Hey guys!

sorry for the delay, it's been exam season lately and I haven't had the time to write as much as I hoped.

Anyway... ON WITH THE SHOW!

"Chief!" yelled Cortana.

Everyone on the room looked dumbfounded as the behemoth collapsed to the ground.

Cortana ran a check on the Chief's bio-signs, and realized that he was worse off than she had expected. His liver had stopped working, his insides were bleeding badly and his heart rate had increased exponentially. It seemed that he was going into cardiac arrest.

"I need a medic NOW!" she told the group in the room. "His heart is going to explode soon if we can't stabilize him"

"Kakashi Sensei, go get Lady Tsunade, I'm afraid that this is way over my skills" said Sakura.

"I'll try to stabilize his condition for the moment, but we need Lady Tsunade's expertise"

"On it" said the man called Kakashi, as he disappeared in a blur.

"I may be able to lower his heart rate, but I'm going to need direct contact with his skin" Sakura said.

"I'm going to violate almost every protocol I have, but you're right. Ill open up the suit" replied Cortana. "I am going to need help to take it off of him, though… I'll also need you to flip him over."

Sakura, Naruto and Yamato looked at each other in confusion, but did as they were told.

Once they had the Chief on his back, they heard a hiss come from the head, as it moved slightly.

Then they heard loud CLANGS all over his body.

"Alright, first remove the chest piece" instructed Cortana. "Then remove the pieces covering his legs and groin. Lastly, remove the helmet"

They did as they were told, removing the armor with difficulty. As Yamato and about 3 Naruto's lifted the chest piece Yamato said "how does he move in this, it weighs more than rocks!"

"He's really strong" replied Cortana, not wanting to break even more protocols.

As they were removing the armor from his body, they were surprised at the amount of scars that covered John's body. But most of all, they were astonished at how pale he was.

Then, they moved towards the head, and removed the helmet. They looked in a kind of stupor as they saw Chief's face. Square, covered in scars, and bruised as hell.

Immediately, Sakura snapped out of it and concentrated, focused her chakra and placed her palms on Chief's chest. She nearly jumped when she realized the amount of damage that his body had sustained, and was glad to have called Lady Tsunade to help. She quickly concentrated back to the task at hand and stabilized his heart, which was on the verge of bursting. She breathed in and calmed herself.

As Sakura was focusing on the Chief, Naruto's curiosity got the best of him. He picked up the helmet and put it on.

"What are you doing?" came a voice from the helmet, making Naruto Jump.

"Who are you?" asked Naruto while trembling.

"I'm Cortana. Now, what do you think you are doing?" scolded Cortana.

"I… I was curious" said Naruto. "Wait… where are you? And how are you talking to me?" asked the hyperactive youth. Then, his face went pale "is the suit possessed?!" he panicked.

Cortana sighed. "No, I am not a spirit that has possessed the armor. I'm the AI that runs the armors systems. I also help the Chief in his missions." She said whilst slapping herself for saying too much.

"What's an AI?" asked Naruto.

"It stands for Artificial Intelligence, but I doubt you'll understand what it means" answered Cortana.

As this was going on, Sakura had finally managed to stabilize Chief's heart. She looked over to where the commotion was coming from, and saw Naruto running around screaming something about the helmet being possessed. She smacked Naruto on the head and told him to calm down.

"Is he stable?" asked Cortana from the helmet.

"Yes" replied Cortana. "Where are you?" she asked.

"Pick up the helmet and put it on" groaned Cortana

Sakura picked up the helmet and put it on, and nearly had a heart attack when Cortana appeared on the visors HUD.

"Hi! I'm Cortana" she introduced herself.

"What are you?" asked Sakura.

"I'm what's called an AI, or Artificial Intelligence. My function is to help the Chief on his missions. And before you ask, no, I'm not a spirit possessing the armor, as your dimwitted friend thinks" she answered.

Before Sakura could ask any more questions, Kakashi came in with Tsunade.

"Talk to me" she ordered Sakura.

"I've managed to stop his heart from exploding, but he has multiple ruptured organs, and is bleeding internally. Also, his liver has stopped working. He also has 2nd degree burns throughout his body" answered Sakura.

"Go get me a Hyuga, NOW! I need to see if there are any irregularities in his chakra flow before I do anything" said Tsunade. Suddenly, she noticed that Sakura still had Chief's helmet on.

"Sakura, what are you wearing?" she demanded.

"Oh, it's the Chief's helmet. I was talking to Cortana" she said as she removed the helmet and placed it in the table.

"And who is Cortana?" the Hokage inquired.

"Hello! I'm Cortana "came a voice from the helmet. "Before you ask, yes I'm in the helmet, but no, I am not a spirit possessing it."

"Hinata is here, my Lady" said one of the Anbu stationed at the door.

"Hinata, use your Byakugan, and tell me if there is anything wrong with his chakra network" ordered Tsunade.

"Yes, Lady Hokage. Byakugan!" said the shy kunoichi.

"So?"

"Lady Tsunade….. he…. he…. he doesn't have a chakra network….." said Hinata with shock on her face.

"What?!" came from the other shinobi on the room.

"It's not there! I don't see any chakra flowing through him! He should be dead!" explained Hinata.

"Excuse me, can someone explain to me what is going on in here?" came from the helmet on the table.

"Chakra is a form of life-energy that is present on all living things" started to explain Sakura.

"Therefore, absence or depletion of chakra means death" finished Tsunade.

"But this is impossible. He doesn't have chakra, but yet he is alive. This is strange to say the least" said Kakashi, from the corner from where he has standing, having lowered his book. (A.N: I know, Kakashi lowering his book! This is getting serious!)

"Alright, I need some space. I'm going to operate. Kakashi, take them out of here. Leave Sakura and Hinata with me. Also leave Yamato, just in case we need to restrain him" said Tsunade.

"Yes, Lady Hokage" responded the white-haired shinobi, whilst walking towards the door.

As he headed out, he grabbed Naruto by the collar of his jacket and dragged him out, much to his annoyance.

"You heard her, everyone out. NOW" he said calmly.

As everyone left, Cortana simply watched as Tsunade kneeled down next to the Chief. She brought her hands together as if she was praying. What Cortana saw next left her speechless. She activated the helmets recording software and simply watched as some sort of green aura surrounded Tsunade's hands.

Once she had focused her chakra on her hands, Tsunade then placed on the Chief's torso and concentrated. She was amazed at the amount of damage his body had sustained. She also was impressed to know that even in this state, and with no chakra whatsoever, this giant of a man had successfully beaten a group of chunin and jonin, more so when one of these jonin was Kakashi, and the other was a Wood Style user. All of this made her think what IS he? Then again, his wounds are serious, and if his heart didn't hold, he would drown in his own blood. Thinking this, she quickly started healing the behemoth beside her.

A few hours passed, and Naruto was driving everyone insane. The obnoxious little brat hadn't shut up in practically the entire time that the operation was taking.

Then, finally, Lady Tsunade exited the room, looking exhausted. She had huge bags under her eyes, and was sweating heavily.

"So? How did it go? Is he ok? Is he?" asked Naruto.

"He'll live" replied Tsunade. "Hell live, but he took serious damage to his internal organs. I did the best I could, but still I couldn't get him to recover completely. Never the less, I expect him to wake up in a few days' time" she said.

"Neat!" said the hyper-active knucklehead.

"I want someone to guard this room at all times, and someone to watch over him" the Hokage ordered. "If he wakes up, try to keep him calm. When he does wake up, I want to be told so immediately and I want him to be taken to my office as soon as possible" she continued.

"Also, before I forget, Cortana asked if we could post some guards at their ship? you know, the big thing in a crater a few miles south from here? Kakashi, tell Gai, Asuma and Kurenai to take their teams and guard it" she finished.

"Right away, Lady Hokage" said Kakashi with a flourish just as he disappeared from the room.

"The rest of you, go home and rest. You'll have a tough day tomorrow.

12 hours later Sakura, Naruto, Yamato and Kakashi entered Chief's room to start their guard shift.

Yamato approached the bed, checking if the Chief was awake or conscious. When he was sure he wasn't, he used his Wood-Style Justu to Bind John to the bed.

As he did, Cortana suddenly spoke from the helmet, startling everybody.

"You do know that isn't going to help at all, do you?" she asked.

"How do you know?" asked in turn a very astonished Yamato. "This wood is hard as steel. Plus, he's unconscious, if he were to wake up, these will restrain him."

"You are talking about the guy you unfroze, attacked and got your buts kicked for it. AND he doesn't have any Chakra for that matter…" replied Cortana.

"Yes, I've been meaning to ask you about that" said Sakura. "How can he be that strong if he doesn't have any Chakra? And also, why is he so scarred?" she asked.

"Well, he is a SPARTAN after all, he has to be strong. As for the scars, that's classified intel" said Cortana.

"What's a Spartan?" asked Kakashi from a corner, his eyes never leaving his book.

"SPARTANS, like him, are super soldiers created to save humanity. Back home, where we came from, Spartans were the people from a place called Sparta, and were the fiercest and most ferocious warriors there were. The most famous of them were the valiant 300, who valiantly defended their country from an army of over 10000 men coming from Persia" replied Cortana. "For that reason we named the super soldiers like the Chief Spartans".

"He doesn't seem that strong to me…" said Naruto nonchalantly.

"Doesn't he now?" said Cortana, with a mild sarcastic and annoyed tone.

"Nope" said the blond teen.

"Well, and this is saying very little, Chief singlehandedly destroyed an army of 3000, plus equipment, rescued 3 VIP's and assassinated one in 12 hours. On another occasion, he ,alone, took on an entire Covenant armada, a crazed AI and his minions, and an al-consuming parasite, blew them up, and then continued his life" said Cortana. "Oh, said too much…" she mumbled and virtually face palmed herself.

"Wow. He did all that alone!?" asked Sakura.

"Well, he did have me, but I only pointed the way…" Cortana said, trying to sound modest.

"What's the Covenant?" asked Kakashi, while still reading his book.

"The Covenant were a technologically superior group of fanatics trying to erase every trace of humanity from the universe. They almost succeeded, in fact. If it wasn't for the SPARTANS, humanity would've become extinct" said Cortana.

Sakura was just about to ask again, but was interrupted by a low groan from the bed.

"uuuuuugh…" was heard from the Chief, followed by a "What the…" and a CRUNCH, after which Yamato lost all coloring in his face.

The Chief was slowly recovering consciousness.

Everything was a blur to him.

He tried to remember what had happened. How he had gotten here, and why he couldn't move.

"uuuuuugh…" escaped from his mouth.

He tried to get up, and check his surroundings, but he couldn't.

He raised his head to check why he couldn't move, and saw that there were wood restraints on his arms and legs. Why would I be restrained he thought. Wait, WOOD? he wondered.

"What the…" he said. They'd restrain him with wood? What kind of restraint is that? He said mentally.

Then, he just simply applied a little force with his wrists and the wood shackles crunched like paper.

He looked around, and saw a room full of surprised people, and one man who looked as if he were about to faint.

"How long was I out" he asked.

"About 15 hours Chief" replied Cortana calmly.

"Where's the armor?" he asked.

"Don't worry, it's on lockdown, so no one should be able to use it or take it apart" she complied.

"What happened to me?" he asked again.

"Well, to start, after we crossed the portal and you went into cryo, we drifted for about a year in deep space. The last thing I remember was the Dawn's sensors flaring and we were nearing a black hole. I was going to wake you to evacuate, but something struck the ship and knocked out all of the main systems, including me. The next thing I remember is booting up in the suit and talking to you. Apparently, from what I've been told, the Forward unto Dawn shot through the sky above this village and crashed some 20 miles south from here. The leader of the village, Lady Tsunade, sent out a few scout teams to check it out. These guys somehow found out you were in the ship and went to get you. They forced you out of cryo-sleep, seriously damaging your internal organs and rupturing a vein. When you attacked the Sangheili, they thought you attacked them and retaliated. A girl then made a weird hand sign, and your brain started to function differently, as if your mind wasn't there. Then, apparently, tour self-preservation instincts kicked in, and your brain shut itself down. Then, they brought you here, where, after I answered some questions, Lady Tsunade operated on you and saved your life. They did confiscate your weapons though, and they have a group of elite guards keeping watch on this room at all times" related Cortana.

"Anything else?" asked the Chief.

"Yes, I asked Lady Tsunade if she could post some guards on the Forward unto Dawn, to keep unwanted personnel from getting their hands on any of the equipment there" replied Cortana.

"Also, I need you to put the armor back on, so I can run a full diagnostic and bio-scan on you" she said.

The Chief nodded and walked over to where his Mjolnir Mk. VI armor was, and started to put it back on. At that moment, Kakashi entered the room with Lady Tsunade, Shizune, Hinata, and Jiraiya, who were surprised to see a man who supposedly almost had his organs liquefied, and whose heart almost blew up, standing up after merely 15 hours. And he was putting on his armor, nonetheless.

"What do you think you're doing?" said Tsunade, with a commanding tone.

"I need to run a full bio-scan on his body, to see the extent of the damage suffered by his body" said Cortana. "To do that, I need him in his armor. Also, we have violated enough protocols as it is, and we would prefer to be in the suit at all times, as it is very valuable and vital equipment, and dangerous if it were to fall in the wrong hands" she finished.

At that, the helmet hissed and Chief was once again in his armor.

"So, what's the situation?" asked Chief.

"You sustained major damage to your stomach, liver, intestines and lungs, but it is all healed now" said Cortana. "Your vitals are back to normal, and your cerebral cortex shows no abnormalities" she continued.

"I'm glad that you have recovered, but we need answers. We have some sort of lizard thing in our autopsy, and my medics tell me that that thing isn't from this world" demanded Tsunade. "And I'm guessing that you also aren't from this world." She continued.

"Also, we'd like to know what that huge thing 20 miles south of here is" said Jiraiya.

"Well, as we said a while ago, it's a long story" said the Chief.

Well, that's that for now.

thank you for reading this chapter, and i hope you're waiting for the next.

A.N: to Goldspark1: i did some research and found out that the Mind Transfer Justu doesn't transmit chakra, but does as the name says, it transfers the mind. what happened was that Chief's brain knew something was awfully wrong, so his self preservation instincts kicked in, and it shut itself down, you know, like when your computer stops working and you turn it off and on again?, something like that happened.