Chapter 9
"What a wonderful smell you've discovered." Naruto remarked after they got below the alien cantina, and into the tunnels, well away from the noxious gas. The tunnels were a maze of doors and fans.
Revan was leading, she seemed to know where she was going. Naruto figured it was a connection to someone she knew.
He held a kunai in his hand after they'd encountered a group of kath hounds as Revan identified them.
"They might have escaped a transport, or were let loose down here." Revan said as they continued on.
With his comment about the smell of the tunnels, Revan shot him a look. "It smells better than that dive you took me to near the lake country when we entered that den and found hundreds of dead wo…oh dear." She said and they stopped outside a door.
"What?" Naruto asked.
"This is going to take a while to cut thru. There are no controls out here."
Naruto nodded and with a poof his lightsaber appeared in his hand and Revan's in hers. "I love storage tattoos." She said and the blades activated with a snap hiss, and the couple plunged their blades into the sealed door.
"You take me to such nice places Rev." Naruto said.
"Your just mad cause I'm making you give up the money from your fight."
"Actually, I'm not. But I don't think Ben should be punished. I did drag him there, and he didn't fight."
"I'll speak to his Master." Revan said as they slowly cut seals on the door.
"Naruto." She said getting his attention as he continued to push the blade. "What?"
"I…I'm sorry about taking you away from your home. Everyone you knew."
"Its okay. You did the best you could. Besides, I think Ino was sick of seeing my bronze body in the peak of physical condition running around Konoha every morning while she looked old and…"
"She didn't have wrinkles dear." Revan said defending her blond friend. "She was getting silver in her hair."
"Yeah, well it was rough seeing them all age while I stayed looking twenty something." Naruto said.
"Naruto." Revan said.
"what?"
"It took us a couple years as the ship's hyperdrive kept giving out."
"What took years." Naruto inquired.
"To get from Konoha to Coruscant." Revan said and watched as Naruto froze then sighed. "I figured that." He said.
He formed a familiar cross seal and two shadow clones appeared. "Keep cutting." He said handing them his and Revan's blades as he pulled his wife aside.
"I'm not mad or upset at you." He said putting a hand on each of her shoulders. "I can feel it thru the bond. You thought I would be mad, didn't you?"
"Yes." Revan said. "Its just…I took you away from the only world you've ever known and thrown you into a galaxy with species that are beyond description. I mean, I know I'm your wife, but…"
"No buts." Naruto said taking her chin and making her look at him. "Never doubt us. No matter what. You are my precious person, my reason to make myself better, the first thing I think about waking, the last thing I think about before I sleep. You are my heart and soul Revan Namikaze." He said. "If you want to stay with the Jedi and teach a couple generations, that's fine with me. If you want to move from planet to planet that's fine. If you want to set up a diner and be a sexy waitress I can live with that. It doesn't matter where we are, or what we do, as long as you are there, I will adapt to any situation." He kissed her as behind them a pair of shadow clones continued to work.
One looked at the other and grinned. "Boss is gonna score tonight."
"Stow it stupid and keep cutting." The other one grunted trying to ignore the kissing couple behind it.
XX
"Done." The clones said as they returned the lightsabers then vanished being dispelled.
"Rev, if you would?" Naruto motioned towards the cut out door.
"Work, work, work. I swear, men wouldn't be able to do anything without a woman around." She said with a grin and with a force push sent the door flying inwards.
"Knock, knock. Avon calling." Naruto said stepping thru and stopping. Revan watched as he sniffed the air.
"Its stale, sour. I don't think anyone's been here for a long time." Naruto reported.
"Does it smell like my ship did when we went to work on it?" Revan asked and Naruto nodded.
"A thousand years at least." She muttered a deactivated lightsaber in her hand. "This way." She pointed towards the left corridor and they walked, Revan scanning for traps with the force and Naruto using his enhanced senses for the same task.
"A lot of beings died here." Naruto said.
Revan nodded. "A friend of mine was here upon her return. She had to fight a major crime boss who was trying to collect a bounty on her head."
"The Exile?" Naruto asked.
Revan snorted. "She hated that name. Jaina was an exile, but he returned. I looked up her files, she was still called Exile after her return and she was a Master on the reformed council." Revan shook her head.
"Jaina…Jaina Kale, right?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah. She was a friend from my time before the council erased my memories, then after she returned."
Naruto paused.
"What is it?"
"What is that?" Naruto asked pointing thru a glass window to an arena below.
"A rancor." Revan said. "Old one at that." She said seeing the age lines on a fang. "Someone put that here to guard whatever is behind those doors behind it."
"How is it fed? I mean…look at all the bones." Naruto asked.
"Look above. A trapdoor, bet it leads to the Jek Jek Tar and they toss bodies down here after a fight to dispose of evidence. They don't even know what's here."
Naruto shuddered.
"Its probably spent long periods hibernating." Revan continued looking down into the arena.
"Well, I guess…"
"We'll have to either sneak past it or kill it." Revan said.
"Kill it?"
"I need what's in that room." Revan said looking at her husband, and he sighed at her 'resolve face' and knew he was in for a long night on the couch if he didn't agree.
"Fine. How?"
Revan sighed. "I don't have any grenades, so this will have to be the hard way I'm afraid. We'll fight it like we did that Troll from Iwa."
Naruto groaned. "That thing hit hard." He looked at the beast below. "Well at least the rancor is better looking. They are about the same size." He thought.
"I get first crack?" he asked and Revan sighed. "Don't come crying to me when he leaves you a smear on the ground."
Naruto smiled and kissed her quickly. "I won't. you're the best wife ever."
Revan laughed as he skipped to the entrance and palmed the hatch release. She watched as the doors rumbled open and screeched from long inactivity.
The rancor was awakened by that and Revan stayed in the shadows, ready to aid her husband with the use of the force should he need it.
XX
Meanwhile…
"I'm sorry master." Obi-wan said sitting across from his master.
"Its alright Obi-wan. I always wanted you to rebel somehow. It seems your friendship with Naruto will be good for you in the long run." The elder Jedi said with a smile sipping his tea.
"Master?"
"Before you would never have tried to even visit a place like the duel arena. I want you to know that things aren't like they seem on the surface, but I'm afraid I've been remise in teaching you of the more seedier places as our duties have kept us in certain circles, and while many of them are dangerous and somewhat seedy, the places I'm sure Naruto will take you will show you the real face of the galaxy, not the political sugar coated version most Jedi only see."
Obi-wan was silent. "He's not what I expected master."
Qui-Gon smiled. "I find it fitting." He sipped his tea. "When I was younger, before Dooku took me as his padawan, I did a study on Jedi Knights who fell to the dark side. The history I learned about Revan fascinated me, and frightened me. A Jedi with such promise, such a prodigy fell to the dark side. Her redemption was documented by several Jedi. Bastila Shan, Jolee Bindo, Master Vandar and others. They spoke of the mind wipe, the journey to find the Star Forge and stop Revan's former apprentice, Malak."
Obi-wan listened as his master spoke. The tale from start to finish. "And then she left. She is the last of her kind in all the galaxy. Naruto Namikaze, is immortal…how we don't know fully. I think the answer are in the holocron she handed to Master Yoda."
"We could ask him?" Obi-wan asked. "Naruto doesn't seem to mind answering questions or speaking about his past."
"It is something we really don't need to know." Qui-Gon answered. "His connection to the force is amazing. The abilities he uses with that strange personal energy called chakra is equal to many things we can do with the force."
"You mean like walking on walls?"
Qui-Gon smiled. "Many of his abilities are new, and some are frightening. I know the talk of the temple was heated."
Obi-wan shook his head. "Master Took and Master Guile both say he's a Sith Lord, and Revan's return will doom us all."
"Don't listen to that. You can look at both the Namikaze's and see they shine so strongly in the lightside of the force. There is no trace of malice in either of them." Qui-Gon said.
Obi-wan nodded at that. While meditating on the trip, he'd seen them both in the force. They shone brighter than the gas giant of the Yavin system.
"Master, what do you think they went to find?" Obi-wan asked.
"Something from Revan's past." Qui-Gon said.
XX
Revan looked at the remains of the rancor and sighed. "You enjoyed that."
Naruto smiled. "What. It roared, I just wanted it to know it wasn't the biggest thing around with teeth."
"You shouldn't have summoned her."
"Stop. She does that to piss you off." Naruto said to his wife as he hopped off the remains of the rancor.
"I don't like her."
Naruto wrapped his arms around his wife's mid-section. "I won't summon her again unless I really, really need to, promise." He finished nuzzling her neck from behind.
"Mmm." Revan sighed. "Not here. Now, lets see what keeps pinging my force senses like that."
The pair approached the door and Revan sent a force push out, triggering the door release.
"I'll be damned." She said once the lights flickered on. Sitting there was a very battered, broken and rusted droid she thought she'd never see.
Taking a step closer she stopped as a holocron on the floor sprang to life.
"Bastila." Revan breathed seeing the woman who shared a bond with her.
"Hello Revan." Bastila Shan, Jedi Master said, the silver in the hair and crows feet around the eyes showed her age.
AN: A holocron with Bastila, and a rusted droid. For those that want to know when we'll be hitting the movies, soon, another two to three chapters.
