Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Star Wars. Naruto belongs to Musashi Kishimoto and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

Chapter 4:

Naruto sat in the cushioned chair in front of a desk. Across the desk sat Jiraiya.

"With this whole Jade thing and Luke, part of me thinks he's an idiot" Naruto said "That he's too innocent. But another part of me wishes I was like him. I used to be that, always thinking the best of people. I feel this war has changed me, and not in a good way. Before this war, when I woke up, I was excited about the new day. I was eager to experience new things. Yeah, my life sucked, but I felt if I worked hard enough, I could change it for the better. Now when I wake up, I just feel tired. And I don't know if I can change things in my life. We're a tiny group against a galactic Empire. Honestly what are our chances? Sometimes I just wish…"

"What?"

"That none of this ever happened. That Palpatine had invaded some other planet. I don't care if that makes me a bad person; I just wish this was someone else's problem."

"I wish that too, but what we want doesn't matter. Look, however much you miss how you were, you'll never be that person again. That's not a bad thing. Too innocent can be worse than too jaded. Like it or not, who you are a perfect adaption to what you need to do."

"Do you think the Rebellion's right, that we're losing our moral integrity?"

"Probably. I'm not going to claim that what we do is right. It isn't. It's morally wrong and repugnant. I've done many things that haunt me every night as I sleep. However, if it needs to be done, then it needs to be done. If they were my only choices, I would rather live in shame, than die with honor."

"What would you do about the Jade thing if you were in my position?"

"For the most part, I don't trust easily. For most people, unless I know them well, I feel anything that can think is thinking of ways to stab me in the back. Comes from years of being a spy behind enemy lines, where everyone if they knew who I was would actually want to kill me. If it was up to me, I probably would have killed Jade already. I never really liked interrogation. Information gained under duress is not incredibly reliable, and misinformation is worse than no information. I have always been more of a fan of observation. But what I would do doesn't matter. This is you. It's your life, do what you want with it. It's your decision to make."

"Thanks Ero… Godfather."

"Not a problem. It's what I do."

Luke headed around the corner of the hallway.

"Hey Luke."

"Naruto. You here to yell at me again?"

"No. Um… I'm sorry."

"What?"

"Look I don't think this Jade thing is a good idea, but it's your life and you can live it any way you want. It's none of my business what you do. It's just that I care about you, man. I don't have many friends. Most people tend to think I'm a noisy jerk, so I tend to very protective of the friends I got. I'm worried this thing won't end the way you want it to and you'll end up hurt. But I'm just going to butt out of this, but know if you need me I got your back.

"Thanks. Listen I really do appreciate you looking out for me."

"This conversation has gotten really sappy hasn't it?"

"Just a bit."

"Want to go to the gym and beat the shit out of each other?"

"Sure."

The door opened with a hiss.

"Hey Mara."

Jade turned around to see that Luke had opened the door to her cell, probably with the Force.

"Hi Farmboy."

"I'm starting to regret telling you that."

"Well, live and learn."

Luke stood next to Jade in her cell.

"How are you holding up?"

"Fine, so the ninja are actually letting you meet with me in my cell?"

"No, they actually don't know about it. I'm running a loop through the security cameras."

"Kinda risky. You're not worried I'll bolt?"

"Nah. I trust you."

The two stood quietly for a few seconds.

"Luke, I have to ask you something."

"Yeah?"

"Why are you doing all this for me?"

"Because like I said before. Everyone deserves a friend and you're a good person."

"Thanks. These last few months have been hard, and having a friend has helped a lot."

Jade and Luke started leaning towards each other and they met in a kiss. It started off soft but it started to intensify.

Luke lost himself in the moment, but was quickly taken out of it by an agonizing pain in his stomach. He looked down to see the blade of his lightsaber sticking through his body. Shocked he looked up just in time to see a fist heading towards him. The blow knocked him unconscious and he collapsed to the ground.

Jade looked down at the saber in her hands and deactivated it. Surprisingly she felt guilty. She had been manipulating Luke's feelings to get into this sort of situation, but now that it has happened, she felt sad.

"I'm sorry Luke."

Reaching down, Jade found Luke's comlink and made a call.

His breath came out in ragged gasps. They came out of nowhere. Without any warning, the Imperial ships had arrived. They systematically and quickly destroyed the stations' weapons, the ship hanger, and the stations engines, so the Resistance could neither run nor fight. It was almost like they knew the exact location of those targets beforehand.

Naruto leaned his back against the wall and did a mild henge. A troop of four stormtroopers passed by him without noticing him, and Naruto released the jutsu.

He had been fighting for about half a day now as the Imperials worked to occupy and plunder the station. Even with his vast chakra and stamina, he was currently running on empty. At the moment, the only things keeping him going were adrenaline, guts, and the sheer burning desire to not die. He was trapped on the station like a rat in a closed maze and he knew he would be caught eventually, but he was going to make those sons of bitches work for it.

Making his way around a corner he was spotted by a group of 5 Stormtroopers. Turning around, he saw that behind him was another group of Stormtroopers.

His eyes turned red and with a roar two massive gouts of flame engulfed the two groups. After a couple seconds Naruto stopped the flames, and only charred corpses were left behind. Naruto stopped accessing the Kyuubi's chakra and he grew lightheaded and he half collapsed to the ground. The demonic energy was hard enough on his body when he was fresh; the stuff was pure poison now.

Naruto eventually made his way back to his feet and kept moving. Suddenly he heard a loud bang and he felt an excruciating pain in his lower back. Naruto found himself hitting the ground hard. He drifted at the edge of consciousness, until he heard a second blaster shot and his mind went blank.

In front of Palpatine within a hologram, Vader kneeled before him. Palpatine spoke.

"What do you have to report?"

"The attack of the station went well. Because of Jade's information, our casualties have been inconsequential."

"What of the Resistance?"

"Many are dead, the few that are not have been sent to various locations for either interrogation or labor purposes."

"And the Jinchuuriki?"

"I've sent him to Coros."

"Good. Dismissed."

The hologram projector shut off and Vader stood up.

Looking to the right, he looked at Luke's unconscious body. With a gesture Luke's body floated upward and followed him as he walked to his ship.

"Come my son, we have work to do."

Luke grunted as the lightsaber crashed into his own, the force of it knocking him backwards to the floor.

Darth Vader stared down at him. He and Luke were sparring on Vader's ship. After the Imperial attack on the Resistance space station a few weeks ago, Luke was taken here. Vader spoke.

"You hesitate, I gave an opening, you didn't take it. I know you saw it."

"I…I didn't want to hurt you."

"You are still too weak."

"It is not weakness to care. You are my father."

"Then come my son, and listen to what I am about to teach you."

Luke stood in front of a cell. He didn't know why Vader lead him here. Suddenly a lump on the far wall stirred and stood up.

Luke gasped.

"Uncle Owen".

"Luke, I'm so glad you're alive."

"I originally was going to kill him, but I thought of a better use for him. He will be part of your next lesson. Kill him."

"What!"

"You're really that much of a fracking coward Anakin? You want me dead, have the balls to kill me yourself, unless those were burned off at Mustafar. But you're too scared, and you know why? Because you know that if you fought me in a fair fight I would take that lightsaber of yours and shove it up your crippled pasty white ass."

Ignoring Owen, Vader continued.

"I am your father, and you will obey me."

"No!"

"If you don't kill him, then I will torture him to the edge of death and throw him into a bacta tank. When he's recovered, I'll ask you again. If you refuse, I'll repeat the process until you change your mind."

Luke looked at Owen.

"I…I can't."

"Abandon this pathetic attachment to your former life. You are no longer a worthless aspiring Jedi, but rather you are my son, you will one day be Sith."

Luke met Owen's eyes. Owen spoke softly.

"Don't Luke. Don't dirty your hands with me. You're a good person and I would rather be tortured to insanity then have you lose that. Don't let him win, don't change who you are. I'll be alright."

Vader spoke.

"He may be willing to sacrifice himself for you, but are you willing to let him do that? I will torture him for years. I will make every moment of the rest of his life a living pain-filled hell. Are you really so cold to let that happen? Are you really so cruel to torture the man who raised you?"

"This is your doing, not mine."

"But if you have the power to stop something, and you choose not to, how is it not your fault? Remember it's your fault he's in this situation in the first place. To willingly choose the option that will cause him the most pain, what type of person are you? Perhaps you are more my son then you think."

Luke slowly lifted his right hand. He started to summon the Force; he was going to do this quick to minimize Owen's pain.

"Not so quick my son, do it slow, or I will personally ensure he survives so we can do this again. Lightly wrap the Force around his throat. Just tight enough for him to feel the restriction. See the fear in his eyes. Relish the power you have over him. His life is in your hands. Squeeze a little tighter, see how he automatically claws at his throat in an attempt to live. Loosen your grip slightly, give him hope that he's escaping, now kill him.

With a loud snap, Owen's neck broke and he collapsed to the ground.

Luke stared at his uncle's corpse. His mind blank. He couldn't believe this had happened. It wasn't supposed to be this way. A tear fell from his eye. But his thoughts moved quickly to anger.

"Do you feel that my son, the anger, the rage? Do you hate me? I'm responsible for everything that's wrong with your life. I killed your mother. It's because of me you were sent to Tatooine. I had all your friends and allies killed. I ripped you from the life you knew. I forced you to kill your uncle. Just think about that. You're a murderer now. You killed a helpless old man. Even if the Resistance still existed, they wouldn't accept you back. You're now a monster, like me. There is no place for you in the Light anymore. The Dark side is all you have left now. "

With a roar, Luke's lightsaber was activated and swung at Vader's head.

Vader easily deflected Luke's lightsaber and knocked him back.

Luke thrusted his right hand forward and Force Lightning shot from it at Vader.

Vader caught the Lightning on his lightsaber and slammed Luke into the far wall with the Force.

Luke twisted and strained to get free. His eyes while blue contained a few faint specks of yellow.

"Very good my son, you're learning."

Vader dropped Luke to the ground and continued,

"Again."

The scream rang out through the room. It was accompanied by the sound of electricity.

Naruto was bound to the wall, his limbs in shackles and stretched tight. A chakra suppressing collar was at his throat. A hand was half a meter in front of his face, the hand was shooting electricity into his body, the Force power causing his entire body to convulse and contort in the chains.

The interrogator, Coros, stopped and asked again,

"How is a demon contained in you, and how do you access its power?"

Naruto remained silent.

He tried again,

"What the hell do you know?"

"I know you're fat, old, ugly, smelly, and stupid."

"What was that?"

"Oh I'm sorry you're fat, old, ugly, smelly, stupid, and you're apparently deaf. Damn when things go for you they go all at once don't they?"

"Strapped to a chair, completely defenseless, and giving me crap, and you call me the stupid one?"

"Yes."

Coros brought his face within centimeters of Naruto's and said,

"How exactly am I stupid?"

Naruto smiled and suddenly jerked his face forward and sank his teeth into Coros's cheek.

Coros screamed and frantically tried to push Naruto off him. After a few seconds, he got Naruto off him in addition to a large chunk of flesh now being missing from his cheek.

Naruto spat the chunk of flesh at Coros's feet and proclaimed,

"Listen up fool. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I'm a god damn ninja. That means I will rather die than tell you squat! Believe it!"

Coros shot Naruto with Force lightning, the sheer voltage turning the ninja's skin translucent. Naruto was convulsing so hard that bones were beginning to snap.

While maintaining the attack, Coros said,

"I'm going to break you".

The Emperor's rage was palpable, even through the hologram. Coros continued,

"In light of our continued failure to extract information from the Jinchuuriki, I recommend the use of a Force mind probe."

"Mind probes cannot be used on Chakra-wielders."

"I understand the previous issues with the practice, but I believe I have a solution. I have been experimenting on another ninja and injecting a careful cocktail of chemicals into the prisoner allows us to dampen the chakra response and thus make the experience more fruitful."

"Do it."

The hologram disappeared, and Coros called out for the demon container to be brought to him.

The walls, floor, and ceiling of the room was solid durasteel. The only breaks in the metal were thin slits on the door, which lead out of the cell. The door was protected on both sides with an energy field. On the wall were etched a couple dozen scratches, which was Naruto's efforts to keep track of how many days it has been. The only light came from the meager amount that came through the slits of the door.

Naruto faced the door; he was sitting on the ground, the rags that clothed him hanging from his bony under fed frame.

The door suddenly opened, and Naruto winced at the light. Two guards stood in the doorway.

"Your presence is required Uzumaki. You know the drill."

Naruto stood up and held still, as one of the guards came into the cell with binders and leg irons. The second guard waited at the entrance of the cell, his rifle pointed at Naruto.

As Naruto watched the first guard move closer, he felt the blade he had hidden in his palm. He had stolen it days ago from Coros's interrogation chamber, and was just waiting for the perfect time to use it.

For just a moment the first guard's body was in between the rifle and Naruto and in that moment he struck. He shoved it into the gap in the guard's armor between his helmet and his armor. He then ripped the knife out and while sprinting forward threw the knife at the second guard.

The second guard moved to fire, but the knife hit him in his hand and his shot went wide, hitting the first guard. He tried to aim again but Naruto didn't give him a chance.

Naruto punched him in the nose, and then elbowed him in the jaw. As the guard reeled back, Naruto kneed him in the stomach, and elbowed him in the back of his head, which sent the guard's head into his rising knee. He then pulled the gun out of the guards limp hands and slammed its butt into his throat. He then slammed the gun's butt into the guard's broken nose and elbowed him again in the jaw. The guard crumbled unconscious to the ground.

Naruto threw the rifle aside; it was too loud for his purposes. He looked for the knife, but it had broken on impact with the second guard's armor.

With the fight over, Naruto could think about other things, such as the fact he just slammed his hands into armor.

"Ow!"

Alarms starting blaring so Naruto started to run.

The two guards stood outside of Coros's office/interrogation chambers. One of them was calm and composed. His years of experiences allowing him to do his duty regardless of the circumstances, the other guards was completely the opposite and was proceeding to freak out.

"Would you please calm down Ty. We're not in any danger."

"But the prisoner…"

"We are at the back of the facility; the cells are in the middle. To an escaped prisoner we are in the opposite direction of the exit. We'll be fine. Now relax and shut up."

"Ok… did you hear something?"

"No."

"I did. I heard something, it must be that prisoner, I got to check it out."

"Fine."

Holding his blaster tightly, Ty moved to the end of the hallway and moved around the corner.

With his finger on the trigger he was moments away from spraying the whole area when he realized that there was nothing there.

He was half way turned around when something grabbed his neck.

Naruto watched the guard carefully from the shadowy alcove, he was looking around nervously. He of course didn't see anything. Naruto might not have been the stealthiest person, and he may not have had chakra, but he knew enough to hide himself from an average non-ninja. After a few moments the guard relaxed and turned around. It was at this moment Naruto struck.

From behind, Naruto brought the guard into a headlock, kicked the back of his knees, and proceeded to take him quickly and quietly to the ground.

The guard frantically struggled for air, but after a few seconds the guard grew still.

Naruto heard the other guard call out.

"Hey Ty! You all right? Ty?"

Hearing footsteps, Naruto grabbed Ty's blaster and retreated back.

"What the hell!"

Naruto moving forward delivered an uppercut into the guard's chin with the blaster's butt and then swept the guard's legs sending him to the ground. His blaster fell out of the guard's hands and slid to the wall.

Getting on the top of the guard, Naruto slammed his blaster's butt into the guard's face as fast and hard as he could, as many times as he could. Eventually the guard's helmet was knocked off and the blaster broke. Taking the opportunity, the guard slammed his head into Naruto's head and pushed the ninja back. He then leapt for his blaster.

Naruto leapt for it too. They reached it at the same time, and they fought for the blaster. They rolled around on the ground, trying to seize the weapon. When the guard was on top, the guard pushed the side of the weapon into Naruto's throat. Naruto pushed back on the weapon as hard as could but he wasn't strong enough to force the weapon off his neck, and his vision started to get blurry.

Suddenly, Naruto let go of the weapon with his right hand and jabbed his thumb into the guard's left eye. He then hooked the edge of the eye socket and pulled, which brought the guard to the floor beside him. Naruto got up onto his knees and slammed the butt of the blaster into the guard's right eye. He then slammed it into his eye again and again. After the third blow, the guard fell unconscious.

Naruto pulled his right thumb from the guard's left eye with a disgusting slurp, stood up, and still holding onto the blaster, moved to the door.

"Find him!"

Coros snarled and slammed the comlink onto his desk. He then leaned back in his chair.

"Idiots, I'm surrounded by idiots."

He heard his door open but when he looked at the door it was closed and no one was there. Then he felt the cold barrel of a blaster being pressed into the back of his skull.

"Hiya Coros, how you doin?"

Naruto grabbed the back of the chair and tipped it backwards, sending Coros sprawling to the floor. He frantically scrambled backwards, only for his back to contact a wall. He slowly stood up. Only to stare up the barrel of a blaster.

"H-how did you get in here?"

Naruto smiled, which as a result of his malnourishment looked rather cadaverous.

"I have my ways."

"What do you want?"

"Let's see, a month of my life back, a metric ton of Miso Ramen, a hot shower… oh you meant what I wanted from you? Simple I want the key."

"What key?"

"I've got a lot of anger right now, and most of it directed at you. There is a blaster in your face and I really want to kill you. Do you really think it's a good idea to give me crap?"

"I don't have it."

Naruto in response pointed the blaster at Coros' right knee and fired, which sent the man screaming to the ground.

"Try again."

"Top drawer of desk, on right."

Naruto opened the drawer and rummaged around. Eventually he found a key. Fitting it into the collar, he turned. There was a click and the collar loosened. Naruto put the blaster down and grabbed the edges of the collar and pulled. They slowly and painfully pulled apart. He had worn the collar so long it had actually partially fused with his skin. But slowly the collar came off, and after a few seconds Naruto threw the collar to the ground. The skin was red and inflamed, with hundreds of puncture marks, which is where the collars had injected him with various suppressants.

Naruto waited for a second, but nothing happened.

"Why are my abilities not returning?"

"It will take some time for the chemicals to work their way out of your system."

The door to Coros's office started shaking at the troopers tried to get in.

"You got another way out of this office?"

"Back wall."

"Thanks."

Naruto fired.

Naruto looked around the corner of the wall and saw a trooper, who unfortunately saw him too.

Naruto rapidly brought his head back around the corner and a blaster shot hit the wall where his head was a second ago. Naruto flexed his hand, but nothing happened.

"Damn."

The trooper pulled out a com-link.

"I located the prisoner. He's –"

Naruto leaned around the corner and shot him in the head. The com-link fell to the ground.

Naruto suddenly froze as his wounds erupted in steam.

"Yeah!"

Hearing a large group of troopers coming, Naruto headed through a nearby door.

Naruto after locking the door behind him and catching his breath looked around the room. He immediately saw Shikamaru within an energy cage.

"Shikamaru?"

Naruto ran to in front of the cell.

"What are you doing here? Are there more ninja being held in this place?"

"I'm rotting in a cell while an idiot asked me stupid questions. Now first destroy the security cameras, and second get me out of here."

"How?"

"I was assuming with a blaster or a jutsu of some kind."

Naruto destroyed the security cameras with his blaster.

"I meant the 'how to get you out of there' thing."

"There's a keypad on the wall."

"I don't know the –"

"7, 9, 2, 2, 5, 7, 0, 4, 8, 1"

"How do you know that?"

"I memorized it when they put me in here."

"Could you repeat those numbers again?"

After a few minutes Naruto got Shikamaru out.

"So Shika, about that other ninja thing."

"We're the only ninja in the facility."

"How do you know?"

"Because I was paying attention when we got captured, and noted where people were sent. Everyone else who survived are in other interrogation facilities, the mines of Kessel, and Despayre."

"So what do we do now Shika?"

"The fact you don't have a collar means you have a key."

"Here, but you won't get your powers back right away."

Shikamaru unlocked and peeled off his collar.

"I know. It's the same thing we used on Jade. The collar works through a combination of energy suppressing technology and the injection of various sedatives that –"

"Yeah, don't care."

"Sorry, I tend to explain things when I get nervous."

"Still don't care, so what's the plan?"

"I got an idea. Listen up."

The 5 troopers burst into the room prepared for anything, only to encounter an empty room.

"The other prisoner has escaped."

Suddenly a foreboding feeling overcame them and they froze in place. With a flash of chakra infused wind, all of them fell down dead.

Without saying a word Shikamaru and Naruto put on the armor, and took the gear and weapons of two of the dead troopers.

Naruto's panting was clearly audible.

"You ok Naruto?"

"Sorry, I haven't really slept or eaten anything in like 2 days. I'm running a little low on juice."

"Well, you got enough juice to burn a few corpses to ash?"

"No."

"Damn. Then we should get out of here. Remember act like you belong here and nobody should be suspicious."

"I know."

"Yeah, remember when I get nervous I-"

"Yeah… still don't care. Let's go."

Shikamaru and Naruto entered the hanger. Walking up to an official, Shikamaru started talking.

"Excuse me."

"Yeah."

"You in charge of the hanger?"

"Yeah, what do you need?"

"The Commander thinks that since we know the prisoners are trying to escape the space station, they'll eventually try to hijack a ship. So Lord Coros sent us here to set up a patrol outside the station."

"I thought Lord Coros was dead."

"That's sacrilege. Who told you such lies?"

"Um… I mean… I heard it from some friends-"

"Who are these friends, give me their names, Lord Coros would love to hear of this."

"Never mind. I must of heard wrong. I'm still going to need signed authorization to approve the order."

"This is a time of crisis and Lord Coros gave a direct order. You are really going to waste everyone's time, risk the prisoners escaping, and defy a direct order because of procedure?"

"…Yes."

Naruto suddenly slammed his blaster butt into the official's face, knocking him out.

"This wasn't working, let's hijack a ship."

One of the workers in the hanger suddenly yelled,

"Hey, that guard knocked out the supervisor. It must be one of the prisoners in disguise." Alarms started blaring.

"Naruto, you're an idiot."

Naruto threw Shikamaru over his shoulder and ran using Chakra-enhanced speed for one of the ships.

Blaster shots hit around him. On the ramp to one of the ships, a blaster shot hit him in the knee and Naruto went down. Shikamaru grabbed him, dragged him into the ship, and shut the door.

"Thanks."

"Just get to the wheel, you're driving."

"I'm not a good pilot."

"I need to override the hanger doors, so you are going to need to do it anyway."

Limping to the controls, Naruto sat down in the pilot's seat.

The ship started shaking as shots impacted its hull.

Naruto started the ship and started moving the ship forward.

"What are you doing, I don't have the doors open yet?"

"If we stay here we die, so shut up and work faster!"

At the last second, the hanger doors opened and the ship flew out into space. Behind them, a handful of ships followed them. They immediately started firing, and Naruto tried unsuccessfully to dodge them.

"Time for hyperspace."

"You can't."

"Why? I don't have the skill to outrun them."

"They have anti-hyperspace generators."

"What?"

"Hyperspace works by using powerful gravity fields to fold the fabric of reality, which allows the ship-"

"Get to the damn point!"

"Their generators produce an interfering gravity field. Entering hyperspace when there's another gravity field is extremely dangerous. So all ship manufactures have an automatic fail-safe built in that prevents a ship's hyperspace from being activated when-"

"Disable the failsafe."

"Without the failsafe, there's a 99% chance that when we get to hyperspace our very molecules will be ripped apart."

"At the moment I am willing to take that risk. Because if we don't do that, there is a 100% chance we're gonna die, because I'm not going back to that cell, one way or another."

"I'll disable the failsafe."

"Good man."

Shikamaru went to work on the ship's computer and Naruto tried and failed to dodge all the incoming shots.

In front of Naruto, various readouts and lights on the dashboard started flashing red.

"Oh red flashing lights are almost never good. How's it going Shikamaru?"

"I'm working as fast as I can."

"Well work faster!"

At that moment a powerful shot hit the ship and several pieces of the ceiling broke off.

"Damn, damn, damn, damn". Naruto repeated his mantra as he began to slightly hyperventilate.

"The fail-safe's gone, punch it."

Naruto grabbed the hyperspace controller and threw it forward. With a high pitched whine, the ship vanished into hyperspace.

The messenger screamed as the lightning ripped its way through his body. His corpse hit the ground a moment later.

After a few minutes, Palpatine had calmed down enough to think logically about the situation.

This wasn't a complete loss. While the two prisoners were valuable, they did have other ninjas in custody. Also interrogation was proving itself quite ineffective on those two, though they did get some out of them. They had also already taken from them genetic materials and had full-write ups on them for several dozen medical tests and examinations. Palpatine immediately started thinking of ways this situation can be turned to his advantage. He smiled as a few moments later an idea crystallized in his mind.

"Excellent."