Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Mass Effect.

Misplaced

Chapter 29: How to escape stupid orders

"Talking"

"Thinking"

"Bijū/VI/Geth/Reaper talking"

"Bijū/VI/Geth/Reaper thinking"

Reading/News/Intercom

(Location: Citadel Tower)

As soon as the elevator stopped and the doors were opened, Naruto stepped out and started walking through the anteroom. "Move it, people!" he told his team (those who could come anyway).

"We're coming, sir," Ashely told him as she led the group.

"Calm down, gaki," Kurama said to him as he hurried. "You're liable to burst out of your skin with all that excitement you've got bottled up."

"You know that's not going to happen, fox," he replied. "Besides, how could I not be just a little bit excited? The Council is finally doing something about Saren."

After Noveria, just before they were about to follow the coordinates Benezia had given him for the Mu relay in order to find Ilos when they got word from the Citadel. The Council was putting together a joint-species fleet to finally deal with Saren. They had orders from Udina to come back to the Citadel and Naruto had no problems following those orders. When they had reached the Citadel, he went straight for the Tower.

When he finally approached the Council, his team fell back a little to give him some room. He stopped alongside Udina, who was standing before the Council. "Good job, Uzumaki," the ambassador told him. "Thanks to you, the Council's finally taking real action against Saren!"

"The ambassador is correct," Tevos said as she looked down at them. "If Saren is foolish enough to attack the Citadel, we will be ready for him."

"Patrols are stationed at every mass relay linking Citadel space to the Terminus Systems," Sparatus told the humans.

The hope and excitement that Naruto held started to diminish when he heard. "A blockade?" he said. "That's all you're doing to stop him?"

"If Saren tries to reach the Citadel, he will be met with opposition every step of the way," Tevos said to him, the undercurrent he knew she used on purpose coming back again. "For now, that is enough."

"No, it's not," he protested. "What we need right now is not a blockade. What we need right now is a fleet to go through that relay to Ilos and stop Saren before he finds the Conduit. I will gladly have the Normandy be at the head of the flee—"

"'That relay,' as you've put it, Commander Uzumaki, is the Mu relay and that is the only way to Ilos. It is also deep inside the Terminus System," Valern told him, cutting him off. "If we send a fleet in there, the only possible outcome is full-scale war."

Udina turned to look at Naruto. "Now is the time for discretion, Commander," he explained. "Saren's greatest weapon was secrecy. Exposed, he is no longer a threat. This is over."

"No, it is not over," the blonde told him. He looked back at the Council. "If you're not going to send in the fleet, send me. I've been hunting Saren this way ever since you gave me the mission. I'll be able to get to Ilos without creating a mess."

"You detonated a nuclear device on Virmire and you don't call that making mess?! Sparatus demanded, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"What would you have me do? Leave it standing?" he demanded in return.

"Your style served you well in the Traverse, Commander Naruto," Tevos told him, trying to sound placating (but that undercurrent was still there). "We recognize that. But Ilos requires a deft touch."

"Your idea of a deft touch is not touching at all," he said to her. "It's like trying to touch a woman to get her aroused but all you end up doing is undressing her with your eyes."

"Could you please not be vulgar, Commander?" she asked. Despite the seriousness of the situation, everyone who heard those words looked at her with disbelief in their eyes.

"You know, we haven't been in this time for long, but I'm pretty sure we've been here long to know that we never would've expected those words to come from an asari," Matatabi stated.

"I guess there is such a thing as an asari prude," Gyūki remarked. "I'd hate to be her kid."

Ignoring the comments by the Bijū, Naruto got himself out of his dazed silence. "In any case, Saren isn't the real threat. He just serves Sovereign, a freaking Reaper! For the love of Kami, I told you guys this already!" he told the Council.

But Tevos already had an answer for him. "Only you have seen the Reapers. And only in visions," she said. "We won't invade the Terminus System because of a dream."

"Ambassador Udina, I get the sense that Commander Uzumaki won't let this go," Sparatus remarked in a deceptively calm voice.

"You're damn right about that!" Naruto shouted up at him. "I've given the location of where Saren's gone, how to get there, and why he went, but all you want to do is put up a blockade and then sit on your ass. How about some action from you people?!" he demanded.

"There are serious political implications here, Commander Uzumaki," Udina told him with a sharp warning tone in his voice. "Humanity's made great gains thanks to you. But now you're becoming more trouble then you're worth."

The blonde's team had heard everything and they were angry. But it was their leader who spoke what they felt. "You son of a bitch, you're taking their side on this?" Naruto asked, pointing to the Council.

The ambassador took a few steps forward so he wasn't exactly even with him. "It's just politics, Commander," he replied easily. "You've done your job, now let me do mine. We've locked out all the Normandy's primary systems. Until further notice, you're grounded."

"What!?" shouted Ashley from below. If they had looked back, they would've seen her being restrain by Garrus and Maya so she wouldn't do something stupid.

Udina only gave her a passing glance before looking at Naruto. "I think it's time for you and your team to leave, Commander. This no longer concerns you. The Council can handle this. With my help, of course," he added that last bit with a hint of smugness.

Naruto stared at all of them there. "The next time I see you people, I'm bringing four large tubs full of sand," he said to all of them, anger and frustration showing in his voice. "That way, you can have a nice, comfortable place to stick your head in so you can pretend to not see the problem in front of you, because your asses must be completely worn out by now!" He turned around and walked away, anger showing in his pace.

(Location: Huerta Memorial Hospital)

"I'm here to see Nihlus Kryik," Naruto said to the receptionist. He had gone straight from the Tower to the hospital, wanting to talk to Nihlus.

"I'm sorry," the receptionist, a young asari, said to him. "But Mr. Kryik went into surgery half an hour ago."

"Is it bad?" he asked, worried.

"I'm not allowed to say, sir. Is there anything else you require?"

"No, thank you." He walked away from the receptionist and found a chair to sit down in. He was the only one to have sat in that row of chairs and when he sat down, he was facing a giant window. He had a good view of the Presidium from his seat and he looked on in silence. It looked peaceful enough, but he knew that could vanish in an instant. There were plenty of times like that during the war, one moment a village or town was peaceful, the next it was being destroyed.

"I can't let that happen to this place," he thought to himself as he remembered the war, the fires, the collapsed buildings, the people who followed Obito destroying and killing everything in their path, and the screaming. No matter how hard he tried to block it out, he could always hear the screaming in his dreams. It had many variations and ranges, but it all had one basic sound: please help.

But if the Council wasn't going to even try and stop Saren, what had happened during the war would happen here, probably just as quickly. And that would be a horrifying thing to even consider. Something had to be done.

As he looked out the window, someone else sat down next to him. "I heard what happened, Commander," Anderson said to him in way of greeting.

"Thanks you for reminding me," he replied.

"If it's any consolation, I wanted to warn you, but there was no way to get a message to you before you docked."

"Yeah, well next time I get orders from the Council to come back when I'm about to get someone, I'll just go get the guy and ignore them."

"Naruto, I know you're mad right now and quite frankly, I think you have a right to be. But you can't give up. The Council and Udina think this is all over, but we know it's not," Anderson told him. "You have to go to Ilos. You have to stop Saren from using the Conduit!"

"And how am I going to do that when the only ship that could possibly get into the Terminus System without pissing the people there off is grounded?" he asked pointedly.

"I have a way around that. If we override the ambassador's orders, we can get them to bring the Normandy back on-line. You can be in the Terminus System before anyone even knows you're gone."

He looked at the former captain of the Normandy. "Anderson, if we do this, you will be the one in trouble," he pointed out. He wasn't going to let a friend to take the fall for something he would be doing.

"And if Saren finds the Conduit, life as we know it will be over. The Reapers will destroy us. Humans, asari, everybody!" declared Anderson. "You're the only one who can stop him, Naruto. So I'll do whatever it takes to get you on the Normandy and off this station."

"And if the crew doesn't want to follow me? I'm pretty sure that taking the Normandy like that is supposed to be called mutiny."

"The Normandy's your ship now, Commander," he reminded the blonde. "Her crew will follow you to the ends of the galaxy. We both know that."

"That's true, I have seen them look at you with respect and occasional wonder," Chōmei told his Jinchūriki.

"I can unlock the Normandy from one of the consoles in the Citadel control center," Anderson explained to the Spectre beside him. "You'll have a few minutes before anyone realizes what's happened."

"That will be dangerous. Are you sure that there's not a different way to do it?"

He thought it over for a moment. "Perhaps," he finally admitted. "Ambassador Udina issued the lockdown order. If I can hack the computer in his office, maybe I can override it."

"You know he won't let you use it like that."

"Hopefully, he won't be there. If he is, I'll just have to think of something. Look, we don't have a lot of options. I break into the ambassador's computer, or I take my chances with the patrols in Citadel control."

He gave his former captain a look. "You're the one who would do it, why are you asking me?"

"It's not every day you get to ask for an opinion from a legendary shinobi," Anderson said with a completely straight face.

It was so straight face, it puzzled the Bijū. "Uh…is he kidding, or is he being serious?" Shukaku asked with a look of confusion on his face.

"I can't tell," Kokuō told him.

"Does it matter? The gaki is going to give him the opinion," Kurama said with a definitive tone in his voice.

"And how do you know that?" Son asked him.

"If you want my opinion, you should try the ambassador's office," Naruto told Anderson. "You have less of a chance of getting caught and if you do, you can always punch Udina."

"I'm hoping that the ambassador will be there. He's made this personal." They looked each other in the eye. "You ready to get the hell off this station, Commander?"

"Of course I am," Naruto told him. "I'll leave first. Wait a few minutes before leaving yourself." He stood up from the chair and walked out the hospital. As he walked through the Citadel, he sent an email to the team and the crew, telling them to head back to the ship if they were ashore.


What came afterwards was one of the tensest moments in the blonde's life in that time. The crew and team were all aboard (but not without some grumbling from a few of them), now they were waiting on was the green light on the screen. Naruto stood by Joker's seat, watching the red light flash again and again on the screen. When it finally turned green and the screen started reading about how the clamps were taken off, they were out of the Citadel quicker than one could blink. They followed the coordinates to the Mu relay and went through that towards Ilos.

But that wasn't the end of their problems. "Uh…Commander?" called out Joker from his seat. "We've got company."

Naruto, who had been standing at the map, almost sprinted down to the pilot. Ashley, Liara, and Tali were nearby and followed him. "What is it?" he asked.

"A fleet of Geth ships around Ilos," the pilot answered.

"Have their sensors picked us up yet?" Liara asked, instantly being all business.

"No, the stealth systems are engaged. Unless we get close enough for a visual, they won't have any idea we're here."

"Picking up some strange readings from the planet's surface," Pressly, who standing at a nearby computer, announced as he read the screen.

"Joker, get us down there," Naruto told his pilot.

"Negative on that, Commander," his navigator told him, stepping away from the computer and looking up at him.

"Why?"

"The nearest landing zone's two klicks away," he explained.

"We'll never make it on foot," Ashley said from where she stood, arms crossed and a frown Naruto had seen so many times on Sasuke's face. "Get us something closer!"

"There is nowhere closer! I looked!" he snapped at her.

"What about the Mako? Would that work?" Naruto asked.

"You need at least a hundred meters of open terrain to pull off a drop like that," Pressly protested. "The most I can find near Saren is twenty."

"Twenty meters?" repeated Ashely. "No way we can make a drop in there."

"We have to try," Liara said to her.

She looked at the asari for a moment and then swung her head at Pressly. "Find another landing zone!"

"There is no other landing zone!" he told her.

"He's right," Tali agreed. "The descent angle's too steep!" She knew her math and she could that the angle was too steep.

"It's our only option," Liara argued.

"It's not an option. It's a suicide run!" Ashely told her, getting annoyed at the fact rather than her. "We don't—"

"I can do it!" Joker's voice rang out, cutting everyone else off. "I can do it," he said again now that they were all looking at him.

"Are you sure about that, Joker?" Naruto asked him.

His pilot turned his head and looked him right in the eye. "With respect, Commander, but I am the best damn pilot in the Alliance Fleet. If I say I can do it, I can do it."

"Good." He leaned in and activated the ship intercom. "Team, grab your gear and get into the Mako," he ordered. "This drop is going to be a tight one!"


To everyone's credit, no one screamed in fear as the hanger bay door opened and the world beneath was a lot closer then what they were used to. Garrus just slammed the gas and the Mako flew out into the world Ilos. As soon as they were out of the Normandy, the micro-thrusters were engaged, pushing them all into their seats hard.

The pushing feeling stopped when the Mako land hard on the ground but they were jostled around in their seats. "Everyone good?" asked Naruto, looking back at them from the shotgun seat.

"We're fine, where's Saren?" Liara asked.

"From what I'm reading, he's ahead of us," Garrus told her.

"You mean beyond the very large door right in front of us?" Tali asked, coming to the front and looking out the window.

"Yeah, that would be it."

"That thing is huge!" It was easily three times the size of the Mako and even though it was old, it looked strong as well. She doubted that the cannon on the Mako could even make a hole in it.

"Huge or not, we have to go through that to follow Saren."

"Hold up!" Ashley said, having already gotten up from her seat and standing at the turret scope. "We got incoming!"

"Is it the geth?" Naruto demanded, looking back at her.

"Yes, sir," she answered.

"How many?" he asked.

"I can't give you an exact answer to that, sir."

"Fuck. That many?" he demanded.

"Yeah, that many," she answered. Through the scope, she could see the horde coming towards them.

"Well, start shooting already!"

"Aye-aye, Commander!" She pulled the trigger and started spraying the geth coming at them with bullets and cannon.

"Everyone else out!" he ordered. "Biotics and Garrus up top, the rest of us go out through the bottom."

They all did as they were ordered, quickly getting out of the Mako. Once they were outside, they saw the horde of Geth coming right at him. "Fuck me sideways," Wrex swore as he looked on.

"I'd rather not, Wrex. I'd really rather not," Garrus said, having heard the krogan from where he was laying.

"Who said I was talking to you?"

"Hey, focus on the Geth or I will find that priest when we get back!" Naruto told the two of them from the ground while keeping his attention on the Geth.

"Got it," the two of them said at the same time.

"Oh look, they're speaking in unison now," Chōmei remarked. "Maybe they are meant to be together."

"A krogan and turian getting together?" said Shukaku with a very obvious look of disgust on his face at the thought. "I feel like I'm going to throw up just by thinking about it."

"Then don't think about it," Isobu told him.

"It's too late. The image is in my head. It won't come out."

"Silence from the peanut gallery!" Naruto ordered them as he pulled out his pistols. He didn't need to hear the commentary right now. He opened fire and the others did as well.

"Liara, Thumping Low!" said Wrex. Both krogan and asari charged, channel, and threw their biotics at the legs and feet of the biotics, knocking them down to the ground. The bowling effect that followed didn't reach very far behind and the Geth still came marching at them.

"Shit! We've got Hoppers!" Garrus swore, watching the Hoppers move all around the surrounding buildings (which were large and intimidating). He was already tracking one of them, trying to get a good shot.

"Ash, shoot them!" Naruto ordered the gunner in the Mako. The turret immediately turned to follow another of the Hoppers, spewing out bullets. When the Hopper landed on the side of a building, it paused for a moment and the turret was on it quicker than it could move. Once the bullets were done flying, the destroyed body of the Hopper fell to the ground, smashing into another geth unit.

They still kept coming with no sign of stopping. As the last Hopper fell (courtesy of a well-aimed biotic by Wrex), the turret turned back to the horde and fired off the cannon. It fired again and again, striking the Geth and causing craters to be created.

Of course, the Geth could and did return fire, making it just as hard for the organics as it was for them. The biotics and Garrus had no room to maneuver on the top of the Mako due to the amount of space they had. This forced them to be a little more aggressive, shooting geth before they had a chance to shoot them first. It was a plan that only somewhat worked. "Uzumaki, we're going to have to move," Wrex shouted down at him. "Otherwise we're going to get pinned!"

"Then you and Liara get down from there," he shouted back up. "Garrus, you stay put!"

"You got it!" the turian replied.

Both Wrex and Liara leapt down from the top of the Mako, one more gracefully then the other. "They're still coming!" Tali announced, firing her Skirmisher rapidly, almost to the point of being overheated.

"Can you hack them, Tali?" Naruto asked her.

"Not that many and not at the rate they're coming at us!"

"Fuck!" Wrex swore as he threw his biotics at the geth, knocking a few down. But like before, the rest of them just stepped over the fallen bodies and kept on marching.

A rocket flew overhead, missing the Mako by a foot and hitting the large door. "That was close!" Liara said.

"We noticed," Tali said back.

But the second missile was luckier, striking the Mako turret. "By the fucking spirits!" swore Garrus as he fell off the top due to the explosion. He landed behind the others with a THUD that was drowned out by the sound of gunfire.

"You okay, Vakarian?" Wrex shouted back at him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he answered, getting off of his back.

"Then get back into the fight! I'm not gonna die here!"

"You think I want to?" His pain subsided as he took hold of his gun and started shooting again, taking a geth unit down with each shot.

"Ash, are you okay?" Naruto shouted into the comm while still keeping up his rate of fire.

"I'm good, sir," she replied. "The turret, on the other hand…" Her voice trailed off and silence filled the comm.

"What's wrong with the turret?"

"Kami take you, you piece of crap!" she swore.

"Ash, why are you invoking Kami? What is wrong with the turret?"

"The gun and cannon were damaged by the missile along with the optic camera. I'm blind and useless in here!"

"Then get out here and be useful, woman!" Maya shouted into her comm as she used the butt of her rifle to bash a geth unit that got too close. She was the one who was closest to the Geth, which was becoming more and more dangerous as they got closer to her.

"Maya, move back!" Liara practically ordered her, a little panic seeping into her voice at the sight of the shrinking distance between her and the geth.

"Coming!" she shouted in reply, giving the geth unit one last bash before falling back to her girlfriend's side.

"Damn it!" Ashley swore through the comm. "The bottom hatch is stuck!"

"Then go through the other one!" Naruto told her. And the Geth were still coming closer. "Can these things just slow down for a minute, at least?"

"Have you gone bosh'tet, Commander?" Tali asked him, not caring about how she sounded at the moment. "Of course, they're not going to slow down!"

"I know a way to slow them down," Kurama told the blonde.

"And what would that be?"

"A distraction, for one thing," he answered. "And it would most likely divert all their attention to you, since you'll be landing in their midst."

With a silent shudder, he realized what the fox was talking about. "Please suggest something else," he silently begged.

"Sorry, don't have one."

"I already did once and it was embarrassing! Isn't that enough?"

"Hey, it's your choice, kit, not mine."

"…I so fucking hate you right now."

"Duly noted," the fox said with no great care.

Stifling a growl, the blonde holstered his pistols, backed up, then sprint forward and leapt at the Geth. "Dynamic Entry!" he cried out as he flew through the air.

"Again?" said Garrus as they watched him fly into the horde of Geth, knocking them down as he went. "Wasn't once enough?" He could still remember how the blonde broke down the door to Chora's Den when they were going after Fist.

"Apparently not," Wrex remarked, shooting his shotgun.

The blonde plowed through the geth units, taking one after another down with his kick. When he finally stopped flying through the air, he was in the middle of the horde and every gun in geth hands was pointed at him. "You're surrounded," Matatabi told him.

"I am aware of the fact," he replied, already flashing through handseals and inhaling. "Fūton: Shinkūha (Wind Style: Vacuum Wave)!" he cried before spinning in a circle and breathing out the air he had taken in. The first row of geth around him was instantly shredded and the next two rows were shredded by the scraps. He got a little more breathing room and acted accordingly. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he declared as he created clones of himself.

They leapt at the geth with fists and guns raised. The attack was savage and they destroyed many of the geth surrounding them. They were assisted from the outside by the rest of the team's gunfire. But even as they made the area the original had made, they were still surrounded.

"Okay, maybe this wasn't a good idea," the original Naruto thought to himself as he saw another clone get shot from the corner of his eye.

"Then why did you go through with it?" Kurama asked him.

"What? You made me!"

"I most certainly did not. It was your choice to leap into the middle of the fray, screaming like an idiot. But then again, I should expect that from you."

"Argh, I hate you, furball!"

"You've said that already."

In frustration, he created more clones and redoubled the effort to break the center of the horde. It was working for him as he, his clones, and his team destroyed more and more geth. But it was also working against him, mostly due to the fact that as the area he was in widened; the tighter the geth banded together and bore down on him.

"Commander, hit the ground," Ashely's voice shouted over the din of the battle.

"What? Why?" he shouted back.

"Just do it!"

He would've argued against it had he not heard a bird's cry that was very familiar. He dispelled his clones and hit the ground in the same second. In the next few seconds, the geth surrounding him also hit the floor, dead as well.

He got back up and saw that the rest of the geth were now destroyed too. "What the hell did you use, Ash?" he asked as he turned to look at her standing on top of the Mako.

"The Chidori Senbon," she answered, looking a little embarrassed about the fact.

He looked, then looked at the geth surrounding him, and then looked back at her again. "And you don't call yourself an Uchiha."

She winced somewhat at those words, despite them meaning to be a compliment. "I'm not an Uchiha, sir," she reminded him.

"Don't worry. Once we get out of here, I intend to correct that."

She looked at him with confusion in her eyes. "Sir?" she asked.

"Don't worry about it." He walked out of the now dead horde of geth and went back to the door that was blocking their path. "What we should be worrying about is this large piece of crap. We're probably going to have to break it down."

"There's no way to get past that door with brute force," Liara told him.

"You wanna bet, Liara?" he asked her as he looked back at her.

"Don't take that bet, Sheila," Maya told her.

"Saren found a way to open it," Garrus pointed out. "There must be some kind of security override somewhere in this complex."

"We don't have time for that, Garrus," Naruto said to the turian. "Saren already has a lead on us and he slowed us down with that little horde of his. If we go looking for a security override, we'll just be giving him more distance to put between us."

"Well, what do you want us to do?"

"For starters, back the Mako up so I can get a little more room here. Can the Mako move?"

"Yes, sir, only the turret and the bottom hatch got busted," Ashley told him.

He looked up at the turret on the top of the Mako. "Is there any way to fix those problems?"

"It shouldn't be too hard, we have repair-gel."

"Okay, back it up and start with that gel." He looked at the rest of the team. "You guys get in there as well."

"What are you going to do?" Wrex asked him while the others started climbing up to the top of the Mako.

He cracked his knuckles and loosened up his muscles. "I'm going to break open that door."

Liara, who was in the middle of climbing atop the Mako, stopped and looked at him with horror in her eyes. "Do you have to do that?" she asked him.

"Yeah, I do," he answered.

"But…but it's a piece of Prothean technology! A part of history! You can't just destroy something like that," she protested.

"Are you kidding, we do that to history all the time!" Wrex said from atop the Mako with a laugh that would've probably bordered on cruel.

"But you can't!"

"Liara, it's a door," Naruto told her bluntly. "Now get into the Mako."

If it had been an earlier time, when she hadn't seen the things she had seen and hadn't seen the human in action, she might've argued more. Instead, she finished climbing up and promptly hopped into the Mako. Wrex followed her and so did Maya, the last person atop the Mako. The vehicle came to life and backed up to give him the room he wanted.

He created a clone, and the two of them took a breath. They both went completely still, trying to see if they could do something that they hadn't done in a long time, not since he broke away from the Toads. To his surprise, he found that he hadn't lost it. It came to him and he balanced it out. Around his sunglasses, an orange pigment appeared, showing that he was in Sage Mode for the first time in over two thousand years.

The original held out his hand and began to channeling his chakra while the clone start moving his hands, moving the chakra around while also keeping it contained. The chakra rapidly transformed into a Rasengan, but he didn't stop there. He kept channeling his chakra and the clone kept it contained.

The rest of the team was watching from the window of the Mako. "What is he doing?" Liara asked. "He's already got the Rasengan."

"He's not going for the Rasengan," Ashely said as she watched. "He's going for something bigger."

"What would that be?"

"I don't know, it could a number of things," she admitted.

The jutsu being cradled in his hand started to become bigger and bigger until he had to lift his hand upwards to the sky so he would not be harmed it. The clone disappeared, its job done. "Senpō: Ōdama Rasengan!" He slammed the engorged jutsu into the door and held it there.

The door, strong, thick, and ancient as it may have been, could not withstand the power of the jutsu. It crumbled and then blew inward, becoming completely destroyed. The sound it made during all of this was not unlike stone being ripped apart. Dust briefly covered the blonde from sight as the door was destroyed. When he reappeared, the hole in the ruined door was big enough to drive two Makos though.

"Holy fucking shit," Maya said as she looked on.

"By the Goddess," Liara agreed.

"Whoa," Garrus stated.

"Keelah," Tali breathed out in wonder.

"Okay, that's impressive," Wrex declared.

"Oh look, the repair gel is all done," Ashley remarked, looking at the screen that told her it was done. "Sir, you can come back now," she told Naruto through the comm.

He turned around to face the Mako, took a running leap, and landed on the top. "Let's go," he said as he went for the hatch. "Floor the gas and get us through that hole, Garrus." The Mako roared to life and shot forward just as he dropped through the hatch. He was aware of the eyes on him (save for Ashley, who was back at the turret scope) as he went back to his seat, but thought nothing of it.

What lay beyond the ruined door was a downward tunnel that had seen time and was not treated well by it. The majority of the structure still stood, but there were chunks missing from the supports and lay on the ground in uneven heaps. Roots thicker than the Mako itself traveled up from the earth through the rock and then back down again all around them, making some of them feel like they traveling beneath a tree.

At the base of the tunnel was a waterway that went on forward. Liara came forward to look out the window as they drove on, her eyes drinking in the sights before her. "I have spent my life studying the Protheans, but I never dreamed I would discover anything like this!" she declared gleefully. "This bunker might have been the last refuge of their entire species. Just imagine what mysteries it might hold. Imagine what secrets it might reveal!"

"Sheila, you're doing it again," Maya said to her, coming to her side and placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Please try and remember why we are here," Garrus said as he drove. "Saren, the Conduit, the fate of the entire known galaxy?"

Liara winced at the chastisement she got from the turian. "I'm sorry…I was swept up in the moment," she apologized, but her eyes were still glued to the window. "I just hope we have the opportunity to study this place in detail after this is done."

"Let's try and get out of here alive first, okay?" Naruto told her.

"Yes, of course," she conceded.

As he drove the Mako through another downward tunnel and into another waterway, Garrus looked at the walls on either side of the vehicle. "What are all those things on the walls? Some kind of containers?" he wondered aloud.

"They might be," Naruto admitted, looking at the supposed containers on the walls. They were certainly shaped like containers, even in this futuristic time. "Liara, opinion?" he asked the Prothean expert.

She looked out the window, this time with calculating gaze instead of wide-eye wonder. "They look like stasis pods," she declared after a moment of silence. "The Protheans probably tried to keep themselves alive through cryogenic freezing."

"Are you saying that we may have frozen Protheans all around us?" Tali asked from where she sat.

"Yes, I think so," she replied, her eyes having a hopeful light in them.

"Not now, Liara," Naruto told her. They had to stay focused on it was they were doing.

"Right, sorry," she said, going back to her seat.

"Incoming Geth!" shouted Ashley, looking through the turret scope. They were about to go down another tunnel and she could see the Geth waiting on the sides.

"Don't slow down, Garrus! Drive right past them!" Naruto ordered the turian.

"Right!" he replied, pressing his foot down on the gas harder, sending the Mako past the Geth with a roar.

"Ash, are they following us?" he asked.

"No, it doesn't look like it." In fact, it didn't look like they were moving from their positions at all.

The Mako hit another waterway and drove forward, only for Garrus to suddenly hit the brakes and make it come to a stop. "What the hell?" he said as he looked out the window.

"What is happening?" Maya asked as she got up from the seat she had just sat down in.

"It's a trap! There's some kind of energy wall right in front of us," he told her. "Saren must've set an ambush!"

Ashley fired off the cannon and the guns at the energy wall, but neither of them worked. "That's a powerful shield," she commented. "Whatever Saren used to make, it's good."

"I don't think Saren is behind this," Liara said, going to the window again.

"Then who is?"

"I don't know."

"We'll have to find out," Naruto decided, getting up from his seat. "Liara, Garrus, you're with me. Everyone else, stay in the Mako and keep an eye out." He got out of his seat and went for the hatch leading below. He fought off a shiver when his feet landed in the water. Instead, he just got out of the way for Liara and Garrus to come out.

"Okay, what are we looking for now?" Garrus asked. When his eyes turned to look at where they had come from, he saw that it was blocked by an energy wall as well, making it a very good potential ambush.

"I don't know."

"Then why are we out here?"

"We have to find something; I just don't know what it is!"

"What about that doorway over there?" Liara suggested, pointing to said doorway. It was the only thing in the trapped spot they were in that seemed to go anywhere.

Seeing that they had no other options, they went over to the door and then through it, finding an ancient elevator on the other side. "You know, I'm certain that there is a joke out there about ancient times and elevators, I just don't know it," Shukaku remarked as the elevator started going downwards.

"Don't try and go find it, we really don't need to know it," Isobu told him.

"I'm with him on this one," Gyūki added.

"Same here," Naruto agreed.

"I have studied the Protheans for decades, but I have never felt this sense of foreboding," Liara said as they traveled deeper into the earth. "What will we find down there?"

"I can't tell you that, Liara," the blonde Spectre told her.

"Whatever it is, we should be careful," Garrus stated. The other two silently agreed with his words.

The elevator came to a stop and the door opened. It revealed a somewhat large room with containers on the walls going all the way up to the ceiling. But the only thing that concerned them was the ramp that led from the elevator to a VI that looked to be on the fritz. "Well, I think we've found that something," Naruto remarked as he stared at the VI.

"That 'something' is a Prothean VI," Liara said with glee in her voice.

"Don't worry, Liara, we're talking to it," he told her. They walked forward down the ramp and to the VI. It was a quick walk and they stood in front of it when they were done.

Even though it had no obvious eyes, Naruto could feel that it was looking at him. "You are human," it stated.

That was surprising to hear. "You know what I am," he said in reply.

"Of course, I have knowledge of one of the Prothean Empire's greatest enemies. But you are unfortunately not machine and I do not sense the taint of indoctrination on any of you, unlike the other that passed recently. So I will make an exception in granting access."

"This is incredible. An actual Prothean VI and I can understand it!" Liara said with wonder in her voice.

"I have been monitoring your communication since you arrived at this facility. I have translated my output into a format you will comprehend. My name is Vigil. You are safe here, for the moment. But that is likely to change. Soon, nowhere will be safe," it declared.

"Grim," Son remarked.

"Just to be sure, you are a VI system, right?" Garrus asked it.

"I am an advanced non-organic analysis system with personality imprints from Ksad Ishan, chief overseer of the Ilos research facility."

"I'd say that was a yes," Matatabi commented.

"Were you the one who created that energy wall?" Liara asked.

"Yes," it answered.

"Why?"

"So you could come here."

"Why would you want us to come here?" Naruto asked it.

"Obviously I didn't want you in particular to come. But given the situation, I am willing to look past that fact."

"How generous of you," he said, sarcasm obvious in his voice.

It didn't seem like the VI heard the sarcasm. "You must break a cycle that has continued for millions of years. But to stop it, you must understand or you will make the same mistakes we did. The Citadel is the heart of your civilization and the seat of government. As it was with us, and as it had been with every civilization that came before us. But the Citadel is a trap. The station is actually an enormous mass relay. One that links to dark space, the empty void beyond the galaxy's horizon," it told them. "When the Citadel relay is activated, the Reapers will pour through. And all you know will be destroyed."

All three organics in the room stared at the VI in growing horror. "That's impossible!" Garrus finally exclaimed in protest.

"It is not," Vigil told him.

"How the hell would anyone not realize the fact the Citadel is a relay?" Naruto demanded.

"The Reapers are careful to keep the greatest secrets of the Citadel hidden. That is why they created a species of seemingly benign organic caretakers."

"You mean the keepers?" He remembered seeing the creatures around the Citadel. They were always working something that had looked important, so he didn't bother them. In fact, people didn't wonder why they were there (with the exception of one guy who wanted to know and had badgered Wrex to help him until he got a fist to the face).

"Yes. The keepers maintain the station's basic functions. They enable any species that discover the Citadel to use it without fully understanding the technology. Reliance on the keepers ensures no other species will ever discover the Citadel's true nature. Not until the relay is activated and the Reapers invade."

"Son of a bitch!" he swore. "They would be able to attack the Council and the Citadel fleet without anyone being able to respond properly!"

"That was our fate," Vigil said with no emotion. "Our leaders were dead before we realized we were under attack. The Reapers sized control of the Citadel and through it, the mass relays. Communication and transportation across our empire were crippled. Each star system was isolated, cut off from the others. Easy prey for the Reaper fleets. Over the next decades, the Reapers systematically obliterated our people. World by world, system by system, they methodically wiped us out." He looked at Naruto. "Though by the fact you are standing here tells me that humans still live. How is it you have lived while the Empire was destroyed?"

"How would I know?" Naruto asked.

"Why didn't you try and surrender?" Garrus asked the VI.

"No offer was ever given. Our enemy had a single goal: the extinction of all advanced organic life. Through the Citadel, the Reapers had access to all our records, maps, census data. Information is power, and they knew everything about us. Their fleets advanced across every settled region of the galaxy. Some planets were utterly destroyed. Others were conquered, their populations enslaved. These indoctrinated servants became sleeper agents under Reaper control. Taken in as refugees by other Protheans, they betrayed them to the machines. Within a few centuries, the Reapers had killed or enslaved every Prothean in the galaxy. They were relentless, brutal, and absolutely thorough."

"Then where are the Reapers now?" Liara asked.

"Our worlds were stripped bare, harvested by the indoctrinated slaves. Everything of value—all resources, all technology—was taken. Certain that all advanced organic life had been extinguished, the Reapers retreated back through the Citadel relay into dark space, sealing it behind them. All evidence of the Reaper had been wiped away. Only their indoctrinated slaves were left behind, abandoned. Mindless husks no longer capable of independent thought, the indoctrinated soon starved or died of exposure. The genocide of the Protheans was complete."

"But why do the Reapers keep coming back again and again, to do the same thing?" Naruto wondered aloud.

"An extreme case of OCD?" offered Shukaku.

"Not now," he told the tanuki.

"The Reapers are alien, unknowable," the VI answered him. "Perhaps they need slaves or resources. More likely, they are driven by motives and goals organics beings cannot hope to comprehend. In the end, what does it matter? Your survival depends on stopping them, not in understanding them."

"Then what do I need to do?"

"The Conduit is the key. Before the Reapers attacked, we Protheans were on the cusp of unlocking the mysteries behind mass relay technology. Ilos was a top secret facility. Here, researchers worked to create a small-scale version of a mass relay. One that linked directly to the Citadel: the hub of the mass relay network."

Liara was the first to realize what those words meant. "The Conduit is not a weapon. It's a back door onto the Citadel!" she said.

"Wait," Garrus said. "If the Reapers were destroying everything and anything that was Prothean, how was this place not destroyed?"

"That is a valid question," Vigil told the turian. "All official records of our project were destroyed in the initial on the Citadel. While the Prothean Empire came crashing down, Ilos was spared. We severed all communication with the outside and our facility went dark. The personnel went underground into these archives. To conserve resources, everyone was put into cryogenic stasis. I was programmed to monitor the facility and wake the staff when the danger had passed. But the genocide of a species is a long, slow process. Years passed. Decades, centuries. The Reapers persisted. And my energy reserves were dwindling."

"So you just stayed down here," Naruto said with more than a hint of disapproval.

"We were a few hundred against a galactic invasion fleet. Our only hope was to remain undetected. I began to disable the life support of non-essential personnel. First support staff, then security. One by one, their pods were shut down to conserve energy. Eventually, only the stasis pods of the top scientists remained active. Even these were in danger of failing when the Reapers finally retreated back through the Citadel relay."

They were all horrified at those words. They had seen the pods outside in the waterways and they could see the pods in this room. The implication of the words was not lost. "There were hundreds of stasis pods out there!" Liara said to the VI. "You just shut them down? You killed them?"

Naruto was as equally furious. "What the hell kind of program are you supposed to be when you kill the people you're supposed to protect?"

"This outcome was not completely unforeseen. My actions were the result of a contingency programming entered on my creation," it replied.

"I bet they didn't tell the 'non-essential' staff about this contingency," Garrus remarked as he glared at the VI.

"I saved key personnel. When the Reapers retreated, the top researchers were still alive. My actions are the only reason any hopes remains."

"And what is this hope?" Naruto asked, still angry about the pods.

"When the researchers woke, they realized that the Prothean species was doomed. There were only a dozen individuals left, far too few to sustain a viable population. Yet they vowed to find some way to stop the Reapers from returning. A way to break the cycle forever. And they knew the keepers were the key."

"The keepers?" he repeated.

"Yes. The keepers are controlled by the Citadel. Before each invasion, a signal is sent through the station compelling the keepers to activate the Citadel relay. After decades of feverish study, the scientists discovered a way to alter this signal. Using the Conduit, they gained access to the Citadel and made the modifications. This time, when Sovereign sent the signal to the Citadel, the keepers ignored it. The Reapers are trapped in dark space."

"If that's the case, why is Saren trying to use the Conduit?"

"Kit, go over the words you've just said and think about it," Kurama told his Jinchūriki.

He did as he was told, thinking hard about it (if it wasn't a serious moment, one of the Bijū might've cracked a joke about him being careful not to lose brain cells). Luckily, it came to him quickly. "Kami take it, Saren's going to use the Conduit to get onto the Citadel."

"Yes," Vigil agreed. "And once inside, having bypassed the Citadel's defenses, he will transfer control of the station to Sovereign. Sovereign will override the Citadel's systems and manually open the relay. And the cycle of extinction will begin again."

"Fucking hell!" he swore. "Did he just win this thing? Are we powerless to stop him?"

"Just what I would expect from a human," the VI said with more than a hint of contempt. "I am surprised how you managed to survive all this time. Your ancient allies must've had to guide you through everything."

"You got a point to make, or are you being snide for the hell of it?" the blonde asked, focusing his attention on the VI.

"There is a data file in my console. Take a copy when you go. When you reach the Citadel's master control unit, upload it to the station. It will corrupt the Citadel's security protocols and give temporary control over the station. It might give you a chance against Sovereign."

"Wait, where's the Citadel's master control unit?" Garrus asked. "I've never heard of anything like that." And he was in C-Sec, he would've at least heard of something like that.

"Through the Conduit. Follow Saren. He will lead you to your destination."

"How many times have I done that before?" he asked himself. It seemed like every time they had wanted find Obito during the war, they would have to follow his most recent path of destruction. He went to the console, copied the data file, took it, and turned back to his teammates. "Let's go."

"But we can't leave! We have access to knowledge about the Protheans!" Liara protested. Before anyone could stop her, she asked the VI a question. "What was the point of the beacons? Why were there one on Eden Prime and one on Virmire?"

"At our apex, the beacons spanned the breadth of our empire," Vigil told her. "We used them as a single galaxy-wide network, to transmit data and communications rapidly from world to world. Virtually all the beacons were destroyed during the invasion. But once the Reapers were gone, the survivors here on Ilos decided to risk sending out a message. We knew it was unlikely that there were other survivors. But if there were, we wanted them to know about Ilos. We wanted to give them hope. So a message was sent across the network."

"But you may have been caught by the Reapers," she said in reply.

"In truth, we didn't expect any of the beacon would still function, but we had to try. If there were survivors, we had to reach them. The message was meant for our own people. It was coded so only organic beings could interpret it. We still didn't understand the power of Reaper indoctrination. We never realized it could lead an agent of the machines, like Saren, to this world. But it has also led you and your people here. So perhaps we did not fail after all, despite your choice of companions."

The asari looked at the human there and then looked at the VI. "How could the humans be around during the time of the Protheans? They only discovered FTL in the past couple of centuries."

Vigil flickered for a moment. "I don't understand the question."

She was confused by that answer, but pressed on. "How could humans have been in existence during the time of the Protheans?" she asked.

"I don't understand the question."

She tried a different tactic. "Why were humans enemies of the Protheans?"

This time, the VI did give an answer, of sorts. "They would not submit to the Empire. They were rebels."

She was about to ask another question when Naruto cut her off. "Liara, we don't have time for this," he told her.

She looked over at him. "But—" she began.

"We came to go after Saren, who has a good head start on us. Every moment we delay, he gets farther ahead."

She looked at him, then at the VI. "Just one more question?" she asked.

"No!" he practically shouted at her. "We have to stay focused on Saren. He's the reason we're here."

"You know he's right, Liara," Garrus agreed with the blonde. "Besides, there were secrets here that were meant to be forgotten."

For a moment, she looked like a fish out of water. But then she regained her composure. "You are right. I am sorry," she said to Naruto. "My personal feelings clouded my judgment. We…we should go."

Naruto just turned away from Vigil and went for the elevator. As the turian and the asari fell in behind him, he reached up to the comm in his ear. "Joker, do you copy?" he called out.

"Loud and clear, Commander!" replied Joker.

"I need to turn the Normandy around and go back through the relay. Once you're through, find the nearest Alliance fleet and have them send out a signal to the rest of the Alliance fleets to go to the Citadel with the heaviest set of firepower they've got. Do you understand?"

For a moment, all he heard on the other end of the comm was silence. But he finally got a reply. "What?"

"Joker, do you understand the order I just gave you? Yes or no?" he asked again.

"I understand the order, Commander. I'm just trying to figure out why I'm essentially asking the Alliance to bring their ships to the Citadel in what might look like a sign of attack."

"He's got a point," Isobu pointed out.

"I am aware of that," the blonde said in reply as he stepped into the elevator with Garrus and Liara. But now was not the time to worry about stuff like that. If they worried about such things, they would lose time and they could not afford to lose more time. "Don't worry about that right now, Joker," he told his pilot. "Just get to those fleets and tell them what I told you. Do whatever you have to do to get them to follow to the Citadel, but make sure they go."

"I will do that, sir. But why am I doing it in the first place?" Joker asked.

"Because Saren is about to use a backdoor to the Citadel to bypass security to allow Sovereign through and summon the rest of the Reapers," he answered as the elevator started going upwards.

"And since the Citadel didn't believe you, they're about to get sucker-punched by that move," the pilot of the Normandy finished for him. "Got it, sir, I'm heading back to the relay now."

"Good." The line went dead and he moved his hand away from the comm in his ear. For a moment, nothing was said aloud. Then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye and saw that Liara was crying. "What's the matter, Liara?" he asked her.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, quickly wiping her tears away. "It's just that…all their culture, all their advanced technology, and the Protheans were taken in by the Reapers, just as we were. They failed."

"The Protheans did not fail," Garrus told her. "They gave us a chance. It falls to us to make the most of it, so I suggest that we hurry."

"I can agree with that," Naruto said as the elevator door opened up, revealing the Mako to their eyes. "Let's move."

They went quickly to the side of the Mako, opened the hatch, and climbed in. "Did you find what you were looking for?" Tali asked them as they went back to their seats.

"Of sorts," said Liara.

"Was there any trouble?" Naruto asked Ashley.

"None, sir," she answered. "But as you can already see, the energy wall is down."

"You're right, I can see it." He looked over at the turian starting up the Mako. "Floor it, Garrus."

"You got it," Garrus answered, pressing his foot down hard on the gas pedal. The Mako came alive with a roar and shot down the waterway, sending water flying in waves as they went. Time was of the essence now and they didn't have much of it.

But as they went down another tunnel, Ashely saw something on the turret scope. "Shit! We've got Geth!" she swore as she locked onto the nearest geth unit.

"Do not slow down!" Naruto ordered Garrus. "Run over them if you have to!"

"Right!" said Garrus, keeping his foot on the gas down. The Mako came blitzing out of the tunnel and right through the geth units waiting there. It came so fast that they didn't have a good aim or reach to fire their rockets to try and damage the Mako. As he ran over them, Garrus also made the turn that would take them further down to where they needed to go.

"Look out, there's a drop!" Ashely warned him as they came closer to it.

"I can see it!" he replied, keeping the gas pedal down. The Mako flew over the edge of the drop, down to the waterway below. The landing was enough to make everyone jostle around in their seats (which made them all glad none of them were in the crash seat).

"What the hell did you guys find?" Maya demanded.

"Liara, explain it as quickly as you can," Naruto told the asari.

"Okay." She looked at the others and began explaining what had happened with the Prothean VI. She went through in a short amount of time and didn't take any questions until the end of the explanation. Even then, she kept it short.

Things were relatively peaceful in the short time since the drop. But when they started going down a waterway slope, things got hectic again. "More Geth!" shouted Ashley.

"Big or small?" asked Wrex.

"Small," Garrus answered. "We're not stopping for them." When he reached the geth waiting for him, he did just as he said and did not stop. He drove right through and then over them. But they were not the only ones there. "Shit, there's a lot more of them," the turian driving the Mako said as he looked at the rest of the geth.

"Don't stop, Garrus," Naruto told him.

"Wasn't planning on it," he replied, still keeping his foot on the gas. The Mako kept on driving through the water and past or through the geth units trying to block its path (sometimes, it went over their heads, due to use of the micro-thrusters).

And still, they weren't in the clear. "We've got Geth Colossuses!" Ashley declared, already spinning the turret in the direction of the nearest Colossus and opening fire.

"How many of them are there?" asked Naruto. His side of the window was dribbling water from a splash and it obscured his vision. He could barely see one Colossus.

"Enough!" she replied.

"I don't think I'll be able to find a way around these guys!" Garrus told the blonde. He could see clearly out his window and he saw the number of Geth Colossus.

"Find a way, Garrus. We can't afford to give Saren any more of a head start," the Spectre amongst them replied.

"Alright, but don't blame me if this doesn't work."

"Just drive!" Maya shouted from where she sat. It was bad enough feeling the Mako shake and swerve to avoid anything that might damage it, but listening to them talk about things that she couldn't see (as now was not the time to get up to look) made it worse.

Garrus did as he was ordered and drove the Mako forward, going straight at the Colossus in the front. During the next minute or so, the two of them played a game of chicken, only with guns included. At the last moment before they were about to crash, Garrus swerved to the left, going around the Colossus. "That's one!" he declared.

"And a lot more to follow," Naruto stated, finally able to see out his window properly now and saw the number of Colossuses standing either in the water or beside it.

To his credit, Garrus never stopped driving. Despite the number of missiles and gunfire being thrown at the Mako, the turian stayed cool and drove on while also trying to avoid the incoming fire. In that sense, he was only partially successful as the Mako was still struck. Those who were inside it could feel the impacts.

But he didn't stop driving the Mako past all of that, around and under the Colossuses that tried to stop him. And it all paid off in the end as he turned a corner, finally free of all the attacks from the geth, and something glowing like a relay at the bottom of another slope. "Please tell me that's it," he said.

Liara quickly scrambled up from her chair to the window. "Yes, that's it! That's the Conduit!" she declared. The thing looked like a small mass relay and she could understand why the Protheans might've made it like that.

He didn't need any more prompting. The Mako all but flew down the slope, hurtling towards the Conduit, only to find more geth lying in wait. "You've got to be kidding me!" he swore as they started shooting.

"Just drive, this is the final stretch!" the asari urged him.

Those words struck a chord with Naruto, making him think back to his last confrontation with Obito and how he thought similar thoughts. The Mako driving towards the Conduit felt very much like his journey to his father's former student (albeit it was much shorter and he was being shot at).

Then he remembered something that had felt so unimportant at the time. Struck at the sheer ridiculousness of it, he began to laugh out loud. He laughed even harder when he looked at everyone in the Mako and seeing that they did not have what made him laugh. "What the hell is so funny?" Wrex demanded.

"I just realized something," he said, still laughing.

"What?"

Garrus drove the Mako up the ramp and straight at the Conduit. As the Mako was taken ahold of and sent to the Citadel like a ship going through a mass relay, he told them all what he found so funny. "There's a very good chance that I'm about to die a virgin!"


Codex Entry (Humanity and the Systems Alliance): SAMURAI

While the Shinobi are the premier fighting force of the Elemental Nations, the Samurai were the previous holders of that title. As the years went by and the power of the Shinobi grew, the Samurai have been considered as outdated and obsolete by every nation. By the time of the Fourth Shinobi World War, only Tetsu no Kuni remained as the only domain in the Elemental Nations that fielded samurai, and had gone through reforms to catch up with the Shinobi in terms of fighting strength (even the Tsuchikage Ōnoki was wary of them).

Since the Fourth Shinobi World War, Samurai have been present in many conflicts fighting side-by-side with the Shinobi, and have proven to be far from obsolete. Their part in the War of Three Flags has seen them acting as human tanks; they served as the heavy infantry for the Elemental Nations, moving in and spearheading attacks, especially under the command of Sasuke Uchiha during the Frontier campaign and under Shikamaru Nara in the defense of the Elemental Nations.

The Samurai training of today is generally considered very extensive, with equal parts hard training and tradition. While every Samurai is trained in the use of their standard-issue equipment, they are also required to go through powered exoskeleton training to be able to use any sort of armor (much like modern Einherjar training), they are expected to perform at least equally as well in a powered exoskeleton as they are out of it. In addition to being skilled and licensed in the use of a powered exoskeleton, Samurai are also expected to at least be competent in the use of a sword, as the Gunto-class Combat Machete is a part of their standard equipment.

Samurai follow a strict code of conduct known as bushido, and are expected to be highly skilled and disciplined. While the code has been adjusted to fit to today's standards, many samurai still commit seppuku (see: Capital Punishment/Seppuku) whenever they either break this code, or they intend to stop themselves from being captured by the enemy.

Today, the Samurai still serve in a heavy infantry role. But unlike the Einherjar that prefer to bring heavy firepower into the mix, the Samurai are specialists in the Close Quarters Combat role; their tactics make it such that they are normally called upon for boarding actions and urban combat scenarios to complement most any unit.

In addition, Samurai are often called upon to guard important places, as well as to serve as an honor guard for special occasions in the Systems Alliance. It is often speculated that they are Humanity's answer to the Turian Armiger legions due to their level of discipline, adherence to honor, and highly-skilled soldiers.


End

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

I know that technically humans were being studied by the Protheans when their empire was around, but I think I've got a way to make why the Reapers hate them so much work and it'll have to do with their place in time.

I bet none of you were expecting that little tidbit of information from Naruto. You know what? I'll even bet that some of you thought he took after Jiraiya.

I'll see you all next chapter!