I'm back, finally. Thank you all for your patience. I wasn't initially planning on being gone for this long, but a family emergency cropped up right as I got home, and I had to turn right back around and help handle that. It's over now though, and I am back to writing and posting new chapters.

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Chapter 10

Ahsoka was furious. Furious at the ogres for hurting her stupid friend. Furious at her stupid friend for letting himself get hurt by the ogres. Furious at the speeder for rattling like a pile of scrap. There were a lot of things to be furious at in her life at the moment.

Glancing over at Naruto, she also had to admit that she was worried about him. Maybe. Just a little bit. Maybe a bit more than a little bit.

Reaching for the flight controls, she put the speeder in hover mode. It wheezed like an injured bantha, but it did stop in the air. Once she was satisfied that it probably wouldn't plunge them to their deaths, she moved over to check on Naruto.

It didn't look great, she thought, but it also didn't seem terrible. His left arm was definitely broken in at least one place, maybe two. She thought his left shoulder may be dislocated as well, and he probably had some bruised ribs. She sighed a little in relief. He wasn't going to die. At least, not until she killed him for being such a colossal idiot and making her worry so much.

Despite her relief at his stable condition, Ahsoka shivered a little. With Naruto unconscious, she felt alone down in the dark. She hated feeling alone. Togruta were highly social, and they instinctively avoided isolation. For them, isolation was worse even than it was for humans.

She growled at herself, trying to shake off that feeling. She had just faced down a pack of monsters trying to eat her. She was better than this. Still, the feeling persisted, and so she sighed and reached for Naruto.

Grabbing his uninjured shoulder, she gave him a gentle shake.

"Naruto," she said, "wake up."

He moaned lightly, but didn't wake. Frowning, she shook him harder.

"Wake up! Come on. You need to wake up, Naruto," she yelled. "Why won't you wake up?"

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Naruto groaned as he sat up, rubbing his head. He vaguely remembered killing the ogres, then getting distracted by some new threat. One of the ogres must have clocked him, he decided. That explained why his head hurt, but why was the floor so wet? And what was that whooshing noi-

Oh no. He really hoped it wasn't what he thought it was.

Opening his eyes, what he saw confirmed his fears. He was sitting on a water covered floor in a rusty old sewer. Glancing to his right, he saw the bars of the cage. Behind them, the eyes of the Kyuubi glowed like huge lanterns in the gloom. They held a mocking light to them, as though the fox was cruelly amused at something.

"So, you ended up here again, whelp. How utterly predictable."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto snapped. "And why am I here anyway?"

"You are here, because you got knocked out in battle. And it was predictable because you are pathetic."

Naruto growled at his tenant as he stood to his feet. He wasn't about to let himself be insulted by the giant hairball.

"Who're you calling pathetic, Kyuubi?" he shouted. "Last I checked, you're the one behind the seal."

The Kyuubi growled at this, and took a swipe at the bars. Naruto stood his ground unflinchingly though, ignoring the rush of hot air. The fox quickly abandoned its assault on the cage and glared daggers at him.

"Filthy human. Without my power you were nearly killed. Your little friend had to save your worthless life. You are nothing without me. Weak. Helpless. Stupid. Pathetic."

"Hey, I wasn't being stupid," he replied. "I was protecting my friend. Not something you would understand."

"And how are you supposed to protect her when you are so easily defeated. You need my power. You will draw on it next time, I am sure."

"I'll never use your power again!" Naruto yelled. "Your power is filled with the Dark side. It's evil, and I promised never to use it.

"Ha. You say that now, but just wait. Wait until you see how weak you truly are, until your friends lay dying and you are helpless to save them. No, you will give in to your anger. You will use my power. And eventually you will lose control. And then, I will destroy you and be free."

"NO!" Naruto shouted. "I'll protect my friends with my own strength. You'll see. Now I'm done talking to you."

Turning his back on the Kyuubi, Naruto ignored its enraged roaring. He closed his eyes and focused on his mind. He pictured the seal, and pictured himself moving outside it. It was a technique Jiraiya and Yoda had come up with for him to escape his mindscape if the fox ever pulled him in here against his will. He felt a familiar sensation of rising, and the sound of the Kyuubi faded into the distance.

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Naruto opened his eyes just in time to see Ahsoka raise her hand in the air over his face. Her intention was clear, but it was too late. Before Naruto could even open his mouth to stop her, her hand descended.

Slap.

"Ow. Dammit Ahsoka, what was that for?" Naruto complained as he rubbed his stinging cheek.

"You're awake! Finally," Ahsoka said, relief mixing with irritation in her voice.

"Yeah, I'm awake," he said, still irritated. "What was with slapping me?"

"You wouldn't wake up," she said, glaring at him. "I tried shaking you, but it didn't work. You're hurt and I got worried, okay."

Naruto closed his mouth with a click when he heard that. He hated worrying people, especially his friends. It made him feel like a jerk. Besides, now that she mentioned it, he could feel that he was hurt. His whole left side ached, and his arm and shoulder in particular were throbbing in agony.

Taking advantage of his silence, Ahsoka kept on talking. "Don't ever tell me to leave you behind again, got it," she said harshly. "I'm training to be a Jedi just like you. I don't need you protecting me."

"I wasn't-"

"Don't tell me that's not what you were doing," she cut him off. "You could have sent some clones to finish fixing the speeder. I could have fought with you, and then you wouldn't be so injured."

Naruto sighed, looking away. "I just didn't want you getting hurt," he said. "You're my friend, and it's my fault we're in this mess. I didn't want you getting hurt because of me."

"That's my choice," she replied. "I'm never going to just abandon my friends, so don't ask me to. It's like that saying you told me about. 'Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum.' Don't try and make me abandon my comrades."

Naruto's eyes widened at that. He had not expected to have Kakashi-sensei's words used against him like that. Even so, it made him glad to know that his old teacher's saying had inspired someone else. It was probably the most valuable lesson Kakashi had ever taught him, and Naruto tried to live by it. Knowing that he had passed it on to someone else made him feel worthy of the trust Kakashi had placed in him when he gave him the masks.

"You're right," Naruto said after a long pause. "I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry."

"Good," Ahsoka said with a satisfied nod. "Now, let's get your arm set."

Naruto winced at that. This was going to hurt, and he rather doubted Ahsoka was in the mood to be gentle. Not that gentle was really an option in their current circumstances, but if it had been, she probably wouldn't have taken it.

Gritting his teeth, he nodded, telling her to go ahead. Ahsoka pulled out the medkit Jiraiya had sent them and rummaged around in its contents. Pulling out a small syringe, she quickly stabbed it into his injured arm, injecting him with the contents.

"Ow," he yelled. "What was that?"

"It was just a painkiller, you baby," she said, smirking.

"Did you have to be so rough with it?" Naruto whined.

"Oh just quit complaining. It should be kicking in soon."

True to Ahsoka's word, he could feel a soothing coolness spreading through his left arm. In under a minute, the entire limb was nearly numb. Only a very mild ache remained of the previous throbbing pain. Naruto sighed with relief.

"Okay, now for the hard part," Ahsoka said to herself. "I need to splint the bone and reset your shoulder. I'm pretty sure I remember how to do that."

"Wait, what do you mean 'pretty sure?'" Naruto asked, his eyes shooting open. "You do know what you're doing, right?"

"Hey, I've only ever done this in class at the Temple, okay," she said defensively. "Besides, do you have any better options?"

Not bothering to wait for his response, Ahsoka pried an armrest off one of the chairs in the speeder. Bracing his (thankfully numbed) arm against it, she quickly pulled the bones back into alignment. Even with the anesthetic dulling the pain, it still hurt badly enough to tear a strangled grunt from Naruto's throat. She gave him an apologetic look and wrapped the whole thing in bandages, creating a makeshift splint. Naruto winced as she tightened them down, but between the painkillers and his naturally high pain tolerance he managed not to thrash about.

"Okay, I have to put your shoulder back into socket now," she said. "You ready?"

Naruto nodded, bracing himself. Ahsoka took his newly splinted arm, bending the elbow at 90 degrees. She slowly rotated the arm outwards, trying to ignore Naruto's pained grimace. Before too long she heard a slight pop, and Naruto groaned and bit back a curse.

"How does that feel?" she asked.

"…better," Naruto said eventually. "Thanks."

"Now you and Tora match," Ahsoka said, giggling. "You've both got bandaged limbs."

"Hey, don't compare me to that demon Loth-cat," Naruto said indignantly. Tora hissed at him, and the two started glaring at each other. Ahsoka just rolled her eyes.

"Okay you two, knock it off," she said. "We need to focus on getting out of here."

"Fine, fine," Naruto grumbled, before looking around. The ceiling above them was riddled with holes and cracks like the one they had fallen through. Any one of them could lead to the upper levels, or more likely to a dead end. There was no obvious way to tell which was which.

"Any ideas on that?" he asked Ahsoka. "It could be any of those passages, and we don't have time to check them all. The speeder won't last forever."

"Weeeell," she said after a pause, "Master Yoda always says that the Force should guide us. Do you think we could use the Force to sense which pathway is the right one?"

"Ummmm, maybe?" Naruto said, uncertain. "I guess it can't hurt to try. Let's do it."

"Together then," Ahsoka said, before closing her eyes. Naruto followed suit, and they both sank into meditation. As they relaxed into the Force, Naruto took one of Ahsoka's hands in his uninjured one.

Together they reached and combined their Force senses. Ahsoka was awed by how powerful their connection to the Force became as they worked together. It was like a pulsing river of light, flowing through the both of them. She could feel Naruto's presence, a dazzling storm next to her. Turning her attention to the outside world, she directed their senses outward, looking for the way back up.

Naruto, for his part, was amazed at Ahsoka's level of skill with the Force. She handled it with far greater ease and confidence than he could yet. He could also feel the difference in their power. He was stronger, certainly, but it was not by as much as he would have thought. Ahsoka was impressively strong in the Force, especially for her age, and she had far greater control of it than he had yet achieved. She then demonstrated that control by turning their combined senses to the problem at hand, looking for guidance from the Force.

Together they felt for any signs from the Force directing them towards a specific tunnel. Most of the passages felt dead, for lack of a better word. As if they held no significance to their journey. Others, though, felt cold, dark, dangerous. Those, they both figured, led nowhere good.

After several minutes, they felt something different. One of the tunnels, about three kilometers from their position, gave off a different feeling than the rest. To Naruto it seemed to glow, his mind's eye picturing it emitting a soft golden light. To Ahsoka, it gave off a comforting hum, her montrals buzzing in harmony with it.

Opening her eyes, she directed the speeder towards the safe tunnel, its position fixed in her mind. Beside her, Naruto stayed in his trance, keeping his focus, and hers, on the tunnel. In just a couple of minutes, they reached it.

"Okay," Ahsoka said. "Let's hope we got this right." With that she aimed the nose of the speeder up and gunned the engines. Naruto whooped as he felt the wind whip past his face. Tora, on the other hand, yowled and dug his claws into the seat at the sudden acceleration.

Through level after level they climbed, the tunnel stretching before them. For the first few minutes the levels all looked about the same; ruined structures with barely any light. After a while, though, they started to change. Lights began to shine from some of the buildings, and more of them looked intact.

The tunnel itself turned out to not really be a tunnel at all. It was a twisting path through broken floors and ancient access ports. Several times they had to stop their ascent and meditate again to find the correct path. It took nearly half an hour, but eventually they emerged into a relatively large open area, and Ahsoka leveled out the speeder.

Though still quite dimly lit, it was blinding compared to where they had just come from. A few speeders buzzed through the air, and Naruto thought he could see an occasional person walking along the streets. It was still clearly run down, with many buildings obviously abandoned, but nothing looked like it was about to collapse. Glancing at the side of one of the structures they passed, Naruto saw the number 235.

"Hey, we made it out," he said. "Nice piloting Ahsoka. Where'd you learn to do that?"

For some reason Ahsoka's montrals and lekku suddenly darkened with embarrassment. "Uh, don't worry about it," she said quickly, before changing the subject. "We've still got a long way to go before we read the Temple."

Naruto was about to press for information on her apparent embarrassment when a sudden sound from near Ahsoka's seat drew his attention. Reaching down, he retrieved the source of the noise, which turned out to be the comlink. A voice was coming from it, saying the same thing over and over.

"-is Jedi Master Luminara Unduli, please respond on this frequency. I say again, Naruto Uzumaki and Ahsoka Tano, this is Jedi Master Luminara Unduli, please respond on this frequency."

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"How far down are we now?" Jiraiya asked, a touch of impatience coloring his voice. They had been flying for several hours now, but after they went below level 1200, things had slowed down considerably. The straight descending access shaft had been replaced with a series of much older, and much narrower passages. They twisted and turned, forcing Luminara to frequently stop and even double back as she attempted to navigate the maze.

"We just passed into level 650," Luminara responded. "I'm afraid our progress will only get slower the further down we go."

"And there's still nothing from the comlink?" he asked. Luminara had set up the comlink to continually transmit a message for Naruto and Ahsoka, in the hopes that eventually one of the groups would end up in range.

"No, not yet," Luminara said. "We must be patient. You should try to release your emotions into the Force. It does no good to worry."

"Oh I'm not worried," Jiraiya said. "I know Naruto. He's the most determined kid I've ever met, and he's got a lot more skill than people give him credit for. From what I've seen of Ahsoka, she's the same way."

"Yet I still sense strong emotions from you," Luminara said. "Are you not concerned that they will affect your judgment?"

Jiraiya knew she was mainly asking as a way to pass the time. Even so, he didn't take offense. The time did need passing, and continuing their earlier conversation was as good a way to do it as any.

"There's a lesson that I've been trying to teach to Naruto for a while now," Jiraiya began. "He's still struggling with it, but he's making progress, and it's one I think could serve the Jedi well to learn."

"And what lesson is that?" Luminara asked as she turned them down a narrow gap between buildings.

"That emotions should act as the wind in your sails, never the hand on your rudder," Jiraiya said.

"Interesting," Luminara said. "So you believe you can use emotions to fuel actions without having them influence your decisions?"

"Yes. At least for some emotions, like love and joy," Jiraiya replied. "Others, like jealousy and hatred, should be 'released' as you say."

"And the choice of which sails to use would depend on what sort of weather there was?" Luminara asked, her face thoughtful.

"And on what sort of boat you have. It's a rather good metaphor, if I do say so myself," Jiraiya said, grinning a little.

"I must admit, while the idea of releasing some emotions while accepting others is fairly common amongst the Jedi, using your emotions to fuel your connection to the Force strikes me as dangerous," Luminara said slowly, her voice somewhat troubled. "It treads close to the Dark side. Maintaining balance would be…difficult."

"Everything worthwhile is," said Jiraiya. "Besides, you're focusing on the wrong thing."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. You're too concerned with balance, with serenity. They're not as important as you make them out to be."

Luminara frowned at that.

"Balance and serenity are the core of a Jedi. They allow us to-"

"-To make clear decisions without bias, I know. I've heard that line before. And sure, it's important to have a clear head when you need to make a judgment call, but the Jedi take it too far."

"How so?" Luminara asked.

"You try to strip the emotions out of everything. Emotions can strengthen you, but only if you have the courage to accept them. Like I said, sails, not rudder."

Luminara opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted by a voice from the comlink. It was Naruto.

"This is Naruto Uzumaki to Master Luminara. Do you copy?"

"Naruto this is Jiraiya. How are you doing, kid? Are you and Ahsoka all right." he asked, relief flooding his voice.

"We're both fine. We've jus- No I am fine Ahsoka. It's- hey! Don't-"

There was the sound of yelling in the background, followed by a clattering noise. Before Jiraiya could ask what was going on, a new voice sounded over the comlink.

"Sorry, it's Ahsoka now. He is not fine. Naruto has a broken arm, a dislocated shoulder, and some cracked ribs. I set the arm and splinted it as best I could, and we got his shoulder back into socket, but he's still hurt."

"Ahsoka, this is Master Unduli. Where are you two now? Are you currently in danger?" Luminara said, trying to steer the conversation towards productive ground.

"I think we're pretty safe for now. We found a speeder down there, and Naruto fixed it. I'm flying it right now, and we just got to level 235."

Luminara blinked several times in astonishment.

"How did you learn how to pilot a speeder, youngling? That class is reserved for those 13 and up."

"Uhhh, the Force taught me?" came Ahsoka's sheepish reply.

"Really?" Luminara asked, an amused smirk on her lips. "So you aren't the youngling who has been breaking into the flight simulators at night for the past three months?"

"…oops."

The sound of Naruto's howling laughter could be heard through the comlink. It was cut off after what sounded suspiciously like an elbow hitting ribs.

"We'll talk about it later," Luminara said, still smirking. "For now, I'm just glad it served you well. Now I need you to try and keep flying up. It isn't safe for you to land, and we can't get a lock on your position until you're closer."

"Understood Master Unduli. We're heading up now. We should be- oh poodoo!"

"Ahsoka, what is it?" Jiraiya asked before Luminara could speak.

"The engines just started to fail. I have to land."

"Ahsoka? Ahsoka!"

There was no response over the comlink. Luminara redoubled her efforts to find a path through the tunnels.

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Meanwhile, Ahsoka was starting to wish she had practiced crash landings during her illicit flight training. The engines were sputtering in and out, getting closer to total failure with each passing second. Thick, acrid smoke poured from the back of the speeder, its smell burning her nostrils.

"Can you fix them?" She yelled to Naruto. She could barely hear her own voice over the din around them, but fortunately, Naruto's ears were quite sharp.

"We're falling out of the sky!" Naruto shouted back. "How am I supposed to fix them?"

Ahsoka bit back a retort and focused on the controls. She only recognized about half of them, but now wasn't the time to bemoan her incomplete education. Her eyes alighted on the ignition switch, and she flicked it off. The sputtering engines immediately cut out, and their jerky descent turned into an uncontrolled free fall. The sudden loss of gravity nearly flung Ahsoka out of her seat, but she managed to catch the steering column at the last second. Her heartbeat thudded in her ears as she pulled herself back into the speeder.

In the background she could vaguely hear Naruto screaming something at her, but his words were lost to the wind. She blocked out the distractions and reached for the ignition switch again. Hopefully cycling the engines might just clear up whatever fault they had developed. Pushing against the wind was like moving her arm through mud, but push she did. After what felt like hours, but was in all likelihood less than a second, she flicked the ignition back on.

'Please let this work,' she thought. 'This really, really needs to work.'

For one terrible, heart stopping moment, nothing happened. Then, for several more moments, it continued to happen. Just when she was convinced that they were going to die, she heard it. The heavenly sound of a repulsor engine spooling up. With an unhealthy sounding clatter, and a juddering wrench, the engines fired back up, arresting their plummet.

"Are you crazy?" Naruto yelled, his eyes the size of dinner plates. "You could have killed us."

"I just saved us!" Ahsoka exclaimed. "Again. I think you mean to say 'thank you, Ahsoka, for your quick thinking and badass piloting skills.'"

Naruto made as if to respond, but before he could the recently reactivated engines burst into flame.

"You were saying," he snarked. Ahsoka took one look at the back of the speeder and swore violently. There was no way they could salvage the engines now. Their flaming transport began, once more, to pitch downward. Cursing, she aimed for the nearest landing platform, but they were losing height too fast.

"Grab Tora!" she yelled. "We're going to have to jump."

Naruto grabbed the Loth-cat, trying to ignore the immediate feeling of claws sinking into his arms. Wincing at the pain, he prepared to jump.

"Get ready," Ahsoka said, grabbing the comlink. "On my mark. Now!"

As one they jumped as hard as they could. Naruto managed to land on his feet, stumbling a bit as he hit the ground. Ahsoka wasn't so lucky, and she tumbled across the landing platform, coming to rest after a dozen meters. The force of the impact jarred the comlink from her hand, and it rolled off the edge of the platform.

The speeder crashed into the wall below the platform with a loud crunch. It burst into a large fireball before falling into the darkness below. A distant thud echoed up the chasm several seconds later.

Naruto groaned as the impact jolted his broken arm. The painkillers had begun to wear off some time ago, and his less than stellar landing sent lightning bolts of agony lancing through his entire left side. It was only with some effort that he didn't curl into a ball. Even so, he doubled over for a second, breathing heavily until the pain died back down.

Once he felt that he could move without screaming, he looked up, searching for Ahsoka. He had seen her bounce across the ground out of the corner of his eye, but he hadn't seen where she had ended up. Worryingly, he hadn't heard her voice yet either. He soon spotted her, lying off to his left. She didn't seem to be moving, and his heart skipped a beat.

"Ahsoka! Ahsoka, are you okay?" Naruto yelled, running over to her. Tora was tucked under his good arm, too dazed from the jump to savage him. To his immense relief, as soon as she heard his voice she began to stir. By the time he had reached her side she was already sitting up. She was dirty, bruised, and had several scrapes on her elbows, knees, and face, but she looked to be otherwise uninjured.

"I'm fine, but I lost the comlink," Ahsoka groaned. "So much for your engine repairs though."

"My repairs?" Naruto spluttered. "It was your clumsy flying that burnt out the engines."

"There was nothing wrong with my flying," Ahsoka yelled. "The speeder was shaking like a scared astromech droid. Because you didn't fix it right."

"I fixed it fine," Naruto snapped. "You must have missed a few lessons when you broke into the simulator."

By this time, both of them were face to face, glaring at each other and panting. After several seconds of this though, Ahsoka started to laugh, followed shortly by Naruto. There was more than a touch of hysteria to their laughter, but both were relieved to just be alive.

"Is there anything else that could go wrong today?" Ahsoka asked sarcastically as she strapped Tora to her back again. As if in answer to her question, the door of the nearest building suddenly opened, and a group of armed men ran out of it. They were a mix of humans, Weequay, and Rodians. Six of them leveled blaster pistols at Naruto and Ahsoka, while the seventh, a human who was apparently in charge, watched on from behind the others.

"Okay, this one's definitely your fault," Naruto whispered to Ahsoka. Before she could reply, the apparent leader of the armed men began speaking.

"Well, well, what have we gots here, eh?" he said. "Couple of lost kids? Wandering somewhere they ain't welcome?"

Naruto bristled at the man's words, and at the arrogant, threatening tone the man delivered them in. He had never been the most patient of people, and between the multiple life or death battles against vicious monsters and the stress of crashing a burning speeder, Naruto's limited forbearance was more or less exhausted. He was in absolutely no mood to deal with petty thugs, armed or not.

"Hey assholes, you had better put those blasters down," he yelled. "We've had a long day, and I'm about to-"

"Shut up, you little brat," the man said, before addressing the armed thugs. "Kill the boy, but bring the girl in alive. Pretty thing like her will be worth some money. We can sell her with the others. Bring the Loth-cat too. We could use some more food."

"Oh kriff," Naruto said as the thugs aimed their blasters at him. "Move!"

Naruto dived to the right, just in time to dodge the flurry of blaster bolts that whizzed by his head. They missed by mere centimeters, his movements a far cry from his typical speed and agility. He was hampered by his splinted arm, which forced him to forgo all but the simplest acrobatics, and made hand signs too slow to be practical. Fortunately, Ahsoka was quick on the uptake.

At the same time Naruto dodged, Ahsoka jumped forward. Sprinting towards the leftmost thug, a paunchy Rodian, she surprised him with a flying kick to the face. Her blow took him completely off guard, dazing him. Clearly these thugs had been expecting easy prey. Before the Rodian could recover the sudden blow, Ahsoka moved in once more.

She grabbed his gun arm and, with a smooth twist, broke his wrist. He screamed in pain and his blaster fell from his hands, which she snatched from midair. A swift kick to his crotch brought the thug to his knees, his scream turning into a gurgling whine, and she slammed the handle of the blaster pistol into his temple. He twitched once and slumped over, unconscious.

Letting the Force guide her arm, she then threw the blaster as hard as she could at the next thug, a scruffy looking human. It hit him in the hand with the sharp crack of breaking bone, forcing him to let go of his own blaster. Compared to the Rodian, this one seemed to be made of tougher stuff, as he merely grimaced and cursed angrily. He turned to face his assailant, unwittingly leaving himself open.

Naruto had taken advantage of the sudden decrease in fire to move back towards Ahsoka's position. Noticing the distracted human, he grabbed a kunai from his weapons pouch. Unwilling to kill an unarmed enemy if he could avoid it, he jumped and slammed the ring end of the kunai into the base of the man's skull. The thug didn't even make a sound, he just crumpled to the floor as Naruto vaulted over his limp body.

"Let's go," Naruto yelled as he ducked another bolt. "This way."

Still dodging blaster bolts, he sprinted into a nearby alley, Ahsoka following right behind him. He could hear the thugs behind them, yelling and cursing as two children outran them. He smiled beneath his mask at their frustration. If there was one thing he always loved, it was frustrating his opponents. His good humor vanished in an instant, however, when he saw two more thugs step out of a doorway in front of them, a human and a Weequay. Both had blasters leveled at him and Ahsoka. In a single instant, time seemed to slow down, and his mind raced for ideas.

They couldn't go back, there were more thugs that way, still shooting at them. There were no other paths they could take to escape. Going forward was a must. There wasn't enough room to dodge, and even the most incompetent marksman would quickly be able to shoot both him and Ahsoka in such tight quarters. Knocking them both out or disarming them would take too long and had no guarantee of success. His left arm was still too injured to form hand signs. He had no choice.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto flung the kunai in his right hand with deadly accuracy. It slammed into the Weequay's throat with a soft squelch, burying itself up to the handle. Blood bubbled out around the knife, and the Weequay grasped for it weakly, looking almost confused. His eyes flicked to Naruto, wide and astonished, as if he simply could not grasp what had just happened. His hand slipped off the hilt of the kunai and he made a horrible gurgling noise before stumbling and falling sideways, his life draining away through the hole in his neck.

Even with his limited Force senses, Naruto could feel Ahsoka's shock and horror, but he shoved that to the side. At least she kept running. The other one, the human, seemed mercifully slow on the uptake and had not started shooting yet. Taking advantage of the human thug's surprise, he jumped up into the air. Hopping from wall to wall, he quickly closed the gap between him and the frozen criminal. Without halting his forward momentum, Naruto wrapped his legs around the man's neck and twisted, slamming him into the ground head first. He could feel the man's neck snap as his head crashed into the floor at an awkward angle.

He could hear shouts of rage and disbelief from the group of thugs behind him, out of sight around a corner, but he ignored them to focus on finding an escape route. In an instant he scanned the path ahead and spotted a suitable looking hiding spot. There was an old abandoned looking apartment building that he and Ahsoka could reach before their pursuers could see where they had gone.

"There," he said, pointing at his choice. "Through that broken window. Hurry."

Ahsoka said nothing, not trusting her voice. She merely nodded and ran towards the window Naruto had indicated. When she reached it, she jumped through, careful not to hit Tora on one of the sides. Naruto followed a moment later, and they both moved back from the window and hid in the shadows.

Ahsoka could hear the thugs round the corner just a few seconds after they had hidden themselves. She watched as they passed by the window, not even slowing down. Only when their footsteps had faded from her hearing did she release the breath she had been holding.

"Okay," she heard Naruto say. "I think they're gone."

Ahsoka nodded again, still not trusting her voice. She had never seen someone die before, and she hadn't been prepared for it. It wasn't just the sight of it that was getting to her, it was the feel of their deaths in the Force. She had felt their terror, and then an awful feeling of nothingness. An absence where there had been presence.

Intellectually, she knew that Naruto had had no choice but to kill the two men. Any non-lethal options would have taken too long. She was just shocked at how fast it had happened. One moment she had been staring at the two thugs, frozen in shock. Then, not three seconds later, both of them were dead, and Naruto was the one to have killed them.

Glancing back at Naruto, she was surprised at what she saw. His eyes were unfocused, and what she could see of his face was pale. His hands shook slightly.

"Those men back there?" she said finally, her voice hesitant. "Are you…okay?"

She cursed herself internally. Of course he wasn't okay. He looked sick. She could feel his inner turmoil without even focusing.

"I-I'll be fine," Naruto said after a long pause. "I just- I hate having to kill."

"How did you do that?" Ahsoka asked. "Act so quickly, I mean. I just…froze?"

She looked down in shame. Here she was, training to be a Jedi, and she had frozen like a mouse before a Hawk-bat. Useless. Helpless. Weak. She was broken out of those thoughts by the sound of Naruto's voice.

"I froze the first time someone else tried to kill me too," he said in reply, getting a shocked look from Ahsoka. "Back there was- well let's say it's not the first time I've been in that position."

Something about the way he said that made Ahsoka acutely aware of the fact that Naruto had once been a child soldier, and not that long ago. She had known that the whole time, of course, but she had never really stopped to consider what it meant before.

Naruto had often told her and the other clan members stories from his past, but they were never of stuff like this. He told funny stories of pranks he had pulled, or the antics of his various friends and teachers. Looking back, even when he had told epic tales of his various missions, they had obviously been sanitized. As she recalled some of the stories, an awful realization began to dawn on her.

"You've had to kill before, haven't you?" she asked quietly. "Back in your old home?"

Naruto froze, and his eyes widened. She even thought he stopped breathing. He looked terrified. Ahsoka cursed her insensitivity when she saw his reaction. Obviously that would be a sensitive topic for him, for anyone really. Now he probably thought she was condemning him or something. Before she could apologize and reassure him though, he turned to speak to her.

"Twice," Naruto whispered. "The first time, during the bridge mission, two criminals had taken Tsunami and her son hostage. I just acted on instinct, and killed them both. The second time was during the invasion of my village. I had to kill several of the Oto shinobi while I was chasing Gaara."

Ahsoka listened silently, remembering the stories he was talking about. Before, he had made it sound like some grand adventure. Now it sounded more like a nightmare.

"I've always hated killing," Naruto said. "I guess I would have been a terrible shinobi. But those two thugs back there, that was so much worse than before. I could feel them die in the Force. It was awful."

"Yeah, it was," Ahsoka said, not realizing she spoke aloud.

Naruto jerked back, his eyes widening again as he realized the meaning of her words.

"Of Force, I didn't even-" he babbled. "I'm sorry Ahsoka. I didn't mean to-"

"Hey, it's okay," Ahsoka interrupted, pulling him into a tight hug. "It's not your fault. You saved both our lives, alright. Again. So don't go blaming yourself. You don't have to protect me from everything. Got it?"

Naruto stiffened at first when she hugged him. Slowly though, he began to relax and return the embrace.

"Why didn't you tell us this stuff before?" Ahsoka asked as they separated.

"I wasn't ready to talk about it," Naruto said, looking down. "I just want to remember the good times from back then. The rest, well let's just say that it isn't very happy."

"You can tell me," Ahsoka insisted. "We're friends, right?"

"Look, I don't want to talk about it," Naruto snapped, glaring at her over his mask. After a few seconds he sighed and relaxed.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Just…let's drop it. Please."

Ahsoka frowned, but sighed and relented. "Fine. How are your injuries?"

Naruto eagerly took the change of topic, wanting to steer the conversation onto less contentious ground. "Not too bad," he said. "They should be all healed by this time tomorrow."

Ahsoka looked at him askance. She couldn't have heard that right.

"Uh, Naruto, you have a broken arm," she said slowly, as if talking to a very young child. "Even with bacta, it'll still take at least three days to fully heal."

"I heal really fast," Naruto said hastily. "It's a uhh- shinobi thing."

Ahsoka stared at him for a long moment, debating on whether or not to challenge the obvious lie. Eventually though, she decided that if he didn't want to tell her, then it wasn't her business. From the look on his face it had something to do with his past, a subject he clearly wasn't comfortable discussing.

"Well, that's…different," she said. "In that case, we should get going."

"We can't," Naruto said. "We can't leave yet."

"What?" Ahsoka said sharply. "Why not?"

"The leader of those thugs, when he talked about selling you, he mentioned others," Naruto said. "I think these guys have other prisoners. We have to find out and help them."

"We what?!" Ahsoka yelled. "How are we supposed to help? You're injured. We have kunai and a few shuriken. Neither of us know how to use blasters. What are we supposed to do?"

"I-I don't know, but we have to try," Naruto said stubbornly, crossing his arms. "Jedi are supposed to help people, and those prisoners need our help."

Ahsoka blinked rapidly for a few seconds, before her face set with determination.

"Fine, but we need a plan first," she said. "We can't just rush in guns blazing. We don't have guns for one thing."

"We'll rest here for a few hours," Naruto decided. "That'll give those thugs time to calm down, and my arm time to heal enough to use hand signs. We can plan more then."

Sighing, Ahsoka pulled Tora into her arms and sat down to take a nap. If she was going to do this, she wanted to be well rested. This had been a long day.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Man, Naruto and Ahsoka just cannot catch a break. My initial plan was to have them successfully escape on their salvaged skycar and have this upcoming arc with the criminal gang take place later, but it occurred to me that there is no way Naruto, a novice mechanic, could realistically get an ancient, busted up speeder into a state to where it could make that flight all at once. From there it was a natural progression to throw them straight into the next dangerous situation, in the finest traditions of fantasy writing. I'm pretty sure Tolkien even named a chapter after this trope in the Hobbit.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy. Let me know what you think in the reviews. The next chapter will not take as long as this one, obviously, so I'll see you al then.