A/N: Alright ladies and gentlemen, I'm alive! I've been better given all the problems I've been going through, but I'm still breathing. Still kicking. I've been on a Mass Effect craze as of late as I'm sure you all noticed; its just my way of coping with life atm. Not only has my stupid heart failed on me again, but I've been suffering through the loss of several family members. Add to that the state of my joblessness and the school bills that keep racking up, and I'm in a bit of a tight spot at the moment. Yet here I am, fighting this damned depression, not giving into despair. To all my readers/reviewers who have encourage me in this time, I say this:

Thank you all for you support, and here's hoping I make it through the rough road ahead of me! *Raises glass in a toast* Long live Fanfiction! And in case my health goes south...Love ya'll! Expect an update for Bring Down the Sky to be coming soon! Remember, I own nothing! And prepare for a shocker! And of course, a fair bit of humor!

ALSO! My computer is down! BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH! I literally woke up this morning and it wouldn't work-whereas it was just FINE LAST NIGHT!? Anywho, I'm writing this from my stepdad's computer, so updates might be sporadic for a bit! Grrrrr...so angry right now!

Well...here ya go! =D

"Bang. You're dead."

~?

Chase

Running like hell didn't work very well.

Ordinarily it would have, but when one considered that there were several squads of Eclipse standing between them and their target, things became...

...problematic.

They ended up having to slog through company after company after merc company guns ablazing; biotics and chakra flaring, their weapons devouring clip after thermal clip and spitting what remained as empty refuse out the chamber, ever eager to consume more. No words were exchanged between the four of them. Only death. Naruto didn't like it.

He didn't like it at all.

Apparently these squads viewed them as nothing less than dire threats to their objective, because the insufferable bastards fought to the last man. Or perhaps there was something more dire at work here. The last one he'd shot bore a crazed look in his eye, dying with the name "Morinth" whispered on his bleeding lips. Samara had become tense after that, her already icey countenance turning positively frigid by comparison. She was keeping something from him. He knew it. He'd asked.

But whatever it was, she wasn't telling him.

The silence hurt.

Jodie had fallen eerily silent as well since she'd seen Shepard's face. Her face. Or was it their face? Hmmm...oi oi oi! Bad brain! Focus! He bitchslapped his mind back onto track, blue eyes focusing on the clone-Jodie!-once more. Her eyes looked hollow. Empty, even. She was still perfecly capable of ripping a man's skull off with a biotic blink, but beyond that she made no effort to speak. Jack wasn't talking either, prefering ample use of her shotgun and biotics to making idle conversation. And with each second if silence, Naruto seethed.

The encounter with the Renegade Shepard-she certainly struck hi as one-seemed to have put a wall up between him and his squad. What had once been affable, if slightly volatile group, was now cold and hard. Distant and distracted. And when you were distracted, you made mistakes. But this was worse than that. He simply couldn't take the silence.

"I rather like it, actually." Kaguya mused-in his mind's eye he could see her running a slender finger along the curve of her full lips. "Its...quiet."

'Yeah, well I sure as hell hate it.'

By the time they'd cut a swathe through them and reached what he prayed was the final elevator, the tension had become unbearable. He ached to speak with someone, anyone. To disssolve this nameless tension that had sprung up between them. In the end, Naruto waited until they were all firmly within the elevator before he made his move, impatiently biding his time. They passed several floors in a rush-then he finally deemed it was time. Time to talk.

"Alright, enough!"

The three woman started in surprise, staggering now at his hand smashed into the emergency stop, grinding the elevator a violent halt.

"Naruto, what are you-

"You," he began, rounding on Samara. "Are going to me what the deal with this criminal is. Now. Or so help me god I will sabotage this elevator like nothing you've ever seen!" His words resonated through the confines of the tiny cabin that was their momentary coffin. "No more stabs in the dark! Answers! Now!" Hearing those words, staring into those milky white eyes-Kaguya's eyes-produced an interesting reaction the Justicar. She flinched.

"I..." the asari paused, her mouth working as though she'd just tasted something incredibly foul. She actually seemed to be at a loss for words when faced with those blazing white eyes. "She-that is-Morinth...she is my eldest daughter. An Ardat-Yakshi. I will not ask if you know what that means, only that she is an incredibly dangerous woman and must be stopped at all costs. She corrupts her victims, seduces them, sways them until they are nothing more than puppets to her will. And when they meld, she consumes them, burning out their nervous system and growing stronger from it." the words had come in a rush, and now, they ended.

Naruto blinked. "Shit. I didn't know it was that bad." Part of him was tempted to apologize; but he knew in his heart that no words would ever change the pain.

"This...is difficult for me to discuss. I am sorry if my silence offended."

"Was that so hard?"

His gaze settled on Jack.

"Don't you go all psycho-analyzing on me, buddy." the convict hissed, her voice caught-trapped-somewhere between a snarl and a growl. "But yeah, I've got beef with Cerberus. Bastards tortured and drugged me when I was a kid. That's all you need to know. I see 'em, I kill 'em. Simple as that. And when I find the ones that did this to me," those dark eyes narrowed hatefully, shining with foul purpose. "The galaxy's gonna be missing some really nasty people. Gotta problem with that?"

Naruto recallled the squad they'd wasted. The woman in the catsuit. That icon. Shepard. She was with this Cerberus organization-a group that performed experiments on kids? Any respect he might've had for the woman evaporated in an instant. Jack wanted to kill a few of those bastards? He'd hold them down while she pulled the trigger.

...I'm, surprisingly alright with that."

"Well, shit." she actually sounded surprised to hear those words, the mass effect field engulfing her hand having all but vanished by now. "Maybe I won't tear you a new one after all."

Finally, his attention fell to Jodie. Her silence was perhaps the most painful of all. He didn't need the Byakugan to see the tension in her shoulders, the way she nervosly chewed at her lower lip as his eyes settled upon her. Just looking at her reminded him of a kicked puppy. Poor thing. Jodie didn't know what was going on. Didn't understand. And how could she? Someone, was wearing her face. She didn't know that it was the other way around; that she was an incredibly powerful clone who, through means Naruto himself didn't quite understand, appeared to most, if not all, the memories of the original.

Jodie didn't know any of that.

If anything she looked like she needed a hug. But he doubted she'd react all that well to physical affection right now. "And as for you,"

His voice softened as he beheld her.

"You are your own person. Hey," she tried to turn away, to which he cupped her cheek and turned her face back to him. "Listen to me. You're you. Jodie. No matter what anyone else says, or what we found you in that old pod or anything else. You have thoughts. Feelings. Emotions. You think. You're real. You exist. Those thoughts? Those feeling? They belong to you. Nothing can take them away, not in a million years. And if anyone tries...I'll cut their balls off and sell 'em to a krogan." he finished, making his voice as intimidating as he could possibly hope it to be. It worked.

Jodie lowered her gaze until she was staring firmly at her boots. Her cheeks were a bright red, the warmth of her face burning into his battered glove like a small heartbeat.

"Thank you." she said in a tiny voice.

Belatedly, he realized her cheek was still resting in his palm. An awkward silence, even longer-stronger-than the last, seemed to fall over them. Finally, Naruto managed so salvage the situation with a half-heartes smile-one he didn't entirely feel.

"Its what I do."

"Great," Jack quipped. "Happy feely time is over. Now, can we get this show on the road?"

"The Demeter is due to depart in less than five minutes." Samara informed.

"Call the car to our position, then."

Satisfied that all was as it should be once more, he slapped the controls again and they shot upward once more.

"Its a trap, trap, traaap." Kaugya sang softly in his mind as they rose to what she believe was almost certain doom. "Its definitely a trap. This is precisely the sort of thing my followers and I had to worry about when the world started to fear me." She sounded almost nostalgic; the wistful emotion momentarily obscuring her ever-haughty tone. So unnatural was it for her, that, for perhaps the first time in decades, he dared to ask her a question.

'I didn't know you had followers?'

There was a stoic, stony silence. When at last she spoke again, the woman's voice was surprisingly soft.

"Not anymore."

Naruto blinked. He forgot sometimes that Kaguya had been human once, just like him, before she'd eaten that fruit. Before- No! Bad! Traitorous thoughts! Pluck them out!

The basic electronic display over the elevator suddenly chimed, indicating the floor they'd reach was the one they'd sought. Lit up in a bright 25, with a quiet ding. Naruto pushed himself away from the wall and stepped in front of the doors, waiting for them to open as the Rabbit Goddess' voice blaring inside his head roared into its third chorus.

"Called it!"

They opened. Seven armoured Eclipse soldiers and an Asari stood just outside, doubtlessly waiting for the doors to open, and, although he couldn't see their eyes within their helmets, he had no doubt whatsoever that they were all staring at him. The look on the blue alien's face however, was decidedly mixed. Shock came first, then suspicion, followed by something pure murder. She yanked, pulling someone out of sight towards her. His eyes tracked with the motion, realizing right away that the situation had become complicated. It was a girl. She looked suspiciously like that other woman. And yet not. But was that a corpse-who might that be?-cooling at their feet?

Very complicated.

"You'll never take her alive, bastard!"

Alive? They weren't here for her! Whoever she was?!

"Let me go!" the girl cried, her large dark eyes shooting down to the stiff body that no one seemed to notice. Her tan face went pale. "You shot him!? You shot Niket?!"

Ah, hell.

"Aaaaaaand here comes the hero complex...

For maybe a quarter-half-of a second nobody else moved, immobilised by surprise, and then Naruto struck. He'd had his assault rifle almost at the ready, and he brought it up, acting on instinct alone, and rattled off a triple-shot burst. He didn't even have to pick a target. He was barely a metre away from the first one, and from there neither the unfortunate asari's kinetic barriers nor her thin plated armour could stand up to the shots, which speared through her heart in a quiet puff of purple blood. She started to slump, and then the world unfroze and her companions started to bring their own guns up, but Naruto was still moving.

Neither side had been expecting this-but Naruto had reacted fastest. And he was already on their leader. Behind him, he heard Jack's shotgun snarl. Jodie's twin pistols barked out their own retort, to which the deadly thrum of Samara's biotics answered. Men and women were dying all around him, but he only had eyes for the captive.

Captain Enyala didn't even have time to blink before Naruto slammed into her, knocked the human woman out of the way and rammed his own pistol up under the asari's chin. Then he fired. Bang. Death. Bits of grey matter and purple flesh spattered the the docking bay, a slick lining of violet gore splashing into his face. He wiped it away with an armored hand.

Oriana whimpered, hugging her knees. "Oh my god...you...and she...

Naruto barely heard her. He spun, half-expecting to find a bullet in his back-only to realize that the remaining mercenaries had already been scoped and dropped by his allies. Swiftly. The pale ghost of a smile lit his face at the realization. He loved these girls...

"Oh?"

'Shut up! Its a figure of speech!'

"What're we doing with miss crybaby over here?" Jack gestured with her shotgun toward the still-quivering hostage, muttering nonsensically to herself. Naruto sighed. He was getting too old for this shit. Really he was. Out of the corner of an eye he watched Jodie come forward, laying a comforting hand on the younger girl's shoulder. That clinched it.

"She's coming with us."

"Ha?!"

Those words were suddenly drowned out by the roaring wash of an engine, punctuated as a large skycar descended from the nearby lot-a matte iron grey paint marring its otherwise yellow and black hull. Ugly little thing. Out of the corner of his eye saw what looked like a tiny glint of metal in his eye. A necklace, a locket really, had been draped across one of the nearby containers. Someone was probably missing that thing, he mused.

Without thinking the matter over further he snatched it up.

"I have secured the captain's car." Samara called, holding her stomach-when had she been shot?-weakly, as though she were afraid its contents might come spilling out. Beneath the limp limb he could see a coat of Medigel, already working to clot the wound. "We must make haste. The Demeter has already departed!" She limped into the back seats and Jodie came barreling in after her, dragging a still shocked Oriana by an arm. Jack slammed into the driver's seat without hesitation. Naruto slipped into the passenger seat.

"Go, go, go!"

Then, almost mercifully, it started to rain. Somehow, Kaguya took a dry humor in it.

"Let there be rain."

'Oh shut up,' Naruto groused as they lifted off.

And all bloody hell broke loose.


"Eclipse! Why is it always sodding Eclipse?!"

"-hit shit shit shit shit shit SHIT!" Jack was shouting, the car weaving wildly to and fro as she fought for control. Most of the right front side of the car had gone, ripped away by the main impact of the missile, leaving a smoking hole that looked out on the Illium starline. The right hand door had gone too, leaving the whole side open to the air. Jodie was clinging to the seat for dear life, her eyes shut in thinly veiled concentration. As a secod rocket hit the biotic barrier she'd erected around their car, that concentration faltered.

Oriana yelped and tried once more to curl into a fetal position between the two women. She'd recovered enough sense to realize she was in danger; but also enough to sass her rescuers. Much to their intense annoyance!

"Somebody get me off this thing!" she cried! "I wanna get off!"

"Yeah, and I want a star cruiser! Not gonna happen, sweet cheeks!"

"Jack!"

"What?! Somebody's gotta be the honest one!"

Naruto growled.

"Samara, help Jodie!" Without waiting for the wounded asari's reply, he slapped the front seat with his good hand.

"Jack! Up! NOW!"

"Fuck you, I'm driving! Have you ever driven something like this?!"

"JUST AVOID THE GODAMNED MISSILES!"

"FINE! Fuck you very much!"

As the tattooed convict kicked the car up a few gears and sped off, another missile, a gleaming blue ball of light shedding layers like an onion, whipped past barely five feet away on the right with a roar. And on top of it all, his mouth had started to bleed again. The AML Demeter was less than a foot ahead of them, the distance shrinking fast. The killer -Morinth- was just inside. Close enough to touch. Enough...to reach. If someone did something really, incredibly stupid. He risked a glance over at Jodie. Her nose was bleeding, eyes quivering with strain as she fought to keep the barrier up. Samara wouldn't be going anywhere with that wound.

Jack was still driving. No way in hell was Oriana up to something like this.

Which left him.

Swearing, he slapped the hatch, and peeked out what was left of the passenger door. Wind lashed at his face, nearly ripping him clear out of the aircar. Jack shouted at him over the gale and tried to pull him back into the car. He shook her off, a subtle sheen of chakra engulfing his legs. She noticed.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"What does it look like I'm doing, woman?!" he snapped back, roaring over the storm.

"Like-

"JUST FUCKING DRIVE!"

Incredibly, she complied.

With that, he leaned out once more and steadied himself.

Kaguya took one look down with his eyes and gave a fearful shriek.

"Don't you dare!"

"Hoshit!" Jodie suddenly yelped, and Naruto's head jerked up reflexively at the noise. The clone was breathing hard enough to hear over the com link. "Barrier's gone!" Sure enough it was; the subtle veneer that'd once coated the car seemed to sputter and die before his very eyes, depriving them of the much valued protection. With him leaning out the door!

Naruto could think of only one appropriate phrase to describe this situation in that moment.

Fuck! My! Life!

Then he leaned out of the opening, tensed his body...

...and jumped.

There was absolutely nothing to tell him that he was ascending, then falling besides the fact that his stomach appeared to be making a concerted attempt to relocate to his skull – the sky outside was utterly unmoving from his perspective. Leaning over to look down at his feet, he could see a whorled patte of colors shooting by from below as he fell towards the Demeter, but the wind was nothing short of eerie.

For a terrifying instant his body was completely weightless, hanging between the skycar and the ship. He could see his legs flailing wildly beneath him, searching for traction and finding none. Behind him, he was aware of Jack's disbelieving shout and Jodies cry of pure terror. Ahead of him the AML Demeter drifted in the air like a giant metal monolith, utterlly uncaring whether he succeeded or failed. If he didn't make it, he had only a long drop and Kaguya's furious shouting to look forwad to before he became a messy smear on the ground. Not something he was looking forward to.

Probably not something he'd be able to regenerate from, either...

And on the off chance that he did make it he would be alone against what, if Samara's word was to be believed, was a very powerful and very pissed off asari. In confined quarters no less. Not the most ideal situation in hindsight, but it was the only one that ended with Morinth's death. The exhileration of this sudden lunge pounded in his ears, matching his hammering heartbeat. He just couldn't help himself. He whooped!

It felt oddly like being in a very fast elevator, albeit one without quite the same ride quality. The wind was roaring fiercely in his ears, but somehow his jump was kept level, so rather than let it fall wildly, he arced back at the Demeter like an arrow loosed from a bow. It wasn't as bad as he'd expected. It didn't change the fact that he was still falling from almost a mile up with absolutely no way to catch himself, but it was something.

And something was certainly better than nothing.

It suddenly occurred to Naruto that he had no way of breaking his fall regardless-whether he made it or not was irrelevant. It was still going to hurt. And it did.

Clunk.

In that instant, all of his being focused on stifling the shout that threatened to come roaring out of his throat.

His shoulder collided violently with the hull as he rolled, popping out then back in again as he clamped down to the hardened metal carapace. Ow! A thousand times! Ow! Almost immediatelly the winds tried to peel him off and fling him back, but he glued himself to its shell like a spider with chakra. All around him he could feel-hear-the air rushing by, the occasioinal discharge of the ship's shields crackling around him, leaving standing his hair on end. If the pilot was at all aware of an unwanted guest clinging to his ship, he certainly didn't seem to be aware of it.

Yes! Naruto exulted quietly, clenching a fist. Mission accomplished, baby! He allowed himself a moment of celebration before turning his eyes on the battered black hull. In a few minutes the ship would be leaving Illium altogether - and he'd rather not be standing outside when it left the atmosphere. Channeling chakra to his boots, he darted across the hull, searching for a point of entry. A hatch. Lever. Switch. Anything. But it seemed that they had built ships better in this era; because he found nothing of the sort.

So he made one.

Fingers drew back and formed a point, nails grew long and sharpened, piercing through his gloves. The flesh of his right arm bleaching a chalky white -the color of Kaguya's skin- beneath his armor. It was only a partial transformation, enough to give his limb that extra "oomph" needed to carve a hole for himself without damaging the limb. He didn't have time to wait for regeneration, not if this enemy was truly as deadly as Samara'd claimed her to be. He couldn't afford any weakness.

So he simply cut.

He pressed his changed arm down to the hull and made a sharp, slashing motion. The armor parted like butter. Two more swipes and he was completely through, forming a rough, if not man-shaped hole through which he dropped not a moment later. Promptly, the howling wind dropped to a mere trickle of nose, leaving him standing in dim, fluorescent lightning. Eerie.

To his great relief, there were no immediate civilians to be seen inside. Only cargo. Big, bulky boxes tied and strapped down. The kind you didn't want to slide around-they were capable of doing some serious damage. Likely they were fillled with red sand or some other such drugs. Wisely, he chose to give them a wide birth. Rounding the nearest corner he found himself face to face with a dead end. No cover there that he could see. The ship was rising now, probably veering off the skylane for the atmosphere. Not much time.

Another turn found him face to face with the cockpit. Peering through the window, he sighted down an old salarian at the controls. Definitely not Morinth.

He took a deep breath and glanced around. That was when he saw her.

A single asari, leaning against the nearby wall, one that hadn't been there before. She looked exactly like Samara. So much so that he almost hesitated. Almost. Time stood still. She looked as surprised to see him as he was her, but there were no weapons to be seen on her body, nor this slick, skintight body stocking that seemed to fit her like a glove. Gah, focus, man! She moved and he had a bead on her before a second step could be taken. It didn't phase her.

"Hello, stranger." she said, somehow making the word sound like a purr. She was wholly at ease-utterly unflinching in the face of almost certain death, staring down the barrel of a gun. "The name's Morinth. To what do I owe the pleasure?" her every word radiated a subtle vibe an ease that permeated the very air they breathed. Something was wrong. Naruto followed her warily-watched her every movement with his eyes. His senses screamed that she was not to be trusted-that he needed to end her. Here. Now. Yet surely it couldn't hurt to hear her out...

No.

A blink and a subtle nudge from Kaguya was all it took to shove the asari's influence away.

"Get out of my head." he hissed, raising his rifle once more. "I'm here to kill you. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Is that what my mother told you?" those full lips quirked in a petulant pout. "That I'm a monster?"

"Yes."

"Pity."

Then she speared him in a biotic charge before he could blink.

The air rushed out of his lungs in a mighty whoosh. Power. Momentum. Velocity. All these things and more added up to send him hurling through the cockpit, smashing down against door and driver both. Pretty sure that killed the salarian. Before he could rise she was on him, her hands locking around his face. His knee shot up, smashing into his stomach with enough force to smash her back up against the ceiling. He thought that would do it. But incredibly, she held on. Blue eyes blazed black. Something stabbed into his mind. Naruto snarled.

You're mine now.

She wasn't expecting him to laugh.

"You think you're a monster?" Blue eyes flashed white, veins bulging on either side of his visage. You think to make me burn? Foolish creature. I am the inferno!"

"I AM YOUR DEATH!"

The hunter became the hunted.

This being, this...thing, this presence - it defied all logic. Any attempts on her part to define the enormity of the existence before her would have been fruitless. Older than time itself. She was but a speck before her, could no sooner quantify who or what or why it was, only that it existed and there was nothing she could do and oh Goddess what had she done...

Something grabbed her. A parasite, latching onto her mind.

And in that awful moment, for the first time in decades, Morinth felt something other than desire. An emotion strong enough to overpower her arrogance and self confidence, filling her with dread. Belatedly, she recognized it-this age old emotion, the one she'd first felt when she'd learned her own mother would be hunting her down. It had a name.

Fear.

Too late, the Ardat-Yakshi tried to break the meld. Kaguya held it open. And then she swarmed over the other side.

Morinth received the same treatment she'd dealt to countless others over her many years-the pain of having every thought eroded, her mind overloaded. Her brain began to bleed, hemhoraging blood and other fluid as Kaguya systematically destroyed her nervous system, burning it out. Her mouth opened in a silent scream, the sound trailing off as her concsiousness as utterly devoured and obliterated. Her corpse, alive one moment, then dead the next, shuddered as the Rabbit Goddess took complete and total control.

"Ah," Morinth's lips began to move again, cooing. "Finally. A body."

The gun was at her temple before she could form a third thought.

"Drop. Her."

"Don't worry." She soothed with the asari's voice, glancing down at Morinth's pale, slender figure. "I was a little too rough with her." Her hips swayed. "She's dead, and her body is already dying. In a matter of moments, this will be little more than a corpse."

"Then ditch the body and take the head. We're leaving."

There was a brief moment of tension between the two. Would she listen to him? Or would she try to flee and come what may? Then, finally, she nodded.

"Very well. I am with you, Naruto."

She watched him stiffen slightly as her lips touched his forehead. Let him dwell on that, she thought. Then there was only pain for both beings, wincing as her consciousness returned to where it truly belonged. Morinth's body slumped behind them, a shell once more.

"Always."

Then they realized something.

"Who's flying the ship?!"

"Oh." Both host and tenant had just enough time to see a skyscraper filling their vision through the viewport.

"Ah, crap, this is gonna sting isn't it?"

"Indeed."

BOOM!

A/N: Aaand there you have it! My work continues! Couldn't resist that ending XD Kaguya's warming up to him! And another Naruto/Jodie moment! Daaaaw!

Anywho, I worked extremely hard on this one, so I hope to hear what you think! Will Naruto join up with Shepard? Or will he forge his own path? Seems like the latter so far! Pairing is uuup in the air! YOU DECIDE! And on a final note, thank you to everyone offering emotional support in regard to my health woes. Its greatly appreciated! An awful lot is going to change in this story soon! Look forward to an epic prank next chapter...provided my health holds out. So I'll say for all of you...HAPPY SUMMER! I've worked my but off on this, and I sincerely hope that I haven't dissapointed ya'll!

So...in the immortal words of Atlas...

...Review, Would You Kindly? And of course, enjoy the preview! MAJOR CANNON SHIFT APPROACHING!

(Preview)

Naruto cocked his head aside at Thane. Idly, his eyes wandered the ruin of Nassana Dantius, the gaping hole in her chest. He couldn't bring himself to find humor in that instant. The drell had dropped from the vents like a wraith, ending three men and killing the crazed asari before he could blink.

"Impressive work."

"Gee," Jack snorted. "I almost feel bad for the Collectors now."

"Collectors?" the drell frowned.

"Aye." Naruto growled. "We're gonna nail 'em to the wall."

"Care to join us?"

Hope you enjoyed! R&R! =D