Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Naruto Or Halo


"Doctor how are we doing on those spy drones?" Naruto asked as he walked into the makeshift command center/lab room on the Bridge of the 'Will of Fire.'

All Charon-Class Frigates had three Clarion Spy Drones on board and if the Doctors could get them working they would be invaluable.

"Should be up and running by this time tomorrow, Captain." Dr. Latimer Sr. answered not looking up from the pile of parts on the table in front of him. Doctor Latimer, named after Lewis Howard Latimer was the oldest among the survivors Naruto was in charge of in his late fifties with gray streaks in his hair and beard that he kept cut in a longer than regulation army cut. "Repairs would go faster if we had one of the Hugaroks helping."

"You know the rules Doc, LT, and BT have to keep being rotated. But I'll see what I can do." Naruto promised as passed the doctors workstation heading to the main holo-table where Isabel was standing talking to McMillan and James.
"How are we doing with the repairs Isabel?" He asked leaning over the table eyeing the red bases of the Banished forces. "Or at least the ones we know of."

It had been five months since the portal to Earth shut down and Doctor Ramirez's unwillingness to destroy his research gave who they now knew as the Banished mercenary group an almost complete map of the Ark. "And with it, Atriox has almost complete control of the place."

Which the Brute commander had used to keep them almost completely isolated on their ship where he could bombard them with attacks if they tried to leave. Every day for the three weeks had been a struggle to survive with them losing almost a person a day to the unrelenting attacks on the 'Will of Fire' by the Banished forces as the Scientist and Isabel tried to get the 'Will' operational again.

After that, it had been easier to repel the attacks with the Archer Missiles and defense turrets. With how many men he was losing with each attack and Naruto ordering everyone to stay inside Atriox had no choice but to call off the attacks. "Not that it changes what's going to happen sooner or later." Naruto thought glancing at the people around him.

The 'Will of Fire' was a ship built for war. They had military rations so they wouldn't go hungry but sooner or later they were going to run out of food and without being able to make their own outside because of the Banished even if they kept surviving attacks eventually they would all starve.

"Captain, what do you make of this?" Isabel asked bringing up a picture of a Banished mining operation.

Naruto expanded the picture. "We destroyed this months ago. Why would Atriox set up shop in the same place?"

He had led that mission himself and it cost him three of his marines whose corpses were now frozen in the cryo-bay as per his orders so they could have a proper funeral when they were rescued. Atriox hadn't been there but his second in command Decimus had been and the massive white haired brute had been responsible for all three deaths. Slaughtering all of them in seconds and vanishing before the rest of the squad even had time put him in their crosshairs.

"Because he's just a dumb brute?" James suggested shrugging. He had fought a few brutes during the war and they weren't anything but dumb muscle for the Covenant to throw at the UNSC.

"No," Naruto said swiping away the picture of the mining base and bringing up the only image of Atriox they had, courtesy of another dead marines helmet cam when he had led a squad to kidnap two of the Hugaroks from the Banished.

McMillan and James both glared at the picture of the bastard responsible for their friend's deaths.

Atriox was nine feet tall with unique black and white combat armor that was partially United Nations Space Command origin made from various pieces, including an ODST chest plate Naruto had recognized when he saw the picture for the first time. In his hands was a customized energy mace called which according to Isabel had been created from parts of a Type-2 gravity hammer.

"Atriox has shown that he is nothing like the other Brutes," Naruto said closing down the picture. Throughout the entire war, he had never seen a brute like Atriox. Even the chieftains while having shields, their armor was just metal plates and they swung their gravity hammer crushing anything in their path. Every brute lived up to the dumb expendable muscle profile ONI had written on the species.

All accept this one.

"Isabel, bring up the report we have on him from what we've managed to gather."

"Cunning and brilliant, Atriox is a deadly warrior and a skilled military commander leading the vast army of the Banished. He is highly ambitious, seemingly holding power for its own sake as his supreme value and motivation. A versatile soldier he leads the Banished in collecting and repurposing former Covenant military weapons, vehicles, and other equipment to allow the Banished to gain strength against other factions. If we want to survive he needs to die." Isabel read out loud gaining the attention of all those on the bridge.

"You don't think we can actually kill him do you, Captain? He's got an entire army guarding him, and all we've got is a ragtag group of Marines. An assassination mission would be suicide." McMillan spoke up. Not out of fear like he would have months ago, the young marine had been stepping up to the plate and volunteering for the more dangerous missions. If Naruto had the power he would have promoted the Corporal.

Naruto remained silent as all eyes in the bridge turned to him, the men and women under his command waiting for an answer from their leader. "Killing Atriox is off the table, Isabel."

He could see everyone in the room relax at his answer and felt a little put off that they thought he would OK a mission like that. He had never led any of them to their deaths unless the victory they achieved was worth the price of even one life.

Focusing his attention back on the table in front of him he pushed those thoughts away. They wouldn't help him here.

Pointing at another Banished base after bringing the holographic map back up he asked. "This base is new isn't it, Isabel?"

"Yes, sir. And it seems smaller than most which is weird because all the others are roughly the same size." Isabel frowned as she walked through the map. "Recon squad one sent this information an hour before their IFF's went dark. Our Recon teams have never been caught before, Captain."

"Which means this base is more important than the others." Naruto finished. "The question is why?"

Atriox had never shown that he cared about the men under his command, letting his second in command Decimus send wave after wave of Banished troops to be slaughtered by the 'Will of Fires' 50mm Point Defense guns."Isabel, I'm going to do a little recon, until I get back you're in charge."

"Captain, the recon team died." Isabel stressed, "And I'm tired of losing friends, so please don't go."

"Isabel." Naruto knew she wasn't created to be a combat A.I and the past few months had been just as hard on her as they were everyone else but- "I need you to get it together. I know you're a logistics A.I and in the middle of a war with aliens is the last place you want to be but everyone here is counting on us. If we aren't strong they won't be either and then none of us will live long enough to get off this damn rock. So I need you to be strong. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes, Captain."

"Good.


XXXXX


(Hours later)

"Captain, you should put that recon mission on hold."

Chambering a round in his pistol Naruto sighed as Isabel's voice came through his helmet. "I've told you for the past two hours, Isabel, the active camouflage we got off the dead Zealot that was still in here will make sure none of Atriox's men see me. I'll be fine."

"That's not what I'm worried about," Isabel said. "Well, it is but that's not my main concern anymore. Sensors are picking up a large Banished Force heading straight for us. Ground troops, Banshees, and Blister backs. He's not holding back this time."

"Get the Archer missiles ready and get our shields up," Naruto ordered. "Have everyone but the doctors meet in the hangar bay."

"Done. And done." Isabel said. "Captain, they haven't used Blister Backs on us since the first raid when the Sentinels destroyed them. If they're using them now..."

Naruto nodded holstering his pistol and grabbing an assault rifle. No use going quiet now. "Atriox either plans on trying to blow us to kingdom come and sacrifice the men he sent or they found a way to get past the Sentinel defense. Either way, I don't think the 'Will's' shields will hold up against a missile barrage."

"They won't."

"Take manual control of the defense guns and fire on the Blister backs. Those are your top priority targets. We can hold the foot soldiers back until they are destroyed." Naruto said his mind racing through dozens of scenarios and calculating their chances of surviving this mess. He was no A.I but he got by and right now it wasn't looking too good.

Atriox only tried once to bomb their base but the Forerunner Sentinels tasked with guarding the Ark destroyed the Blister back after the first missile hit reducing the thing to pieces. The same thing happened with the mining outpost the brute had spread across the Ark. If a certain amount of damage was done to the artificial world the Sentinels would destroy whatever was causing their home to hurt. It was their greatest advantage against the Banished.

"Something's happened and he wants us off the Ark." There was no other explanation as to why Atriox would suddenly risk bringing the wrath of the sentinels down onto him.

"Captain."

"I know I hear it." Naruto said now running through the halls of the 'Will'. His heightened hearing had picked up the sound of gunfire and Sangheili roars of battle before Isabel had spoken. "Isabel the turrets?"

Rounding the corner to the hangar bay Naruto was forced to jump to the side immediately as plasma bolts scorched the doorway slightly melting the metal. "McMillan." He said popping his head out of cover to put five rounds in an Elites chest before ducking back down as two brutes fired on his position.

"Sir, we can hold them but we are taking heavy casualties!" McMillan yelled from across the hangar where he was crouched behind a busted up hog, the front half nothing more than a melted ball of metal.

The whole hangar was a kill zone for the banished with the UNSC survivors taking cover behind whatever they could and shooting anything that came through the ten-foot wide gap where the hangar doors were jammed. Bodies of Covenant aliens littered the floor as more rushed in trampling the deceased under their feet a rain of plasma fire leading their charge.

"Grenades!" Naruto ordered pointing at the center of the new group of rush soldiers. Three marines threw UNSC frags out and one picked up a Type-2 antipersonnel fragmentation grenade chucking it in with the others. "Everybody down!"

Dropping to the ground Naruto covered his ears. In a closed off place like the hangar the grenade explosions were going to be loud and they were going to be deadly to anything not behind cover.

Two seconds later the metal walls screeched as pieces of the grenades either ricocheted off or pierced the lighter metal. "Fire!"

"Fire!" Naruto yelled pushing himself up. Firing on anything that moved he held his rifle steady against his shoulder shooting controlled burst at crawling Elites and kneeling brutes who were dripping blood from the pieces of the grenades stuck in their bodies.

"Captain, missiles inbound! You need to find-"

Naruto missed the rest of Isabel's orders as everything went silent, and then the ringing started.

Crawling to his knees he looked at his hands which were bloodied and burned. Looking around confused as the world spun and the ringing would stop he tried to find his gun. Wasn't he just holding his gun?

"Captain? Captain? Naruto!"

Shaking his head trying to clear his vision he winced at the sharp lance of pain that shot through his leg when he tried to stand. Looking down he saw a metal pipe sticking into his right thigh blood bubbling up and running down his pants until it disappeared under his armor.

"Isabel, what happened?" He asked as the blurriness that fogged his sight began to fade and the last few seconds came back to him. "The Missiles!"

"Hey! You can't be in here. Captain, Rami-"

"Isabel! Dammit." Rolling onto his back Naruto placed both hands on the metal pipe, took a deep breath and-

"AARRRGGHH!"

With a sickening squelching noise, the pipe came out followed by a river of blood unblocked by the metal. Reaching into his pack he pulled out his bio-foam canister and applied it to the hole hissing as the cold stinging sensation that always came with using the healing foam.

Grabbing a Caseless SMG from one of the dead soldiers around him he got to his feet unsteadily limping away trying his best not to kick any of the scattered human and alien remains scattered around the hangar. Arms blew off at the elbows, same with the legs at the knees. And it wasn't just human parts either; Atriox missiles hadn't discriminated when they hit killing the banished forces as well.

"Ca...Captain. Ramirez is...heading to the Command center."

Closing his eyes has another green light blinked out on his HUD signaling another marine's life blinking out. Considering the soldier was telling him about Ramirez it was probably one of the guards. "I knew I should have put a bullet in that idiot."

Struggling to walk it took him twice as long as it should have to make it to the Command Center. Limping through the halls he kept his eyes forward refusing to look down at the dead men and women he had served with for the last few months. If he had taken the time to assess the damage done to the hangar bay he was sure it would have looked like the rest of the ship he had seen so far.

Bloody. Broken. And Burning. If it wasn't for the pain in his leg he would have thought he was in hell. The hallway walls had holes letting the cut and torn electric wires hang loose occasionally touching each other showering the area around them in sparks.

Moving through the wreckage Naruto kept his SMG at waist level pointed forward hoping the doctor would make an appearance but knowing his luck it wasn't going to happen.
"Command does anyone copy?" He asked as he crossed the halfway mark to the Bridge.

"Command this is Captain Uzumaki does anyone copy?"

"Captain, you're still alive, thank god."

"Isabel!" Naruto sped up his limp disregarding the sharp jabs of pain to his leg each step caused. "Lock down the bridge until I get there."

Naruto stopped leaning against the wall. He was getting that feeling that something wasn't right again.
"Who were you talking to before?" He asked hoping the answer would be banished soldiers who snuck by the front line amidst the chaos and not what he was thinking.

"Doctor Ramirez of course."

"Dammit." That's what he was thinking. Sliding down to the floor as Isabel's voice kept talking into his ear about casualties and damages the 'Will' sustained he shut off his radio not wanting to hear her list the names of dead friends in the robotic way she was speaking. Instead, he forced himself to think about the future of the mission to stop the Banished from opening the portal.

The banished forces outside were most likely already dead, wiped out by the sentinels and with most if not all of the survivors but him dead there wasn't much he could do against Atriox's operations on the Ark except small hit and run attacks. That wouldn't do much and he couldn't man every gun on the 'Will' to counter attack if they came back. Not without Isabel anyway.

Which meant he had to get her back. And if he got to shoot Ramirez in the head while completing his mission, he was security breach anyway so it had to be done.


I was going to do more of Naruto and his ragtag team vs the banished but against all the troops a Covenant Assault Carrier can carry they couldn't really do much except hole up and wait for reinforcements or guerilla warfare. As I read through what I wrote before it was very repetitive and then I still had the Spirit of Fire crew joining and they were still vastly outnumbered and outgunned against Atriox and I didn't want the story to level off and be close to the same thing for the next few chapters. So this is kind of like a filler/timeskip chapter.

(ZERO) Naruto armor is the SPI most spartan III's used. He will get different armor next chapter though.

Thanks for reading hope you guys have enjoyed so far. Leave a review I like them:)