A/N: Alright ladies and gentlmen, good news and bad news. Good news first. I'm on the mend. Even better, My grandmother's all but recovered from congestive heart failure and I managed to sell my old house, though all that money went to more bills. Ugh. Anywho, I've finished moving my things and am now a proud resident of East Berlin, Pennsylvania! Alas, I'm still jobless, and the bills are piling up because of my health. Fun, right?

Anywho, I managed to put this up here at points between job hunting. It's been great, guys. Loving the feedback. Really. I'm hanging tough though, despite everything life is throwing at me. Despite all that's happening, I don't intend to abandon this or my other works! Though I would greatly be appreciative of a Co-Writer or two at this point! On another note, there was a discrepancy mentioned with Kai Leng's age, but for the sake of that story, I'm tossing that and a few other things out the window. You'll soon see what I mean...

"Yeah...remind me not to piss her off."

~?

Kindred Spirits

Indeed, it was a long evening. And an even longer morning.

Bau grilled Naruto ruthlessly, pressing him for every detail he could recall and even some the boy couldn't. He wisely chose to omit the fact that he'd given Cerberus a hefy donation, as a impromptu bribe to keep them off his and Miranda's backs-not to mention subtly stealing several million credits that were the REST of Henry's less discreet accounts for their own sake-but he suspected Bau knew of the former. And if he chose not to mention the latter...well...who was he to question the judgement of a spectre.

Indeed, he and Miranda weren't hurting for money. With the massive amount he'd "borrowed" they wouldn't have to worry about living expenses for the next ten years. But that money would only remain open to them so long as the Spectre wasn't aware of its existence or the secret fund into which he'd deposited it. And Naruto aimed to keep it that way. You learned a thing or two about hacking when you spent your entire LIFE in a pro-human facility with nothing but time and a wealth of technology to keep you company.

You also learned the value of patience.

So he sat there and answered what he could, willing himself not to flinch under the alien's gaze. Still, Bau was fairer than most, seeing them as the victims that they rightfully were. Not like that other one. What was his name? Saren. Ah, yes, that was it. Naruto had only spoken with the turian briefly during Bau's interrogation, but even then, the chill of the alien's gaze still lingered with him despite him having departed. There was just something...not right about that one.

The cold, unfeeling glint in his eyes, the way he spoke of humans as though they were lesser creatures, the sneering disdain with which he tried to dismiss everything he said. And that was just what he'd seen? Verbally the man did himself no favors, even going so far as to threaten Miranda and Orianna to encourage"Naruto to reveal the 'truth' about his talents and where he'd garnered them from. He probably would have gotten even more aggressive-maybe even violent-if Bau hadn't been present.

It had been simplicity itself, however, to wipe that smug smirk right off the turian's scaly face.

Naruto could still remember his gobsmacked expression; the very moment he had proved that yes, he could in fact walk up walls and spit fireballs. He'd demonstrared the latter by scorching the saurian's plates with his flames. Well worth an enraged alien trying to gouge his eyes out with his claws in retaliation. Saren hadn't been allowed back into the next interrogation after that-or any for that matter. Humans shouldn't be able to do that, he'd said. Special Training, he said.

Godamn crazy, Naruto said.

In the end, when all was finally said and done, he and Miranda were cleared of any and all charges. They were free to go, once the former's injuries healed. There simply wasn't enough evidence to hold or convict them, Bau said, not enough for the Council to actually consider holding two teenagers and a baby. However, Naruto's little display against Saren had warranted more than a passing glance. Enough for the Council itself to take notice of him and quarantine him to the hospital grounds as a whole, effectively preventing him from leaving-unless he was willing to rappel down the side of the building. Which he wasn't.

So once again he and his longtime friend -girlfriend?- were forced to be apart, confined to separate rooms as he entertained a visit from the Asari Councilor herself. In his ancestral memories he might have explored the tombs of ancients, and scoured the depths of forests untold but there was just something inherently feminine about the Asari species as a whole that left his mouth dry and kept him fumbling for words whenever one so much as glanced in his direction. He just wasn't used to the sight of such beauty.

Probably why he was totally at loss for words now.

Indeed, Uzumaki Naruto found himself quite muted as the doors to his room whooshed open with a soft hiss, exposing the lithe body of one of the galaxy's most advanced race. Her violet skin seemed to shimmer in the fluorescent lighting, scalp crests smooth and polished, dark eyes regarding him with a curiosity as keen as it was frightening. Her every step carried a trainsient grace that he could probably never hope to match even if he had a thousand years to live. But even that bewitching beauty wasn't enough to detract from the twin Huntresses standing guard outside their door; a subtle reminder that for all the bells and whisltes of his cage, he was still very much their prisoner against his will. If he made so much as one move against her, they'd be on him in an instant.

"So," she began, smoothly taking a seat opposite him and folding hands neatly in her lap. "I understand you're a very unique young man."

That, however, flipped his verbal switch into the 'on' position. Unique? She didn't know the half of it.

"Define unique." Naruto met her stare with an even deadpann, refusing to give an inch. "I can walk on walls and water. Spit fireballs. Crush steel with my bare hands. Hells, I could probably sneeze right about now and blow your pretty little ass right back out those doors before your bodyguards could so much as bat an eyelash. So yes, I'm very, very, very unique. I know that. You know that. The question is what are you going to do about it? Because I'm all of three seconds away from breaking out of this room, tearing through you, finding my girls, stealing a shuttle, and hitting the nearest relay." He was in no mood to play Asari mind games with this woman-or whatever it was that they did. He just wanted to get the hell out of this room and see Miranda again.

"I...see." If Tevos was at all perturbed by the threat against her life she did precious little to show it. "Operative Bau mentioned you had aggressive tendencies, but I had no idea you were so...unhinged." her words all but colored with distaste. Naruto frowned.

"I am not unhinged." he snapped back, eyes flashing in an angry warning. "I just want to see my family again. All you've done thus far is question me, isolate me, poke and prod at me with your needles, quarantine me when I have done nothing wrong and keep me from my loved ones for the last twelve hours. Wouldn't you be a little irked if the situations were reversed?"

"That girl is your sibling?" Tevos arched what accounted to an eyebrow among her kind, not at the statement, but at the emotion behind it. Naruto didn't know it but in that instant, he had unwittingly taken a page from a certaine merc's playbook.

"Her and Ori are the closest godamned things I got to one."

"Fascinating." she pulled up an Omni-tool from out of nowhere, consulting the device for a long moment, her eyes flitting from the orange tool then back to him. "Aside from sharing no relation to miss Lawson your DNA is like nothing we've ever seen. You're a walking medical anomaly, Uzumaki Naruto." the councilor was rambling almost before he could think to stop her. "For starters, there are too many protein strands to be normal, your muscles are thicker, your bones denser, you heal at a rate ten times faster than that of a normal human being. Its," When she closed the screen, she found those keen blue eyes harder than diamon. "Not natural," she finished, "And yet there's no sign of genetic modification, save your biotic amp. You're clearly human, and yet not." a pause, as she considered him.

"Who are your parents, child?"

"I was cloned from a piece of ancient, fossilized DNA, raised in a lab for most of my known life and brutalized by a madman." Naruto could feel the beginings of another outburst building in the back of his brain. "I have no parents." Scathing eyes fixed her, demanding a retort. "Or wasn't that in your report?"

...I'm sorry." she apologized, and for once, there was real emotion behind her voice. "That was terribly rude of me."

"Yes." he sniffed, suddenly irate. "Yes it was."

"..."

Sometimes, Naruto cursed himself for not bothering to learn more about the other races, it was impossible to tell if human body language applied to the Asari as a whole. He really did regret not learning when he'd had the chance. But he just hadn't had the time, what with all the constant experimentations and then the tests and then the recovery...

"Would you care to demonstrate just how you would escape?"

"Excuse me?" The sudden inquiry very nearly caught the reborn shinobi flatfooted. She wanted him to try...and escape? Didn't that defeat the purpose of him being quarantined in the first place? What kind of game was she playing at here? For all his memories, he just couldn't make any sense of this.

"I said-

"Yes, I heard you...but why?"

"You speak rather highly of your skills." Tevos demurred with a wave of her hand. "I would like to see them in action."

"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you...

Naruto sighed and raised a hand, fingers clenched into a claw. Slowly but surely, he began gathering natural energy into his palm. Then-taking from the memories he already he had-he took it and imposed his will upon it, molding it into a wildly spiraling sphere that glowed vibrantly in the palm of his hand. It was one of his more basics abilities, simple in theory, but deadly nonetheless. There was another technique in his repetoire he could call upon, having tested it on tanks before in Australia; if he used that there wouldn't be a room at all.

He felt rather than saw his eyes change, orange dusting his lids, sapphire brightening into saffron. On this station of steel there was precious little nature to draw upon, but even then it was more than enough for him to entered the vaunted Sage Mode used by his ancestor in the past. What would that 'Naruto' think of his current circumstances, he wondered? He supposed he knew; the man would've spazzed the hell out to find himself flung so far into the future. It was only through sixteen years of hell-and Miri-that the current 'him' wasn't having a small heart attack.

"See this?" he held the Rasengan aloft, the sphere still swelling larger and larger with each passing second. "This'll drill through just about anything. Hardsuits and hulls included. I can expand it to roughtly ten times its size if need be. I'd use this to bash my way open, and from there I'd just walk down the side of the building, get my girls, and leave."

"The guards would reach you before then." Tevos pointed out.

"They wouldn't be able to stop me." For emphasis, Naruto reached over and slammed the flat of his now nature-empowered palm into the sharp edge of a table. The dangerous metal bent away from his palm unable to pierce his hardened flesh. This much was undeniably true-give him a weapon and he was a one man army. Put him Sage Mode and you had an unstoppable juggernaut that only a squad of skilled biotics could stamp out. He held no doubt that Tevos, being an Asari, was such a being-he recalled Miranda mentioning somesuch thing once-might be able to slow him down, but if he really wanted to leave?

The devil himself couldn't keep him away.

"And I'm not even using biotics." he finished, crushing the rasengan in his palm, releasing his hold on the wild energies of nature. "Lets face it, I've been very patient thus far, but really, when I want to leave, I'm going to leave. Neither you nor anyone else would be able to stop me."

"Saren indicated as much."

Naruto scoffed at the mention of the turian. "Yeah, real charmer that one."

"He may be our top agent, but sometimes even the best have their shortcomings." Tevos pointed out. "You seem to lack many of those shortcomings, however. Given a few years, with your ability, you would make for an excellent operative yourself. Which brings me to the true purpose of this meeting. Operative Bau speaks most highly of you." Naruto frowned at those words, suddenly wary. He didn't like where this was going. Was this a job offer, or something? The last thing he'd wanted was to be tied down-he just wanted to get somewhere where Miri and Ori would be safe. That was all he wanted.

And somehow, someway, she knew. He didn't know how, but sh eknew.

"I understand you're looking for a safe haven for your...family." Naruto shot ramrod straight, a very dangerous look entering his eyes. Something in those cerulean orbs made her want to gibber like a madwoman. He'd just told her he'd tear through her to escape, and she'd unintentionally provoked him. She realized that only after the angry hiss tore through his throat.

"Give me one good reason not to kill you right now."

The silence was telling.

"I can guarantee them safety here in the Citadel." she said at last. "And yours, if you're willing. All you have to do is accept my offer."

"Riiiiiight."

Somehow, she seemed to misunderstand even that. "Your skepticism is understandable given your history-

"If you're implying that I'm racist against other aliens, I'm not." He shot back, cradling a tiny rasengan in his palm. "I simply haven't had the chance to meet most of them. Its a bit of a culture shock, really. When you'll only ever see them in books, you don't exactly expect to meet three of the four major races in one day now, do you?"

"Touche."

"Wow, a human term. I didn't know you had it in ya. Now, if we're done here-

As if sensing that very thought, Tevos moved in for the kill.

"How would you like to become a Spectre?"

Now that Naruto knew about. Everyone did. Spectres were agents entrusted with extraordinary authority by the Citadel Council, including the power of life and death over the inhabitants of the galaxy. They were an elite corp, selected from a number of different species, their responsibility to preserve galactic stability; whatever the cost and by any means necessary. They were also perhaps the most free beings in Council space, unless you were willing to risk the Terminus Systems. Which he wasn't. Making a living out there was one thing; surviving was another. But this...to have a golden opportunity like this just dropped in his lap...it was almost too good to be true. Maybe it was.

"You're shittin' me."

"Spectres are not trained, but chosen. Individuals forged in the fire of service and battle—those whose actions elevate them above the rank and file." The Asari Councilor seemed to quote. "Your abilities, if not one day your actions, have already placed you above the common soldier. Humans can't do half the things you do without medigel or technological assistance; I daresay you aren't human at all."

"Sounds like a dangerous position. Who would I answer to?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Only myself and the council. There will have to be preparations of course; you would need to be trained, and accumulate mission experience. I cannot simply give you the title and send you on your way. Humanity has long strove to find a place on our Council, let alone join the Spectre's. Were it not for your...unusual circumstances and Operative Bau's reccomendation you wouldn't have been considered at all. Better to have one who isn't involved with the Alliance, and the endless politicking that comes with it."

"What's the pay?" the blond pressed. He could care less about the political machinations of the Alliance; let them have a fit once they realized who-what-he was. All he cared about was his girls. And if he had to become a hardened killer to keep them safe...well, it was nothing his ancestral self hadn't done before.

"Substantial." she countered.

"Benefits?"

"You'd be trained by our very best-

"-so long as Saren isn't one of them!-"

-and I personally guarantee that Saren won't have any interest in you whatsoever." A white lie of course, she knew the turian wouldn't take kindly to the idea of a human -any human- be trained as a spectre candidate in the future. But Tevos knew opportunity when she saw it. Any human wielding abilities like that was an asset; not something the Council wanted to get on the wrong side of. Had the Alliance gotten ahold of him, then who knew what might have happened. This way, galactic stability prevailed. And if the humans wanted to protest-let them. They were getting what they wanted, after all. Just not int he way they'd expected. "And I can assure the safety of your loved ones."

"Just one more question."

Naruto grinned wolfishly.

"When do I start?"

"You'll go far with that attitude." they shook right then and there, sealing the deal. And the young shinobi thought that, was that.

Then Fate, being the complete insufferable bastard that it was, decided to drop something else into his lap...

"Godamnit, that hurt!"

Which led him to this snafu. Or situation, as Miri might've called it. Naruto wasn't quite sure what the terminology was and quite frankly, he didn't care. It involved him, a girl, and a great deal more pain than he would have liked. It certainly didn't help that said girl wasn't Miranda. Nor that she had a swearing streak a galactic mile wide.

"Touch me again and I will end you, bitch!" she shrieked!

Huerta Memorial had gotten a new patient it seemed, but a very much unwilling one. Ordinarily, he wouldn't have taken interest in something like that, consigning himself to ignore her profanities. The hospital received unwilling patients all the time. But something about the girl's expletitives had eventually drawn his attention in the lobby. And a good thing he'd had, too. He'd arrived just in time to prevent a battered-looking girl from being dragged away into an old, battered looking shuttle.

A white and black shuttle.

Perhaos it was the fact that he'd spent the last day and a half answering questions and another resting. Perhaps it was his own ire at being forced from a life of relative anonymity to the potential poster boy for humans as he knew them. Perhaps he simply hated those colors after what Henry had done to him. Whatever the case, Naruto, being the upstanding youth that he was, had seen fit to intervene.

And she'd punched him for it!

No sooner had he beat the offending man into submission and called C-Sec then he found himself nursing a broken nose.

"Alright," She spat to the side, her eyes an angry, molten brown. "Who the fuck're you?"

Naruto growled, clutching at his still-throbbing nose, setting it with a pained grunt. "I could ask you the same question! I just saved your ass!"

"He was dead already, just didn't know it." she seemed to cool a bit at that. "Now, who. The. Hell. Are. You.

"Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto glowered at the girl, uncaring of all the eyes in the hospital watching them. "The guy whose wondering whether he should've saved you." There was a pregnant silence between them.

Finally, she broke it.

"Hey...thanks for helping me out with that guy, back there." the girl murmurred half-heartedly. "Coulda taken him myself, though." Naruto seriously doubted that. She was a skinny, scrawny thing, somewhere in her teenage years. Her auburn was long, matted with grease and blood. She looked, for all intensive purposes, like she'd just come out of hell. Naruto found himself empathizing. They had that much in common, at least, besides the obvious. To think, he'd be beating down a kidnapper on his first day out of the hospital...

"What's your name?" he asked.

Chocolate brown eyes met his own, and Naruto nearly flinched. The pain there, the suffering, the horrors she'd been through...it almost made him vomit. Looked like his gift for telempathy was still intact. Damn Henry to hell for cramming all this tech into his head...

The girl's expression told much; as though she'd just bitten into a sour lemon.

"Jack."

Jack looked, well...jacked up, for lack of a better term. Naruto had thought he was in a sorry state.

The child was half-naked, for starters. She wore a black halter-top and matching simple briefs that would look spartan and military in their simplicity if not for their small size. Her only accessory was a simple strap that ran from her left shoulder to her right hip that bisected the modest swell of her budding breasts - and protruding above her shoulder was the hilt of a...the hell? Was that supposed to be a club, or something? And here he'd thought Leng had given him some serious injuries back when he'd escaped...

Jack looked worse. Beyond the arm injury, her upper lip was marked with blood from her nose, and one of her eyes was reddened and in the process of swelling closed, Her bent-forward shuffle was beginning to look all too much like some sort of leg injury.

"Maybe we should get you looked at...

"Naruto!"

Both teens swung around just in time to see Miranda exit a nearby elevator, a fussy Oriana wrapped up in her arms. "I was looking for you...!" She all but jolted into his chest the moment she laid eyes on him, her dark curls tickling at his overly sensitive nose, all softness and feminity pushing up against his battered body. Numbed, he barely managed to wrap an arm around her waist, holding her fast. Once again he was reminded of just how much he truly cared for this girl, of the lengths he would go to protect her from, her and Ori both.

"Hey," he murmurred softly, looking down at her.

"Hey, yourself." she replied, tearily. "Missed you. Didn't we, Ori?"

"Da!" the little girl in her arm articulated eloquently.

"Quiet the gifted speaker." Naruto chortled.

"Oh, shut up."

Before he could think to stop her Miranda pushed up on her tiptoes, lips touching his. Naruto's heart did a backflip. Then a somersault. Followed by a figure-eight. Just the lightest touch of he rlips was enough to remind him of their kiss in the shuttle, of the confused, awkwardly tangled state of their relationship. This close he could feel the heat of her body against his, warm through the thin fabric of her suit, her skin-gaaaah! Bad! Bad Naruto! Bad! Don't think such things! Be strong! Resist! Ah, who the hell am I kidding...

"Where were you? he found himself asking this angel in his arms.

"They finally let us out and-?" Those words trailed off the moment she saw Jack, standing only yards away, frowning. A delicate brow was arched, but a terse silence still held its sway...

...until Naurto coughed.

"Who is she?" a jealous gleam entered the girl's eyes.

Jack was of a similair mind.

"Who the hell's the cheerleader?"

Miri bristled. "What did you just call me?"

"Cheerleader. What about it?"

Naruto swore.

"Oh, this isn't going to end well...

True to form, it didn't. Miranda did not take kindly to being called names of any sort, least of all from a girl she barely knew. The anger knotting behind her brow was one he knew all too well, devoid of the restraint she so often exercised. There would be none of that here Naruto realized as her eyes began to narrow watching her biotics flare imperceptibly. Long had she curtailed emotion of any sort in Henry's prescence, always trying to act like the perfect daughter. But no longer.

"I am not a cheerleader, you skank!"

"Bitch, then!" A faint blue aura surged around Jack as well, harkening to her own abilities amidst the invective.

"WHORE!"

"SLUT!"

"Not in front of the baby!" Naruto groaned quietly to himself, deftly, snatching Ori from her sister's arms as the arguement began to escalate; powerless to do anything but watch. His male instincts knew better than to involve themselves in such a silly squabble. He held the infant close, bouncing her expertly on one knee as the girls continued to shout it out. This was one of those few times he was grateful for his ancestral memories-else he might've thought to intervene in their fighty and get caught up in that fiasco as well. Eventually he chuckled.

"What a life, huh, Ori?" he sighed.

"Ga!" she cooed up at him, delighted to be in his arms once more. The reborn shinobi could only laugh helpless as C-Sec finally arrived on the scene and separated the girls. It was almost sad really, how he'd begun to equate this strange happenstance, his new life, as normality. There was nothing normal about this. Any of it, really. A reborn shinobi cloned from the DNA of a man long since dead, on the run with the daughter of one of humanity's most influential figures, duking it out with an apparent fugitive from Cerberus. It was almost enough to make him smile.

What a strange life indeed...

A/N: And there we go. Events are already spiralling out of control, Henry Lawson is out of the picture and probably dead-THANK GOD-Naruto and Miranda find themselves on the Citadel, taking the first steps into an unstable, untested relationship, and now TIM is after them. But Naruto wants nothing to do with Cerberus and already he's changed the galaxy with his prescence. Events will be spiralling rapidly towards the center here and though some changes may be minor at first, all will be revealed in time. But what will happen with Cerberus? Will the pairing remain NarutoxMiranda or should Jack eventually be involved?!

You decide, dear readers!

I'm not quite certain as to whether Shepard will appear in this fic either, so please, tell me what you think about that as well! I am but a humble writer without your input, oh dear reader! Any and all ideas are welcome! We'll be approaching a timeskip soon, but I won't say when!

So...in the immortal words Atlas...

...Review, Would You Kindly? And of course, enjoy the preview! Guess who we get to see next time!

(Preview)

Naruto cocked his head, frowning up at the man who'd just saved his life, frowning as the rest of his senses came back to him. His right arm still stung from where his attacker had bent the limb back, and his throat no doubt would be bruised from the Krogan's attempt to strangle him, but he could already feel those broken bones mending. No, his senses were better suited focused on the potential threat ahead of him. A drell. Naruto didn't have much experience with them in his line of work, but, what little he did immediately set him on edge.

They were killers by trade, precise warriors who rivalled in skill what he had been born to do. And this man had just broken a Krogan's neck like was nothing.

That, if nothing else, was enough to earn his respect.

"Hello." he croaked, cringing as his voice emerged as little more than a throaty raspy. "Nice weather we're having in'nit?" The man said nothing to that effect-he simply offered his hand. Exhausted, Naruto accepted and allowed himself to be hauled to his feet. By the nine, Jack and Miri were going to KILL him when they saw this mess.

"You have some skill." he noted, his black eyes surveying the corpses around them, mercenaries all. "Twenty-four dead; it would have beeen twenty-five if that last one hadn't surprised you. Clean kills, all of them." For a moment he seemed to bask in an old memory, those dark orbs flickering beneath his lids before he came back to himself. "Apologies. I slip into memories easily." Naruto chuckled, cringing when it came out bloody. A warrior to remember, indeed.

"You got a name, frog man?" he asked.

That actually got a smile from his saviour.

"Thane." he introduced himself. "Thane Krios. I believe you stole my kill."

"Wha, the batarian?" Naruto grunted, turning his gaze towards the victim that had started the barroom brawl.

"Godamn bugger." he quoted his old mentor, Zaeed, spitting and swearing as he realized he'd broken his cardinal rule; never take another hunter's prey. "That one was yours? Well then, Thane." a slight rasp continued that train of thought, "You mind lending me a hand, here?" he limped forward, angrily slaping medigel on the hole and stomping onward before the wound could impede him further.

"You seem fully functional." the Drell mused.

"No, not that." Naruto shook his head. "I'm more worried about my girls...

"Ah, yes. Your Siha." Thane had the good grace to at least appear contrite. "I believe the tattooed one demanded that I retrieve you. The other was...very persuasive."

"Miri put a gun to your head, didn't she." It was not a question.

"Yes."

Naruto turned white as a sheet. If they were that determined to bail him out of what they thought to be trap-he didn't want to think how angry they would be once they realized he'd risked his life like this.

"Ah christ, I am so dead...

R&R! =D