildings designed to attack ground and air targets respectively. Naruto however, received a surprise when a low groaning call came from somewhere in the air behind him. He turned just as a large green glob of acid obliterated a Hydralisk.

Their Cerebrate had done a damn good job. Coming up behind him were Guardians, the next form of the Mutalisk, about half a dozen of them. The flying slow moving crab-like creatures where almost insanely easy to kill from the air since they only had the ability to attack the ground. However these six Guardians were being backed by a large swarm of the Scourge, along with Mutalisk. On the ground, more Zerglings arrived along with Hydralisk and four Ultralisk.

The last push was on.

-

They descended like a storm. Naruto had scouted the base, coming up with a simple plan. He would rush in with hundreds of Scourge to completely obliterate the heretic air defences, and then follow up by rushing in Zerglings and Mutalisk, the Mutalisk to cause initial damage and to kill drones and Zerglings, the Zerglings to take out defensive structures. The Hydralisk would later storm in to take out the stronger Zerg strains, then finally the Ultralisk and the Guardians to play janitor.

Naruto would be going in with the first wave.

-

Naruto rushed forwards, firing into the milling mob of confused Zerglings. The Scourge overhead let off horrific screeches as they slammed into enemy Mutalisk, Overlords and even other Scourge. The sky overhead was awash with explosions and raining flesh and non-human blood. Naruto hissed low in his throat. He wasn't wearing his cloak. He had no need of it so he could clearly see the gouge in his right side where a Hydralisk's spine had grazed him. He shot the offending creature and then caved in a Zergling skull with a kick. He slung his rifle over his back and unsheathed his spines.

Naruto allowed a small smile to grace his lips. His powers had their limits. Even though Kerrigan had lifted some of his limiters, most were still in place. He decided now was a good place to exercise his abilities.

He called this one Unleashing Hell. He had discovered through some experiments and simply asking a few questions that Kerrigan's abilities were simply about will power. She simply wanted her advanced mind to do something, as long as it was within her abilities and it happened. Naruto was different. He needed his emotions, and specific ones. His ability to channel, create and control fire was connected to rage, his telekinetic abilities were connected to…well he wasn't quite sure. They seemed to be connected to an almost emotionless state.

He Unleashed Hell. He channelled his rage and a living, moving wall of flame engulfed everything in front of him. A few of his Zerg were consumed but it was inconsequential. Naruto stared out at the field of flame that had engulfed several structures and a good chunk of the enemy forces. He concentrated again, willing the flame to die. The roaring conflagration started to sputter and die, leaving only smouldering corpses and the occasional burning ember as the advance started again.

Naruto began to truly exercise his powers, throwing gouts of flame at anything in his way, tossing Zerg aside or crushing them. An Ultralisk charged him and with a bit of mental sweat and exertion he picked it up with his mind and slammed the confused and roaring behemoth through the side of the main hive.

The Mutalisk and Scourge had made short work of all fliers leaving the Guardians to attack all the structures left behind. Naruto knew it was over when one of his Ultralisk barrelled through the remains of the main hive cluster to rip out the stomach of the heretic Ultralisk which had been clambering back to its feet.

Naruto, just like Kerrigan, was always linked into the Zerg Hive mind, but because of their unique status same as the Cerebrates they could consciously 'Jack' in to talk across large distances.

'It is done Daggoth,' Naruto thought out into the void with a hint of smugness.

'Excellent. Return to the main Hive cluster, we have a discovered something interesting.'

'What?'

'The Overmind wishes to surprise you.'

Naruto just shrugged and mentally called for an Overlord.

-

Naruto strolled into the main hive cluster and spotted Kerrigan.

'What's going on Sarah?" Kerrigan just shrugged in return.

The Overmind's presence suddenly filled his mind and the chamber. He could hear its booming mental voice echoing throughout the hive and out into the swarm no doubt contacting every single Cerebrate in existence.

"Behold," he spoke, "My long silence is broken and I am made whole once more. The cunning Protoss have dared strike down that which was immortal, for the Protoss who murdered Zasz are unlike anything we have faced before. These Dark Templar radiate energies that are much like my own and it is by these energies they have caused me harm."

Naruto felt intrigued. He would like very much like to meet these 'Dark Templar'.

"Yet shall their overweening pride be their downfall. For when the assassin Zeratul murdered Zasz, his mind touched mine and all his secrets were made known to me. I have taken from his mind the secret location of Aiur, the Protoss home world."

Naruto could practically taste the Overmind's joy as it neared its ultimate goal. The Overmind stared down at all its children like a god as it anticipated what was to come. The Zerg would soon be perfect.

"At long last, our searching is done and the downfall of Aiur approaches!"

Daggoth's voice took over as the Overmind's presence disappeared. "For now we must ensure the Dark Templar can cause no more harm. Cerebrate, you shall set a trap for out foes, Kerrigan and Naruto will lead them to you."

Naruto and Kerrigan grinned at each other. This week just kept getting better and better!

-

Naruto grunted as he looked over the valley. Three different Hive clusters dotted the volcanic plain. From the single large one at which he was currently using the Hive connection to study the enemy layout, Kerrigan was watching him. Kerrigan was good at strategy, but Naruto was better.

Naruto just seemed to anticipate what the enemy would do. "We have the three different transport zones cut off?"

Kerrigan nodded and the Cerebrate sent the mental equivalent. "Until we can build up we should use the Nydus canals to reinforce these locations. None of them must escape."

"Then?" questioned Kerrigan.

"We crush the two smaller bases at the same time, and then we move in and catch them from two directions and end it." Kerrigan nodded and disappeared into one of the Nydus canals, appearing at the Hive Cluster to the west.

Naruto hated this part of any battle, especially on Char. Char was becoming completely enveloped by the swarm but the outer edges were underdeveloped. They lacked resources and numbers. That would soon change.

Naruto stalked down the hill, coming to rest amongst a group of Zerglings with an Overlord hovering nearby. The teleportation site behind him was an old thing; it might even be Xel'naga in origin. The swarm had grown creep over it to make it more difficult to use, but any Protoss who managed to touch it would disappear from their grasp and that could not be allowed.

Naruto and Kerrigan had a single job while waiting for a sufficient force to be mustered:

Keep the Protoss contained.

-

Naruto grunted as he paced backwards and forwards under the floating stationary Overlord. It startled him out of his frustration with a low warble. Naruto spun on sheer instinct dodging an energy blade that would have taken off his head. He backed up and stared at the hazy and opaque image of the Dark Templar. He supposed if his detection capabilities were as strong as Kerrigan's or if there were more Overlords around, he'd get a clearer picture of the assassin.

"Die abomination," its voice hissed in his mind. Naruto grinned savagely as he caught its energy blade on his heavily reinforced forearm plates. Naruto and Kerrigan both having decided that they would most likely encounter more Dark Templar in hand to hand combat in the near future had taken into themselves an evolutionary upgrade fairly recent to the swarm. Their carapace armour was now much tougher and damage resistant, but it wasn't perfect.

Naruto hissed as the Dark Templar's warp blade cut a narrow furrow into his living armour. He shot his other arm forward and managed to tear out a chunk of its forearm. It cried out mentally in pain and staggered for a moment. That was all Naruto needed. His spines shot out, plunging into the Templar's body, retraced and plunged in again, much in the same way an insect would attack with its fangs.

The Templar fell and he dismissed it; it was no longer alive, and therefore no threat and of no interest. He glanced around looking for more threats when movement just out of sight around the cliff face was signalled by the closest Zergling to it disintegrating in a blue ball of energy.

Naruto rushed forward towards the cliff, he reached it just as the Dragoon and four Zealots rounded the corner. Naruto put on a burst of speed and leapt up the wall only to push off it. He landed with a heavy thud right on top of the Dragoon. He fired his rifle three times into the backs of the surprised Zealots. Their shields, which were generally good at stopping most things, had failed under the almost point blank shots. Naruto bent and positioned his hand into the classical 'Blade' position and rammed into straight down through the Dragoon's shields and armour. He was pretty sure he hadn't actually hit the old warrior encased inside but he had to have hit something vital as he leapt of just in time for the explosion to flip him in mid air.

He landed with a grunt and as he stood grinned. The clearing which had previously been empty was covered in Zerg. Almost two hundred Zerglings filled the clearing commanded by two maybe three dozen Hydralisk. Shrieks over head told him that Mutalisk were already on the way to the nearest Protoss base. The way he had understood the briefing, the two smaller bases that blocked off the approach to the main Protoss base were made up of members of the Protoss Expeditionary Force; the main base was the Dark Templar Warband.

Naruto grinned darkly as he turned and ran, the Zerg loping or slithering along behind him. When he arrived at the not to distant Protoss base it was already in chaos. The Mutalisk had been raining down destruction for almost twenty seconds. The Protoss Photon Cannons, their dual Anti-Air and Anti-Infantry defence structures were beginning to take their toll. Naruto dived forward, barely avoiding the falling Mutalisk whose corpse crushed the Zergling behind him and created a minor obstacle for the rest.

He raised his rifle and fires six shots into the body of a Dragoon. He continued to move forward, slinging his rifle on his back. In a split second, he passed the Dragoon just as it exploded in a spray of blue fluid. He was in amongst them, Zealots and the occasional High Templar. He punched his spines into the first Zealot he came across and with his left hand, ripped out the throat of another.

A High Templar turned towards him, readying a bolt of Psionic energy to rip him to shreds. Naruto beat him to it, and with a single thought, the Templar imploded as if crushed by a gigantic hand. A Dragoon was torn of its feet and swept into a group of approaching Zealots, crushing them and severely damaging the Dragoon. Naruto pulled his rifle by its strap off his shoulder and aimed. He fired four more times, emptying the magazine.

He fired all four shots into a Protoss Scout, which had been on a strafing run. He must have hit something vital, as the little fighter ship spun out of control and slammed into a Protoss Pylon, causing both to erupt into a plume of energy incinerating the Zergling that had been feebly scratching at the Pylon.

Naruto stared around himself as the Protoss base burned. Suddenly he could feel Kerrigan speaking out into the void, and she was obviously taunting the Protoss. Naruto grinned as his heart warmed as her dark seductive voice seemed to reverberate through his mind.

"Once again I grow tired of slaughtering your servants. Have the mighty Templar lost their infallible courage?" she taunted with a sneer.

The cold, deep and decidedly dark voice that replied surprised Naruto, this was not Tassadar. It had to be this Zeratul he had heard about.

"Well spoken, concubine of the Zerg." Naruto's mental growl must have been heard as the Protoss paused slightly before continuing "Though we strike at you from the shadows, do not thing that we lack the courage to stand in the light. You would do well to abandon this attack!"

Kerrigan scoffed "You seem overconfident of your abilities, Dark One. I am no helpless Cerebrate to be assailed under cover of Darkness. I am the Queen of Blades and my stare alone will reduce you to ashes. Prepare yourself for oblivion's embrace." She cut the link, as soon as she did Naruto roared out into the void.

"FACE ME TEMPLAR, PROVE YOUR WORTH!"

The cold voice replied with a hint of amusement "You are several centuries too young to challenge me little slave, go back to your mistress and abandon this folly."

Zeratul was gone. Naruto growled, commanding his Zerg to come with him as he stalked away from the ruins, towards the main base about a click and a half away.

As they moved forward Naruto was joined by more of the same Zerg he already had, along with a Defiler and several Ultralisk.

As he approached the main Protoss base, Naruto realised he was walking quite close to the edge of a lava pit. A Dark Templar appeared out of a drifting ash cloud, Naruto spun grabbing its cloak and using his superior strength hurled it into the pit. He was mildly impressed that the Protoss didn't make a sound as it burned alive.

He ordered the Zerglings and Ultralisk in first with the Hydralisk following. He didn't particularly care that several Zerglings were crushed under foot by the Ultralisk charge. The Ultralisk slammed into the Protoss' defences like a tidal wave. The Zerglings darting among them to wreak havoc upon the organic defenders. Naruto slipped past abandoning the use of his rifle, he realised his mistake as he found himself within a mass of Zealots.

Naruto snarled and spun out of the way of an attack, delivering a punishing strike to the Protoss' brain case. The distinctive crack of breaking bone was followed by the Zealot collapsing in a boneless heap. Naruto saw none of this as he parried another strike and shot a spine into the throat of another Zealot.

He flipped backwards into the air landing behind three attackers, but before he could use this to his advantage he hit the dirt avoiding a Psi blast from a High Templar. Naruto snarled and surged to his feet, punching his armoured and clawed hand into the spine of a Zealot still facing away from him. He gripped it, spun and slammed it down onto another Zealot. All four spines on his right arm shot out, hitting a third with enough force to jar it from its feet. He whirled again, avoiding more Psi-blades, and acting upon sheer instinct, killed four Protoss in a single second. His wings punched downward into the torso of two Protoss to his back, the spines on his left arm penetrated the skull and throat of the High Templar who he had closed with. His right arm snapped out ripping a Protoss' head from his shoulders.

He turned blocking two overhand strikes from an enraged Zealot. As he held this one off without his knowledge, the carapace armour on his right leg suddenly extend upwards at the knee forming a new thick, sharp spine right before Naruto kneed the Protoss in the stomach, impaling him.

Naruto took a moment to admire the weapon he didn't know he had before it retracted. He paused, realising he was no longer being attacked. He was surrounded by the bodies of almost thirty Zealots and one High Templar, around him the Protoss base burnt. Naruto licked his lips and hissed as a sharp bitter taste touched his tongue. He wiped his face and stared at his carapace covered hand. He was drenched in the blue-purplish blood of the Protoss.

Without even thinking about it his wings snapped backwards to impale a Dark Templar that had snuck up on him. The spines jerked outwards, tearing the Dark Protoss in two, drenching Naruto again in the alien blood.

Suddenly, and without warning, Kerrigan's voice filled with contempt surged into his awareness.

"Now Protoss, you shall know my wrath. Bow before the Queen of Blades."

Naruto grunted as Kerrigan's voice was replaced with the Overmind's quite suddenly.

"Kerrigan, continue your hunt. Destroy all the remaining Protoss on Char. Naruto, return to the main Hive cluster. You will go to Aiur with your Cerebrate and prepare for my arrival."

Naruto didn't even nod or acknowledge the Overmind's command; it would already know its servant would not dispute its orders even if he didn't like them. He could feel Kerrigan nearby and looked up to see her picking her way through debris and corpses in his direction.

Kerrigan studied Naruto as she approached him. The Overmind had made it known to her his plans to create more hybrids like themselves and had asked Kerrigan's opinion on it. Kerrigan herself had been unappreciative of the idea, not wanting any rivals for her position. The Overmind had assured her that any new hybrids would not be equal to her or Naruto in position or power.

Kerrigan had, however, thought of a rather dark reason it wouldn't work that the Overmind, in its almost omnipresent wisdom, had not thought of. Naruto would most likely see the other hybrids as rivals and he would kill them. The Overmind had asked Kerrigan why Naruto would do this. Kerrigan hadn't known, she said it was only a hunch that he would.

The Overmind had quickly come up with a theory: It believed that the beast sealed within Naruto since it was basically an extremely powerful and intelligent animal, but still an animal would see any males as rivals for his mate, Kerrigan.

Kerrigan herself had been both intrigued and angered by the idea; the idea that Naruto believed on some level whether conscious, subconscious or even instinctual that Kerrigan belonged to him angered her. She was the Queen of Blades and she could do whatever she wanted. On the other hand it meant he was also incredibly loyal to her.

She decided it was time to reward that loyalty and to ensure it into the future.

The infestation process had basically halted her aging. As with all Zerg, they only got tougher as they got older. Most of the elite Zerg under Daggoth's control were at the least a hundred and fifty years old. This was considered a feat, considering how short a normal Zerg's life span is.

Naruto's had been sped up inside the chrysalis to accommodate for all the changes. Despite being chronologically somewhere around thirteen, he was physically at least sixteen and still growing. Kerrigan was a fairly tall woman at 5'9"; Naruto was currently 6'9" and would most likely be somewhere around 7'2" of augmented hybrid muscle when he stopped growing. He was still growing at an accelerated rate and would most likely reach his maximum height in a little under six months.

Naruto watched Kerrigan as she approached, a wicked smirk adorning her still beautiful if inhuman features. Her hair, like his, was segmented like an insects, while her long and luscious red hair was gone replaced by brown his own 'hair' retained a dull blonde. Kerrigan had commented that having hair bright enough to glow slightly white under moonlight wouldn't just go away even if he wasn't human any more.

Naruto had discovered to his secret joy that almost all of their carapace could be retracted or even removed to provide them a more human appearance. The Overmind had remained suspiciously silent when questioned on this. But the Cerebrate that had overseen their birth into the swarm had mentioned something about a 'breeding' experiment before clamping up and not admitting anything more.

Naruto had been stumped, until Kerrigan had commented that the Overmind most likely wanted to know if they could have children, and if they could what they would be like. That was why Naruto felt a surge of adrenaline when several pieces of Kerrigan's carapace fell apart and dropped to the ground.

He opened his mouth to question her when she pounced, knocking him to the ground. His eyes snapped open to stare into Kerrigan's bright glowing eyes.

He swallowed nervously.

Kerrigan smirked.

He blinked.

She descended upon him.

-

Naruto recalled the last few hours with a silly grin. He and Kerrigan had made love... oh who was he kidding? They had rutted like animals in mating season, biting, struggling and clawing at each other amongst the burning ruins of a Protoss base.

(Editor's Note: Holy crap! This is the least graphic 'lemon' Joe has ever done! What is the world coming to?!)

Now there was a good chance they wouldn't see each other again for a long while, or perhaps forever. Either could die and Naruto wasn't sure if the Overmind could reincarnate them the way it did the Cerebrates. Kerrigan had remained behind on Char to unleash her rage against any remaining Protoss.

Naruto was now heading to Char with a considerable chunk of the Zerg population, at least in this sector of space. Naruto grinned darkly, the Protoss and Terran were probably too hard pressed to consider it, or just didn't understand the Zerg enough. Leading all the way back to Zerus, all the way back across the Galaxy to the Zerg's home world were Hives, worlds covered in Hives, filled with millions of dormant Zerg which could be awoken in and instant. The Overmind was capable of reaching all these vast distances, but it was taxing even to that great being, so they lay dormant until they were needed.

Naruto was currently riding in the belly of an Overlord, alone. He had been given this privilege to prepare himself for what the Cerebrate was sure would be his ultimate test. Naruto was after all leading the beachhead action against an enemy that the Overmind respected. He grunted to himself. He'd never travelled through the Warp before, at least not consciously and all his missions for the now defunct and dethroned Confederacy had been within the Koprulu sector, and thus only required sub-warp travel.

Naruto's Overlord was not going to be travelling through the warp on its own, it could be it was dangerous, it and by proxy Naruto would be travelling inside of one of the colossal Behemoths. The Behemoth was the first space faring race the Zerg had ever encountered. In fact, they hadn't even left Zerus when they had been called by the Overmind to the planet and assimilated. The Behemoths had served as huge carries for the swarm as they were almost the size of a fairly large space dock or orbiting shipyard. They had also given the Zerg the ability to survive in total vacuum.

As such no Zerg, not even Naruto and Kerrigan needed to breath, they did breath as it helped terrify the enemy through vocal intimidation and helped them communicate on a more basic level with their roars and screeches. Naruto had suggested that a fast moving mass of mean, hardened chitinous bodies that was completely silent would be more unnerving. It had been tested and proved to be correct. Cerebrates assigned to study this had noted more Humans had fled before the oncoming swarm when they had been completely silent than when not. It was currently being used as a first wave tactic among the Broods that specialized in that sort of thing.

Naruto looked out the semi transparent skin of the Overlord and spotted the gargantuan Behemoth. Appropriately named was his only thought. Despite seeing the creature with his own eyes for the first time he already 'knew' what it looked like. The specifics of every single type of creature that the Swarm could manifest were known to him. He could look at a Zergling and immediately know, if he wanted to, what brood it had come from, if it had any modifications different from other Zerglings, what those modifications did, where and why those modifications had been made, what creature had been assimilated to make way for those modifications, Hell he could even tell how old it was.

He didn't however. Zerglings were inconsequential; there were millions perhaps billions of the little monsters in the Swarm. What did one being matter?

-

High Orbit, Protoss Home World, Aiur

Naruto had wandered through the Behemoth, pleased to find it had an atmosphere inside it similar to a Hive's, heavy, warm and moist. He had been wandering through a seemingly random hallway when the Behemoth, apparently sensing his mood, had suddenly made a relatively tiny section of its skin see through for his benefit. Relatively because from the outside it was basically a small dot of opaque skin, from the inside it seemed like Naruto was no longer standing inside the Behemoth but travelling in the strange and ever changing warp. He found the ebb and flow of the purplish tunnel they travelled in to be oddly…soothing.

Now however he stared out of the makeshift view port down onto the lush green and prosperous world of Aiur, the homeworld of the Protoss. It wouldn't be a pretty blue and green ball for much longer.

Soon its grass lands would burn, its cities crumble, its vegetation be crushed under the feet of armies both Zerg and Protoss. Aiur, the beautiful paradise, the jewel of the Protoss was going to burn.

-

The Overmind's booming voice bore down on Naruto like a benevolent god.

"My children, the hour of hour victory is at hand!" The Overmind sounded excited "For upon this world of Aiur, shall we incorporate the strongest known species into our fold. Then shall we be the greatest of creations children, we shall be….perfect."

Naruto grinned savagely; the dream, his, Kerrigan's, the Overmind's, the collective dream of his species- at least the sentient members- was at hand.

"Yet before I can manifest upon this world, the way must be prepared. You must seize the Khaydarin crystals, for within them lies power undreamt of by the Protoss. Go now, Naruto, Cerebrate, and my children; secure the Crystals and bring swift wrath upon all who oppose the Swarm!"

"Yes Father,"

-

Naruto grunted as the Overlord rocked slightly as turbulence from atmospheric entry knocked it about. He stood amongst almost a dozen Zerglings. He remembered his previous conversation with the Cerebrate of the brood he had been born into.

FLASHBACK

"Cerebrate, we can expect an attack almost as soon as we land. I suggest the first waves be attack forces. Once a beachhead is secured, you can send in the drones and bigger strains." He felt the Cerebrate's acknowledgement.

"I intend to beat them to it. As soon as we land, we hit them hard and fast. According to the probes, three different Protoss tribes protect the objective. I intend to wipe out the first one as soon after we land"

END FLASHBACK

"Cerebrate," he voiced into the psychic storm that was the Zerg collective consciousness "Begin the attack."

-

Down on the surface of Aiur, Mutalisk screamed; Protoss died.

The first wave of the invasion had been a swarm of Scourge so thick it had blotted out the sun. Almost every single airborne defence in the region of the beach head had been eliminated by the living flying bombs. The next wave was made up of hundreds of Mutalisk.

The Mutalisk were being commanded directly by the Cerebrate and ultimately the Overmind's dark will. They ignored their natural instincts to hang around and destroy everything in sight. Wave after wave swooped down, strafing everything in sight. Buildings exploded and Zealots died trying to seek cover or helping other Protoss who were injured.

Defences, both Anti-Infantry and Anti-Air, were destroyed as they activated to engage the enemy.

The fight was far from one-sided.

Squads of Dragoons protected hundreds of Zealots from death as they fired their Phase Disruptor's into the air. Mutalisk exploded, some completely vaporising, some merely injured and falling to the ground, shrieking as their delicate wings were shredded by shrapnel from exploding ships or from incoming fire. Scourges were shot down, the small blind flying mindless bombs having no sense of self preservation. Some Scourge went after the same target in droves, one small scout which could be taken with a single lucky strike found itself being hit by six Scourges whose explosive chain reaction wiped out six times of their own number amongst their brethren.

Chaos.

Amongst this Chaos as the initial Zerg attack let up, completely undisturbed and undetected, they came. Two dozen slow lumbering Overlords descended softly to the rich verdant soil of the Protoss Home World.

The beachhead had been taken. The Invasion had begun.

Naruto smiled. The Overmind was pleased.

-

Naruto grunted as he first touched the earth on Aiur, the place where all the Overmind's dreams and goals would be completed. As soon as his force had been unloaded, they were on the move. It was a relatively small force, but then beachhead forces always were; a little over a hundred Zerglings, a dozen Hydralisk and two Ultralisk.

Naruto sent the two Ultralisk lumbering ahead as he followed with his small army. The Ultralisk surprising slammed into and straight through light resistance. They had landed in a large clearing in an area of land that mostly hills and cliffs, and this was where the Zerg base was to be set. The area had a high concentration of the two main things pretty much every race in existence used to support itself. It was the Mineral Crystals which was a unique development of this system and the Vespene gas geysers.

As an Ultralisk ripped apart a Photon emplacement with its Kaiser Blades, Naruto advanced past it and straight into the first outposts of the First Protoss base. Three tribes protected this place, the first which he was now fighting settled in-between two massive cliff sides. The next sat in small valleys on either side of a great open plane before the Protoss temple which housed their objective. The final surrounded the temple in a semicircular formation, each ready and willing to die for their planet and people.

And die they would, thought the Hybrid.

Naruto rushed forward as the Zerglings followed him. He ordered the Ultralisk to ignore the buildings, for now they had to cripple the heart of this base; smashing it from one end to the other as you went would require multiple battalions. Zerglings rushed in and out of the structures, slaughtering the few occupants. Then came the obstacles.

Naruto skidded to a halt and placed two shots into a high Templar, the first shorting out his personal shield the second blowing his chest into bloody fragments. An Ultralisk thundered past him in a battle rage. It slammed head first into the Gateway, the main way the Protoss brought troops into battle. It hit so hard he could hear the building's sides groan and buckle under the impact. Its brother ploughed through a group of Zealots, crushing several under foot or sending one flying with its blades. It knocked a Dragoon off its feet which was soon peppered by spines from the Hydralisk. Both Ultralisk attacks quickly shorted out the buildings defences and then it was crushed into rubble under their combined power.

Naruto meanwhile was fighting hard. He shot another Protoss in the face before snapping a bladed kick into a seconds abdomen. A sharp stab of pain shot through his thigh. He had been wounded before in battle but not so unexpectedly. He looked for his attack and stared surprised at the tiny Probe which had fired some sort of beam into his thigh. The Protoss equivalent of a drone was crushed when Naruto kicked in what he assumed to be its front panel. The base was already overrun, the survivors what few they were had fled before the oncoming storm. Naruto stood silent amongst the continuing destruction as buildings were relentlessly destroyed around him by his brethren.

He reached into the hive mind "Cerebrate, beachhead secure."

"Understood Lord Naruto. Hive established, reinforcements on their way, sending Drones to fortify the zone. What shall your next move be?"

"We wait. I suggest you establish hives at all the resource zones within the secured area. A counter attack will begin soon and the other tribes are both prepared and tougher than this one."

"Understood, secondary hives will be established."

Naruto ordered the Zerglings and Hydralisk who had survived (which was a majority) to dig in…literally. They dug themselves into the ground to wait for any enemies to come by. Naruto hid amongst the ruins of the Protoss base and settled in for a long wait.

-

By the time the Protoss had gathered themselves after both the bombardment and sudden destruction of one of their bases, the Zerg beachhead had been firmly established. In the canyons and valleys which had been cut off by Naruto's initial attack, the Creep was growing. Hatcheries were being established near any mineral deposit. The original landing site already had evolved to the point of having a Hive.

All across the planet Aiur the Zerg were attacking. Some attacks were merely diversions designed to tie up Protoss forces and inflict as much damage as possible. Others were beachheads similar to Naruto's attack force. Some had succeeded, some were destroyed in their initial attack and others started to build, only to be wiped out.

Aiur, the Paradise, was burning.

The Overmind was joyous.

-

Naruto watched from afar as the Protoss counter rush was rebuffed. This had been the third such attack; it was time to move again.

The next two Protoss bases belonged to a single tribe that had moved into two valleys that sat just off the Main Valley's floor where their goal awaited the Zerg.

Naruto had already planned his attack.

-

The First wave of the Zerg broke upon the Protoss defences like a wave against a rock. The next struck like a hammer.

The First wave, comprised entirely Zerglings, were slaughtered before they even reached the first buildings. The next wave burst out of the smoky haze left behind by rapid and constant Photon fire. Ultralisk smashed into the defence emplacements like angry titans while Zealots desperately tried to undercut the living engines of destruction by getting underfoot and slicing apart vital tendons they were halted in their desperate and foolhardy attack by Zerglings defending their larger brethren.

It didn't matter to the Zerg that in those few vicious minutes of fighting that at least three times the number of Zerglings killed by the Zealots in hand to hand were crushed under the feet of their larger cousins.

The Protoss of the Eastern Valley tried to call the other half of their tribe to send reinforcements but they never suspected that they were already under attack by an identical force.

The Protoss attempted to break out of the slowly tightening noose and by sheer coincidence both bases tried this at the same time.

They both failed.

Both breakout attempts were foiled by sudden devastating attacks by Mutalisk, the Guardian form of the Mutalisk and Scourge. This was not to say that the Zerg's air forces didn't take heavy casualties, after all, Protoss emplacements on the almost un-scale-able cliff sides dealt horrendous casualties upon the Zerg.

Guardians suffered the worst. The slow pondering crab like entities were destroyed easily as they moved at their leisurely pace; Mutalisk burned, screamed, exploded, crashed and ceased to exist as they were shot down wave after wave.

However with each wave just a little more go through, then more, then even more until the defences were overwhelmed and the emplacements destroyed. Protoss shuttles trying to ferry injured out of the war zone were shot like fish in a barrel. Scout ships shot down, the massive carriers and the small but devastating Arbiters were now lying as burning hulks of metal upon the fields of Aiur.

Soon after Air superiority was established, the lumbering and defenceless Overlords arrived on the scene, not only delivering reinforcements but also providing much needed extrasensory perception to the battlefield.

This enabled the Zerg to spot the cloaked Observer drones obliterate them and thus depriving the surviving Protoss a view of the battle….perhaps battle is a misnomer; view of the Massacre fits better with actual events.

Naruto walked away as the ravenous horde descended on the last ditch survivors. Once again, his once pristine beige cloak was covered in the life fluids of others; beige that had first become marred with red of humanity then the blue-purplish blood of the Protoss; then marred with the a multicoloured ichor from various Zerg breeds. It was a cloak bathed in the blood of others, and it showed.

The soft flexible material was so stiff it didn't move with the wind, giving Naruto a surreal appearance. The cloak's colour was patchy reds, blues, greens, blacks and a multitude of others, blending into one another. It would have been beautiful if it didn't come about because of death.

Naruto stalked forward, met halfway by a large group of Zerg they were freshly hatched too, judging by the smell of fresh blood and the strange smelling nutrient liquid used in Zerg growth process, which strangely enough smelled kind of like passion-fruit but so strongly it could be a little sickening.

He looked out over the vast plane the valleys they had just pacified connected to. He could see the Khaydarin Crystal formation in the distance.

"Cerebrate,"

"Lord Naruto?"

"Prepare a force immediately. Give them no reprieve; I want my current position fortified. Send all remaining units from the last attack in an all points attack against the last Protoss base. Hit them from all sides; I will lead a small force to obliterate defences around the formation. Have a drone immediately follow us in."

"And if the forces are defeated?"

"They will not be. Abandon everything, produce warrior after warrior. Type doesn't matter; send every hive into overdrive, overwhelm and crush them. Let's end this."

-

Naruto body slammed a shocked Zealot right before he ripped his comrade's head of with a clawed swipe. The Zealot tired to rise to his feet but was gutted by an almost casual swipe from a Hydralisk. Naruto grunted as he slashed, stabbed and ripped at the Protoss force surrounding the crystal.

He had miscalculated; he hadn't thought the Protoss sentimental enough to heavily defend the crystal, leaving their base under defended. He was outnumbered at least three to one: An unusual experience for any Zerg.

"Cerebrate, reinforce my position now, I'm about to be overwhelmed."

"Understood. Rerouting now,"

That's when the shit really hit the fan. The distinctive whine filled the air and Naruto threw himself backwards as dozens of Interceptors launched from Carriers which were just arriving on the Battlefield and strafed his swarm. Naruto cursed as he surged to his feet and engaged in hand to hand combat with the Protoss around him. He ripped his claws from the chest of a Protoss in from of him to brutally back hand another. He snarled as his back spines flickered out so fast they appeared to actual wings as they stabbed and ripped apart the Protoss behind him.

A Psi-blade slid into the meat of his left side, unbalancing him. Another slammed into his shoulder armour, coming dangerously close to cutting off his head. He roared as a Zealot carefully lined up to take off his head when a tremendous explosion shook the battlefield, knocking them all from their feet.

One of the two Carriers had ploughed into the ground, the massive machine obliterating dozens of unlucky Protoss who had be coming to reinforce the crystal defence force. The reason why was clear as dozens of Scourge threw themselves against the other Carriers' shields.

The shields failed and almost two dozen organic flying bombs smashed into the massive warship. It started to sink right before a few more slammed into the engine section, making the ship explode in another massive shock wave, debris raining down on the battlefield.

Naruto took the initiative and bolted. He surged to his feet and channelled his rage outward. There was a whoosh of heat and flame that died as quickly as it went. The aftermath looked like a piece of the planet Char has just replaced a small few dozen feet wide section of Aiur. The Zealots around him had been …char broiled for lack of a better description.

Around him the Protoss regrouped and made to charge right before an Ultralisk slammed into their lines, its blade and massive feet killing many. His reinforcements had arrived. He let out a breath in relief. Being by himself against a Protoss army wasn't his idea of fun. Sure being outnumbered usually meant a good hard fight but certain death wasn't on his list of things to do.

Naruto swung his rifle off his back and fired shot after shot in the now scattered and retreating Protoss forces; most likely they were retreating to regroup, but judging by the fires in the distance they wouldn't have much to go back to.

Naruto grinned as his reinforcements surrounded the crystal formation.

"Cerebrate, send in the Drone. What's the status on the Protoss base?"

"Heavy resistance encountered. The Protoss have mounted a massive offensive directed at your position. Reinforcements on route, offensive should hit your position sometime after Drone begins harvesting."

"Understood we'll hold this position till it's over. How long should the Drone take?"

'Ten minutes,"

"Send in the Overlord, we'll evac the Drone by air and the ground forces will hoof it."

"Understood, Drone has begun harvesting."

Naruto looked around as the Zerg arranged themselves in defensive formations. The hundred Zerglings that had only just arrived were directed by Naruto to go outside the Crystal formation and burrow into the ground. They were followed by several Hydralisk.

All around him, the Zerg were instinctively preparing themselves to fight. The carapace flaps that hid the Hydralisk spines fluttered up and down on Hydralisk surrounding him; Zerglings shook themselves, flexing limbs; Ultralisk stamped their feet and Mutalisk shrieked at each other as they lazily flew about the area.

Almost a minute later the attack came. They must have emptied out the base; Zealots, High Templars, Dragoons, scout ships, carriers, even a couple of the massively powerful Archons.

"Here they come,"

Naruto jumped up onto a part of the massive crystal formation and zeroed in on the enemy. Normally when firing at an enemy with a sniper rifle, particularly the Gauss rifle used by Ghosts, only one shot was necessary, either head or body. Protoss were another matter. It required two precisely timed shots, one to short out their personal shield and another to kill them before they had time to react.

That is why the first Protoss to die only notice his shield flare with an impact right before his brain matter and pieces of his skull decorated his comrades in gore. Naruto grinned as he took down Templar after Templar; he felt a psychic crackle in the air above him and with more instinct than thought shot a High Templar, stopping the psychic storm which would have fried many of the Zerg on the ground.

The Zealots had worked themselves into a righteous fury. They charged right past the dug in lines. Naruto sent a simple mental command, and the Zerglings and Hydralisk and a single Defiler dug themselves of the ground. The Defiler unleashed billions of tiny insects that covered its skin, effectively blanketing the area of the battle field occupied by the Protoss heavy hitters. The Dragoons and High Templars were engulfed in a living storm. The Defilers' Dark Swarm was aptly named.

It then spewed forth the deadly Plague; the area around it was coated in a highly toxic cloud, dangerous to both friend and foe. The Zerg rushed in regardless to meet the slightly disorientated but nonetheless determined enemy. The Archon just drifted straight through the Dark Swarm and tore the Defiler apart with a Psionic shockwave. Naruto grimaced; that was bad.

The Mutalisk were holding there own against the scouts and carriers, and the Zerglings and Hydralisk had been devastating those Protoss in the cloud; the Zealots had been held in check but not utterly crushed by those that remained. The Archon was a problem.

The Protoss being, which was basically a floating ball of Psionic energy had no doubt sensed Naruto as a serious threat and was heading right for him. It smashed through the lines, tearing apart any Zerg in its way and any that touched it were burned, though they did minor damage to the fragile body contained within the energy mass.

Naruto slung his rifle across his back and jumped down, rushing the energy being. He channelled his rage, his inner fire right at the Archon. The two opposing Psionic energies met with a thunderous clash. Pyrokinetic fire met with pure Psionic energy. Naruto grunted under the strain, reflexively brining his hands up as if controlling the flame with them, an instinctive gesture that even though unnecessary would most likely stay with him his whole life.

He pushed more energy into the flame and felt the Archon push back even harder.

The ball of flame and energy surged towards him so close it scorched his skin and his cloak started to smoulder. Naruto screamed under the strain and fell to one knee, unknown to him, in his pain, his nose started to bleed.

-

All over Aiur and in the surrounding space, sensitive psychic minds, mostly Protoss but the occasional Cerebrate and the Massive Overmind turned their senses to this battle. Something momentous was happening.

-

Naruto's howl of agony as the flames began to engulf him before he finally pushed back, morphed into a roar of rage. The Archon staggered as a new bolt of fire blasted straight through its own defences and through it, shattering the psychic being. Its death cry was felt by its flesh and bone brethren.

Naruto wasn't done. The fire swept forward and in a show of precision control, every single surviving Protoss on the field got cooked. The flame shot into the air, moving in massive tendrils like the great tentacles of the mythical Kraken as they swerved and swayed, smashing into Protoss ships but avoiding, sometimes merely sliding around other Zerg.

The flame finally coalesced into a single pillar which pierced the Carrier hanging above the battlefield like a massive spear. The Protoss warship never stood a chance; it exploded in a spectacular display of energy.

The flame faded, leaving only still flickering embers on its victims charred corpses as a testament to its existence.

'Korhal style, just the way I like it,' Naruto snickered darkly as he fell to his knees and face first into the dirt, unable to summon the strength to catch himself.

"Are you alright my Son?"

"Yes…merely…tired…father…" he trailed off into sweet unconsciousness.

The Overmind looked down upon his Male child with pride. The boy's abilities were massively powerful, but the Terrans' crude limiters were extremely taxing for him to use. When he did use them though, the ensuing show was always entertaining.

The Cerebrate sent a single small command. When the Drone had harvested the crystal and was picked up by the Overlord, it picked up Naruto as well.

The Lord of Spines would rest for a while, and then it would be time for the final phase of the plan.

-

Naruto awoke to the rumbling voice of the Overmind.

"You have done well my children. The Protoss can do nothing but flee before the onslaught of the Swarm. But now you must assault one final site before our conquest is assured. Behold, there is a temple not far from here that lies upon ground most hallowed. Though I have bore witness to countless millennia, the temple which you must assault is older by far. For it was constructed by my creators, the Xel'naga"

Naruto hissed under his breath. That as going to be a tough battle to win.

"And it marks the site were the Xel'naga first set foot upon Aiur. The Temple must be cleared and the Khaydarin crystal set in its place. Only there shall the way be made ready, for it is upon that ground alone that I may be made manifest."

Naruto grimaced. He had to help the Overmind, he wanted to help the Overmind, but this was going to be one hell of a battle.

The Overmind's presence faded once again and Naruto could feel the Cerebrate waiting in the wings for his decision.

"Abandon this hive; bring everything that can be moved with us. The forces with hold off the enemy until a base can be grown. Prepare yourself Cerebrate, we're in for one hell of a fight."

-

Naruto grunted as he settled into position. He'd climbed a large tree to get a lay of the land as the Zerg moved in a flurry of activity behind him, establishing a Hive as quickly as possible. He didn't like what he could see. The Protoss practically surrounded them and were defended in depth.

Their new base rested in a sloping part of the valley with only a few trees dotted here and there. Cliff faces to the east and west almost hid from view two Protoss bases. Further down the valley just past a small lake was the temple with the enemy surrounding it on all sides. On the far right quadrant of the valley lay another Protoss base.

The attack had begun, and it was a massacre. The Protoss unprepared for such a large initial force broke upon the Zerg defences, beating a hasty retreat the Zerg on their heels like hell hounds.

Naruto commanded Mutalisk to attack the two forward bases immediately as he headed east. While Naruto personally led his own group right into the teeth of the enemy's eastern plateau, strategically it was an awkward place, only one entrance for the enemy to gain entrance allowed both for a single heavily defended entrance but it also boxed the Protoss in. Plus the base had been stretched over the Plateau providing a wide target for any aerial attack.

Naruto took advantage of this. He attacked from the plateau's rough hewn path entrance attracting the Protoss to him in a fierce melee while Mutalisk and a small group of Guardians laid waste to the base. They did encounter resistance in the air but they were quickly obliterated by far greater numbers.

Naruto snarled as he tore a Protoss in half. The aliens had been pushed back in bloody close quarters fighting until they had broken and scattered amongst the ruins of their now burning base. The Zerg were hunting them down. His attack had suffered heavy casualties but was still strong. The other attack group had been reduced to almost one third its original strength and had retreated to recuperate.

The Cerebrate, as proactive and utterly paranoid as he always was about numbers and base strength, had already established Hives at the valley mouth and was building more over the old Protoss bases to take advantage of nearby resource deposits.

Naruto commanded his attack group to fall back to the valley mouth. He could feel all available forces moving up. The Protoss were sure to retaliate and they had to be ready.

-

The Protoss were already attacking by the time he arrived. The small defensive location had yet to truly turn into a formidable obstacle and as such was suffering severely. Naruto growled low in his throat as he charged the attacking Protoss.

It seemed their initial muster of forces was purely ground troops; Zealots and Dragoons blasted the small group of Zerg defenders. The Protoss forces were torn apart under the onslaught of the Zerg counter attack.

Naruto smirked as he shot a charging Zealot; he rolled out of the way of an attack from a Dragoon, and turned to attack it only to see it detonate under an assault from several Hydralisk. Naruto grinned as the Protoss retreated.

"Cerebrate, I've got a plan for the next stage of the assault. We'll tech up then attack. First wave will be Zerglings, Hydralisk, Scourge and Mutalisk. This first wave will take out enemy troops, the second wave of Hydralisk and Ultralisk with Guardians will take care of the structures and anyone left. Then once the entire sector is clear we'll concentrate on the temple."

Naruto sighed as yet another Spore Colony burst to life. They would hold. They had to. The Overmind was depending on them.

-

The next Protoss attack came almost twenty minutes later from the skies. The first signs of an impending attack where the Carrier-born Interceptors appearing out of thin air to strafe the Hive Cluster then disappear just as quickly before locks could be drawn on them.

"An Arbiter," Naruto sneered.

"FIND IT AND BRING IT DOWN!" heedless of the casualties they were about to have inflicted upon them, a dozen Mutalisk shot towards the obviously cloaked area in the sky to find an Arbiter hiding in a cloud bank. The Zerg attacked viciously not caring that almost half of them were dead from attacks from cloaked ships.

The Mutalisk pounded the Arbiter until the last one left alive got off a lucky shot straight into its engines before it died. Naruto swore as almost two dozen scouts and three Carriers were revealed to his eyes.

"Bring up the Scourge; blow them out of the sky!" as he said this, the Spore colonies on the ground started to fire their corrosive version of the Creep which lay under his feet at the ships in the air.

"Forget the Interceptors concentrate all fire on the Carriers, BRING THEM DOWN!" Naruto took a breath, he had to calm himself; he was giving verbal orders when he didn't need to.

One of the impossibly fast unmanned Interceptors started to strafe his position; Naruto reached out with his mind and crushed the annoying robot before hurling its remains at a scout. Naruto smirked and made a game of it, helping himself aim and direct his attacks with grand physical movements of his hands making him look like a conductor of some kind of macabre opera.

Naruto smirked as shots from spore colonies slammed into one of the Carriers, disabling it and making it crash in a fiery explosion the heat from which Naruto could feel even from this distance.

Naruto smiled as the two other carriers beat a hasty retreat, one exploding mid turn and the other limping off, trailing smoke and slowly sinking. It wouldn't make it home. Reinforcements were on the way. Soon the final push could begin.

-

Naruto laughed manically as he charged forward, firing as he went. A massive swarm charged behind him, practically shredding any enemy the came across, hardly stopping to kill them. A few hundred metres behind them Ultralisk were tearing apart the first line of buildings. They were approaching the temple. Naruto lifted a Dragoon with his mind and threw it at an Archon before leaping towards it and blasting it with a spear of flame.

He smiled as the horde rushed past, heedless of casualties as they engulfed the Protoss. He glanced at the Temple which towered above him.

'This place is bigger than we thought. Its going to take a while to bring down." Naruto hearing a familiar whining engine, looked up and smiled.

He sighed, taking a deep breath and centring himself. He looked up and focused all his will upon the Carrier floating above him. A High Templar near him froze and stared, somehow unharmed amongst the Chaos of battle.

"What are you doing human?"

The Protoss's eyes widened as Naruto made a gripping gesture with both hands and the Carrier stopped dead. It groaned as its structural integrity was damaged as its engine's continued to push it, despite its dead stop.

Naruto gritted his fangs with effort and strain as he slowly pulled his arms down from their raised position, the Carrier's nose dipping as he did so. The Templar stared at the Hybrid Zerg in awe; such terrible power was beyond belief. When his fists came in line with his face he suddenly yanked down hard.

The Templar, if it had a mouth, would have gaped in shock, awe and absolute horror as the Lord of Spines directed the Carrier to slam into the Temple, obliterating both in a massive explosion.

It knocked both of them flat. Naruto climbed to his feet first observing his handiwork. The Temple had been flattened, the debris both rock and metal had devastated friend and foe alike in the surrounding area.

Naruto sighed. His brain hurt and his arms burned, almost as if he had pulled it down with his bare hands and was nursing a hangover. He connected with the swarm, noting with satisfaction that the Protoss had been stunned by the sudden destruction of their sacred site and had been overwhelmed in their confusion. The survivors were fleeing.

Naruto looked over at the Templar who was staring at the Temple ruins in horror. He walked up to him and smashed him viciously over the back of the head, knocking him out. He hefted the Templar over a shoulder and walked away. A Drone carrying the precious piece of the Khaydarin crystal passed him on his way.

-

The Templar named Ratak woke slowly and noticed he was staring up at the sky of Aiur which was glowing a strange orange. Warm stone was beneath his back and his head ached.

"Good to see you are awake, little Templar." He sat up staring at the horrific melding of Zerg and Human that towered over him.

"Get up. I've let you live so you can bear witness to this momentous event."

"Bear witness to what, Zerg?" the Hybrid pointed behind him and despite himself Ratak turned and stared.

The massive crater which had once been the site of the ancient Temple looked like an open festering wound upon the skin of Aiur. He noticed they were on a burnt tower which was part of a Nexus, the Pyramidal heart of every Protoss settlement.

'Wha..." He was about to ask when a massive psychic presence invaded his mind. He heard the Zerg behind him gasp in pleasure and turned to look at him. The human had an almost joyous look on his face. He turned again, looking to the sky in the direction of the massive presence. Something massive fell out of the sky and slammed into the Temple crater like a comet. The dust cloud kicked up by the impact obscured all vision and the shockwave almost tore Ratak off his feet.

The dust began to settle and Ratak jumped, noticing the Human Zerg standing next to him and staring intently at the impact point. In the street and in the sky above him he could see Zerg rushing and swooping towards the sight.

"No…it can't be!" he whispered in his mind as the realisation of what had happened dawned on him. Something massive rose out of the crater. Huge walls of flesh expanded as the Overmind expanded and stretched out, filling the crater.

Ratak almost fell to his knees when some unseen force pulled him up and hung him in front of the human Zerg.

"Welcome Protoss, to the future." with that the human's mind flooded into his and Ratak's mind, no matter how strong, no matter how protected by the Khala, almost collapsed as the monstrous will of the Overmind invaded it. He could hear the terrible voice of the Swarm.

Naruto stared out at the Overmind.

"Now shall the events set into motion so long ago be made complete, for the Protoss too were created by the Xel'naga. They were the first creation gifted with the purity of form and we were the second creation blessed with the purity of essence. Indeed our two species are but opposite facets of a greater whole. Soon shall our two races be made as one, thenceforth shall all feel the wrath of the Eternal Swarm…for the hour of judgement has come!"

Naruto smiled as he tossed the hopeless Protoss off the edge of the building to smash on the ground a hundred feet below.

"Glorious,"

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I hope you enjoyed it, this concludes Episode 2 of Starcraft now onto Episode 3 in the next chapter…when does that come…not even God is powerful enough to figure that one out.

There are a few references in this I hoped you caught them, such as "Korhal style" this was thrown in by Dirty Reid as a clever reference to other such says like Cajun Style etc. Also another reference is when Naruto pulls down the Carrier...di you spot it....yes that's right Force Unleashed in perhaps the coolest button mashing even in gaming history you actually pull a Star Destroyer from the sky...just my own little tribute to such a cool thing here.

When it does, it better not be as long as this one, YOU HEAR ME?!?!

P.S: Please check out 'Mercer's Progeny' by MrSkull; it's the only Naruto x Prototype Crossover that isn't a piece of shit.