Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Wars. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

Thoughts are underlined

Chapter 7:

"Urgggg"

While the sound wasn't eloquent, it did express Naruto's thoughts extremely clearly.

I never want to read anything ever again.

Naruto might have been in knowledge/reading induced agony, but there was good news. Naruto was done. It took 14 hours to read through everything.

One of the things that Naruto did find was the perfect job for him. Out of everything Naruto found, this job fit both his set of skills and his experiences best.

I am going to become a bounty hunter.

Given his dislike of people bossing bossing him around and his hatred for the Empire, he figured he would become an independent contractor rather than joining a Bounty Hunter's guild or working for the Empire.

Naruto would have celebrated finding the perfect profession for himself, except his head really hurt. It was partially because of the clones, but it was mostly because he spent the last 14 hours starring at a datapad screen. But thankfully, now he was done.

With his research done for the moment, Naruto started to clean up, putting all the datapads back where he found them (except for one), and putting all the datacards back on the shelves.

He then walked over where he placed Lagre'ido to check on him again. Naruto didn't know anything about alien physiology, and did not want there to be any complications.

Naruto left a few credits on Lagre'ido's desk to pay for the datapad he took as well as to thank the man for what he did.

Now to find a cheap hotel or something where I can sleep.

Leaving the library, Naruto sees a sign a block away for a hotel.

Naruto walked over and entered the building, and saw... a hotel lobby. Given the fact that Naruto was over a trillion miles from home, he sort of figured that things would be a lot different. Ignoring the technology and sand, things were really similar to the way that Konohagakure used to be. Naruto couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

Shaking off the mild disappointment, Naruto walks up to the receptionist sitting at the welcome desk. At the moment she was reading a datapad. Naruto looked at the receptionist and tensed.

The receptionist was human...ish. She looked perfectly human to a casual observer, but Naruto's instincts were telling him she was not. Her hair might have been a little too coarse, her body a little too frail, her skin maybe a little too pale, but whatever the reason Naruto knew it to be true. His instincts were usually right, sort of a consequence of living through what he has. Ninjas without good instincts didn't live long. This woman by simply not being human was an unknown. Things that were unknown were, by definition, potentially dangerous. Naruto might have been a little paranoid, but paranoia was a healthy trait for ninjas to have. For just because you were paranoid doesn't mean there was not an enemy ninja about to rip off your face. It has happened.

In a bored drawl with obvious forced cheer that clearly revealed she had said the following words many times, the receptionist said, "Hello, welcome to Chorzo's Glory, where every day is a fun and glorious one. How many days would like to stay sir? I recommend a lot of days, for this place is real neat... I hate my job."

Naruto had the feeling he was not supposed to have heard the last part, but his sensitive ears still caught it.

"How many days can I get with this many credits?"

Naruto took out all the credits he had, and put them out on the table.

The girl reached over, quickly counted it up and said, "one day".

"Ok, I'll take that".

She replied, "Excellent. Here's your room key, and here is your change. I hope you have a great day." She handed Naruto a card, and about a quarter of the credits he had put on the table.

"Thanks"


Coming up to room 302, Naruto after a few minutes of confusion and scrambling slid his room key card into a metal device affixed to the side of the door, and the door opened. Naruto went inside, closed the door, and for the first time in one and a half years, Naruto relaxed.

That was a big mistake.

There is something you need to know about ninjas, especially during a time of war. They had a lot of emotional baggage. Friends dying, being interrogated by enemies, being betrayed by allies, killing... I know you might think that killing was easy for ninjas. I mean they were trained assassins, they were taught to kill from an early age. They can kill efficiently and with no hesitation. That doesn't make it any easier. Well physically it was a lot easier. In many ways the human body was very fragile, and a good ninja knew every possible way to take advantage of that fact. They knew thousands of ways to kill someone. Killing was not easy psychologically. To take a life, even when you know you had to, is one of the hardest things to do in the world. It was one of the reasons that the ninja profession had the most amount of people who snap than any other profession in their world. Most ninjas who last, find ways to cope with the various emotional stuff. They turn to porn, they take up a hobby, they adopt weird habits and mannerisms, etc. Maito Gai, (another ninja whose clan had inverted names), was a clear example of the third one. However, some ninja did not deal with their emotional baggage. They took their negative emotions and buried them deep in their minds, locked them behind walls, and tried to pretend they did not exist. Out of sight, out of mind. They did not want to confront those emotions, so they ignored them. Naruto was that kind of ninja. Without being dealt with, those negative emotions grew and festered, and without the constant adrenaline and activity of the war distracting him, Naruto's mental walls started to break.

Naruto's walls were not the best. Negative emotions often escaped his control, but he was usually able to contain those emotions and reseal them without too much fuss. This time, however, that would not be an option. If the amount of emotion that normally escaped his control was compared to a grain of sand, this here was the Hokage monument.

A deluge of emotions hit Naruto like sledgehammer, Naruto physically shook in the wake of it, and he felt emotions he had hidden away for one and a half years. Actually a lot than that, for Naruto also hid away a lot of his negative emotions while growing up. It was really the only way for a 3 year old to deal with the fact that vast majority of people in the village loathed him and wanted him dead. So when part of Naruto's walls broke, a lot of long buried emotions and feelings came to light.

The emotions that hit Naruto were quite overwhelming. There were just so much of them. He was overcome with feelings of hatred, horror, but mostly grief. A lot of people had died over the course of the invasion. Many of them were friends and loved ones. But above all he remembered the death of one of his most precious people, a person extremely close to his heart... Iruka-Sensei.

Iruka was one of the Naruto's teachers in the Ninja Academy. While in the beginning Iruka did not particularly like or dislike him, Iruka treated him fairly, he treated Naruto just like any other student, and that by itself made him better than about 99 percent of the village. Over the years Iruka and Naruto grew closer, and closer, until they had formed a bond that was a cross of father/son and brother/brother. Iruka saw Naruto for who he really was, and accepted him. With Iruka-Sensei, Naruto could feel for the only time in his life, that he belonged, that he was not being judged, that he had family. Naruto loved Iruka and Iruka loved him. It seemed to be a familial bond that would survive anything... it didn't.

Now all those buried emotions came bursting to the surface.

They're dead, they are all dead. I am the only one left, I am alone.

Why? I work for 13 years to gain friends and acceptance; I finally get it, and an evil, tyrannical, dictator from another world attacks the planet, and kills everyone. Everything I have worked my entire life to achieve is destroyed.

Naruto's emotions turned to rage. He needed a release, he needed to cry, but Naruto was not able to cry, the ability to cry still entangled somewhere in the realm of his mind. Violence is another solution. Naruto took his pain out on the room. He smashed the walls, he broke lamps, shattered mirrors, but with every blow his anger and pain continued to grow. And his emotional walls continued to crack.

I will kill you Palpatine. I swear it. I will destroy you. I will mutilate you.

But what good would that do? They will still be gone; they will still be all dead. Why should I keep living? Why shouldn't I rejoin my loved ones?

Naruto's anger started fading away. It was still there, but for some reason Naruto could not feel it. He felt so cold, so empty. What's the use of doing anything anymore? Naruto did not recall lying down on the bed, but he must have done so at some point. Naruto, almost in a fog, continued to think, the remnants of his emotional walls breaking more with every thought.

They're all gone.

Crack

Everyone's dead.

Crack

I am all alone.

Crack

I am the last of my entire people.

Crack

I was not strong enough.

Crack

I failed again.

And with a final crack, the wall collapsed, and the full force of everything kept behind it, descended upon Naruto like a flood.

And Naruto wept.


I will kill you Palpatine. As you destroyed everything I loved and worked for, so will I destroy everything you worked for. I will bring your Empire to dust. You will pay for everything you have done. I accept this task not out for revenge, or for retribution. I am doing it for a higher calling. I want

Justice.


Author's note: Somebody please take up my challenge. In terms of credit due, my line on paranoia is based on the famous line from Kurt Cobain, as well as from "Storm Front" the first book in "The Dresden Files" by Jim Butcher. Also, the last line of the chapter is influenced by the Marvel anti-hero "The Punisher".