AN: I don't own Naruto/Star Wars: Legends


4:9:11


The stone temple loomed in the distance, covered in bodies that shifted and moved in such ways that made it impossible to count their exact numbers. Worse, with the shadows of the trees, the land itself around them, and the beginnings of sundown, they only could count so many before more had moved in, or others had moved away. They were a swarm, and infestation, and a clear and present danger.

Worse still in many ways was their presence in the Force. Each of them was Force-sensitive, and while they only appeared to have the most base of instincts at times, feral and near-primal at times, they were intelligent enough to utilize it in many ways. Each of them seemed to pulse with the Force, likely heightening their senses, or attempting to simply feel out intruders who strayed to close through the Force.

The four stared across the short expanse towards it silently, trying to think of what options they had, considering and taking a moment to assess and calculate what they could do next. Each took a look over the place through the scope of Aurra's slugthrower, save Zao, who reached out to inspect it as carefully and subtly in the Force as he could. There was almost the feeling of a stalemate, an impasse between two groups, with one holding superior numbers, while the other held superior strength. If one slipped up or did something incorrectly, it could all fall apart either way.

"How many are there?" Aurra muttered, glancing to Master Saa as she attempted to look through her scope to check out the temple.

"They move about too much to be certain. I've counted well past a few dozen, closer to one to two hundred at a glance, but there are absolutely more." Master Saa slowly passed the scope to Naruto, considering their options.

"There are enough practiced with the Force Cloak ability to make attempting to count them through the Force not possible." Zao muttered, recalling how many times the Anzati had slipped past even him along the way. "Those who aren't must be less sentries and more sentinels, meant to dissuade, or to run down those that actual sentries see."

Aurra groaned, shifting and rubbing the back of her neck. "So, we have few options. Stealth?"

"Not likely. They've shown to be able to track well enough." Naruto hummed, shifting around before leaning back and moving off to the side. "What about something big, like a blast? Or more subtle...?"

"We don't have explosives for something like that." Aurra muttered. "If we went back and grabbed the ship maybe, but that's a ship, and this is a lot further than we thought it'd be from the city. They must've been willing to travel a long way just to cause trouble."

"Might've been the only place that they knew of." Saa said softly, shaking her head. "If Aayla forgot herself, she'd only know of a few places on world, though even then this world is not one that is known for its many sprawling cities. Going out of her way to go there, to a place she knew, would make more sense than going to a place she didn't know of."

"Perhaps, though that is still a speculation." Zao scratched at his chin, considering the options before sighing. "This entire place is a fortress, to keep someone in. Getting in might be just as hard though..."

Zao trailed off, head tilting slightly. As he did so, Saa sighed. "I don't like speculations regarding another Jedi like this. She is one who is lost, not fallen. Volfe took advantage of her scattered thoughts, and is attempting to use her to his own ends. His freedom clearly being one thing, and conquest being the next."

"I still don't like it." Aurra took the scope, peering ahead. "It looks like they built it heavily around the sides. Solid stone isn't hardest of materials, but it'll be thicker than if it were durasteel. At least with that we can burn through it. With stone, if it's thick enough, we won't be able to do anything."

"There's a lot at stake." Saa shifted, turning to Aurra and nodding. "Perhaps we should take a night to consider it. Move back to where we can rest and -"

"We don't have time for that."

Both women turned to Zao, who had a quirky, almost innocent smile. As Master Saa watched him curiously, Aurra was the first to realize what he meant. "... where's Naruto?"

"I didn't have my eye on him."

Both women immediately flipped back around and looked over the rise, looking to see if they could spot the blonde haired troublemaker. It didn't take all that long, though by the time they had, he had already sprung into motion.

[=-x-=]

Naruto felt the Force, understood it very little, and trusted it with every fiber of his being. So, when they'd begun looking at the temple, and he'd felt that time was not on their side, he slipped away to fix their problem. He had more than enough experience, and this was the sort of terrain he had learnt to excel at.

Moving through the underbrush, he was more silent than a whisper. Each footstep was softened by the Force, allowing him to slip by with a way to move quickly without worry of alerting any of the Anzati. With Force Cloak, he could keep himself hidden from their senses. And then there was his ace.

Watching out for some of the Anzati more hidden around, eventually pausing and staring at one area of underbrush. Eventually, slowly, he was able to make out the vague outline of an entity. An Anzat, waiting and watching for something to happen, and someone to come. A sitting target, waiting for trouble.

Reaching out, Naruto slowly closed his eyes and concentrated. What he was doing took some effort, as the easier variant did not do what he was trying. Force Clone created a version of himself to utilize within a rather close proximity to himself. However, with some concentration, he'd found he could do a neat little trick; he could extend that distance, then summon his clone much further away than the standard distance tended to be.

It did take longer than he normally wanted, seeing how he was attempting to keep hidden throughout. Slowly, carefully, he formed the clone of himself behind the Anzat, giving it a moment to take a breath before is struck. Striking fast, and hard, it did so in a manner that was far more noisy than was necessary, letting the feral creature even get off a final screech before he cut it off.

The effect was quick, efficient, and calculated. With the sound of a comrade down, other Anzati began moving to investigate. Abandoning cover, Naruto's clone began to run at a full pace, legs outstretched and delving straight into the water to attempt to cause as much noise by splashing and cursing up a storm. With such an obvious target, and an obvious culprit, the screamed, a wave of the creatures rushing to fall upon him. With a whoop and a cackle, the clone pushed off the waters base and back onto the water, taking off much faster than they were, keeping well ahead as the majority of them began rushing after him.

Smiling, Naruto slowly turned back to his group, motioning for them to move up. Zao moved up without question, though Master Saa and Aurra paused for a moment as Saa asked Aurra a question. Likely one about him always being so crazy, or brash. He was used to it.

Peering around the edge, Naruto did a quick head count, then nodded slowly. He could work with those numbers much better than a few hundred.

Aurra was the first to slide, up, peering around the tree for a moment. "How many are there?"

"Thirty-six, just counted them."

"Thirty-six." Aurra repeated, slowly turned to Naruto, incredulity apparent on her face. "You had the time to count them?"

"I've had to do quick head counts like this before."

She sighed, nodding slowly. "You have shown that, yeah. What are the odds?"

"Well, each of us could take nine of them, or I could take twenty, and everyone else can take four."

"Twenty? Keeping the numbers high aren't you?"

"Me with five clones could dive in to take four apiece. It'd be even, technically."

"You'd be burdening yourself with more than your fair share."

"My fair share is taking as much as I think I could handle. Twenty is honestly a small amount comparatively." Naruto shifted, staring in. "... worse would be if I could slip past those up there and try to get deeper within. If I could do that, maybe I can find Aayla and get her out before we have to deal with this 'Volfe' that Saa was talking about."

"From the sound of it, we might need to regardless." Taking aim, Aurra exhaled slowly. "Give me the signal, and I'll start firing."

"We can move whenever." Zao smiled, placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "You have confidence in the Force. Follow it."

Naruto stared at the blind Master, slowly shifting before taking a second to consider. Looking to Aurra, seeing her ready to go whenever he said. Glancing to Saa, he found himself slowly exhaling as she waited patiently, expectantly. They were all relying him him, as he'd moved in and made himself the leader. Somehow. That hadn't been his intention, yet now they waited on him for his call.

"I go in, drag them into the temple, and you pick them off while I go in." Naruto slowly laid out the idea, his time as a general coming to mind again. "I can outrun them, and if they keep pursuing I can win in choke points. However, to keep them from supporting those in the temple, when I get them in, you all pin them in. That way they either turn or be pinned. It'll also keep you all from getting rushed down with the choke point, keeping them from overwhelming you."

"What if there are more inside?" Zao asked, tapping his cane gently. "They could still outnumber us from within as well."

"I'll see about clearing as much as I can. I can clear rooms quick enough, but the moment we let more inside, the harder it'll likely get. You can only do what you can, and I..."

Noting Naruto pausing, Master Saa gently rested a hand on his shoulder. "You're not in this alone. Lean on us for what support we can give."

"I know I'm not alone, I just..." Naruto closed his eyes, grimacing. "I don't know if anyone other than me should confront Aayla, and even then I... she wasn't ever in my Clan back as a youngling, but I knew her,. And she knew about me. I told her what I went through. Maybe that will be something that... I dunno. Meant something? Means I can get through to her." Shaking his head, he groaned. "I kinda wish Quinlan was here. He was actually her master, and had more of a bond with her."

"Perhaps, but we must use what we have." Saa gently squeezed his shoulder in a comforting manner, getting him to nod again.

"Yeah." Looking between them all, he nodded. "Alright. Let's go."

Turning to the temple, Naruto bent the Force and flashed forwards, leaping quickly towards the clearing. He was still whisper silent, his training having taught him more than well enough how to race atop the water, how to leap from tree to tree, and how to arrive upon all but the most attentive of enemies without more than the barest moment of his presence.

The Anzati were not such opponents.

Like a vicious, reaping wind, Naruto cleaved through several before they had a moment to realize he was there. The fire of Aurra's slugthrower followed almost immediately, taking out one, two, three, and continuing with each shot as the Anzati grew quickly wise to the shots to drop their heads. But those that did found a boot to the head, or a lightsaber crossing them as Naruto used his immediate momentum to press quickly into the temple after cleaving through the pair in front to ensure they didn't simply turn to face him.

The moment he stepped within, there was a howling. "The Dreamer is threatened!"

The Dreamer? Naruto had heard the cursing and muttering of several Anzati about such before, but didn't think much of it. Thinking on it now, Naruto cursed. Anzati. Volfe Karkko was an Anzati fallen Jedi - one who had more control and understanding of his Force abilities. Suddenly the primal, feral nature made sense. Volfe had molded them into these entities; soldiers for a dead cause from a thousand years ago, from a man with a vendetta that needed to be stopped, least they fall upon the galaxy without mercy by what Master Saa had been told from the findings of the Jedi holocron.

Exhaling sharply, Naruto plowed through, settling his thoughts into focusing on the matter at hand. Aayla. Volfe could wait, but Aayla was his purpose for coming here.

Turning a corner, only the faintest whiff of copper in the air gave Naruto an indication of the danger he was in as he dropped to his knees, sliding as claws raked the air where his head had been. Blood-red skin tensed, a second swipe raked through stone near his head, nearly taking it off his shoulders until he leaned back and rolled back onto his feet.

"Ah, hello there red man."

The creature looked like it had been human, but there was something unnatural about its body; twisted, and unnatural, the red of its skin acting like a natural armor. Naruto recalled how it had blocked against even lightsaber blows, which immediately made it a much bigger forking problem. Its eyes were bloodshot, with irises that seemed half-dazed, half-dead, yet stared at him with the intensity of one who he'd wronged. It was so strange, seeing something that hated him to the point of desiring his death, despite him having done nothing to them, and yet this creature seemed to exist to hate him.

Quickly putting his lightsaber away, Naruto slid into a Force stance. Various stances helped with channeling the Force, and with the one he chose, it was to utilize in a far more offensive manner than others. He wasn't taking chances with them; not a second time. This time he'd remove it completely, so as to avoid having it attempt to strike while he talked to Aayla.

"I don't have time for you. Get out of here."

Apparently that was not what it had wanted to hear him say, or maybe it simply planned to attack him regardless. Either way, it threw itself at him, claws curling through the air just off of him by inches. Swipe after swipe Naruto dodged, waiting for an opportunity to do some big damage. Moving and dancing around it, he slammed the Force into its body, ready to give himself distance to think of exactly how to take it down.

Only years of training in reacting in such close proximity allowed him to dodge again, and only get a graze across his shoulder. Rather than be hurled across the room as expected, the creature managed to stomach the blow and remain in front of him, if moved back only a small bit. It was able to resist his abilities, his lightsaber blows, and was still very much on the offensive. Cursing, he moved and slammed his hands into its wrists, wincing when he felt how tough its skin was.

Hearing it laugh, he stared at it as it's eyes zeroed in and locked onto his with a moment of consciousness to it. It was such a cold, emotionless laugh that it forced Naruto to avoid stumbling at the way it sounded, staring up at its face. Then it's face twisted into one of horror, as a shaky voice slipped through. "... kill...me..."

"...oh, damn it."

It struck again, not slowing in its assault. Naruto was thoroughly enough unnerved, and was in turn berating himself for it. That had to be what this creature was made for. Tough to the point of suicidal actions, it could likely fight through most injuries, and just enough consciousness to hate its existence to unnerve those who'd feel sick fighting it. A revulsion for what had become of some poor person, who'd been changed and warped beyond casual recognition.

"I'm sorry."

Naruto felt his back against the wall and waited, watching as the creature's eyes grew wide, iris shrinking to pinpoints as though their eyes were nothing but the whites of its eyes,and it lunged. The wall cleaved under its assault, ripped apart with the ease of a lightsaber blow, but through stone only, not flesh. When it realized what it had missed, it whipped around, mouth agape to howl and screech. He didn't give it the chance.

"Rasengan!"

Slamming the hand-sized ball of spiraling Force energy into its head, he drown out its voice as he pinned it between his hand and the wall with a roar of his own. It did not simply kill, or break the creature, but it ground against it, holding it in place as it slowly began breaking down whatever defense it had across it's skin into nothingness. Flailing its arms, it clipped Naruto's arm and chest, almost making him pull back when he felt sudden voids in his thoughts and emotions, only to force them to surge with renewed vigor.

After a moment, its head cracked in on itself and the life-force of the creature flickered out completely. The sound of cracking from both it and the wall finally filled the hallway, and Naruto watched as the wall gave way behind it, throwing the creature into a vaguely unmarked room. Its corpse slammed heavily against the wall, twitching, and bleeding as it attempted to reach out towards him again with an almost undead vigor, its head now ground more to a pulp than a face, before its arm dropped and the rest of its form collapse.

Naruto stared at it, then slowly collapsed, grunting as he coughed heavily. It wasn't poison physically, but rather like feeling shards of the dark side formed into a poison that made him feel like he was burning in his chest and arm as he drew on the Force. Pushing past it, he expelled as much pain from his mind as he could, moving down the stairway deeper into this prison temple.

He had to find Aayla, and deal with this Volfe, whatever it took.

[=-x-=]

Aayla sat in meditation, forging her frustrating into a sword. It was a mental exercise that Volfe had taught her, to help her focus her power down the razor edge of true strength so that she could overcome and overwhelm her foes. Slowly opening her eyes, she found her lips slowly reciting the mantra he taught her to use as a focal point for it.

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall set me free."

Words he told her he'd stolen from the Jedi years before, when they weren't nearly as well hidden, but still enlightened him to the truth. They felt like a weight on her lips, a foreigner speaking words through her mouth. No matter how often she said them, they never felt right, yet that frustration was what he'd said would heighten her towards that victory. Give her focus, and if she could focus that frustration on someone, then she couldn't fail.

Yet, she felt her hands trembling as she reached for her lightsaber, the sound of conflict above her suddenly escalating. Forging her frustration was coming easier, but fear she had not. She had thought herself ready for this conflict, but the more she was thinking about it, the more she just wished for it to pass her by so she could continue on.

Before, the man - Naruto - had been a calm in the Force. He'd not stood out, or seemed to stand out in any way until he'd thrown the Anzati off of him in a wild storm of lightning. Now he was that storm walking, a veritable maelstrom of danger, and power. She knew his presence before he'd even come into her vision, and so she stood, gripping her lightsaber as she shifted and lifted her head to face him.

There was a moment of silence as he reached the top of the stairs. A silence that seemed prolonged, and uncomfortable. Reaching out slowly, she started. He'd gone back. Back to where? For what? She found herself wracked in thought, trying to think if they had forgotten anything in the area before that might be of use to someone like him. Her master's lightsaber was in hand, her own in hers, a few holocrons had been locked away, but could easily be replaced if necessary. So what could it be?

Taking the moment that she'd been given, she reaffirmed herself as she slowly tried to reassert herself. Through victory, her chains would be broken. Her chains... her bindings.

She felt a tug, and her heart skipped a beat. Then, a violent slamming sound resounded down the stairway, causing her to leap as she felt her throat lock up, eyes widening when the blood guardian's body was thrown hazardously down into her room. Staring at it, she idly noted the crushed, and absolutely destroyed form of the blood guardian, no specks of blood from its form as it motionlessly lay there.

Volfe had told her that blood guardians were incredibly difficult to destroy, resisting the Force, blaster fire, and even lightsaber blows. She'd seen it with her own eyes, having spent several hours striking and facing against the creature until she was littered with marks it had left from its claws, the pulses of shadows that came and strengthened her, and would poison those who were foolish enough to fight against Volfe. Yet, here she saw it here, body destroyed, as though it were another of the Anzati he'd faced in Deadend.

As she stared down at it, she started when she realized she was no longer alone in the room. When had he arrived? She'd felt him so clearly in the Force a moment before, then in the instant she was distracted, he was already there. How had she lost her focus so easily?

"... you came." She said, her voice as venomous as she could make it. He was a Jedi, like the man who had killed her uncle.

"It seemed rude to not come."

He was so casual, holding himself with such confidence. Stepping over the corpse of what had once been her guardian, he stared straight at her. She tensed, staring back as defiantly as she could, sharpening her rage as sharp as she could.

"You shouldn't have."

With a shout she leapt upon him, lightsaber blurring through the air as she enveloped her body in a red aura as she flew into a rage. Spinning herself and slamming it into his smaller lightsaber, she attempted to immediately press her advantage. Pressing the offensive, she continued her assault, drawing further upon the Force to deepen and heighten her focus as she slammed into his lightsaber with rapid, shallow slashes that she used to pivot into new strikes, moving to attempt to strike him from outside his vision.

No blow was meant to overpower him, as he'd shown that he could handle himself through brute force. Instead she was attempting to use her speed and the advantage of her lightsabers length over his shorter one to strike quickly and maneuver about to keep out of range of his strikes. She'd practiced this with Volfe, her master wise enough to ensure she would have the advantage in this fight.

Except, with each blow, she immediately felt the need to flee. She danced back, every evasive maneuver she had from leaps to nexu stance's evasive rolls to keep herself out of his range. It was incredible, feeling that each time her blade came in contact with his, that she had entered a radius of danger that she had to escape. Panting, she found herself shifting, gritting her teeth as she struggled to keep herself out of his riposte range.

Gritting her teeth, she leapt back, reaching out through the Force and began yanking various items from around the room. She grabbed everything she could, even going so far as to rip items off the wall as she tried to slam it into him. If she couldn't reach him up close, she would slam every item she could reach and then some against him to slow him down.

Each item flew at him as quick as she could drag it, and he stood through it, cleaving some, while simply leaping around others. He was completely aware of each attempt she made, and watched her as he used each leap and cut to approach. Nothing she did seemed to slow him down. Each action she took only pushed him forward, like an unstoppable juggernaut, with only her in his sights.

Screaming in rage, she drew as deeply upon the Force as she could, the sight of him ignoring her efforts to slow him sending her into a full out frenzy. Leaping, she tried to ignore her fear, to press past it and beat him back. To use her momentum to throw him off balance, push him back towards the entrance and out of this place.

"Compromised?"

His face, a dark mask, a look of complete rage upon it that spoke of someone so wrapped in shadow that they were lost. Staring into his eyes now, she saw none of that; only a look of concentration, and... sympathy. Like he somehow was attempting to reach into her, to drag her out of her rage.

Biting the inside of her cheek until she drew blood, she slammed her blade against his, slamming it repeatedly as he battered it back and away. Her mind seethed, trying to push him away, to get him out of her head. Did he think she was so weak that he could simply walk in and save her? She didn't need saving. She was a warrior, one that would avenge her uncle's death, and... and...

"I can carry the burden that it places on me..."

She recalled the words, but the context was so hazy. What burden? Whose? His own? Getting into a blade lock with him, she snarled, eyes flicking with a sickly golden hue as she pushed so much of the Force through herself, digging her feet into the ground, pressing up against him, attempting to shove him... ineffectually. It was like she wasn't trying at all, feeling him single-handedly keeping her held in place. She dug in her heels, dragging them against the ground, pushing against him, trying harder and harder to push him back. To force even an inch from him.

"How..." She snarled, pushing again, only to find him no long in front of her, and she was forced to roll to her feet, blinking rapidly as she saw he was now behind her. When had he moved? He turned, eyes still holding that cold, careful look to his face. "How are you so strong?"

"I fight my inner demons to keep them under my control, so that I don't lose myself to them..."

"What demons could you possibly be facing that they haven't overpowered you?!" She all but screamed, her voice causing the stone around her to quiver with her rage.

"So you do remember." His voice was soft, but his eyes suddenly lit up, causing her to step back. They seemed to shine, like polished gemstones, strong and resolved, but with a hint of a brittleness that she could barely see through the Force. "Do you know who I am?"

"... Naruto Uzumaki."

"Yes. Do you remember where we met?"

"Tattooine."

"Good," He slowly let his lightsaber lower, his guard opening. "Then do you remember Quinlan Vos?"

The rage spiked at the name, and she lunged. The blade slammed right into him as she roared, holding it against his gut, twisting and ripping it to the side. "You mean that murderer?"

"What am I then?"

The voice made her stumble, whipping the lightsaber around to point to Naruto - who was now behind her again. But, she had just cleaved into him. She'd felt it, yet he had not a scratch on him. Trying to reassert herself, she flinched when he kept speaking.

"I was a general. I fought in the Hux war, and I was the victor. Do you know what victors are? They're the warriors who lived, and did what had to be done." He stepped closer, forcing her back. "They made their choice, and your uncle made his. I saw what conditions you were placed in. He was not a good man."

"Why do you get to judge him?"

He stopped, staring at her with a look that made her worry that he would lash out. Instead he looked away, his expression that of someone who was at a loss for words. Seeing it, she pressed on.

"Why do you get to be the one who comes and saves me? You should have just sent his murderer so he could die, and the galaxy could be a safer place!"

"It wouldn't. I've seen just how much the galaxy cares about one murderer going away, or dying. It moves on." The sigh he let out seemed to deflate her anger, making her suddenly sore, and sour. "Even with everything we've done, it's still going to move on, and treat what happened like it was how they want to have happened, or that you were in the wrong and a monster."

"You're wrong."

"I've lived it."

She leapt in again, but the anger was fading from her between each blow. Only the fighting made it last, and so she pushed it. With each blow she kept it up, extended it, held onto it like she was drowning. Drowning...

And keeping her head underwater.

She got caught mid step, his arm wrapped around her waist as he lifted her and slammed her to the ground. Gasping and coughing, she tried to hold onto her lightsaber. Where was it? It must have fallen from her grasp when he'd lifted her into the air. The feeling of being in the area he controlled was now over her ominously, and she found herself staring at him, blinking rapidly as he slowly stepped back.

Shifting, she picked herself up, trying to keep her footing, but falling back down each time she thought she was able to get up. Glaring up at him, she withered under his stare. "You should kill me then. Let him forget about me too."

"He asked me to bring you back."

"Liar."

"You're a hard person to find, otherwise I'd have found you sooner."

A brief snort slipped from her when she heard that. "You don't get it. I don't mean - Of course he wanted me back. Kill my uncle, me, who won't he kill?"

"You." He looked at her with such a sad, worried expression. What brought that to him? Part of her said to press the advantage; words from Volfe, her master. But...

"I'd been blinded by my anger until I was reminded by thankful faces of slaves that I was saving them... rescuing them from a life of pain."

Her memory was still hazy, still blocked, and incomplete, but suddenly she stared at him and her mind managed to dredge up a story. The story of a boy, locking a war, told on Tattooine - the full story this time, not simply the fragments she struggled to remember telling Volfe. A full, complete tale, of a Jedi, a slave, a mourning teacher, and a general. Suddenly, she recognized a bit more of what Naruto's looks and expressions were.

The storm of the Force was an announcement that he'd arrived to save her. His haphazard display of the blood guardian was his way of showing her that no one would interfere with them. And through her assault, her assailing one-sided war against him, he'd withstood it all. He'd been bound, and in a way had forgotten himself. Not like her, but perhaps enough to sympathize.

"I..." She felt her eyes beginning to moisten, tears forming at the edge of her eyes as the waves of exhaustion rolled over her. All at once, she was so, very tired. "I don't want this..."

"I know." He reached a hand down to her, smiling gently. "Let's get out of here. This place kinda -"

Before he could finish, his body was lifted in the air as lightning suddenly arced against his back and threw him head over heels into the wall. Aayla stared wide-eyed, as Volfe slowly stepped from the shadows, his eyes locked onto her as his face slowly twisted into a snarl.

"My. Little. Jedi." His words held venom, and as he advanced, his lightsaber slowly slipped into his hand. "It appears we need to have a talk about trusting our enemies too much. You-"

His hand snapped up, red blade of his lightsaber catching a return volley of lightning from behind Aayla. Snapping her head to look back, she stared as she watched Naruto lash back at Volfe, his eyes locked onto him, expression one she'd expected him to use against her. True anger, and outrage.

"Get away from her you soul sucking son of a Hutt... or I'll make you."

"I think not." Volfe slowly let his blade fall, his lips curling into a sneer. "But you can certainly try."


AN: Alright then, we're on our way to the Volfe vs Naruto throwdown! Time to prepare the popcorn, and get ready to have a good time... hopefully. Just honestly hoping I write it well enough as how I've envisioned it in my head. But we can certainly see, and that's part of the fun!

Thank you all for your reviews, they are always great to read. If you haven't seen, there's a poll to go over the pairing options for Naruto for everyone, as well as those new to the story on my Profile. I look forward to seeing who you choose, and how I'll be able to consider and use it through the building story.

May this chapter find you well, and may the Force be with you.