"This is rather amazing, isn't it?"

Kurenai turned to face the intruder, a certain mask-wearing admiral. The gray-haired jougun stopped beside her, taking in the view that stretched out in front of him. Normally he wasn't so bold, but the sight was really something.

For about the size of a city block there existed nothing but a humongous crater, with remnants of buildings and vehicles here and there. The sewer system had been opened up to daylight, and there the pieces of concrete that had been dislodged from their positions fell slowly into the filthy water. The wind picked up, and dust blew everywhere.

"It's rather amazing what a complete newbie can do in a situation like this with a powerful Gear, isn't it?" asked Kakashi as he gently trailed his finger in the dust. "Good thing that there weren't any casualties… There were no shelters here, and all the Gears managed to survive due to their armour. Hinata-chan might have received a bit of a shock though."

Kurenai nodded.

"Hinata will be alright… Her condition was not as horrible as it seemed. She managed to cut down her synchronization at the moment of impact, making most of the damage go only to Byakutsuru," noted Kurenai. "A complete newbie… You say? That fits with his moves… But who would give a Gear like that to somebody like that?"

"I say a complete newbie only because he's suffering from Madara's Syndrome right now. You know, the problem that all pilots get the first time they synchronize with a Gear. Right now he's being tended to by the head of his orphanage, and apparently he is a resident of this town. Due to his condition, I have not been able to get information out of him."

Kurenai turned to look at him sharply.

"An orphan, you say, and a complete newbie at that. Well, where did he get that Gear from then? Have you talked to his guardian, at least? How about the people that he know?"

"Of course, I've already talked to them. His guardian has no idea where the Gear came from, and none of his friends have ever heard of him being a pilot. Judging from the condition of the suit, it has to be rather old, I'm saying at least five years. Even considering that, however, it held up to scrutiny against three modern Gears, even though they were rather under-equipped. It's safe to say that we will know nothing about the Gear until the pilot wakes up."

"Are you sure about that?" asked Kurenai. "There must be a Gear deployment point here somewhere… Gears don't just appear out of nowhere, and definitely can't sustain themselves for that long. The Gear's paint was fading, for god's sakes. A Gear that has been in storage for that long wouldn't even have the required energy to move around!"

Kakashi sighed.

"No, that's quite enough. What's going on right now is that we're looking at one-fourth of a puzzle and thinking it's the whole thing. Until we ask the pilot, we won't be able to find anything whatsoever. I suggest that we give all this useless thinking a break… Everything will be revealed anyway."

Kakashi turned to leave, but Kurenai stopped him.

"Are you sure you don't know anything?" asked the crimson-eyed admiral, her tone slightly accusing. "You have a nasty habit of hiding things that should be out in the open, you know."

Kakashi smiled.

"Maa, maa… You're too suspicious. I don't have much to hide."

---

木ノ葉戦記

KONOHA SENKI

Spyral 9

Chapter 6: Hidden Secrets

---

"How long will he be like this, matron-san?" asked Tenten, dabbing at Naruto's forehead with a wet cloth. The matron looked at her without saying anything… To tell the truth, however, she really didn't know.

The underground shelter they were in was being used as a refugee area. The city of Tiltstone, or at least the side where the battle had taken place, had been mostly destroyed. There was also a lot of damage to several buildings along the black Gear's path of rampage, leaving many without homes. The light show from the sky caused by the Gen Cannon, which had caused surprisingly no casualties, had left a lot of the roads and unprotected buildings destroyed.

Thankfully, there were fewer than expected casualties, only about a hundred to two hundred fifty. Of course, there were many more injured, but the hospitals were taking care of them, and almost all had been put into stable conditions if they weren't before.

The shelter they were in was designated as the neighborhood's, which meant there were people there other than from the orphanage. However, thankfully, they had all came together despite the harsh conditions and were trying to make everything better for everybody. Many of the other adults were trying to get everything together and trying to make the place comfortable as the children tended to their own needs and cooked. They'd be stuck here for a while, seeing as it would take a rather large amount of time to restore Tiltstone to its usual condition.

The KAM would definitely help, the matron knew.

"Just call me Tsunade, girl. It'll make it easier for both of us," said the matron with a toss of her hair. Shizune was tending to several smaller children who had suffered only slight cuts and scratches as they had scrambled through the streets. "As for Naruto's condition… I have no idea. It could last anywhere from two days to two weeks, and he's been in here for a while now; I'm guessing about eight days."

Tenten nodded, looking at the blonde boy's pale form.

She didn't know what had happened to him, but his arm had been bloodied and almost ruined when he had been brought in by the people from the Armour Military. His face had been pale too, and for a little more than a week now he had been comatose in his own world, and she didn't know what the problem was. It was infuriating and irritating, and it made her feel helpless; unable to provide any sort of reassurance or aid to the unconscious boy.

"How did he get like this, Tsunade-san?"

"How should I know?" asked Tsunade, although her mouth did twitch a little at the motion. "He was probably running out there to get Konohamaru and got himself hurt by falling debris or something. I dunno. But he's going to be fine, don't worry about it. The medics from the KAM said it's only a temporary thing."

"I see…"

"Now, it's not normal for a pretty girl like you to be moping around," said the matron, grinning as she put a hand on the brunette's shoulder. "C'mon, cheer up a little. He's going to wake up sometime, and he's got no good qualities for you to cry over anyway. Let's go to the kitchen, eh? We can make some food and try to help out with reconstruction or something."

Tenten thought about it.

"Um, I'd rather there be someone around here when he wakes up, just to make sure he knows there are people who care about him like you and me, matron-san," said Tenten. "…I want him to know that he doesn't need parents to have a family…"

Tsunade smiled fondly as she regarded the girl.

"I think he's passed that stage by now, girl," said Tsunade, smiling. "I mean, I remember when he was still a kid… He was pretty sullen whenever he saw a happy family, you know. Every day he would come home with that depressed look on his face, and it was always when he saw the other kids being picked up by their parents. But something changed that, you know… It was a pretty big event in his life."

"…What was it?"

"Meeting you!" said Tsunade. "You think he doesn't talk about you at home? He does all the time! It was so surprising that day when he ran back with that giant grin on his face and told both Shizune and me that he had made a friend, and with a cute girl at that! There was plenty of teasing to go around."

Tenten had the decency to blush, and Tsunade pinched her cheeks fondly. The brown-haired girl dipped the towel in the water once more and applied it to the boy's forehead, wiping the sweat away from it. His injured arm was raised over a couple of folded towels, keeping the bleeding to a minimum; the bandage covering it was a light pink, something that had been died with his blood.

Every now and then Naruto would move around slightly, as though he was in a bad dream. Each of these times Tenten would move to make sure that he came out fine, and took great care to keep him from causing himself further damage by lying on his arms.

Tsunade couldn't help but notice that she seemed a little like an older sister, the way that she took care of the blonde boy on the bed. The details told the story, each movement she made was with the utmost care… She really did care for him.

The matron smiled to herself.

It seemed like the stupid boy in front of her was finally growing up; and starting by getting a cute girlfriend to boot. It was really too bad that he had to find that Gear, although it was something that he had been destined since birth to do… It was hard, to think of the boy as a soldier, but in the near future…

"This is admiral Hatake Kakashi of the KAM, captain of the UWS Yggdrasil. We are seeking a miss Tsunade; I have been told that she is the matron of a nearby orphanage?" asked a voice from outside, and Tsunade sighed. Although the voice was deeper and more mature, the fact that it was spoken in that drawl gave away the possessor of it. "May I come in?"

Tenten looked at the door warily, and Tsunade walked over to the door; grabbing it and opening it with a little more force than she had intended. The door clanged against the side of the wall, and the face was stared back at her was as nostalgic as anything could be. The silver hair took her back, but the lazy expression on his face was a lot different from his old, professional visage. Perhaps losing his teammates had affected him more than she had thought…

Shaking her head to clear the thoughts, she welcomed him in. No emotions showed on their face, at least not enough to cause Tenten to suspect anything anyway. Kakashi looked at Tenten warily, noticing for the first time there was somebody else in the room other than the matron herself and the blonde boy he was here to talk about.

"Miss Tsunade, I presume?" asked the admiral with a twinkle in his eye, as though he was telling a little inside joke. Tsunade had to force herself not to smile. "What I want to talk to you about in here will be strictly confidential. Could we please get your little assistant over there to leave us alone for a couple of minutes?"

Tenten stood up to protest against the invading admiral, but Tsuande shushed her with a wave of her hand. Naruto's head moved slightly, tilting towards the side and letting out a little snore.

"I suppose that would be alright, senchou-san," said Tsunade. "Tenten, would you go and help out old lady Tanaka in the kitchen? She's cooking for a lot of us right now, and I think she could use all the help she could get. I'm pretty sure Naruto will be happy if the first thing he does when he wakes up is taste your cuisine."

Tenten nodded, hestitantly, before leaving the room. However, as she neared the doorway she glared at the gray-haired man that had intruded into the shelter, one laced with deadly intent. It was something that said 'if you bother Naruto-kun, I'll kill you'; that kind of intent.

Kakashi and Tsunade waited until her footsteps faded before the gray-haired man took to entrance and gently closed the door. There was no need for anybody to hear what they were going to be talking about… At least not yet. The kind of thing they were going to be discussing was beyond the comprehension of civilians, and indeed most of the KAM as well.

"Kakashi-kun, you really have grown up a lot," said Tsunade with a slight smile. "An admiral's coat looks pretty good on you, you know that? Almost reminds me of your father, Hatake Sakumo-san…"

"Let's not talk about the past, Tsunade-sama," said the admiral, settling down onto a spare chair in the room. "It's still rather amazing; no matter how many years you never seem to age a day. Is that a clan ability or something? But no matter, you know what I'm here to talk about today, although to be honest I'd rather not have come to this at all. We have the legacy in custody already, and people are starting to have questions."

"I understand."

"There were several civilians and police officers who saw the fight, although only a few of them suspect anything. It seems that most of them think that the legacy is a Gear owned by the KAM; something that's not exactly wrong, but they're getting the wrong impression and we want to keep it that way to make sure the project's secret doesn't get leaked," said Kakashi. "We need the legacy in the KAM if we want the people's questions to stop, and even more troublesome are the officers in the army as well as the superiors… They won't buy just anything. We need a cover-up."

"What are you suggesting then?" asked Tsunade. "It is pretty hard to explain how a young man managed to find a Gear just out in the wilderness, and that he could somehow sync perfectly with it on the first try. Also, judging by how unkempt it is, they will know how it has the fuel to move at all. There will be suspicions."

"That's why we need a cover-up," said Kakashi. "Naruto will have to be kept in the dark about his Gear… Otherwise the consequences could be dire. Basically, we must give Naruto and the army different stories. We can convince the brass that the Gear was simply retrieved from a mercenary unit's secret base – that's something they'll buy; but I'm lost on where Naruto comes in. They'll want to know how a civilian boy with obviously no training managed to get into a Gear and fight a battle with it. They will demand answers, and I have no idea how to give it to them."

Tsunade thought about this for a bit, putting her chin in her hands. "That's not a problem. We can simply convince them that Naruto is a Kikai Tensai, although only with the legacy. You yourself have a Kikai Tensai, do you not? There about one Tensai within a hundred pilots… Honestly they're not that rare."

"I thought about that, but I'm not sure it'll work. A Kikai Tensai is able to sync with all Gears at least at a seventy-percent level, but in Naruto's case it'll be completely different. Being who he is, I doubt he'll be able to pilot any other Gear at all successfully, and nobody else will be able to use the legacy," explained Kakashi. "It'll be too coincidental for the Council to take in. A boy finds a Gear that nobody else can use just to find himself able to use it, and save a city from destruction."

"The lab where the legacy was found is bound to be destroyed by now. There was a self-destruction sequence designed to activate the moment that the legacy was activated," said Tsunade. "It doesn't matter what they think… The thing is, that's basically the truth, isn't it? There are simply some details left out. Also, they don't need to know that the legacy can't be piloted by anybody else… It's actually a pretty common thing for customized Gears. I don't think we'll have a problem with it at all."

"I suppose you're right," said Kakashi. "Do we tell Naruto the same story then?"

"That'd be good…"

They kept talking all the while, not noticing the prying ears of the person outside. The brunette girl put a hand to her chest, trying to keep her beating heart still. She wasn't able to catch all of the conversation, but the parts she had heard had been enough…

What was going on with Naruto?

Tenten was scared.

---

"W—Water…"

"Oh, you're finally up?" asked a young man with a little dog on his right shoulder, sitting at the foot of the bed. The young woman with the blue hair looked upwards at him, a little out of focus for a second before realizing with a start who it was. "Good thing too… Anymore and we would've handed you over to the doctor again. Here's the water, by the way. Shino said to drink it slowly… Apparently your throat is still tired or something like that. Be more careful next time, okay?"

The girl accepted the water gratefully, and sat up, wincing a little at the stab of pain that went through her chest as she did so. She was wearing an over-sized T-shirt as well as a pair of shorts, and really nothing else. Looking down at herself, she turned a quizzical eye towards the bestial teen.

"Don't worry about it, Hinata!" grinned Kiba as he waved. The dog on his shoulder, Akamaru, barked in tow. "I'm not the one who changed you, one of the female nurses did it. Looks like you're mostly alright now though…"

Hinata smiled, and tried to speak through her hoarse throat. She coughed several times as she did so, as her throat fought against her. Apparently she had spent several days in a unconscious state, something that Gear pilots usually suffered from if they were dealt heavy damage.

"W—What… happened…? Remem—ber… nothing."

Kiba grinned.

"Well, you got taken out pretty quick, and for a bit the Devil Brigadiers – we took out the remnants of that squad so you don't have to worry too much about them – were trying to bargain with Kurenai-senchou with you as a hostage," said Kiba. "Tell you the truth though, I didn't expect you to be taken out so quickly. It didn't seem like they were that strong at all."

He noticed the way that Hinata's eyes were suddenly downcast a little, and decided not to push the topic. Although under Kurenai-senchou's command the shy Hyuuga once-heiress had become a lot braver and more open-minded, she still dwelt on her failures too much. It was good to reflect, something that Kurenai had taught him, but when you reflect too much it could also be bad for you. Too much of anything usually turned sour.

"But don't worry about it, you were tired from pursuing them for so long, so you can't really be blamed. You just got out of medical leave after all… Maybe it was a push to make you fight right away," said Kiba, trying uncharacteristically to comfort the girl in front of him. "You don't always have to put yourself up to such high standards, Hinata."

Although she didn't say anything, holding the cup of water in her hands, Kiba could tell that Hinata felt differently, the way that she stared at the sparkling liquid within her mug. The daylight shone in from the window, bathing everything is a soft light. It was morning, about eight o'clock.

"What h—happened… af—ter?"

"A mysterious Gear showed up out of nowhere and laid waste to those guys, man! You should see the videos that the crew managed to tape together from the camera feed… It's insane. The guy just hit and hit and hit and every single move could've killed one of them, you know. It was great!"

Hinata listened as Kiba described the battle in great detail. Smiling slightly, she took another sip from the cup, feeling her parched throat getting use to water going down it again. The sneak attack from that black Gear had affected her a little worse than she had thought, but she was recovering, and would soon be fine again.

As she listened, she thought about the orange Gear. She had no frame of reference, not even a picture of what the Gear looked like or even what the pilot was like, yet she listened with rapture. She honestly wanted to know what kind of person her savior was; but would she get the chance?

"…We don't know where he is now though… Apparently Hatake Kakashi, that admiral of the UWS Yggdrasil, you know; he took the pilot somewhere to rest, at least that's what I've heard. The mysterious Gear was taken into the Yggdrasil's hangar, maybe they're thinking of fixing it up."

"What happened… to the Devil Brigadiers?" asked Hinata, massaging her throat. Good, her voice was coming back. She would need to get in a lot of training after this if she wanted to keep up. It hurt to know that she had been taken out so easily; it felt like she had betrayed the Byakutsuru.

Kiba suddenly shut up, something that Hinata was surprised about. His face contorted, as though he was thinking of something truly hideous and disgusting.

"It's… really best not to talk about them," said Kiba finally. "When we got back, the Devil Brigadiers were being carted off to the infirmary onboard the Yggdrasil… One of them… The one who called himself Subject Delta in the transmissions; he's dead. But the ones called Subject Alpha and Subject Phi are in critical condition right now."

"W—What?! But, fighting in Gears should be perfectly safe! The cockpit is designed to prevent as much damage to the pilot as possible and the Neural-Net is supposed to shut off after a certain amount of shock passes—Hack! Hack!"

Hinata's tirade had irritated her throat, and now had started a coughing fit. Kiba looked at her warily, prepared to get help at a moment's notice, but the fit died down and Hinata once again looked at him; asking for answers with her gaze.

Kiba relented.

It was true that pilots were often valued above their Gears. Those who could pilot Gears were, in fact, very rare. Gears, in fact, were easily provided to all those who could pilot them. The KAM itself often put more funds into finding potential pilot recruits rather than Gear research, something that spoke for itself.

"No, the damage wasn't sustained in the middle of the battle. Actually, the damage that the orange Gear did except for on the last one was really little," noted Kiba with the seasoned viewpoint of a Gear veteran. "What happened to them… I guess it's the reason they called themselves Subjects. Shino found this out but…"

Kiba sighed.

"They weren't human anymore."

---

A/N: It looks like the reviews are dying down now, since I only received two for the last chapter. To an author, it's nice to have reviews because it's nice feedback. What did you like about the chapter? What didn't you like about the chapter? Was there something specifically that made you feel a certain way? Authors like getting information like that. So, since I want to improve my writing further, having comprehensive reviews on my ideas and execution is incredibly welcome, although simple things like 'I liked this and that' is also very nice as well.

Spyral 9, or the first version anyway, was started off after playing the Gameboy Advance game Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation. I was always a fan of the SRT games, but the first one in English really made me feel a different way. Since I like both Naruto and the mecha genre, and I didn't see anything else remotely similar to the concept on the site, I decided to try and combine the two together just to see what I would get. What I got exceeded my expectations, and because I didn't have to adhere to a strict system already established by manga and anime I was able to branch out and incorporate my ideas.

Spyral 9 will probably be here for a long time, although I'm thinking of changing the name back to Spiral 09. It's a slight difference, to be sure, but I think Spiral 09 looks a little better.

I was inspired by (read 'stole ideas from') Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, G-Gundam, Gundam Wing, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Super Robot Taisen, and a couple others. If you have some time and haven't seen or played (SRT) any of them before, I suggest you give them a chance.

'Till next time!