Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Metal Gear. I don't see why there aren't more bipedal tanks in the world. I mean we spend enough money on all of that other shit don't we? Speaking of which why don't we invest in more research on superpowers? I want some of that shit. I know we can do it somehow, there has to be a way. Someone smart with some vision should get right on that.

And I don't mean super-strength or speed or anything else involving muscles either… they have a way to help you get that… it's called steroids.

Chapter 7: With a Vengeance

(Mission Briefing)

Col. Campbell: "The nuclear weapons disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island and Alaska's Fox Archipelago was attacked and captured by Next-Generation Special Forces being led by members of FOXHOUND. They're demanding that the government turn over the remains of Big Boss and they say that if their demands aren't met within 24 hours they'll launch a nuclear weapon."

"You'll have two mission objectives. First you're to rescue DARPA Chief Donald Anderson and the ArmsTech President Kenneth Baker. Both are being held as hostages. Secondly you're to investigate whether or not the terrorists have the ability to make a nuclear strike and stop them if they do."

Solid Snake: "What's the insertion method?"

Col. Campbell: "We'll approach the nuclear disposal facility by sub."

Solid Snake: "And?" The gruff voice asked in response, annoyed. It couldn't have been that blatant a method, he would have been discovered in seven seconds if it had been like that.

Col. Campbell: "We'll launch a one-man SDV (Swimmer Delivery Vehicle). After it gets as close as it can, dispose of it. From there on you'll have to swim. Your enemies are the high-tech special unit FOXHOUND. Your old unit… and one I was a commander of."

Solid Snake: "So they're still around."

Col. Campbell: "There are six members of FOXHOUND involved in this terrorist activity. Psycho Mantis, with his powerful psychic abilities. Sniper Wolf, a beautiful and deadly sharpshooter. Decoy Octopus, master of disguise. Vulcan Raven, a giant of a man and shaman. Revolver Ocelot, a specialist in interrogation and a formidable gunfighter. They're all led by FOXHOUND field commander Liquid Snake; the man with the same codename as you."

Solid Snake: "…"

Col. Campbell: "I'll instruct you by Codec after you reach your infiltration point."

Solid Snake: "Anyone going with me?"

Col. Campbell: "As usual this is a one-man solo sneaking mission. Weapons and equipment OSP (procured on-site). This is a top secret black-op, don't expect any official support.

XxX

A figure in a diving suit swam through a cavern, eventually finding its way to the docks that were set up to bring cargo up to the main part of the base. As they got out of the water and quickly hid themselves, getting rid of their diving gear as fast as possible as well an echo could be heard from where they were.

"He'll be through here, I know it." Liquid said, standing by a cargo elevator that led up as he had several Genome Soldiers patrolling the cargo hold cavern, "I'm going to go swat down some bothersome flies." He said as he hit the button to the elevator and headed up to the actual base itself.

Back with the diver that had infiltrated the facility, it turned out to be Solid Snake in a diving mask and a black sneaking suit, designed to provide him protection from damage and the elements. Still ducking behind loading equipment, keeping out of sight of the Genome Soldier patrol, he touched his hand to his ear and activated his Codec, "Colonel… I'm in."

"Good Snake. You can now begin your infiltration of the Shadow Moses Nuclear Weapon Disposal Facility."

"Understood." Snake said to the man keeping tabs of his actions from a submarine in the Bering Sea, "First thing's first. I need to find and rescue the DARPA Chief." He finished as he began to sneak around the area, keeping behind crates and checking his corners to ensure that he wasn't spotted. He had absolutely no weapons on him yet. He would have to find them as he moved through the base.

But he was used to working like this.

XxX

(Shadow Moses Island – Canyon Farside Crevice)

Naruto woke up covered in snow with a tongue licking his masked, goggled face spiritedly, "Ugh." Pulling both of those things down, he found himself lying down surrounded by wolf-dogs, staring at him and panting happily, "Oh yeah… animals totally love me." He muttered to himself as he started moving slowly after taking such a nasty fall. Looking around, he found himself in a fissure that he fell down after his rush towards the cliff during his escape attempt from Sniper Wolf.

By now night had fallen, telling the young blonde that he had been there for quite some time as it was very cloudy but still light out when he had cut loose from the base. The snowflakes were falling quite furiously from the sky as Naruto dislodged himself from the snowdrift he had found himself in. Pulling himself out and sitting on the ground he found himself surrounded by the wolf-dogs that had been hanging out while he had been unconscious. Seeing the animals made Naruto think back to the last thing he remembered doing. He immediately started trying to find a wound from a sniper bullet, since he felt every shot that Wolf hit a clone with he was never sure if she had actually shot him or not until he realized that he had still been running, from that point he just kept plugging along waiting to be picked off.

Apparently it never happened.

When he found no wound on his person he lay back in the snow and sighed in relief. The pain from the phantom injuries had passed while he had been unconscious. His clones had been obliterated but better them than him in this case. As he lay down the wolf-dogs bounded over to him yapping and barking, eliciting a smile from Naruto, "Hey guys… Sorry I can't feed you. I've got to go stop some bad stuff from happening." He said as he rubbed a few of them on their heads.

He stood up and wiped the snow off of his person, making sure that he still had all of his equipment with him. He could see a crack that he could fit his body through, probably how the dogs found him, that he squeezed himself through to begin getting his bearings and getting himself together, 'Okay, so I'm all alone in the middle of Shadow Moses Island surrounded by Genome Soldiers and my FOXHOUND partners that think I'm dead.'

They had to think he was dead. If they thought he had escaped then they would have found him, all they would have had to do was trace his steps to the edge of the cliff he had been running on, as out of the way as that was for them.

'So that means that I might have the drop on them…' Naruto thought to himself as he turned around to the wolf-dogs, "You guys can't follow me. Most of the Genome Soldiers don't like you guys anyway." They whined as if they understood him, letting him walk away from them as he started to get his location, 'Damn. I ran away towards the edge of the island. I'm near the power station. This is right on the mobile patrol route, I can't stay here.'

At that moment, prompted by noise in the winter night over the howling winds, Naruto looked up and out at a distance where he could see two fighter jets flying. Were they stupid? Liquid had the damn country held under nuclear hostage and they were sending in fighter jets to do whatever it was they were there to do? That wouldn't do anything but piss him off.

There was no one to call. The only frequencies he knew were those of FOXHOUND members or Genome Soldiers. That would do him no good. He was stuck on the island, there was nowhere to go for help, even if he could walk his ass back across the water to the mainland then what? There was no one to go to. He had to do this himself, it was his only choice.

With this in mind, Naruto started running along the roadside he was near, willing to use the route until it became prudent to use less direct routes to move about. The first thing he had to do was see if he could free Meryl. Any help would be good enough for him in this case, and that was a start if nothing else.

XxX

(Heliport)

Snake hid himself after getting off of the cargo elevator as the heliport outside of the tank hangar of the base was very well guarded with a dozen soldiers stationed about. Touching his ear to access his Codec again, Snake began to communicate with his support, "A Hind D?" He wondered aloud as he saw the helicopter prepared to take off, "What's a Russian gunship doing here?"

"I have no idea." Campbell replied, "But it looks like our diversion got their attention with the fighter jets. Now's your best chance to sneak into the base unnoticed." The Hind D lifted off of the ground with Liquid manning it all by himself, heading off to deal with the jets that were pestering them, "There are only 18 hours left until their deadline, you've got to move! Remember that you've got Naomi and Mei Ling for support as well if you have any question. So don't hesitate to call either me or them Snake. Remember that other than a pair of binoculars you've got nothing. Arm yourself with whatever you can find."

"Oh I remember alright." Snake said bitterly, remembering how he was pulled from his peaceful home, "First I'm strip searched by Doctor Naomi, then I get all of my weapons taken away. Imagine yourself put into that situation."

A formal sounding female voice cut into the conversation in Campbell's place, "Well if you make it back in one piece maybe I'll let you do a strip search on me." She said in a teasing manner.

Snake fought back a lecherous smirk at that, "I'll hold you to that doctor. And sorry to disappoint you but I did manage to smuggle out my smokes." He said, fishing a pack of cigarettes from his supply pouch.

"How on earth did you manage to do that?" Naomi asked him, honestly curious.

"In my stomach." Snake replied as if it had been obvious, "Your little series of shots to get me ready for this mission suppressed my stomach acids so thanks."

"…That's disgusting."

"It is what it is." Snake said, not really caring too much about her opinion on it, "Alright, I'm heading in now." He said as he started sneaking around the helicopter platform of the heliport. He could see that the soldiers stationed outside were on edge as he slipped past them, a fight would serve him absolutely no purpose as long as he had no weapon on his person. He wouldn't be able to win.

Snake ducked behind a wall leading to the tank hangar as two Genome Soldiers walked past him, not noticing his presence due to the shadow of the night and the wall keeping him concealed. He heard the two men talk as they moved past him, "Do you believe that little bastard Uzumaki thinking he had a chance of getting away? He thought he had gotten out when he escaped the canyon… the freak."

"Yeah." The second man replied, "I heard Sniper Wolf put him out of his misery though. You could hear the shots all the way from where we were. Good riddance, that brat was a waste of space. FOXHOUND material my ass. He should have been shining boots."

Snake waited for them to get a distance away as he activated his Codec, "Colonel, I thought you said there were only six members of FOXHOUND. Why were they talking about another one? Who is Uzumaki?"

"Uzumaki…" Campbell said as if he were testing the name, feeling he had heard it somewhere before, "That name is familiar for some reason but I can't recall. I wouldn't worry about it though, they said that he had been killed. It's not your problem Snake."

"Alright Colonel." Snake said as he stopped the transmission, moving against the wall until he found a supply truck that had just parked itself near the front doors of the tank hangar, however the hangar doors were shut tightly, he had to find another way in. Hopping in the back to get himself out of the cold for a moment to get his bearings on the situation and the setting around him. He searched through the back of the truck to find that it was more military hardware, probably meant to go into the armory in the nearby building, 'Fantastic.' Snake thought to himself as he found himself looking at an open crate of SOCOM pistols, 'I'm finally armed.' He thought, though he still needed to find himself some ammo.

With a gun finally found for his own protection, Snake hopped out of the back of the truck once the coast was clear and made his way towards the wall next to the tank hangar doors, slipping his way to an open vent that he saw during his time in the truck.

He ducked down at the open vent along the ground to slip himself into it, crawling on his belly. Snake allowed himself a small smile of triumph as he managed to get into the stronghold without any issue, 'So far so good.' He thought to himself as he moved through the vent carefully so as not to make any noises until he received a call on his Codec once more. It was starting to irk him. Couldn't he get some traction on his mission before people started asking him things? "Yes?" He asked, hiding his perturbed attitude.

"There's another member of your support team that I haven't introduced yet." Campbell informed him, "I'd like to introduce FOXHOUND's former drill sergeant, the man who helped train you one upon a time. Master Miller's joining us from his home in the Alaskan interior just to help you."

"Hello Snake." The previously introduced man greeted Snake from his frequency, "I may not be there with you, but I do have experience surviving in some of Alaska's harsher conditions. I can give you advice on how to best handle certain situations that you might find yourself in to help you through this."

"Thanks Master." Snake said grateful to have his old instructor, another friendly personality from his past with him on the mission, "There's no one I'd rather have with me in a foxhole than you."

XxX

(With Naruto – Outside the Tank Hangar)

Naruto managed to catch a supply truck headed down the path with a risky little tactic; laying down in the middle of the snow covered road as it passed over him and grabbing a hold of the undercarriage as it passed over him. He had just dodged bullets from the best sniper he had ever met in his life, a truck didn't scare him.

The truck wound up taking him right outside of the tank hangar where he sat waiting for a while under the vehicle as he waited out the patrol patterns of the men around him. He had even seen Liquid take off in the Hind D to engage the jets that had been hanging around the area, 'Those poor bastards… Liquid's going to shoot them right down. He's that damn good at using the Hind.'

Eventually he detached himself and crawled out from underneath the truck, snapping his head towards the security camera set over the sealed hangar doors that was turning his way. Naruto quickly flipped throwing knife from his supply sleeve to stick itself in the joint of the camera arm, jamming it and keeping it from turning. Now he only had the guards to deal with, and no Genome Soldier had the chops to locate a motivated Naruto. The parts of the base that Naruto had access to prior to the insurrection he had knowledge of like the back of his hand out of sheer boredom.

Naruto dodged the patrol squad and made his way to the tower near the tank hangar that he scaled swiftly, taking a low-key perch at the top on an automatic searchlight, using the powerful light as a blind to keep others from seeing him up there. Anyone that bothered looking up there would only be blinded and unable to see anything behind the actual light. Naruto jumped from the top of the light to the snowy roof of the tank hangar and rushed towards a series of air ducts sticking up.

The boy walked towards them, counting out the second one from the left, 'First one leads to the first floor, second one leads to the first basement, oh yeah.' He pried up the intended vent cover and jumped inside, stopping a direct drop by placing his back against one side of the vertically dropping vent and his feet against the other side, scooting himself downwards carefully. It took quite a while for Naruto to make it to the bottom silently where he started to crawl, eventually making his way to another shut ventilation grate. He could see through the grate and smirked to himself, fighting the urge to fist-pump.

He could see from the grey, dingy walls and the steel doors lined up side by side on one wall that he was in the holding cells of the 1st basement of the building. That was where he wanted to be anyway. That was the only place he could go that Meryl would be if she was still alive, and he didn't see how they would have killed her. That would have been a waste of a potential hostage.

Naruto decided to take a little risk and started banging on the grate repeatedly until he heard someone call out, "I already told both of you to knock off all of that racket!" That was Johnny's voice. This was going to be easy if that were the case, thus Naruto kept banging. Once he entered the area, Naruto stopped banging and had to stifle a laugh when Johnny didn't even go towards his location, he went to one of the cell doors to berate whoever was inside, "Don't make me have to come in there!" He threatened.

"Bite me needle-dick." Was the reply from a female voice behind the cell door.

'Gotcha Meryl.' Naruto sat back and kicked the grate as hard as he could, freeing it from its place screwed to the wall violently. He then pushed himself out as Johnny turned around and pointed his FAMAS. Of course, by the time the rookie soldier got his gun up to aim it Naruto had already grabbed a hold of the front of his face and slammed his head into the side of the door, knocking him unconscious.

Naruto rubbed the space between his nose and mouth with a big grin on his face at the easy victory, "Sorry Johnny." Naruto said, not that the masked man could hear him. He turned towards the door where he heard Meryl and looked through the peephole, "And you said that you didn't need me?" He whispered in an amused tone.

"Naruto?" Meryl said in surprise, jumping towards the door to meet his bright blue eyes at the peephole, "They said you were dead! How did you get here?"

"Shh!" Naruto shushed her quickly, using his card key to open the door to Meryl's cell before she ran out and grabbed Johnny's unconscious body, confusing Naruto as to the purpose, "Why?" Naruto asked her quietly as to why she grabbed Johnny until her tanktop hit him right in the face. Naruto slowly pulled the piece of clothing off of his face to find a topless Meryl with her back to him, pulling the clothing off of Johnny, "Whoa! Really?" He hissed lowly with a red face, though he did not look away.

"Oh be an adult." Meryl muttered as she started putting on Johnny's uniform in place of her clothes, "I heard a serious racket in the next cell before you got here." She said as she finished by taking Johnny's balaclava and weapon, putting the mask on her own face, "How else am I going to go around and try to stop this crap from happening? They know my face." She explained, "Listen, the DARPA Chief was in the cell next to me. I don't know what happened to him but it sounded like he was in pain." Meryl had the FAMAS pointed at the door with the DARPA Chief behind it, preparing to investigate.

Honestly, Naruto didn't care about the DARPA Chief, he just wanted to stop whatever was going on, but if helping Meryl would help him in the long run then he could spare a moment to see what the problem was. With this in mind, Naruto drew his MP5K and crept towards the cell, sliding it open quickly as he checked the room. He saw Donald Anderson laying face-down on the ground motionless which attracted his full attention as he walked into the cell, taking notice of the open air vent on the far wall that looked much like the way he had gotten to the cell block in the first place.

With his eyes on Anderson, Naruto almost didn't notice the figure hiding in the corner next to the door until he felt him move. Naruto turned his gun onto the man and wound up getting his MP5K knocked out of his hands. Returning the favor, Naruto swatted the man's SOCOM pistol out of his grasp, knocking it into the corner. He wound up taking a shocking punch to the face from the man that knocked him against the wall in the tiny cell.

The second his back hit the wall, Naruto spun off of it to avoid a follow up thrust kick that would have at the very least broken a few ribs had it hit him, it struck the wall with that much force. Naruto responded with a backhand punch from his opponent's blindspot that hit the man in the face, but he followed up with a side kick that made Naruto stumble and trip over the bed in the cell.

The short flurry of attacks got Meryl's attention as she appeared in the doorway pointing her FAMAS at the man attacking Naruto, "Freeze!" She ordered. The man stopped and turned towards her, giving a short grunt of dismissal before he turned his attention back to Naruto who was getting up, having turned to sit on the bed. He lifted a fist to hit Naruto again when he wound up with the blonde soldier's fist buried right in his stomach, a satisfied feeling coming from Naruto as he felt the breath forcefully leave his body.

The punch forced the man to stumble back to the outside of the cell block, knocking Meryl out of the way before she recovered and pointed her gun at the man again, "I said freeze!" Once again he didn't listen as he wound up moving towards her to disarm her with his bare hands, this was before Naruto jumped in front of her and forced the man to switch to trying a punch.

Naruto blocked it and swiped another backfist that missed once the man took a step back. He was very fast, but Naruto could make out a man in a sleek looking black outfit with a headband, "For fuck's sake stop warning him, just shoot him!" Naruto shouted as he didn't take the time to wait for Meryl to hesitate again. He didn't know who this was, but he didn't have the time to ask questions right now.

The man feigned a stutter-step forward that Naruto couldn't help but fall for, the motion was so fast. It wound up with Naruto taking a front kick to the side of the head that knocked him off balance, stumbling towards a wall. Naruto recovered as his enemy was incoming to follow up, using the wall to spring off of and spin around, delivering a mid-air kick to his head that knocked him to the ground.

No one could say that Meryl wasn't quick to action as she moved over the man and pointed her FAMAS at him, holding the barrel right over his chest, "Why did you kill the chief?" She asked him aggressively.

Too bad by now both the man and Naruto knew that she wasn't going to shoot him, "Have you ever even pointed a gun at a person?" The man on the ground asked in his rough voice, "Your hands are shaking." He grabbed the barrel of the gun and placed it right against his chest, staring Meryl right in the eyes, unnerving her with his uncaring look, "Can you shoot me rookie?"

"I'm no rookie!" Meryl said, not taking the gun away, but not firing either.

"Liar." The man on the ground said, "Those are rookie's eyes if I've ever seen them." He pointed his head towards Naruto who was wiping away a trail of blood from his mouth, "That's the real soldier over there. On the other hand you didn't even take the safety off." He narrowed his eyes in thought, "…You two aren't a part of them." He muttered.

Meryl backed off from the man, FAMAS still pointed at him as she looked over at Naruto, "You said you have a card key right?"

"Why?" Naruto asked her, not taking his eyes off of the man that was slowly getting to his feet. He wasn't like anyone on base. Who was he?

"So we can get the hell out of here!" Meryl snapped at him as if she were stating the obvious.

Naruto palmed his face. She needed to calm down and stop panicking, "Did you not listen to me when I told you everyone gets a card key? You took Johnny's gear! You have one on you! Open the goddamn door yourself!" He yelled, waving his arms indignantly just as the door opened.

"A little too late for that…" The man muttered as he dove back into the cell that housed the start of his and Naruto's little skirmish to retrieve his weapon.

Naruto and Meryl turned towards the door as Genome Soldiers began swarming into the cell block, "Fuck." Naruto muttered before he noticed Meryl not firing, "What are you waiting for? Shoot!" He shouted, pulling his twin SOCOM pistols from their holsters to fire away at the soldiers to give Meryl some cover. He actually managed to take one down as he bumped her into the cell next to the one their mysterious guest went into to get his gun.

Speaking of him, he poked his head out and fired at a brave advancing Genome Soldier with his SOCOM, "Kid back me up here." He saw Naruto poke his head out and tossed Naruto his MP5K, which Naruto immediately put his pistols up in order to use. One of the two proved to be useful enough to crack his jaw already. Maybe the blonde brat was a decent shot too?

Meryl watched Naruto leave the cover of the cell to step back in the hall, backing up while firing his semi-automatic in accurate bursts. The combined fire of the two veteran soldiers managed to wind up cutting down over seven Genome Soldiers. Naruto, being the one standing in the hall had the better perspective of what was going on, "Oi weird guy, we've got more coming." He said as he took the down time to switch magazines, "Reload while we've got the opening." He looked towards Meryl who was watching the firefight, "Pick up that gun and pull the trigger, we need help!"

Hearing the edge in Naruto's voice shocked her into following his order without even thinking about it. Firing down the hall while Naruto and their temporary ally were reloading, the rattle of her assault rifle hit home, cutting down two Genome Soldiers, getting a gasp out of her at knowing that she had just taken human lives.

"Good shooting." The unknown man said, smirking at getting some adequate support from the people around him for once. Maybe he would get out of this.

Naruto's MP5K magazine ran dry just as another wave of three Genome Soldiers were creeping down the hall, moving towards the trio, "To hell with this." Naruto muttered, slinging his MP5K over his back and pulling a smoke grenade from his supply pouch as he threw it down the hall, waiting for the smoke to billow before he rushed right into the mix.

This nearly had the man with them have a conniption, "What are you doing kid?" He said as he heard sporadic gunfire and then silence. The smoke cleared to reveal Naruto… and Naruto… and another Naruto. Three Narutos holding the remainder of the Genome Soldiers at gunpoint with SOCOM pistols, "What are you?"

"Special." Naruto said before he and all of his copies pistol-whipped their hostages into sweet unconsciousness. Two of the Narutos then disappeared in puffs of smoke, "Very, very special… dattebayo." He said with a sigh, kicking one of the downed men. He then walked over to Meryl and poked her masked forehead, "Next time, please just shoot them. I'm not one for killing for useless reasons, but this was a very good moment to get rid of that little limit on my morals."

Meryl's eyes seemed to be glazed over before she swatted Naruto's hand from her head and ran down the cell block, abruptly turning once she exited the door, "Thanks for the help." She said in a rather haughty manner as she took off down the hall.

"Hey wait!" Naruto ran after her, "I was wondering if I could get your help!" Naruto propositioned, followed by the mysterious man. They were both stopped when Meryl turned at the elevator at the end of the hall and fired at them both, forcing them to take cover, "Whoa! What the hell's her problem? Now she can shoot." Naruto commented towards the strange man until the fire from Meryl's weapon ceased with the closing of the elevator door.

During Meryl's erratic firing pattern pinning them both down, they both saw the shimmering appearance of Psycho Mantis in the hall right in front of her, bullets firing through him as if he were an astral projection, "Yes dear… just like that. Your mind is strong, but it is nothing compared to… his." He said as the elevator pulled off, leaving Naruto and the intruder alone as the projection disappeared.

"Fucking Mantis..." Naruto muttered as he knew what had come over Meryl. He then noticed the man having a conversation with his hand against his ear, trying to ask someone what he had just seen, 'He has a Codec too? Who is this guy?' Naruto thought.

"So that was Mantis…" Naruto heard the man mutter before he seemed to stop his Codec conversation to pay attention to Naruto, "So since your little friend freaked out on us and ran away, who are you kid? You're not Next-Generation Special Forces or FOXHOUND."

"I was in FOXHOUND…" Naruto muttered bitterly, getting a pointed look from the strange man, "I said I used to be in FOXHOUND, never officially though. I didn't want to take part in this and they kicked me out and tried to kill me." He looked over the man and gave him a smile, extending his hand for a hand shake, "Naruto Uzumaki."

The man looked at Naruto's hand and then at the blonde's diffusing smile before groaning and reaching out to shake his hand. Why not? He had just gotten through killing around a dozen or more Genome Soldiers right in front of him. He probably needed all the help he could get for this mission anyway, "Snake." He said simply, getting a wide-eyed look from Naruto, "What's the matter?"

"You're Snake?" Naruto said in shock, "Solid Snake? The real Snake, not like fake-ass Liquid?" Naruto chuckled and scratched his scalp, "Damn, it's awesome to meet you. I've heard tons of things about you for years. Master always talked about you."

Snake sighed, he didn't really want to be famous, but at least Naruto didn't say something like he idolized him or anything like that. That would have been awkward, "Whatever. Do you know where the ArmsTech President is? I need to find him to get the last of the detonation codes for the nukes so that maybe I could end this thing. I can't let REX fire one off."

Naruto frowned at him and shook his head, "I don't care anything about that. Why go through all of that when you could just beat Liquid and end everything?" That was what Naruto wanted to do. Just find Liquid, skip all of the stupidity and get rid of him. That would end everything. Too bad he only had level two clearance. He needed a better card key if he actually wanted to get any further into the base, the places he knew that he was never able to reach. Even the members of FOXHOUND only had selective clearance. Liquid and Ocelot were the only ones with full reign of the entire facility.

"Orders kid." Snake explained, getting a nod of understanding from Naruto, "Well if that's the case then I'd better get going. Is there any way to get into contact with you if I need to?"

"Yeah, my channel is 141.92." Naruto told him standing up and taking this time to finally reload his MP5K, "I need to go on ahead, just so you know if you didn't already you aren't going to get too much further without a better card key." Naruto held out a yellow card with a 2 on it only to pull it back when Snake reached for it, "Whoa, you aren't getting mine, I need it. You have to find your own."

Snake growled as Naruto ran back towards the cell block faster than he could keep up with, "Where are you going?"

"To find Liquid and raise hell." Naruto told him, running past the downed Genome Soldiers before diving back into the open vent, beginning his trek back to the top of the tank hangar at the place he had gotten in from, "I know most of this place like the back of my hand. If you need some information on a certain place in the base or if you might need some backup just call me." He called down the vent as he climbed his way back up with chakra.

Snake stuck his head to look into the vent only to find Naruto climbing up through there effortlessly before disappearing up over a ledge in the air duct system. He got out and immediately went to his Codec, "Seriously, I need to know who that kid is. He's FOXHOUND but he's not FOXHOUND, he's got these weird abilities to make copies of himself, he's faster than anyone I've seen in person, he's stronger than me in this suit."

Campbell immediately tried to dredge up some kind of information on Naruto for Snake's benefit. Trying to discover if he was really friend or foe, "I know that name is familiar to me for some reason. It's very specific, I remember it for some reason. Naomi do you know anything about this Naruto Uzumaki person?"

"I know something of him, but very little though." Naomi said, taking a moment to pull up what she could on Naruto from her station on the sub, "Age: 18. Bloodtype: B. There is very little on him but we do know that he started popping up in certain circles of conversation in 2002. A very skilled counter-terrorist soldier, he's had workings with FOXHOUND over the last year. He's been groomed to join them apparently. I actually came into contact with him last month. He volunteered to test your Codec months prior and I implanted it in January. He… he seemed like a good person, too young to be so used to this kind of life." She actually sounded remorseful when speaking of him, "I thought he was just another one of the Genome Soldiers at first. His genes were remarkable."

"So you've spoken to him before? You can judge that he's on the up and up?" Snake questioned her. He didn't know why he didn't just ask her in the first place. Naomi had been the head of FOXHOUND's medical staff. If Naruto was supposed to be an enemy he was an enemy that Snake wanted to stay away from.

Campbell just couldn't shake the feeling that there was something about Naruto that he was supposed to know or remember, "I wouldn't rely on him so easily either way though Snake. Just get to your mission for now. Find the ArmsTech President, you don't need to contact Naruto for that."

That didn't sit well with Snake. This kid was running about already fighting the battle that was supposed to be his mission. Now he had the rookie that had freaked out in the middle of a battle and then shot at him once it ended, and he had another kid that could literally be anywhere running around, "Master Mi-." Snake was about to ask Miller for advice before he remembered Naruto referring to being told stories of him by a 'Master', "Master do you know the Naruto kid?"

Master Miller's voice came up in the Codec after Snake's prompting, "I do. I taught Naruto everything I knew about how to fight in his earliest years. His skills were always a mystery though. He left and joined the U.S. Army the moment he was able. He's wild… very insubordinate, he won't follow anyone's lead and resents those in positions of power, especially those directly over him. Don't let him get close Snake. He's too dangerous to work with."

"Well I wasn't really going to rely on him too much in the first place." Snake said dismissively so as to dissuade his support team's fears over Naruto being a wild card, "I had to know something about the kid you know? He made two copies of himself that could move and fight. He can stick to flat surfaces. That's kind of something you want to know more about."

XxX

(With Naruto – Roof of the Tank Hangar)

Naruto slipped back outside without any issue and let out a sigh, his breath materializing in the cold air, "Okay smart guy, now what?" He looked over the edge to see that Liquid had landed his Hind D back at the heliport. He had obviously gone out and put the hurt on the jets that had been flying around, putting a frown on Naruto's face as he must have passed around there at some point before heading further into the facility, "Great… now where do I go to find him?" If Liquid was down with REX then Naruto wouldn't be able to find him until he took the right key card to get there.

'Wait a minute!' Naruto thought suddenly, a plan of action springing to mind, 'The scientists had to be able to get to REX somehow to work on it in the first place. Liquid didn't put in the security measures, he just had the traps with the electric floor and the nerve gas in the lab section installed to better hold the workers hostage.' If that were the case then there had to be a card key somewhere in the lab. If he could get a better security card then there wouldn't be anywhere he couldn't go to reach Liquid.

Just as Naruto was about to head deeper into the nuclear disposal facility to enact his plan of action, his Codec went off, from a frequency he had never spoken to before, "Hello?"

"Naruto?" He heard Meryl's voice come through loud and clear over the line, "Good. This guy's communication gear works. Hey where are you?"

A tick mark appeared on Naruto's head, "I'm on the roof of the tank hangar after dodging your bullets like The Matrix. Why'd you shoot at me and Snake?"

"I wasn't trying to shoot at you." She tried to reason back to him, "Something in my head told me that I had to take the other guy out, that he was dangerous. So I tried to." Naruto was about to tell her that the reason she did that was because of the mind control of Mantis, thinking that she hadn't had the time at all to know anything about any member of FOXHOUND when Meryl put together the second part of what he had been saying, "Wait, that other guy was Snake? Not Liquid Snake right? So that must have been Solid Snake! Wow! I fought with the legendary soldier himself." She said excitedly, sounding kind of fangirl-ish.

"More like I fought with him… and against him." Naruto quipped, not missing out on an opportunity to take a jab at someone no matter the situation. A little something he must have picked up from Ocelot, "You just stood there looking pretty… and then you shot at him when we stopped." He then let out a chuckle, "Actually you didn't even do the 'looking pretty' part. You were dressed like a guy."

"Shut up…" She muttered in return, obviously embarrassed to say the very least, "That will never happen again. And this is a disguise, duh. Every Genome Soldier is wearing this stuff. What, do you want me to walk around looking like you?"

"I don't walk around though." Naruto said, walking around the roof, trying to keep the blood flowing through his legs properly, "I'm a ninja. I can do all kinds of things, and I don't get caught out in the open unless I want to be. You aren't going to see me unless I want you to… or you've got some kind of thermal goggles to see me in the dark better."

Meryl stifled a laugh, "A ninja, right. I'll believe that when I see it."

"You mean when you don't see it." Came the cheeky reply from Naruto before he got serious again, "Where are you?"

"Going to help Snake." Meryl answered, "You should be fine on your own right? You know this place better than anyone, you said so yourself."

"I guess but I was-." He didn't really get to respond because she cut the transmission right then, eliciting a sigh from Naruto, "I didn't know that soldiers got groupies…" Naruto muttered to himself. Well there went his idea of getting himself some help. Someone like Snake would only go after his own mission objectives and once Meryl found out how to reach Snake he wouldn't be able to pry her away, "Fine… That's okay, I do my best work with a handicap."

He felt he had said that before in a similar situation, and déjà vu hit him, getting him to drop to the roof on his belly as if he were about to get his head taken off. When nothing happened, Naruto took solace in the fact that at least nobody saw him do something so embarrassing, "Better safe than sorry."

"Is that what you call it?" A gravelly voice called out from nearby. Naruto immediately reached for his MP5K, getting a chuckle from the figure that he couldn't see, grunting angrily to himself at his inability to spot the figure with just his eyes, "I have to wonder though, have you found your reason for fighting?" He asked almost in a taunting manner, "Your enemies have."

Naruto couldn't make out where the voice was coming from, even with the full moon bathing the open rooftop through the snow, "Why do you even care? Who are you?"

"I'm like you." The voice said, "A child born into a life of war. And now I've finally been turned into the weapon I had been fashioned to be from the beginning. Neither alive nor dead, just existing. Existing to fight. And you are on your way to a life like that boy." Silence reigned between them for a moment before the man's voice spoke up again, "Or maybe I should just end it before you do become like me. It would be the merciful thing to do."

At that moment, Naruto was grateful that he had been able to personalize his ballistic vest. He had taken the first opportunity he could to do so, making it denser with far more material after remembering how Olga's ballistic knife bullet passed through his standard issue vest in Iraq. His vest was far heavier than most, but the protection provided was far greater, and he had the speed to sacrifice for it. It actually reminded him of the weights possessed by one Rock Lee in Konoha, just not that intense.

The reason being, he wound up taking a heavy slash with something across his chest. It didn't reach his body though it did knock him down. Naruto quickly jumped back up to his feet and formed a clone to go back-to-back with him, a kunai and a SOCOM pistol drawn for both of them.

This didn't do much but give Naruto an early warning radar as to where the person attacking him might be, as when his clone was killed he immediately dove away from where his clone had been standing at his back, firing in the general direction of where the attacker might be, only to hit nothing, 'Great, I can't see him.' Naruto thought to himself before moving towards the edge of the roof, trying to keep the amount of places his assailant could be to just the space in front of him.

"Ah, a trapped rat." The gravelly voice spoke aloud as Naruto neared the edge, "Cornering yourself thinking that you would give yourself a fighting chance at surviving by taking away your other options."

'This guy really likes to talk. Why does everyone older than me think they need to talk my ear off when we fight?' Naruto narrowed his eyes in forceful concentration, 'Come on, focus! It's just stealth camouflage, you can beat this!' He could see erratic patterns in the snowfall, but he thought that to be just the wind blowing the snow about… until he realized that there was no wind at all.

Naruto quickly fired his SOCOM at the disrupted snow pattern and saw the stealth camouflage deactivate to reveal a man that looked like a futuristic ninja. Naruto emptied his entire clip at the ninja only for him to block every bullet with the sword in his hands, 'Bullshit, I can't do that.' Naruto thought bitterly as the ninja heard the empty click of Naruto's pistol and came forward to attack him.

Naruto ducked a slash meant for his head and in the same motion drove his kunai through the ninja's foot, rolling through underneath him and avoiding the attack altogether. Naruto licked his lips in anticipation now that he could definitely see his enemy for sure, "Oi, I didn't know that I was beta testing the new season of Power Rangers." He quipped, "Because I give that costume two thumbs down. You look like you lost a fight to a paint gun."

The joke was clearly lost on the strange Cyborg Ninja, not knowing or caring of Naruto's reference, "You have an instinct for battle just like I knew you would. You specialize in nothing the way the other members of FOXHOUND do. Instead you adapt to whatever situations you can handle and you learn best under duress." He reached down and pulled Naruto's kunai from his foot, not even flinching as he did so, "Now let's see how well you perform with your life on the line."

"Don't talk like you've got the advantage, I can see you now prick!" Naruto shouted, forming two Kage Bunshin to back him up, making them rush the Cyborg Ninja first, throwing some shuriken at him. This was futile since if he could stop bullets with his sword how wouldn't he be able to stop slower moving shuriken? This wasn't the bulk of Naruto's plan however, he just needed the ninja to focus on something else so that he could make two more clones on the fly that took the blind spots on both sides of the ninja, both diving at him.

One clone went low, the other high in their diving attempts, but the Cyborg Ninja just jumped over the low clone and used his sword to cut through the high attacking clone, dispelling it. It left him open for a counter-attack from the real Naruto though, as the original didn't miss a beat, driving a jumping kick right into the Cyborg Ninja's chest, sending him flying back through the snow on the roof.

Naruto's two other clones flew through the air and attempted to finish him off with crushing diving heel drops, but the Cyborg Ninja still had his sword in hand and cut right through them.

The original Naruto was intending to follow up and finish with his all-around destroyer technique Rasengan, when his clones were killed, breaking his concentration for the technique and letting the Cyborg Ninja to get back up to his feet. Naruto's eyes were firmly on the sword that the Cyborg Ninja had, "You're the reason that the Genome Soldiers were so edgy these last few days. A few of them disappeared… and they were convinced that they weren't accidents or anything."

It was the main reason that Naruto didn't question Meryl being brought in earlier that day as a replacement, but this guy was the one that caused them. Naruto actually saw a dead body of a Genome Soldier over the last week. Liquid tried to say it was an accident, but being that he was the only person on the entire base that ever used blades of any kind, and Naruto was certain that he'd remember killing a jackass Genome Soldier, there had to be some kind of slasher running around.

And now he met a ninja attacking him with a sword.

"I would love to play with you more…" The Cyborg Ninja stated, "But I'm actually not here for you so I'll have to leave you. Don't disappoint me now."

'Disappoint this.' At that moment, the mental connection between Naruto's clones and himself came in handy as his final remaining clone had drawn the MP5K, taken the forefront, and attempted to fire on the Cyborg Ninja, only resulting in the ninja throwing the kunai he had confiscated from Naruto earlier, hitting Naruto's shooting clone in the head and stunning the original with the backlash of his clone's death for a split-second.

This gave the Cyborg Ninja enough time to cut through all of the ventilation ducts with his powerful sword and activate his stealth camouflage before diving into one, not letting Naruto see which one he took to escape.

Naruto growled to himself, walking over to his displaced kunai and grabbing it putting it back with his other equipment. He touched the deep gash that sat in the middle of his vest and sighed, "I'm going to need to get this replaced, it's pretty useless now… To the barracks then." He said to himself as he moved to leave the roof of the tank hangar. He needed to grab more stuff anyway. He'd need his pack if he really wanted to try and do anything to stop Liquid and the others, "I need my other cooler toys anyway."

XxX

(With Snake – Tank Hangar B2 – Armory South Backroom)

Snake found the ArmsTech President Kenneth Baker tied between multiple pillars with C4 strapped to his body, set to go off if anyone tampered with it. Before he could deal with that however, he had to deal with the arrival of Revolver Ocelot who had been waiting for him. The two then battled to a stalemate with Ocelot even ricocheting shots off of the walls.

"You're pretty good." Ocelot said, hiding behind a pillar with his signature revolver at the ready, "You're pretty good." He said, ejecting the used shell casings from his gun, "Just what I expected from the man who shared codenames with Boss. It's been a long time since I had such a good fight." He said, adrenaline pumping through the old Russian cowboy's body as he reloaded, "I'm just getting warmed up though…" He said as he finished reloading and spun his gun in his usual showy manner.

He moved out from behind cover to fire at Snake when in a flash his gun hand was severed from the rest of his arm effortlessly, "What? Gah!" Ocelot exclaimed once the now useless appendage hit the concrete floor, "My hand!" Blood spurted from the stump as Ocelot held his wrist.

It went unseen as the wires holding up the ArmsTech President were cut, allowing him to fall to the ground and avoid the C4 explosions. Said explosions knocked Ocelot back against a concrete wall. Snake watched the scene, utterly confused at what he was seeing. One minute he had been fighting while unable to go all out due to Baker being a hostage, the next everything had been turned on its head and started going his way.

"Stealth camouflage…" Ocelot muttered, biting back the pain from his severed hand. He looked at the center of the room where he could see the discrepancy in the air, glaring at it hatefully, "Can't you even die right?" He asked snarkily as the stealth camouflage faded to show the Cyborg Ninja with his sword out. Ocelot picked his hand up, the hand still gripping his revolver, and ran from the room, "You were lucky." He said to Snake, "We'll meet again!"

With Ocelot gone, Snake turned his focus and his gun on the Cyborg Ninja that was walking towards him, "Who are you?" He asked sharply. He had already dealt with enough unknown quantities tonight, he didn't need another.

"I am like you." The ninja said with no malice in his gravely voice, "I have no name." He then turned as Kenneth Baker started groaning and getting up, the red eye in the middle of the Cyborg Ninja's helmet momentarily glowing red.

Baker's first sight was the Cyborg Ninja as his eyes focused on him, "That exoskeleton…" He muttered at seeing the inhuman frame covering the being.

The red eye of the Cyborg Ninja crackled once before electricity surged through his body and he seemed to snap, shouting, seemingly in torment before moving faster than Snake had seen, probably faster than Naruto had moved when he had escaped him earlier. The ninja turned his stealth camouflage on and darted all over the room before heading outside of it, leaving Snake and Baker alone."

"Who the hell?" Snake said to himself, lowering his pistol now that the danger seemed to be over for now. He instead turned his attention to Baker who was unable to stand due to an injured leg that he hadn't noticed before. Moving towards the downed man he helped him up, maybe now he could get some traction with his mission and find out how to stop Metal Gear REX that the DARPA Chief told him about. Snake set the injured man against a wall to rest.

Baker looked up at Snake, "A-Are you from the Pentagon? Did Jim Houseman send you?"

"There's no time." Snake said, keeping the origin of his commands secret by not giving him one answer or the other, "Do you have the codes?"

Baker looked down, not able to meet Snake's eyes, "I… I talked."

"What?" That was not good and Snake knew it, "Now the terrorists have both codes, they can launch anytime!"

"It's not like I didn't fight!" Baker argued in return, "I was able to resist Psycho Mantis and his mind probe techniques."

"He couldn't read you?" Snake asked suspiciously. How the DARPA Chief cracked to Mantis and this wimpy guy didn't he couldn't fathom, "How'd you do it?"

"Surgical implants in my brain… kind of like a psychic insulation." Baker tried to explain, favoring his injured leg as he held a cane in his hand, "Everyone who knows these top secret codes has them."

"Even the DARPA Chief?" Snake tried to feel out.

"Of course." Baker told him. But then what about Snake's earlier conversation with Donald Anderson before the DARPA Chief suddenly dropped dead?

"Anderson told me that they got the codes from him by Mantis reading his mind." Snake informed Baker. It was quite strange that the Chief was as mellow as he was. He should have been pacing back and forth in that cell Snake found him in.

Baker looked at Snake in confusion. There was no way that it went down like that, "Are you sure you heard him right?"

"Yeah, I'm sure." Snake asserted. There was no way he wasn't listening during such an important time, "In that case, how did they get your code?"

Baker once again looked away, holding his injured leg, "I never had any training in resisting torture." He said before coughing.

Frowning at the rather haggard appearance of the ArmsTech President, Snake commented on such, "It looks like he had some fun with you alright…" Ocelot probably went overboard on this guy just because. He didn't look like he could take much physical torture.

"He's not human I tell you." Baker said between coughs, "He loved every second of it." He said as he looked at his damaged arm, noticing Snake doing the same, he then answered the unasked question, "He broke it."

Snake smirked down at the man, "It looks like you're more than even now. His was cut off."

Baker coughed out some laughter, "You're a very funny man." He then got back to the dire issue at hand, "So the DARPA Chief… is he okay?"

"Dead." Snake stated gravely.

And Baker responded accordingly in shock, "What? That can't be!" He started hitting Snake weakly in the thigh with his cane, seeming scared of the man, "That's not what you promised me Jim! Now you want to shut me up!" He said as if the man he was referencing was actually listening to them.

Snake grabbed the can tightly and glared down at the man, "Calm down! I just told you I was here to save you!" He said, ducking down to Baker's level to get in his face, "I didn't kill the DARPA Chief. He had a heart attack or something."

"Bullshit." Baker said as Snake stood back up now that he was calm, "Don't be stupid."

Snake stared at the man with a twitching eye before pacing away to get some space, "Anyway, the terrorists have both of the codes now."

"Those boys are totally insane." Baker commented hatefully, "They wouldn't hesitate to launch." Didn't madmen like these 'Sons of Big Boss' know what would occur if a nuke was launched?

"I agree." Snake said, "But what do they really want out of all of this?"

"Who knows?" Baker remarked dismissively, "Maybe they're like us in the arms industry? Always looking forward to the next good war." He didn't know that he was semi-correct on that front.

Snake growled angrily. What was it with people always wanting to start so much chaos for no reason? He didn't get it, "Well I'm not letting these maniacs start a war today. Do you still have the card keys Anderson told me you had to override the detonation codes?"

"Not anymore." Baker informed him, "The terrorists don't either." He said before Snake could flip out on him, "That woman… a soldier who was thrown in prison along with me. She had just joined up as a new recruit. They locked her up because she refused to take part in the revolt… a better fate than that other boy that she said they told her was killed. I gave her the key."

'It must be the Colonel's niece.' Snake thought to himself, remembering the talk he had with Campbell about the masked soldier who had been with him and Naruto, "I'm sure she's okay. She's green but she's pretty tough. How'd you know she got away?"

"I was in contact with her by Codec until I was tied up here." Baker said, "You should be able to reach her too, she stole her communication device from a guard. Her frequency is…" He started to tell Snake before he got an apologetic look on his face, "Sorry, I forgot."

Snake fought the urge to turn around and bang his head against one of the pillars, 'Every single time I end up doing this shit… Maybe Naruto knows it. I'll call him later.' "If that key of yours doesn't work is there any other way to stop the launch?"

Baker racked his brain trying to think of another potential solution, "You need to find Hal Emmerich, one of my employees. He's REX's main designer, if anyone can tell you it would be him. If he doesn't have anything then you'll have to find some way to destroy it. He's somewhere in the nuclear warhead storage building north of here. The labs are there."

"Why have him create a Metal Gear though?" Snake asked, remembering how the world was held hostage twice by those things, two different models that he had to deal with directly himself, "The nuclear age ended with the turn of the century."

"You have no idea do you?" Baker said, "I'll tell you right now just why it's more intense than it's ever been."

XxX

(With Naruto – Canyon Wall Top)

Naruto would have been running along the top of the canyon wall, but he didn't for two reasons. One was so that he could burrow underneath the thick snow to hide himself remembering that this had been around the area where he had to deal with Sniper Wolf. Even if others didn't patrol up there he could still be spotted. The other reason was because he saw a tank trying to hide down in the canyon itself, 'I do not want any part of a tank, even if I could beat it.' He thought to himself as he continued to crawl and dig with his taped hands and a kunai.

If he was going to do something asinine like fight a tank he needed his explosives. All he had in the way of that sort of ordinance were his smoke bombs and smoke grenades which were meant for surprise attacks. There wasn't anything that would do to a tank but get him killed.

He could use the Kyuubi's chakra. His Kyuubi-powered Rasengan would probably turn the hull of that tank into one-ply toilet paper if his fight with Sasuke all those years ago was any indication of how strong it could be. But he didn't need to go on a killing spree or let anyone know he was still alive yet. The longer he could go moving about as a glorified ghost of sorts the better it would be for him when he finally found Liquid and got the opportunity to take him down.

At that moment his Codec went off. Naruto stopped crawling under the snow and touched his fingers to his ear, "Hello? I'm kind of between a rock and a cold place right now. Could you call me back?"

"Naruto Uzumaki?" A woman's voice said on the other end of the call.

"Yeah, this is him." He said in an exasperated voice. Who the hell was calling him and how did they even know his channel? Only nine people knew it and seven of them thought he was dead. Six would once Johnny woke up and realized that it had been Naruto that had put his lights out in the cell block, but that wasn't the point, "Who is this and how did you get this frequency?"

He heard the woman give him a pleasant laugh, "Well I would certainly hope I knew the frequency seeing as how I'm the one that implanted the Codec in your ear in the first place."

Realization sprang over Naruto's face and a smile crossed it. There was only one person he had met that implanted his Codec and was a woman, "Doctor Naomi Hunter! Wait, before you ask at all since you probably know by now, I didn't rebel with the rest of FOXHOUND. I was-."

"We know Naruto." Naomi said, stopping his tangent before he could really launch into it, "What are you trying to accomplish here?"

Naruto frowned at the way she had stated the question, "I'm trying to stop Liquid's stupid plan before he starts a nuclear war. I'm pretty sure his haven for soldiers isn't supposed to be a wasteland full of nuclear fallout, because that's all he's going to have if he's really crazy enough to launch a nuke." He then blinked as he thought about something, "If I steal REX then can I keep it?"

Silence reigned over the line for a second as if Naomi was stunned by what she had just heard, "Wha-? Are you serious?"

"Yeah." Naruto said, "If I kick Liquid's ass and then steal REX right in front of his face and blow him up with it can I keep it? I mean saving the world has to have some kind of perk for the hero doesn't it?" How hard could it be to drive? He could steal it… probably. He could drive everything else so why not a Metal Gear?

"I don't even know how to dignify that with a response Naruto…" Naomi said. He could just see her shaking her head at him from wherever she was, "Look, you've been close to Snake haven't you?"

"Yeah." Naruto answered, taking a moment to work his jaw, "Close enough to punch each other in the face a few times. Why? What's his Codec frequency by the way?" He could hear chattering between Naomi and someone else in the background of wherever she was, "What's the matter?"

An older man's voice then came over the line, "Naruto this is Colonel Roy Campbell. For your own safety I need you to stay away from Snake for the remainder of the mission. We're grateful that you want to help him, but it's too dangerous for you."

Listening to the man's words, Naruto had a terse look with a twitching eyebrow, "Is this a stupid age thing?"

"If you want to put it that way then yes. Yes it is. Find the other girl that was with you and keep her safe if you need a mission to do."

"There's nowhere to run or hide on this island!" Naruto exclaimed, "Where exactly do you want me to take her to? There's no boat off of here and Liquid's stupid Hind is guarded so tight I couldn't take it and keep her safe at the same time on my best day, Genome Soldiers are running around all over the place. The safest place to be is actually deeper in the base."

Campbell let out an angry sigh and spoke up more forceful than before, "This is no time for any movie-style heroics! Listen to me, if you can't follow this order then-."

"-Then you'll what?" Naruto replied heatedly, "In case you haven't noticed the only chain of command that matters to me is currently trying to ransom the U.S. Government with nuclear weapons, and there's some freaky ninja running around here with stealth camouflage that almost took my head off not even an hour ago. I'm technically not even a part of the armed forces anymore, so I don't have to listen to you. What are you going to do, kick me off of FOXHOUND? Too late. Court martial me? Yeah, good luck with that if I even make it out of this in enough pieces." With his bit being said, Naruto didn't want to hear anymore and shut his Codec off. They wanted him to back off of trying to stop the insurrection? No one could do this by themselves, why did they want him to not help Snake?

"Movie-style heroics?" Naruto muttered to himself as he kept crawling his way to his next destination, "Asshole… I haven't even seen a movie in years."

XxX

(U.S.S. Discovery – Bering Sea)

"Damn it." Campbell muttered as he heard Naruto's line go out. He was an older stout man wearing a grey military suit and a beret, "He doesn't know what's going on. He was lucky to survive getting close to Snake once… I don't see how he did if everything is going as it should. You knew he was a member of FOXHOUND didn't you Naomi?"

Naomi was sitting nearby at her own station. She was a young woman with long dark hair and brown eyes. She wore a brown skirt and shoes with a white medical coat on over the rest of her clothing, "Like I said earlier, I figured him to be a Genome Soldier for quite a while until I went over what I was able to find from his checkup he had to undergo before testing the Codec. I remember him because of his demeanor; it was more pleasant than I was used to."

"So you're saying that the virus isn't set to take Naruto out?" Campbell tried to figure, seeing as how the main doctor was right there with him.

Naomi shook her head, "Once I learned who he was after our meeting I tried to program it to his DNA and make him a target, but his body is incredible. His immune system will cast out any foreign antibodies in mere moments. Every immunization he has ever had might as well have not even been given to him since his body just cast it out as well. Nothing like the virus that was constructed can touch him on a biological level."

'So he's not going to be infected by FOXDIE…' Campbell thought to himself before putting out a call on his radio, sighing as he spoke to the person he had just contacted once the confidential conversation was complete, "You were right about what you said about the Naruto kid Master Miller. He is very insubordinate."

Miller's voice came over the radio that was stationed aboard the submarine, "I told you as much. I always knew that the boy would be trouble as a soldier. He has no discipline at all. He's too much of a maverick for any fighting force's own good."

Campbell then noted the conversation to end as Miller signed out, 'Still he was lucky… his body is able to fight off the walking biological weapon that we unleashed into Shadow Moses to take out any rogue elements to the secrecy of this mission. The Pentagon won't be happy about this.'

XxX

(With Snake – Tank Hangar B2 – South Armory Backroom)

Snake could only watch as after telling Snake everything he knew about what was going on, Baker began to convulse in pain for no apparent reason at all, just like what had happened with the DARPA Chief, 'Oh no, this can't seriously be happening again.'

"What… What did you do to me?" Baker struggled to say, gasping for dear life, "No it can't be… Those Pentagon bastards! They actually went and did it!" He said, realizing what was happening to himself, although by now it was too late to do anything about it.

"What are you talking about?" Snake hadn't the faintest idea what was happening to this man. One second he was fine, the next he was dying.

"They're just using you…" Baker managed to get out before he stopped convulsing and slumped forward where he was sitting, going limp and expiring on the spot.

"What the hell?" Snake said to himself before he went to his Codec, "Colonel, are you listening? Now he's dead too!"

"I have no idea!" Campbell replied over the line.

"Don't lie to me!" Snake snapped at him. The chances of this happening to him twice in little more than an hour with two VIPs he had come in contact to rescue. He wasn't an idiot.

Naomi chimed in to comment, "It sounds like another heart attack, but..."

Snake tried to muse over the options of what could have happened because it was no naturally occurring heart attack, "Some kind of poison?" There was no way he could tell exactly what killed Baker. He didn't have the means to do an autopsy or something like that.

"Snake I want you and Meryl to work together. Get in contact with her somehow." Campbell requested of the soldier, having earlier informed him that he was Meryl's uncle.

"Can I trust her?" He asked in return, remembering getting shot at not too long ago.

"More than you can trust me…"

"What about the Naruto kid?"

"Don't worry about him." Campbell said before pausing for a bit, "We're counting on you Snake." With that, the transmission ended, leaving Snake alone again.

The man sighed and took out his pack of cigarettes, bending the end to light the special smokes, "Yeah I know…" He said to himself.

First thing, to anonymous reviewer Doom Marine 58… You're retarded. No shit. I knew that; a 14 year old can't join the army and would have less of a chance of going to Ranger School. Duh.

It's clear that you don't know anything about the Metal Gear world; a fictional world structured around the AU modern world warped by events that had taken place even before WWII where child soldiers, conspiracies, people that can control electricity, people that can talk to ghosts, cyborg ninjas, giant bipedal tanks, routine genocide, periodical nuclear threat, and world domination through regional manipulation and veiled warfare all masterminded and controlled by a goddamn system of computers runs rampant among all kinds of other things.

And to say that I devalue Kishimoto's work with my asinine taunts, you do know that I've written 6 other fanfiction stories for Naruto and that my taunts get waaay worse than just what you've read in this story don't you? Yeah I sure hate Kishimoto sooo much… devoting so much time and effort into my own interpretation of his works for no benefit of my own (sarcasm). Get over yourself.

Alright now that my random periodic build-up of piss and vinegar is all out and done with, chapter complete. I really hope the sequence of events is clear. If I went through all of the scenes of what happened to Snake in the game these chapters would make it 20k at least, I'm sure. I've given enough information for you to get the gist of what has happened if you haven't played the game I think.

Good stuff is forthcoming next chapter so wait it out my people. Kenchi out.