3626|8|29 Galactic Standard Time

Year (After the Treaty of Coruscant)|Month|Day

Sharlissia - Outer Rim


Naruto reviewed the readouts of his helmet display for the second time. He always checked them at least twice. Years of learning from his parents and doing jobs himself had taught him to always confirm everything his equipment showed him.

"Steady," he mumbled to himself, before aiming his rifle at the Duro walking on the street below him. His target was the accountant of some low level crime lord, though it was not his work that had painted a target on his back, or rather his head, but the way he had treated his brother. A single, clean shoo from his T-189 ended the life of the humanoid. Before anyone had even seen the corps Naruto had slung the rifle over his back and was on his way back to the space port that housed his starfighter.

The dark gray and red his armor was painted was by no means optimized for stealth, but combined with the dark cloak that covered his back, it made him unnoticeable enough in the dim conditions to avoid attracting attention

A notification in the right corner of his field of view informed him that his client had successfully received the confirmation of his brother's demise. The job would be his last one for some time, soon he would make his way back to his tribe, with a rather substantial amount of credits as well as a few Beskar bars he had been paid with over a month ago.

It had been four years since he had successfully passed the Verd'goten, the Mandalorian rite of passage, five more since his parents had started to train him. All this time had made him into a deadly warrior, he had hunted bounties, protected VIPs and assassinated targets all over the galaxy. Now, as a 17-year-old he had almost completed his time as a Journeymen.

Naruto stopped his mussing when he came to the hangar bay his Fang-Class Starfighter had been stored in. It was a fine ship, able to travel hyperspace and one of the best snubfighters ever produced. Before long he was inside his vessel and had permission from the local flight control to take of. He was outside of the gravity pull and in hyperspace in a short time, where he leaned back to take a nap.

The ships systems woke him when he entered the Shogun system, it was here that he would return back to his clan as well as the rest of House Senju. Naruto took the flight control in his own hands and sat down on the planet. Before he had left his vehicle he already saw the armored figure of his mother approach.

Kushina hugged her son to her before taking a step back to look at him, "You have truly grown into my grandfather's armor," she said to him in Mando'a. It had been more than two years since she had last seen him. They missed each other every time they had been with their tribe.

Naruto looked down at himself, his Beskar'gam, the Mando'a word for their armor, literally meaning Iron Skin, was painted in red and black. His right shoulder plate, holding the sigil of Clan Uzumaki, as well as the counterpart on the left side, the Breastplate, upper arm guards, codpiece, kneepads as well as the thigh, shin and boot protectors were all made of high quality Beskar and a heirloom from his maternal great-grandfather. They had been passed down in Clan Uzumaki for centuries and seen their fair share of battle. Like the other pieces of armor his Helmet and Jetpack, too had been passed down to him. Though they were likewise made of Beskar, they were far more technically advanced. Generations of his ancestors had improved on them. Build in tool that helped them win their fights.

"I have mom," he answered her. "How have you been? Did your last job go well? You were protecting the head-of-state of some Mid Rim planet with Aunt Mikoto and Choza, weren't you?"

"Yeah, we were. A really frikin mess that one, had to smoke out over a dozens assassins before the contract on his life was revised," she sighed. "And you? What have you been up to?"

"Doing this and that, I got to protect a noble on Kuat. Fortunately his assassin was rather clumsy. They paid very handsomely," he answered before pulling out the bars of Mandalorian iron he had been paid with. "enough Beskar to make a chestplate."

Before they could continue their conversation Naruto was hugged again, this time by another blande haired man, his father Minato Uzumaki. "Naruto," he greeted his son. Minato had been a war orphan before being adopted by a distant uncle of his mother. It hadn't been a long time since they had seen each other, because Minato usually stayed with the tribe, leading them as their chieftain.

"Hey, dad. How have things been with the tribe? Everyone alright?"

Minato sighed running his hand through his hair, "Mostly. We bought some new Fang-Class Fighters as well as some Kom'rk-Class Transporters, your friend Tenten actually got her hands on a YV-929. I hear she spends every waking moment modifying it. Unfortunately Erkaar of Clan Uchiha as well as his companions haven't checked in for quite some time."

While Minato was catching Naruto up another figure, dressed in gold and black armor with a helmet in the same color, was approaching. "Idiot," he shouted in greeting. Naruto turned around, a grin under his helmet, before smashing his head against that of the other man, a move known as the Keldabe kiss, used as both an attack and greeting for friends.

"Sasuke, you are back from Kessel? I thought you and the others would stay there for some time."

"We did. But the Pykes did not like how we handled some things. So we decided to take our leave before it got to ugly.

The group was slowly walking towards the Vheh'yaim, and chatting about the past few weeks and months.

o0o0o

Combat Engineer Tenten Senju had been a war orphan like many other Mandalorians before she had been adopted into the Clan Senju. Now a full fledged Mandalorian she had specialized in engineering, it often fell to her to do both demolition and construction in the field. But since she got her new YV-929 freighter she had been obsessed with modyfingi it. Her friends and family hadn't seen her often in the past weeks, she was always working on the transporter. But tonight her buddies had convinced her to go drinking with them.

"Oya," they toasted to each other before taking big sips from their mugs. "So how is the ship coming?" Naruto asked in Mando'a.

"Well, I've taken out the original Hyperdrive and replaced it with one from Rendalii Star Drives, with the upgrades I made to it it can easily be ranked as a 0.7 perhaps even 0.5. Then there are the Ion Thruster, I have yet to test their top atmospheric speed, but they should be increased by at least 20%. That's about it," Tenten answered, before taking a sip from her beverage.

"So, what's next? Will you redo the complete plating?" Naruto asked sarcastically.

o0o0o

It was early afternoon when Naruto finally woke up. A wince left his mouth when he moved his head. What had he done to deserve this? He slumped towards the refresher while slowly piercing togetther what had happened yesterday.

He had begun drinking rather early and was buzzed before the sun had even settled. They had talked about doing some jobs together. Afterwards there had been a lot of catching up and, of course, more drinking. At some point Naruto had challenged Sasuke, a far to common occurrence if any of their friends were asked. Sasuke, as always, had accepted and they had dunked it out in a fist brawl.

Now Naruto at least understood where the bruises came from and while he felt so sore. It had been a draw, with both of them laying on the ground in heaving in total exhaustion. Through unlike most times their friends and he had to use the word with caution after last night, had to decided that it would be more fun to drag them along for the rest of the night instead of letting them sleep it out. There had been more drinking, a game of tag through the woods, a card game that had cost Naruto, as well as Sasuke, far to many credits and of course more drinking.

He wondered a moment how the others stayed a sober as they had. Ven of course had been no surprise. She was famously known for having an almost ridiculous tolerance against alcohol. But Tenten and Akku were usually not that composed after such a long time of drinking. Or had it been just him and Sasuke that had competed to see who could drink most?

Naruto shock his head, something he immediately regretted. Of course it had only been him and Sasuke. They were always doing stupid things like that when they were close to each other. It was why Sasuke was his best friend and greatest nemesis at the same time.

"Morning," his mother greeted him, when he stepped into the kitchen. She was wearing a casual outfit instead of her Beskar'gam and was reading something on her datapad.

"Hey, is dad already out?" He walked over to a cabinet and opened it to look for something edible.

"He is. I think he said something about a transmission from House Ishikawa. Apparently there has been a conflict of interested in a recent mission."

Naruto nodded and set down at the table. Like his mother he hadn't bothered to put on his armor nor the tight armorweave today. Instead he was wearing loose fitting trousers and a simple shirt. He had found something to eat and just started digging in when a knock came from the door.

"Come in," Kushina yelled without putting her reading material away. Following her command the visitor stepped into the building. It was Sasuke, looking as bad as Naruto himself felt, with large rings under his eyes.

"Morning," he greeted both Uzumakis. Kushina was visibly amused. A grin stretching across her face. She nodded in greeting and returned to her lecture.

"Hey, you look like shit. What brings you here this early?" Naruto asked.

"It's 1:00 pm," Kushina commented without looking up. "And you look just as tired as Sasuke."

"Thanks, mom. I really value your support."

"Well, she is right. And I'm here because my mother kicked me out. Apparently I told her that we would be sparing today, and she is firm on forcing me to do so."

"Oh, no," Naruto only said before the sound of Kushina's datapad being placed on the table made him wince. He knew what was coming, and he hated Sasuke for provoking it. The asshole definitely did not say this on accident.

"That's a great idea. Come on Naruto. Up, up, you have a training spar to attend. And don't you boys even think of lazing around, I will known if you do."

Naruto grunted and stood up to put his now empty bowl away. "Only hand-to-hand combat without armor?" They usually preferred to train in their full armor, to better emulate real fights. But like him Sasuke was only wearing a casual outfit, that while flexible, was a far cry from their Beskar'gam.

"I guess. Now get moving. Have a nice day, Kushina."

o0o

They were facing each other on a open field. The sun was shining down at them relentlessly and not a breeze of wind was coming through. Nonetheless Naruto was feeling far better then he had even half an hour ago. The anticipation and excitement of fighting Sasuke had sent a boost of adrenaline through his body that had done wonders to wake him up.

Without any prompt they began to close in on each other. A kick to Sasuke's mid was blocked before he retaliated with a hook towards Naruto's face. He managed to dodge it by quickly retracting his head backwards. It continued like this for several moments. Each fighter dodging and blocking as best as they could. They landed the occasional hit, but nothing serious. That was until Sasuke's fist slammed into his enemies jaw. Naruto instantly tasted a surge of coppery blood, but reacted fast enough to slam his knee into the others stomach.

From there both managed to land more and more hits. Their strong will and refusal to admit defeat pushed them ever further. In the end both were facing each other, gasping for the air they desperately needed. Bruises were already starting to form and blood was running down their faces.

Their fight was interrupted when a rasp from the sideline alerted them of the presence of someone else. Standing there in an outfit smeared with grease and dirt, most of it on the apron she was wearing, was Tenten. On her face, that was equally smired with dirt was a bright grin. She had obviously been working on someone vehicle the entire day.

"Are you finished with beating each others up? I need help placing the new sensor suite and heard you two had energy to spare."

"New sensors? I thought you had already replaced the original suite for a better model," Naruto said. He had pulled up the hem of his shirt to wipe away the blood from his face.

"I did. But you know how things are. First you spend hours replacing the entirety of a ships communication, sensor and navigation systems, only to then have an idea how you can improve them even further." She started to move towards her ship and beckoned both to follow her.

"I feel you. I once spend four days, just to replace the 8900/B Sensor Pack in my vambraces with the upgraded 8932/D," Naruto said. His vambraces were his pride and joy. While his helmet and most of his armor had been extensively modified by the time they had been passed down to him, his vambraces were solely his creation. Made from Beskar and painted in the same dark-gray and red as most of his armor, they were nearly as technological advanced as his helmet.

There were the more common features, like a Dart Launcher and Personnel Comabt Shield in his left vambrace and a ZX-Flamethrower, DRX-24 Disruptor, Retractable Vibroblades, a Whipcord Launcher and a Holo Projector on his right one. But added to this were more exotic tools like the extremely deadly Whistling Birds, a variety of Sensors and Scanners, short-range jamming technology, as well as a Holo Image Disguiser.

The last was his most recent addition. Produced by Corellidyne Visuals, the CQ-3.9x was the latest achievement of holoshroud technology. The mulitspectrum disguiser allowed him to produce a realistic holo image that was able to disguise him for up to five minutes.

After a few minutes of walking in which Tenten lividly told them what happened last night during the time that was missing from their memories, they arrived at the YV-929.

"Huh, I didn't know the YV Series looked like a flying brick. I was certain that they had more in common with the YT," Naruto said surprised. The freighter in front of him was around 20m long and 10m height and as far as he could tell had no significant outlaying parts.

"What did you just call my ship?" Tenten asked angrily.

"Ahm, I said that I thought that it is a very smart design, optimizing the volume of the craft while keeping it's profile small. Wow, are those the Torpedo Batteries?" Naruto tried to avert her attention, pointing at a part of the ship that was lacking the colors the rest of the vehicle was painted in.

"Yeah, it was honestly very easy to make room for the batteries. But even without them it is an amazing ship. I mean did you ever here of a freighter this size with 2 Light Twin Turbo Laser, 2 Light Ion Cannons, 2 Medium Triple Laser Cannons and 4 Concussion Missile Launcher? There are some Corvettes that aren't armed nearly as good."

"Still you somehow managed to include six additional torpedo batteries, a better Hyperdrive and ion thrusters as well as a new scan-com system. Corellia really missed out on you," Sasuke complimented.

"Thanks. But to be perfectly honest, I don't think I did anything that they couldn't have done. The only reason that it isn't build this way is the cost. Replacing the Hyperdrive and Thrusters alone would at least double the production cost, for a performance increase of at best 60%."

"And the Russan Reformations wouldn't allow them any more armament. I'm shocked that this much is allowed to be honest," Naruto said thoughtful.

"Yeah, that too. But be that as it may, the new sensor array won't install itself."

It took the three of them six hours to install the new ANq-51 Sensor Array Computer. By the time night had settled in they were exhausted. They had spend the entire day just to install the new system, without even sealing up the connections the system had to the exterior of the ship nor adding the additional components Tenten planed to integrated.

"Thanks, a lot guys. You were a real life saver," Tenten said.

"No problem. Will you need our help tomorrow?" Naruto asked.

"I would appreciate it. There are a lot of components that I want to install. Two extra pairs of hands would be helpful."

"Then we will see you tomorrow. Say six a.m.?" Sasuke said. Tenten and Naruto both nodded in confirmation. "Then I bide both of you good night. I'm going to sleep."

o0o0o

When the next day came Naruto made his way to the place the YV-929 was being modified. When he arrived he found Tenten, already working on a component he couldn't identify.

"Good morning. You're early." Naruto greeted.

"Yeah, couldn't help myself. I got this sweet Crystal Gravfield Trap that can function as a mass sensor."

"What's so special about a Crystal Gravfield Trap?"

"You don't know? Oh, they are awesome. Quite rare and even more expensive but damn they are useful. Like regular mass sensor they are able to detect the fluctuation in local gravity fields. But unlike those common models the CGT is so precise that it can reliably detect a ship with active cloaking devices."

"I didn't know that was even possible. And you can fit it into the freighter?"

"Do you remember the big block I took out yesterday when we placed the sensor array? That was the regular mass sensor. In comparision to that the CGT is rather small. The biggest problem I currently have is with the programming of the computer. While it allows you to add additional components it does not register replacements. If I'm unlucky I will have to spend hours rewriting the code to allow the integration of replacement systems."

"Alright, I hope you're sucessful with that? How can I help?"

"Hm, I will need assistance testing the component later. But for now there is paints that desperately wants to be applied on the ship." She said while pointing at one of the many crates that surrounded the ship.

Like yesterday they spent six hours working on the ship before they took a lunch break. Sasuke had joined them shortly after Naruto had opened the container with paint. Both of them had spend a good portion of the day readying the ship for it's new paintjob, before Tenten had enlisted their help with the sensors.

During their lunch Tenten explained the HSI-280 Hyperwave Signal Interceptor she had started to install shortly before they took their break. It was an improved system that similar to the CGT allowed the detection of fluctuation, though not those in the local gravity field but rather those in hyperspace.

They returned to their work after finishing eating and made considerable progress for the rest of the day. This procedure continued for several days till Tenten was satisfied with the ship. For now.

There were a variety of sensors and scanners that had either replaced others or had been newly added. Providing a wide range of both active and passive detection systems.

While Tenten had been mostly occupied with installing these systems, Naruto and Sasuke, as well as a couple of others who had joined them on occasion, had finished repainting the ship. The dull brown-yellow color had been replaced by a white-red-yellow scheme.

They had spent the entirety of yesterday running diagnostics on the ship to ensure the functionality as well as loading it up with a bunch of Explosives Charges, Grenades, Rations, Fuel and other items.

o0o0o

Once again Naruto found himself drinking. The three of them were sharing a booth with Akku and Ven, two friends who had helped them finish the work on the ship.

"Akku, you have a Tracking fob for a bounty on Scarif, 25.000 Credits, right?" Tenten ask before taking a sip from her beverage.

"Yeah, some Bith jumped bail on Shiffrin. I think they suspect that they murdered someone or were an accomplice. Either way they must have some money if they were able to pay such a large bail, meaning that it's likely they have someone hired for protection," Akku said. He was a male Zabrak with light-brown skin and the telltale horns of his species on his head.

"Doesn't sound to troublesome for the five of us. Anything else lined up afterwards?" Ven, a light-pink skinned Twi'lek asked.

"Nothing in particular. Shiffrin is close to Hutt space. Out there someone always needs help and is willing to pay," Sasuke said.

"Great, Hutts," Naruto murmured. "I love the slimy slugs"


Hey guys, I'm back with a new story. Updates for other works might follow soon. Check out Ao3, for more, I'm far more active there. Anyways review if you would like and have a nice day!