Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Mass Effect.

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Escaping Hades

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Chapter Eight

"..." Naruto stayed silent as Ta'meera finished opening the pod, the 'thawing' process finished. As the top half of the pod split down the middle, vertically, Naruto slowly closed his eyes and took a deep breath, praying that his plan didn't back-fire and kill them all. Alpha Squad had collected the bodies of the Cerberus soldiers and the remnants of the Loki mechs before building a floor-to-ceiling wall out of them to block off the hall way just past the door way to defend their rear flank while the left overs were used to form a waist-high barricade they could use for cover. The fallen crew members of the Tortuga, Ta'meera's ship, had been placed in a room directly across from the one the pod was stored in so that they could be given a proper and fitting funeral later. They had recieved word that the Cerberus flotilla was on a direct course for the derelict cruiser; they had minutes until they arrived. "Go with the others. I'll handle things from here..."

"You be careful...alright?" Ta'meera urged softly as she stepped beside him on her way to the door. Without a word or sign of acknowledgement, Naruto stared at the pod. As Ta'meera went outside to be with Alpha Squad, Naruto pulled the door shut behind him, just incase the non-indoctrinated Phantom proved hostile to them. If that were so, he would have no other choice than to kill her. Just as he turned around to face the pod, Naruto watched as a slender hand slowly rose from the object and gripped the side of the opening, another following it a second later. As she rose from the metal sarcophagus, Naruto took the opportunity to examine her features.

Like most other Phantoms, she had a slender and lithe athletic build that was perfect for the intense flexibility and agility their position required for their close-combat skills. Her skin was a shade of light cream, her head shaved, and eyes a sharp and piercing steel-blue. She stood no taller than about 5'7", clad in only a pair of light grey spandex short-shorts and a light grey midriff-bearing tank top that covered her B-cup breasts. At the moment, her eyes, while glassy from just awakening from stasis, were wide as they darted all across the room, frightened and cautious of her surroundings. Thankfully, Arcaino, the team's resident mechanic and engineer, had managed to get the life-support and artificial gravity systems working in their sector. Spotting the lone armored figure in the room, the woman's training kicked in, causing her to swiftly evacuate the pod and duck down behind it, just in case he proved hostile.

"It's alright, miss. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm the one that let you out of there." Naruto assured, holding his hands up slightly in surrender. "We don't have much time to talk, but the people that put you in that pod and whatever horrors they commited to you...They're on their way here as we speak. They aim to kill us and most likely imprison you once more before brain-washing you into one of their soldiers. Like I said, we're short on time, so I'll just get straight to the point; we need your help if we're to get out of here alive."

"..." The woman, having peeked around the corner of the pod and watched him with narrowed eyes the entire time, ducked back behind cover when Naruto drew the Talon pistol from its holster on his chest and knelt down, drawing one of his combat knives. Sliding them across the smooth metal floor over to where she was, Naruto slowly stood back up. Opening her mouth to speak, she coughed slightly, her throat dry and scratchy from being in stasis. "Who...Who are you?"

"I'm Major Naruto Uzumaki. I'm with the Alliance Navy and I'm here to help you." Naruto answered while the woman hastily reached out and grabbed the pistol and knife before slinking back behind the pod. "Might I ask what your name is?"

"...Natalia...Natalia Yurikovsky." She answered while Naruto rolled his eyes from behind his helmet, making a sarcastic mental comment about another Russian-descended soldier in his presence.

"So, Natalia Yurikovsky...Will you fight with us?" Naruto inquired. A moment later, the sounds of gun fire could be heard just outside of the room; Cerberus was here. Flinching at the sound, Natalia gripped the pistol in her right hand while the knife was held in a reverse-grip in her left, her eyes wide and locked on the ground in front of her. After only a couple seconds of thinking, she reached her decision and slowly stood up. Nodding once with determination in her eyes, Natalia watched as the black and grey armored man reached up and pulled out his Mattock rifle with one hand, gripping the edge of the door with the other. Pulling it open, Naruto peeked outside before glancing over at her. "Well, come on then. You can't fight for your freedom if you stay in here, now can you?"

"..." Natalia was quiet and didn't move for a moment before suddenly sprinting forward, her eyes narrowed dangerously. Just barely stepping out of the way as she barreled through the doorway, Naruto watched as she ran straight into the wall in a low crouch, only to grab onto Diangelo's shoulder and kick off the wall, using her leverage on the man's shoulder to clear the barricade. Weaving through the horizontal storm of bullets, Natalia headed for the nearest Assault Trooper, firing a single shot into the space between his helmet and body armor while running past him. Kicking off the wall beside her, she slammed into another, driving the knife into the back of his neck before ripping it out and tucking into a shoulder roll the moment she made contact with the ground. Taking advantage of the 'distraction' and additional breathing room, Alpha Squad started picking off the Cerberus soldiers with precise head-shots before they could fire on the bald-headed woman.

Naruto, however, followed right behind her, jumping over the barricade of Loki mechs with his kinetic barrier running at maximum capacity and his Omni-blades blazing. Slamming his shoulder into the first Assault Trooper he came across at full speed, Naruto ignored the man as he was sent flying into a wall before driving his right blade into the chest of another, only to spin in place and behead a third while his left Omni-blade morphed into something completely different, taking on a crossbow-like form. The spike sticking out of the front suddenly shot forward and impaled an Assault Trooper's skull five meters away before it switched back to his Omni-blade. Sprinting foward at full speed once more, Naruto jumped just as Natalia was about to be caught in the cross-fire between three different Assault Troopers. Burying his blades in the back of the nearest of the three last Cerberus soldiers, Naruto watched as Natalia threw his combat knife at the neck of one of the last two, while aiming the Talon in her hand and shooting the final white-clad soldier in the neck.

"Heh. Nice moves..." Naruto praised with a smirk hidden by his helmet while deactivating his Omni-blades, standing up from straddling the dead Cerberus dog he had just slain. Natalia, breathing a bit heavily, slowly lowered the pistol in her hand before looking over at the armored blonde. Activating his left Omni-tool once again, he connected to the Troy. "We're all clear on our end. How're you doing on yours, Miranda?"

"Just about-hold on! Fire the Thanix!" Miranda began before issuing the order. A moment later, she spoke up again. "Sorry about that. We're all clear on our end. I'm sending the Trojan Horse now."

"No need. Just send a Kodiak." Naruto corrected while flagging Alpha Squad and Ta'meera down to his position.

"What about the stasis pod you found?" The Captain inquired out of shock and confusion, making Naruto smirk as he glanced over at Natalia, the woman still looking at him.

"The pod's empty, Miranda." He responded, noticing the signs of nervousness on Natalia's face and in her body language. "I need you to prepare two bunks...and get a woman's uniform. One of our guests is a little under-dressed."

"Gues-" Miranda's line of questioning was cut short when Naruto cut the connection, letting his Omni-tool flicker out of existence.

"Romanov. Give the woman your spare breather mask. The air in here is a bit thin..." Naruto commented while taking his Talon from Natalia, retrieving his knife from the dead Cerberus soldier after reloading the pistol and holstering it. Slipping the bloodied knife back into its spot on the side of his shin, Naruto turned and started walking towards the hangar they had boarded the ship from...

xXx

"Did you see the way the Major moved?" Diangelo questioned his squad brothers with shock and amazement. "Didn't think someone could move like that wearing such heavy armor."

"...Normally, it'd be impossible...but the Major's armor isn't normal to begin with." Arcaino, the least talkative member of Alpha Squad, spoke up quietly without looking up from his tray. After returning to the Troy, they had been allowed off-duty and had promptly changed and showered before heading to the mess hall. Vasquez, like Arcaino, was suspicious as to how their commanding officer could move with such speed despite such bulky and heavy armor. "I caught a glance of the servos in his armor's joints. They're far more advanced than any other in-suit motor assists I've seen. I also got a reading on his suit's power grid and systems; they, too, were far more advanced than anything I've ever come across. Not even Cerberus has that kind of technology and they've been one of the leaders in technological advancements since the Geth attacked Eden Prime..."

"...Are you absolutely sure about that, Mathias?" Rico Vasquez questioned quietly, almost conspiratorially. The PFC nodded silently while taking another bite of his food, still having yet to look up at his squad brothers. "How could he have armor made of advanced technology that no one has even come up with yet?"

"...Because I designed and fabricated the parts myself." Naruto suddenly spoke up as he sat at the only free spot at their table, giving them all a cheeky grin. Noticing their shocked looks and nervous behaviour, Naruto's face was askewed with incredulous confusion. "What? Don't tell me you guys thought I was from the future or something, did you?"

"No, we didn't. We were just confused as to how you're capable of moving so fast and so easily while wearing that heavy armor of yours." Diangelo answered. "Rumor has it that you designed the Troy, too. Is that true?"

"Yeah. I started drawing up its blueprints when I first became a marine. I've designed several different guns that I haven't tried building yet, I've designed a few different armors, and even a couple vehicles; all of which I haven't been able to fund since most of my money was going into the Troy's construction." Naruto confirmed before taking a bite out of the biscuit he had; unlike other high-ranking officers of any real status, Naruto didn't like having any fancy meals. He preferred to eat what the rest of his crew ate with the rest of his crew. Romanov could only stare at the blonde in awe. "Even though it was the first thing I drew up, the Troy will forever be my master piece. I put a lot of work into collecting top-of-the-line technologies to put into her."

"How were you able to compensate for the increased heat output from all of the ship's guns?" The engineering specialist inquired, foregoing his meal to continue conversing with the Major. "I heard from a buddy of mine in Engineering that the Troy pretty much never stopped firing during the battle over Sur'kesh and that the GARDIAN defenses never over-heated a single time, despite being swarmed with fighters."

"Liquid nitrogen cooling systems built into the heat-sinks and around parts of the primary components for the broadsides, stronger heat-sinks for the main guns with liquid nitrogen cooling systems for them as well, and external heat exhaust ports and additional cooling systems for each of the turrets." Naruto answered before taking a bite of the bland and tasteless white rice they had. While most of the food was pretty much without flavor, it was all nutricious and healthy, something necessary to keep the crew healthy and the marines fighting at full strength. Still, it all tasted a hell of a lot better than those damn MREs. "And before you ask, it wasn't easy designing the engines. I pretty much had to take the engines of a cruiser and shrink them down without losing any of their original power output. I had to do the same with their heat-sinks without sacrificing their capacity and that alone took the most work to do."

"And the armor plating? I heard we took several hits from disruptor torpedoes and they did practically nothing to the ship." Vasquez questioned calmly. Naruto snorted slightly and smirked while swallowing a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

"Simple. Dreadnought-class armor cut down to size and double-layered. The kinetic barriers were also designed for dreadnoughts, just shrunk down to fit in the Troy." Naruto explained. "The real issue I had was adjusting for the Thanix cannon a while back. Now that stalled out the construction since the work crews had to gut out part of the ship and refit her for the larger Thanix. If it hadn't been for that, the Troy would have been finished last year."

"I have a question..." Diangelo spoke up. "If you're a Major, why're you here eating with the rest of us grunts? Shouldn't you be eating something that actually has some kind of flavor to it other than cardboard?"

"Unlike most of the other high ranking officers, I wasn't born into my uniform and I didn't go straight from the Academy to the Captain's Chair, either." Naruto explained as he finished off his meal. "I started out not unlike you guys. After basic and advanced training, I was accepted into the N7 training program after only a few months on duty. Got promoted to Corporal and put in charge of a squad, kind of like you, Vasquez. After that...Well, I can't talk about it, but I was picked to go undercover for the Alliance. I finished almost two years ago, around the time Shepard started going after the Collectors, but I had some...unfinished business...to take care of. I didn't actually turn in my findings until just after the Reapers hit Earth..."

"..." Everyone went quiet after that, the mood darkened from the mentioning of the Reapers. After a few minutes, Vasquez glanced at each of his squad brothers, each one nodding slightly to one another. "I don't speak for the rest of the men, but Alpha Squad will follow you into the pits of Hell, sir. Even if you led us on a suicide run against the Reapers, we'd loyally follow."

"..." Naruto was quiet, smirking slightly as he stared down at the table, his elbows resting on the edge. "I appreciate that. I just hope I never have to do that...I'll see you guys later. I've got to get back to the bridge."

"..." The four marines watched as he left the mess hall, dropping off his tray beforehand...

xXx

"...Naruto?" Miranda inquired softly as she entered the empty rec room, its sole occupant currently leaning against the wall in the back next to a view port that looked out into space. He didn't so much as twitch he was so lost in his thoughts. Sighing softly and walking over to him, Miranda gently slipped her arms under his and around his torso, leaning against him with her head resting on his chest. "What's wrong?"

"...Just thinking." He mumbled quietly while wrapping his arms around Miranda, gently kissing the top of her head. "We heading back to the Citadel?"

"Yeah...What are we going to do about our guests?" Miranda asked curiously, yet quietly in reference to the salarian still locked up in the brig as well as the quarian and Phantom-trained woman housed within the hulls of the destroyer. Naruto sighed slightly.

"Natalia has already told me that she wanted to stay, having no family and nowhere to go. Ta'meera...She'll probably leave after we dock. As for Azote, I'm still waiting for him to answer my proposal." Naruto answered, ignoring Miranda's questioning glance up at him. "Don't worry about it right now. I'll tell you later..."

"Alright..." She answered quietly before leaning up and kissing him on the cheek. "Come on. Let's go lie down for a little while..."

"..." Naruto was quiet as he let the brunette pull him away from the wall and lead him back to their room. Just as they stepped out of the rec room, Naruto smirked faintly. "By lying down, did you mean me lying on top of you or you lying on top of me?"

As the door hissed shut behind them, Naruto grunted as Miranda swiftly jabbed her elbow into his ribs...

xXx

After reaching the Citadel, Naruto had taken a Kodiak to the massive space station dressed in the same clothing he had been when he boarded the Normandy back at Sur'kesh, even keeping a pair of Predators strapped to his thighs. Miranda had stayed behind along with most of the crew while a squad of marines and a couple other crew members took the Trojan Horse to collect supplies. Landing in one of the smaller hangars meant for shuttles along the Presidium Ring, specifically C-sec Headquarters, Naruto stepped out and made his way to the C-sec offices located at the Embassies. He ignored the people he went by, his mind in turmoil about what he was about to do. Or rather, who he was about to go see...

Pausing in front of the door that led into the office of one of C-sec's best officers and current Commander, Naruto took a moment to straighten out his uniform. Going so far as to take his gloves off and stuff them in his back pocket and fully tuck his pant legs into his boots. Having shaved prior to leaving the Troy, Naruto ran a hand through his hair and sighed, feeling like he was about to get his ass chewed out again...

'Well...I guess I should stop stalling and just get this over with.' Naruto thought to himself before pressing a button beside the door, informing the occupant of the room to his presence. A moment later, the door hissed open and he stepped inside, the door hissing shut. Sitting behind the desk was a woman of Japanese-descent, like himself, in her early sixties despite looking like she was still in her early fourties that stood at about 5'7" with dark auburn-red hair pulled back into a high pony-tail that stopped just above the collar of her Alliance C-sec uniform, light colored skin, and deep emerald eyes that made many unconfortable, thinking she could see into someone's very soul. Standing at attention, Naruto took one last deep breath to calm his rattled nerves. "Major Naruto Uzumaki reporting, ma'am."

"..." The woman glanced up at the blonde, mentally sighing at how he was behaving. That's when she paused for a moment; Major? Hadn't he been a Corporal last time she heard? Standing up, she calmly walked around her desk to stand in front of him, glancing him over. Unable to keep up the facade, the woman smiled before suddenly hugging the taller officer, something Naruto slowly did in return. "How've you been, son? I haven't heard from you in such a long time."

"Yeah, sorry about that...I've been busy." Naruto answered softly. She was none other than Kushina Uzumaki, his mother and the current C-sec Commander. Pulling away from her son for a moment, she took a moment to look him over, smirking slightly.

"You didn't shave until just before you got here, didn't you?" Kushina questioned quietly, noticing Naruto's sheepish look as he glanced away. Shaking her head with a small grin, Kushina sighed. "Just like your father..."

"...Did you hear? I have my own ship now." Naruto spoke up after a couple moments of silence, not wanting to think or talk about his father at the moment; he had died when he was only a kid back during the First Contact War with the turians. Despite that, neither Naruto nor Kushina held any resentment towards the Turian race, understanding that they, the Human race, might have reacted the same way if they had been in their position.

"Oh? Really?" His mother inquired, still looking him over. 'Tsking' quietly as she nudged one of the Predators on Naruto's leg, Kushina shook her head. "You shouldn't be carrying weapons aboard the Citadel, Naruto. Especially here on the Presidium. You know that."

"Yeah, well, you tend to pick up enemies along the way when you're undercover for so long..." Naruto mumbled quietly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Anyways, its the SSV Troy..."

"Wait...The ship you were trying to get built back when you were first nominated to become a Spectre?" She asked in surprise, getting a nod from Naruto. "But...how?"

"Well, uh...I kind of wandered around and...credits just happened to fall in my pocket?" He answered uncertaintly with a nervous grin, knowing his mother would see through any bullshit excuse he gave her anyways. Getting a flat look from her, Naruto sighed. "Alright, alright, alright...A flying rainbow colored varren paid for it, okay? Happy now?"

"...You and your damn stupid excuses...I never should have let you near Hatake. The man has been a bad influence on you." Kushina grumbled with a grimace, getting a cheeky grin from the blonde. He hadn't seen the man in years, either. He would probably try smacking him around for not responding to his letters or emails for the past four years. Then again, he was surprised his mother wasn't doing just that for doing the same to her. "I swear, if Hatake wasn't my best officer, I'd suspend him without pay for the next month for his bad habits rubbing off on you so much..."

"Speaking of Hatake...I heard a rumor during my last visit to the Citadel that you and Kakashi were seeing each other on a...social level." Naruto commented with a smirk, which only grew when his mother blushed and looked away shyly. "Mind shedding some light on the matter?"

"It was just a few drinks...Nothing serious." Kushina remarked quietly. "Besides, my love life is none of your business."

"I'm not upset, Mom. Dad died a long time ago." Naruto reassured while pulling his mom into another hug, making the red head smile slightly. "If you want to see Kakashi on a more...intimate basis...I don't mind."

"S-Shut up, already. I get it..." Kushina mumbled out, blushing even worse than before as she pushed away from her son. Straightening out her uniform and smoothing out non-existent wrinkles and creases, Kushina huffed quietly in annoyance before recomposing herself. "So, what about you? Have you found yourself a girl, yet?"

"...Yeah." Naruto mumbled out, mentally cursing how his teasing had been turned around on him. The mental cursing only got worse when he saw a glint in his mother's eyes. 'Here it comes...'

"So, who's the unfortunate creature that got stuck with you? Do I know her?" Kushina inquired while sitting on the edge of her metal desk, giving her son a cheeky grin, something he had inherited from her.

"Her name's Miranda Lawson and no, Mom, you don't know her." Naruto grumbled, blushing slightly as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Well, when do I get to meet her? I do have the right, as your mother, to meet my son's future wife and the mother of my grandchildren." Kushina asked with an 'innocent' look on her face, mentally laughing up a storm as her son blushed furiously and glared at her. Before they could continue their reunion, an explosion sounded off in the distance, the floor shaking slightly as another went off a couple seconds later. "What the hell?!"

"Miranda! What's going on?!" Naruto demanded over the communication frequency he shared with Miranda.

"Cerberus! They're attacking the Citadel!" Miranda replied, making both of the Uzumakis' eyes widen in shock. "Damn it! I can't send any troops to your location! The area is swarming with fighters and frigates! I can't even launch the Ambush!"

"Fuck...Just take out as many of their ships as you can!" Naruto ordered before worry for her hit him. "Be careful, Miranda. Please."

"I will, Naruto. You come back to me alive, you hear?" Miranda responded. "Promise me, Naruto."

"I promise, Miranda." Naruto answered before cutting the communication and drawing his Predators. In that brief moment of interaction between the two, Kushina could hear the sincere love and affection in their voices, knowing her son had chosen well. A moment later, she pulled out a Predator from a drawer in her desk. Quirking an eye brow in a silent question, Kushina watched as a small light changed from red to green on both sides of either pistol in her son's hands. Naruto smirked slightly at her quizzical expression. "Biometric locks. They won't work for anyone other than me."

"No wonder you managed to get past the security checks with those things..." Kushina remarked off-handedly as she checked her pistol to see if it was loaded with a fresh thermal clip. Before she could do or say anything as she opened the door a moment later, Naruto gained a cold look on his face as he narrowed his eyes. Stepping out into the hall before her, Naruto raised his pistols while the first surge of adrenaline shot into his blood stream. Leaning to the side while twisting his upper body, he avoided a shot that would have hit him in the shoulder while shooting the Assault Trooper in the head, killing him before he could fire another shot at him. Bringing his other gun back around, he started firing on the attacking soldiers, using only a single shot to their heads to drop them.

'This...is my son? I knew he was a soldier like no other, but this is unbelievable!' Kushina thought to herself before snapping out of her shock and taking a few shots of her own, dropping an Assault Trooper on her third shot. "Damn it...I knew I should have paid a visit to the the firing range a long time ago."

"Shit!" Naruto cursed quietly as both Predators clicked empty less than a minute into the shoot out, automatically ejecting their spent thermal clips. Quickly holstering them, Naruto cocked his hands back as red Biotic energy swirled around them before lashing out with them, unleashing twin waves of scarlet energy that collided with the Cerberus soldiers. "Fucking Cerberus dogs!"

"There he is!" A Cerberus Centurion called out, pointing at Naruto. Growling through gnashed teeth, Naruto felt the second and third surge of adrenaline come back-to-back as he held up his hands and formed a spherical barrier in front of him, the bullets impacting the shield and ricocheting in different directions. As the C-sec officers came running up behind him with their guns reloaded with fresh clips, Naruto waited until the Cerberus troops started reloading before letting the barrier drop, the C-sec officers instantly opening fire on them and killing them in seconds. As the last one dropped, Naruto reloaded his Predators before walking over to a couple of the dead bodies, salvaging a few extra thermal clips to keep himself stocked. He even grabbed a few grenades from one of the Centurions, taking a couple smoke grenades with him and clipping them all to his belt behind his waist.

"You stay with the other officers and try to hold them off as long as you can. I'm heading out to do what I can elsewhere." Naruto instructed his mother as he picked up a Centurion's Mattock rifle, reloading it with a fresh thermal clip pilfered off the dead soldier before standing back up. Noticing her worried look, Naruto sighed and primed the rifle; it wasn't as good as his, but it would have to do for the moment. "This is what I was trained for, Mom. I'll be fine."

"...Alright, son. You do what you have to." Kushina responded before turning and heading off with the other C-sec officers, issuing orders as they moved. Turning, Naruto quickly put his gloves back on and gripped the Mattock rifle, taking a deep breath as he stepped into the elevator, hoping it didn't fail on him or get him killed. Selecting the button for the Commons, Naruto pulled out a pair of ear buds from his uniform's collar and put them in his ears. Letting his music play at a low volume to help keep his mind focused solely on combat and to keep him from getting distracted, he jumped up and pushed open the service hatch while gripping the edge with one hand, only to kick his legs up and over the edge. Resting the rifle across his stomach while holding the edges of the opening with both hands, Naruto waited for the elevator to stop and for the doors to open before letting go of the opening, the rifle falling into his hands as he hung upside-down, the stock pressed into his shoulder. Caught off guard by the unorthodox 'ambush', the two Assault Troopers were shot in the face at point-blank range before an Engineer in the process of setting up a turret a short distance away was shot in the back of his head.

Slipping from the hole and flipping to his feet, Naruto darted over to the side, taking cover while one of the dead Cerberus soldiers kept the door from closing. Taking another deep breath, he stepped out and aimed to the left, firing a handful of shots that dropped an equal number of Assault Troopers before turning around to the right and opening fire again, forced to shoot a Centurion multiple times to get passed his shields before the final shot caught him in the neck, dropping him to his knees as he struggled and failed to stop his blood from gushing out of the wound. As he collapsed to the ground and stayed there, Naruto reloaded the Mattock and proceeded down the pathway. Without stopping in his steady advancement, he dropped any and every Cerberus soldier he came across. Not wanting to waste all of his thermal clips on the rifle in his hands, he dropped it as it clicked empty, picking up a pair of standard-issue Hornets.

"..." Pausing as he heard gun fire coming from nearby, Naruto started running as a fourth dose of adrenaline flooded his circulatory system, kicking open a pair of double doors that led into a large courtyard like area, only for his eyes to widen in shock. Dozens dead, dozens more dropping as they were gunned down in cold blood. In that same instant, a fifth and sixth shot of adrenaline coursed through him, his irises turning a menacing blood red as his hands rose, aiming the twin Hornets in his hands at the Cerberus Assault Troopers that were slaughtering the innocent civilians of the Citadel. With each three shot burst, a Cerberus soldier was slain and the blonde took another step towards them, his stride smooth and predatory as his vermillion eyes grew cold. Even as the troops turned their attention on him, Naruto didn't so much as flinch as bullets shot past him. Guns clicking from the thermal clips being used up, Naruto calmly dropped them and lunged forward into a shoulder roll, picking up a Cerberus Harrier and shouldering the stock before continuing to gun down the troops.

"Reinforcements! We need reinforcements!" One of the few Centurions in the area barked out over the radio before raising his rifle once more to open fire on the blonde haired Alliance officer that seemed to have a death wish, calmly walking through a storm of bullets the entire time. Just before he could pull the trigger after lining up the sights with Naruto's head, the Centurion was killed by a single sniper rifle round tearing through his shield and then through his helmeted head, dropping him instantly. As the seventh shot of adrenaline entered his veins, the Harrier in his hands clicked empty, only for Naruto to flip it over and use it as a club, knocking aside the rifle of another Assault Trooper before slamming it into the side of his neck, breaking his neck in the process. When the eighth surge of adrenaline hit, Naruto's entire body was engulfed in crimson biotic energy before he threw his hands forward, unleashing twin blast waves of the scarlet energy. In an instant, the remaining thirty soldiers was cut in half as bodies were crushed from the impact and thrown across the room.

"..." Naruto, remaining vigilant the entire time, suddenly rushed forward with the aid of his biotic energy, crossing the twenty meter gap between him and a Centurion in a single second before slamming his shoulder into the man's chest, sending him flying with a caved in chest plate and rib cage. Catching the Centurion's rifle and spinning around into a kneeling crouch, Naruto fired a single shot into the view slot of a Guardian's shield, the bullet going through the right eye lense in the man's helmet and killing him instantly. Dropping the Harrier and rushing forward, Naruto hefted up the incredibly heavy slab of armored metal along with picking up a fallen Predator pistol from beside a dead C-sec officer. Continuing to advance on the Cerberus forces that were slowly being forced back by a single man, Naruto used the armored shield for defense as the white-clad soldiers started focusing all of their fire on him.

Using another biotic charge to smash his shield into a Centurion, Naruto tucked the pistol in his right hand under his left arm and shot a second Guardian in the head from directly beside him, only to drop the pistol and grab the man's shield as well. Keeping himself completely covered with the shields, Naruto started gathering as much biotic energy as he could, coating his entire body with it as a ninth dose of adrenaline was injected into his system, his chest stricken with agony that went unacknowledged as blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. Once he was close enough, Naruto let go of the shields and then released all of the pent up biotic energy he had gathered.

In a concussive explosion of crimson energy, all of the remaining Cerberus soldiers were tossed around like rag dolls, the hurricane of biotic power breaking their bones on initial contact and going further to crush them against anything solid such as the floor, walls, and even the ceiling, the bodies dropping all around as the energy dispersed a moment after being released. Dropping to his knees a moment later as the adrenaline started fading away and his eyes started returning to their natural blue coloration, Naruto's vision became blurry and hazy while his hearing became muted, his body numb and weak from the intense pain his body was in. That was when the Cerberus reinforcements, an Atlas, managed to wedge itself through the doorway just ahead of him. As it raised its mass accelerator cannon to finish him off, Naruto heard what sounded like a quiet pop to him before the Atlas froze in place, the giant war machine slowly lowering its cannon. Unknown to the blonde, the pilot had been shot in the head through the armour-glass canopy with a powerful sniper rifle.

"...Miranda..." Naruto whispered just as his vision went black, never feeling the impact with the floor as he fell forward...

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A/N: I apologize to my readers and fans of Escaping Hades. The original ending for Chapter 8 was...disappointing, even to me. I've been going through a lot of perosnal problems recently and I messed up. I'm sorry. Thus, I've rewritten the ending for this chapter and currently redoing chapter nine. Also, for fans of my other stories, yes, they're still being written, but as I sid, I'm currently dealing with a lot of personal issues right now, so I won't be posting chapters for a little while. However, that doesn't mean any of them are on hiatus. I've just had a bad case of writer's block for them, haven't had time to work on them, and/or have been busy with other stories. It will take some time, but ALL of my stories will eventually be updated again. Sorry for the wait, everyone...