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

Thoughts are underlined

Author's Note: I am so sorry. College has been horrendously busy lately. I have had and still have a case of multiple midterm madness, which I am getting through painfully. Also I started my first Accounting course. To anyone who has taken Accounting you know what I have been going through. To everyone who hasn't, Accounting is really difficult and takes a lot of time to do. And after you spend 12 hours looking at numbers and financial statement, you have the creativity and motivation of a grub worm. In any case, enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 10:

It was not very pleasant being Naruto Uzumaki right now.

Not that it was ever that pleasant considering he held the animosity of an entire village while growing up, but now it was particularly unpleasant.

Naruto was in pain. And I'm not talking here about mental pain, though he had that too. I am talking about physical pain; a quality that ninjas also had to deal with a lot.

In addition to a lot of pain, Naruto heard when he returned to consciousness a strange ringing. He initially thought it was because of a concussion. But eventually decided that wasn't it. It just didn't match all his previous experiences with concussions. It just didn't sound right. So while Naruto had no doubt that he did have the previously mentioned head trauma, this ringing was something else. Then he figured it out.

It was sirens.

How exactly Naruto had confused sirens for ringing, he was not entirely sure, but he blamed his head injury, and well Kami, who seemed to enjoy throwing Naruto's life to shit.

I got to get out of here.

With that final thought Naruto tried to sit up.

Bad mistake.

At the movement, Naruto's body erupted in a white hot flash of agony. And Naruto thudded back into the floor, which caused pain all of its own.

Ow.

Naruto opened his eyes and attempted to survey the environment from his position.

The place was trashed. Wrecked. It looked like a bomb had gone off, which was appropriate. The room was also splattered with flesh and a whole cornucopia of technicolor goriness.

Wow, I guess not all people bleed red. Learn something new every day.

Naruto currently was lying on his side, his left arm partially entangled with one of Tarlo's legs. Naruto took a look at himself, trying to see how bad the damage was.

He noticed that most of his pain was coming from his back and legs, so he decided to check out his back first. Painfully lifting his right arm, Naruto reached behind him and started feeling around where it hurt the most. And encountered shrapnel, and big open bleeding wounds.

He then checked his legs or what was left of them. His left leg was still there though it looked and felt like something had been chewing on it for a while. His right leg however was not all there. A piece of shrapnel had partially severed his knee. So his lower leg was barely hanging in there by a few centimeters of skin. Naruto pulled out the piece of killer debris. It came out with a frankly extremely disturbing slurping sound. It was a large bone fragment. That looked suspiciously like it came from the guy that Naruto just blew up.

Why am I healing so slowly?

Which was true. While it was a miracle that Naruto survived at all, and he knew he was healing probably hundreds of times faster than a normal human. He could actually feel the flesh slowly knitting itself together. He would probably be completely healed within a few days, new right leg and all. However, the healing was very underpowered to what Naruto expected from the Kyuubi based on his previous experiences with the demon. While Naruto didn't think the Kyuubi was aware at all of Naruto's environment, Naruto knew for a fact that the fox knew the status at all times of his container, and dispensed his power to take care of injuries on the spot. Also since the fox had a flare for overkill, a consequence of its vast near infinite amount of power, Naruto's current healing situation was… odd.

Naruto then noticed a very faint unusual sensation he was feeling. It took a second but he tracked the sensation to his left arm. He looked at it, thinking he was ready for anything that might be happening. However, what Naruto saw still gave him a start.

There was a strange energy coming off of Tarlo's body. It was completely different than anything Naruto had ever seen before. But that was not the weird thing. The weird thing was that foreign energy was… reacting when it came in contact with the Kyuubi's power. Naruto couldn't tell what that reaction was, as he was a little freaked out at another thing he noticed. Whatever that reaction was, the Kyuubi's chakra interpreted it as a threat and was acting accordingly. Which explained the slowish healing. Apparently the demonic power ranked active threats as a higher priority than current injuries.

The way it dealt with this threat was to destroy the source of the disturbance. Tarlo's leg already looked like a charred piece of raw meat, and the burning was spreading.

Crap!

Bracing himself mentally, Naruto turned over so he was completely out of contact with Tarlo's body.

Naruto erupted in agony at the movement, as well as when his body hit the floor. But all things considered.

That wasn't that bad.

However, then the Kyuubi chakra, without the foreign energy anymore to deal with, had refocused all its attention on Naruto.

Naruto if he had coherent thought would have immediately taken his previous thought back. And if he had voluntary muscle control he would probably slap himself for jinxing things with said thought.

Pain beyond all imaginings erupted throughout Naruto's entire being.

Red power blasted from Naruto's body. The force of it actually lifting Naruto off the ground. It vaporized anything and everything it touched. The shrapnel disintegrated. But about a third of a meter away from his body the deadly aura stopped as Naruto fought to gain control of the power.

You see the power of the Kyuubi was extremely dangerous. And not just to Naruto's enemies, or anything that happened to get in his way, but also to Naruto himself.

Demonic chakra had a very negative effect on humans.

When the power was used, what Naruto felt was… power, unlimited power. He felt like a god. That he could do anything. His problems were dimmed and made so less of an issue, washed away by cleansing rage. Things were made so much less complicated. Kill your enemies; all other thoughts were not worth having. And Naruto felt an extreme desire to draw upon more power. So he does.

And more he drew upon, the more powerful he feels. The more his problems faded. The more his humanity faded as it was crushed under the weight of demonic instincts. The more his desire to draw upon more power grew. So he does.

And as the addiction in Naruto's mind firmly took root. His body burned and decayed around him. And his mind, body, and soul were destroyed by the demon, so all that was left was a monster.

Unfortunately, during a war you had to use every tool at your disposal to survive, so Naruto ended up using the Kyuubi's power a lot.

Thankfully Naruto had regained control on the energy and managed to reigned it in to about one tail's worth, which to Naruto was an amount of power that was manageable.

Now mostly healed, the rest of injuries would heal within a few minutes, Naruto crawled over to Tarlo's body to find out if his debt was going to decrease or Jabba was going to have him killed in an undoubtedly horrific fashion. He checked the man's pulse, and felt nothing.

Damn.

Naruto then noticed he had his fingers in the wrong spot to check the pulse. He moved his fingers about three centimeters and wai ted. He had just about lost hope when he felt a heartbeat. It was faint, but it was even. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief and stood up the rest of his injuries had healed when he was panicking.

Unfortunately Naruto's stolen clothes had finally given out on him, and were gone. Which is to be expected considering what they had been through. Even Naruto's faithful armor, which had survived until this point, was nothing but useless pieces of scrap now.

Naruto looked around for a second then quickly dressed in the clothes/armor of one of the thugs from earlier. Naruto had no problem with doing so. It was all a matter of utility. The dead had no use for clothes. They also had no use for weapons, but Naruto felt he didn't have enough time right now to relieve them of their useless armaments.

Arriving back at Tarlo's body, Naruto picked him up and slung him over his shoulder. Tarlo's blaster which had been entangled in Tarlo's clothes fell free and hit the floor with a clatter. Naruto knelt down to pick it up.

Blasters: one of the deadliest weapons that Naruto had ever seen. Just point it, pull the trigger, and bang, boom, dead. If a blaster bolt hits you, there was a really good chance you were not getting back up again. Though despite their incredible strength, most people didn't like like using them, though they were exceptions to that. There were people that liked them and were very good at using them. Such as Naruto's friend Tenten.

Though she was a special case, as she was just damn good at and liked using all weapons. Grief erupted in Naruto again before he beat it down .

Naruto frowned in distaste at the blaster but pocketed it anyway.

Naruto started to move towards the doors which, despite the explosion, still functioned.

However, Tatooine's Security Forces took that moment to bust in through said door. 4 men with uniforms and blasters raised.

Naruto panicked and a pulse of dense air pressure shot from his hand and shoved the uniformed men into the door frame, which both killed the men and broke the door's electronic controls thereby sealing the door shut.

Naruto heard the voices outside get louder and angrier. And he also heard them trying to break through the door.

Need another exit.

Naruto thought for a second, and then jumped to the second story landing. Seeing a window he rushed towards it, only to find that it was a window that was only able to be looked through. There was no way of opening it. So Naruto stepped back, grabbed a table and threw it at the windows as hard as he could. The windows broke, sending glass falling to the sandy ground. Naruto followed suit.

Landing in an alleyway, Naruto readied himself to keep moving. When he heard from behind him

"Freeze!"

Rey Anddres liked to think he was a good cop, but knew honestly that he really wasn't. It was the environment.

Tatooine was both a heaven and a hell for cops, and both for same reason: bribes.

Tatooine was technically ruled by the Empire, but in reality it was the Hutts that were the planet's taskmasters. The Hutts aren't evil, they merely all hold beliefs and conduct actions that, while moral for their culture, are considered extremely illegal to almost every other species in the entire galaxy. Besides Jabba, the unofficial ruler of the planet, criminals were the ones in control.

And where there was crimes being done, there were people who wanted to keep said criminal activity quiet, and where an even slightly crooked cop could make a quick and easy credit.

The problem for former cop of integrity Rey Anddres, it was just so easy. There was no chance at all of getting caught; there was so much other criminal activity going on that catching bribes was really low on the priority list.

So when Rey saw at a crime scene a short clocked figure holding another figure drop down into an alleyway in front of him and he yelled "Freeze!", he had some clear expectations of what was going to happen. The figure would turn around with a big sack of credits, he would say he didn't see anybody, and everybody would go home happy, except there was one problem with Rey's plan. When the figure turned around, it wasn't credits that the figure had for him.

It was only long experience with danger, and a very healthy paranoia which allowed Rey to avoid the quickly moving object that was sent at his head. As soon as his instincts screamed foul, he had thrown himself to the ground. Good thing as otherwise he would be likely be dead. An instant later when he looked up from the ground, the figure was gone.

Breathing heavily from the adrenaline rush, Rey stood up and turned to see what had almost ended him. He expected from the speed that it was some type of slug from a slug thrower or something. But all he saw was a ring sticking out of the wall. Puzzled, Rey walked over, grabbed the ring and tugged. It didn't budge. It took a few minutes but it finally came free of the wall. And he gasped.

For in Rey's hands rested a very odd looking, primitive, triangular knife.

Naruto stood in Jabba's fortress, ready to get paid. The ninja was sore all over, but pleased with his work. Then he remembered this job was only a reduction to the debt he owed Jabba, and his pride deflated. Still, Naruto thought with a mental groan, I gotta start somewhere.

Naruto slung Tarlo off his back and dumped him on the floor in front of Jabba.

Jabba barked out some quick command that the machine didn't translate and his Majordomo (that Twi-lek Naruto scared the shit out of earlier) came forward and checked Tarlo's pulse. After a second he looked back at Jabba and gave him a quick nod. Jabba then shouted out another command, still very frustratingly not translated by the machine, and two of the pig guards came and dragged Tarlo away. Though they did look slightly skittish when they walked near Naruto, but I guess that's understandable.

Jabba then spoke again, and the machine finally translated.

"The most esteemed and revered Jabba the Hutt appreciates your completion of your assignment and the 1000 credits will deducted from your debt."

Jabba then said something else then erupted into deep slightly creepy sounding laughter. The machine didn't translate… again.

The various other people in the room either because they found what their boss said to be funny, or they were just playing along because their boss said it, started laughing as well.

Naruto inwardly groaned; he had the agonizing feeling that that some joke was just made at his expense. And since he didn't intentionally do or say anything funny, it really pissed him off. And as he watched some annoying monkey-thing cackle from its perch on Jabba's dais, Naruto came to a conclusion:

Note to self, learn how to speak Hutt

As Naruto marched across the desert sands. His mind was split into thinking about two issues. First where and how the hell he would learn the Hutt language and the second being where he was going to sleep.

As Naruto thought, he noticed some large vehicle in the distance near the borders of Anchorhead. It was stationary and surrounded by really small cloaked figures with bright yellow eyes. Naruto had no idea what they were; he'd seen nothing like them in the data-books in the library. Or maybe he had, Naruto had honestly only skimmed most of the stuff on different species. Around the vehicle was all sorts of mechanical devices and doodads of sorts, as well as more of those machines, some of which similar to what Jabba had. With the cloaked figures there were a few green and scaly people looking at the devices.

They must be selling something. Not interested.

Naruto suddenly snapped his head towards the market and stopped running. His neck wrenched and his sudden stop caused sand to blast his entire body. But he didn't care; he had seen something that made all that unimportant.

Within the market, was one of those machines, this one shaped like a large sphere. It was also floating. That was not what caught his eyes though. On top of the sphere rested…

My hitai-ate.

For the first time in a long time Naruto felt joy, and immediately starting moving towards it so he grab it back. Not that he had a problem with it, but he rationalized it wasn't stealing because the thing belonged to him anyway.

However, a few seconds Naruto stopped. And rage filled his very being. He realized that his hitai-ate was not resting on top of the machine, it was welded. His most prized possession, one of the only things he had left from his home, the last remnant he had of a person he loved was being used as… a patch. Like a common piece of scrap metal.

The rage continued to grow until Naruto beat it down. He didn't want to have another incident.

I need a distraction.

With a quick hand seal a Kage Bunshin appeared in front of Naruto.

"You cause a distraction; make sure they don't notice me."

"Sure thing boss".

So Naruto waited. If he knew himself as well as he thought he did, his distraction would be loud. A few seconds later there a loud yell and a crash.

That's the signal. I hope I can keep them distracted. I mean the other me. Kage Bunshins are confusing.

Performing a quick henge to change the color of his clothes to match the color of sand, Naruto crept up to the floating sphere machine

Naruto reached out, grabbed the headband plate, and yanked. It didn't move. Naruto took in a deep breath and yanked again.

Suddenly the machine woke up and started screaming.

"Shh! Shh! Quiet. This will only take a second."

The machine quieted down.

"Thank you".

Reaching out Naruto grabbed the plate again and pulled. The machine started yelling again.

Naruto quickly stepped back and the machine quieted down.

I know I could get my hitai-ate off it if I put more power into it, but if I do that I might accidently destroy it. You know what, screw it, I am just going to grab the whole machine, and worry about getting the plate off it later.

Naruto grabbed the machine and started running with it, but the machine protested right away… loudly.

"Come on; don't tell me you want to stay here". Naruto wondered if there was some way he could either knock unconscious a machine, or destroy it without destroying his hitai-ate in the process.

"Beep beep".

Naruto paused in mid-thought. The beeps were said in a way that seemed very negative. The tones of the beeps just screamed hell no. He had an idea.

"Let's try this: one beep for yes, two for no. Do you understand me?"

"Beep".

Naruto smiled but he had to be sure.

"Do you not understand me?"

"Beep beep".

"Do you want to leave here?"

"Beep".

"Is there something making it so you can't leave?"

"Beep".

"Is it one of these things on your body?"

"Beep".

Great… its entire body is covered in things.

"Is it something that those short robed guys added onto you?"

"Beep".

"Were those robed guys the people that built you?"

"Beep beep".

Naruto didn't know what to do next so he just pointed at one of the devices on the machine.

"Is it that?"

"Beep beep".

Naruto pointed at another device.

"Is is that?"

"Beep beep".

"That?"

"Beep beep".

"That?"

"Beep beep".

Naruto was getting really annoyed.

"Is it that?"

"Beep beep".

"That?"

"Beep".

Ok, now to take a look at it.

It was some weird knob looking thing. Sticking out from the side of the machine's body like some kind of giant metal pimple.

Now to get it off.

Naruto then using his affinity towards wind focused and created a 10 centimeter blade at the tip of his pointer finger of concentrated air pressure, with an edge about the thickness of an extremely fine grain of sand. He then added a spark of fire to the blade, which ignited it.

The machine immediately tried to back away.

"Oh no no no. Come on my metallic friend. This is not going to hurt a bit. This thing will cut through your metal real quick, you won't even feel it. Hey, worst case scenario: even if I do mess up, you won't have any time to feel pain… that is if you can feel pain…"

Damn, my diplomacy sucks. I mean what the hell? I was great with Jabba, and now it is like my mouth isn't on speaking terms with my brain. Wait… mouth… speaking terms… heh… pun. Arg! Focus! Anyway, maybe it's because this time my life isn't in danger.

"Beep beep beep beep beep-beep"!

Naruto has no idea what the machine just said, but it was probably very rude.

"Look, it'll be fine. You want to stay here? Or take a small, very small, risk and get out of here? Come on, what's life without a little risk? No guts, no glory. Wait you don't have guts. Ok… um… no gears, no glory."

The machine went still and came closer to Naruto.

"You ready?"

"Beep".

So Naruto got started.

It took a few seconds longer than Naruto expected, but he had the metal device off.

"Now let's go."

He dropped the device on the ground, and he was ready to go.

Now when Naruto grabbed the machine and ran off, it didn't protest.

Naruto had moved a few hundred meters when he remembers the Kage Bunshin, since he no longer needed a distraction he dispelled the clone, and immediately chuckled when the memories of his clone's exploits came back.

The distraction the clone came up with was to run into the camp yelling at the top of his lungs, and push various large metal objects over. The real funny thing was that at the time that the clone dispelled, one of the little robed guys just shot some type of weapon at him. And the electric looking bolt had just barely come into contact with the clone, before Naruto had dispelled it. So from the point of view of the small robed guys, a weird, really strong, and fast creature came from the desert yelling at the top of its lungs. And when they finally managed to shoot it, it disappeared in a puff of smoke. And in an instant, ignoring the devastation it left behind, there was no evidence it was ever there. Naruto wouldn't be surprised if his clones' exploits entered their mythology as the actions of some kind of sand spirit.

Naruto gave one last chuckle and turned towards the machine.

Despite his initial troubles, he had a guaranteed job, and he just found one of his most prized possessions. That, in addition to a machine, which Naruto figured he would find some use for.

Things are looking up.