Hellooooo again. Wanted here with another chapter. So sorry about the long wait, just been a rather rough couple of weeks for me, and trying to keep up with cadets and homework. Also, some of that time was devoted to creating an actual plot line. I now know exactly how this story will end, what will happen, and so on and so forth. Also, look, I'm sorry about the overall quality of the chapter, I've hit writers block, and I've been pretty sick lately...
Now, onward to question answering!
Mcree114: I'm glad that you like my story. Now, I'm sorry, but I wont be answering your question about the covenant invading Planet Sarutobi, as it is apart of the plot I have set up. As for your other question, I believe that they do get their armour at that point.
Last chance: After doing some research on Spartan 039 on the Halo Wiki, I found exactly who you were talking about. I found it kinda funny, because it was a complete coincidence that I gave Naruto's spartan tag 039.
For those who don't know, 039's cannon name was Isaac.
CHAPTER
FOUR
1200 HOURS, SEPTEMBER 28, 2517
(MILITARY
CALLENDER)
PLANET REACH/ CADET INTELLIGENCE TRAINING CLASSES
"Alright, young ones," Déjà said in her smooth, slightly monotone voice as soon as the kids had entered the class. Crackers and cold milk had been lain out for them, as they were the day before, to nourish the cadets so they wouldn't starve, for lack of a better word. "Please take a seat, and we will begin our final lesson before we move onto a different subject,"
That morning had held the same...activates as Mendez liked to call them, and the cadets had the same problems as they had two days ago when they started, trying to keep up. Naruto, however, could almost feel his body adapting to the harsh work-out. He found that he could even keep up to the Chief.
Chief Petty Officer Mendez, on his end, had been surprised, despite his stony attitude, at the fact that a mere kid was keeping up with him. It usually took his trainees years to accomplish that achievement.
As the young cadets filled in the empty desks that surrounded a hologram table, Naruto, who was as far away from John as possible, made sure that he was the closest to the hologram table as everyone else. Before his first class with the blue AI, he thought all classes we're, well, boring. But the more Naruto engaged in the classes, the more interested he felt in the topic.
"Now that you have found a seat, we will start this class," Déjà began, "Today we will be learning of the history of the UNSC; how it was created, why it was created, and so on,"
The lights darkened, and a hologram of a planet appeared on the round table; just floating there.
"This," the 'dumb' AI stated, "Is humanity's home planet. It is called Planet Earth. It's where all of Humanity lived before settling colonies of distant worlds,"
A kid named Lopez raised his hand.
"Why are we learning about Earth?" He quizzed, "I thought we were learning about the UNSC,"
Déjà turned her head at him.
"The UNSC was founded at the end of the last World War on our home planet, in 2399. Also, the final battle that dictated Planet Earth's future was fought on it, as well as most of the battles,"
"Anyway-" the hologram of Earth changed into two different holograms. Each hologram was of two different groups, as well as a emblem floating over the two leaders heads. Below the emblems, the one on right said 'MOPE' while under the other said 'The Leadership'. MOPE's emblem was a skull with a shield behind it, as well as two blades cutting diagonally behind it. The Leadership's was a lot more simpler. Just a hexagon with a lightning bolt inside of it. Déjà indicated towards MOPE. "-MOPE is a group of soldiers who wanted to unite all of the nations of Earth into one altogether nation, while The Leadership wanted things to remain the same. MOPE stands for 'Marines Of Planet Earth'."
The hologram turned into a battlefield, with MOPE and The Leadership fighting on a ridge, guns blazing, and blood flying. There was, however, no audio.
"Many battles were fought on Earth, as I said before. The fighting, however, became so intense that a quarter of the planet was forced to evacuate,"
"Both armies sustained heavy losses, and it was realized that if they did not stop fighting, both sides would fall into a long stalemate; no one to attack, nor defend, until they had enough soldiers to continue. To stop the casualties, they fell into a two year cease-fire,"
"Negotiations between the two groups were made during that two year period, in hopes to finally stop this twenty year war. Finally, nearing the end of the two years, the two armies came to a decision; all the Nations would still be separate from the others, but they will fall under the same dictatorship. They also came to the conclusion that they would become a joint-leadership, and the war finally ended. The new joint group renamed themselves to the UNSC, and the civilizations (apart from a few civil wars of coarse) began a new reign of peace," The AI concluded her story.
"So that's how the UNSC started?" Naruto quizzed, and John snorted from across the room.
"That's what it just said, moron," John said with a hint of resentment in his light, childhood voice.
Naruto narrowed his eyes, but ignored the insult. Instead, he chose to defend the AI.
"She, not it,"
"Oh, now you're defending the dumb AI?" John gave a small laugh.
Naruto slammed his tiny fists into the metal desk he sat in, and stood up.
"Well, it sounds to me like your still mad that you lost the fight, and the game!" the whiskered blond shot back at 117.
Déjà calming blue appearance flickered to a darker night-like blue.
"Enough children! Save it for the battlefield!"
"The...battlefield?" John took an interested look. "What do you by that?"
Déjà flickered orange before going back to her light blue appearance, a trait that most AI had that signified that they were flustered, or embarrassed.
"Mendez will explain later," Déjà sighed. She then stood straighter. "Now, who can tell me the whole point of the class, and the word-of-the-day?"
Naruto shook his head, thinking back to the last two lessons. First, the lesson was about never backing down. The second was about wolves, and the rule there was trust your team. So, what could be the rule here...?
Not even John had any idea, but then again, Naruto reflected, he isn't really the brightest out there.
Déjà didn't looked surprised however. "No one? Well, I must admit that this one is a little more hidden than the others,"
After a few more minutes of silence, Déjà finally spoke.
"The three rules of the UNSC are: Never Back down, Trust your Team, and Always Negotiate,"
117 look flabbergasted at the final rule.
"Always Negotiate? What kind of a rule is that?"
"Negotiation is what got the MOPE out of the mess they were in. To go to war was one of the pre-UNSC's rare mistakes. If they negotiated in the beginning, both MOPE and The Leadership would not have sustained such heavy losses." Déjà explained.
John humphed. "Well, I'd rather fight than be 'negotiating'," The boy quoted 'Negotiating' and fight alongside the warriors!"
Naruto, despite his feelings towards John, couldn't help but admit that he felt the same way.
-United Nations Space Command-
The trainees all wheezed and breathed quickly as Chief Mendez snorted in disbelief as he stood, breathing as if he never even ran at all. This, however, was false. Mendez did all the running alongside the cadets, as well as screaming at the trainees to hurry their asses up as they ran to their current location. He currently stood beside a large crate.
"Come on! It was only a five kilometre run! By the end of the year, I expect you to all be breathing as if you've just walked to the heads!"
"Are you kidding me?" Everyone turned their heads to see a paled face boy who was still breathing heavy. Naruto recognized the face of number 201, who was also known as Nathan, who seemed to have lost his patients with the ever-so-hard trainer. Along with the recognition, 039 also remembered that said boy belonged to Team Two, that lost the game the other night, thus had to go hungry.
"First you starve us, then you have the nerve to say something stupid like that? How dare you?!"
Mendez's eyes narrowed in annoyance, and Nathan's face grew into one of fear as he realized what exactly he just said.
"I'll have you know boy, that our training has a high success rate. Eighty-five percent of all trainees survives the UNSC training program, and you know what fifteen percent dies off are like? Brats like you always dies off, and if you ask me? You'll be the first to go if you don't keep your mouth shut and follow orders. I do not kid about these situations," Chief Petty Officer Mendez fiercely snarled. The faces of the trainees visibly paled, as silence was bestowed on them.
"Now, let me explain what we're doing here," Mendez said a little stiffly.
Naruto took in his surroundings. They were in a rather small field, with densely packed trees surrounding them. If you looked closely to the north-west, about fifty meters into the forest, you could see a small metal fortress.
"I like to call this little piece of paradise 'The Battlefield'. This battleground has a ten kilometre radius, with four basses in the area. There will be four teams corresponding with the basses; Red, Blue, Purple, and Green. I will hand out pinnies, and what ever colour you get will be the team you are on, and you will not complain! Do you understand?"
"Yes sir!" was the coursed response of six to seven-year-old's.
"Before I hand out the colours, I will explain what we're doing. We're gonna have a good ol' game of Capture the Flag! Now-" He opened the crate, and grabbed a gun of some sort- "We are going to use paintball guns for a weapon! Now, no madder how much I resent this rule, you'll be wearing electronic masks so you wont loose an eye. These masks have military standard hardware installed into them, so you'll notice a difference when you put them on,"
Mendez handed out the masks. They had plastic screens, that was outlined by black metal. It only covered their faces, but had elastic bands that wrapped around the heads of the children, fitting them snugly. (Think of the masks they used on Avatar when they were outside on Pandora)
Naruto's eyes widened as he put on his mask. A whizz was heard, and the screen came to life.
Mendez explained the masks functions.
"If you look to the lower left of the screen, you'll notice a radar that tells friendlies away from enemies. If you push the button of the top left side of the mask, an radio system will be put into effect, and you can chat with your team mates. However, everything you say, no mater what team, will be sent to my radio for analysis,"
The Chief Petty Officer began handing out the pinnies, putting Naruto on the Green Team. The blond knucklehead saw the Commander hand John a Blue pinny, as well as two other cadets who John seemed to be friends with.
"Now split into your teams, and grab a gun!" Mendez ordered, and the trainees did so.
The rifles were a model of the M208 Assault Rifle, Naruto noticed.
"You know how to shoot these, and we have taught you the basic of guns. Now you will be put to the test. These guns will not fire until I send out a signal. Also, these guns are set to bolt action. I doubt any of you will be able to control the recoil on the fully automatic ones. Before some of you ask-" the Chief looked at John and Naruto, "-Hand to hand combat is allowed. Just try not to break the masks."
"Where's the flag, sir?" a boy named Sam, also 117's friend, Naruto noted, asked.
Mendez ignored the question "Now find your bases, and then wait for my signal. I'll set up a way point to your bases."
After a few moments, Naruto was surprised to see a small, blue hexagon appear in the distance. Just above it, he could see 476 m.
"As you can see, the direction to your base is on screen. Now get your team, and get to it. You have five minutes to prepare."
-United Nations Space Command-
The green base was a lot smaller then originally expected. It was circular, with two pillars that held green flags. On the outside, there was slopes that led up to the top, which was open, but had a rectangle opening to get inside from the top. In the inside, there was a open space with a pillar to put the flag, as well as a east, north, south and west entrance.
(Couldn't help but use the bases in the map 'Blood Gulch' from Halo 1)
"So..." A trainee named Makayla-201 spoke up, "Where do you think the flag is?"
Naruto shook his head, indicating that he had no idea. A sand-brown haired cadet named Nathan-098 scoffed. "Why don't you wait and see if Mendez will tell us,"
Makayla rolled her eyes. "Why didn't he tell us back when we were all together?"
Naruto shook his head. "Then someone would probably cheat and grab it on their way to there own base."
A crackle was heard through the radio set, and a gruff voice that belonged to Mendez came through. "Aright, the flag is located in the middle of the arena. The game shall begin in three minutes,"
A timer appeared on the bottom right of the mask, starting at three minutes obviously.
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
"Begin!"
Clicking sounds were heard around the base as the guns were activated. Naruto, as well as some of the others, began making their way to the middle.
-United Nations Space Command-
"God...What's with this forest?" Naruto crunched through the dense forestry that he came across while making his way into towards what he suspected was the middle of The Battleground. The blond trainee looked at his radar. "Well, At least I haven't met anyone from the other team yet..."
039 heard a rustle in the bushes behind him, and, by instinct, whipped up his gun and pointed it towards the source. A feminine screech answered his actions.
"No! Don't shoot me! I'm your teammate, you dunce!"
Naruto blinked as he gave his radar another glance. Nothing showed up.
"Hey! Whats with my radoor?! Nothing's showing up!" Naruto swung his arms around as he spoke, well... a little loudly.
The girl sighed. "Its pronounced 'radar'! And would you keep it down! There's bad guys that way!" The girl stood up and pointed to the south-east area. She was a little short, and had shortly cut black hair, and green eyes. She also wore a green pinny, so that solved one question.
"Also, your radar must be turned off. Here-" The girl walked up to Naruto and pushed a button on the top right on the framing of his mask. At once, the radar whirred to life, and as she said, red dots appearered in the near south-east area, as well as a corresponding green dot right in front of him. "-Now it should be working."
Naruto squinted. "Do...do I know you...?"
The girl deadpanned. "You mean you don't remember me? I'm Veronica! Number 345!"
"Oh..."
"Now," Veronica sighed, "If you haven't figured it out yet that most of these includes some sort of teamwork yet, then you're a complete idiot. I figured that out even in our first challenge. That's why I approached you then."
Naruto squinted his eyes, yet again. "What...? What's with the long words...?"
Veronica hit the side of her head. "Oh never mind. The point I'm trying to make is that we need to work as a team to win. Even 117 figured that out."
Naruto grew a thoughtful expression as he remembered that John was with two of his cadet mates. Kelly and Sam, isn't it?
"No...I'm pretty sure that Sam and Kelly forced him to become their teammate for these games."
Suddenly, Veronica's face grew into a surprised and worried one. "Naruto!" She hissed, "Get down!"
Instinctively, both of the green team members dove into the bushes.
After a few moments of quietness, and Naruto squirming, the red dots that appeared on his radar a moment ago, was indeed proven true, as three members of the Read Team came into view.
One of them, Jake-530, scanned the area.
"Oh come on! The radar said that there were two people here! It still does! Whats with this thing?" The seven-year-old hit the side of the mask, in hopes to get it working.
"Or," His female teammate sighed. "They're still here, and just hiding."
Jake coughed and scratched the back of his head. "That could be true too, Jen..."
Another male teammate snorted. "Well, you both can't be right. And, when it comes to a vote, I agree with her."
Naruto looked at Veronica, and she nodded and raised her gun.
"I'll take the girl, you take the boys." She whispered very faintly. "On three."
"1"
"2"
"3!"
In very swift moves, both Team Green members got to their feet, and shot at the Red. Naruto shot Jake in the knee, causing him to to his knees clasped in pain, and hit the other in the soldier. Veronica, who seemed to have a better shot, got her target in the chest.
"Augh!" The screech in pain could be heard for a distance.
Veronica whooped. "We got 'em!"
Naruto also looked pleased with himself for his shot, and then looked thoughtful. "Now what'd we do?" He enquired.
"W-well," Jen gasped for breath, winded by Veronica's shot, "I know what I'm doing."
Her hand shaking, Jen reached for her team radio and pushed the button. "W-we've been ambushed! W-who ever wants a good fight, follow t-the way point!"
"Oh no!" Veronica gasped, "Naruto! Lets get out of here!"
She grabbed Naruto by the arm, and bolted away in a random direction, dragging the blond with her.
After a few moments, when Naruto fully comprehended what had just happened, He slid his arm from his teammates grip, and ran along side her.
Naruto huffed as he was slowly growing weary. "Where are we going?"
Veronica slid to a halt, and hid behind a tree. "We should be far enough. If the Red decided they wanted a fight, they would completely ignore the radar and only focus on the way point that Jen set up."
A crackle was heard through their headsets.
"I have found the location of the flag-"
Another voice broke through.
"No, I have!"
"Shut up Jerry! I have!"
"You just want all the glory! I bet that you don't even know what 'location' even means!"
"Do you?"
"It means-"
Veronica slammed her finger on the radio button. "Shut up, both of you! Why don't you tell us where it is?!" She snarled.
Silence fell upon the head set. Until Jerry's voice came back up.
"I'm not telling you."
Veronica's eye brow twitched.
"Well if you want to take on three different teams, then be my guest!"
After a few minutes of shocked silence, a way point appeared on her map. A new voice, that was dry and sarcastic came through.
"Thank you!"
Naruto's eyes widened, and he pushed the radio button. "Wait, John?"
The boy laughed.
"Well, thanks to Jerry, he was talking on a open chat, as well as the way point was posted on a open chat."
A huffed voice came through, andthe recognized it as the boy who spoke up first.
"Nice going Jerry."
"Shut up! Everyone's so mean to me!"
And with that, the radio was cut.
"I'm surrounded by idiots!" Veronica slammed her fist into her hand. "How could they be so stupid?"
Naruto's voice was, for once, urgent. "C'mon! We gotta get to the flag!"
-United Nations Space Command-
"We're to late!" Naruto and Veronica slid into a clearing, where a four-way battle was going on, all for the flag, which could be seen in the middle of the clearing.
Ratratratratratratrat.
That continues sound of gunfire met the blonds ears, as he slid behind cover, which was a log that had fallen long ago.
"There's no way anyone would be able to get to the flag like that!" Veronica shouted.
There were some who were stupid enough to make a run for the flag, but none prevailed.
"Kit!" A demonic voice suddenly raged through his head. Naruto jumped in fear at it.
"W-who are you?" Naruto screeched over the loud bangs of gunfire. Luckily, none heard him.
"You daft little boy! Think back to me! Or better yet..."
Naruto's mind went blank as he clasped to the ground behind the log.
-United Nations Space Command-
Naruto awoke in a rather frightening location.
"W-where am I-I?" Naruto stuttered, taking in his surroundings. He was lain in murky water, and was surrounded in a ring of darkness. However, he could he some sort of rather large gates in front of him. Slowly, his fear forgotten, he got up, and walked towards the barred gates.
"Wow! Look at the size of those!"
A red, bubbly paw snapped through the cage's bars and slammed it into the ground, right beside Naruto.
"Agh!" Naruto leaped back.
Seemingly from nowhere, two, very evil looking eyes opened in the darkness. They we're blood crimson, and had a black, fox-like slit for eyes.
"Brat..."
Naruto was now shaking in fear. "Who...w-who are y-you?"
A demonic grin alongside with a growl came from behind the bars. "I...am the Nine-Tailed-Fox..."
"Th-The Nine-Tailed-Fox?" The 'fearless' blond finally stammered out after a few minutes.
"Yes...and I am giving you what you desire...power to win."
"What?"
The demon finally snapped. "I cannot believe that someone like the Fourth Hokage managed to seal me into a snot nosed brat, who doesn't know anything!"
The paw that was used to slam the floor beside Naruto swiped out again to wrap around the blond.
"Wait! What're doing?"
"You'll see..."
-United Nations Space Command-
Naruto awoke with a minor growl, and sat up.
My Body! I can't control it! Naruto struggled for control over his own body, but, to no avail, lost.
'Naruto' dropped his weapon on the ground, and leaped over the log.
"Wait!" A cry was heard from behind him. "Naruto!"
Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, the blond could even see the paintballs that were zooming towards him.
What ever was controlling Naruto dodged every single one.
After what seemed like moments, 'Naruto' reached for the flag, and grabbed it, whipped around, and zoomed towards the log.
Jumping over the log again, he raced towards the Green Base, with stunned children behind him.
With the other teams realizing what happened, they began the chase.
'Naruto' dived into the entrance of his base, and slammed the flag into its respective plate.
Silence. Then Chief Mendez's rather shocked voice came through the radio.
"Team Green has...won the game?"
-United Nations Space Command-
The Nine-Tailed-Fox was furious.
"I can't believe I had to help the brat...it's bad enough that I was sealed inside of him in the first place, but for this to come to my attention?! From what I could sense, the other brats doesn't have any chakra, so I doubt that they will be learning the shinobi art...if this keeps up, the Fourths Brat's chakra will forever be locked away, and therefor mine. I need to find a way to prevent this from happening... damnit! The only option is...Damn you, Fourth Hokage! I will get my revenge on you, no madder what!"
The demon fox fell into a light slumber.
How was that for a cliffhanger? Anyway, again, I am so sorry about the very long delay. I've been quite sick lately, and I've been devoting most of my time into creating a plot line, and getting better.