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...

"God, I am so whipped..."

~?

Induction

"Ooomph!"

The air rushed out of Naruto's lungs in a pained grunt as an azure fist slammed into his unarmored stomach, emptying his diaphragm with a mighty woosh and hurling him across the room like a ragdoll. His back struck the unyielding steel of the nearest wall and bent it inward, steel screeching in protest against this sudden intrusion. A groan dragged itself out of his throat as he felt bones snap and muscles tear, breaking beneath only to immediately mend themselves seconds later as the unique anomalies of his body recognized the injuries and worked to make him whole once again, yet...more.

Stronger than before. Newfound strength surged through his veins, empowering him like never before. It was one of the amazing things about his body. Beating him down, only made him stronger, helping him to adapt to his environment. It was a secret he'd kept all this time, of which only a handful were aware.

One his opponent didn't yet know.

"Done already, kid?" A lilting, female voice mocked him from across the room. Blearily the blond shook the stars from his vision, struggling to recall the owner of that voice. It wasn't Miri and certainly not Jack; neither could stand to sit in on these sessions even after four years, especially when one considered that they usually consisted of him being tossed around like a human meat puppet. Four years. Two of which had been spent doing this, suffering torture the world over.

It seemed like only yesterday that Tevos had tossed him headfirst into the Spectre training program. Only yesterday that he, Miranda, Ori, and even Jack had been whisked away to this remote installation for the sole purpose of being protected while he trained.

And trained he had.

For the last two years, Uzumaki Naruto had been beaten, abused, and thoroughly gotten his ass handed to him by the best the galaxy had to offer. And he had learned. Adapted. He had crushed Krogan Battlemasters, tangled with turians, scrapped with salarians, harried humans and argued with Asari Commandos. Yes, argued. You'd be surprised what you could learn simply by discussing tacticts with the galaxies most elite veteran huntresses. In those two years he had learned much, hidden away from the prying eyes of the galaxy.

He had been forced to discover skills he'd never known he had, develop abilities that would've made even his predecessor proud. And self control was one of them. Once, such an insult would have riled him, caused him to act recklessly and without thinking. He knew the asari was trying to get under his skin, and he refused to allow her the satisfaction.

Instead the young shinobi of now twenty years merely smirked, chuckling as the last of his muscles stitched itself back together.

"Hardly."

With a loud and furious shout, amplified by his chakra, he exhaled a cone of fire, rupturing the cold coffin that held him down.

He was up again in an instant, his body wreathed in black fire as his biotics activated, his mind taking hold taking hold of the tethers that bound him with his and warping them. Powers once unstable came easily to him now, almost effortlessly. Through sheer force of will he bent away the folds of metal that entrapped him and tore them free, rendering them two new weapons for him to wield. Grinning, he flung the twin panes of sheet metal back at his aggressor as though they were giant, edged frisbees.

They never made it.

Naruto swore as the tell-tale glow of his adversary's biotics sheathed his projectiles midway through their fierce flight, stopping them dead in their tracks. They hung there for a moment, suspended in the air, mocking him. Then, like a pair of primordial boomerangs, they took wings and rocketed back around to meet him. The Spectre-to-be one look at giant discuses-knowing they could disembowel him in one fell swoop-and sighed inwardly. In these two years he'd had to hone his powers under the watchful eye of his many mentors, it was child's play to calculate what would happen next.

It wasn't fair, really. For her.

Time seemed to slow as the teenager inhaled deeply, all the world slowing to a crawl around him with a single breath. Sapphire eyes shimmered into saffron, lids dusting a gentle shade of orange as his body harnessed the natural energies not only locked deep within the compound but himself as well, all the energies surging through him in an overwhelming tide. Newfound strength flowed through his veins-empowering him tenfold. A single hand was raised to defend against the deadly edge of the first discus, punching it down and away, kicking up a plume of dust agains the syntethic terrain that served as dirt.

It stung at his eyes for but a moments notice before his retina adjusted, another strange factor in his biology. He could see twice as far as the normal human, even in the dark. With these eyes like a hawk, he could see his opponent through just about anything, even in this thick haze.

"Good!" her voice called out to him from the cover he'd created. "Use your surroundings! Make them fight for you!"

'Oh, I'll use it alright.'

In the ensuing smokescreen Naruto refused to rise to the bait. Still concentrating he called a Rasengan to his hand, the spiraling sphere already swelling within a palm. Then, like its larger cousin, the Rasenshuriken, he wrapped it in natural energy and tossed it. Hard. By now it was already larger than its creator, whistling forward to strike at the last position from which she had spoken. He didn't wait for the obvious to dodge to occur, snapping out an angular kunai out of its energized holster-brilliant work by Bau-and hurtling it where he knew she would be. The deady projectile knife was coated in his own chakra-which as he knew, could cut through all but the thickest of body armor. But had it hit?

"Howdya like that?" he crowed proudly.

A pained grunt was his answer. Then the singularity formed, sucking the dirt and dust inward, depriving him of his cover. Scowling at the unconventional tactic, Naruto rooted himself to the floor with chakra, essentiallly depriving the swirling vortex of its true target. But just as he could adapt, so too could she. In less than an instant she was upon him-covering the distance between with a quick ballistic Biotic Charge. Blows battered at his defenses and failed to find a mark, his super human reflexes unerringly leading him to one of the few openings she presented. Flinging both hands forward, he activated the disruptor gauntles embedded into each of his arms and slammed them into the unprotected gut of his opponent. She bent double, her blue face spasming in agony-

And then he was stuck. Naruto grunted in surprise, eyes widening as he realized his adversary had somehow managed to immobilize him.

"Not bad." Her breathy whisper in his ear was the only warning he received. "You cut clear through my shields with that punch. Against anyone else, that would've been a clean kill." Too late he realized she'd presented the opening deliberately, allowing for the perfect counterstrike. She'd stopped him with one arm for just a second, a sliver in time. A moment was all she needed. Because she still had a free hand.

"Ah, balls-

Whirling, the young manfound himself face to face with an explosive Flare bomb. All the world blurred and burned a violent violet around him, blinding his eyes for just a heartbeat, shields faltering beneath the searing firestorm. It was enough. With a triumphant laugh she pounced on him, her body a blue and armored blur, a combination of Pull and Throw unerringly ripping him from the floor and hurling across the room once more. But this time with considerably more velocity. Too late he realized what was about to happen, and for all of Naruto's skill, he simply couldn't stop himself in midair. Not in time, at any rate. So the young ninja did what he did best.

Improvised.

Black fire flashed once more as Naruto used another small surge of biotic energy to slow his fall just a milimeter, enough to land on both feet and stick himself to the stel surface, momentarily fusing his legs to the hard wall before falling into an easy crouch to absorb the impact into his feet. He stood and wiped sweat away from his face, nodding at the annoyed asari positioned opposite of him in the bay. For a heartbeat she looked as if she would slung another insult at him but as she swayed back and forth lazily. Then, abruptly, she smiled and pointed at the floor. Frowning, Naruto glanced down.

Just in time to see the grenade rolling to a halt at his feet.

"Shit."

His back greeted the wall just a touch too hard this time, the pained crack of his spine splitting the silence. Naruto gasped. Spine. Breaking. Not a pleasant experience, and by far, one of the worst injuries to regenerate from. Grimacing in untold agony, he tried to pull himself upright-

Instead, he was left laying face-down on the steel surface as his body mended itself, which soon became his new ceiling as a subtle flick of biotics rolled him onto his back. Naruto squinted against the harsh interior lights, blue eyes narrowing room shifted yet again, forcing him to look into the eyes of the one who had beaten him. Again. This particular spar had taken more than a few new tricks from him, forcing him to yet again revise his tactics in spite of everything he had already learned.

Grunting with pain, his muscles spasming in effort, he still managed to tilt his head just enough to look her in the eye.

Tela Vasir peered down at him, the dim lighting illuminating the smirk on face, the purple paint on her cheeks curled in wry amusement. "Not bad, kid. You lasted a full seven hours this time. Seems like that endurance training is finally paying off." A blue hand patted him encouragingly on the cheek. "Keep it up, and you might be as good as me...in another century."

Endurance training. Ha! More like getting his ass-kicked training!

True to Tevos' word, he'd hit the ground running. The moment his injuries were healed he'd found himself with new ones, beaten and battered by the best the galaxy had to offer. All the while his inhuman regeneration improving and progressing with each passing puncture until he healed almost instantaneously.

Bau was relentless in his own methodom and Zaeed was all manner of batshit crazy when it came to advanced weaponry and tacs, but Vasir was a new level of brutal. She knew tricks he wouldn't dream of attempting, possessed experience centuries in the making and was vindictive as hell. Even outside the training she kept a watchful eye on him and his brood at all times; supervising, preventing Jack and Miranda from ripping each other to pieces when he wasn't around. It was almost nice at times, in a strange, motherly sort of way. But when it came to combat she held nothing back-it was like trying to fight a rhino with your hands tied. Nothing was restrained in her fight. It was exhausting.

That was her weakness. You could only fight at a level like that for so long before you ran down your reserves.

Naruto groaned, feigning defeat. "Just wait until my regeneration kicks in...ah!" With a satisfying pop, his spine stitched itself back togethers, allowing him to lurch back to his feet. But he didn't. Instead he lay there, the beginnings of a new idea entering his mind. One of the shorn sheets of metal lay only a few feet away, positioned strategically behind Tela's unprotcted backside. Grasping it with his mind's eye he yanked, lifting and dragging it toward him like a gigantic flyswatter. The motion WAS short, swift, and incredibly fast. Vasir never saw it coming. Or maybe she did. For a moment he thought he saw her eyes narrow-

Then it was over.

With a startled yelp she cannoned forward toward him, and in that instant, Naruto rose. Swarming upright with alll the grace and speed of his ancestors he seized her by the throat and spun, slamming the startled Asari down to where he'd been laying not a moment before. Her grunt of surprise/pain was music to his ears, and the rest was a blur of black and blue. Even as she started to rise-aiming to swat his hand away from her neck as an experiences huntress might, his free hand was already in motion. Scarce had she managed to move -started to struggle- than she felt the sharp edge of a nodachi on ner neck, its deadly edge drawing a thin sliver of purple blood onto the vibrating blade. Any further motion on her part would only result in opening her throat; and they both knew it.

"I. Win." Naruto growled.

Impossibly Vasir didn't argue the point. Not even remotely. Instead, she smiled. Naruto felt her go slack underneath him and tensed, expcting another trick of some sort. When nothing happened, he stared down at her in confused exasperation, no longer sure of what to expect. He was pointedly aware of her beneath him, of the fact that he was stradling her, but the knowledge seemed to distant somehow. Far and away. She could've easily resorted to another biotic tactic and continue their fight as he had, but she merely smiled.

"You got me."

Naruto rose, his mind crushing the remaining pane of metal into oblivion with nary a thought. Reaching down, he helped his mentor to her feet. She accepted it and gingerly hoisted herself up, favoring her right leg. He stared at her and she back at him, master and apprentice appraising one another in silence. The smile, when it came, caught Naruto flatfooted. Tela reached down, mussing his hair affectionately.

"You're finally ready." was all she said. There was a finality to those words that stirred him. Bothered him.

"Ready for what?" Naruto frowned.

Vasir only laughed and told him to hit the showers.

You're ready.

What the hell did that mean?

Naruto groaned wearily as he shed the last of his clothing stepped into the shower, those words still ringing eerily in his mind. And his body; he ached in every possibly conceivable way; some in places he didn't even know he'd had. He was tired of thinking. Seven hours of exhaustive combat had wrung his mind, body and soul through a grinder, and he wanted nothing more than to wash those worries away under the waters. His regeneration might've worked wonders on his wounds, but it did nothing to relieve his stamina. Nor the exhaustion that came with recovering from a myraid of wounds that would've killed a lesser man.

A hand fisted around the knob, turning it in the direction he so desired-and yelped almost immediately as a wave of scaldingly hot moisture came rushing out of the faucet to slap him had in the face. Ouch! Hissing in pain he adjusted the knob once more and almost immediately the burning deluge was reduced to a warm stream. Much better.

Flicking his fingers, the blond pushed it up and away, using his chakra to bend the element to his will. Liquid relief coursed up down his back, relieving all the aches and pains that came with exerting his chakra powered techniques and biotics nonstop for seven hours. There were limits, even to his insane skills. Steam enveloped him as he stood there under the faucet, allowing it to ebb at his bare back and shoulders, the incessant flow drumming steadily on his head, matting down his spiky chin-length tresses. It would be easy to close his eyes and just drift away, fall asleep under the pounding stream...

But it was not to be.

When the shower door whisked open, Naruto jerked back to wakefulness.

"Jack," his voice rose warningly over the roar of the shower, knowing full well how she liked to mess with him., "How many times do I have to tell you to knock before you come in?" He'd establed a rapport of sorts with her over the last two years since they'd met; a tenuously uneasy friendship that often inolved as much sparring and swearing as it did actual talking. She enjoyed messing with him, and he loved pranking the living helll out of her in retaliation. Despite the fact, Miranda reserved a special sort of hate for Jack, and she, her. That anger had cooled somewhat in the last four years, but the fact that remained that if Miranda caught him here his good was cooked. "Look, you gotta leave, now-

"Is that so?" an accented tone answered him. "And here I thought you'd be happy to see me."

The Last Shinobi froze in place beneath the water as a familiar voice resounded in his ears. A pair of slim arms encircled him from behind, leaving him very nearly choking on his own spit when the softness of a decidely feminine form pressed up against his backside through a rapidly dampening towel. Dark raven curls tickled at the nape of his neck, teasing him with the closeness of her for but a moment, before pulling away. Not Jack, he decided, whirling around. Definitely not Jack at all!

"M-Miri?!"

"Oh, I'm sorry." she smiled sultrily, eyes wandering wantonly across his bare body, lingering on his pectorals. "Is this shower taken?"

Naruto sputtered helplessly.

The passing of the years had not been kin to her body, he thought. Very kind. She'd had time to grow and mature, in more ways that one. Gone was that same faltering girl he'd first falln in love with. In her place stood a confident young woman who enjoyed tormenting him in ways that put Jack and Ori to shame. Well, at least she was wearing a white-

Miri dropped the towel.

Now she was standing there before him in all her glory, and despite his best attempts to resis he found himself the feminine whiles of his longtime lover, gazing at her angelic face with her deep, dark eyes providing a stark contrast to her alabaster white cream like skin. Her long dark hair, which was still wet framed her gorgeous face like a dark silk curtain. The sensual curve and beauty of her neck and chest and those full breasts that were firm and thrust out proudly before him with her profound dark nipples and areoles still dripping with water, that for a second, nearly took his breath away.

"Oops." Impossibly her impish smirk only grew.

The battered blond also took note of her slender arms and of her lean flat stomach before his eyes fell upon her slim feminine hips and then to the patch of dark hair between her thighs, encased within her long supple legs. Never in Naruto's life, had he beheld the sight of a more beautiful goddess before him than he did at that moment...

Somehow, he managed to find his voice. "I thought you and Jack were usually trying to kill each at this hour. And what about Ori?"

"Sleeping soundly." came the simple admission.

"Still-

"But Naruto," she said with a sly matter-of-fact tone, her body sliding through the fog and under the water with his once more. "You've been working so hard lately. Don't you deserve a break?" She slid her arm around his waist and pulled him close to her, her hips sliding up against his pelvis under the hot water. Naruto shuddered. She pushed up on the tips of her toes, to which, he bent down and began kissing her neck, causing her to absent-mindedly tilt her head to the side and close her eyes.

"See, a little relaxation is needed...

"Damnit," he murmured as his right hand slid down her wet stomach seemingly of its own will. "We are way too preoccupied to be—ah/ah!"

They gasped softly as one, Miranda as his fingers hit home below her waist and Naruto as she found a particularly sweet spot behind his ears. "To be wasting our time together in the shower." She managed to finish the sentence for him, though his body was obviously disagreeing with him. She reached an arm up behind her head and around Naruto's neck, pulling his mouth down to hers. She began to move softly against him as his right hand continued to work, the left having joined in the effort as it made its way up to her breasts.

She turned quickly to face him, breaking the hold he had on her. She quickly claimed his attention as she reached down and grabbed him with her hand and directed him to her entrance. Her eyes were only half liddded and open, but they maintained a demanding glare as she looked up at him. Naruto groaned. This wasn't how he was expecting their first time to be. Something that might happen years down the road perhaps-not a hot moment of unbridled passion in the shower. He wasn't prepared for it. Not ready. Not in the slightest. There had always been touching and teasing before now, but nothing like this.

Nothing like this.

"I neeed to get ready, Miri," he said seriously, even though her hand was beginning to move below them. "You're not thinking straight right now, and I'm not going to take advantage-oi!" She laughed at him before sheathing herself in him, leaning up and joining her mouth with his, her body slowly beginning to move faster and faster as his tongue wrestled with hers. Bliss. Pleasure. Elation. Naruto choked wordlessly, to which Miranda pulled her mouth away, the defiant smirk returning as she continued to move against him, pushing him out of the water and down onto the tiled floor.

"Who said you were taking advantage?" her full lips curled into a devilish grin as she moved to stradle him, leaving the blond wondering if it was the water that'd wet her and not something else. Miranda leaned down to kiss him-a tiny moue of pleasure leaving her cheeks dark and flushed. "Its been four years since we've escaped. I'm not jailbait anymore. I want you. Here. Now. Just as much as you want me. And I'm not going to take no for an answer."

"You...stubborn girl."

''Would you have it any other way?"

"...not really, no."

Part of him was grateful the shower was large enough to accomodate the two of them. The other stood apalled that one woman could take control of him so effortlessly. Because Miri did just that, lowering herself onto him once more, her hips swaying and grinding against his as she began to moan loudly. Any pain she might've felt at her first time was gone, replaced by desire, one mirrored in his own. And yet despite that, he could not help but think of the training he was missing. Bau was not the understanding type when it came to missing schedule.

"Sensei's gonna kill me...

"I know you're a busy man," she said, her words sounding fuzzy and faint as he became further and further distracted by those marvelous movements of her hips atop him, her breasts undulating with each sway. "But I'm afraid you're going to be quite...occupied, for the next hour or so. So sorry." That lovely, bell-like laugh chimed once more as he kissed her again, his hand reaching up and cupping the back of her neck. She broke the kiss with a soft gasp and sank down to her knees, trailing a line along his neck with her mouth as she went.

"Gods, Miri!"

With a fierce growl he tugged her back up to him, unable to tolerate the torture any longer. Their mouths molded marvelously against one anothers, tongues tangling as she did things to him with her hands that should be considered illegal in some galaxies and byalltheramenhowcouldshebendthatway-

A small whimper escaped from her throat, despite her eyes still being closed and her head remaining tilted back in pleasure. Naruto clung to the moment like a drowning man would a raft; his eyes all but roamed across her taut body as it heaved up and down with her breaths. In spite-or perhaps despite-his initial wariness when it came to yielded to Miranda, he found he quiteenjoyed it. This. Her. All of her, being with her. Just...her. Whyever had he waited this long? Why had he resisted her advances, her pleas to take things further than they already had?

If he'd known he was missing out on something like this...he would've tossed his virginity aside years ago!

Gradually, his mind drew back to the present as Miranda began to push off him, the motion causing her breasts to sway, all the while their hips grinding against one other. It made all the difference in the world. Her once faint moans became progressively louder, piquing with each sway, every bounce, every roll of those tantalizing mounds. Keenly, he felt her quiver as she moved, the impeding orgasm turning her cries sharper and wilder with each passing moment.

Closer to his own release as well, he found himself powerless to resist, feeling it build, build, build...

"Naruto!"

"Miri!"

A final soul-searing shout as they came together, Naruto collapsed onto the damp tiles, the still-running shower tappering off at his feet. Miranda toppled after him with a soft mewling sound, nestling her head deep into the crook of his still damp neck. The sigh that issued forth from her lips was pure bliss.

"That was...

"Good?"

"Great." came the purring reply, delivered express by a chaste kiss to his whiskered cheek. And then came the shocker.

"Love you," she murmurred into him, her words the most naked of whispers between even breaths. Naruto stiffened at this tone, every syllable dripping with ardour. That was when he realized something. He felt the same. He always had. Here was a girl he'd grown up with and watched over for as long as he could remember. Protected. Over the years he'd watched her grow in more ways than one could possibly imagine-flourish into the beautiful creature lying in his arms. They were a far cry from the young, inexperienced teenagers that'd first defied Henry Lawson nearly half a decade ago.

"I love you, too." the words startled him nearly as much as they did her.

The girl seemed to freeze in his arms under the water, and he looked down to see that her face was now a full shade of crimson. Idly scratching his cheek, he wondered if he had answered wrong. When her arms chose to encircle his waist, and her mouth briefly reclaimed his, he realized he'd answered rightly. It was the perfect moment.

It didn't last.

"Well, shiiiiiit." Both genetically engineered humans froze at the sound of a hoarse, feminine voice. "Ain't this touching? Didn't think I'd catch you screwing blondie in the shower, Cheer-leader. Always thought I'd be the one to pop his cherry." Naruto didn't even have to look when he heard that voice, knowing he'd find a pair of bemused hazel eyes peering down at them. But he did so anyway, propping himself up on an elbow even as Miri jumped off of him and rolled away with a disgusted snarl.

"I thought I smelled something foul."

"Sticks and stones, bitchy, sticks and stones." Jack stared back at them in wry amusement, those dark bangs of her shoulder length, chestnut colored hair almost hiding her half smile. Almost, but not quite. "So, what's the occasion?" she asked, pusing herself off the shower door. "Did the boss finally get his big break, or were you just feeling horny?" Yet another thing Naruto swore he'd never become accustomed to. Jack had a mouth on her. She swore even when she wasn't angry, making casual conversation more of a shouting match. Especially when Miranda was involved.

"Ohhhhh, I'll show you horny." Indeed the blackette was decidedly less subtle in her reaction. With a furious shriek she bolted to her feet and yanked her own towel back to her with a quick biotic pull wrapping it around her bare body and tying it fast in a smooth motion. Grinning, Jack raised her hand and beckoned. But before the pair could collide in another of their legendary squabbles, Naruto flicked his fingers. Stasis engulfed them both, freezing both Miranda and Jack even as they moved to strike. Against two trained biotics it lasted for only an instant, but that was all it took to get the message across. And turn their anger on him.

"Naruto!" Miranda exclaimed, a rare look of hurt flashing in her eyes.

"The fuck was that for?!" Jack growled.

"Ladies," he warned, his gaze narrow and intense. "We're not kids anymore. You want to throw down, take it to the mat."

"Fine, but you do that again without telling me, and I'll tear your arm off." The anger in Jacqline's eyes was all too real.

Naruto cringed slightly. She'd do it, too. Regrowing one of those took at least a full day.

Just as Miri was no longer a silly, stuttering teenager, neither was Jack that same scrawny kid he'd first befriended at the hospital. She'd done some growing of her own in the last four years, now a lithe tattooed beauty wrapped up in a lavender-colored towel. Did he mention the tattoos? Even with only her arms, legs and shoulders exposed he could still see her ink. It wasn't as copious as it might've been in another life, but it was still more than enough to warrant a passing glance. Somehow, he would've felt better if she hadn't gotten that huge "N" inked on her shoulder a couple of years back...Miri was still the only girl for him, after all.

"Just how long were you standing there anway?" he groaned.

Just like that, the ire died in her eyes.

"Long enough to get an eyeful, eh, boss." Jack laughed, once more doting on her old nickname for him. "Pretty good show, though." another snicker, followed by an elbow in the side for good measure. "Didn't know you could bend like that, Cheerleader!"

Miranda flushed.

"That's it!"

Naruto wisely stepped back and out of the way as his girlfriend reached out and ripped Jack's towel away from her in a flash. Prompting the other to immediately do the same. This wasn't a biotic fight by any means but it was still something the revived shinobi wanted no part of. Being caught between two bickering women was every man's wet dream...just not his.

"If its all the same to you ladies, I'll just be going-

He stumbled under the sudden icey glare they directed at him.

"Or not...

"Actually," a new voice interjected, "He will be."

Naruto frowned, turning slightly as the slim form of Tela Vasir abruptly interposed herself not just into the arguement but the bathroom as well-still clad in the same battered armor she'd worn during their mock duel. If she was at all bothered by the state of their relative undress she did little to show it. Instead her bright eyes locked upon Naruto, boring into him with that unearthly gaze. "Remember when I said you were ready? Well, surprise. You've got your first solo mission." she said, startling the three of them. "Top priority. Suit up now-you ship out in five. I've already sent the coordinates to your Omni-tool."

Naruto had the werewithall to at least appear sheepish at that. "Which I would've noticed-

"If you hadn't been busy screwing your girlfriend, yes." Vasir's eyes crinkled in the beginning of a smile at Miranda's flush. Just as quickly, it died. "I won't lie to you, this won't be easy. But, you pull this off and you're a Spectre."

"I'll have a team standing by just in case things do go south but in essence," Vasir continued, "You're entriely on your own this time." Was that a touch of sympathy -genuine empathy?- in her words, just now? Your target is a Batarian named Karr. Slimy bastard's been running a merc company and harrying out on the fringes of Council space. C-Sec's been hunting him for months. Ordinarily, this would've been left to them, but he's taken a prime target this time and we can't let it stand."

"What's the mission?"

"How's a hostage situation sound?" The asari countered.

Naruto gulped. "Where?"

"The Destiny Ascension."

Blue eyes bulged.

In the end however, it was Miranda who found her words first. "How is that even possible? That thing's got a crew of ten thousand!"

"Apparently it was in dry dock for repairs." Vasir answered. "It only had a skeleton crew of several dozen or so at the tim. Security was admittedly minimal."

"And this is so important because, why?"

...the Asari Councilor's daughter was touring the ship at the time of its capture."

There was a silence. Finally, Naruto recovered his voice enough to croak out a response.

"Tevos has a daughter."

"Yes. Her name is Sove."

"And Tevos doesn't want anyone to know about her."

"Also, yes."

"So she decides to send me." Incredulity strained at his words now. "The guy with the experimental stealth ship."

"I was the one to reccomend you, actually."

"And it seems I'm the only one here who seems to think this is a godamn bad idea?!" He spun on his heel, eyes flashing with barely controlled rage. Tiny arcs of biotic energy snapped out from him like tiny, cracking whips of force. "Forget getting into the system, how the hell am I going to get back out?! Have you forgotten that the Leaf can only make a single jump in stealth before the capacitors overheat?!"

This brief bout of anger lasted all of an instant before it crystallized into an even more terrifying emotion, somthing cold and calculating. In that heartbeat, that sliver of time, he became a shinobi once again. He ceased thinking about himself and his own well-being. There was only the mission. It was an eerie way of compartmentalizing, helping him to rationalize all the lives he had taken.

It was the only way.

"Fine, this should be fun." Naruto sighed, snatched up his clothes, and began dressing himself. He staunchly ignored Miranda and Jack's pleading stares, instead focusing on donning the rest of his attire, suppressing all the molten anger deep into his gut until it formed a hard core in the center of his being.

Frowning to himself at just how south this could go, the shinobi made for the door after his mentor, though not before overhearing the brief discussion between his fellow biotics. They had held mostly their tongues thus far out of sheer respect for Vasir and what she'd taught them, but the moment the Asari was out of earshot, they started up again.

"Damn, cheerleader, why didn't you tell me he was that big?"

"We are not talking about this. Anywhere. At all. But that's not important! I am not letting him walk into a trap without some sort of safeguard."

"Finally, something we agree on-

Whatever else she said was lost as the door swished shut behind him. Naruto shook his head. Far be it from him to keep them from spying on him. He knew any attempt on his part to stop Miri and/or Jack would simply make them all the more determined.

What a strange, wonderful life indeed...

(Meanwhile...)

Karr considered himself a simple batarian. He was a man of means, one who knew how the fundamental rule of life. When you wanted something...

You took it.

That age-old motto aside, today's task had been almost laughably simple. Hijack the Destiny Ascension while it was docked for repairs and hold it for ransom. His employer had supplied all the codes needed to slip into the hangar bay, and from there, he and his men had all but laid waste to the sparse few guards. For all their supposed security the Asari dreadnought was incredibly lax. From there, it had been easy as blinking an eye for him and his men to subdue the crew, take the dreadnought out on a joy ride while the eyes of the Council looked on, helpless to do anything for fear of harming the hostages...

It was a win-win situation, as far as he was concerned. Even if his benefactor didn't come through on the funds he could always make a tidy profit by selling them into slavery. Either way he'd be coming out this several million credits richer than he'd been going in.

Unless this Naruto kid interfered.

Saren's instructions had been quite clear. He had spent years arranging this, making certain everything else would pan out. Setting the boy up to fail. Karr didn't know what Arterius had agains the two-eyes and frankly he didn't much care. His instructions however, were painstakingly clear. Make sure the whiskered human did not survive. Karr did n't see what was so special about one more two eyes anyway. Some might say that this task of his wasn't personal-but it was. Karr and his body had as much reason to see the upstart as anyone else.

The brat and his bitches had made a mess of things on Khar'shan, nearly ruined the slave trade as a whole. Now it was payback time. The little shit would never know what hit him...

Even now he could see his men reveling in the chaos and the violence. They seemed to enjoy firing their weapons into the air, shouting at everyone to get down on the floor, warning them that they'd be happy to put a bullet into the brains of anyone who defied them. Idiots, the lot of them, but useful idiots nonetheless. Now there was deathly silence as his asari captives waited for him to speak.

"No doubt you're wondering what it is we want," he said, his voice soft but accompanied by a deep rumbling, like a slowly moving avalanche. "Your money, your daughters. Your flesh, peeled and roased. Maybe we're fanatics. Or maybe...we're just bored. In point of fact, I'm not going to tell you." Sneering, he flicked the safety off his shotgun, the large Claymore humming threatenngly as he took aim. "Not yet. But trust me:

"You'll know it when you see it."

(Citadel Council)

"This is preposterous!" Ambassadar Udina roared, his booming voice carrying across the chamber of the Citadel Council. Outrage was written across his tan face, his body veritably quivering with righteous indignation-a common expression for someone so ill tempered-as he paced the floors. "Humanity has petitioned the Council for decades for a place amongst on your council let alone the Spectre's, and now you decide to choose this-this urchin?! We-the Alliance-didn't even know about him until last month! Now you tell me he has been selected for this?!"

"This urchin," Tevos replied primly from her pedestal, her cold words cutting through his brash bravado like a knife, "As you would name him, is collectively unique. And nothing is decided, not yet. Today will determine whether or not he is truly ready for induction into their ranks. Whereas this canditate of yours...a...Commander Shepard, was it? She is raw, and untested, not to mention likely traumatized after those events on Akuze and probably not even in her right mind. But we have spent the last four years training this operative. He is sound in both mind and body, and not prone to moments of irrationality like the rest of your species."

"Councilors," The man began, realizing too late he ought to err on the side of caution. "Please reconsider-

Tevos never let him finish.

"Our choice is clear. The hostage situation will be remanded into the custody of Spectre Candidate Uzumaki Naruto. Spectre Vasir green-lighted him specifically for this mission and deemed him ready. By now I estimate he is on his way. His craft will allow him to infiltrate the system undetected."

"This will not stand! Humanity has-

-been overruled in this matter." Valern stated coldly, eyes unblinking. "Thank you for your time."

Sparatus finished it, mandibles fluttering into a decisive scowl. "This meeting is adjourned. You are dismissed, Ambassador."

Smoldering coldly, Udina stalked toward the elevator. Uzumaki Naruto had no way of knowing it, but the Council had just made him a new enemy this day.

This would not stand...

(Space...)

"This is insane. You know that, right? You're insane."

"Yeah," Naruto drawled at the voice in his helmet as he stared into the cold vaccum of the void, "Love you too, Jackie. Would you mind putting Miri on?" There was a moment of silence, broken only by the heavy clomp of his magnetic boots against the hull of the Destiny Ascension. When the tattood woman's voice filtered through his speakers once more, it carried an audible note of strain.

"She's kinda busy, boss."

"Busy?" Inside the helm, his visage darkened in a scowl. What kinda busy? She better not be putting a pistol to anyone's head again-

"Gotta go!"

The shinobi groaned, nearly facepalming himself inside of the suit. "You know what? I don't even want to know...

Getting into the system had been the easy part. Ridiculously so. Thanks to the Leaf, a tiny, one man craft designed by Bau and a team of turians, he'd infiltrated Getting out...was going to be interesting. It was still an experimental craft, capable of jumping a relay once before the mass effect core fried all the circuitry, leaving its pilot adrift. So here he was, stranded in the Serpent Nebula with no way home if this went south. Thank kami for mag boots and chakra. And the outfit. Definitely the outfit.

Lacking the ballistic-resistant plated armor of a heavy soldier, this matte black suit was but a part of what made him an Infiltrator among infiltrators. He could brawl with the best of them, soak up damage and recover like no other thanks this his regeneration, but his true talents lay in stealth and espionage, with just a hint of biotic foreplay. Granted, he'd be in some serious trouble if someone hit him with heavy weaponry or blased him with a point blank shotgun blast, yet the beauty of his armor's design meant that by the time he was close enough to suffer serious arm, his enemy was already dead.

Even now tiny heat sinks in the fabric enabled him to stay cloaked on the hull's surface, rendering him invisible to the scanners that Karr and his men had to be manning. Encrypted circuitry in his hood-helm prevented anyone unsavory from detecting ingoing or outgoing transmissions and his disruptor gauntlets ensured that anyone within arms reach became a walking, unshielded meatbag.

And there was the small armory of lethal weaponry. Not that his body wasn't already one, but it helped to have some backup. While the pair of submachine guns folded down into his belt often served their purpose, he favored long range combat, with Mantis M-92. One shot, one kill, standard eight/twelve/twenty four magnification scope. A single squeeze of the trigger could punch holes through all but the heaviest

Neither of which he would be using now.

"Sword." He whispered, the deceptively simple voice command sending his primary weapon rising from his belt and into his hand. Palming the weapon, he pressed its tip against the hull and set to work, sparks flying as he cut into the hull with all the skill of a practiced surgeon.

The mono-molecular nodachi was one of a kind, an uprgaded version of the one he'd stolen from Kai Leng's corpse all those years ago. Fueled not by power cells or batteries in the conventional sense, but by chakra-the very lifeblood that coursed throug his veins. At his command the blade superheated in the vaccum he was certain all manner of alarms were going off within. Thankfully he'd obtaind a schematic of the vessel, so cutting into the airlock shouldn't exactly be a problem. His destination remained the bridge however, no mean feat considering how unbelievably the massive dreadnought was-

Click.

Imagine his surprise when the airlock opened almost immediately at the blade's touch, permitting him entrance after only a moment's hesitation. The blond scowled and swung himself inside, boots clamping down upon the steel. Too easy. What kind of self-respecting terrorist left the door open for him? From what he'd read up on Karr the man was something of a mad genius. Opening the airlock for a one man army seemed ridiculous and suicidal, not to mention suicidal.

But this was the only way in. A quick scan of the schematics and the quickest route to the bridge was revealed. Still, the airlock continued to cycle around him.

A booted foot tapped impaitiently as fresh air cycled in, oxygen returning to the hold once more. Sheathing his blade, he drew one of the submachine guns and sighted down the now opening door, the weapon's grip molding seamlessly to his grip, finger hovering just over the trigger in preparation for whatever might await him in on the other side. Abruptly the door swung open. Naruto stepped forward and found himself staring at his very first corpse, the prone form of a batarian lying sprawled out only yards away cast in the red pallor of the emergency light. He felt no pity for the creature. Only confusion.

"Balls." Naruto found himself muttering as he bent to check the victim.

Closer inspection revealed that neck had been badly broken, weapon still warm at his feet. The conclusion was painfully obvious.

Someone had beaten him here.

Cloaking he darted around the nearest corner, into pitch black corridor only mad slightly less dimly by emergency lighting.

Scarce had he done so than all hell broke loose. He saw the batarian rounding the corner opposite him before the four-eyes saw him, but even then he wasn't able to stop in time. So he kept going. Black streamers of a powerful Biotic Charge wreathed around him as he burst forward, shedding his stealth and slamming headlong into his victim. His goggled-eyed expression at watching a biotic freight train roar toward him drew a slight smile from Naruto before he ground him to a gory smear on the wall. It was almost a shame that wasn't Karr; the batarian he sought had three eyes, instead of four.

Taking the next bend he found himself face to face with a rather distraught-looking Asari. Her eyes were wide and pupils dialated with terror, dress in tatters. The moment she saw his face she threw herself at him with reckless abandon, wailing like a banshee. The warp field she flung at him was piteously weak, swatted back and away into a bulkhead.

Instinct demanded he pull the trigger in the next instant, but compassion bid him stay his hand. Naruto yielded to the latter. Dropping his gun arm he reached out and grabbd her by the shoulder, whirling her around so that she was left facing firmly away from him. Her struggles only intensified. This was no trained huntress. This was a frightened girl, scared out of her wits, and-oh.

"Sove?" he hissed in her ear.

She froze.

"W-Who are you?" came the hiccuping. How do you know my name? Did my mother send you?"

"I'm a Spectre." Naruto eventually settled for a white lie-if only to placate her. "I'm going to let go of you now. Don't make any sudden moves. I'm obligated to shoot if you do." She stood still as a statue as he released her, the now-named daughter of Tevos only reluctantly turning to face him when asked.

"I know you," she started slowly. "You're that human who was on the news."

"In the flesh." He gave an exagerate bow.

"Are you here to help us?"

"Something like that." At the sound of muffled voices, all traces of levity drained away from his visage. "I need you to stay here." Retrieving the batarian's battered rifle, he checked the heat sink and offered it to her. "I take you know how to use a gun?"

She nodded tremulously. "A-A little...my mother taught me when I was young."

"Good girl." Naruto patted her once on her scalped crests. "Now, go back to the airlock and wait for me. You'll be safe there."

He didn't have to tell her twice; indeed, the words were barely out of his mouth before Sove scrambled back the way he had come. The sound of her faint footfalls gradually faded away into the distance. Naruto listened until he was utterly certain that she was gone, then he took a knee, eyes drifting shut. When his eyes drifted up once more, they were pure saffron. With the eyes of a Sage he surveyed the Destiny Ascension, seeeking out any signs of life, his vision piercing walls, bulkheads. Asari registed as beacons of white, Batarians streaks of red. It really wasn't surprising that they outnumbered them almost four to one. And there, on the bridge, above all this and everything he sought, surrounded by his best...

Karr.

He'd need an army to rid himself of this many hostiles, rescue all the hostages, and take out his target...Thankfully, the matter of numbers meant nothing to one such as him. Releasing the powers of his Sage Mode the blond drew in a deep breath and gathered his chakra.

For the first time in years, Uzumaki Naruto crossed his fingers.

"Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

With a massive plume of smoke that no doubt set off every sensor in the ship, Naruto found his army. A thousand strong and armed to the teeth, they grinned back at him.

"Boys," he smiled. "You know what to do."

A single snap of the fingers. That was all it took.

The clones were suddenly everywhere, klaxxons blaring. Naruto didn't stop to make sure they attended to their tasks. He already knew they would. They were him, after all.

Skirting the impending conflict, he stepped into the nearest elevator. It didn't matter that Karr had cut the power to the lift; one punch and the lid of the elevator went soaring upward. Naruto shot after it, hurtling up in a streak of black as his chakra-guided feet effortlessly scaled the wall. In a matter of moments he reached the bridge in a blurr-bursting through the door in a shower of sparks and steel. Shouts were hurled and orders shouted at the sudden intrusion, but it was already too late. Rifle drawn, he sighted down the scope at Karr, even as he spun to face him.

"YOU-?!

"Me."

"Wait-

Naruto didn't wait.

Bang.

The mantis bucked in his arms and Karr dropped like a sack of potatoes, his now liquified brain pouring out the back of his skull.

Sighing, the shinobi rose from his crouch and dropped to the floor. Landing on the balls of his feet he pulled back his hood and rose, scowling. Blue chakra sheathed his arms, crooking them maddeningly.

"Before we get started," he began, the words low and deep in his throat, "I have just one question." Naruto allowed the smallest of smiles to grace his visage as he spoke the last words, a touch of killer intent suffusing his voice as though he were talking about something vaguely unpleasant-not contemplating the mass murderer of a massive mercenary force. A terse silence accompanied those deceptively calm words, almost a dozen pairs of multi-faceted eyes turning towards him in eerie unison.

...does anyone want to get out?"

Their response was a hail of gunfire.

"Shield." Naruto hissed, a small discus flying from his armoured thigh to project a shimmering wall of azure absorbing the bullets.

Before their very eyes, the blond seemed to blur. Or were there simply more of him? Karr's men never knew, and they never lived long enough to find out. Three died in the first seconds, their bodies eviscerated as the claws of chakra ground them to nothingness. The rest died in the next heartbeat. "Whip." A thin tether of electrons coalseced out of the slot in his right gauntlet, carving furrows into his foes. And then, as swiftly as this savage slaughter had begun it was over.

"Well," Naruto sighed. "That was anticlimatic."

That was when the Krogan slammed into him from behind.

"I'll kill you!"

As strong as Naruto might be, he simply didn't have the unparalleled strength of this creature. It was one of his few shortcomings. It took all he had just to hold the big brute back and he could feel himself slipping-

Crack.

And then the pressure was gone, leaving him to crash to the floor.

Naruto cocked his head, frowning up at the man who'd just saved his life, gasping, 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...

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! We advance unto canon next chapter! Will Shepard be in this story or not?! WE SHALL SEE!

(Preview)

"So, youngest Spectre ever, huh? Bet you get all the girls with that."

"Only the crazy ones, Joker-san."

The pilot chuckled.

"Yeah, coulda sworn the one in a catsuit was going to claw my eyes out earlier when she caught me staring at her ass. By the way, how do you squeeze all that into-

"I'm not entirely sure how our friend here feels about that line of inquiry, Mr. Moreau." a new voice cut in.

"Er, right sir! Preparing the Normandy for takeoff, sir!"

Naruto cocked his head aside, toward the voice, fighting back a small smile at Joker's last wisecrack. When he finally saw the larger man, his mouth became visible in a streak of white. So this was the illustrious captain he had been told of. Interesting.

"Konichiwa." he greeted in Japanese. "Or, hello, as they say in english."

Anderson frowned. Humanity's first spectre seemed rather young for the rank he thought; but then again this was the man who'd liberated the Destiny Ascension from Batarian terrorists, and done so much more in the years since. Who was he to question what he was doing here on the Normandy? The man looked positively menacing in his black armor, visage hidden and hooded behind his cowl. Then he pulled that aside, exposing a whiskered visage and a genial smile beneath the hood.

"Its a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Anderson-dono." he said, extending a hand. "I understand we have a beacon to recover."

R&R! =D