Disclaimer: I don't own, I just borrow
Chapter Two: Far, Far Away-
The four shinobi gazed in awe at the enormous structure that towered above them. They crouched low in the trees across the wide, greenish brown river that separated them from the architectural wonder, not quite sure how to react to their finding.
"Well, I think it's safe to say that we are not in Fire Country anymore," Tenten commented wryly.
"No shit," Naruto retorted as they watched a large, round…something… settle at the base of the building. The blond genin squinted. "What the hell is that?" He was given a scathing look from the older female.
"We know just as much as you do, Uzumaki," Tenten said.
"Fine, fine, no need to get snippy!" Naruto huffed. Neji hissed to silence him, eyes still glued to the silver object.
"P-please don't fight," Hinata whispered pleadingly. Tenten sighed, but didn't respond. Naruto scowled at the older girl, but fell silent as well.
"Look."
The three turned to see what Neji meant. A large ramp had extended from the bottom of the object. A man in dark brown and ivory colored robes descended as two girls and a boy, all about sixteen years of age, hurried to meet him. The thing that really shocked the wayward shin obi, however, was the tall, gangly creature covered in ginger colored fur that bounded down the ramp after the man.
Drawing on a bit of demonic chakra to enhance his hearing, Naruto failed to notice Neji who watched obscurely as the blond genin's eyes received a slight reddish cast.
"It will probably take the Second Imperium a while to install those stolen components," the man began immediately. "We might have a few days, but here is no point in taking an unnecessary risk."
He turned to address the hairy creature. "Lowie, I need you to take your T-23 and locate Tionne and Raynar-they went out to the temple on the lake for training. It is vital that we all work together, so bring them back here as soon as possible."
The creature Lowie roared out before rushing toward another silvery craft, though this one was much smaller than the other one. A weird, distorted voice that Naruto's enhanced senses pinpointed to a little metal box clipped on its belt called back to the humans. It seemed to be translating the acquiescent roar. The man gave a nod, and then turned to one of the girls. Her shockingly reddish-orange hair was twisted into many small braids, and one of her arms ended near the elbow. She wore very brief armor of some kind that appeared to be made out of some sort of scaly hide.
"Tenel Ka, please gather as many students as possible and give them a crash course in ground combat and hand-to-hand fighting. I don't know what the Shadow Academy tactics will be, but you're the best qualified for such techniques."
"Yeah, you should've seen her on Hapes against those Bartokk assassins," the boy interjected enthusiastically. "She was great!"
The girl blushed, but nodded tersely before hurrying off. This left the man, the boy and the other girl. The two younger ones seemed to be twins, with similar features and matching grins.
"What do we do, Uncle Luke?" asked the girl impatiently. "Me and Jacen want to help too."
"Now that Han and Chewie left, we need to get those shields back up and running. It's almost guaranteed that the enemy will use TIE fighters to hound us as we are confronted by ground troops. It's important that the shields are up and protecting us for as long as poss-"
Suddenly, he cut off and a glowing sword-like weapon hummed to life as he whirled toward the hidden ninjas a couple hundred meters away.
The two teenagers with him gave gasps of surprise, but drew similar weapons seconds later. The man opened his mouth and called out.
"Show yourselves. It's no use hiding!"
Gaara slammed a chakra-powered fist into the door. There was a hiss and popping noise before it slid open, obviously damaged. A surprised guard in white armor gave a cry of alarm before whipping up a weird object and sending a blast of energy toward the enraged ninja. It was easily avoided as he leapt sideways. Moments later, the guard froze, obviously confused.
"Temari, knock him out!" Shikamaru stipulated. He pantomimed pulling off a helmet, which made the guard follow his lead. Temari jumped forward and smashed a foot into his head and followed it with a swift left hook. Shikamaru released his hold as the man crumpled, and the two sped off after Gaara who moved purposefully though the gleaming passageways. They came to a large room whose ceiling towered high above them. A huge round column with lights, wires, and such extended upward from the middle of the room. It seemed to stretch down a ways into a hole in the floor as well.
Gaara leapt upwards suddenly and ran up the wall a good thirty feet before hopping onto a platform. The other two followed, ignoring the astonished and disbelieving cries of the guards who had chased them. Their surprise soon faded, however, and the two shinobi had to dodge another barrage of energy until they reached the ginger-haired boy. He had just finished smashing the door open as they arrived, and had to hurry once more in order to keep up.
Finally, they stopped before a large, double door. Before Gaara could force this one open too, it opened by itself with a faint whoosh. A man stood waiting on the other side, smiling faintly, in a silver body armor of sorts. A much younger man about the three ninja's age stood slightly behind and to the side of him, a red-lined black cape rustling faintly as he shifted, gazing at them with hard, ice blue eyes. A half circle of about fifteen others stood behind the two.
"Greetings, my young friends. Might I offer my congratulations on having made it this far?" the first man said charmingly. Gaara glared at him for a moment then stepped forward and raised a hand. The group let out various noises of surprise as sand flowed between them to regain its shape as a gourd under Gaara's hand, thought the middle two remained unmoved. The older one did raise an eyebrow though, as he held up a hand to stay off any attacks from his group.
Spying her fan in a corner to her right, Temari cautiously made her way toward it as Shikamaru moved to the left and stopped on Gaara's other side. Once the gourd had all been collected, the Sand Nin raised cold, black-rimmed eyes. He lifted a hand to touch the cut on his temple, then licked the blood off his fingers delicately.
Sand began to pour out of the gourd as he turned the cork over in his left hand.
"You are going to die now," he stated in a monotone voice, and closed his right hand into a clenched fist.
Kakashi scowled beneath his mask as he gazed around. He continued to wear his mask underneath his plain earth-tone robes, much to his companions' disappointment. As far as he could tell, they were in a place called Coruscant and apparently more sentient beings than humans roamed about freely. They were neither demon nor spiritual, though Kakashi felt that some of the creatures he had seen certainly resembled such beings…
That wasn't the worst of it, however; he could handle dealing with strange creatures if he had to, though he did wonder about the Yamanaka girl. It was the fact that these people could travel though space, and that (rather than different countries) the place consisted of many worlds, which together formed what the residents called the Galactic Republic. He had no idea how the hell to get home, or even if his home existed anymore.
In short, he felt completely and utterly lost for the first time in his entire life.
Slumping back in his seat, he looked at the other two. Lee was uncharacteristically calm and was gazing about surreptuously from beneath his hood. Ino was scowling down at her cup of fruit juice. The Copy Nin had never heard of whatever it was supposedly made of and was loathe to try the gaudy pinkish-orange juice that sat before him. He had only ordered it to avoid too much attention. Lee, however, had drained his own glass and Ino was well on her way to following suit. Kakashi sighed and lifted the glass.
Kanpai! He thought sarcastically, before downing the juice in one gulp. He nearly spit it out in surprise at the burst of sweet flavor that filled his mouth. It didn't taste nearly as bad as it looked, but he would have much preferred a good bottle of sake…
"Things that bad, friend?" asked an amused voice to his left. "If so, maybe you should move on to something a little stronger than muju fruit juice." The tree Leaf Nin looked up to see a humanoid person standing by their table. He wore a back jumpsuit with two blasters strapped on either hip and was giving them an amused smirk. He eyes, however, gleamed a dull orange color in the scant light of the tavern they had chosen to rest in.
"I am Zareth, bounty hunter and captain of the SwiftFire. You three are new around here." The last was a statement rather than an actual question. Kakashi shoved an extra chair out from the table and waved toward it as an invitation.
"Hatake Kakashi. This is Rock Lee and that young lady is Ino Yamanaka."
Zareth looked at Ino in surprise.
"So you are, so you are," he said. "Rather young, aren't you?" His voice trailed off at the heated look cast his way by the pale-blond haired girl.
"Yeah, what of it?" she growled. Then bounty hunter looked taken back, then grinned.
"She's got fire." Abruptly, he turned back to Kakashi once more. "You three looking for a job? You've been here quite a long time."
"Are you hiring?" Kakashi noted that Zareth didn't miss the avoidance of his own question; the bounty hunter ignored it, however and smirked.
"We might be able to work something out," he replied.
hm...only one review...oh, well...