Misplaced

by Deus Swiftblade

When the seal broke and he opened his eyes, he had hoped to see his friends standing around him, welcoming him back to life. But now he's in a different time and all of his friends have long since passed away. Now the only thing he can do is put what he has been trained to be to good use and serve the galaxy from the shadows.

37. There they are!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Mass Effect.

Misplaced

Chapter 37: There they are!

"Talking"

"Thinking"

"Bijū/VI/Geth/Reaper talking"

"Bijū/VI/Geth/Reaper thinking"

Reading/News/Intercom

(Location: the Normandy)

"Alright, who is it?" Naruto asked as he stood behind Joker's seat, fully armored and robed.

"Like I said before, no one we know," his pilot replied. Both were looking at a video feed from a camera in the ship's exterior hull. It was pointing at the dock and at the guy standing in front of the ship with crossed arms.

"Whoever he is, he is certainly not a looker." There was some obvious scarring on his face and his right eye was a different color then his left. But they were hard and cold, something that spoke of his experience.

"Yeah, but his armor and weapons aren't things to be sneezed at." The armor was custom-made, but not by any craftsman. Rather, it looked to be cobbled together from things he had found and after making such a suit, it had scarring and pieces missing. But that all spoke to how tough and how good the guy seemed to be.

As he looked at the man, Naruto saw something that caught his attention. "Wait, is there any to zoom in on this thing?"

"You have to ask?"

"Just get in close to his neck." The camera zoomed into the neck, allowing them to see the tattoo on said neck fully. "What does that look like to you?"

"A small circle inside an oblong one?" asked Joker with humor in his voice.

"Try to be serious about this, Joker."

"Hey, if I don't live up to my name, I have it on very good authority that the powers that be and the powers that come afterwards are going to be very upset."

"The powers that come afterwards?" repeated Son. "Anyone got a clue about what the hell that means?"

"He's just talking about the afterlife," Matatabi told him.

"Oh yeah," Chōmei said, realizing the fact.

"Duh," Shukaku said with a snort.

"Talk about the obvious," Kokuō stated. "Really, Son, you should've seen that."

"I know that he was talking about the afterlife," the Yonbi said in an insulted voice. "I am not an idiot. I was talking about who runs the afterlife? How does Joker know them? How does he even know they are who they claim they are?"

"Ooh, that's actually a good point," Gyūki remarked.

"Joker…" Naruto said to his pilot, ignoring his joke and his tenants' conversation. "I missed these guys?" he asked himself.

"Yes, you did and you would miss us again if we went silent once more," Kurama told him with a smug satisfaction.

"Alright, alright, being completely serious here," Joker said to him. "I can tell that's a Blue Sun tattoo."

"So what does that mean?"

"They heard about you unleashing Purgatory and have come to collect?"

"As a matter of fact, it is not," EDI announced. To the pilot's left, her blue orb appeared out of nowhere.

"Whoa!" said both Joker and Naruto at the sight of her.

"Would you give a little warning when you do something like that?" Joker protested.

The AI ignored him. "The man standing outside is Zaeed Massani. He has been hired by the Akatsuki to join Commander Uzumaki on his mission."

"Are you kidding me?" Naruto asked.

"I do not kid."

"She really doesn't," Joker added.

The blonde rolled his eyes. "I guess that means I have to go talk to him, doesn't it?"

"Your choice," his pilot told him.

"Right," he said sarcastically, turning around. "Get the team to follow me when they get here."

"You got it. You want the salarian too."

"No, he's having fun in the lab. Let him stay there for now. And actually, Cuanmiztli stays behind too. Have her keep an eye out on him."

"Why? It's not like he's going to go anywhere."

"Just tell her that, Joker."

"Alright, you got it, Commander."

"Thank you." He walked towards the ship's hatch and then into it. He waited as it went through all the things it had to do before the outer hatch opened. It spoke to how well the ship had made that it took less time to do that than the first Normandy. He took the time to attach the helmet piece and let it cover his head before pulling up the hood over it.

When the outer hatch and he stepped back out onto Omega, he saw the guy standing right where he was on the camera. "About time you got out here. You Naruto Uzumaki?" he growled out in a voice that sounded like he was half angry. But there was also the faintest of accents there, making him sound like he was from the Island Kingdoms originally.

"Yeah, that's me. So you're Zaeed Massani?"

"You heard of me."

"Only just now," he said bluntly. "What do you want?"

"The Akatsuki hired me to help you hunt the Tribe down." That was the kind of thing he did and he was good at it.

"Why should I let you on my team?"

That took him a little bit by surprise but he managed to keep it off his face and body. Most people didn't ask that kind of question of him. They just paid him for the job they hired him to do. "You got your hearing straight, kid? The Akatsuki hired me to help you. That means I'm helping you."

"First off, my hearing's fine. Second, the Akatsuki might've hired you but I didn't and I decide who works with me. You want to be on my team? You tell me why I should let that be."

"I know my way through a fight."

"So do everyone on my team."

"Seriously, kid? Why are you arguing about this?"

"I'm not a kid."

He barked out a laugh at that. "You sure as hell look like one and the way you're arguing certainly proves it."

"I'm not a kid," he repeated himself. "And if you know me, you should what my beef is with the Akatsuki."

"Well, it's a good thing I don't you then." And quite frankly, he didn't give a damn. "I was hired to do a job, I'm going to the job whether you like it or not. Besides, I've got information on a couple of people you'd want for your team."

"…Who?" he asked. Behind him, the hatch opened and out stepped the rest of his team.

"A couple of vigilantes who managed to make life on Omega hell enough for the mercs who live to band together to try and kill them," Zaeed told him. "That alone should tell you how much you will want them on your team."

"Who's after them?" Miranda asked as she came up beside her leader.

"The Blue Suns, Eclipse, the Ronin, and the Blood Pack. See what I'm getting at here, girlie?"

She nodded and looked at Naruto. "Commander, if those mercenary groups are getting together, then we must ensure the safety of these vigilantes. They could very beneficial to the mission."

"They're currently pinned down in one of the districts, if you're interested," Zaeed said conversationally. "They're giving the mercs a hard enough of a time that they've stooped to recruiting anyone who seems to have the faintest idea of how to hold a gun to take him out. You need anything else to convince you?" he asked Naruto.

He didn't reply right away, instead for settling for staring straight at him. Of course, all he could see was the snarling fox emblazoned on the helmet. "What are the names of the vigilantes?" he asked, finally speaking.

"Why should it matter?"

"I'd like to know who's getting on my team."

"Eh, fair enough. There are three of them, Archangel, Sword-saint, and Thor."

He heard the first name before, from the Illusive Man in their first meeting. "Where are these mercs recruiting from?"

"The only recognizable joint in this place," he said like it was obvious.

Fortunately, the armored blonde knew what he was talking about. "Alright, we'll go to Afterlife." He walked past the merc, heading towards the club.

"Hang on, did the Akatsuki tell you about my deal?" the merc asked, jogging up to his side.

"No. When I want to know about it, I'll ask. In the meantime, you still have to earn my trust."

"Fair enough," he conceded, backing off from him and falling into the team.

"Miranda, walk with me," Naruto ordered the women as they walked.

She walked up beside him. "Commander?" she asked.

"Tell me about the Illusive Man."

If she was a normal human, she might've been caught off guard by that order. But she was not. In fact, she had been expecting it for some time. "I was beginning to wonder if he'd ever get around to it," she thought to herself. "There's not much I can tell you that you already know. Even I don't have access to most of his background," she told him. "And you've seen more of him than most ever do. It's rare for him to become directly involved in missions, but you're something special."

"Maybe he just wanted to make sure I didn't blow you all to hell once I found out who you were," he said shortly.

"Commander, you couldn't have done that, not with your chakra being blocked."

"Trust me, I would've found a way." His control over his chakra had been pathetic when he was a kid and yet he was still able to pull pranks across the village. "And besides, his method of meeting me would've gotten him killed if I could've touched him."

She wasn't worried about his threat because no one could see the Illusive Man in person, much less touch him. "Why would you say that?"

"He decided to show me an image of Tobi, just to see how I would react."

If it was something other time and she wasn't so good at hiding her expression when she could, she might've winced at those words. "That…was probably not the best thing he could have done."

"Ya think?" he asked sarcastically as they made the turn.

"Still, whatever people might think about him, I can assure you that he's got humanity's best interests at heart. That includes you and me."

"And what makes you think that?"

"I didn't get to where I am now without knowing how to gauge people's motives and ambitions. Even from brief encounters," she told him confidently.

"She's confident," Gyūki remarked.

"I'd say cocky," Saiken countered.

"Same here," Matatabi agreed. "We can turn that against her."

"He's no saint, and he'd be the first to admit it," Miranda continued to tell him. "But he's committed. Humanity couldn't have a better advocate."

"It's not a question of whether or not he's an advocate," he replied. "It's a question of whether or not he's the advocate we need."

"He is. I'm sure of it," she told him as Afterlife came into sight. There was no doubt in the conviction her voice held.

"Kit, you're not going to change her mind about him anytime soon," Kurama told him. "You might want to consider changing the subject."

"Tell me about yourself," he told her.

Again, she wasn't surprised. "I was wondering when you'd ask that question. Well, you should probably know that I've had extensive genetic modification. Not my decision, but I make the most of it."

"What do you mean by 'genetic modification?'"

"My very DNA had been changed before I came into this universe. It's one of the reasons the Illusive Man handpicked me. I'm very good at just about anything I choose to do."

"Really?" he asked. They walked through the door to Afterlife with no one saying a word in protest (no one that mattered, that is).

"Yes. Physically, I am superior in many ways. I heal quickly and I'll likely live half again as long as the average human."

"So can I. Still not impressed," he told her.

There was the slightest of frowns on her face at those words. "My biotics are also very advanced…for a human. Add to that some of the best training and education money can buy and, well, it's pretty impressive, really."

"Hm, you know what you've just told me about yourself?"

"What?"

"Nothing," he answered as they walked into Afterlife proper. "Zaeed, where the mercs at?" he asked the merc with them.

"Follow me," Zaeed said, taking the lead. He cut through the crowd to where the private suite that the recruiting was taking place. There was a Blue Sun guard standing outside the suite. "There you go. You go take care of it, I'll hang back."

The hooded blonde barely acknowledged him as he stepped back into the crowd of the club. He walked right up to the guard. "I heard you're recruiting."

The guard stared back at him, taking in all his armor and robe. He was intimidating to say the least. "Hmm. Why don't you step inside?"

He walked past the guard into the suite as his team followed. Once the door was opened, they saw another Blue Sun batarian working a console. Standing in front of him was another mercenary. "You'll get paid when the job's done, just like everyone else," the batarian told the merc.

"Hgnh," the merc grunted as he chewed on something that was big enough for him to not speak properly. He turned around and walked out of the suite.

"Who's next?" the batarian asked, sounding thoroughly bored. Naruto and his team stepped up, letting him get a good eye-full of them. "You look like you could do some damage. Looking for a good fight?"

"Depends on what the fight is and how much you're paying," Naruto asked back.

"Standard fee is 500 credits each," he told them, ignoring the first part of the question. "You get paid when the job's done. If you die, your friends don't collect your share. You'll need your own weapons and armor." He gave them an eyeful. "Looks like you've got that covered. And no, this does not make you a member of the Blue Suns, Eclipse, the Ronin, or the Blood Pack. You are a freelancer. Period. Any questions?" he asked.

"Only the important one: where do we go?"

"Just head over to the transport depot outside the club," he answered. "One of our boys will take you from there." He went back down to his console. "Send in the next one."

As they turned to leave, the door opened and another human came walking in with a swagger. "Oh for the love of Kami, tell me I'm seeing things!" Shukaku groaned.

"I would like to say that you were or make a bad joke about it, but you're not and I won't," Son said to him.

"A kid, it's a Kami-forsaken kid!" Matatabi shouted.

"Naruto, you have to do something about it!" Isobu told him.

"Why?" he asked back.

"What do you mean, 'why?!'"

"He's old enough."

"He's not a shinobi! You can see that!"

"Hey, is this where I sign up?" the kid asked, his voice full of cockiness. At his side was a gun. He kept stroking it with his fingers, like he was trying to remind himself that it was there.

"That's why," Kurama said.

"…Damn it, you're right," he thought before turning around. "Kid, how old are you?" he asked.

"I'm old enough!" the kid snapped back. The Blue Sun looked up and stared at him. He saw the stare and looked back at Naruto. "I grew up on Omega. I know how to use a gun," he declared.

"So do the people you want to kill," Jacob told him bluntly.

"I can handle myself." He pulled the gun out and held it for all to see. "Besides, I just paid 50 credits on this pistol and I wan—"

Naruto moved before he could finish, knocking the gun out of his hand with a swipe, sending him down to the ground with a kick, and holding him there with a kunai to his eye. "This was me holding back, way back," he told the kid. "They won't be. You're out of your league. Get lost."

He stood up and the kid got up as well. "What do—?"

"I'm going to count to three. You'd better be gone by then or you won't like what comes next."

"Who—?"

"One." He took off like a bat out of hell.

"Kid moves fast," Ruko commented with an amused grin.

"Are you done?" the Blue Sun asked them.

"Yeah," Naruto replied.

"Good. Get out of here."

---

If it hadn't been for the extra-long shuttle, they might've had to take more than one trip to reach the area of battle. As it settled onto the ground, the doors opened. The Blue Sun driver stayed in his seat while they climbed out. Another batarian met them standing in front a flight of stairs. "It's about time they sent me someone who looks like they can actually fight," he said to them as he looked them over. "They tell you what we're up against?"

"No, they just sent us down here so they could get their kicks watching us die in a horrific manner," Ruko said with enough sarcasm to drop a horse from where she stood behind Naruto. The others had formed into a loose group behind him.

He eyed her for a long moment before turning his attention back to Naruto. "She's got a mouth on her. I'd liked to see what else she could do with it and her body."

"You sick—!" She started forward, only to have her brother's arm block her way. "Hey!"

"Ease off, Ruko," he told her.

"But—!"

"Ease. Off." She growled but the arm stayed in her path. So she did as she was told.

"You know how to handle your women, impressive," the batarian told him.

"What are we up against?" he asked while he lowered the arm.

"Archangel and his friends are holed up in a building at the end of the boulevard over there." He gestured vaguely behind his back. "They've got a superior position, and the only way in is over a very exposed bridge. It's a killing ground. But Archangel's getting tired, making mistakes. He's letting more and more get through, making his friends deal with them and getting them tired too. We'll have them soon enough."

"There's a plan?"

"A small team is waiting to infiltrate their hideout, but we need to draw Archangel's fire so they can move in."

"Where do we come in?" Miranda asked him.

"You'll be on a distraction team. Head straight over the bridge and keep Archangel busy so the infiltration team can sneak in behind him."

"That's goddamn suicide," Zaeed spoke out, even though he kept himself hidden from the batarian.

"Pretty much," he said with a shrug of his shoulder. "But you lot look like you can handle it. Head up to the boulevard and head to the third barricade. Talk to Sergeant Cathka. He'll tell you when to go in. Watch yourself on the boulevard. Archangel's killed dozens out there already."

"Alright," Naruto said shortly, walking past him with his team following behind. They climbed the stairs and when they reached the top, he turned around, pulled a gun out, and shot the batarian in the legs, making him fall and scream in pain. "The next time you ever talk or look at my sister like that, I will rip out your eyes with my hands." The batarian in the shuttle stood up but the gun turned to him. "Sit down," the armored blonde ordered, lying a little of his intent to kill along the sight-line. The batarian did as he was ordered. "Good. Now go back up there to do your job."

The shuttle doors closed and the craft took off. He watched it vanish from sight before sheathing the gun and kept on walking. "Didn't think you had the balls," Ruko told him.

"It's not about having balls," he replied. "It's about having patience and timing."

"Which is ironic coming from you and your track record, Mr. Charge-straight-in," Kurama said with dry amusement.

He ignored the fox and continued with his lecture. "If I had let you start a fight with him or did it myself, we would've gotten into trouble that we didn't need at that point."

"But you still shot him."

"He was the doorman. Pick a fight in front of the doorman or with the doorman, he's not going to let you in. Once you get past him, you're fine. It also showed that we are dangerous and will not be pushed around."

"How the hell would you know that?" Zaeed asked him. "You're the only one who shot him."

"You've been around, Zaeed. I can see that. What do you assume when the leader of a group is dangerous?"

"That the rest of the group is as well," he answered promptly. Then he realized what he was talking about. "Oh, I get it. Nice job there, kid."

"I'm not a kid."

"Commander, I've scanned the area, but I am unable to plot any other way to the group," EDI spoke through the comm.

He and his team didn't break stride as they turned a corner. They caught a brief glimpse of Omega in all its infamy before going through a door. "Looks like we'll be going in with the mercs," Jacob remarked.

"Getting in will be easy, getting out will be a bitch," Zaeed told him.

"He's right," Miranda agreed. "We need to find a way to even the odds."

"Eclipse is trying to utilize heavy mechs and gunships as they possess considerable firepower," EDI informed them. "Weakening them before leaving will improve your chances."

"Noted," Naruto said. He looked over at Miranda. "Take care of it."

"You got it, Commander," she replied.

"I'll join you, you need a look out," Jacob told her. She nodded once in acknowledgement. They approached a second door and walked through it.

The first thing they heard was the sound of gunfire echoing over their heads. The second thing that they noticed was the freelancers just sitting around in a room half-listening to a salarian speak. They ignored the salarian and kept on walking. They just followed the sound of gunfire until it was all but ringing in their ears.

They found the gunfire the loudest in an open area filled with barricades. Once they were there, the gunfire came from the left instead of just over their heads. "Found the barricades," Ruko declared.

"Thank you for the observation," Naruto said as he watched a vorcha get shot and fall from the nearest barricade.

"No real loss there," Zaeed stated, staring down at the dead body.

"Split up and look around. Keep your heads low so you don't get shot beforehand."

"Anything we're looking for in particular?" Jacob asked him.

"You and Miranda are looking for the mechs and the gunship. Everyone else, get a basic picture of what's going on around here. If we can get the other groups to start fighting each other, that'll help."

"You want us to start a riot?" Zaeed said, looking for clarification.

"Not at the moment, but when the time is right."

"You got it." He could do that.

They separated with Miranda and Jacob falling back to check the rooms they had passed. When they got to the second back, Zaeed and Ruko broke away. Naruto stopped his sister before she left with a hand to her arm. "Don't start a fight," he told her.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," she replied, jerking her arm out of his grip and then followed Zaeed down the other side of the barricade.

He looked to the other side. The second barricade stretched the entire room and was about a quarter of its height tall. At the end of each side was a small opening that allowed people to move upwards. If he stood up right, he'd have a good chance of being shot. So he kept himself in a half crouch of a position.

Blood Pack vorcha and Einherjar had manned the third barricade but the second was manned by the Blue Suns. If he peeked over the side, he could see Eclipse up at the front readying some of the mechs. "That's three of them," he thought to himself as he walked down the barricade. "Where are the Ronin?"

"Kit, down the line and on the right," Kurama told him.

He turned and saw two humans standing against the wall without a care in the galaxy. One stood taller than the other by a few inches and had brown hair cropped short. The other had his long black hair bundled into a knot and had a swarthy complexion to his friend's pale. Both wore different kinds of armor and handled different weapons, the swarthy one a rifle and the pale a shotgun. What they had in common was the symbol of the Alliance over their hearts crossed out.

They stared at him as he stared at them. Then they did a strange thing: they inclined their heads and left. "What was that all about?" Naruto wondered as he watched them leave.

"Maybe they know you?" Isobu suggested.

"I have the helmet on. How could they have recognized me, let alone know me?"

"I don't know. It was just a suggestion. You were gone for two years."

"Under the 'care' of the Tribe," he reminded the turtle.

"Not for the first couple of weeks after the Normandy was ambushed," Kurama pointed out. "You've might done something then that made them recognize you."

"Again, wearing the helmet," he said to the fox. He started making his way to one of the openings in the barricade. "But I will admit that other part holds water. Have you guys found anything in my memories?"

"Were we supposed to be looking?" Shukaku asked.

"Yes."

"Why didn't you say anything about it?"

"I would've thought that the lack of two years' worth of memories would've been enough to get you curious. I guess I was wrong."

"Relax, gaki," Kurama told him. "Please remember you're talking to the one Bijū that gets frequent memory loss."

"I do not!" Shukaku protested.

The Kyūbi ignored him. "I was curious and I took a look."

"And?" asked Naruto.

"There was nothing."

"…What do you mean there was nothing?"

"Just like I said, there was nothing. From the time the Normandy was attacked to the time you woke up in that cell, you have no memories. It's a complete blank."

"Not even a sealing block on them?"

"There's nothing. For all intents and purposes, those two years did not exist."

"What about your own?"

"I checked that too and I checked with the others. We can't remember ether."

"He's right," Matatabi said.

"Yeah, he is," Son agreed.

"We did our own checks just to be sure," Saiken told their Jinchūriki. "None of us remember anything in those two years."

"Whatever the Tribe did was very thorough," Kurama finished.

"…Shit." Things were never easy, were they? How was he supposed to get these inhibitors out when they didn't leave anything for him to go on? He would have to relay more and more on the Akatsuki for that kind of information and that wasn't something he liked.

But there was nothing he could do about it now. It was best to focus on what had to be done. He walked past the second barricade and went up to the first. It was just like the second or the third, albeit shorter in length. Only a few actual people manned this barricade, the rest were mechs. A few freelancers were standing around, just waiting.

He walked up to the closet one, a human who stood with his back against the wall right of the barricade. "I'm looking for Cathka," he said shortly.

The freelancer looked over at him. "You and me both, pal. He's over there, working on the gunship." He jerked his head to the other side of the room, where a half sitting area showed a group of Blue Suns standing in front of said gunship behind it. "We go over the bridge when he gives the word. Go talk to him if you want, but I'm in no hurry."

He walked over to the other side. Behind the guards he saw sparks flying from underneath the gunship. "Someone is working on it."

"That's going to make trying to sabotage the thing a little difficult," Kokuō commented. "Anything you try to damage, they'll notice and fix."

"It's going to be a problem," Son declared.

"Oh, I'm sure that he'll figure something out," Chōmei stated.

He stopped before the guard, keeping his hands in plain sight. "You Cahtka?" he asked the guard in front.

"No, I am," a voice from under the gunship answered him. From that same place emerged a Blue Suns batarian, completely armored and helmeted too. He held a tool in his hand, probably the one he had been using to work on the gunship. He made one gesture and the guards walked off a little. He touched the side of his helmet and the visor lightened so the eyes could be seen. "And it's Sergeant Cathka."

"Noted," Naruto said shortly.

He eyed the hooded and armored stranger in front of him. The robe might've been a bit much for his tastes but the armor was well-done and he looked like he could handle himself in a fight. That's all he needed to know. "You must be a part of the group Salkie mentioned." His eyes hardened. "We're going to have words about your treatment of him later."

"My treatment?" the stranger repeated, making it a question instead.

"He's the one you shot in the legs."

"Ah, him," he said in understanding. "Of course I shot him in the legs. What else would I have done when he was giving my sister an eyeful?"

"As I said, later," Cathka told him. "The infiltration team is about to give us the signal. Archangel and his friends won't know what hit him." He walked over to a nearby tool drawer and put the tool in his hand down on top of it. "Got any questions? This might be your last chance." He grabbed a strangely colored cigarette and a lighter, his intent obvious.

He inhaled and blew out the smoke right in Naruto's face. But the blonde did nothing in response. "You leading the charge?" he asked instead.

The batarian barked out a laugh at that. "Tarak doesn't pay me to fight. I just plan the attacks and fix the damn gunships. You freelancers get the privilege of—"

The screen on top of the drawer came alive with a burst of noise, getting his attention. "Targets in sight," a voice declared. "We're a go."

"Check," he replied. "Bravo team – go, go, go!"

The sound of feet striking the ground filled the air to make an inconstant drumming sound against the ear. This was no march of disciplined soldiers, but the many strides of different people walking together. If Naruto turned his gaze backwards, he would've seen the freelancers starting to head over the first barricade.

"Archangel and his friends have quite the surprise waiting for them," Cathka said smugly as he turned away from the drawer. "But that means no more waiting for me." His visor darkened as he turned back to the gunship. "Gotta get back to a hundred percent before Tarak decides he needs her again," he said mostly to himself.

He started to hum a small tune to himself, something that he had heard awhile back. But then he stiffened up as he felt a sharp pain in his back. "What hurts so much?" he asked himself. His armor has top of the line shields. He should've gotten some kind of warning. "Why are my legs so weak?" he asked as he fell to the ground. "Why is the room going dark…?"

"Brutal of you, Naruto," Gyūki commented as the batarian died on the ground from a single kunai thrust to the lower back.

"Necessary," he replied as he sheathed the kunai inside his robe and walked away. Now the gunship wouldn't get off the ground.

"You know, that thing might still come after you," Shukaku commented.

"Ah shit," the other eight said in unison. "You jinxed us!"

"Sorry!" he apologized quickly.

Naruto quickly met up with the rest of his team. "Well?" he asked as they stood behind the moving freelancers, close to the wall.

"Things are tense back here," Zaeed told him, keeping his voice low. "All it would take is one bullet and in-house fighting would kick off."

"On a better note, we found some of the heavy mechs that were in the middle of being reprogramed," Miranda said, following his example. "I made a few adjustments. If they're active, they'll think everyone is an enemy."

"Let's just hope the people manning them are stupid enough to activate behind their lines," Jacob added.

"That's great but we've got a problem," Ruko said.

"What?" Naruto asked her.

"More like who." She turned her head to look over her right shoulder and said, "Him."

They looked where she was and saw Aria's man standing nearby, his sword on his shoulder. "Fuck, Kojirō," he said. "What the hell is he going here?"

"I'm more surprised that Aria lets her dog off the leash," Zaeed remarked.

"What should we do?" Jacob asked.

"For now, nothing," his commander said. "Let's just assume he's here for Aria's sake. We stay out of his way, perhaps he'll stay out of ours."

"We should get moving," Miranda told them all. "They won't have much time left."

"What the fuck are we waiting for, then?" Ruko demanded. "Let's get a move on."

"Wait," said Naruto.

"For what?" she asked.

"They don't know that we're here to save and their sniper might actually try to shoot us. I want a good wall of heads between us and them so we can get through safely."

"That sounds like a good plan. Do you mind if I join you?" Kojirō asked, standing beside the armored blonde.

Those who had to do whipped their heads to look at him. "What are you doing here?" Zaeed demanded. One second, the guy was further down the wall, the next he was right next to him. He knew enough shinobi to know that they could be fast but that fast in that short of a time? He hadn't seen that before.

"I saw people I knew and I wandered over to say hello," the swordsman said conversationally. "And then I heard your plan. I like it. I will follow you."

Naruto had been keeping an eye out on the freelancers and noted that about half of them had gone over the first barricade. "No time to argue. Let's go."

They joined the freelancers and hopped over the barricade onto the boulevard. Already there were dead bodies on the ground and people firing back at the building on the other end. He could see a vaguely turian figure standing on the second floor of said building. When he took down one of the mercs shooting at him, Naruto guessed that he was one of the targets.

"You're going to run out of meat for the wall if you keep standing there," Kurama reminded him. "Get your ass moving already!"

He started forward while keeping his head slightly ducked. His team followed his idea. As the majority of the freelancers moved forward to attack, they followed but did not shoot. It was a quick-paced move down the boulevard that had mercs dropping dead every couple of seconds along the way.

"Okay, I know this is going to sound weird," Chōmei began.

"It already is now that you've said that," Shukaku told him.

"You don't get to talk after jinxing us," Kokuō said to the tanuki with a voice that was somewhere between crossed and annoyed.

"I said I was sorry. It was an accidental saying."

"It still happened."

"Anyway, as I was saying," the Nanabi continued. "Does anyone else think the sniper's style of shooting looks familiar?"

"I see it," Son told him.

"Same here," Matatabi said.

"Most definitely," Saiken agreed.

"Kit," Kurama began to say to Naruto.

"I know," he replied before the fox could even begin. He had noticed about halfway down the boulevard. "It's a relief. It'll make things easier for me."

"That may be, but you still have to deal with all these freelancers."

"That'll be the easy part." They were coming up to the other side, out of reach and sight of the sniper. For a moment, the freelancers paused and breathed in relief. Now came the easy part, or so they thought.

The second the first merc entered the building, the others quickly followed with them at the back. As soon as they stepped in, the door closed shut behind them. The mercs were a little surprised to say the least. "What the…?"

"What was that?"

"Hey, I can't see anything from here."

"The doors are closed."

"Who closed them?"

"Didn't those Eclipse guys say that they managed to turn this place off?"

"They must've been lying!"

"What do we do now?"

"Are you stupid or something? We keep moving. Archangel is right above us. If the others can keep him busy, he's easy meat."

"What about the infiltration team?"

"Fuck'em, Archangel's ours." The merc who said those words went for the stairs in the middle of the building.

"Wait, what about his teammates?" another merc said aloud.

That question was answered when a tall human appeared from the top of the stairs in leap and beheaded the leading merc with a single swing of his broad-axe. Another human appeared and began beating down the next merc with a large bokken. Naturally, the mercs were surprised by the appearance and voiced their surprise.

"What the fuck!?"

"Where did they come from?"

"Does it matter?"

"Fuck no! Shoot them!"

Kojirō had a different question. "Now?" he asked Naruto conversationally as he lowered his sword.

"Now," he replied, rising his gun and shooting the freelancer in front of him in the head. That caused even more surprise.

"What was that?"

"Who opened fire?"

"Is someone dead back there?"

"Karl's on the ground! He's dead!"

"It's the guys in the back! They started shooting!"

"They're with Archangel!"

"Mow them down," Naruto ordered his team. He flipped his guns up into the air and grabbed them by the barrels. The closest freelancer tried shoving his shotgun into his mouth. His first swing knocked the gun away. The second broke the guy's nose. The third drove him to the ground.

"About fucking time!" crowed Ruko as she flared her red biotics and threw them into the group in front of her. They went flying every which way. Some landed on their feet, rolling off the damage, but the majority she struck hit the walls and fell to the ground in heaps.

She had taken out a chunk of them but also spread them out across the room. "Very nicely done," Miranda told her with the driest sarcasm she could muster.

"You want to do any better!?" she challenged.

"Gladly," she replied, flaring her own biotics and throwing them into a Singularity in the air. Those who weren't quick enough to get out of the way were soon floating in the air around it.

"Alright, target practice!" Zaeed said with a cruel smile on his face as he raised his gun and started shooting. Jacob followed his example and shot the freelancers floating in the air.

"How was that better?" Ruko asked Miranda as she sent a merc flying with a hard biotic blast. "You just made them scatter more."

"Yes, but I gathered more in closely." She dragged a merc towards her with her biotics and shot him through the face with her gun. "Can you do any better?"

"Watch me!" She charged her biotics in both her arms and started throwing them out left and right. Miranda rolled her eyes but flared her biotics again and joined her in the fighting.

"Ah, allies!" the giant with the axe said with a laugh while decapitating a salarian merc, well away from the stairs. "That is good!"

Naruto battered and bashed his way through the mercs, but how he fought paled to Kojirō's method. The swordsman walked casually through the mercs, his sword slicing lazily through the air and yet great cuts and rents appeared in the armors he struck. There was a bored expression on his face as he fought.

But when he saw the bokken-wielding human being surrounded by the freelancers, the expression turned into one of anger. He leapt over the mercs and landed in the circle alongside him. Without saying a word to one another, the two placed their backs to each other and fended off the mercs. "What? No telling me not to kill them?" Kojirō asked.

"Not now," the bokken wielder replied, keeping his focus on the fight. He had a few inches on him, making him taller.

"Zaeed, Jacob! Break them out!" Naruto ordered, pointing at the circle. They turned their guns from the Singularity and opened fire on the circle. The mercs hadn't expected it and when they were able to turn and adapt, it was too late. Both Kojirō and the bokken wielder got out. Once they were out, they turned their attention to them. They didn't last long.

"Hey, we've still got people living up there!" Ruko shouted, pointing up at the Singularity, where still living mercs floated in the air.

"No worries!" the giant said. "I will take care of it." He pulled his axe out of a batarian and held it to his face for a moment. Runes began to glow against the edge and Naruto could feel the faint feeling of someone using chakra. Then he threw it.

"Is he nuts?" Shukaku demanded as the axe left his hands. It spun through the air, going right to the Singularity. It sliced through each one of the mercs, spinning around the black hole, and came right back to its owner's hands.

"Apparently not," Isobu said.

As the Singularity disappeared and the bodies fell, the fight ended. Everyone just stood there for a moment, taking it to breathe. When the moment was gone, the bokken wielder spoke. "How long were you waiting to get in here?" he asked Kojirō, standing across from him with his weapon, stained with blood, was held at the ready.

"For some time now," the swordsman answered as he flicked the blood off his blade and slid it home.

"Now isn't the time for it."

"That's what you always say. If I didn't know better, I would say that you were trying to run from me." The man facing him growled but did not move.

Naruto stared at all the carnage. Suddenly, another scene was superimposed over it, with many Hlíf warriors and Einherjar dead on the ground and Sakura standing amongst them, holding onto the last live one. "Please, mercy!" the man begged as he struggled to get his neck free of her grip.

"Your kind doesn't deserve mercy. Not after what you did," Sakura told him.

"I wasn't there! None of us here were there!"

"Sakura, stand down!" a far off voice spoke out. She didn't look back at the voice. Instead, she snapped the man's neck.

"Hey, Commander, you good?" asked Jacob when he noticed that Naruto was just standing.

The question snapped the armored blonde out of his trance, losing the sight of his old teammate amongst the dead. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said shortly. He turned his attention to the two ambushers. "You guys are Sword-saint and Thor." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

"Sword-saint? Really?" said Kojirō to the bokken wielder. He didn't reply.

"Yes, we are," the axe-carrying giant said, lowering the axe and taking off his horned helmet that proclaimed him to be an Einherjar, letting his blonde braided hair fall down. "I am Erik and this is Musashi." He gestured over to the bokken wielder, who seemed a lot shorter when compared to him. He smiled broadly but Naruto could see the eyes watching their every movement and the hand keeping a tight grip on his weapon. This guy was not easily fooled. "What are you doing here?"

"We're here to save you guys and get you out of here," Naruto told him.

"How do we know that's what you intend to do?" Musashi asked his voice suspicious. Both of them wore armor that had seen a lot of action and could really use a repair job. He had a loop in his belt for the bokken and several other pouches on it as well.

"Let me talk to Archangel, he'll vouch for me." He started for the stairs, walking calmly over the dead bodies that were in his way.

"And what makes you think that?"

"Because he knows me," he replied without stopping, already at the stairs. "Come on. I'm sure you'll want to see this for yourself." He didn't wait for a reply on the idea. But he did hear them following him up the stairs. At the top, he saw a door to the far right, the light green. The floor was strewn with dead bodies, evidence of previous attacks having failed. He made his way down to it, lowering his hood and letting his helmet draw back.

The door opened, showing him into a large room that was also a part of the balcony. The same figure he saw on the boulevard was still shooting. It was most definitely a turian. He waited until the shot was fired before he spoke up. "Having fun, Garrus? Or should I call you Archangel?"

The turian froze in place. Then he whipped around to point the rifle at the blonde. Neither of them moved while the gun was pointed at him. But when the door opened and the rest followed in, the turian lowered the weapon, walked off the balcony to a chair, sat down, put down his rifle and took off his helmet. "Naruto, I thought you were dead," Garrus said as he looked at the blonde. There was a small look of surprise on his face as he spoke.

"Well, I'm not."

"I can see that. How did you know it was me?"

He gestured shortly to the balcony. "You kept aiming for the head."

"A lot of snipers do that."

"A lot of snipers aren't able to do multiple shots on moving targets in that short amount of time." He looked at the turian, being completely serious. "What are you doing here, Garrus?"

"He is helping," Erik stated.

Naruto turned to look back at the bigger blonde. "I was asking him, not you."

"It's alright, you guys," Garrus said to Musashi and Erik. "I know him. You can trust him. And I was just doing a little target practice to keep my skills sharp," he told Naruto.

"How're you holding up?"

"Been better," he admitted. "But it sure is good to meet a friendly face."

"What are we? Chopped sushi?" Musashi asked him.

"Friendly faces that I haven't seen in a while."

"You've been busy," Naruto stated.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Killing mercs is hard work. Especially when it's only the three of us," he said.

"My, my, you have been busy, haven't you?" Kojirō asked Musashi.

"Stow it," the bokken wielder told him.

Garrus looked to the two of them, his eyes narrowing at the sight. "Musashi, is he…?"

"Yes."

He looked at Naruto. "You brought him with you?"

"We didn't know he was here until he decided to join us," Naruto replied. "He caught us off guard too. But what's the deal with them?" He could see the way the two of them acted around one another.

"They…have a history."

"A history?" repeated Kojirō. "Is that you've been telling other people? That we have a history?"

"I said stow it," Musashi said. "Now isn't the time for it, okay?"

"Ruko, stand between them, please," Naruto ordered.

"Yeah, fine," she replied, stepping away from Miranda and getting right between the two, pushing them apart as she came between them.

"Uh, Naruto, who exactly is she?" asked Garrus, looking at her. He had noticed her when she had walked into the room but only now was he able to see her fully.

"She's my sister," the blonde answered shortly like it was no big deal.

"She's your…You know what? Fine," he decided. Weird things happened around his former commander, it was just a fact of life. In all honesty, he shouldn't be that surprised.

"This is all well and good, but we still have a problem," Erik said.

"Yeah, I know, Erik."

"I'm guessing it won't be easy to get out as it was getting in?" Jacob asked for confirmation.

"No, it won't," the turian answered him as he stood back up again. "That bridge has saved our lives…funneling those witless idiots into my scope. Any that get past are dealt with by Erik and Musashi. But it works both ways. They'll slaughter us if we try to get out that way. We tried once and it almost cost Erik his arm."

"I have told you before, Garrus, there are no hard feelings about that," the giant blonde said to him.

"So we're basically fucked, is that it?" Ruko asked.

"It's not all that bad," Garrus told her. "This place has held them off so far."

"Well, I'm afraid that your streak of good luck is about to come to an end," Kojirō said.

All eyes turned to him. "Why is that streak about to end?" Musashi asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion and his hand going for the bokken. "If you had something to do with it…"

"Oh relax. It's not because of me. No, no, it's about to end because a team of the Tribe has joined the group out there."

"The Tribe?" repeated Garrus. "What are they doing here?"

"If I had to guess?" he asked rhetorically. "I'd say that they were here for him." He pointed his sword at Naruto.

"Oh fuck," Gyūki stated.

"See, see what you did?" Chōmei said to Shukaku.

"I said I was sorry. But come on, it couldn't get any wor—"

"DON'T FINISH THAT SENTENCE!" the other eight Biju roared at him.

"Well, this is going to be a problem," Zaeed stated.

"Thank you for stating the fucking obvious," Ruko said to him.

"Someone had to say it."

"No they didn't."

"There's no need to start fighting," Miranda told the both of them. "We need to figure out a way to get past that blockade."

"There's nothing we really can do," Musashi told her. "We're stuck here."

"Maybe not," Garrus said as he walked back over to the balcony. "We might get out of this just yet."

"You got a plan, Garrus?" Naruto asked him.

"Not so much a plan as a twist to what we're already doing."

"Shoot."

"I suggest that we hold this location, wait for a crack in their defenses, and take our chances."

"That's suicide, Garrus," Musashi told him.

"He's right," Miranda agreed.

"I like it!" Erik said with a big grin on his face,

"Same here!" said Ruko with the same kind of grin. "We barely have a chance in hell to get out alive. What are we waiting for!?"

"How about something that actually resembles a plan instead a vague idea of it?" Miranda asked her pointedly.

"You got something better, cheerleader?"

"If the two of you are done?" asked Garrus, looking at them both. "I will be the first to admit that what I've come with isn't a perfect plan, but it is a plan."

"Garrus, you'll never find the perfect plan. It doesn't exist," Naruto told him. "What we've got now will work. We've got the advantage here."

"Yeah, you're right. Their numbers won't help them in here, anyway."

"I think you're forgetting the Tribe," Kojirō commented. "They are a cut above the rest of the mercs you've managed to piss off."

"How do you know about the Tribe, anyway?" Miranda asked him, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Enough to know that it is unwise to underestimate them," he answered with a smile on his lips.

"Answer her question," Musashi told him.

"I did. Weren't you listening?"

"You dodged the question and you know it. Now answer it proper."

"Or what?" he asked glibly. What he got was a smack on his hand from the bokken, making him drop the sword and then feeling the bokken on his neck. "Ah, that kind of what," he said without a care on Omega.

"Answer the question," Musashi repeated.

"Alright, alright, they've done some dealings with Aria. Nothing that horrendous or big," he explained. "And please don't ask why she would do something like that, Commander," he said to Naruto.

"Why would I?" the blonde asked him. "I know what she is and what this place is."

"Ah good, and here I thought that I was going to have rid you of a couple of notions."

"Then it's obvious that you've been blind and dead a couple of hours ago."

"I take the reunion between you and the Pirate Queen didn't go so romantically?" Garrus asked him with an amused tone to his voice.

"Were you expecting something else?"

"Not really, no. I'm just a little curious on how you plan to get her back, if you are planning to get her back."

"Simple, I'm going to wash dishes."

"…Is that a euphemism I don't know about?" he asked, wanting to be sure.

"Nope, I'm actually going to wash dishes."

"Why?"

A smile, a rare kind since he had woken up, formed on his lips. "One of the things that Jiraiya taught me that actually held water. 'There's nothing sexier to a woman then a man doing household chores.'"

Everyone stared at him like he had said the weirdest thing in the entirety of the universe. "…You must be joking," Miranda finally said.

"I'm not," he replied. "There is nothing sexier to a woman then a man doing household chores. It's why Jiraiya always sealed away a vacuum cleaner and other assorted cleaning equipment when going away on one of his long trips."

"A…A vacuum cleaner?" repeated Jacob with a severe look of disbelief on his face. "You can't be serious."

"I am serious. Where do you think he slept when he was in a city or something? He would call on one of the women he knew, get himself invited in, cook them dinner then clean the dishes or vacuum the house."

"That can't actually work," Musashi protested.

"Of course it does. I've done it myself."

"You have?"

"Of course, I've done it on Aria."

"One of your proudest moments," Kurama said with dry amusement but also pride too.

"You've done it on Aria?" Garrus repeated.

"Yep," the blonde replied. "Cooked her dinner one time and then went to clean the dishes. We never made it to the bedroom."

"Nice," Ruko said with a grin.

"Very impressive," Erik said. "I approve."

"Gotta say, that's something I'll have to remember," Zaeed remarked with a feral grin.

Garrus just shook his head and turned his attention back to the balcony. "We have company," he announced as he looked through the scope of his rifle. "Hmm…and it looks like they figured out their infiltration team failed."

"What do we have?" Naruto asked him, coming up beside him.

"Take a look." He offered the scope to the blonde. "Scouts. Eclipse, I think."

He took a look through the scope and saw LOKI mechs coming over the barricade and down the boulevard. "Are mechs usually the scouts?" he asked as he took his eye off the scope.

"If it's Eclipse, usually," the turian replied, taking back the gun. "We'd better get ready."

"Any ideas besides shooting them?" he asked.

"I don't suppose one of your teammates could rig up some EMP mines to stall them long enough."

His face fell flat at those words. "…Yes and no," he said.

"What does that mean?"

"Yes, I do have someone like that on the team. No, she's not here with us."

"Why not?" asked Garrus.

"It's Cuanmiztli."

He looked at the blonde with stunned surprise on his face. "She's alive?"

Naruto nodded once. "She got out of Virmire alive. The Akatsuki helped her get out."

"What about Kaidan?"

"No, he's still dead. I just don't know if it was from the geth or not."

He looked intently at him. "You think that she did it?"

"I don't know, yet." But he would find out.

"Gaki, could you focus on the matter at hand, please?" Kurama asked. "You have robots coming your way ready and willing to shoot you."

"I am aware," he replied shortly. He turned around to face his team and Garrus's. "Anyone else know how to handle a sniper rifle?"

"I have some training, Commander," Jacob answered.

"As do I," Erik said seriously.

Musashi shrugged his shoulders. "I'm a decent shot."

"Really?" asked Kojirō with a false expression of wonder on his face. "Whenever were you going to tell me about it?"

"Hopefully never," he replied shortly.

"Were you hoping to take me out another way? That won't do, Musashi. You remember our promise, right?"

"I was with C-Sec. They wanted me to learn something useful."

"And your bokken wasn't useful?" He sounded oddly insulted by that implication.

"Take it up with them."

"Guys," Garrus said, getting the attention of the taller one. "Let's focus on getting out of here alive, huh?"

"That is a good plan," Erik declared. "Where do you keep the rifles again?"

"Over there on that sofa," he answered, jerking his head over to his right. They looked at where he had pointed and saw the sofa in question, a long one just like the others in the room but stacked with additional rifles.

"Aren't you glad we raided the Blue Suns armory before getting stuck here?" he asked as he, Musashi, and Jacob went over to the rifles and picked out their own.

"We should switch to the Raiton clips," Musashi said to the other two. "They'll be the best form of attack against the mechs."

"Good point," Jacob conceded, already going for the clip in question.

"In the meantime, the rest of us will head downstairs," Naruto said to Garrus. "If any get through, we'll take care of them."

"That's a good idea," the turian said back. "We'll stay up here. We can do a lot of damage from this vantage point."

"Okay." A rare smirk came onto his lips at that moment. "And Garrus, if any do actually make it through, I will be very disappointed in you."

His mandibles twitched slightly as he reined in his humor. "Well, then I should probably make sure I don't disappoint. After all, I am the best sniper you've ever had in the Normandy Clan."

"Oh Kami save me," thought the blonde in disbelief.

The Bijū, on the other hand, started to snigger. "I guess that name isn't going anywhere," Shukaku declared.

"Thank you for stating the obvious, captain." He pulled his attention away from inside and looked at Garrus. "You mean to say that I could find a better sniper out there?"

The turian snorted at that. "I'd like to see you try."

"Uh-huh. See you after the fight, Garrus."

"You too, Commander," he said before putting his helmet back on going back onto the balcony. Erik put his horned helmet back on and Musashi pulled a balaclava from a pouch on his belt and put it. Jacob activated his helmet and his visor go dark so his face would be hidden. All three of them went to the balcony beside Garrus and started firing.

The rest of them left the room. Naruto activated his helmet again, letting it slide up over his head and enclose around him before pulling up the hood. "So that's what we're going to do?" Ruko asked. "Just hold the down the front door in case anyone else gets through?"

"There's not much else you can do, is there?" Miranda asked her.

"Shut up, cheerleader," she snapped back. "I wasn't talking to you."

"She's right, Ruko," Naruto told his sister as they walked down the steps. "Those who are good shots with sniper rifles are already upstairs. We're better off down here and stop them from getting in."

"That is if the front door is the only way in," Zaeed pointed as they came down to the main level.

He looked at the merc for a long moment. "That's a good point." He activated the comm in his ear. "Garrus, is there any way else into here besides the front door?"

"Yeah, there is," Garrus answered.

"What are they and where are they?"

"There's the basement. The door to that is on the west side of the main room."

"Miranda, go lock it."

"On it, Commander," Miranda replied before turning west and going to find the door.

"I shall go with her," Kojirō decided, going after her before anyone could say otherwise.

"Anywhere else?" he asked Garrus through the comm.

"Just the other doors on the main level," the turian answered. "Don't worry, we had them locked at the start of this little siege."

"We'll double check them."

"Be my guest."

The comm went quiet and he looked at the other two members of his team. "Zaeed, Ruko, go check those doors."

"Didn't he already say that they were locked?" Ruko asked him.

"Yes."

"Then why the hell are we checking them?"

"Because I want to make sure they are locked and we don't get ambushed suddenly."

"He's got a point, so just move it," Zaeed told her.

"Fine, whatever," she said in defeat but with a roll of her eyes.

"You know who she reminds me of?" Kurama asked as she and Zaeed went to check those doors.

"Are you going to tell me even when I don't want to know?" his Jinchūriki asked back. As he waited, he could hear the sounds of bullets being fired from up above. It provided a steady rhythm to his ears.

"Yes. She reminds me of is you when you were younger and stupider."

"…If this was any other time and I was different, I might've argued about that. But I can see where you're getting that from."

"Well, whatta ya know? You could actually admit to being stupid when you were younger. I'm so proud of you, gaki!"

"Shut up, I'm trying to make sure that we don't die out here."

"You're standing there in the middle of the room listening to the guys up shooting the robots."

There were also shouts of victory coming faintly from the ceiling, but he wasn't going to try and argue that point. "I'm waiting for the others to come back."

"Of course you are," the fox said with utmost dryness.

"Are the rest of you not going to say anything?" he asked, looking at the other eight Bijū in his head.

"Nah, you seem to have this covered," Son said with a grin.

"Lord Uzumaki, come in," a voice spoke through the comm.

"What the…?" He didn't have anyone on his team or Garrus's contacting him. They were all doing what they had been told to do. So who was on his comm?

"Lord Uzumaki, come in," that same voice repeated itself. Whoever it belonged to, it sounded human and male. It was also coming to him from a frequency he didn't know and didn't use.

"Who's contacting me?" he asked through the comm to the others. "Is it one of you guys?"

"Not me," Ruko answered.

"Same here," Zaeed told him.

"It's not me, Commander," Miranda replied.

"A little busy here to be talking to you, Uzumaki," Garrus remarked. "Scoped and dropped!"

"Nice shot, Vakarian!" Erik congratulated him. "Also, I did not contact you, Commander Uzumaki."

"Neither did I," Musashi said.

"I didn't either," Kojirō announced.

"Well, that's the usual suspects," Gyūki declared. "Anyone else you know who could be contacting you, Naruto?"

"If I did, would I be asking who it was?" he asked the Hachibi.

"Hmm, good point."

"Lord Uzumaki, come in," the voice spoke a third time.

"Who is this?" he demanded, finally speaking to the voice.

"This is Shin of the Ronin."

"What do you want?"

"You seem to be in a little bit of a pickle. You're hemmed into that building with everyone on this side gunning for you."

"Thank you for noticing." The sarcasm in his voice was thick enough to paint with. "Perhaps you've also noticed that you're a part of that other side?"

"For the moment," the voice replied.

He went still at those words. "What do you mean by that?"

"With the right incentive, things will not be so sure over on this side of the boulevard."

"…Are you saying that if I paid you, your group will be willing to turn on the others and start a bloodbath?" he asked, his voice showing an anger that was growing. He might've planned to do the same thing but he would've done it himself. He wouldn't have hired mercs to do it for him.

"Hmph, mercenaries," Son said. "Over two thousand years and nothing has ever changed."

"I hear that," Shukaku agreed with the Yonbi.

But the answer the merc on the other end of the comm gave was not an actual answer. "Not…exactly."

"What in the name of Kami is that supposed to mean?"

"Ah, hell," the other voice said. "You really don't remember, do you?"

"Are you going to start making sense any time soon?"

"Hang on; the boss wanted me to tell you something that would make you believe us. How does it go again...? Oh, right. The only way to win the long game…"

"Is to rig it in your odds," he answered immediately, the words coming out of his mouth without him even thinking about it. "What the…?"

"Don't look at us, kit," Kurama told him. "That wasn't any of us."

"Good to know you remember that," Shin said to him.

"Remember what? What is he going on about?" And yet, for some odd reason, he felt like he could trust what he had been told.

"When you're ready, give us the signal. Contact me on this frequency." The line went dead, leaving him alone.

"What's the plan, Naruto?" Saiken asked him.

He didn't answer the Rokubi. Instead he activated the comm. "Garrus, how's it coming?"

"We're making some headway. Though looks like they're about to send out the big guns," the turian replied.

"Which means what?"

"Eclipse has a heavy mech," Musashi answered him. "I can see it being prepped."

"Don't worry about it. It's been taken care of."

"Are you sure about that?" Garrus asked him.

"Yeah, I'm sure. When they deploy that heavy mech, don't try shooting it. I want you to pull back and regroup down here with me."

"You want us to do what?" Erik asked, confusion painting his thick accent.

"You heard me, Erik." He had a feeling that they wouldn't be so sure about his plan. That wasn't needed now. "Garrus, do you trust me?"

"Yes, I do."

"Then pull back when the heavy mech is deployed."

"…Alright."

"Thank you, Garrus." To the others, he had something else to say. "Everyone else, how are we looking?"

"The basement is clear," Miranda declared.

"And such in clean conditions too," Kojirō added. "You've done some excellent work down here, Musashi. Really, I'm impressed."

"Is he always this annoying?" Naruto asked the bokken wielder through the comm.

"Only when he's trying to piss me off," he replied.

"Keep whatever history you two have under wraps for now. We don't need it."

"Tell that to him, not me."

"No need to worry, I heard it loud and clear," the other human declared.

"I doubt it."

"Anyway," the blonde continued, "Zaeed, how about you and Ruko?"

"The doors are fucking fine!" his sister shouted across the room.

"I can hear you through the comm, Ruko. There's no need to shout at me."

"Oh, there's a need!"

"The doors are fine. They're locked nice and tight," Zaeed told him over the comm.

"That's what I told him!" Ruko shouted, this time more at the merc rather than him.

"I wasn't sure if he could hear over the screaming," he replied glibly.

"Ooh, I like him," Shukaku said with a grin. "Are you keeping him?"

"He's not a pet," Naruto told the tanuki.

"Not to you."

"He's a human being who has the right to choose what he wants to do."

"Of course he does. So, are you keeping him?"

He restrained the urge to groan and mutter something insulting. It wouldn't do anything so why should he bother? "Shukaku, the guy already said that he was hired to be on the team," Chōmei reminded the Ichibi. "That means he's staying."

"Oh good," he declared happily. "We need some humor around here."

"We have enough of that already," the Jinchūriki told him.

"No, we don't. We really don't."

He chose to ignore him and focus back on everyone else. "If everything is good, then fall back to me."

"Aye-aye, Commander," Miranda replied.

"On our way," Zaeed told him.

"We are in the same room! We don't need to use the fucking comms!" Ruko shouted.

"You see what I mean about you as a kid?" Kurama asked him, clearly enjoying it.

"I heard you the first time, fox."

"Just making sure," he said with a grin.

They quickly rejoined him next to the stairs. "What now?" Zaeed asked him.

"We wait."

"For what?" he asked.

As if on cue, Garrus came onto the comm. "Commander, they deployed the heavy mech."

"And what's happening?" Naruto asked him.

"It's…son of a bitch!"

"Garrus, what's happening?"

"It reacting just like how Miranda programmed it, Commander," Jacob answered. "It's turned its guns on the barricade. The mercenaries are shooting it for us. We won't have to worry about it."

"Good. Pull back now. If you're not in love with the rifle you're holding, leave it behind."

"Are you nuts?" Erik asked him. "You don't just leave a weapon behind?"

"It happens all the time. Just leave it."

"Erik, we don't have time to argue," Garrus told the giant blonde. "Just drop it and move. You're already carrying enough as it is with that axe and mortar."

"Ugh, fine! But I am not happy with this!"

"Duly noted," Naruto said. "Now move."

The sounds of feet moving quickly were heard overhead. They appeared on the upstairs floor and quickly went to the stairs, coming down in a buzz of stomping feet. They were beside the rest of the team in seconds. "Okay, we're here," Garrus noticed.

"No, really?" asked a sarcastic Ruko.

"Ruko, do be quiet," Miranda all but ordered her.

"Bite me and blow it out your ass," she snapped back.

"Enough," Naruto told them both. They quieted down at the hidden command.

"What now, Commander?" Jacob asked him.

"Find cover by the front door. Don't step out just yet." They did as he instructed. The door opened when they were close enough but they did not move out, giving them a perfect view of the heavy mech laying waste to the barricade.

Garrus has a zoom feature on his mini-visor, which he used to watch more closely. "Looks like that mech just took out Jaroth," he said with vicious satisfaction.

"You know the guy?" Zaeed asked him.

"We used to, unfortunately," Musashi answered. "He's been after us for a while now since I bashed his brother's legs in and Garrus put a bullet through his eye."

"Lovely image," Miranda remarked.

"Feeling nauseated by that image, cheerleader?" Ruko asked her.

"Hardly," she replied with a snap.

"Why don't I believe you?"

"I said enough," Naruto said to them both. They fell silent once more.

Ka-boom!

"And there's goes our break time," Zaeed declared as the heavy mech's scope exploded and the machine fell down to the ground. "Now what do we do?"

"Yes, what do we do now, Naruto?" Kurama asked him, half sarcastic but also half serious.

He activated the comm. "Shin, you still out there?" he asked.

"Nice to hear from you," the voice on the other end spoke. "Are you ready for us?"

"Yes."

"Alrighty then, just give us the word and we'll get right to it."

"You heard him, Naruto," Kokuō said. "Tell him to go ahead."

"He didn't say that," Isobu protested. "He said give them the word. He didn't mention what the word was."

"He's right," Matatabi said in agreement.

"Any ideas?" asked Gyūki.

"None that come to mind," the Nibi replied.

"I've got squat," Chōmei told them, sounding a little embarrassed to actually say those words.

"How about you, Kurama?" asked Isobu, looking at the fox.

He didn't answer the turtle, instead keeping his attention on his Jinchūriki. "What's it going to be, Naruto?"

He knew he shouldn't know what the word was. It could've been one in the millions of words he knew and that was only in the one language he actually knew. There were many other languages out there in the universe and the word could be from any of them. How would they figure out which species of languages was the right one and then, by extension, the right language and the right word to use? It was enough to make someone's head hurt.

But his didn't. In fact, he wasn't worried about that little problem. A word came bubbling out of nowhere and popped up in his mind. "Riptide," he said automatically.

The comm went dead and they began to wait in silence. "Well, that was hopeful," Zaeed remarked drily.

"We just need to patient," the armored and hooded blonde told him.

"Good thing I'm no stranger to that."

"Where did riptide come from?" Saiken asked.

"I don't know," Naruto told the slug.

"But you said it."

"It just came to me, okay?"

"Hang on, something's going on," Garrus announced, his mini-visor zooming in for all it could.

Everyone turned their attentions to him. "What do you got?" Naruto asked him.

"I don't believe it," he said in surprise as he kept staring through the mini-visor.

"What is happening?" Erik asked him.

"They're actually fighting against one another!"

"What?"

"Garrus, are you sure?" Musashi asked him.

"I know what I'm looking at," he replied, his voice still showing his surprise. His eye was locked in on the sight of gunfire, biotics, and what looked like fire, water, and lightning (which meant jutsus) were erupting from behind the barricade. "They're fighting each other."

"So what do we do now?" Jacob asked him.

"Do you really have to fucking ask that question?" Ruko asked back. "We make a run for it!"

"She's right," Naruto agreed as he pulled out his pistols and inserted a Katon and Fūton clip in them. "Weapons out and ready to be used," he ordered them all. "Garrus, I hope you got something else then that rifle. We can't have you hanging in the back."

"I'm fine," Garrus told him as he pulled out a grenade launcher. "This will add to their confusion and soften them up a little for us."

"Good to hear." He looked at Musashi and Erik then at their weapons. "I hope you two know how to use those things because you're going to be out in front with Kojirō."

"Oh goody, I'll have company," Kojirō commented.

"We know how to use them. You can trust us," Erik assured him. The horned giant pulled out his broad-axe and held it in both hands. His hands came alight with chakra and symbols appeared on the blade, burning bright blue.

Musashi pulled out his bokken and held it in his left hand whilst making a common seal with the other. "Kōton: Togu (Steel style: Sharpen)," he whispered. The bokkenturned a shade of dark grey and stayed like that.

"We're ready," Miranda told Naruto. Everyone had a weapon out and was ready to use it. The only one who wasn't like that was Kojirō with his sheathed sword, but his stance showed that he was ready.

Naruto activated the comm once more. "Shin, we're coming out."

"Thank you for the notification, my lord," the voice replied, sounding strained. "We'll try to stay out of your way as you leave." The line went dead.

"Go, go, go!" he shouted, taking the lead as he charged out the door.

"Do you remember when I said you were Mr. Charge-straight-in?" Kurama asked him. "It also applies to charging straight out too."

"A little busy here, fox. I'm trying to make sure we get out of here alive."

"Far be it from me to stop you from achieving that goal. Go on, do your job."

"Thank you ever so much."

"You guys have been around each other for too long," Shukaku declared.

"Two thousand years will do that."

"That's not what I meant and you know it, moronic fox."

"Hey, I don't need the arguing," Naruto told them both. "Can it." They fell silent, leaving him to concentrate on running down the boulevard. Everyone else followed his lead. But even though they were running, they didn't scream any battle-cries. They didn't need to announce what they were doing, not until they had to.

Garrus fired the first few rounds of grenades over the barricade just as they started climbing up over it. They could hear the explosions as well as feel them, like a big boom and shockwave mixing in together. If they didn't have solid grips, some of them might've fallen down.

"Whoa, that has got some kick to it," Son commented.

"I noticed," Naruto replied.

When they got over the barricade, they saw the entire situation. It wasn't just the Blue Suns and the Blood Pack fighting against the Ronin. It was every merc group for themselves. There was fighting happening everywhere. At points, one merc would fight another only to suddenly turn his attention to someone else and fight them.

Musashi and Erik were out in front of him, cutting out a path. Blood flew in arcs from their weapons as they moved. The mercs who had the unfortunate problem of being in their way fell like wheat to a sickle. Those who had the time to react and try to fight didn't last long. Honed skills and a need to get out alive made the two of them fight harder and faster.

Kojirō was behind them, his overly long sword drawn and slashing through anyone who came close. If somebody had taken the time to actually look at him, they would've noticed his movements had a casual, almost stroll-like quality to them even though he was moving at the same pace everyone else was. Another odd thing they would've noticed was that he only went after the ones who tried attacking Musashi that he hadn't noticed.

Everyone else had their guns out and were shooting them at anyone who tried to come close. Fortunately, the mercs were more concerned about fighting one another then them so only a few actually tried coming after them. They kept their heads down and their faces guarded as they move through the chaos, slipping past the second barricade.

But that was where their streak of luck finally ran out. "Archangel is getting away!" a loud batarian voice shouted out, getting the attention of everyone. It came from a batarian in Blue Suns armor standing by the barricade "He's right there! Blue Suns, regroup and kill him!"

"Damn it, that's Tarek," Garrus groused as they suddenly became bogged down just in front of the barricade as a group of Blue Suns and Blood Pack attacked them.

"Doesn't matter," Naruto said to him. "We keep pushing through." He fired a Katon bullet at a vorcha, burning it to death.

"Has anyone else noticed something odd?" Kojirō asked as he beheaded a batarian.

"What?" Miranda asked him while she sent a group of fighting mercs flying with a swing of her biotics.

"Where is the Tribe?"

They all did a quick look around and truly saw no markings on any of the mercs that announced they were a part of the Tribe. All they saw were Blue Suns, Blood Pack, and Ronin. No Tribesmen were sighted. "They must've pulled back when the fighting started," Garrus said. "They might be waiting for us in an ambush."

"We're going to have to be on our guard," Jacob declared.

"You mean we weren't already?" Zaeed sarcastically asked before shooting a Blue Suns turian in the stomach, sending him down to the ground screaming.

"Ease off on the sarcasm and stay focused," Naruto told him. "The Blue Suns are regrouping." They could see the mercy group fighting through the other two to link up and become a fighting force. For some reason he did not know, he activated his comm. "Shin, make sure they don't fully regroup. And give us a path out of here too!"

"Why are you asking a merc for help?" Kurama asked.

"I don't know. It just felt like the right idea."

"You don't even know what the guy looks like."

"I'm aware but do we have any other choice?" He didn't get an answer. "I thought not."

"Looks like they heard ya," Ruko announced. The Ronin were now fighting just as hard to stop the Blue Suns as they were trying to regroup. As for that path, it suddenly opened with a flash of water that swept away the group that was bogging them down. It carried them all the way to the wall, slamming them against it.

They fell to the ground, drenched in water. Lightning arced through the air and struck, electrocuting them to death. They twisted in place and screamed but soon fell dead. "Thank you to whoever did that!" Erik shouted into the din.

"Keep moving, we're halfway through," Naruto urged them all. They started moving again, running right past the second barricade.

"Katon: Endan (Fire Style: Flame Bullet)!"

"Fūton: Renkūdan (Wind Style: Drilling Air Bullet)!"

They heard these two jutsu be cried out again and again as they ran, clearing the path for them. If bodies weren't being dismembered by the air bullets, they were being burned to a quick crisp by the flame ones. Their shields could barely hold against one jutsu and they were being struck with multiple ones. The path that was carved out was littered with their dead bodies, but they were stepped over all the same.

As they made it past the last barricade, another Einherjar appeared from out of nowhere, leaping down at Musashi with his own broad-axe. Musashi didn't see until it was a second too late. He tried to raise his bokken up to stop the axe but it slipped past and bit deep into his right shoulder. "Ah!" he bit out with a pain breath, falling to one knee and clutching the wounded shoulder.

Erik shoved the other Einherjar back but it was Kojirō who killed him with a single swing that bisected him right down the middle. "Musashi, can you stand?" Garrus asked him.

"Yeah, I can," he answered, standing back up. He was still clutching his shoulder as blood leaked through the armor.

"Anything injured?"

"I don't know. He got me good."

"Alright, stay out of the fight. You," he pointed at Kojirō, "make sure he stays alive."

"That was the plan," the swordsman replied, slugging a supportive arm around Musashi, who responded in kind. They still held their weapons ready to be used.

"Keep moving!"

They ran past the last barricade and through the door they had come through the first time around. The corridors were just as full of mercs fighting each as the barricades had been. "Is this going to be a constant problem?" Erik asked out loud.

"I'm guessing so," Garrus told him.

"No worries," Ruko declared, moving to the front. "I got this." Her biotics flared red and she lifted her fist up and back.

"Ruko, wait!" Naruto told her. But it was too late. She threw the punch and sent her biotics flying down the hall, bowling over everyone there and sending the unlucky ones smashing into the walls.

"Takes care of that," she declared.

"You idiot!" he told her. "Are you trying to get us caught?!"

She looked at him with surprise in her eyes. "How was that going to get us caught?"

"You've just alerted everyone else in the rooms ahead that we're coming!"

"Don't be so hard, Naruto," Kurama told him, obviously amused by all of it. "You used to do the same thing when you were younger."

"Not now, Kurama!"

"Hey, I'm just saying."

"Well, no use whining about it now," his sister declared. "Let's keep it moving!"

They moved down the corridor, stepping over the bodies as they went. "I need to have a talk with her soon," Naruto thought to himself.

"Oh, like how someone needed to have a talk with you?" the fox asked him.

"I already said not now!"

The next room was full of mercs, none of which were the Ronin. They all had their guns out and pointing at the door. "Oh yeah!" said Ruko. "Come get—!"

"Miranda, pull her back!" her brother shouted.

"Wha—hey!" she protested as she was pulled back by Miranda.

"Everyone out of the way!" he ordered. They all pulled back from the door but stayed close enough to keep it open. The bullets flew through the open door and struck against the opposing wall, sounding like angry bees charging en masse to their deaths. It spoke to their professionalism that the mercs stopped shooting as quickly as they had started.

"Okay, now what?" Garrus asked him. "We're going to be in a tight spot once that other door open."

"Anyone got a flashbang?" he asked.

"Isn't that Cuanmiztli's job?" Jacob asked back. Why did they leave that Hunter on the ship again?

"Everyone relax, I've got one," Zaeed declared. He pulled out the flashbang from a pouch hidden in his own armor. "Here." He tossed it up to Naruto, who then threw it into the room. The flash and sound came a second later.

"Move through!" the blonde commanded, going through the door. They followed, seeing that the mercs were covering their eyes and/or ears. It made getting through a lot more easier. But just to make sure that there wasn't any more problems with them trying to follow; Naruto took to shooting them in the legs as he moved. The others saw what he was doing and followed his example.

Once they were past the room, they were back outside in the district proper and there were no more mercs either fighting each other or trying to attack them. "Whew, glad to finally get out of that mess," Garrus declared as he lowered his rifle and slowed his pace down. "I've forgotten how we were held up in there."

"Like you were actually counting," Musashi said through gritted teeth, still holding his shoulder.

"We're not out of the woods just yet," Zaeed told them all as they walked back to the stairs the team had climbed up when they got there. "We're not safe until we're in home territory."

"Hey, we got out," Garrus said, turning to face him. "I'd count that as a—"

"Vakarian, look out!" Erik shouted at him suddenly.

He turned and saw the grenade flying towards him. "Oh shi—!" he start to swear and turn away, only for the grenade to explode as it happened. The blast sent him crashing to the ground and he landed limply.

"Garrus!" shouted Naruto, stepping towards him. "Please don't be dead!"

"Don't move," a voice of an asari told him. "If you move, I will kill him." He froze in place and watched as the asari the voice belonged to walked up the stairs. She was cased in neck to toe white armor, with only a black triangle on her breastplate declaring who she belonged to. She wasn't wearing a helmet, letting her blue head be seen for all.

More Tribesmen cased in white armor followed her up, a couple of salarians, turians, and a few more asaris. They all had their weapons out and pointed at them, making them hold their place. "Good, very good," the lead asari told him, striding forward to him. She held two pistols like he did. "Drop the weapons." The War Hawks clattered as they hit the ground. "Face me, if you'd please." He turned to look at her and she saw the snarling fox on the helmet. She wasn't very impressed with it or him. "They told me to be careful when it came to you, but I don't see what the problem is. I'll admit that paying off one of the mercs in there to start fighting was smart, but we saw coming and pulled out just in time. So, points for effort."

"Who are you?" he asked her.

"Sorry, I only give my name to my friends. But you can call me the Huntress. And this is would be my hunting pack." She jerked her head back at the group behind her.

"Quite the arrogant bitch, isn't she?" Shukaku asked rhetorically.

"You don't get to talk, you're the one who got us into this mess," Gyūki reminded him.

"No, I did not!"

"Who's the one who jinxed us?" Chōmei demanded.

"That was about the gunship! Do you see a gunship anywhere in sight?"

"I'd asked you what you want, but that's a stupid question, isn't it?" Naruto asked the asari.

"Yes, yes it is," she replied, looking down her nose at him. "The Tribe wants their little lab rat back and I always deliver."

"I'm no one's lab rat," he growled at her, getting angry at her words.

"But you are. You see, the Tribe is on the verge of finally figuring out how to make chakra for the galaxy and they have you to thank for it. But they still need you to finish their work, so back to the lab you go." The way she spoke she made it sound like it was already going to happen. It didn't raise his opinion of her.

"What if I say no?"

She laughed at that. "You don't seem to understand, so I'll lay it out for you. If you or any of your team makes a move, mine will shoot to kill and they don't miss. You can't use your chakra so there's no possible way for you to trick your way out of this situation. You could fight back, but the scientists don't exactly need you whole in order to continue their work. So after killing your team, I'll just hack off a limb or two to make sure you don't go anywhere. You might as well just give up and surrender yourself to me so you can go back to being poked and prodded for the betterment of the galaxy."

"The betterment of the galaxy," he repeated. "Is that what they're telling you?"

"Humans are being selfish when it comes to chakra, holding it all to yourself. What you have should be shared with the entire galaxy. But you're selfish and hold it all for yourself. If you won't give it, we will have to force to take it," she told him, all the while looking down her nose at him.

"Sounds like she's quoting people who've said the same thing but better," Saiken commented.

"Forget quoting. I'm willing to be that she's paraphrasing," Son declared.

"You don't have any money."

"Neither do you."

"So you think that because it's for the betterment of the galaxy, I should go with you to be experimented on?" Naruto asked her.

She shrugged her shoulders, still looking down her nose. "Whether you come willing with me or not doesn't matter. You're coming with me."

He indulged her a little bit since he could see that she was enjoying herself. "You willing think that I'm going to go with you? I'm going to die if they get their hands on me again."

"Not my problem. They want you, they get you. I never fail to deliver."

"Well, this time you will."

She laughed an arrogant laugh that made him want to grate his teeth. "You just don't get it, do you? I have you beat. You make a single twitch, the people behind you die and just so I can break your spirit so it'll be easier on me, I'll have my guys kill them slow and horribly. And it'll all be on you."

"Gaki, could you just get a move on, already?" Kurama asked him. "Your friend is on the ground and is probably dying."

"I'm aware," he replied. "You're right," he told the Huntress. "Humans are selfish. I'm selfish. I'm selfish in that I don't want to die. I'm selfish in that I want to be free."

"Like I said, not my problem," she told him.

"Actually, it is. And also, you don't have me beat." He lifted his head slightly up and spoke out loud. "Kill them, keep her alive."

His words made no sense to her, not until she started hearing bodies hitting the floor. She turned around and saw her team dropping like flies while more armored and hooded people stood behind their fallen bodies, looking exactly her target. "What? How…? He can't have his chakra!" she thought in shock.

"You should've listened to what they had to say about me," she heard the original say. "I'm not to be underestimated." She turned back to look at the original, only to see a kunai coming towards her.

He didn't hesitate as he plunged the kunai into her eye with one hand and muffled her screaming with the other. "Never threaten my comrades. Not unless you can back it up," he told her as he let gravity take hold of her. She collapsed to the ground in a heap, groaning and twitching as she held her face.

He stared at her for a long moment before turning to Garrus once more, picking up his guns and sheathing them as he moved. "Garrus, Garrus, talk to me," he said, reaching down for the turian and rolling him over. The right side of his face was burnt to a black mess.

"Naruto, there's blood on the ground," Kokuō said quietly. "There's a lot of it."

He could see the blood from underneath the ground. "He's not dead."

"Naruto—"

"He's not dead!" And as if to prove his words true, Garrus opened his eyes and breathed out weakly. "Garrus!" he said with relief. He looked up at Miranda. "Get the Normandy on the line. Tell them to the medical bay ready!"

"Aye-aye, Commander," she said, already going for her comm.

"Jacob, grab his other side." He was already picking up Garrus's left arm and slugging it over his shoulder. While Jacob did the same with the right (and getting a pained groan from the turian), the clones standing behind the dead Tribesmen dispelled themselves.

"What the hell was that?" Musashi asked, finally finding his voice. "What did you do?"

"Had a batch of clones behind us disguised as freelancers follow us down and hang back out of sight so we could get some help. Come on, we need to get moving." He and Jacob started to carry Garrus to the steps and then down them. The two batarians that had been there before were already dead on the ground with bullet holes in their heads.

The shuttle was opened, allowing them all to get in. As Erik took the controls and started it up, Miranda told him where to go. They all felt the shuttle lift off the ground, turn in the air, and fly out the way it came. They all relaxed slightly, thinking that they were safe, when they started getting gunfire.

"What the—?" swore Zaeed from his seat.

"It's Tarek!" Erik announced. "He's after us in the gunship! Hang on; I will try to lose him."

"Don't do that," Kojirō told him, taking his weapon in one hand and making a handseal with the other. "In fact, could you open the glass?"

"Why would I do that?"

"So I can take care of the problem. Trust me, I can do it."

"Erik, do it," Musashi told the blonde giant. To Kojirō, he said, "Don't miss."

"When have I ever?" The glass top opened and he stood up, angling himself off to the side. He drew his sword, swung it once, and then sat down back down, sheathing it. "Okay, you can close it now."

Boom!

They heard that explosion from right behind them, muted as it was due to the glass closing on them. If they could've looked back and seen it just before the explosion, they would've seen the gunship (and the batarian flying it) cut vertically in half.

"Well, that was anti-climactic," Shukaku commented as the shuttle flew to the docks.

---

Codex Entry (Politics): SYSTEMS ALLIANCE AND THE BATARIAN HEGEMONY

While at first, relations between the Systems Alliance and the Batarian Hegemony were nonexistent, save for official Citadel business. But as the Alliance began to colonize the Skyllian Verge and the Council refused to intervene, the Hegemony cut all ties and retreated to their own space.

As the Alliance continued to colonize, their colonies were struck repeatedly by pirates and slavers. While many in the Alliance suspected that these attacks were being funded by another body of government, specifically the Hegemony due to the number of batarians sighted, all that could be proven was they belonged to various criminal organizations. In response, they began the redistribution of the Marines to the outermost colonies.

But as that transition was occurring, the slavers struck again, on the Alliance colony on Mindoir. Later reports would say that the colonists that had been killed first were the lucky ones. Those that had been taken alive were treated cruelly by the batarian slavers. When the Alliance dispatch two Marine battalions to retake Mindoir, they were able to breach the slavers' defenses and send them fleeing from the planet. But not before they took the remaining colonists with them.

The atrocity of such an attack steeled the Alliance and redistributed the Marines en masse. They also deployed the top forces of the Shinobi (See: ANBU) to the Terminus System to find, hunt down, and kill any pirate or slaver they found. These dual tactics, now known as the Iron Left and the Silent Right, kept things in a stalemate between the Alliance and the various criminal organizations attacking them.

One of the earliest victories in this silent war was the recovery of the Mindoir colonists (See: the Lorek Recovery). When discovered, an ANBU agent called in support from the Alliance, who promptly sent in said support in the form of the Marines. All colonists had been rescued in the attempt and the slavers themselves had been captured. In a rare kind of mercy and cruelness, the Marines released the slavers and sent them back to the Hegemony. But they were sent back without their tongues or their hands. The Alliance fully supported this action, declaring that the slavers "would never be able to brag about what they did or do those things to any human again."

It is believed that the recovery of the colonists is what prompted the next major attack against the Alliance (See: the Skyllian Blitz). The attack on the colony of Elysium was by a massive force of the pirates and slavers that had been raiding them. It had been sudden and from out of nowhere. It might have succeeded in working if not for three factors. The first was that the five Kages of the Elemental Countries had been there and with them, a full contingent of shinobi guards for each Kage. The second was that when a breach in the defenses had been made in the northern section of the colony, it was quickly sealed before any could get through by one man (See: Elysium's Saint), thus stalling the time on the ground. The third was that Elysium was a city most comprised of people from the Elemental Countries on Earth. By the time the battle had ended, it was a disaster for the invading forces and they fled when reinforcements showed.

For the next two years, only the raids continued and were either stopped at the attempt or when they tried to get away. And then just as suddenly as Elysium had, an Alliance fleet had appeared over the moon of Torfan, a known location of criminals, most of which were batarians, and laid siege to it, ending it in complete annihilation of the strongholds on the moon (See: Torfan's Demon).

In the aftermath, the Alliance revealed that the Silent Right had not just been hunting down slavers; they had also been collecting information. That information was revealed to be that the Batarian Hegemony had funded every raid and capture since the very beginning, funneling their money through the criminal organizations, effectively making them the leaders of it all. While the Hegemony protested this, the evidence was clear to be seen.

That same Alliance fleet began making its way towards batarian space. Many suspected that the Alliance would declare war on the Hegemony but no declaration was made by them. The Hegemony declared war on the Alliance and ordered the incoming fleet to be destroyed. But no Hegemony fleet ever succeeded as another Alliance fleet would always appear to strike them and force them to flee.

When the first Alliance fleet reached the mass relay that led to the batarian home system, they did not go through it. Instead, they sent a single ship through. When the ship arrived in the system, it broadcasted a video to the Hegemony. Later, it was revealed that as the fleet made their way to the mass relay, ANBU agents had snuck onto Khar'shan and kidnapped the leaders of the Hegemony. The video was of them on their knees with guns pointed at them. Once the video had been seen, the Alliance ordered the Hegemony to stand down and cease hostile activities against them. Faced with the possible loss of their leaders and the silent threat that the same could happen to the next generation, they quickly obeyed.

Once peace had been established (as there were no negotiations), the leaders were released back to the Hegemony. But they were sent back absent two eyes and a note on each one of them. The notes had the same message on them all, "You will not do this again."

Since then, the Hegemony has not made a move, official or not, against the Alliance. However, they do not govern the actions of independents. To the rest of the galaxy, it was an example of chakra being used in warfare through both original and technical usage.

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End

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

Yeah, Garrus wasn't alone. Musashi from C-Sec was with him and a new person along with them. They will all be joining the ship but Kojirō will not be. If I did, I'm fairly certain that there would be blood on the ground quicker than one could blink.

What Naruto saw with the bodies was Sakura, obviously. Having to keep in her in the dreams doesn't really help in the long run. If I branch her out, it'll give more to work with and keep it in a short scene.

I had originally thought to use the gunship like in the actual mission but as I wrote it out and things turned out differently, I chose not to. But then I thought about it and then thought it would be funny if Shukaku's prediction came true, only to fall short of the mark. I think it would've been one of those situations where after the fact you would just go, "Really?"

I know I asked this question in my other story but I want to ask it here too. I've noticed that for some time now, I haven't been getting a lot of reviews for each chapter I put up on the site. Do you guys have any idea about why that's happening and help me out?

I'll see you all next chapter!