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 Oriana's age, but that's only because the events of this story are progressing more rapidly than in the original. Additionally, a typo; I had meant to say that Ori is presently twelve, not nine. But in regards to the age difference, there you go. Naruto's prescence has lit a fire under Saren's behind, so to speak.

You'll soon see what I mean...

"The tiniest ripple can change the world..."

~?

Flawed

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

Naruto offered no defense or pretense for his actions against Navigator Presly as the man staggered away, clutching at the shattered remnants of what had once been his nose. A hand rose and fell, errantly brushing a tiny gob of blood from his whiskered visage. Mere moments ago the man had made the mistake of suggesting that his loyalties lay with the "tentacle-heads" as he so put them. Needless to say-he had reacted. Perhaps he had been a touch rougher than strictly neccessary with Presly's injuries. But hey, nothing a dab of medigel couldn't fix.

Unfortunately, Commander Shepard's apocalyptic temper was one of those things.

Silently he turned as she stormed towards him, unflinching in the face of this anger. Her ire paled in comparison to the terrors he'd faced in his storied career; Miranda and Jack made the roaring flame of her anger look like a tiny spark in the grand scheme of things.

Now, blazing green eyes bored into his blue, those burning eyes crackling like a storm and shining with untappped biotic power. Her face was fierce, the glint in those orbs steely, determined. And very, very angry. She was a powerful adept he knew, more than capable of giving him a run for his money in terms of raw power. And, if it was merely a contest of that, she would've had him. But he'd seen things far more terrifying, fought entire armies in the Traverse and beyond. Emily Shepard could no more terrify him than she could breathe in a vaccum. It was impossible. Her demands didn't faze him in the least.

"Explain yourself!"

"I take issue with racism, Commander." he started, knowing an emotional explosion was imminent. "You, of all people, should know this."

"So what, that gives you an excuse to just attack a member of the crew for speaking out of turn? Not on this ship!" she shot back, thrusting a finger into his armored chest. Naruto lowered his head and tracked with the motion, fighting a bemused smile all the while. She thought she could intimidate him on a human-vessel that wasn't even hers to command. Quaint. Perhaps she would fail her test out of hand before they reached Eden Prime. He certainly hoped so. Taking a hand he wrapped his fingers round her wrist and slowly forced it down, quietly relishing in the struggle she put up.

"Only those who warrant it." A sweep of his legs would've sent her sprawling, but he wasn't here to embarass her. Instead, he strengthened his grip until he felt the bones beneath his fingers begin to give. Honestly the inkling that the rest of humanity was so weak compared to him and his girls baffled him to no end. Miranda and Jack weren't even shinobi, and yet they were many more times resilient than this woman struggling in his grasp. She was strong, for a human. But he was a shinobi. Her strength meant nothing to him. "Do you warrant this?"

"I...no."

"Very good, Shepard." A flick of his arm released her.

With a quiet grunt she was forced to relinquish her claim, left clutching gingerly at her now sore wrist. When he motioned for her to folllow him into the comm room she reluctantly complied. But the fire in her eyes had not yet dimmed. Scarce had the doors to the wide room closed behind them than she challenged him again.

"All this because Presly called you on being an alien-lover?" Something twitched inside him; because he spun around to face her.

"I take it you have a problem with aliens, then?" the words were short, clipped. Somewhere deep, Shepard felt satisfaction. Humanity's first Spectre wasn't as stoic or immovable as he might let on. It was widely known that he had almost no ties to the Alliance beyond the obliteration of a Batarian slaving ring, a few years back. Beyond that, he was as much an enigma to them as they were him. Shepard had never understood it. She'd been meant to be the first human spectre, unknowing or not. Not some piece of cloned crap controlled by the council. No, she had nothing against aliens, or so she told herself...

"No problems, really." she said. "I just prefer to associate with my own kind, thank you very much."

"And that wouldn't have anything to do with an asari cheating on you a couple years ago now, would it?"

"I-what-you-how did you know that?!"

Naruto felt his lips curl back into a silent small smile at the Commander's irate insinuation, unwittingly flashing pearly white teeth in the dim lighting provided by the galaxy map. Miranda always found his smiles quite attractive in an odd way; whereas Jack always preferred to screw the hell out of him whenever she saw this. But Shepard, she cringes. She doesn't like the look in his eyes. Can't take it. It worries her. Unnerved. The thought only made his grin grow. Miranda and Jack wouldn't have condemned him for speaking out against a racist, something-and putting the man in his place.

He wished they were here with him now. But there hadn't been time to convince the Council. The Alliance was already un-easy enough with having one Spectre aboard, the idea of him bringing a squad of his own would have made Anderson and the others downright jumpy. It was a crying shame, really. Alenko was all well and good, and Jenkins might be a little too eager to find a fight-but Shepard? He doubted he could work with this woman, hell, he could barely even stomach her. Maybe once this beacon business was over he could take them with him on his next assignment-but now was not the time to think of such things.

"All races are equal, Shepard." he replied at length, fighting to keep the ire from his voice. "You would do well to remember that. You can't let a few bad experiences taint your opinions."

If she saw the olive branch he was extending, what she said next made it go up in flames. "And you'd do well to remember that you're a godamn human. You're supposed to reprsent your species as a whole! Where are your priorities?"

"Right where they belong." Try as he might, the Spectre felt just a touch of irritation seep into his voice. She was beginning to rub him in all the wrong ways. He stepped forwards, sapphire boring into jade. "And where might yours be, my dear Emily?" Ouch. Usage of the name. "From what I've seen of you thus far you're full of hot air, have a trigger-finger temper, no regards for your crew. Surprised?" His eyes tightened at the shock as it flashed through her face. "I know all about you Commander. I'd even say you have a mental handicap of sorts; you're afraid to get to know anyone after losing your entire unit on Akuze. Not that you would."

Shepard flinched at the mention of that massacre. Something hot flashed in the pit of her gut. The next words spoken were little more than a snarl.

"Big talk, coming from a vat grown brat."

If she'd expected to wound him with those words, she was dissapointed. Naruto laughed; it was a soft, hoarse sound. He took another step forward, his forehead pushing up against hers.

"Bold words, commander." he rumbled, tongues of dark energy wrapping him in a blanket of biotic power. "I do hope you have the bite to back up your bark."

Emily reciprocated the motion.

"Why I oughta-

"That's enough, Naruto. I think it's about time we told the Commander what's really going on." Before the veteran of Akauze had a chance however Anderson chose that moment to arrive. Naruto knew him at a glance-the great mountain of a man striding into the conference room as though he owned it. Which perhaps he did. This was his ship after all. Now why couldn't he have been made a Spectre? He understood the whole chest-thumping jargon, respected it even, to some degree. Anyone would be better than the prejudiced female standing before him.

"I suppose." Just like that all trace of emotion vanished from his visage, he was the ice king once more. "This is no mere shakewdown run, after all. We've got the beacon to recover."

"Beacon?" Shepard blinked at Anderson. "Sir, I-

"There's more, Shepard." Perhaps sensing the tension, the Captain didn't give her the time to get her bearings, instead ploughing on ahead before something foolish could be said. "Naruto isn't just here for the beacon, though that is a part of it. He's also here to evaluate you."

A snake of dread and elation coiled in the vanguard's gut. No...

"Is there something I haven't been told, sir?"

"You're being considered for the Spectres." Anderson replied, eyes shining with pride. "Isn't that right, Uzumaki?"

Naruto nodded, though inwardy he could feel a scowl tug at his lips. He doesn't like Shepard. Emily. Whatever her first name is. The woman's a xenophobe, pro-human to the core. Cares more for her own race than she does the others. Perhaps that was why Udina chose her in the first place. One mark against regardless. It was nothing personal, he told himself. In good faith-both for the galaxy and everyone at large-this loose cannon simply couldn't be made a Spectre. Perhaps someone calmer. A lad with a good head on his shoulders, like Alenko. But Shepard? No. A thousand times no.

He would not work with her. Didn't want to have anything to do with her. Once this was done, he wouldn't even stand beside her. If humanity wanted a better reprsentative, then would have to look elsewhere. Dutifully he listened as Anderson droned on the importance of this mission and the ones that would come after. Not if Naruto had anything to say about it. He'd already evaluated Shepard in his mind; barring a major personality shift -not bloody likely!- in the next few hours, the report he'd be forwarding would not be a positive one. He didn't know which of his comrades had suggested Shepard become a Spectre-probably Nihlus, the bugger-he knew only that they'd been wrong. He saw nothing redeeming in this woman. He probably wouldn't be seeing any of her combat prowess, either. So long as they got in, got the beacon, and got out without a hitch-

Then everything changed when that transmission came through.

The screen before them flashed and crackled with static, granting the trio a frontline view of the warzone that had once been the idyllic colony. Heavy assault fire pock-marked the ground in streaks of blue and white as men and women died in droves, fighting an unseen enemy. A woman in white and red armor shouting-then shoving-for the camerman to get down. She blitzed across the battlefield like a goddess of death, her rifle firing almost contantly in a steady rat-tat-tat as it picked off targets. But it seemed even that wasn't enough, as she and her men continued to falter under the pressure of the attack. Then someone thrust themself into the shot and started shouthing:

"We are under attack! Taking heavy casualties! I repeat: heavy casualties! We can't...eed evac! They came out of nowhere! We need-

An explosion knocked the camera askew, taking with it the man's head. A flash of some massive ship, then...nothing but static.

"Rewind to 38.5." Anderson instructed. The glimpse became an image.

That was when Naruto saw it.

Descending out of the storm-filled sky like the hand of an angry god, its arms spread wide, the creature looked like something straight out of nightmare. Then came the voice. Not on the screen, he could have tolerated that-perhaps even understood it. But this voice was in his head. If only in his memories. We are you salvation through destruction. Your powers mean nothing to us. Your armies cannot stop us. You will be harvested like the rest.

An epileptic shudder shot down Naruto's spine, filling him with an old dread, ancient and nameless. Every fiber of his being screamed in pain and horror-it felt as though his body were being dipped in molten lava. Being torn to a thousand pieces by a thousand different and then stitched back together in a million wrong ways. Needles in his skin! Claws in his head! Teeth at his ear!

Pained, unwanted memories washed over him in a wave; the smell of sulfur, the sight of savaged plains, burning villages. The screams of the dying. Ships, blotting out the sun, then...the sky itself. All of it passed down from his ancestor. And then above all, rising, in a cacophony of sonorous death, mocking him for his failure:

I! AM! SOVEREIGN!

"NO!"

Gasping he jerked back to reality, suddenly aware of Shepard's and Anderson's questing stares. Their gaze had been drawn by the unexpected shout, he realized. But what...what was that thing? Blue eyes strayed back to the image and his mind instinctively recoiled, shutting out the memories before they could overwhelm him. Still they stared.

"Are you alright?"

"Its...nothing." Naruto shook his head at last. "Just thought I recognized it, is all."

Nodding, but clearly not satisfied, Anderson returned his gaze to the eerie image.

"Moreau?"

"Seventeen minutes out, Captain." came the reply. "No other Alliance ships in the area."

"Take us in, Joker. Fast and quiet."

Naruto sighed and tucked up his hood. Whatever that memory was, it would reveal itself in time. Just like the rest.

"This mission just got a lot more complicated." Unbidden, his eyes strayed back to the screen. Still the image lingered, mocking him.

He wouldn't know it for some time, but he'd just re-experienced the harvesting of his people.

Shepard had seen a lot during her time as an Alliance marine. Hell, she'd seen a lot just during the past twelve minutes, and that didn't include a wise-cracking, reality bending shinobi and his wayward way of observing the galaxy. But the one thing that she would never get used to, the one thing that unsettled her more than anything else, was walking into a colony that was completely and utterly deserted. Fires fanned out haphazard around them, scorched bodies sprawled amiss across the once pristine landscape.

The sky was red like blood, daggers of fading light stabbing through their helmets to pierce their retinas. As one the group of humans waded through the carnage, weapons at the ready. Nothing but gas bags rose to try and challenge them, and even then the balloon-like creatures drifted harmlessly on by. Beyond them, there was no sign of life. Smoke could be seen billowing in the distance, but even that seemed faint; muted, beyond the pall offered by the stunning scene.

It was, all things considered, positively eerie.

"Cheery." Naruto muttered, his whiskered face uncharacteristically grim. "Any idea what could've done this?" Now that he was finally planetside the memory kept trying to resurface with increasing frequency. As though something-someone?-were trying to warn him, somehow. But that was impossible. So instead he devoted himself to ignoring it, tamping it down to the deepest, darkest level that he could.

"Oh God," Jenkins breathed. "What happened here?"

"Nothing good, that's for certain." Alenko summarized bleakly.

"Jenkinds, you take point." The Spectre continued, ignoring the admonishing look this earned him from a certain N7 operative. "Kaiden and I will be in the middle. Shepard, you bring up the rear. Make sure no one gets the drop on us." his words were crisp, cold. "Now, we've got a beacon to recover. Move out!"

She bit back a groan as Kaiden and Jenkins -her men!- moved to obey him without question. She was a vanguard, damnit! She should be in front! There was no purpose putting her in the back!

Great...he was already taking charge. Not just of the mission, but, of her own unit! Why couldn't he have gone on ahead? Now that she knows he's here to observe her, the bastard seems almost smug. How long was she expected to wallow in her ignorance? If Anderson hadn't sprung it on her back in the comm room she supposed she very well might still be making an ass of herself. As things stood Naruto hadn't spoken so much as an ounce of syllables to her since they'd landed, until now. But loathe it though she might, she daren't speak out. Not when she risked making even more of an ass of herself than she already had. Her only prayers were that they'd find something to shoot, and soon.

They were soon answered.

Rounding the nearest bend, they came face to face with their first hostiles. The Geth Drones responded mercilessly and opened fire, their sights set on the nearest human.

"Shield!" Naruto barked, a round discus flying from one of his gauntlets. The whirling aparatus flung itself between Jenkins and the oncoming fire, unfolding to created a rectangular barrier that held just long enough for the man to dive behind cover. In the millisecond it took for him to tuck and roll Kaiden reached out with his biotics and yanked. The bots crashed together in a spray of sparks and circuitry, the force of their colllision all but welding them together at the base. A swift spray of shot from the now-recovered Jenkins put them down even as Shepard raised her shotgun. The great weapon barked and reduced them to so much slag. Better to be safe than sorry, after all.

In an instant the confrontation had both begun and ended.

"Good job." Naruto nodded at them. There hadn't even been any need to assist. That was...surprising.

"I...you...h-holy shit!" Jenkins rasped suddenly, patting himself down as though he expected to be preforated and filled with holes at any minute. Now that the adrenaline'd finally worn off, he seemed to realize just how close he had come to his brush with death. "I almost died! You saved my life!"

"Would you rather I let you die?" Naruto cocked his head aside, amused by the man's enthusiasm. Jenkins was a good kid, amusing to poke at.

"No!" the corporal stammered out. "No, of course not, sir!"

"What kind of tech is that?" Kaiden wondered at the still-shimmering device Naruto had deployed. It was no longer deploying its shield, but even from this distance, he could feel the heat radiating off it. It'd endured an inordinate amount of damage before powering down, damage that would've shredded an organic in an instant.

"Experimental geth technology." Naruto flexed his wrist and the discus came whirling back like a boomerang, locking smoothly into the port. "In essence its a portable shield that makes up for my lack thereof. I've got a barrier just in case, but it always pays to have a surprise or two up my sleeves."

Kaiden blinked, noticing the lack thereof in the seamless bodysuit he wore. "You don't have sleeves, sir."

Naruto laughed, enjoying the brief moment of levity.

"You are correct, m'boy!"

"Wait, did you say geth?" Despite her animosity for the blond, even Shepard found herself drawn into the conversation. "They haven't been seen out of the veil since-

"Since they buggered the quarians."

"So how did you-

"Me and my squad ran into a patrol once on the outskirts of the Veil, once." he replied, wincing as the heated disk drew from his reserves to cool and recharge. "Had to fight our way free. Afterwards, we salvaged what we could." Bad memories with that one. Jack had nearly lost her life that day. Tattoos could only cover so many scars... "Anywho, this is what the Council made of it. And yes if you're wondering, I have a shit-ton more where this came from and dozen other surprises in this suit besides my own. Anymore questions?"

The silence was telling. Naruto smiled.

"Good." straightening, he unholstered his pistol. He'd not be caught unawares by the drones again.

"Now, lets go get that beacon."

Ashley Williams ran.

Hard and fast, legs pumping madly, her stride devoured the distance between her and safety. She bobbed and weaved, leading her pursuers on a weaving course through the colony, knowing all the while that she was just one screwup away from ending up like the others. So she ran.

Not fast enough.

Two shorts slammed into her from behind and caused her to stumble, glancing blows and even then only barely blocked by her shields. Shots like that had ripped through her squad, pulped their heads to a fleshy mass and bloody ribbons besides. It was a blessing and a curse that she'd somehow survived long enough to make it this far. And it pissed her the hell off! She shouldn't be running! She, should be fighting! Running away as was now stood in disgrace of everything ahse

Turning, rolling, sliding, she finally opened fire. The assault rifle roared angrily in her hand.

Two shots dropped the drones, but silencing them earned her the attention of their masters. One of them blasted her gun clear out of her grasp.

Geth.

A silent shudder ran through her as five flashlight heads turned towards her, rifles raised. One bore a rocket launcher-

"Overload." the command as short and succint; just like the explosion of the launcher itself. In the ensuing smoke she caught a flash of motion followed by the distinct stuttering sound of dying geth. Somewhere up on the ridge, the harsh crack of a shotgun bellowed, followed by the angry growl of an assault rifle. Of the five geth that there had been, two emerged from the smoking, shields sputtering and smoking from the explosion and subsuquent assault. Their heads tracked, searching for their unseen attackers-

She never saw the blades until they made contact. One moment the synthetics had been preparing to rain down hell on her; the next, two mono-molecular ninjato flashed out and skewered them right in the bulbs. She caught a flash of movement against the scenery-cloaked?-and then their heads were gone. Just gone. One moment they'd been attached to those spindly necks; they next, they were rolling in the grass, spouting sticky white fluid. Uck. Probably not the best choice of words...

"Report, solider!"

The authoratative voice behind her caused her to stiffen instinctively.

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212." she was saluting even as he emerged from the cloak. "You're the one in charge here...sir?"

Her mouth hung open slightly as Uzumaki Naruto appeared. It took everything she had not to keep from gawping like a fish. She'd heard of his deadly exploits-practically every human had-but to actually see the legend up close and personal-like was another thing entirely. His blue eyes were anything but-those stark, slitted crimson pools staring out at her in open relief. He didn't quite have the cleft chin that all the vids portrayed him with, not that she could quite tell with that hood and mask-

"Duck."

Ashley blinked, momentarily baffled by those words. "Huh?"

"I said duck!"

Without looking to see if she would comply, the Spectre raised a hand, biotically catching a rocket from an unseen sixth Geth. It hovered there, for a long moment, dangling just out of her reach before he returned it to sender. Violently. A flick of the wrist sent it soaring back to its master, echoed by this dull pop that doubtlessly signalled the end of its owner.

And just like that, it was over.

She saw the rest of his squad coming down over the ridge, but for some reason she wasn't able to tear her eyes away from this agent of death standing before her.

"Are you hurt?" his omnitool flashed with a quick application of medigel.

"Nothing that'll slow me down." she muttered. Naruto was somehow reminded of a viper hissing defiance at some larger predator. Ashely had been beaten and battered beyond belief, but she was still fighting. He could respect that.

"Shepard." he barked over his shoulder.

"What?"

"Give me your assault rifle." Naruto fought the urge to smile at her disbelieving expression. "What? You don't use it anyway."

With an irritated grunt she tossed it at him. Naruto promptly handed it to Ashley. She accepted it, bafffled.

"Sir?"

"You're with us." he patted her once on the shoulder and kept walking. "Move out!"

They made surprisingly good time after that with just the five of them, not even stopping once they realized the beacon had been moved up the way. It was a larger squad than he would have liked, but it kept him from dwelling on the ever-rising agony in his head. When they saw the massive ship go up, he barely managed to reign the visions in. Even then his skull seemed to quiet down once the massive construct departed for space and the voice beyond. He even dared to hope that things would work out.

Until they reached the camp.

Bodies. Everywhere. Naruto looked to the strange spikes. Dozens upon dozens of colonists lay impaled upon the things, their grisly bodies a silent testament to the cruelty of the Geth invaders. It was almost enought to make him question whether the Quarians were wrong about the geth. Any being that did this to others, synthetic or otherwise, needed to be stopped.

And yet there was something about these spikes that drew him in...

"Stay close!" he ordered, before turning and approaching the strange artifacts himself. A light tap activated the thrusters in his boots, lifting him up to observe what had once been a man. He'd always thought the jet boots were overrated, they were good for deaccelaration and momentary levitation, but little more, only good for moments such as these. It wasn't as though he could speed across the colony with these. And just as well. In the time it took to do so, he would've exhausted the tiny amounts of fuel that the thrusters did contain. Now such thoughts were far from his mind.

He examined the zombified humanoids embedded on the spikes, wondering at them. Grey flesh and blue circuitry wreathed their bodies, their eyes staring blankly out at nothing. This was a husk of a colonist, an empty shell devoid of life. Silently, he offered a prayer to his gods. And then the colonist moved. Naruto froze. The iron grip he'd held on his mind slipped.

Husk. The voice in his mind warned. It sounded like him...just, older. Not human. Not a colonist. Kill it! Kill it now!

"The hell?!" Jenkins yelped as the camp erupted into movement.

The spikes retract, freeing their captives. Swearing, he quickly sidesteped the creature that springs out at him. Because this, this...thing isn't human. Not anymore. It stares at him with lifeless eyes, mouth hanging listlessly open. Uttering a deep, raspy howl, the grey-skinned humanoid landed on the concrete and spun clumsily toward her. Before it could take another step, Naruto puts a bullet in its head and it collapses to the floor. His heart is hammering now. He feels ill.

An instant later, a second creature comes tearing through off a spike and launches itself at him. Its head explodes from a sniper round. Ash. Then there's no time for thought because there's dozens of them now and all he can do is shoot and stab and kill and shoot again. He doesn't know when they stop or even how it stops, only that it does. When its finally over he sees the faces of the dead. The lives of a life he never lived, yet was forced to know all the same. Husks. All of them. He vomits. Damn. Shouldn't have had ramen for breakfast.

"Hey, are you...

Naruto stiffens, shaking off Jenkin's hand. "Just a bad memory." he muttered. "Too godamn many of those."

The corporal blinks, baffled. "What're you-?"

"Let's...keep moving...

They follow him.

Ashely keeps her rifle trained on the spikes.

"Saren?"

He thought he'd seen it all. Giant spaceships dropping from the sky. Geth in the Traverse. Husks. Disarming bombs meant to destroy the colony at its very core. But this? This took the cake. Never in all his career had he expected to find Saren waiting for him there in the spaceport-perched almost casually upon a crate. At their approach he rose, cobalt blue eyes slowly passing over the five humans coming towards him. Behind him the beacon shone with its eerie emerald green light, beckoning them.

"Naruto."

Something stilled in the blond, causing him to slow. Saren never used his name. Ever. It was always whelp or brat or upstart, or some other degradatory term. Never his name. The hackles on the back of his neck rose in warning. This...what was going on here? The turian looked even more amped up than before; he could see the wires coursing through him, even detect the faintest of blue afterglow in his chest. Yes...something was very wrong here, and he needed to figure out what before he ended with a bullet in the back of his skull...or worse.

"Friend of yours?" Ashley asked, starting forward.

"This isn't your mission, Saren." Naruto flung an arm up, barring her path. "What are you doing here?"

Somehow, the Turian looked almost sad. Resigned, even. He stood like a statue for a long moment, hands clasped behind his back.

"The Council thought you could use some help on this one." he rumbled.

"Bullshit." Shepard growled. "Have you seen the Geth here?! Who knows when reinforcements'll arrive?! We need to get the beacon and bug! Now!"

"Don't worry." the elder spectre reassured her. "I've got it under control."

That earned him a cough from the whiskered warrior. He turned aside, subtly increasing his shields to maximum. "Yeah, why don't I believe that?"

"You wound me. Whyever would I harm a comrade?" Those eerie eyes shifted to the Commander. "Ah, and you must be Shepard. Humanity's next spectre, or so your race claims."

Sheaprd bristled, but whatever she said was lost in static to her mentor.

Naruto's instincts had been telling him Eden Prime was a bad place before he'd even stepped foot on it. Now it was a wailing alarm inside his head. He got the feeling Saren was not as "in control" as he claimed to be; a turian out here, on an unspecified mission meant he wasn't alone as he had first thought, and found himself wishing he had brought along Miranda and Jack. Having a squad of four at his back was all well and good, but even so he'd have preffered to have those he trusted at his side-

Bang!

Shepard's pained scream was the only warning he had that something was wrong. His mind had been screaming at him from the moment he'd encountered Saren in this spaceport. He'd never trusted the turian, but for the alien to actually take a shot at them...!

"What the?!" Ashley yelped as her weapon was telekinetically ripped form her grasp, alongsid Alenko's and Jenkins. Naruto rooted himself, summong up a mass effect field.

Shepard had been naive. But for whatever reason, Saren had decided to shoot her first -an easier target, perhaps?-before turning his heavy pistol on the blond. Naruto was determined not to waste the opportunity. The bastard had made a fatal mistake. This close he couldn't see where the bullet had landed, but he knew enough to see that Shep wouldn't be helping him in this fight. No, his first and last mistae had been shooting Emily first and not him!

"Down!" he barked, the words as much for William's benefit as they were Alenko's. Jenkins wasn't so lucky. Saren managed to tag him in the arm before he rolled away, dragging Shepard's broken body with him. Once more the gun barked. This time he was ready.

Even as the man dropped away, the shinobi twisted up/aside, a hand instinctly flying toward the mass accelerator round now whistling towards his head. Pain exploded through his palm as the polonium round savaged his shields and tore open the right side of his face, but that was all. Saren's shot that'd been meant to end him whistled by in a flash of white, leaving reeling in pain, but very much alive. Rule one of assasination, take out the most dangerous target first. Saren had failed to heed that rule. Because Naruto was still breathing.

And pissed the hell off.

Saren was left staring at him, stupified. He'd clearly expected that modded round to pulp the blonde's head. It had not.

"How did you-?!"

"What you cannot absorb, you deflect."

Naruto raised his ravaged hand, the flesh already stitching itself back together beneath the broken gauntlet. Whatever Saren was up to, whatever twisted plan he was plotting, it ended here. Even now he could see the turian's biotics gathering-funny, he didn't recall Saren possessing that ability, an eerie shroud shimmering over his strange organic/synthetic form. He wanted a fight? Welll, he was about to get one. Black fire sheathed his body as his own dark energy and chakra gathered around him.

"I," he hissed, "Am going to enjoy this far more than I should."

Saren growled then, deep and low in his throat. "As will I!"

With that last word he lashed outwards, a wave of biotic power shooting forth from his talons. Naruto smacked his palms together, severing the shockwave with one of his own, sending shipping containers sailing across the docks. Then Saren was upon him and there was no more time for thought. Those claws bit deep into his face, trying to gouge out his eyes. But Naruto was not without natural weapons of his own. Even as he fought the terrible turian he was smiling, a spark snaking between his clenched teeth. Too late Saren realized what was about to happen; saw that the human was holding him by the wrists. Shackling him.

"In the words of my old mentor," The last shinobi growled, cackling as an azure light built behind his clenched teeth. "Burn, you sonuva bitch."

Naruto opened his mouth and spat, expelling a cone of fire that seared his wrath into the alien's face. But this wasn't some uncontrolled blaze. The blue white flames were focused and harnessed, burning into his enemy with all the force of a thousand suns. Saren screamed as his mandibles melted and twised together, an eye shriveling up beneath the intense energies.

They collide in a storm of mass effect fields and chakra. The overwhelming might of Reaper technology-how do I know that?-clashing violently with the raw power birthed by one of the mightiest shinobi in all of creation and existence. Bodies were bloodied. Bones broken. For a terrifying moment, neither yielded. And then, with a well-timed overload, Saren fell. Naruto's clenched fist found purchace in the alien's already melted face, all but shattering his jaw and tossing him down onto the wrecked crates.

Naruto spits out a wad of blood and prepares to finish it. A rasengan spiralled in his hand, the deadly sphere swelling sinisterly in his sights.

"Any last words, traitor?"

Saren blanched, feebly raising a claw.

"Wait!"

Naruto didn't wait. He was already moving-

Too late, he saw the flashbang grenade roll to a halt at his feet. Snarling, he moved to kick it away but it was already too late; even as he raised an arm the light was already searing itself into his hyper-sensitive retina in a scalding burst of a flare. The pain was suddenly everywhere and everything. Cold fury burned the world white. Saren scrambled to his feet and took off like all hell was at his heels. None saw him board his craft and escape into the atmospher, so bright was the light, so intense was the pain.

By the time they'd blinked it away, Saren was gone.

"Oh, that sonuvabitch!"

"Naruto!"

"Joker," he began quickly, "Beacon is secured and ready for pickup. You'd better bring the ship down, stat. Shepard's hit. Bad. Dam bullet got her right in the chest. I don't have enough medigel for this, and she's going to bleed out at this rate." Grimacing, he risked another glance down at her. She was pale. Probably going into shock. Oh, that was bad. But at least the beacon was stil...

Frowning, he turned toward the beacon. Something was pulling him now. Tugging him.

What in the-?

That was his last thought before the images of a dead people branded themselves into his brain. Mingling with the memories of old, something snapped. One word stood out amongst the rest, a single name for the cold and nameless terror that had descended from the great void. The name of those who did the harvest.

Reapers.

Hanabi knew why she'd thrown the grenade. But even rationalizing it didn't make her feel any better. She'd been tailing him for years now, observing his every move. It was difficult, at times, not to see him as the man who had so defined her life in those later years of the war. It had been child's play to stow away aboard the Normandy, cloak, and drop down after them. She watched now, save in her perch as the beacon exploded, an apocalyptic shower of steel and energy raining down on the balcony. Watched as the clone of her beloved-who just might be one and the same-slumped, his body going boneless to the unyielding platform.

It was done, then.

Naruto could kill Saren. If he was even a shadow of his former self, the clone could obliterate him. But she'd prevented it. Just this once. Because she knew.

Just as she knew that killing Saren would ruin everything. With the turian dead, the Reaper would simply appoint some other construct or worse, use a Geth leader. Synthetics were impossible to predict. No, this was all she could do to ensure success for humanity. An organic had weaknesses, flaws. It could be predicted and outsmarted, allowing them to-and Cerberus-to obtain victory in the war. She knew this. So why? Why, by those gods that she loathed and reviled, by the spirit of the man she knew and loved...

...why did it hurt so damned much?

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 further unto canon next chapter! Spotlight remains firmly on Naruto folks. Still not sure if I should keep this a single pairing or not tho...

(Preview)

"What. The. Hell." Naruto growled, struggling to find a conduit for the anger coursing through his veins. "After all I've told you, you're telling me you won't convict this bastard? I've got the bruises to prove it! Shepard's in a coma because of him! Just take a look at Jenkins! And don't even get me started on the visions!" He was dimly ware of Miranda' and Jack's prescence behind him but he didn't care. People were dead. Someone was dying because he hadn't been fast enough. He'd no love for Shepard, but he hadn't wished her into this state.

Tevos at least, looked disconcerted. But she was merely one voice amidst three.

"Pleast try to understand," she began. "Saren is our best agent. You, are our most recent. Word of mouth and deed aside...

..we cannot convict him without solid evidence." Valern finished.

"And these "Reapers" of which you speak, Sparatus quoted, "What proof do you even have that they exist!"

"I...!"

"You see? He's nothing but lies." Saren mocked him through the hologram, his newly welded jaw moving in gross parallel to his words. "NOTHING. The product of a syringe. No more, no less..." In light of the surprising lack of evidence, they refused to convict him. Naruto stood there for a long moment, smoldering under their judgement. He'd trusted in the system. He'd believed that so wrong as he did right, then justice would prove itself, that good would win the day. Now he realized the truth; he'd been the naive one all along.

"So that's it, huh?" he growled. "After all I say and do for you, this is how you repay me?"

Perhaps Tevos recognized his expression. Perhaps she simply read human expressions better than most. Whatever the case, she was the first to reply.

"There's no need to be rash-

"Fuck you." he snapped, voice rising harshly. "I thought...this Council stood for something. It seems I was wrong. So, let me say this: I'll bring you your damn proof. But that's it. The streets of this galaxy are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all your stupidities and ignorance will foam up about your waists until the Reapers decide that its time for the next harvest. And when that time has come you will look up and shout 'Save us!' And I'll look down, and whisper:

"No."

Scowling, he stormed out of the tower.

Hope ya liked it! R&R! =D