SHGS - Chapter Eleven: Amongst the Traitors
Disclaimer: I do not own, or profit, from Naruto, Star Wars, and all associated media.
"Thoughts"
"Speech"
"Abnormal sentient thoughts"
"Abnormal sentient speech"
A/N
"This is a quick note for all of those who also read DAIQ. That story is not abandoned or dead. As I stated a bit earlier I am going through all of the old chapters and bringing them up to my current standard. There simply won't be any updates of that story until I feel it is up to scratch and I am ready to post the new chapters. There really isn't any other way to do it because if I just plow ahead then the modifications will never get done, and it will all be too overwhelming. I am more likely to give up on the story in those circumstances – just saying – because to write well I have to be artistically satisfied with what I have produced.
So… please enjoy chapter eleven of SHGS!"
- Darklighter
Central Training Grounds (C.T.G)
"Duck down! Duck down!" he yelled, but Naruto's warning was useless as the hapless squad member soon became engulfed in a conflagration of blaster fire.
The fool had broken cover. He had too much faith in the new personal shield generator (P.S.G) he had been provided with, and the violet flash of protective energy it created was soon overwhelmed by the attacking rays. The inexperienced Shinobi's body was flung back down from his assailing position to thump awkwardly besides them all.
The earth was grim and slick with blood while the baleful orb of this world's sun hung majestically in its swollen grace just over the western ridgeline of towering mountains.
The heat stoked the internal furnace of his frustration to new heights, and beads of sweat rode freely down his freshly shaven scalp unsettling the short coarse blond hairs that remained.
There were five Mech pilots in his troop, but the converted civilians had to keep the squat legged and lithe weapons away from the front. He railed at this fact because the mobile weapons platforms could deal much more damage than his lot - however their obvious silhouettes would be shredded to atoms by the cannon which presently dominated the fight.
"You! On me!" he yelled over the resounding crash of ongoing battle - picking out a young and terrified looking Shinobi who didn't look like he was very far into his twenties.
The man scurried forward – eager to have someone to obey, and if Naruto had been granted a bird's eye view over the action he would have seen his whole group huddled in the muddy trench.
To the North of their position and further down the line teams of Missing-nin in training surged ahead or ceded ground dearly. While the meshed forms of the defenders dug in in front of a hill sloshed around in their own trench; which was filled almost half-way - from earlier in the battle when a particularly enterprising Shinobi had attempted to flood their defensive positions using waters from the river that snaked along the lines of conflict.
The scream of ricocheting Jutsu fought for supremacy with the constant ordered whine of battle rifles. Overhead there were dull and supersonic booms as the Fang interceptors, which had been sourced for other civilian members of the troop, rode the winds - locked in desperate conflict with the enemies' own air support.
They had been thrown right into the deep end. Everything was chaos and someone had to take control.
"The rest of you circle around the group posted on that hill. They're killing the op from that vantage," he glared out at the huddled faces.
He received a couple of grim nods for his efforts. Although they were in a simulation the goggles that they strapped on to their faces produced a highly realistic experience. Electricity would surge through the vests they wore when they were the recipients of a killing blow - locking them into paralysis.
"No one put you over us," there was always at least one negative response.
Typically challenge would come from the squad's burliest member, but in this case it came from a reedy woman with a nose that brought to mind various rodent species.
She had rimmed spectacles perched on that nose, and he turned to her with a smile while his back remained firmly planted against the dugout trench. A supporting length of carved wood ran over his head and the flimsy structure rattled as the thunder of continuous blaster fire crossed above in coherent beams of violent red.
"I don't see you coming up with any bright ideas," he replied. The eyes of the others darted between the two as the urgent conversation wore on. Naruto didn't even realize that he spoke in a loud roar – it was the only way to make himself understood over the clamor of the simulated fight.
"It's better that we do well," he continued, "It's my guess that the other teams don't know what to do about the emplacement on the hill, and its eating at all of us," he said.
It was true. Though he could not view the whole battle as they scurried forward from one fortified trench to the next, bleeding their numbers on route, Naruto could tell from where he was that the whole battle centered on the hill. The atmospheric fighting jets that did battle above them centered on it, and the wavy lines of advancing at will the Shinobi were locked into the grid of control it created – alongside the defenders they were assaulting.
He noticed the woman's hard eyes on him. She wore glasses, strange for a Shinobi and her red eyes were a perfect match for the hair she wore in a long style. Like the rest of them she could not help but try to stare over his shoulder at his back – where his issued shield generator was conspicuously absent.
He could not carry the thing. He held more faith in his defensive disc, and there was no way he would be able to lug around the blade if he could not strap it conveniently to his back.
"Yeah but then the guns will be focused on us. There is no way we can make it across the killing fields intact," a few of the others nodded at her words. What she was saying only made sense.
"T-h-i-n-k will you? You're all Shinobi. Surely someone in this grouping has earth Jutsu?" Naruto sounded the enquiry. The easiest way to get there would be to dig out a route. Hell if there was someone with enough skill they could even play the part of Sapper squad and weaken the hill. It wouldn't take long for the weight of the Laser cannon emplacement to crash down then.
However the rest of the troop looked around all about and some of them shrugged. One sullenly asked, "And what about you? Got any?"
"No," he replied calmly. He knew he couldn't allow these reluctant soldiers to grate on his nerves – not if he wanted them to view him as their leader in the long-term.
"What about concealment Jutsu? Usually those are a dime a dozen amongst us missing types.
That brought a hard chuckle rising out of some of them. Too many of them had been forced to rely on such techniques while they cowered and hid from the hunter-nin their respective Hidden Villages had sent after them. Three individuals stepped forward and upon seeing each other fell into a private conversation. Naruto left them to decide which techniques would be appropriate.
He risked another glance out of the trench – easing up on his toes and pulling forward with one hand planted firmly into the sheltering soil. To the left of his vision, further down the line of engagement, the trench that was level with their position was unoccupied.
It was besides a river and the gunners on top of the hill had staked it out with their fire. A couple of corpses floated head down in the water, and there was charred human flesh strung out on the approach to the furrow.
There was a bit of scrambling below him. He looked and saw the rat faced woman coming up to meet him. It seemed as if she wasn't quite ready to cede the group to his sole authority.
"What do you have planned anyway?" she muttered as she gained the lip. Naruto found himself warming to her slightly. Perhaps she wasn't here to play games of dominance. Perhaps she wanted to do well – just as he did – and she did not know who to trust – just as he didn't.
"I want a line of smoke or fog covering our approach up to the hill base, but also up to that trench over there," he indicated the area he had been scrutinizing earlier. "It would have been good to have Earth Element on hand but we'll work with what we've got. We'll make a feint for the trench, they just cleared it, and hopefully they'll think we want to maintain control of the bridgehead across the river before they can pull more troops up.
"Do we?"
"Huh?"
"Do we want to maintain control of the bridgehead," the woman asked. Her face was pensive, so he knew she was simply trying to grasp the direction of his thoughts. "I wish the people over there were real," she whispered. "I can't use my abilities on these… fakes."
"What abilities?" he wanted to ask. Instead he settled for clearing his throat. Perhaps a diplomatic response was in order.
"Yea we do but I don't think it is as important as clearing the ridge. Once they see some of our troop feinting towards it then they'll send their own men and it will probably be a tough fight, but I think the only troops they have in reserve are on that hill – and I want to lure as many of them as I can away from it before we strike."
"Yea I can see that," she said simply. Naruto had been wondering about it on every little foray he took to peer out of the trench, and his eyes had kept going back to the empty gutter in front of the river. The enemy had not sent their troops forward to occupy it. Not even after they had gained temporary control of the air-space over it, and their guided Laser cannon had been able to punch holes into those that were supposed to defend it.
It probably meant that they did not have enough troops to defend it and the hill, and they were probably waiting for reinforcements from the rear. If he forced them to act before they were ready then the whole battle might shift on its head. The female missing-nin had seen this as well, and it was as good a plan as she had.
"Alright we'll do it this way," she said as she slid back into the dirt. "Let me just bring the others up to speed.
Naruto noticed that she did not say 'we'll do it your way' but rather used the word 'this,' but she hastened to obey orders he hadn't given - and for now, for this engagement, and in this moment, he was relatively sure that she was okay with being under him.
He slid back down. She was already organizing the other – barking out orders in the kind of tone he would have to learn to employ. The three who had gathered before crowded around him. They all squatted on their hunches and it was as if Naruto was about to draw out instructions for them all in the soft soil. In the method of those old sergeants and noncommissioned officers who had guided their forces into the slog of battlefields uncounted.
There was a sudden cry from one of sentries who rotated to gain viewing angles on the lip of the trench. The man's trembling finger pointed forward and his shield flared as he was hit with three bolts of blaster fire.
He was sent tumbling back, but he survived. Others took up the cry and flights of durasteel throwing stars and Kunai surged up just as the ambushing attackers threw themselves into earth above the trench.
The fire that came down only lasted through a couple of sporadic bursts but it forced the Shinobi to scatter – scampering about within the confined spaces of the dugout. A few of them were struck down. From this range the deadly rays hacked through the light personnel shields in the same way a razor sharp axe bites into wood. Naruto watched helplessly as one of the three Shinobi who would have spun his –vital- concealing web was burnt to oblivion.
The thrown weapons reached their mark around the same time. A few implements tore through the muzzles of the flashing rifles while others dented and pierced the faceless dark grey helmets the troops wore.
The holographic enemies they were facing were skilled. Their training, armor, and weapons would not have been out of place amongst the security forces of any one of the core worlds, and one out of the five man platoon still breathed.
Naruto went for the kill himself as the soldier pulled back his rifle and began his retreat back across the killing field before the hill emplacement. He risked himself in that moment as he surged up over the ridge in a mighty Force assisted leap.
His defensive blade freed itself from its restraining bandolier with a whispered snick, and his fighting disc was already in hand.
The great blade darted around with freedom as it absorbed and reflected the withering rays that converged on his position within those precious few seconds. His fighting disc was warm within his grip as he closed to clash with the commando.
The man let out a blast of fire as he retreated. He turned professionally to fire from the shoulder as he ran. Naruto's defensive disc was already fully engaged and his telekinesis had reached its limit keeping control of the weapon, in defiance of the heavy impacts of coherent light that was spitting down from the hilltop, so he could not defend himself easily.
He was forced into a sliding duck that painted the front of his dark brown clothing with even darker mud, but he escaped the blast and was soon sprinting on his feet. With his peripheral vision he absently observed the roiling smoke that was even now making its way out of his trench, and was being blown in the direction of the hill under the guidance of supernatural forces.
As he caught up to the man one gripping hand complete with bulging biceps reached out to drag the warrior to the ground. Even as the man struggled he kept ahold of him by his waist, and he shifted his head aside from the swipe that was aimed at him with the butt of the commando's battle rifle.
Naruto's eyes widened and his nostrils flared as his fighting disc came down. The connecting plates on the neck – between the bulky protection of the torso and the hardened metal helmet that was worn- were a weak spot.
He marveled at the power of the goggles that he constantly forgot were strapped to his eyes. The kill was as realistic as he would accept given the images, sounds, and smells that were already being produced in his mind. The blade tore through the throat and released a font of dark red arterial blood that sprayed out in the first panicked release of pressure, and then coolly gushed to slick his fingers and feed the soil underneath.
He blinked - brought back to the present by the harsh vibration in his mindscape that was caused by yet another blaster bolt meeting the rapidly spinning arms of his greater disc. By now the rapidly spreading smoke had expanded to cover his position, and the blaster fire raining down all around him cooled as the enemy conserved their ammunition.
If they were real troops they would have been wondering why their infrared attachments failed to penetrate the haze. He almost chuckled to himself then. The same issues that commanders off world designed new technologies to solve his people devised new techniques to nullify. Shinobi had encountered heat detecting capabilities in conflict amongst themselves long before they had ever had contact with the stars and anyone who thought that superior technology would give them a heavy advantage had another think coming.
Why do I even care?
The laughter that had been threatening to erupt from the depths of him dissipated immediately.
It was the one question he was trying to avoid – the question that could change everything.
Naruto was not yet ready to admit that the circumstances that had torn him away from his home had been contrived at the worst, and pure bad luck at the best. He was not yet ready to admit that perhaps the teachings of his Sith Master's had not sunk as deeply into his bones as he had first assumed, and he was not yet ready to admit that he was challenged by his return of a few months to his home and his people at a deep level that a thousand years living with the foreign Zeison Sha could never have penetrated.
His acute ears picked up the soft footfalls of his troops at they moved in behind him. The lad he had told to stick by his side had wisely stayed clear when Naruto had leaped out of the trench to facedown the straggling commando, but now he was here and Naruto could feel his sticky and fetid breath as the man panted at his side.
They were both slung down in a crouch and a stream of his warriors past them by as the Shinobi headed to occupy the beachhead trench, or continued on to reach the base of the hill.
"What kind of fighter are you?" Naruto asked.
"L-long range," the youth stammered even though he was addressing his junior in appearance and true age. "That was incredible!"
Naruto blessed him with a Cheshire smile. The kind he could not remember wearing since the time he had spent in Konoha before his training, and could not remember ever meaning even half of what it did now.
"No more questions about the lack of a P.S.G eh?" he stated simply.
Six months later
Naruto and his unit passed all the tests the rabid old Shinobi sergeant threw at them, and they passed them with flying colors.
Other teams weren't so lucky. They were decimated by training casualties as some of them were crippled in accidents, and the minds of others broke.
It was always a good thing when you spotted these - those soldiers who couldn't cope with the massive difference between now and a scant few years ago. Those soldiers who froze up when the blasters started firing, the mechs started treading, and the jets began to scream overhead were worthless when it came down to it.
Karin was beside him in the line. She was a sensor. He had discovered that fact about a month after their first training exercise together, and as far as his Corps was concerned she was his right hand.
They were shoulder to shoulder hidden deep within the square of missing-nin. He had come to know most of the people here. From the Shinobi who would serve as the units ground forces to the various pilots who would support them from the air and fight alongside them on the ground. Shit if they had not yet been assigned to a Ship then he would know the cooking staff and assorted orderlies who would take care of them on their journeys between star-systems.
He fidgeted a bit. The sergeant wouldn't stop going on and on. In the initial instant he had been uncouth and abusive towards his charges but now he was teary eyed. It was as if the man had to find a way to make them uncomfortable - even when he wasn't yelling at them.
Finally it was over and the sergeant wound up. His dismissal was curt, and there was a short period of aimless milling around as units reformed – escaping the ordered madness that was parade ground rest and splitting into units.
Three battalions this graduation
He mused as he walked. Occasionally he traded a nod with Shinobi or Pilots that served in his unit. The ninja nodded back with their dead eyes and there was something like hero-worship in the fevered gazes of his pilots. He was only their de-facto leader but he treated them all the same. Anyone who damned him for that could go to hell.
Karin was at his shoulder but she was quiet as usual. She was scanning the crowds just as he was, and he wondered what the old man at the hotel would have thought if the two of them were to walk in right now – dressed as they were in the combat fatigues, allied forehead protectors, and standardized weaponry of the armed forces. He wondered what anyone who wasn't a Shinobi thought about the Missing-nin who had taken up the amnesty. Kami knew that their Shinobi brethren themselves weren't so pleased to have.
Naruto shrugged and this sudden action caught Karin's hawk like attention. There was only so much he could do and he did not even know why he was considering the topic. He had to remember what he had come here to do. He couldn't forget his purpose.
"Something up?" Karin asked. Just as he did she bristled at the glares that came their way from the regular forces. There was a ban in place on the bearing of marked kerchiefs to signal ones troop of origin but everyone knew that it was only enforced where the Missing-nin units were concerned. It was the only method the Shinobi could use to mark them out, and they weren't about to give up the privilege.
"Just fantasizing… thinking about putting my foot up one of these asses and wondering if the room I have on rent is still being held for me, or maybe the owner's assumed I'm dead and he has already rented it out again. I don't know," he said.
"Ah… so you aren't thinking about the important things. No wonder your face is so slack," there wasn't any obvious humor in her voice. Karin was a budding master of the dead-pan.
"What do you mean? What's important that I've missed?"
"Oh nothing much - just the fact that the two of us have to go meet our new commanding officer, or didn't you get the memo?"
"No I didn't!" Naruto ran one roughened hand through his hair. It was starting to grow out again. "I don't have my datapad on me," he groaned. His discblades were in their accustomed places and his Lightsaber had not left its hiding place at the small of his back for even a breath of fresh air. It was becoming very accustomed to the scroll within which he carried it.
"Don't worry I've got mine," Karin said as she opened the small satchel she carried and removed the compact device. "we need to be bearing that way actually," she nodded towards the depot where unassigned Transport Ships were kept. "The new commander is waiting for us there. Something about picking out a ship,"
"How did they know to collar us two anyway?" Naruto asked. He was still put out. He had been hoping to be able to govern his unit from the shadows as was the Shinobi and Sith way but it seemed that his superiors had already eyeballed his dominant position within the group.
"These guys are also trained Shinobi remember? Probably with a darn sight more training than we have. I'm not surprised that they've already identified the cream that rose to the top," Karin smiled this time. Unlike him she did not mind being identified as a leadership figure.
"So what does this mean for us? Are we going to be under this guy's boot or what?" the high chain linked fence that guarded the depot was almost before their very faces. There were a couple of regular Shinobi patrolling outside and stationed within on flimsy observation platforms. Of course Missing-nin couldn't have been entrusted with such important work.
"I don't know," Karin started slowly, "every Missing unit has an old fashioned four man team assigned to it. That's all I could gather," she concluded.
"Let's see what we have to work with then," Naruto was now resigned to the situation. He could see the various transports which rested heavily within the compound. His only hope now was that they would not be assigned a decrepit wreck which wouldn't survive atmospheric entry. He had no faith in the vessels that were parked out without a hanger's protection, and there would be hell to pay if his unit – which had graduated above all simultaneously training regular and Missing units – was not granted one of the sleek vessels which lurked within the warehouses.
"This better be worth my time," he murmured.
Sarutobi Asuma watched as the Missing-nin sauntered into the hanger. A tall blond youth made an appearance, and he was accompanied by a red haired girl who almost reached the boy's size. She wore glasses – odd for a Shinobi- but her steps had the same sort of confidence that plagued most of the Missing-nin who had accepted the amnesty - the same unjustified confidence that bothered all the other regulars.
Unlike them however Asuma understood why the amnesty had been necessary. It wouldn't have done at all to be on some lonely and distant planet whilst the traitorous dogs they had left at their back rampaged through their cities slaughtering and raping.
He shook his head sadly – almost imperceptibly. Shikamaru caught the motion at once and seemed to understand. The young Shinobi seemed to understand everything although he was not yet even fifteen years old.
"Good morning and welcome!" he called out to them in a pleasant enough fashion despite his feelings. Word was that these two controlled the group of renegade Shinobi he and his team had been assigned to govern. Though he would speak to these two with Shikamaru by his side he had sent Ino and Choji to scout out the rest of the forces that would be under his command.
The great Ship was behind him, The Interloper, alongside her two cousins she had been one of the first vessels to set ion engines on Terra. She was one of the three that he and his brothers from Konoha had liberated from the hands of slavers and killers.
"Hey there," the boy said. Although he was young his eyes were sharp. They were as sharp as the oversized shuriken he had strapped on.
Shikamaru seemed to start for a second. His student's eyes widened and his fist gripped down on the table for only an instant, but Asuma noticed. He noticed it happen as the boy tagged a colloquialism to the end of his sentence. It wasn't a common one, but such things were widespread and in essence meant nothing. They weren't even worth noticing. Datte something?
The blonde boy seemed to become alert. His eyes narrowed at Shikamaru, but evidently it was nothing for neither of them said anything.
"This will be our ship," Asuma said unnecessarily before he cleared his throat. It was as if the tension he had sensed a moment ago had vanished without a trace. The male and female traitors were looking at him calmly whilst his number one student had a bored look on his face. The boy played idly with one of the Shoji pieces they had been using earlier while they waited.
"And you two will be my N.C.O's," there were looks of confusion on their faces, "that's Non-commissioned Officers. I will be relying on the two of you to be the bridge between me and my officers," he gestured at the young boy and one of Karin's eyebrows rose in disbelief, "and the troops… I trust that will work out well for the both of you?"
"Yes sir. Very good," the blonde's response was curt. It only took a small nudge before the girl followed his lead.
"Yes sir," she repeated.
"Good… very good…" he trailed off. He held a datapad in his left arm uncomfortably. Even after four years he was still a bit awkward when it came to manipulating technology and like most Shinobi he lacked an implant. "… Karin and Nathaniel Uzumate," Shikamaru interrupted him again dropping the shogi piece he had in his hand. He and the blond locked eyes again and favored each other with smiles. The one his student wore was hesitant and nervous whilst the grin on Nathaniel's face curdled the blood.
"Dismissed," Asuma concluded with some discomfort.
A/N
(A reply and dedication to Hochmeister)
"Firstly this is a dedication to Hochmeister to thank him for his monster review. I think when you write a lot of words in a grammatically correct manner and don't get much response you start to wonder if you are any good at what you are doing, so this review came at the right time as it reminded me that my work can touch people. Even those who don't usually like to read the sort of stuff I write about.
"Now – in response to the great questions posed in that review:
"Let us begin with Hoch's concerns over the direction my development of Naruto has taken. In retrospect I can see how I have failed to develop Naruto emotionally. I dislike fics where our hero is given powers out of the blue so I spent a lot of time on the Sha Kalan act, but as Hoch says I probably failed to a certain extent when it came to character building, and not just the kind of building I did – which was to give him a baseline of abilities – All I can do about this point is continue to write and hope that the character grows into his emotions. I am not a professional – yet – and so I will definitely make mistakes.
"Building on this are other concerns which I guess you could say center on the role visions play in this work. To this all I can say is that I will try to make them less… Deus Ex Machina. But it would be wise to remember that visions play a huge part in all of the Star Wars movies and in many of the novels. I mean how convenient was it that Yoda or Luke (I can't remember which) had a vision which called him from his urgent training to save a damsel in distress?
"Therefore I will continue to use visions although in the future I will try to be tighter with my application, so as to avoid similar (justified) complaints.
"Something else I thought it important to address was Hoch's concerns of the size of the plot. In this I would ask you to trust me. One of the greatest books I have ever read was Malazan book of the Fallen, and I didn't know what the fuck was going on the first time I picked it up.
"Fifty thousand words sound like a lot to you Hoch? By the time I am done this work may approach half a million… we have only scratched the surface.
"Till next time,"
- Darklighter
