The largest amount of Jedi Jango had ever seen in one sitting and he was in the middle of the planning session.
It was hella awkward.
The door opened, and Naruto strode through in her armor.
"Heard there was an attack coming," she said, her blue eyes somehow shadowed even as they sparkled merrily. "Where's my -"
"Master!" Konohamaru flew at her, hugging her around the waist.
"Hi, Kono!" she grinned, getting on her knee. "How are you?" It was heartwarming; yet Jango was the one to break the two up.
"Sorry to break up the moment," he said, making her get up. "But we are getting ready to go to war."
"They're not going to come in like we did," Naruto said, closing her eyes briefly. "Karin, you may enter."
Anakin looked alarmed as the doors entered.
Instantly, all the Jedi in the room - of which considered seven masters, Anakin, another Knight, and two Padawans - tensed and turned their lightsabers on.
"Naruto, what are you doing with a Sith?"
Jango lifted one of his eyebrows. "Seriously?" He eyed the pinkette.
"Karin has information," Naruto said, her eyes narrowing. "On the Separatist movement. She also has the ability Shatterpoint, like you, Master Windu, only it is usually central to breaking people. I won't let you hurt her."
No. Naruto's hand was hovering over her own saber, her other hand curled inward as though ready to push the mysterious Force at the masters.
"Also, she's my sister." Cue shocked silence. "This is Karin Uzumaki, and as long as I am with her she won't harm anyone." There was determination in Naruto's eyes. "Please. Trust me if you can't trust her. I will stop her - I will kill her if I must." Naruto's eyes didn't flinch.
"Trust you, we will," Master Yoda said, turning his blade off. "Tell us everything, she will."
Karin swallowed. "They plan on using a new type of battle droid to attack this place." She opened her jacket and produced a holocube, blowing on it and then throwing it up. It turned on and showed a battle droid that didn't seem to have a head. Then it switched. "The ones you just saw are Heavy Battle Droids. These ones are Commando Droids. They're skilled in combat and designed to make lightsaber blades bounce off of them, and they're made of cortosis." Naruto's hand never left her saber as Karin spoke, and she had shifted in front of her Padawan protectively.
With a start, Jango realized Naruto didn't trust Karin at ALL.
"I believe - as I've only been privy to some of the Separatist plans - that they'll only send in the Heavy Battle droids, Droidekas, and regular fodder." She summoned the holocube. "The Heavy Battle droids are water-resistant, the regular ones aren't. Most likely they'll use these." She took a holopad from her jacket and tapped it, the image of a ship coming onto it. "It's called a squidship."
"Ugly," all the Knights and both Padawans in the room commented at once.
"Yes, but it's also water-resistant," Karin said, scowling a little.
"Did you design these?" Naruto asked, leaning forward a bit.
"No," Karin said flatly. "Kabuto and Deidara did."
Karin paled.
Naruto pressed her lips together for a moment.
"Wait - your brother Deidara?"
Naruto shot Anakin a poisonous glare. Karin turned to him.
"She told you?"
"Of course she told me!" Naruto took a deep breath, trying to regain some of her cool. "She told me everything about how you all mysteriously vanished after I got taken by the Zygerrians. Don't act surprised!"
Karin laughed shortly. "I'm only surprised because you were barely there a day before you somehow saved our people. And then you were out for three days." Karin turned around. "I don't know much more - can I go back to the ship?"
"No." Naruto smiled. It was not the nicest of smiles. "If you're really wanting revenge on him, you're going to tell the Jedi everything you know."
Karin went pale. "Naruto -"
Naruto tilted her head, that smile still on her face. "And then I'm going to find Tayuya."
Karin seemed to flounder for a moment before swallowing and nodding.
"Good." Naruto continued smiling.
~"~
Kamino's defenses were up. Shaak Tii wandered through the hallways of the small base before happening upon Jango Fett and his son.
Shaak Tii was just going to leave when the smaller boy ran out of the room, Jango still in there.
"May I come in?" she asked.
"Of course." The ex-bounty hunter shifted briefly and moved his helmet so the Jedi Master could sit - Shaak glanced through the window and saw it was another training area that the Knights and Padawans were in. "They said they'd watch over the samples." Shaak glanced at Fett before returning her attention to the window.
"An admirable task," Shaak said. "Do you believe that they should get someone else's DNA samples?"
Jango shrugged. "I've never really thought of it. They offered to watch over my son, but I thought I should look after him. That way, they don't have to risk me dying and the samples getting low."
Shaak nodded. "When the war is over, will you go back to bounty hunting?" She was truly curious.
"I don't think so," Fett replied with a sigh. "Not a huge bounty hunter anymore. Naruto has quite an avid collection of bounty hunters by herself."
Shaak frowned a little. "Is that so?"
"I've never known someone as... Crazy as she was." In the training arena, said Alterian was climbing the turrets, much like the Domino Squad had done - but the turrets were live. "But even then, she wasn't always like that." Shaak turned to him, wondering.
"You knew her as a slave?"
Fett nodded. "I did. Wanted to rescue her from the hell she was in." Shaak frowned again.
"Was it that bad? She seemed... Unphased when we met."
Fett chuckled, but it was hardly a happy sound.
"Anakin Skywalker and her met a few months after she and I did." Fett shook his head.
Shaak bit her lip. "How did you meet?"
Fett glanced at her.
"We met because I needed a few spare parts for the Slave I."
Shaak instantly got the reference. "You were a slave at one point."
Fett inclined his head.
"So I know how the kid felt. A six-year-old child in the middle of the hot desert, covered with dirt and had a ton of bandages on her body screamed 'slave'."
Shaak had a feeling that he was leaving parts out; but instead of pressing further when Jango went silent, she stood.
"You have provided me with very valuable insight," Shaak said. "If I want to know the rest of the story, I will ask... Naruto."
Shaak left.
~:~
"Heard from Fett lately?" In a cantina, Itachi Uchiha leaned forward imperceptibly as he listened in. Enhanced senses were just the tip of the iceberg. There was a group of bounty hunters all grouped around a table, and the female voice was kind of loud.
"Why, think he's lost his touch?" another sneered, this one a male human.
"Hardly, Dengar." The female Frenk in the group laughed.
"He's on a long-term mission," 'Dengar' said after a moment. "I wouldn't try anything on him, Twazzi. He's got a certain... Bodyguard." Dengar paused. "He's still quite lethal; but his bodyguard is Alterian, a Jedi, and very hot. Dangerous, like I said."
"I highly doubt any Jedi sleemo would be dangerous to beat." Moralo Eval was possibly the dumbest hunter in the galaxy. Itachi just knew he would get caught one day. "Especially not an Alterian one." Dengar shifted for a second.
"...you've never seen an Alterian Jedi in action," Dengar said after a moment. "Have you?"
"No," Itachi said, standing and catching their attention. "He hasn't. He simply wants information on the Alterian Jedi." Itachi sat down at their table. "I want in," he lied to Dengar.
Dengar snorted. "In on what?"
"Protection. Obviously, if she's got Fett wrapped around her pinkie finger, I know she can protect lowly bounty hunters like us." Dengar stared at him for a moment.
"I'm not under her protection."
Itachi sighed, as if disappointed. "Disappointing. Having a Jedi protector guarantees you're up on the food chain."
Moralo Eval looked greedy.
"Moralo Eval demands this protection!"
He shouted it.
Itachi flicked his cortosis sword. A blaster shot later and Moralo Eval was gone, completely dead.
Itachi glared at his corpse as music stopped.
"You're not invited." He took out the datadisk he had made. "Get this to the Alterian Jedi. Pay you 50,000 credits." He glanced at the Frenk. "Both of you."
"You don't have that much." Dengar folded his arms.
"I work for the Black Sun," Itachi said, his voice dangerously soft. "Give it to her immediately."
"Half up front," the Frenk said.
Itachi nodded and gestured to K-45.
"It's in your accounts." Itachi slid account numbers to them, as well as giving Dengar the datadisk.
"Why not give it to her yourself?" Dengar took it.
"I cannot lead the Black Sun to her," Itachi replied quietly.
"And Eval?" Dengar cast a look at the galaxy's number one idiot.
"He was going to die eventually," Itachi said. "That, and I didn't trust him. He just shouted out to the entire cantina about the so-called 'protection'."
"True," Dengar conceded. "Let's go, Twazzi."
'Twazzi' nodded and stood up.
Itachi watched them go.
Now he had another job to do: Make sure Xizor didn't find out about what he'd done.