Sorry that I'm a little late, but merry Christmas anyways. My present to you: the 4th Chapter, that has been rewritten 4 separate times because of computer-based problems ^^' Anyways I still hope you enjoy reading and thank you for your patience with me :D

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"They're back, Lady Fifth." A Chunin told Tsunade. She was relieved to hear that, especially without 'except for...' being added in. Shizune, who was standing next to her as usual, also showed a smile at the good news.

"Good. Bring them to me." She answered and waited patiently, while her bodyguards took positions that would easily enable them to overwhelm any unwanted guests. Or so they had thought.

But none of them had expected the stranger, who entered along with the group, to be this big. The man was at least 220 cm tall and wearing some unfamiliar kind of green full-body armor, which made him look even more menacing.

Shikamaru stepped forward and handed Tsunade a short written report on everything that had happened in the forest. After carefully reading through all of it Tsunade looked up and decided to break the awkward silence.

"So you have been responsible for all that commotion in the forest?" Tsunade directly addressed the man in front of her desk.

"More or less, yes. I did crash-land in the forest, but then was attacked by your people." The man responded in a deep voice that perfectly fit the overall 'bad ass' impression that he gave. Out of the corner of her eye Tsunade could even see Shizune tremble in either fear or awe at the stranger. "I guess it was all just a big misunderstanding." The armored man finished.

"That's one way to put it." Tsunade responded. "So, in this report it says your name is John. Is that correct?"

"It is. My rank is that of Master Chief Petty Officer, I participated in the SPARTAN II program and my military call signal is Sierra 117." John answered.

"I'm afraid I would lie if I said that I heard any of those names anywhere before. And I'm sure my Shinobi can relate. Where exactly are you from?" Tsunade inquired further. With that the Master Chief slowly raised his right hand, what caused the Hokage's bodyguards to tense up. But John didn't attack anyone. Instead a small, apparently naked woman appeared in his palm.

The jaws of several male Ninjas in the room dropped and some of the girls blushed bright red, either from embarrassment or jealousy. After a couple of seconds everyone had regained their composure and the small woman, who had been chuckling about the reaction until now, spoke up.

"My name is Cortana."the A.I. Introduced herself. "I am John's artificial intelligence and will gladly answer all your questions, as far as I am able to and without giving away classified information."

After Cortana and John had answered all of Tsunade's questions she waited for Uso Shinjitsu, the 'living lie-detector' from the Anbu Foundation, to present his results. The young man didn't take long before speaking.

"As crazy as it sounds, Lady Hokage, I couldn't detect a single lie in anything they have said. That means..." He was then interrupted by Tsunade herself.

"They're telling the truth." She was relieved to know that, because it meant that the Master Chief was no threat to the village. But then another, not unimportant thought crossed her mind.

"You will need a place to sleep and food I guess?" she asked John.

"I can stay awake much longer than a regular human and can survive long periods of time without eating or drinking." The Master Chief said. "However I do need food and sleep in the long run in order to stay alive." he added hesitantly after a few seconds.

"I see." Tsunade pondered "Then we'll have to find you a place to stay and you'll have to earn money through work. How good exactly are you at completing missions? Especially those of the more dangerous type?" she asked the soldier and wasn't disappointed with the answer.

"It's what I was made for." The SPATAN said confidently.

"Great! That settles that then. I'll let you know when I have a mission for you. But just so you know in advance: Most of these missions will probably be done in teams. Is team-work okay for you?" She added curiously.

"I have completed objectives in teams before." The warrior answered "And you could say that I'm never really alone." he added while looking down at the glowing woman in his palm.

"Good, now that that's out of the way we still have to find you a place to stay. How about..." But she was interrupted before she could even make a suggestion.

"He can stay with me!" Naruto shouted. Everybody looked at him in surprise, but after giving it a moment of thought Tsunade actually found the idea pretty good. When Naruto had returned with Sasuke and Sakura after the war, they had all been rewarded in various ways. Among those rewards had been huge mansions in the old Uchiha district, which were far too large for a single person anyways, so there would be more than enough space for the Master Chief to use.

"Do you accept this offer?" Tsunade asked the Chief.

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John thought about this very carefully, looking at the young man who had made the offer. Naruto was showing the most genuine smile John had seen in ages. After some seconds of consideration and making sure Cortana had no objections, he accepted, which made Naruto's grin widen even more. John didn't really understand the reason behind the smile or the offer in general, but looking at his current situation it was his best option to accept the blond Ninja's invitation.

Soon they were on their way and Naruto instantly started asking a thousand questions about John, his past, his training, his comrades... basically about everything there was to know about SPARTAN 117. Quite soon he had enough of the quiz. Luckily Cortana took over his part in the conversation, thus preventing him from saying something that would probably be considered rude. The blond man didn't even seem to notice.

"All right, here we are!" These words were what John had wished Naruto to say for what felt like an eternity. Given a situation like this, his advanced senses could even be seen as a disadvantage, that was the SPARTAN's lesson of the day.

Naruto gave him a quick tour through the mansion, which appeared even larger from the inside. It was only a 3-story building, but so wide that an entire battalion of ODSTs could live in it, probably even giving everyone their own separate room.

"If you ever need anything, just let me know." Naruto said with a fox-like smile.

"Er... thank you." The Master Chief answered insecurely. He couldn't help it, he just wasn't used to such nice hospitality.

"You're welcome." Naruto said and with that he gave John a key to the house and led him to a huge room. "Here you go, make yourself at home ."

The room was very large, roughly 70 m² according to Cortana's estimation. It had a very comfortable-looking, king-sized bed, a door that led to a separate bathroom, several seats and tables, a couch, quite a few closets and a huge window plus balcony.

"I really appreciate it, but..." John started, but was cut off mid-sentence by Naruto before he could humbly decline the offered room.

"If you think this room is big, you should have a look at mine." he said winking at John. At that moment the doorbell rang and Naruto excused himself to go answer the door. John took the opportunity to lay down his weapons on the floor.

Since he didn't know when or how he would be assigned to a mission, he decided that after 4 years it was time to finally get out of his armor for once. But just as he was about to start by taking off his helmet, Naruto rushed into the room.

"Hey guess what! We've been assigned to a mission as a team of three." he shouted happily.

"Three?" John asked as he lowered his hands from his helmet which he now hadn't taken off after all. "So that means you, me and...?"

Just then a girl with long dark hair and a slightly timid expression on her face turned around the corner and stepped into the room. John remembered her, she had been in the second team he had 'met' in the forest.

"That would be me." The girl said. "I'm Hinata Hyuga, nice to meet you." she added while bowing.

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And that's all for Chapter 4. I hope you liked it and won't kill me even though my Chapters always take their sweet time, but it's not my fault :( I'm really busy with a lot of private stuff at the moment AND my PC is still well... shit. So my Laptop here will have to do until further notice^^

Stay awesome :)