Once again, I apologize for the long gap between updates. I have an excuse this time, though. Over the last month, I moved from –CLASSIFIED- to –REDACTED-. That took a lot longer than I had expected, and things are still pretty chaotic, but I was able to get this put together for you. Somewhere along the way, it turned into the longest chapter of the story so far. Fair warning, I mostly edited this at two in the morning, so I make no promises about typos and the like.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, pushing this story over 600 reviews. Seeing my readers actually engage with my story does wonders for my motivation to write faster, and it helps me generate ideas and refine my style. I did have several people DM me asking if Naruto or anyone else was going to get a bloodline. The answer is a definite no. Those would be too complicated to work into the story when I'm already trying to balance the Force and chakra. I do, eventually, plan to write a Naruto/MCU story where Naruto will have a bloodline, but that is far in the future.

As always, please support the people of Ukraine however you can. Don't forget, they're fighting a war to defend their country while we read and write fanfiction.

Also, a quick reminder that this story is rated M for a reason. There may be content in this chapter some people find disturbing.

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Chapter 30

Ahsoka silently cursed in every language she knew as she clambered out of her escape pod. While they were built to survive just about any landing, they were not designed for comfort. Her montrals were ringing, her back lek was bruised, and her whole body felt lightly tenderized. Judging by the grunts and hisses coming from Knox and Barriss, neither of her companions in the pod had fared any better.

When she looked around, she spotted the other pod a hundred meters away, with Viir's mousy brown hair sticking out of the hatch. Huyang was already out, and as she watched, he helped Viir, Trilla, and Galdos to the ground. She sighed with relief when she saw all of them standing, apparently unhurt. It seemed Naruto's crazy idea had actually worked.

The thought of Naruto pulled a growl from deep in her throat. 'How dare that self-sacrificing, spacebrained idiot force me to leave him again?' she thought, as she waved the other group over to her. 'When I see him again, I'm going to bite off his ears.'

"Ahsoka, Barriss, Knox, are all of you alright? Are you hurt?" Huyang's voice broke her from her thoughts.

"We're fine, Professor," Barriss said. "A little banged up, but nothing serious."

"What about Naruto?" Viir asked. She looked worried, but Ahsoka couldn't blame her. She was worried about her best friend too, even if she did currently want to maim him. Before she could reassure the younger girl, though, her montrals picked up a faint noise coming from the sky. When she looked up to see what it was, her heart froze in her chest.

"Ahsoka, what is it?" Barriss followed her gaze upward and let out a strangled cry. Her hands flew to her mouth as her eyes grew wide. "Oh no. Naruto."

Above them, falling to the ground in flames, was the unmistakable shape of the Crucible. Viir sounded like she was about to hyperventilate when she saw it, while Knox, Galdos, and Trilla all gasped in horror. Ahsoka couldn't tear her eyes away, though. Her gaze stayed fixed on the ship as it plummeted from the heavens, no matter how much she wanted to look away.

"M-maybe he got into one of the other pods?" Viir offered. The desperation in her voice, for some possibility that her older brother wasn't on that fiery wreck, was clear for all to hear.

"No. He's still onboard." It surprised Ahsoka to hear the words in her own voice, but they came out without permission from her conscious mind. Even as she said them, though, she knew it was true. She wasn't sure how, but she knew with utter certainty that Naruto was still on the falling ship. As it tore through the air overhead, the noise drowned out Viir's shuddering gasps as she tried not to sob, but her montrals still picked up the vibrations from the poor girl's trembling. Or perhaps that was just her. She could feel her hands shake as she watched the trail of smoke vanish over the horizon, and her knees nearly buckled when the noise of the ship's impact reached them a few seconds later.

"Take heart, younglings," Huyang said, and she whirled on him, ready to scream at the droid, because how dare he try to encourage her? How dare he try to be upbeat when Naruto was dead? His next words stunned her in place, though. "Padawan Uzumaki may well be alive. He is quite resilient, after all, and the Crucible is a tough old ship. That crash may have looked bad, but the hull was mostly intact and the maneuvering thrusters were firing. There is a good chance he survived."

Just like that, Ahsoka felt her lungs unclench. Hope, which had faded away upon seeing the Crucible streak across the sky like a falling star, slammed back into her heart so hard and so fast she actually stumbled. The sudden turnaround left her dizzy, and it took her a moment to re-engage with her surroundings.

"-have to get to the crash site," Knox was saying. "He could be injured. We have to help him."

"We're going." Viir's tone was resolute, and she glared at Huyang as if daring him to challenge her. The droid looked around, at Viir, fierce and determined, at Trilla and Barriss, busily gathering their supplies, at Galdos and Knox, debating how far the crash was, and finally at her. Those yellow photoreceptors, glowing like distant suns, finally snapped her out of her stupor.

"Knox is right," she said. "We have to help him. Naruto taught us to never abandon a comrade."

"Well said, young lady. Let us go rescue Padawan Uzumaki. I dare say, this has already been the most interesting Gathering in centuries. A rescue mission seems a fitting next step."

With everyone agreed, they set off immediately. Knox and Galdos figured the crash was between 20 and 30 kilometers away, so the Initiates set a cracking pace through the sparse forest. Where the trees were close enough, they used tree jumping to move even faster. Huyang wasn't able to join them in hopping from branch to branch, but between his extra pair of arms and unlimited stamina, he kept pace with them well enough.

They hadn't gotten more than two or three kilometers, though, when another sound from the sky had Ahsoka calling for a halt. With the superior directional hearing her montrals granted her, she could pinpoint the noise from three separate ships flying overhead. When she looked up, it didn't take long for her to spot them.

"There," she yelled, pointing at the incoming ships. Two of them were identical, vaguely wedge-shaped, with wide, angular wings. They each looked large enough to carry a sizable group of beings. The third ship was a smaller, single-person starfighter. She didn't recognize the model, but even from this distance, she could feel the malevolence radiating off it like cold fire. "I don't know about those other two, but Aurra Sing's definitely in that small one."

"The bigger two… those are Mandalorian ships," Huyang said. Even through his vocabulator, the droid's surprise was obvious. "Yes, Kom'rk-class fighter transports, if I'm not mistaken. How curious?"

"Mandalorians? Why would Mandalorians attack us?" Trilla asked. "I thought they were peaceful now."

Ahsoka nodded. She hadn't always been the most attentive student in Galactic History class, but she recalled learning something about Mandalorians not being the threat they once were. Predictably, it was Barriss who chimed in with more details.

"After the end of their civil war, the Duchess Satine Kryze ordered that all Mandalorians lay down their weapons and armor," she said, as if reading from a datapad. Ahsoka didn't know whether to laugh or roll her eyes, but she was definitely grateful for how studious Barriss could be. "Most of the Mandalorian warriors chose exile instead, and scattered across the galaxy. These are probably a mercenary outfit Aurra Sing hired."

Even as she listened to her friend's explanation, Ahsoka watched as one of the Mandalorian ships, the Kom'rk-class or whatever Huyang had called them, split off and flew off towards the pillar of smoke that marked the site of the Crucible. The other two looped around and descended over where their escape pods were. From the belly of the other Mandalorian ship spilled a group of figures; Mandalorian warriors, she assumed. From the way they were flying, they at least had Mandalorian jetpacks.

"Umm, guys," she pointed to the flying figures. "I think we have a problem."

Huyang followed her finger and bristled in alarm. "Oh dear. Younglings, we have to get out of here. I counted 18 Mandalorian commandos, and they're looking for us."

"You want us to flee?" Galdos asked, his voice low and his quills twitching. "We are not cowards, nor are we easy prey."

"I'm with him," Ahsoka said, because she was a Jedi Initiate and a Togruta huntress. She would never be prey. "I'm done running. Let's show these guys who they're messing-"

"The only thing you lot will show them is what color your organs are!" The harsh tone was so surprising that Ahsoka actually took a step back. She hadn't expected that the stuffy architect droid had such vitriol in him. If he had been organic, she suspected he might have had tears in his eyes from the strength of his feelings. "I have seen Mandalorians in action before, long ago, and I have seen what happens to unarmed younglings who try to fight them. I will not see that again. You are very brave, all of you, but this is not a discussion. We cannot fight them."

"Ahsoka, he's right," Viir said.

"But Viir-"

"We need to get to Naruto. That's the most important thing right now. So let's move."

For the second time in less than a minute, Ahsoka found herself shocked at the unexpected fierceness of one of her companions. The sharp words, especially because they came from the normally kind, soft-spoken Viir, cut through her anger and hunting instincts, and forced her to recall her training.

'She's right. I almost let my aggression get the better of me.' Ahsoka glanced away, her lekku prickling in shame.

Viir didn't wait for a response before she turned and set off through the forest towards the Crucible. Ahsoka sprinted off after her, with the rest of the group close behind. While they had kept a swift pace earlier, now they were practically flying. The wind made her eyes water, and thin branches whipped against her skin, raising welts, but she ignored them. Now that she wasn't letting her ego do the thinking for her, Ahsoka recognized what Huyang and Viir had realized right away. Against 15 Mandalorian warriors, their only chance was to flee as fast as they could. If Aurra Sing had hired them, they were no doubt ready, willing, and eager to kill any Jedi they could find.

Unfortunately, as fast as they were, they weren't faster than Mandalorian jetpacks. Second by second, Ahsoka could hear the roar of the boosters getting louder. She wasn't sure how the commandos knew where they were, but it hardly mattered. They clearly knew somehow, and they were closing in fast.

With their Force-enhanced speed and agility, they were able to stay ahead of the incoming Mandalorians for a few minutes, but eventually, the inevitable caught up to them. A rocket shot over Ahsoka's head and slammed into a tree, toppling it and cutting off their path. Before they could pick another route, the Mandalorians landed, surrounding them. One of them, wearing blue and gray armor with a spiky, three-pronged yellow symbol on the chest and multiple antennas and viewplates coming off his helmet, stepped forward. He had a short half-cape, and Ahsoka guessed he was the leader.

"Nice try, little Jettise, but it's over. You can't escape. Surrender now, and this will all be over soon."

She bared her teeth and growled, the predatory sound coming to her instinctually. Through her montrals, she could sense her friends tensing, getting ready for a fight. The tension in the air steadily tightened, like a cable wound too tightly, until she could practically hear it humming all around her. The Mandalorians chuckled and fingered their various weapons. It seemed they were just as willing to fight as she and her friends were. Finally, the cable snapped.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Naruto grappled with consciousness like a bar of soap in a bath. His head hurt. Why did his head hurt? There was cold metal pressed against his face, and something sharp dug into his side. That wasn't right, was it? Memories flitted at the edge of his mind, but he couldn't hold on to them. There had been a ship. And a mission. He had definitely been on a mission. He remembered… shooting? Had someone been shooting at him? People shot at him so often, it was hard to recall.

Like flipping a switch, his brain finally rebooted, and the memories flooded back to him. The Gathering. The Crucible. Aurra Sing attacking them for some reason. Him crash-landing the ship. Everything.

"Karking Sithspit."

When he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at a shattered console. Broken bits of control panels and hanging wires littered the cockpit, and a haze of smoke hung heavy in the air. Something was on fire. Probably a lot of somethings.

'Can't stay here,' he thought, forcing his brain to work. 'First, self-assess. This probably won't be pretty.'

He wasn't disappointed. The sharp pain in his side turned out to be a shard of transparisteel, probably from the shattered viewport. He didn't think it had hit anything vital, but he couldn't leave it in. It would just do more damage if he moved with it still in his side, and he needed to move. The others needed him. He was responsible for their safety, and Aurra Sing probably wasn't going to stop at shooting down their ship. There was also the minor issue of burning to death if he stayed in the Crucible.

He didn't seem to have any other life-threatening injuries, but several lesser ones clamored for his attention. Most worryingly, his left knee was swollen and painful. When he tried to move it, it felt weak, but he still had full range of motion. He didn't know if it would take his weight, though. The impact with the instrument panel had definitely given him a concussion. He had a dozen other scrapes and cuts, maybe some cracked ribs, and his right eardrum was blown out. He could also feel the strain from creating six exploding kage bunshin. Even with his massive reserves, that jutsu was draining, especially with how powerful he had made it.

All in all, he'd been better, but he'd also been worse. If it came to it, he could move and he could fight. Some of the smaller cuts and bruises were already healing, no doubt thanks to the Kyuubi. For all that it was a malevolent chakra monster bent on destruction, it did come in handy at times like this.

He fished a bacta patch out of his belt and readied it. Once he was ready, he steeled himself with a few deep breaths and yanked the shard of transparisteel out of his side.

"Gah! Kriff!" He gritted his teeth as red hot agony flared from the wound and tears briefly obscured his vision. As badly as it hurt, though, he still managed to slap the bacta patch over the hole. There was a moment of unbearable cold, and then the soothing properties of the bacta numbed the pain and went to work healing the wound.

'Okay, that sucked. Now, I need to contact the Council. Long range comms are down, and the escape pods don't have what I need. Lucky me, I don't need comms.'

With his hands already coated in blood from his side, he didn't even need to bite a finger. His hand signs were a little slow, but they got the job done. He focused on the toad he wanted to summon and slammed his hand onto the deck.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu."

POOF!

"Yo, Naruto. It's been a while. What did you- whoa! You look like crap. Where are we? What happened?"

Naruto gave the small toad an eye smile and patted his head to calm him down. "Easy there, Kaede. I'm fine. Just a… minor issue. Can you take a message to Jiraiya?"

"Are you trying to insult me or something? 'Course I can get a message to that old pervert. What do I need to tell him?"

"Tell him I've been shot down by Aurra Sing and crash-landed on Rago. I need immediate backup. You got that?"

Kaede nodded. "No problem, boss man. I'll get it to him in a jiffy."

The messenger toad saluted and vanished in a puff of smoke. Naruto sighed in relief. Now, no matter what happened, at least help was coming. All that remained was for him to get out of the burning wreckage, find his charges, and hope that Ahsoka didn't maim him too badly for forcing her into an escape pod. He wasn't optimistic about that last one.

Escaping the ship was simple. The shattered remnants of the viewport were buried under a layer of dirt, but he could see thin shafts of sunlight peeking through small holes in the ceiling. It was the work of a few moments to cut a circle out of the upper hull with his lightsaber and jump through it. He emerged, blinking and squinting, into the daylight. After the dim half-light of the ruined cockpit, it took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness. Once he could see again, Naruto took a moment to analyze his surroundings. His natural impatience screamed at him to run straight for the others and damn whatever might be in his way, but years of training held him back. Mace and Jiraiya had, sometimes literally, beaten the importance of planning and preparation into his skull.

The air was cool despite the bright sunshine, and slightly humid. The terrain was mountainous, though he seemed to have landed in a valley. Odd looking trees covered the landscape. They were tall, perhaps twenty to thirty meters, with multiple layers of branches arranged in rings around the trunk. Their bark was pale yellow and looked like overlapping scales, while the red leaves were thin and tubular, more like thick needles than leaves, really. Overall, it didn't look like any forest Naruto had ever seen before, but he didn't care. It was a forest, and that meant he was at home.

In the course of his training, Mace had taken him to a variety of worlds and taught him how to survive in every conceivable environment. From the scorching deserts of Jedha, to the frozen mountains of Alderaan, to the urban jungles of Corellia and Coruscant, and even the blasted ruin of Ossus, the training had been tough. Even brutal at times. Still, Mace had suffered right alongside him, and Naruto was grateful for the skills he had learned.

When they'd arrived on the heavily forested planet of Kaller, though, Naruto had actually laughed in Mace's face. The idea of a Jedi, any Jedi, teaching a Konoha shinobi about forest survival was absurd, and he'd said so. The forest was his territory. His master had been skeptical, and delivered an hour-long lecture on humility and respect. His skepticism had lasted all of three hours, when Naruto managed to locate shelter, food, and fresh water all before Mace. The student spent the next three weeks as the teacher, passing on the thousands of tricks and techniques that every Konoha shinobi learned almost before they could walk.

A hint of movement amongst the trees snapped him out of his reverie. He squinted to get a better look and grimaced when he saw what it was.

'What the kriff are Mandalorians doing out here? They must be working with Aurra Sing. Probably making sure I died in the crash. Better just sneak by them.'

No sooner had he decided on stealth than a blaster bolt streaked past his head, no more than three centimeters from his right ear. More followed, and he flattened himself against the hull of the ship and rolled sideways until he dropped off the edge. The impact against the ground made his head throb painfully, but at least he was safe. With the bulk of the Crucible between him and the Mandalorians, he had a moment to catch his breath.

'Ok, so much for sneaking by without being seen. Fierfek, they can really shoot. They must have been over 600 meters away. I need to deal with them. I can't lead them to the others.'

Suppressing the pain in his knee and head with a quick Jedi cantrip, he dashed towards the tree line and took up a perch in the branches of one of the taller trees. Not a moment too soon, either. He had only just gotten situated when the Mandalorians flew over the smoldering wreck with their jetpacks. He was too far away to make out what they were saying, but they fanned out in a clear search pattern. One of them, a tall man with red armor and a slightly different shaped breastplate, seemed in charge. The others looked at him before moving, and he held himself with the confidence of command.

Naruto channeled his chakra and made a dozen hand signs.

"Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu."

It was the only water style ninjutsu he had learned so far, and it took a lot of chakra and concentration, but it worked. Thick mist rose from the damp soil and formed an obscuring cloud for a hundred meters in every direction. Once he was sure the fog was dense enough, Naruto jumped from tree to tree in order to get closer to the commandos. As he drew nearer, he could hear them talking. The helmets gave their voices an eerie, robotic quality.

"I thought Aurra wanted him alive?"

"Kriff her. We see him, we kill him. We get paid either way."

Now that was interesting. Mandalorian mercenaries didn't come cheap. If Aurra was paying them, then someone was paying her. She wouldn't be able to afford it otherwise. This wasn't just part of her vendetta against the Jedi. It was a job.

"Dank farrik, this fog came out of nowhere. What the hell's with the weather on this planet?"

A flash of frustration came from the leader. "Dikut. This isn't natural. It's some sort of Force osik. Come out here, Jetii hut'uun."

"I'm fine where I'm at." Naruto threw his voice so they couldn't pinpoint his location. The Mandalorians acted immediately to cover every angle with their weapons. "Just so you know, I've contacted the Jedi High Council. The Order will be here soon."

"Liar. We destroyed your comms. No one knows you're here."

"I'm a Jedi. I don't need a comms relay to ask for help. The Force is stronger than you can imagine." For the first time, a flicker of uncertainty passed through the Mandalorians, undercutting their confidence. Naruto pressed on that, hoping to end this without a fight. "I have no quarrel with you. Leave now, while you still can. There's no honor in hunting children."

Apparently, that had been the wrong thing to say. Anger surged through the commandos, and he could actually hear their hands tighten on their weapons.

"Don't lecture us on honor," the red armored one yelled. "The Jetii have no honor. We follow the True Way."

The Force blared a warning, and Naruto only just managed to move before the branch he had been on exploded from blaster fire. A storm of tightly clustered bolts followed him as he leaped from branch to branch, sending up clouds of splinters every time one hit a tree. Somehow, they were tracking his movements, even through the mist.

'They must have thermal imaging in their helmets,' he thought. 'I've got to get in close.'

He created a few kage bunshin as a diversion, and rebounded off a tree trunk, straight for the group of Mandalorians. A few shots came uncomfortably close as he barreled towards them, but he was moving too fast to hit. As he flew through the air, he rushed through fifteen hand signs as fast as he could. When he landed, he slapped the ground and channeled a hefty burst of chakra.

"Uzumaki Sealing Style: Hunting Paralysis."

Dozens of tendrils of glowing blue kanji snaked out from under his palm and spread across the ground. Most of the nearby commandos activated their jetpacks, wary of the strange technique, and escaped, but two weren't so lucky. Before they could get off the ground, the glowing kanji touched their boots and raced up their bodies, spiraling around their torsos and limbs. The symbols flowed brighter for a moment, and then the two Mandalorians toppled stiffly, their bodies locked in position.

It was a seal Naruto had created himself, and it was one of the few he could use without preparing it beforehand. He'd designed it for dealing with small to medium-sized groups of enemies, to quickly incapacitate them without killing. Jiraiya had praised his ingenuity in turning a simple restraint seal into a viable, non-lethal, crowd-control weapon.

He didn't have time to admire his work, however. The two paralyzed warriors hadn't even hit the ground before he had to jump away from yet more incoming fire. From the corner of his eye, he saw one of his kage bunshin drive a rasengan into the armored chest of another of his attackers. The armor held, but the Mandalorian screamed and went tumbling backwards, unconscious.

Naruto emulated his clone and smashed a rasengan of his own into a commando's side, right between two armor plates. The glowing orb wasn't powerful enough to kill her, but it certainly blasted her off her feet and took her right out of the fight. He would kill if he had to, but that didn't mean he had to take the life of every opponent he faced.

Unfortunately, at that point, the Mandalorians killed his last kage bunshin, leaving him as their only target. In an instant, he tapped back into the Force. With so many skilled opponents, he needed the advantage of precognition more than the versatility of chakra. His training in Soresu paid dividends now, as he deflected dozens of blaster bolts. He even sent some right back into the commandos, though their impenetrable armor saved their lives.

Defense alone never won a fight, though, and remaining still was a death sentence. He needed to cut down their numbers, or they would overwhelm him. With a grim sigh, Naruto went on the offensive.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Ahsoka was the first one to move. The moment the leader had stepped forward, she had pulled the Force into her body, filling her coils with the now familiar buzz of chakra. While she couldn't yet compete with Naruto's skill in ninjutsu, let alone his raw power, she had still come a long way in the years since their terrifying misadventure in the undercity. Devastating attacks were beyond her reach, but she could certainly pull off a distraction. As fast as she could, she flipped through three hand signs.

"Bunshin no Jutsu."

A swarm of identical copies of herself flickered into being around them. They may have been completely insubstantial, but they looked solid, and there were dozens of them. For a moment, everyone in the clearing, Mandalorians and Jedi alike, froze in shock at the unexpected appearance of fifty orange skinned Togruta girls. Ahsoka took that moment to reconnect to the Force and then broke the sudden silence with her loudest yell.

"Scatter!"

Just like that, the spell broke. Everyone moved at once. The bunshin swarmed every which way. As they did, the Initiates and Huyang used the illusory crowd to escape and find cover, while the Mandalorians started shooting at everything that moved. The clones offered no resistance to either blaster bolts, blades, or armored fists. Under the withering and highly skilled onslaught of the Mandalorian mercenaries, their numbers rapidly dwindled.

"Haar'chak!" The lead commando yelled as a clone vanished beneath his fist. "It's some kind of Jetii trick. Find them!"

While Ahsoka's distraction had allowed her and the other Initiates to slip away for the moment, Huyang wasn't so lucky. He hadn't been quite fast enough to avoid detection, and one of the Mandalorians caught sight of him.

"It's the droid. Blast it."

She let loose with her wrist blaster, and the bolts tore through Huyang's torso. Two others targeted him with their rifles, and in a scant few seconds, the ancient droid fell to the ground, gently smoking holes burned through his torso and head. Ahsoka gasped at how quickly their venerable guardian had fallen and took a silent moment to mourn his destruction. He may have been overly proper and stuffy, but he had also been unceasingly kind and supportive during the short time she had known him.

"Monsters!" Viir's scream was so raw and visceral Ahsoka nearly didn't recognize her voice. She dropped from the trees directly onto the head of the Mandalorian woman who had first shot Huyang. In the brief moment Ahsoka saw her face, it was twisted in grief and furious determination. As she fell, she let loose a terrifying, high-pitched battle cry. It echoed off the trees like the shriek of a kitehawk and set Ahsoka's montrals abuzz in consternation.

As she landed on her target's head, Viir wrapped her legs around the woman's neck and used the momentum of her fall to roll in midair and throw the Mandalorian commando through the air. It was a move Naruto had taught her, and she executed it perfectly. The hapless warrior bounced off the ground and tumbled to a stop at the base of another tree. Her armor had saved her from a fractured skull, but she wasn't going to be moving for a few minutes.

The other commandos reacted with impressive speed to target the young girl who had just felled one of their own. Before the nearest one could fire his rifle, though, Knox pounced from his perch in the branches and kicked his weapon off target. The stray shot served as the starting pistol for a free-for-all, as the rest of the Initiates leaped into the fray, trying to use the element of surprise to give them any advantage against the armored warriors.

Viir joined Knox against the commando whose rifle he had just kicked. Together, they disarmed him, and Knox slammed the butt of the rifle into his helmet with enough force to crack the durable frame of the weapon. The Mandalorian crumpled, dazed and possibly unconscious. Their helmets made it difficult to tell. Either way, he was down.

At the same time, Galdos surprised a green armored commando with a Force push. The man cursed as he flew backwards and crashed into a tree. Ahsoka heard the whoosh of the air leaving his lungs from ten meters away. Meanwhile, Trilla used the Force to enhance her speed and dart amongst the Mandalorians, landing painful blows and knocking aside blasters. Ahsoka saw her as a brown and black blur out of the corner of her eye as she worked with Barriss to subdue her own opponent; a towering commando with broad shoulders and arms nearly as thick around as her torso. He was immensely tough and strong, but also slow and inflexible. While Barriss held his attention, she quickly snatched his blaster and stunned him with it. It took two shots to drop him through his armor, but he toppled over like a felled wroshyr tree. The ground actually trembled from the impact.

Despite their initial setbacks, though, the Mandalorians were not so easily defeated. They may not have had the supernatural speed, reflexes, and agility of a Jedi, but they more than made up for it against the Initiates with their skill, experience, and dizzying array of arms and armor. Once they got over the shock of being ambushed by literal children, they quickly turned the tide. Knox and Viir found themselves in a crossfire of stunners, unable to dodge. Viir was able to pull off a kawarimi, switching with a rock, but Knox was too slow. He cried out and collapsed as three stun bolts hit him at once.

The warrior whom Galdos had Force pushed into a tree responded by firing a rocket from a launcher on his wrist. The explosion sent a cloud of dirt into the air and knocked the laconic youngling off his feet. He rolled and clutched his side, his jaw clenched in pain. Pale green blood leaked out from between his fingers. The acrid smell filled Ahsoka's nose, making her gag.

Trilla's speed served her well for a few seconds, as she dodged blaster fire with ease, until one of the Mandalorians got creative. He unleashed a twenty meter long torrent of fire from his vambrace. The raging inferno forced her to skid to a halt, leaving her vulnerable. Before she could recover her balance, a dart, launched by the same commando with the flamethrower, slammed into her neck. She ran a half-dozen steps before whatever drug was in it kicked in, and she started to stagger and weave like a drunk. Her arms waved sluggishly, and she crumpled to the ground, either unconscious or dead. Ahsoka couldn't tell.

She could scarcely believe it. In just a handful of seconds, they had lost any advantage they'd held, and now half of her friends were disabled, possibly worse. For the first time since being pinned down by the slave gang in the undercity, she felt genuine fear, cold and sharp, coil around her throat. It was just her, Barriss, and Viir up against over a dozen Mandalorians.

"Not bad, but not good enough, either," the leader said. "Verda, take-"

"Hold." A harsh voice cut across the chief commando. It was cold, harsh, and cruel. Ahsoka shivered just to hear it, and even more because she thought she recognized whose it was. Sure enough, when she looked behind her, she saw a tall, gaunt, deathly pale woman with a bright scarlet ponytail and a vicious sneer on her face.

"You've had your fun," Aurra told the leader. "Now it's my turn. What do you say, honey? You and your gal-pals want to dance with me?"

The infamous assassin turned her gaze to Ahsoka, and the Togruta girl's knees almost gave out. That gaze pinned her in place, measuring, dissecting, looking for weaknesses and finding plenty. It was the gaze of an apex predator, but it went further than that. There was something wrong behind those pale green eyes. Something broken. Every one of Ahsoka's instincts screamed at her to run, to flee from this dangerous, twisted thing, but pure stubbornness kept her where she was. Fear or no, absurdly lethal, possibly insane, Force-sensitive assassin or no, Ahsoka Tano never backed down from a challenge. If she was going to go down, she would go down fighting. Though her lekku were stiff with terror and she was pretty sure she was trembling, she bared her fangs and growled.

"Bring it on, bitch."

Aurra threw her head back and laughed. The sound of her mirth scraped across Ahsoka's montrals like a rusty saw blade. "Ooh, fire. You might actually be entertaining after all. I'll tell you what, honey. If you and your little friends here beat me, I'll let you all go. Pack up and fly off. You'll probably never see me again."

That didn't seem to sit well with the Mandalorian commander. "What do you mean, let them go? I'm not-"

"You'll do as I say!" Aurra's voice shifted from the sickeningly sweet, mocking tone she had been using with Ahsoka to a furious, borderline psychotic hiss.

"So, what do you say, honey?" She asked, her voice back to its former quality. "I'll even fight unarmed, just to make it fair."

"Ahsoka, no," Barriss whispered next to her. "It's a trick. She's baiting you."

"Do you see a better option?" Of course, Ahsoka knew Aurra was baiting her. She was Aurra Sing. They were three tired, unarmed younglings. That fight would only end one way. Even so, if there was even the tiniest chance that they could win, and that Aurra would keep her word, she had to take it. The alternative was just giving up, and that was no option at all.

"Fine. If you want an ass kicking, we'll give it to you."

Aurra's smirk turned into a full on grin. It might have looked friendly, but there were a few too many teeth. As she smiled, her presence filled the clearing and set Ahsoka's knees shaking once again. Barriss inhaled sharply and grit her teeth, while Viir went white as flimsi.

To Ahsoka, every being sounded unique in the Force. Most were a dim, distant hum, too weak in the Force to make more of an impression. Viir was a collection of tinkling wind chimes. Barriss sounded like a string instrument of some sort. Master Yoda gave off a deep, pulsing thrum, like a mighty engine. Anakin sounded like a bonfire, crackling and roaring with passion. Naruto was a symphony; complex, chaotic layers weaving into a beautiful song. Sometimes it ran slow and relaxing, other times she could have danced to its beat. No matter what, though, she never tired of listening to it.

There was no beauty in Aurra's Force presence. It screeched and wailed and howled like a tortured animal. Pain and rage filled every discordant note, and its chorus spoke of blood, death, and hate. Ahsoka's whole being recoiled from the ugly cacophony. Her montrals felt like they were being sandblasted, and bile coated her tongue. She swallowed, her throat dry and scratchy all of a sudden, and tensed up.

"On my signal, high, middle, low," she said. Barriss and Viir nodded. "Ready, go!"

With the sort of well-oiled unity that only comes from years of living and training together, the three remaining Initiates sprang into action. Barriss rebounded off a tree and aimed a flying kick at Aurra's head. Ahsoka rushed straight in, intent on delivering a set of crippling blows to her vital organs. Viir darted around to one side and crouched, ready to sweep the assassin's legs out from under her. It was a tried and tested tactic, one taught to younglings at the Temple for millennia. The idea was to distract the target and overwhelm them with multiple attacks from multiple angles, ensuring at least one attack connected. Ahsoka had even used it successfully against Naruto more than once. She was confident that at least one of them could land a blow.

Reality, as so often happens, was somewhat different from expectations. Aurra moved like liquid lightning. In one fluid motion, she pivoted away from Viir, grabbed Barriss's leg, and kicked Ahsoka in the chest. All the breath left her lungs in an explosive burst. Spots swam in her vision. Rocks and tree roots tore up her back as she skidded across the ground. It was the hardest she had ever been hit in her life, and it took a few seconds for her body to remember how to breathe. As she lay gasping on the ground, she heard a sickening crunch followed by a scream of pain.

When she finally managed to get some air into her lungs and look to see what was going on, she nearly puked at what she saw. Barriss lay on the ground, curled up and crying in pain. Her leg was bent at several unnatural angles, clearly broken in multiple places. A shard of bone protruded from her upper thigh like a jagged thorn. Aurra held Viir up by her neck, a sadistic smile on her face. The small girl kicked and scratched at her, but it was futile. After a few seconds, her struggles slowed and grew feeble. Soon enough, her head lolled to one side and her limbs dropped down limp. Aurra cackled and tossed her to one side, her unconscious body ragdolling across the ground. Ahsoka flinched when that broken gaze focused on her once more.

"Ooohh, there's the fear," Aurra sighed. She inhaled deeply and tilted her back in bliss that looked almost sexual. "Delicious. You know, I really hoped for more out of you, honey. Aw well. I guess I'll just have to kill your friends after all."

Ahsoka snarled and scrambled to her feet. "You won't touch them. You hear me? You won't touch them!" Her face screwed up in concentration as she channeled as much chakra as she could. Despite months of practice, she had only used this jutsu successfully twice before. It wasn't the best track record, but desperation would have to make do in place of practice. She flipped through the six hand seals as fast as she could, held the tiger sign up to her lips, and took a deep breath.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"

To her relief, she felt her chakra flow smoothly into the jutsu. When she exhaled, a torrent of flames poured forth from her mouth, forming a sphere over two meters wide. It raced towards Aurra, scorching the grass beneath it as it flew. The mad assassin's eyes widened at the sight of the veritable inferno roaring her way. Ahsoka let out a wild cry of victory as she watched the fireball slam into the ground where Aurra was standing. The impact sent flames rushing high into the air and carved a crater into the dirt.

'Nothing could survive that,' she thought, even as sudden exhaustion dragged at her limbs. She had never used such a large jutsu before, especially not while already tired from a fight. 'She has to be dead.'

"Nice try, honey. I'll admit, that's a neat trick. You almost had me." A voice from the trees cut her celebration short and drowned her relief in a flood of cold despair. Aurra dropped out of the branches of a nearby tree. A few streaks of soot stood out sharply against her corpse-pale skin, and her clothes were smoldering gently, but she looked unharmed. Her sadistic grin had vanished, though, replaced by a cold fury. Despite her earlier words, she obviously did not appreciate being taken off guard.

"Trying to burn me to death, honey? Not very nice of you. I guess I'll have to teach you some manners before I gut you and your little friends."

Ahsoka could have screamed in frustration. She had thrown her best shot at the assassin, literally everything she had, and it had amounted to nothing. It was chilling to see her most powerful technique achieve so little, but surrender was as foreign to Ahsoka as poetry was to fish, so she took what scraps of energy she had left and turned it into action.

Pure adrenaline and grit drove her to sprint faster than she ever had in her life. In the blink of an eye, she had crossed the distance between her and Aurra. Her fist flew straight for one of those horrible green eyes, only for the assassin to catch it in her spider-like hands. Her fingers may have been long and thin, but Aurra had a grip like a vise. She hoisted Ahsoka into the air by her arm and slapped her twice across the face. Stars exploded across her vision, and she felt as though someone had injected molten metal into her mandible. The taste of blood filled her mouth. She was certain her jaw was broken. From the burning pain in her shoulder, she thought it might be dislocated too.

"Nice try, honey, but not good enough." Aurra leaned in close, and her voice dropped to a whisper. "How does it feel, hmm? All that righteous fury, all that Jedi training, and it means nothing. Where is your precious Order now?"

Ahsoka didn't have the energy left to speak. She didn't think she would have been able to anyway, but she did manage to spit a wad of blood right in the assassin's face. Aurra just laughed and extended her tongue to lick the mix of blood and saliva off her cheek. She smiled, showing blood-stained teeth, before she punched Ahsoka once, twice, three times in the stomach. Her abused body finally rebelled under the assault, and she coughed up several mouthfuls of vomit and bile. The acrid mixture stained the front of her clothes, and the smell burned her nose.

"Defiant to the end, huh?" Just for that, I'll tell you what I'm going to do with you and your friends." Aurra didn't seem to notice or mind the smell, or the vomit pooled around her boots. Her breathing had turned fast and shallow, while her tongue flicked out to lick her pallid lips. Her voice was low and excited, and her eyes had darkened with sadistic lust. "I'm going to use you as bait, to lure in your Padawan guide. Naruto Uzumaki, I think his name was. I'm going to kill him right in front of you. Then, I'm going to kill all of your little friends here. One. By. One. I'll save you for last, though, because you've got such spirit. Tell me, girl to girl, do you think you'll still be so full of fire when it's your turn?"

Ahsoka tried to summon up the energy to talk, to fight back, to do anything, but she couldn't even raise her head. All the strength had drained out of her body. Her muscles felt like lumps of wet clay, her vision was a blur of vague shapes and colors, and every square centimeter of her body ached. All she could do was listen as Aurra taunted her.

"Hmm, no answer. That's alright. We'll find out soon enough. Until then, lights out."

Ahsoka didn't see the blaster, or the stun bolt. All she saw was a flash of blue, and then her whole body seized and her mind tumbled into darkness.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

The forest was Naruto's greatest advantage. In any other environment, the skilled commandos would have quickly gained an edge on him, but not here. A Konoha shinobi in the trees was a damnably dangerous thing, a lesson the Mandalorians were learning to their detriment. Even with their thermal imaging, the mist still worked to obscure his movements somewhat, and the trees gave him virtually unlimited options for attack angles.

He flitted around the trunks like an insect, darting in and out whenever he saw an opening. The indestructible Mandalorian armor made landing decisive blows difficult, but not impossible. One warrior lost her head to his blade. He stabbed another in the armpit, where his cuirass didn't cover. Their shock and pain echoed through the Force as they died, and it sickened him, but he kept going. He had a duty to the others, and duty came above all else. Mace had instilled that lesson into his very bones.

Before they could adapt, Naruto dropped directly into the middle of a cluster of four, his fingers blurring through hand seals even before he landed. A split second after he touched down, he finished the last seal and clapped his hands together.

"Fūton: Kama no Arashi!"

With a sound like ten kilometers of ripping fabric, a violent storm of nearly invisible wind sprang into life around Naruto's clasped palms and exploded outwards in all directions. The force of the wind tossed the nearby Mandos aside like rag dolls, but the technique didn't stop there. Blood spurted everywhere as deep gashes appeared in the gaps between the warriors' armor. The invisible blades cut deep, laying flesh open to the bone and even severing a few fingers. One of the Mandalorians died in seconds from a severed femoral artery, the blood fountaining out of his body in scarlet waves. The other three were in marginally better condition, but none of them were getting up soon.

The jutsu was one of several Naruto had developed, inspired by Temari's devastating wind techniques. Without a proper war fan or a weasel contract, he couldn't replicate the exact same jutsu she had used, but he could certainly reproduce their effects. Indeed, as he looked at the grisly results of his latest attack, he had probably improved them. There was no time for him to survey it more closely, though. Kakashi, Jiraiya, and Mace had all taught him that on a battlefield, if you stood still, you died, so he jumped back into the trees before the dust had even settled. It wasn't a moment too soon either, as a pair of wrist rockets slammed into the ground right where he had been standing not even a second later. The heat from the explosion licked at his heels, but he used the Force to ride the shock wave, letting it propel him even higher into the leafy canopy.

'Stang, that was close,' he thought. 'How many weapons do these guys have?' Below him, the remaining commandos wasted no time in adapting to his tactics.

"Close ranks!" The leader shouted. "Form up. Don't let him get between us."

They positioned themselves in a tight circle with blasters covering every approach, high and low. It was clever and forced him to change his approach. Rather than continue his hit-and-run attacks, he used the Force to grab four of them and flung them into their fellows. It should have created a mess of confusion and tangled limbs. Unfortunately, Naruto had forgotten to account for the Mandalorians' jetpacks. As soon as he lifted their comrades, the other five Mandalorians launched into the air. It broke their ranks, but it didn't create the chaos Naruto had wanted.

He rushed in anyway, though. His reserves of patience were limited, and he had other places to be. Using the Force once more, he grabbed hold of the red-armored leader and pulled him towards his blade. The commando had excellent reactions, though, and raised his arms just in time. Naruto's lightsaber slammed into the crimson vambraces, but it couldn't cut through them. From there, he got a demonstration of just why Mandalorian warriors were so feared and respected. Faster than many Jedi he had seen, the man pushed the saber away, backhanded him in the temple, and tried to stab him with a vibroknife he had produced from somewhere. Naruto only got his lightsaber up in the nick of time and cut the knife in half with a clumsy swipe. The leader flew backwards with his jetpack to avoid being decapitated and opened fire with a pair of blaster pistols. Naruto had never seen anyone shoot with such a deadly combination of speed and accuracy. Between his previous concussion and the lump even now rising on his head from the hit he had just taken, just staying alive suddenly became a challenge.

He was so busy deflecting fire that he almost missed the warning from the Force off to his left. At the edge of his vision, he saw something long and thin streaking his way. Acting purely on guidance from the Force, he flipped sideways over what turned out to be a fibercord, one that would have entangled him had he not moved. The thin wire shot off uselessly into the trees, but the warning in the Force only grew louder. When he turned his attention back to the leader, Naruto saw why. In the brief lull while Naruto dodged the fibercord, the man had pulled out a handheld flechette launcher, and was already pulling the trigger.

Naruto had only faced flechettes once before, and that experience had ended with him in a hospital for five hours while doctors pulled dozens of the tiny metal blades out of his body. Lightsabers were useless against flechette launchers, and he couldn't get to cover fast enough. That left only one option. In the tiny fraction of a second before the flying razors left the weapon and tore him to shreds, Naruto reached into the Force and pushed as hard and as fast as he could. He didn't have time for aim or finesse, just raw, desperate power.

What happened next was… confusing. There was noise; the bark of the flechette launcher, the howl of a sudden wind, a lot of cursing. Everything blurred into a storm of dust and rocks and flying debris. When it settled, Naruto stood in the center of a circle of destruction. The Mandalorians lay a dozen meters away, having been thrown back with considerable force. The power of his push had stripped the scales off the nearby trees and blasted a crater half a meter deep into the ground.

He took a moment to center himself and catch his breath. He couldn't take too long, though, because the Mandalorians quickly recovered and pulled themselves to their feet. Their armor truly was a miracle. Naruto readied his lightsaber, and the warriors reached for their blasters, but the leader held up a single fist.

"Wait. Aurra has a message for the Jetii."

He pulled out a holopad and pressed a button on the side. The device lit up and projected an image of the infamous bounty hunter into the air.

"So you're Naruto Uzumaki. I've gotta say, you don't look like much."

What do you want, assassin?" Naruto was in no mood to play games. He felt a cold prickle along the back of his neck, and his fists clenched over his lightsaber. Something terrible was happening. He just knew it.

"I've got something you might be interested in. Take a look."

The holoimager turned, and his worst fears came true. All six of the Initiates lay unmoving on the ground. He couldn't tell if they were alive or dead, and a black lump of ice formed in his stomach.

"You-"

"Aww, don't look so stricken. They're alive. If you're a good little Jedi and come running, they might even stay that way. Try to free them, they die. Try to run, they die. No games, little Jedi. Come and find us. I'll wait. Maybe."

The image froze on her face, twisted in some parody of a coy smile. For a moment, Naruto couldn't move. He couldn't think. All he could hear was his own heartbeat. All he could see were his friends, limp on the ground. Fear froze him in place, mute and trembling, until the hot flame of determination blazed in his chest. Fear wouldn't help him. Perhaps nothing would help him, perhaps not, but fear was never the answer.

He cast his senses out as far as they would go in a desperate search for Aurra and his friends. It didn't take long to find them. Aurra's presence squatted perhaps thirty kilometers away, an ugly thing, all claws and teeth and dripping blood. The Dark side poured off of her, bitter and pungent. He'd never felt a presence so twisted and vile before. No matter what he had to do to save his friends from such a monster, he would do it.

It only took a few seconds for all of that to run through his mind. The instant he pinpointed the direction Aurra was in, he vanished in a blur. Shunshin was out of the question with his knee as battered as it was. It would heal in a few hours, but until then, he didn't dare risk the stress of a body flicker. It would have been faster, but there was no point in arriving with a blown out knee when he was sure he would still have to fight. The Force lent him ample speed and strength, though, and he drew on it like water from a well. However fast he ran, though, he couldn't shake the dread in his core. Something terrible was coming. He could sense it.

"Run as fast as you want, ningen. It won't matter. She'll kill you, and then she'll kill your friends."

The unexpected voice of the Kyuubi nearly made him trip. 'Shut up. You're the last thing I need to deal with right now.'

"Don't be a fool. You know it's a trap. Your power won't be enough. Use mine. Save your friends. It's the only way."

'Be quiet. I'll never use your power!'

"Hahahaha. You will. All you have to do is reach inside and take it. You are too weak not to."

Naruto growled and tried to ignore the Kyuubi's mocking laughter. He needed to focus. Nothing mattered but saving his friends. He concentrated on how much he cared for them, the love he had for all of them, and the righteous fury that Aurra had hurt them. He poured all those emotions into his connection with the Force, and let them fuel his power and drive him forward at even greater speed. It wasn't exactly the Jedi way, but it had served him well in the past, and he needed every boost he could get.

By drawing on the Force the whole way, Naruto reached Aurra's position in just over 15 minutes. She'd positioned herself well, right in the center of a large clearing. Six Mandalorians, each one holding one of his friends at blasterpoint, formed a half circle with her in the center. More of the warriors dotted the clearing, tensed and ready to fight. It could not possibly have been a more obvious trap, but it didn't matter. Even if he summoned an army of kage bunshin, they wouldn't be able to take down all the Mandalorians and Aurra herself before she executed his friends.

'If I had more time, maybe I could make a plan, but I don't. Who knows how long she'll wait before shooting someone? I can smell the crazy on her from here.'

He couldn't suppress a snarl when he saw the state of his friends. Barriss had a badly broken leg. Ahsoka looked as though she'd been beaten with a club, and what looked like vomit stained the front of her clothes. Knox was dazed and Trilla looked out of it, possibly drugged. Galdos was bleeding from a nasty wound on his side, and his quills drooped weakly. They all seemed barely conscious. Only Viir was fully awake. She had an ugly bruise on her throat, but she was still struggling against her captor, some blue and gray armored Mandalorian with a yellow symbol on his chest. He felt a surge of pride for how strong his little sister was being, but the anger overshadowed it. How dare these people hurt his friends!

With a tremendous effort of will, he got control of his rage before he did something stupid. When he was as calm as he could get, he walked out of the shadows and into the clearing. "I'm here. Now let my friends go."

Aurra laughed, and the cruel sound made him feel sick. "Let them go? Why would I do that? Because you came running like a well-trained akk hound? Do you want a treat, too?"

"You've got what you want. You don't need them anymore. No one has to-"

"Quiet, whelp." Her voice cracked like a whip. "I give the orders here. Now, toss your lightsaber away."

He did. The clatter of his hilt bouncing off the ground seemed like the loudest sound in the galaxy.

"Good. You follow orders well. Maybe you are an akk hound after all. Now, walk over here and kneel in front of me."

Viir's voice rang out over the sound of blood rushing in his ears. "No, Naruto-nii! Don't do it. Get out of- gah!"

The Mandalorian warrior holding her rapped the back of her skull with his blaster. Every cell in his body screamed for him to kill the man, but he couldn't. Instead, he tried to keep his voice steady as he could when he spoke to her.

"It'll be alright, Viir-chan. Don't worry."

"Yes, very touching." Aurra rolled her eyes. "Now kneel in front of me, or I cut out her tongue. Move!"

Naruto trudged forward. His feet felt like lead. Every step took an eternity, and Viir struggled and yelled the whole time. Eons later, he stood in front of the skeletal Darksider, close enough to see the anticipation in her eyes. Her whole being screamed with it. She couldn't wait to kill him.

"I said kneel."

As he knelt, he glanced over at Viir. Their eyes met, and he sensed something in her snap into place. Her gaze hardened, and she winked at him. He opened his mouth to warn her, to tell her to stay still, but it was too late. She bit down on the gloved hand holding her in place. The commando swore, and she tore herself from his grasp and sprinted towards Aurra.

"Get away from my brother, you-"

Pshew!

A single blaster shot rang in the air, and a red bolt of superheated plasma burst through the front of her throat. Time slowed to a crawl.

Thump thump.

Viir looked confused, as if unsure of what had just happened. Her hands grasped at her ruined neck weakly.

Thump thump.

The Mandalorian she had bitten lowered his smoking blaster. Viir fell to her knees, her eyes still locked on Naruto's.

Thump… thump.

In an instant, pain, fear, and sadness flashed through her eyes. Her lips moved, mouthing words, but no sound came out.

Thump… thump.

She fell sideways, onto her shoulder. All the color had left her face, leaving it whiter than snow. Someone was shouting, but it seemed a long way off, faint and muffled.

Thump…

Her eyes stayed locked on Naruto's as she hit the ground. He saw her fear. He saw her bravery. He saw the light leave her eyes forever as she went terribly still.

…. ….

With a raw scream, Naruto reached deep inside himself and pulled. The world exploded, the Kyuubi laughed, and then all he saw was red.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Omake: Ahsoka's Hunt 3

"Master Ti, how can we be Jedi and huntresses at the same time?" Ahsoka asked. "Wouldn't being one sort of… rule out the other?"

The question had been bugging her for a while now. She had tried to figure out the answer on her own, but kept coming up blank. Shaak opened her near-black eyes and looked at her quizzically. "Why do you think that, Ahsoka?"

"Well, it's just that Jedi are supposed to be peaceful, and hunters… kind of aren't. They kill things. It's in the job description."

"You are friends with Naruto and Anakin, yes?" Shaak asked. Ahsoka nodded, not sure where this was going. "Do you think they would say a Jedi's life is overly peaceful?"

"Well… probably not. But they're both a little…" Ahsoka trailed off, unsure of how to phrase what, exactly, Anakin and Naruto were.

"Prone to trouble?" Shaak offered.

"I was going to say insane, but that works, too."

The older Togruta flashed her a fanged smile before she became serious again. "That may be true, but I think you'll find many Jedi live lives that are not especially peaceful. Remember, our duty is to create and protect peace for others, not necessarily ourselves. For our own lives, we seek balance, in whatever form that may take."

Ahsoka frowned. "I think I understand, but I'm not seeing how that answers my question."

"Take me, for instance," Shaak said, unfazed by the continued questions. "I am a Jedi Master. I took an oath to serve the peace and defend life, an oath I strive to uphold every day. However, I am also a part of nature. I have a place in the cycle of life and death, in the flow of the Living Force. As a Togruta, that place is that of a predator. It is both my cultural and my biological heritage. Accepting that and living accordingly does not mean violating my oath as a Jedi. It is simply one way in which I serve the balance of the Force, and therefore the balance within myself. I want to give you the chance to explore that same heritage for yourself. Did that help? If you're having second thoughts, we can always do this another time. There's no shame in that."

"No!" Ahsoka said, shaking her head so hard her lekku smacked her in the face. "No, I still want to do this. I've wanted to do this for years. It's just… I was curious."

Shaak gave her a reassuring smile. "I understand, Ahsoka. It's good to question things like that. I had similar questions before my first hunt."

Ahsoka let out a silent sigh of relief. She'd worried for a moment that Shaak would turn the ship back to Coruscant. That would have been humiliating, not to mention hugely disappointing. Questions aside, she had been looking forward to this day since she was five. Shaak was one of her biggest role models in the Order. Growing up to be like her would be a dream come true, and this was a big step in that journey. She shivered in anticipation at the thought of what she was about to accomplish.

"Is your first hunt where you got that?" she asked, gesturing to the older woman's akul tooth headdress.

"Absolutely not. I took down the akul who gave me these after I was knighted." The smile faded from her face then, and she gave Ahsoka a look of utmost seriousness. "I want you to promise me, youngling, that you won't go after an akul. Too many young Togruta die hunting an akul for meaningless glory. I was almost a decade older than you are now when I hunted one, and it still nearly cost me my life. You will get to that point one day, Ahsoka, but for now, promise you will not seek out such dangerous prey. Be content with earning your sash."

Ahsoka's eyes widened when she heard the older woman's voice. It was a far cry from the casual, friendly tone she had been using until now. Instead, it was passionate and unyielding. All she could do was nod her assent. Truth be told, she had secretly entertained fantasies of hunting down an akul and earning her peoples' highest mark of bravery and skill. Part of it had been to impress Naruto, though she wasn't sure why that was so important to her. Mostly, though, it was to try and get someone to want her as a Padawan. All of her clan mates had various Knights and Masters looking at them as potential Padawans, but not her. No one had even approached her about it. She had thought, perhaps, if she proved how skilled she was, despite her youth and attitude, maybe she would draw a Master's attention. Any plans in that vein died instantly under Shaak Ti's piercing stare. "I promise, Master. I won't go after an akul."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Though she had been born on Shili, and had lived there for the first three years of her life, Ahsoka had very few memories of her homeworld. Those few she did have were mostly vague flashes of smooth wooden floors, soft woven blankets, and the odd fanged smile. She had no memories of what things looked like outside, and as such, she was eager to catch her first glimpse of her peoples' home. She was certainly not disappointed. From space, the planet was a study in natural beauty. Broad continents, interspersed with shallow seas, made for a tapestry of emerald forests and colorful grasslands. Ice capped mountain ranges spidered here and there, tracing random patterns across the land. Here and there, cities glittered on the night side of the planet. Togruta cities were known for their beauty and harmony with nature, or so Ahsoka had heard, but she wouldn't have a chance to find out just yet. Shaak landed the ship far from any large settlements, in a tiny hamlet on the edge of one of the many vast, unbroken tracts of wilderness that covered most of Shili. Before they left, they both changes into traditional Togruta clothing. Ahsoka chose a chest wrap and skirt that would give her maximum mobility. It also exposed the stripes on her legs, allowing her to take advantage of her natural camouflage.

From there, they hiked across several kilometers of hilly grassland until they reached the edge of a lush forest. Once Shaak had located a small stream, she halted them and declared they had found their campsite. Looking around, Ahsoka could see the appeal. From there, she had plenty of options for hunting. She could head back out into the sprawling plains of meter tall turu-grass. It was a favorite territory of the various grazing herds of traak'i and other large herbivores. With its varying colors of red, yellow, orange, and white, she would blend in well there, though getting close enough to separate her chosen prey from its herd would still be a challenge. It was also the typical hunting grounds of the akul. While she was unlikely to encounter one, it was a factor to consider.

Alternatively, she could head deeper into the forest. Prey would be scarcer, but easier to sneak up on, especially with all the tips Naruto had given her over the years. The forest was also home to larger prey, such as lirsu. While hardly an akul, it would still make an impressive first kill. She also wouldn't have to worry as much about water or shelter as she would on the plains. Overall, it was an attractive option, especially for a lone huntress.

Her final option was to follow the stream downhill, where it would no doubt lead her to one of the many rainforest valleys that dotted the continent. It was probably her least preferred option, though. While the rainforest valleys of Shili were renowned for their beauty and incredible biodiversity, they were hardly a place to hunt for large prey. While there were no strict guidelines on what she had to hunt to earn her sash, she doubted bringing back a toola bird or some jungle snake would suffice. They were also incredibly dense and, unsurprisingly, rainy. Ahsoka did not relish the idea of hunting in the rain. She generally hated being wet unless she was actually swimming. There was also the matter of bringing her kill back to camp. Dragging a dead animal uphill out of a densely forested valley sounded like a whole lot of nothing she wanted to do.

Before she could make her final decision, though, Shaak spoke up from behind her. "It's time, Ahsoka. Choose your weapons."

"Spears," she said, without hesitation. Shaak nodded and gestured for her to proceed. Ahsoka fingered the knife strapped to her thigh, walked off into the woods, and got to work.

First, she found three dead saplings of the right height and thickness, and cut them down. Using the knife Naruto had given her, she trimmed off all the branches and whittled them into proper spear hafts. From there, she went to the creek and found a couple of rocks that looked good. She spent the next few hours carefully crafting three stone spearheads. The sun was nearly finished setting by the time she was done, but the work paid off. After a few more minutes of work with some cord, she had three lightweight, razor sharp throwing spears. They were primitive compared to even the most rudimentary slugthrower, but they would get the job done. More importantly, she had made them entirely on her own, as tradition demanded. When she had finally finished, she presented her work to Shaak for inspection. The older woman looked over the spears, inspecting them for flaws. Apparently she found none worth noting, because she handed them back to Ahsoka with an approving nod.

"You did good work, Ahsoka. These will serve you well. Your hunt begins at first light tomorrow morning. You will have three days to track your prey, kill it, and return with it to camp. Do you have a plan?"

"Yes, Master," she said. She planned to keep to the forest, where she was most comfortable. Prey on the plains may have been more plentiful, but that meant little if she couldn't get near it, or if she ran afoul of an akul.

"Good. Before you go to sleep, I have one last piece of advice for you. This hunt will test you. Remember to rely on your skills, your strength, and, above all else, your mind. You'll find cunning often serves you where strength alone cannot. Now go to sleep. You'll need your rest for tomorrow."

Ahsoka nodded and laid on her bedroll, but she doubted she would be able to sleep. Nervous energy coursed through her like a thousand static sparks. Thoughts of what the morning would bring bounced around her skull. Nevertheless, the starry sky and ambient noise of the forest proved more soothing than she had expected. Within ten minutes, her eyes were drooping, and within another five she was fast asleep.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Yes, that just happened. People have been asking me since I posted chapter 2, when Naruto would lose control of the Kyuubi. Now. The answer is: right now. To forestall any wild theories, let me say that Viir is absolutely dead. She's not coming back. I've mentioned my opinions on consequences in story writing before, and this is no different.

This was probably the hardest chapter so far for me to get right. For one, it was almost entirely action scenes. Those are already inherently tough, and in these I wanted to simultaneously demonstrate that Naruto has grown a lot stronger over the two year time skip, while also maintaining a level of danger. Make no mistake, Mandalorians are dangerous in this story. A team of them in favorable terrain could give any Jedi trouble. That said, a forest is not favorable terrain for anyone but Naruto. Please let me know what you think of the action scenes in this chapter. I tried to include a good mix of shinobi and Jedi skills. Several people mentioned they wanted Naruto to learn more than just wind style, and I agreed with them, but wind will still be his primary element.

I hope you enjoyed. Until next time, goodbye.