Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Mass Effect.

Misplaced

Chapter 21: A funny thing happened on the Citadel…

"Talking"

"Thinking"

"Bijū/VI/Geth/Reaper talking"

"Bijū/VI/Geth/Reaper thinking"

Reading/ News/Intercom

(Location: The Normandy)

Naruto and the rest of his team were waiting for the ship to open up so they could get out onto the Citadel. They had come back to the place so the ship could restock and so could they. "Equalizing interior pressure with exterior atmosphere," the ship's VI told them.

"Could it please hurry along?" Tali asked aloud, completely annoyed. If she had been a human, she would've been tapping her foot very rapidly.

"It's taking the same time it always does, Tali," Kaidan told her. The opening of the ship's door was one of the quickest things about the ship.

"I know that!" she snapped at him.

"Logged: the Commanding Officer is ashore," the VI continued. "XO Pressly has the deck." The door opened once she was done.

"Ugh, finally!" the quarian said with exasperation and impatience.

"Don't get your hopes up just yet," Garrus remarked, seeing a uniformed human standing nearby, showing him to be a part of the Alliance. If he was seeing the stuff on his uniform right, he was an officer, a high ranking one.

Both Ashely and Kaidan reacted instantly when they saw the officer. "Ten-hut!" barked out Ashely.

"At ease," the officer told them, returning the salute and then turning his attention onto Naruto. "Rear Admiral Mikhailovich, Fifth Fleet," he introduced himself.

"Uh…right," Naruto said in reply.

"Just salute him, you flipping moron," Kurama practically ordered his Jinchūriki with exasperation in his voice. Honestly, there were days when he sounded like his old self again. And that was not a good thing.

"I know that," the blonde replied as he saluted the Rear Admiral.

Mikhailovich quietly returned the salute. "I'm here to inspect your ship, make sure she's up to snuff," he said abruptly as he lowered his hand.

"Pardon?" the Spectre of the two of them asked, a little surprised by that little statement.

He frowned. "I command the 63rd Scout Flotilla. The Normandy was supposed to be slated for my unit after its shakedown." He frowned. "Then the Council got their paws…claws, tentacles, whatever. They got them on our ship, and then they got them on you."

"I still serve the Alliance, sir. This is just one of the ways I can serve, by helping out our neighbors."

"Hmph," the admiral snorted. "You still know what color your blood is, Uzumaki?"

Naruto scowled when he heard those words. In the blink of an eye, a kunai was in his hand. "Do you want a demo?" he asked, holding his free hand up, ready to slice it open.

"Isn't that a little much?" Matatabi asked aloud.

"We're talking about Naruto here," Kurama reminded her.

"Oh yeah, good point."

Mikhailovich shook his head. "That's not needed. I don't begrudge the politicians' decision to throw you to the Council. It's an opportunity, like you said. I do begrudge this overdesigned piece of tin, though." He gestured at the Normandy.

"Sir, a can is a piece of tin," Naruto told him, putting away the kunai. "The Normandy is a hell of ship. I should know. I live in it."

"It's a gimmick, Commander. Useless in a stand-up fight," the admiral told him. "This experiment diverted billions from our appropriation bills. For the same price, we could've had a heavy cruiser! But no, we had to make nice to the turians. Throw money at a co-developed boondoggle."

"Jiraiya once told me something when I was training under him. He said 'bigger is not always better,'" he replied.

"Wasn't he talking about the cup size of a female's bust when he said that?" Kurama asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"It still works," he replied.

"You took it out of context."

"We're talking about Jiraiya here. We'd have to take a lot of things out of context with him." Before the fox could give him an answer, he turned his attention back to the Rear Admiral. "Sir, if you want to make an inspection, I'd be happy to give you a tour of the Normandy," he offered.

"There's no need for that. I can take of that myself. I won't be long." He walked past the team and into the ship without saying another word.

"That pyjak has a stick shoved so far up his ass, I'm surprised that he's not spitting out splinters when he's talking," Wrex stated once the admiral was out of sight and hearing range.

"Yeah, he really doesn't like turians," Garrus remarked.

"Now that, I can't blame him for," the krogan replied.

"Don't even start, you two," Naruto told the two of them. "The last thing any of us need for him to see anyone of the team seriously arguing with one another."

"So if it's not a serious argument, we can keep going?" the turian asked for clarification.

"Yeah, of course you can."

"Well, we'll have to keep that one filed away for future reference and possibilities of annoying you."

"Garrus, have you forgotten what I did to Anderson after he pranked me?"

"…Fair point," he conceded. The last thing he wanted was to be on the receiving end of one of the commander's revenge pranks.

"Sheesh, these guys are beginning to act more like a family then a team," the blonde thought to himself.

"Oh please, you and I both know that you love every minute of it," Kurama told him pointedly.

"…Guilty," he admitted. He was indeed loving the fact that his team was becoming more like a family. It reminded him of the time he was with the Konoha Eleven (Twelve once Sasuke came back) and the short time he had met the other Jinchūriki. He could only hope that they would recognize that as well.

They didn't have to wait that long for the rear admiral to come back out. "Commander, I'm not happy," he declared almost instantly. "Who designed that CIC? Putting the commander aft of everyone else is inefficient. What if he needs to discuss something with the operators toward the bow?"

"Why is he asking me? I don't know anything about that," the blonde thought to himself. "Isn't that what the intercom is for, sir?" he asked back.

"And if the intercom is dead?"

"I would recommend having a loud voice. It helps get your point across into their ears." He knew the truth of that.

Mikhailovich frowned slightly, but continued. "I had to shake my head at that drive core of yours. 120 billion credits of element zero to make this thing able to move without giving itself away. You realize we could make drive cores for 12,000 fighters with that money? What good is it to hide for a few hours, anyway? Useless!"

"Speaking as a shinobi, sir, I can say that hiding for a few hours is most certainly not useless," Naruto retorted, feeling a little more than offended by what he had said. '"By hiding from the enemy, we can learn what they're planning, get a good idea of their forces, or where they're planning to go. We can also drop in infiltration teams to get a closer look or for sabotage."

"Maybe, maybe," he conceded. "But that's not the job of a proper warship. We're supposed to find and kill the enemy fleet, not count how many times their garrison goes to the bathroom."

"This guy has obviously never heard about how Rōshi and Han managed to destroy an enemy encampment by counting the number of times they went to the bathroom and then using that to their advantage," Son commented.

"I've never heard of that story," His Jinchūriki replied.

"And didn't we agree to never speak of that again?" Kokuō asked the Yonbi.

"Oh right, good point," he admitted. "Forget I said anything."

"And we need to talk about your crew, Commander," the admiral said to him. "Krogan? Asari? Turians? What are you thinking, Commander? You can't allow alien nationals free access to Alliance equipment!"

"Hey! What am I? A chopped geth?" demanded Tali, a little annoyed that he left out quarians.

"And then there's the name of your ship. The Normandy?" he asked, sneering at the ship and then at Ashely. "Disgraceful."

Ashely took a step forward, intent on doing something she would regret (which she knew. She just didn't care at that moment). It was only when Naruto had placed his arm in front of her, stopping her from walking, that she realized what she was planning to do. "The disgraceful one here is you, sir. It is disgraceful that you would insult the actions of a man who beat back the turians and drove them off of the planet," he told the rear admiral with a cold tone in his voice. "As for my crew, what does it matter where they came from? All that matters is that they're helping me track down Saren so we can stop him from doing something that'll most likely wipe us out. That was how the Shinobi came together for the Fourth Shinobi World War."

Mikhailovich just stared at him for a long moment before nodding curtly. "Very well," he said. "I will be submitting my report to the Joint Military Council." He saluted the blonde, who returned it (a little reluctantly). "Good hunting, Commander. Make us proud." He dropped the arm and walked over to a nearby shuttle.

They all watched in silence as the shuttle flew off towards one of the Wards. "Okay, I think it's safe to say that was a little more than abrupt," Garrus declared once the shuttle was out of actual sight.

Naruto took notice that Ashely was glaring at the direction the shuttle flew off to. "Ash, you can't hit them at this range," he told her.

"Wanna bet?" she muttered to herself.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, sir," she replied to his question.

"Can we just get a move on here?" Wrex asked aloud, sounding just as impatient as Tali. Everyone just silently filed into the elevator and as soon as the doors closed and the elevator started moving, Naruto was sleeping.

"How does he do that?" Tali asked as she looked at the sleeping blonde, feeling a little envious.

"You'd probably have to ask him yourself," Kaidan told her.

"Not now I'm not," she replied. She knew better than to try and wake him up right now. Keelah, she knew better than to try and wake him up period.

"And in other news," the reporter that they always heard while in this damn elevator spoke. "A new religion had sprung up amongst the humans. Called the Church of the Traveler's Road, it promotes friendly relations with the rest of the Council races, saying that we are all travelers on the same road. Reactions to this new religion have been mostly positive; although the Church of the Nine have claimed that the founder of this new religion was a former member and has been branded a heretic by them. They also urge fellow humans to ignore the teaching of this new religion. We'll be right back with the reaction to that proclamation."

"When did that religion pop up?" Ashely wondered aloud once the reporter stopped talking.

Wrex shrugged his shoulders. "Who cares?" he asked. He didn't pay attention to whatever it was the reporters were saying in the elevator. If he did, that would just make the ride take longer. He almost wished he could just fall asleep like the blonde commander, but too many years of experience kept him from doing that.

"Just trying to pass the time in the elevator, Wrex," she told him.

"Don't, it just makes it longer."

"Still, when did this one come around?" she asked aloud, clearly ignoring the krogan.

"It must've been a recent one," Kaidan mused.

"That much is obvious, Kaidan," Garrus remarked, joining the conversation. Wrex wasn't if the turian was doing because he was actually curious or he was just trying to piss him off (if it was the latter, it wasn't going to work). "The question is how recent is it?

"Perhaps in the past couple of months?" offered Liara. "We have been busy during those months."

"I think that would be understating it," Tali told the asari. It was true. For the past months, they had spent either chasing after Saren or doing things that would lead to going after the traitor Spectre.

"Still, we've been busy enough to not hear about it."

"Can you lot just shut up about it already? Who the hell amongst us actually gives a flying fuck about this religion anyway?" Wrex demanded, looking all around the elevator at the people in it. No one answered back. "I thought not. So stop talking about it, it doesn't concern us."

The rest of the elevator ride was in silence, for no one had anything else to talk about. When the elevator stopped and the doors opened, Naruto woke up and stepped out with the rest of the team following him. But they didn't get far. "Excuse me, Commander!" a voice called. It came from a young human woman with a camera drone floating behind.

"Yes?" he asked, looking over at her.

"Aiko Junsei, Westerlund News," she introduced herself. If he had to guess where she came from just by her appearance and how she spoke he would say that she was from the Land of Earth. "I was wondering if you could give me an interview."

"Uh-oh, this is not good," Kurama declared when he heard those words.

"Why is that not good?" Matatabi asked the fox.

"Naruto doesn't have a good track record with reporters. When they start twisting his words around on him, he usually ends up punching them hard in the face."

"I remember the first one he had," Gyūki said, agreeing with the Kyūbi. "He had tried answering all the question honestly and to the best of his abilities but that damn reporter kept twisting the words around until he, Bee, and the rest of the Shinobi force looked like they were uncaring about what was happening to the lands and were only fighting because of their pride. Thank Kami both Naruto and Bee punched that asshole's lights out."

"I hear that, but there were very few reporters who actually took what he said and went with it. The rest were just bad reporters."

"And I have a feeling that this one is a bad reporter," Naruto chimed in, seeing how the reporter was looking at his team. It was faint, but he could see the sneer she had on her face when she looked at each of the aliens there. She was just like Mikhailovich, just more blatant.

"Are you actually going to give her an interview?" Saiken asked.

"Hell no," he answered.

"Then what are you planning to do?" Chōmei asked him.

"I have an idea."

"Oh, this isn't going to be good," Kurama declared, already feeling sorry for the reporter.

"Shut up, fox." He turned his attention back to the reporter. "You wished to interview me?" he asked her, raising his voice slightly so other people could hear him. The tactic worked as other people turned to see where the voice had come. Most of the humans there stopped to watch once they realized who he was, which made the other races turned to see what was going on.

"Yes, I do," she answered, making sure her hair was perfect (which it wasn't, due to the bad haircut she had).

"Alright, but I would like to ask a question of you?"

"What would that be?"

"Who do you prefer: men or women?" That question floored everyone who heard it. That was not something you asked in public and most certainly not to a reporter! Everyone knew that was stupid beyond belief! But Naruto knew what he was doing.

"I…I, um…I…" she tried to speak but couldn't find the words to say anything. Either she hadn't been expecting that question or she didn't want to answer it in public (both were likely but it was probably more of the latter then the former).

"If you want to interview me, you have to answer the question," the blonde told her, staring at her intently through his shades. When she still didn't answer, he gave an exaggerated sigh of exasperation. "If you don't want to say it aloud, just go on and whisper it in my ear then." Looking relieved at what he said, she leaned forward and whispered her answer into his ear. "Thank you," he told her as she pulled back. As he spoke, he was quietly signaling his team to get down and if possibly, don't look. As the light on the drone came on, signaling that it was rolling, his team hit the floor and he clasped his hands into a handseal. "Oiroke no Jutsu!" he cried out for all to hear.

"Do you have any idea of what you've just done!?" Udina screamed at the blonde Spectre. The two of them stood in his officer at the Embassy and he looked like he had a vein on his head that was about to burst.

"I believe I saved myself from having an interview that was liable to end with me punching the reporter," Naruto replied, sounding like there was nothing wrong with what he had done.

"You sent more than fifty people to the hospitals with copious loss of blood, C-Sec lobby has bloodstains everywhere it came flying out of their noses, which is going to take weeks, maybe even months, of cleaning to get rid of, along with the smell! On top of that, I will have the Executor of C-Sec breathing down my neck and demanding what in the same in the name of Diablo happened that sent thirty of his officers to the hospital!" He threw a scathing glare at the blonde. "Do you have any idea what I'm going to say to him?"

"That I was proving that after two thousand years the Oiroke no Jutsu still works and I am a genius for creating it?"

"I'm serious here, Commander!"

"Hey, so am I. Personally, I'm a little annoyed that it's not being taught at the Academy." He saw the wince on the ambassador's face and he suddenly had a grin on his face. "It is being taught at the Academy!"

"Oh good Kami, why?" asked Shukaku.

"They realized that it was an awesome jutsu and should be taught to all future shinobi, that's why!" He couldn't have felt more proud of the fact that one of his jutsus was the Academy curriculum.

"Commander, that is not the point of this conversation," Udina growled at him.

"What is the point of this conversation?" he asked. "Right now, you've gone from demanding about what I had to asking me for a way to please the higher-ups. And if you want an answer, just tell them I reacted with my good instinct instead of the bad one."

"And what, pray tell, would've been the bad one?"

He just shrugged his shoulders. "I would've punched her in the face, breaking her nose and probably a few of her teeth."

"Going with what happened to the last reporter, are we?" Kurama asked him, making it sound like he was asking about the weather.

"Why the hell not?" he asked back. "It scared off the rest of them."

The ambassador just glared him for the longest time. Then he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again. "If that's all you're going to say about this, Commander, then get out."

He didn't need any more encouragement, leaving both the office and the embassies quickly. "You know, maybe there was something to what Ash said about politicians," he mused quietly as he started to wander around the Presidium.

"Why would you care about what the politicians are saying or thinking? You haven't before, you really shouldn't start now," the Kyūbi told him.

"I know that and I know I said that they were just trying to do their jobs. But there's doing your job and then there's nitpicking over every single detail that I do or will do. That's just called overly paranoid."

"You seem to be forgetting that this isn't exactly the normal business."

"Really?" he sarcastically asked. "Are you sure about that? And here I thought that when I go asleep, I'll wake up back in my own time and my friends will be alive."

"Kurama, you knew that was bad ground to go on," Saiken told the fox. "So why would you go there?"

"Because if I don't, no one will," he answered. "And if no one will, nothing gets said or done." That was his job, to remind his Jinchūriki of the stuff he needs to be reminded of.

"Even so, to talk about it after he had that nightmare on the ship…" The Rokubi trailed off, realizing what he had just said.

"Now who's the one going onto the bad ground?"

Naruto knew what they were talking about, having been the one to have said nightmare the night before they had docked in the Citadel. He had been running through that damn forest again. As he ran, the shades of people whispered past him. He didn't meet anyone from his past in this nightmare; he just kept on running, trying to find something, maybe the way out even. But when he stopped, the forest began to burn. He damn near flew out of the hammock when waking up.

"Anyway, moving on," Kurama said, ignoring anything that might've come from the slug amongst them. "Gaki, you seem to be forgetting the fact that you're not just a shinobi anymore. You're a Spectre and that's something completely different."

"How is it different? It seems the same to me. They order to go somewhere and do something and I obey," he remarked. As he wandered around the Presidium, he had pulled the hood on the Spectre trench coat up over his head, protecting it from people seeing his face. The last thing he needed to have right now was to be found out by people who want to see if he was real or not (or, Kami forbid, be discovered by any potential Fangirls that were on the Citadel).

"Well, for one, your superior isn't a fifty year old woman who makes herself look younger and also punches you through a wall when you called her Granny or said something stupid and/or insulting."

"Although, I think you've just described any kind of relationship he might have with that Tevos lady," Gyūki pointed out.

Naruto disagreed with that sentiment. "Oh, I don't think so. One, I think Tevos has a longer fuse then Tsunade ever did. Two, I'm probably the older one between the two of us."

"Somehow, I doubt it," Chōmei chimed in.

He ignored the kabutomushi. "Thirdly, I don't know her like I knew Tsunade."

"That one isn't going that big of a deal," Shukaku told him. "You've got plenty of time to fix that and before you know it, she'll be throwing you out a window with her biotics."

"…Okay, you stop talking now," Son said to the tanuki.

"The point that I'm trying to make here, despite the added information that wasn't important at the moment, is that you're not just a shinobi, Naruto," Kurama said while also throwing a glare at the other eight Bijū. "Things are much more different because you're a Spectre and you're going to have to tread lightly because of that. Udina realizes the fact and you should too."

The blonde didn't say anything in response, he just kept on walking. All this talk of treading lightly and comparing Tevos to Tsunade made him think of his past and everything that was a part of it. But he focused on the happy times rather than the bad times, although there were happy times in the bad times (less so when he threw himself into his work). He remembered all the times he had with the Konoha Eleven and Twelve, how many times he had to drag Jiraiya away from peeping on naked women (sometimes quite literally), and the days he spent training and fight alongside them. He also could remember each one of those who taught him, their lessons, and their methods of teaching. Good Kami did he miss them all.

Something caught his eye while he wandered. Later, he was never quite sure how he managed to get from the Presidium to one of the Wards. But he was glad that he did. What he saw was a shop for tattoos. As he looked at the shop, taking in every detail of its entrance, an idea came to him. Before the Bijū could object to what he was thinking, he was already walking into the shop.

(Location: Garrus)

He walked out of the Executor's office, feeling quite satisfied with himself. He had told his old boss that he had found Saleon and that case was finally over with. Pallin didn't really say anything in reply. He just gave a curt nod and told Garrus that he could go. It wasn't much at first glance, but for Garrus, he knew it was his old boss's way of saying good job.

"Hey, Garrus!" a woman's voice called out to him as he walked back into the lobby of C-Sec. He had to walk carefully, as they were still in the midst of cleaning up all the blood.

He turned to see who it was and his face broke a smile when he saw the person. "Rin and Shiromaru how are you two?" He asked the Inuzuka woman and her dog. He knew the pair quite well when he was on the force and was still on friendly terms with them.

"We're doing fine," she said, scratching Shiromaru behind the ear (and who loved every single minute of it). "But what about you?" she asked him. "The last I heard, you were on the same ship as Urdnot Wrex."

He frowned slightly. "How did you hear about that?"

"I have my sources," she answered mysteriously, making him just snort in response. That was what she always said when someone asked her that question. "I'm surprised that the two of you haven't tried to throw each other at the walls yet."

"We would've," he admitted. "But our commander is a scary person when angered." He could still remember Feros and what happened beneath it.

"To serve under Naruto Uzumaki," she said with a sigh as she took her hand off of her partner. "I truly envy you, Garrus. I would've probably hacked off my own arm to have gotten that privilege."

The turian of the three of them was surprised by that. Even after finding out who the commander really was, he never thought of fighting at his side as a privilege, just a way to get to Saren and ensure that he paid for his crimes. "I'm surprised to hear that from you, Rin. You usually don't give a shit about who somebody is until they've proven themselves to you. But you accept the Commander just like that?"

She scowled at him. "Have you looked at my clan name?" she asked. "I'm not just an Inuzuka; I'm a part of the main family of the Inuzuka clan. I can trace my lineage all the way back to Kiba Inuzuka, an original member of the Konoha Twelve."

"Whoa." It was the only thing he could think of to say at that. He had read about the rest of the Konoha Twelve and there had been a part on Kiba Inuzuka. And while he knew her clan name, he didn't know that she was a direct descendent of the man. "…Do you want to meet him?" he offered after a moment of awkward silence (to him, at least).

To his surprise, Rin Inuzuka, a woman he knew to be cool under fire and calm under pressure, actually had the barest amount of a blush on her face. "Um…no, no, I don't think that would be a good idea," she said, stumbling through her words a little. "I mean, he's got that important mission to catch Saren. I'm sure he doesn't have time to talk to someone like me." At her side, Shiromaru just rolled his eyes.

The surprise he had at learning her lineage changed into surprise in how she was acting at the moment. "Are you what humans call a Fangirl for the commander?" he asked, curious to know. He had heard of Fangirls, but he hadn't really seen one before (at least he thought he hadn't).

That turned out to be the wrong thing to say. The hackles on Shiromaru rose as he growled at the turian while his human lost the blush and grew angry. "If you want to lose something precious to you, I dare you to say that again, Garrus!" she told him, holding out a kunai to show that she was serious.

"Sorry, I was just asking," he said in reply, holding his talons up in a placating gesture. "I had only heard of Fangirls before. I've never seen one before and I thought you were acting like one just now."

"Well, I wasn't. If I ever became a Fangirl, I would kill myself."

"Got it," he told her. "But still, you got all flustered when I offered you the chance to meet him."

The scowl disappeared and the small blush reappeared. "I…I want to meet him, but I don't think he'd have time to talk someone who he doesn't know, even if she's a descendent of one of his old friends." She took a moment to steady herself. "I am not a Fangirl," she told the turian. "I'm a woman who once had a crush on Naruto when I was younger, but now I'm an adult and I don't have that crush anymore."

"And yet, you still have the blush on your face," he remarked, pointing that out to her.

"I'm aware," she said shortly. But once she said that, the blush faded off of her face. "You would too if you suddenly had the chance to talk to one of your heroes."

He decided to let that pass, even if it was true. "Listen, I've got some time before we leave again. Do you wanna get a drink and catch up?" he offered.

When Rin heard that, she smirked. "Garrus Vakarian, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were asking me out on a date."

He didn't find that funny at all. "I just want to have a drink, Rin. Plus, I saw you pulling that one on a rookie once. Did you really expect me to blush red and start stammering like an idiot?"

The smirk turned into an easy smile. "Well, I could hope," she told him.

A crash went off to their sides, making them turn to see what it was. "Look out! They got free!" someone shouted out as a warning. "They" turned out to be a couple of turian criminals who broke out of their restraints and were trying to find a clear path to freedom (which is a little difficult when you're in the middle of police HQ).

One of the criminals had managed to grab a gun off the C-Sec officer holding him and was waving it around like it was a torch. "Stay back!" he shouted at everyone there. "Everyone stay the fuck back!" Every single gun in the lobby was pointing directly at him and his partner, ready to open fire if things went south.

"Put the gun down!" one of the officers yelled at them.

"Shut the fuck up!" the criminal holding the gun yelled back, swinging the gun at the person who spoke. "We're getting out of here and unless you want to get shot, get out of the way!"

"This isn't good," Garrus thought to himself. He had pulled out his pistol instead of his rifle and couldn't get a good aim from where he standing. Plus the fact that they were in a standoff didn't help. "We might need some help here."

Fortunately, help came in the form of another C-Sec officer carrying a bokken walking towards the criminals. "Hey!" the gun-wielding one said, swinging the gun towards him. "I said to stay—!" He didn't get any farther than that because the bokken smashed against his wrist, breaking the bones inside and making him drop the gun in the process. While he screamed, the bokken struck his leg, breaking it and making him fall to the ground. One more strike against the head and he was out like a light.

The wielder of the bokken turned to the second criminal, who had raised his hands up in the air. "I surrender!" he said in a rushed voice. "I give—!" The bokken smashed against his mouth, staining the wood of the bokken with his blood. But that didn't stop it as it struck his leg, breaking it as well. When he fell to the ground, he was struck unconscious by the floor.

The wielder of the bokken took out a cloth and cleaned off the blood, while the two criminals lay there on the ground. Once he was done, he looked at everyone there. "Show's over, people," he said out loud, putting the cloth away and looping the bokken through a hoop on his belt. "Move on." He looked down at the criminals. "And could someone take care of this?"

"Pallin is going to yell at you for this, Musashi!" a C-Sec salarian shouted at him from the side.

"For what?" he asked. "I took care of a situation that wouldn't have gone anywhere? None of you guy were doing anything about."

"We had our guns on them," an asari told him.

"And he had one too. Hence, why it wouldn't have gone anywhere," he told her. He walked away from the unconscious criminals, letting someone else take care of it. Once he saw Rin and Garrus, he changed paths and made his way over to them.

"Still being rough with the criminals I see, Musashi," Garrus said to him once he had reached them. The criminals were in the midst of being taken away and the crowd that had formed was also dispersing.

"Someone has to be," he replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "Besides, it's not like anyone is actually going to blame me for what I did."

"What do you call Pallin?" Rin asked him, joining the conversation.

"My boss," he answered, looking over at her. "And the last time I did something like this to someone, he didn't complain about my methods."

"Musashi, the last time you did something like this, it was because some idiot made the mistake of pairing an asari rookie with Harkin and he was molesting her in front of everyone. Pallin made an exception."

"Everyone makes an exception for Harkin," Garrus commented. "Except for the people he paid off so he could stay on the force."

"How unfortunately true," Musashi agreed. "Everyone besides them wants to beat his ass into the ground and then kill him." He paused for a moment and then spoke again. "By the way, Garrus, did you hear about the month Harkin was gone because he couldn't leave the toilet?"

"No, I haven't. When did this happen?"

"No one is quite sure. The only thing we do know is that he had it just before Fist was killed. When Chora's Den was being emptied, they had to literally carry him out of the bathroom."

The turian amongst the three of them actually had heard the story before, from the lips of the guy who made that happen, he just didn't get it until he got the context. But he wasn't going to let that slip (at least, not at the moment). "Rin and I are going for a drink. You can tell me about it if you come along," he offered.

"I'll take you up on that offer, I just got off shift," Musashi told him.

"Good to hear." He looked at both the two humans (and dog). "Does Flux sound good to you guys?"

Nearly identical grins appeared on their faces (even Shiromaru). "Of course it sounds good to us," Rin told him. "What? Did you think things would change after you left or something?"

"You never know," he replied. He might've sounded serious, but they could tell he was joking by his smile.

"Oh, get off your high horse, Garrus. The Citadel doesn't revolve around you," she declared, punching him in the shoulder.

He winced a little at that. "Has anyone told you that you've got a hard punch there?"

"That? That was a baby tap."

"Okay, let's go to Flux already."

"Good idea," Musashi told him. They left C-Sec HQ and began making their way towards the club known as Flux. It wasn't as exciting as Chora's Den was to some people (which meant asari pole dancers), but it was a good place to have a drink and enjoy oneself.

As they walked, Garrus looked at Musashi. The human was a little infamous amongst both criminals and cops for his methods of treatment. He carried that bokken of his around every time he was on shift and he would not hesitate to use it. Quite frankly, the turian between the two of them had lost count of the number of times he had seen Musashi bring in suspects who were either a little more bruised than normal or had broken limbs (sometimes even both). Pallin had told him off time and time again for that sort of thing, but he kept doing it. His methods also got him results, so there was barely any room for anyone to complain about (on the C-Sec side).

But that wasn't the oddest thing about Musashi. The oddest thing about him was his past. Literally everyone on the force, except for Pallin, did not know where he came from or what he did before joining C-Sec. He just showed up one day, having completed basic training, and just working. When he was asked, the only thing he gave the asker was silence. This caused a lot of people on the force to start speculating about where he came from and throw out theories on what he did. They ranged from a former teenaged punk who wanted to do something good with his life to being a former ANBU agent and joining C-Sec was a form of retirement (when a human on the force was asked if that was possible, he just shrugged his shoulders, saying he didn't know).

Garrus's thoughts were broken when he discovered that they had already reached Flux. As the music hit his ears, he allowed his brain to stop thinking and to start relaxing. He led the way to the bar, taking a seat next to a krogan. To his surprise, that krogan was Wrex. "What are you doing here?" he asked over the noise.

"What does it look like I'm doing here?" Wrex asked back, holding up a glass with alcohol for him to see.

"Hey, Wrex, you've been on the right side of the law since we talked last?" Rin asked him, sitting down beside Garrus. Musashi sat down on her other side and signaled the bartender for drinks.

He smirked at her. "Fuck no! That's not where the fun is!"

"Glad to see that you know where you stand!" Her drink was in front of her now, ready to be drunk, which she obliged. Shiromaru was nearby with his head on his paws. He was keeping an eye out for his partner, but was also relaxing.

He kept his smirk on his face as he took a drink from his glass. "And how is the right side of the law?" he asked her after putting the glass back down. "Still boring as shit?"

"Not at all," Musashi told him, joining the conversation. "You just need to know where to look to find entertainment."

"I think that we have different definitions of 'entertainment', Musashi," Garrus remarked, draining his glass. He tried signaling the bartender for another round, but said bartender was busy talking to a quarian. Something had exchanged hands from her to him and that made the turian worried. "Is something illegal going on over there?" he asked himself as the bartender went back to his job. Then he realized that he knew that particular quarian. "Tali, what are you doing here?" he asked her as she came close.

"I'm enjoying myself. What did you think I was doing?" she asked back.

"I thought you had to do something important. You were really impatient while we were getting off the Normandy."

"I took care of that already. It was just something I had to send to the Fleet."

"So what was that over there?" He pointed to the spot she was just at.

"I ran into a salarian outside of the club who was trying to create a cheating system or something close to it. But since he was thrown out of the club, he wanted someone else to play the machines and gather information. He must've thought I would be gullible enough to believe him when he said he was trying to do some research," she declared with a snort that he could hear. "So I said that I would help him and once I had his device, I handed it to the owner there." She pointed at the bartender.

"How devious of you," Wrex said, having been listening to the explanation. "Looks like our little Tali is growing up."

"Did you just call me a kid, Wrex?" she asked the krogan.

"You are a kid."

"Do you want me to blow your head off?" Her hand went down to her Skirmisher as she asked the question.

He just smiled in response. "See? You are growing up. When you joined us, you could barely look any one of us in the eyes. Now you're threatening to kill one of us." He looked down at his glass. "I'd say that calls for a drink."

"How would we toast when I can't drink from a cup, you bosh'tet?" she asked with a heavily sarcastic tone of voice, even though she took her hand off of her pistol.

"HA! You have a point there."

"That doesn't mean we can't toast her anyway," Maya remarked as she and Liara sat down at the bar beside Tali.

Everyone was a little surprised to see them come out of nowhere. "Where the hell have you two been?" Garrus asked them.

"More importantly, who the hell are they?" Rin asked. Both she and Musashi were looking down the bar at the two newcomers.

"This is Maya, a Swagman, and Liara, a Prothean expert," Wrex introduced them shortly, pointing at each of them in turn.

"Nice to meet you," Liara said to the two cops there, giving them a small wave.

"Nice to meet you too," the Inuzuka among them said back, returning the wave.

"So, again I ask, where the hell have you two been?" Garrus asked his teammates.

"Ah, we were just helping someone out with their sister," Maya said with a wave of her hand. "It wasn't that big of a deal."

Liara gave her a look. "We helped arrest an illegal weapons trader and you don't think that's a big deal?"

"I didn't mean like that, Sheila," she instantly protested when she saw the look. "I just meant that in what we're actually doing, it's not that big of a deal."

"What exactly are you doing, anyway?" Musashi asked them, curiosity filling his voice.

The Normandy team shared a look with one another. "Um…did you see that Spectre ceremony that was broadcasted?" Tali asked him.

"Who didn't?"

"Then you should know what we are doing?"

"That's the general stuff. I wanted to know the details."

"And we can't tell you the details," Garrus told him. "Musashi, we work with a Spectre. Do you actually expect us to tell you what we're doing?"

He shrugged his shoulders and drained his glass. "Well, can't blame me for trying." He signaled for another round and got it. "So, let's forget about that and just enjoy ourselves."

"I will drink to that!" Maya declared. She signaled for two drinks and when she got them, gave one to Liara. "Bottoms up!" she cried, holding her glass into the air.

"Bottoms up!" the rest of them cried out, raising their glasses as well (minus Tali, who just imitated them with an empty hand). They all drained their glasses and slammed them back onto the bar counter. They continued to enjoy their time at Flux, taking a break from everything that was going on.

(Location: Naruto)

He had left the hospital, having already visited Nihlus and told him of what's been happening to him. It was becoming a ritual for him now every time he was at the Citadel. Truth be told, he was beginning to worry that the turian would never wake up. "Don't worry about that, Naruto," he told himself as he kept on walking towards the ship, having gone from the hospital straight here while also avoiding eye contact with anyone in the C-Sec lobby. He would've gone to see what his team was doing, but he was told relax a little by the tattoo artist.

He was surprised to see Anderson standing outside the ship. "What happened, Anderson?" he immediately asked. "Did something happen with the Normandy?"

Anderson shook his head. "The ship is fine, Commander. What's happened is that I'm being reassigned."

"…What?"

"I've taught you all you needed to know about how to work modern technology and how to command the ship by yourself. You don't need me anymore."

"Oh…right." He knew that this day would be coming but he didn't think anything of it. It was something that seemed far off and not important at the moment. Despite what he learned from Anderson, it never seemed like he was getting anywhere because there was so much out there. But apparently, he had learned everything. "So…where are you going?"

"Udina had me reassigned to be his assistant," Anderson answered him.

Now that was something that made the blonde. "You're a captain, able to command a ship. And you've been made into a pencil-pusher? That's complete and utter bullshit! He can't do that to you!" he shouted for all to hear.

But the only person who could hear it was not mad. "He's the ambassador for the Alliance, Naruto. He can do that. And perhaps it's for the best. My career is already on dangerous ground, despite what I've done for you. If I'm his assistant, perhaps it'll give cooler heads time to prevail."

"It's still not right."

"It doesn't matter if it's right or wrong, Naruto. Things aren't so simple nowadays."

He couldn't help but snort at that. "Things weren't simple back in my time either." They especially weren't simple when the war happened.

The former captain of the Normandy nodded his head in acknowledgement at those words. "That's fair enough, I suppose. But the fact remains the same. I am off of the Normandy and you are now on your own when it comes to the tech." He lifted his hand, showing that he had a package that the Spectre there didn't see until it was shown to him. "I got a couple of gifts for you, think of them as a graduation present."

Curious about the package, Naruto took it from him and opened it. What the package was a case on top of a white box. "The first season of Shinobi: Chakra, Steel, and Blood?" he read the title of the case aloud.

"I was told about you were interested about the show while on Thessia. I'd figured that you would want to start from the beginning if you wanted to watch it," Anderson explained. "But that's not all I have to give you. Look in the box as well."

He took the case and put it in a pocket of his coat. Then he opened the lid of the box to see what was inside. "It's…a pair of pistols."

"They're my pair of pistols, from my time as a Marine. I noticed that the pistol you carry doesn't have the punch you're looking for when you fire it."

"How do you know that?" He wasn't aware of that problem (not consciously at least).

"I could see it whenever you practice your shooting at the droid. And since you've been developing your style of fighting with two guns, I figured that you would want two guns that pack the same level of punch. They're a part of the Black Hawk line, which isn't available for just anyone to buy; they only sell to the top of official military organizations."

"Like the Marines?" he asked as he took the guns out of the box and felt their weight in his hands. They were a little heavier then what he had been carrying around but it wasn't anything he couldn't hold. The color scheme they had was just black, plain and simple. There were no accents on it and the only actual color on it was the crisp blue light at the end of the barrel that showed it was cooled down and good to use.

"Exactly like the Marines. I hope that these guns will serve you well, they certainly did for me," Anderson told him.

He stared down at the guns for another minute or so. Finally, he put them back in the box, which he then shifted so it would be under his arm. "I'm going to miss you, Anderson," he told his former advisor.

"You make it sound like I'm going to some far away position where I have no chance of seeing daylight ever again." It was an innocent sounding comment, but the man said with a smile on his face.

Naruto could not resist that kind of opportunity. You're taking a job as an assistant to Udina on the Citadel. I'd say that's a pretty accurate assumption." They shared a laugh at that. But when the laughter died, the air was filled with solemnness.

"Commander, it's been honor serving with you," Anderson said to the blonde, giving him a salute. "I wish you good hunting with Saren. Find that bastard, alright?"

He returned the salute with his free hand. "Thank you for teaching me how to use the technology of this time, Anderson-sensei. And don't worry, I'll find the bastard." They both lowered their arms. "You are relieved, Captain."

"I am relived, Commander." He walked past the Spectre and to the elevator. Naruto didn't turn to watch as the man got on the elevator. He kept his gaze forward.

"I think he's gone now," Matatabi said once they heard the sound of the elevator descending before finally fading out of hearing range.

"I could tell," he replied shortly.

"Are you upset that he's gone?"

"No, I'm not upset. I'm just…trying to get used to the idea that he won't be helping out anymore. He was a great help in showing me how everything worked. If he hadn't been there, I think that I would've made the ship crash a while back."

"That would've been a guarantee," Kurama said drily.

"…Thank you for the vote of confidence, fox."

"You are very welcome."

He didn't say anything in reply. He just entered the Normandy and walked through it in a bit of daze (he said a bit because he knew where he was going). When he arrived at his destination, the door to the captain's room opened and he walked in. He took the short steps to the bed and sat down on it.

With a few shakes of his shoulders, he shrugged out of his trench coat and let it fall backwards on the bed. He reached up and took off his bandana, tossing it on the coat. He took a moment to look around the room. "Kami, it feels weird to be in here without knowing Anderson is nearby," he thought to himself. This was his room now, not Anderson's.

"You know that you'll have to take down that hammock," Gyūki reminded him.

"I know." He had enjoyed bunking in the hammock, but he wouldn't be lying when he was feeling glad to be sleeping in an actual bed. Feeling the weight of his flak jacket on his shoulders, he stood up and unzipped it. Once he felt it slide down his arms, he stretched them so that it would fall on the bed. He reached up and stretched, wincing slightly as he did so.

"You know, a lot of women would pay some good money to see you do that without your shirt on," Chōmei remarked as his Jinchūriki finished stretching.

"A lot of guys would pay some good money to see that," Son declared.

The blonde couldn't have dropped his arms faster. "That's not even funny," he told the Yonbi.

"Hey, people are a lot more to free to adore and/or love anyone they want to in this era. And from what Kurama has said, you caught a few eyes of the same sex back in the day."

If he was actually there before them that would've been the point he'd swerved to look at the fox. "You promised to never speak of that again!"

"No I didn't. I only said 'Whatever' and went back to sleep. I'd never thought I would share it with anyone." He grinned evilly. "Looks like I was wrong there."

"I hate you so much right now, furball."

"Heard it before, wasn't impressed the first time."

He scowled, but it faded away quickly. There was really no point in staying mad at the Bijū; it would just become rapidly redundant. Besides, if he needed to keep them in line, all he really had to do was show them an image of Guy and Lee in Youth Mode or make them cute and then invite Liara into his mind. And he knew that they knew it as well, which was why they didn't go overboard with this kind of stuff.

Thinking about the Bijū made him also think about the powers that they had given him. In the beginning, he wouldn't have used those abilities even if he had about to die (he had been there before and he had gotten away without them). But ever since Feros, and the lectures he had gotten from his tenants both on and off planet (which led to a long mental argument that he had lost), he was beginning to feel comfortable using them.

It was an odd feeling, but now it wasn't so hard to use them. The problem he was having was that he didn't just want to rely on them, no matter how tempting the idea was. Sure, they might be his now, but he didn't want to use them constantly, just when they were needed. "Wait, why am I having this dilemma in the first place?" he asked himself. "It's my decision to use them; I can use them whenever I choose."

"It took you this long to realize that?" Kurama asked him.

"Hey, no talking to me when I'm talking to myself!"

"You want to end in the psychotic wing of a hospital, you keep up that. Meanwhile, if you're planning to use what you have, you might want to consider practicing."

"That…is a good point." He looked over to see a few things on the desk that weren't plugged in. Figuring it was a good a time as any to start practicing; he reached up to take off his glasses.

"Hey, Commander, I've got Admiral Kahoku on the line. He says that he wants to talk to you privately," Joker said through the intercom.

He sighed and put his hand down. "Alright, Joker," he said as he stood up from the bed and went over to the computer. "Put him through to my room."

"Your…room?"

"Now, Joker," he ordered the pilot. The computer screen showed the admiral in a state that was surprising to the blonde. "Admiral Kahoku, is every okay with you, sir?" he asked.

The man on the screen kept looking over his shoulder, like he was expecting something or someone to appear. "Commander Uzumaki, I probably don't have much time to live. I need your help. I wanted to find out what happened to my men but I went too deep. I learned of a similar incident that happened to another unit of Alliance soldiers and the experiments that were performed on the sole survivor. I managed to free him when I avenged my men, but he ran off and I think he's after the scientists. You must stop him before he kills them all otherwise they won't be revealed."

"Where are these scientists?"

"I only managed to get into contact with one of them, that's why they're coming after me now. I'm sending the coordinates to you now." He looked down from the screen, obviously looking at his omni-tool.

Naruto's left arm glowed briefly, showing that he got the coordinates, but he wasn't focused on that. "Admiral Kahoku, who is it that is after you?"

A banging sound filled the video, making the admiral look to the left with a panicked expression. "I have to move. They've found me!"

"Who found you, sir? Who is after you?"

Kahoku only said two words before the video disappeared. But those two words had stunned the blonde and his tenants into silence.

Codex Entry (Humanity and the Systems Alliance): EINHERJAR

It is said in the continent of Midgard that soldiers who have died in battle were taken by Valkyries to the halls of Valhalla where they ate, drank, and fought to await the coming of Ragnarok, the war at the end of days. The Einherjar warriors of Midgard take up that tradition by bringing in heavy firepower to the mix, and they do it with a literal 'bang'.

While the average Hlíf citizen is strong and disciplined enough to use a light machine gun in a manner similar to a heavy assault rifle, the Einherjar favor even heavier weapons such as grenade launchers and rocket launchers, classifying all Hlíf soldiers as heavy infantry in the Systems Alliance. They primarily serve as grenadiers, but some Einherjar will work in two-man mortar or rocket launcher teams as artillery when tanks are unavailable. They are also surprisingly good pilots, as they also learned how to man a ship before space and flight travel, and are usually looked for if there are no Frontiersmen to be had.

Unfortunately, the reputation of the Einherjar has been colored due to rogue members managing to somehow escape incarceration. These rogue members serve in the Krogan Blood Pack mercenary group (See: the Disgraced).

Einherjar training is amongst the most brutal of training methods as it is done on the northern part of Midgard and very frequently during the winter. There, those who wish to earn the horned helmet that marks Einherjar learns mathematics, chemistry, physics, weapons training, and a various others things, while also learning how to survive in harsh environments and how to work together.

Despite their effectiveness and might on the battlefield, Einherjar are always considered third best by civilians. That streams from the fact that during the War of Three Flags, they were the first to surrender to the Elemental Nations. The Shinobi invasion of Midgard only last a week and that was because of the time it took to reach the other cities and settlements from where they landed. It is always pointed out that the High Jarl knew where the Shinobi would be landing and had a massive force of over 50,000 men, of which half were Einherjar. When pointed out, a famous Midgard historian replied with, "And the Shinobi invasion force had Sakura Haruno. Not even that many Einherjar can withstand the anger and fury of a vengeful mother."

End

Author's note: Thank you for all the reviews you've sent me.

I wanted to do my own twist on the whole reporter bit because let's face it, there's only so many times you can read or watch her get punched. Plus, the Oiroke no Jutsu and the resulting blood never gets old. By the way, her names meant "Little loved one" and "Pure" in that order.

As you've probably noticed, I had the teammates do the side missions on the Citadel rather than have Naruto do it himself. It covers more ground and cuts down on the time. Maybe I should keep doing that. It'll allow me to focus more on the main storyline.

Odds are I will be doing more of that night at the bar. It'll help bring the team closer together and I can make go through all three games. The only real problem I'll have is location.

Don't bother asking me about what Naruto got tattooed and where, why he was about to take off his shades, or what those two words were. They will all be revealed in time, some quicker than others. And please don't suggest ideas for the tattoo. That'll just get your hopes up when all I will do is shoot them down.

I'll see you all next chapter!