Chapter 3

The Garrison as it turned out, was part of Earth's military, and he managed to enroll without any problems. An entire year had passed since then, and in that time he'd made 3 friends; his absolute favorite humans in the Garrison. Hunk, Pidge, and Keith; the latter had gotten himself expelled. In the year that passed, Naruto's top two marks had become blue and sickle-shaped under his eyes like common Altean markings. He hid them though just as he did his ears. The blonde wanted to tell Hunk and Pidge the truth about what he was, where he was from, and the reason he was here. Sadly, he couldn't do such a thing.

At the moment, he and Hunk were covertly following Pidge up to the roof where the solar panels were. "Can't believe Iverson said that we need to bond as a team, we work great together, right?"

"Great is a very strong word." Hunk said. "And, so is decent."

"Passable?"

"That's as close as we can get apparently." He said as they reached the roof to see Pidge sitting down in front of two connected computers, and wearing a pair of headphones. Without so much as a warning, Naruto kneeled next to Pidge.

"So, you come here often?" the girl jumped in fright. "Hi there." He smiled. "Looking at stars with some…" he examined the tech. "Custom built tech, right?"

"You built all of this?" Hunk asked.

"Yeah, with this, I can scan all the way to the edge of the solar system." She stated.

"Impressive, how about Kerberos?" he asked only for Pidge to give him a look that said no. "Wait, you go crazy every time one of the instructors brings it up." He said while Hunk touched Pidge's tech only to be stopped by said girl disguised as a boy. "We're supposed to bond better, so let's not keep any secrets; we have to trust each other." He said.

"Fine." She sighed. "The world as you know it is about to change." She said. "The Kerberos Mission wasn't lost because of some malfunction or crew mistake; so I've been scanning the system and picking up alien radio chatter." Immediately Naruto's eyes widened, he almost lost control for a second.

'No, they wouldn't be so careless, plus New Altea isn't anywhere near the Milky Way.' The blonde silently stated.

"Whoa. What. Aliens?" Hunk asked now slightly concerned at the thought of aliens.

"I'd be lying if I said that I didn't believe you, and I won't call you insane." The blonde said. "Anything they say in particular?"

"One word, "Voltron." She said. "And tonight, it's going crazier than I have ever heard it." Now the blonde felt his control slipping.

"Voltron…how crazy has it—"

"Attention, students. This is not a drill." It was Iverson speaking over the PA. ,"We are on lockdown! Security situation Zulu Niner."

"What's the hell—"

"Is that a meteor?!" Hunk exclaimed pointing to the sky. "A very, very big meteor?" Naruto paled, he was ready to grab the two and wormhole them to safety.

"It's a ship!" Pidge exclaimed while using her binoculars. Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"Nope, that's not one of ours." He said. "Definitely alien." He said. 'Not from Earth or New Altea…the galra?'

"Wait, there really are aliens out there?"

"Yup." The blonde said as the ship crashed in the distance. "We're going to see it, right?" Pidge was already packed. "All right, let's go Hunk!" he exclaimed with a smirk. 'Maybe, maybe I won't have to hide it from them anymore.' He hoped.

The trio had been able to climb atop one of the cliffs to get as close as they could without being seen. Naruto was scoping the site out using Pidge's binoculars. "Tight security, and the alien ship looks…pretty nice; as in it's intact." He said. "Getting past those guards isn't possible with all 3 of us."

"Aw man; I guess there's nothing to do but head back to the barracks, right?" Hunk asked ready to go back, he was scared, and that was expected.

"Hold on a second, they set up a camera in there and…I've got the feed. Look!" Pidge said prompting them to gather to see what was going on inside. The screen showed an older man strapped onto a metal table.

"Hey! What are you doing?" the man questioned in distress.

"That's Shiro, the pilot from the Kerberos Mission!" Naruto stated as Shiro yelled about aliens. About how they destroy worlds, and how they were coming. 'No, no, no, this can't be happening! Not to Earth!'

"Guess he's not dead in space, after all." Hunk said.

"Where's the rest of the crew?" Pidge asked.

"I don't think we want to know." Naruto said.

"Do you know how long you've been gone?" Iverson asked.

"I don't know. Months? Years? Look, there's no time." Shiro stated. "Aliens are coming here for a weapon, and they're probably in their way." He said. "They'll destroy us, we have to find Voltron!" there it was, now Naruto knew who the threat was.

'Galra!'

"Sir, take a look at this." One of the doctors said. "It appears his arm has been replaced with a cyborg prosthetic."

"Put him under until we know what that thing can do." Iverson ordered. The arm was advanced by human standards, but to Naruto it looked normal. Unless it had some hidden feature that he couldn't see.

"They didn't ask about the rest of the crew." Pidge said.

"They aren't going to listen to him despite the situation, we have to help him." Naruto said. "You in?"

"Yeah."

"I hate to be the voice of reason, always, but there are no ways to get past the guards." Hunk stated.

"That was then, and this is now." Pidge said.

"Yeah." Naruto looked down at the encampment. "A distraction would work perfectly, something like—" the sudden sound of massive explosions going off in the distance caught everyone's attention. "Like that."

"Was that the aliens? Are they here?"

"No, that distraction was for him." Pidge said pointing downward. There was someone on a vehicle sneaking in from the other side while the Garrison went to investigate the explosions. Naruto peered through the binoculars.

"Keith!" the blonde exclaimed. "Let's go!"

"Are you sure?"

"I'd recognize him anywhere." The blonde said. "Along with that mullet which oddly suits him.' The trio slid down the rocky formation, planning to get down there before Keith could leave with Shiro. 'Shiro knows something about Voltron and the Galra, I have to find out what he knows so I can report it back to New Altea.' They entered the tent to see that Keith already had Shiro on his feet while supporting him. "Hey there." The blonde greeted.

"Naruto!"

"You remember me, that's good." The blonde said while lifting up Shiro's right side. "Now, let's get out of here everyone."

"Wait a second, you—"

"No time, let's go!" Pidge said prompting them to leave. The group would only barely escape the Garrison pursuers, before diving off of a cliff.

The Next Day – Keith's Home

Everyone had questions for Shiro, and while Naruto wanted to ask his first, he decided that it could wait until later. They weren't really safe right now. At the moment, they were looking at the map that Keith had been working on after he'd been booted from the Garrison. The outcropping of giant boulders with caves that were covered in ancient markings. "Each one tells a slightly different story about a Blue lion." Keith stated.

'Blue lion, it's here on Earth, and so close!' this wasn't good. "A blue lion, gotta wonder why a lion of all things." He muttered to himself. "Why not a fox or something?" apparently lions were universal animals.

"I should thank you all for getting me out." Shiro said catching Naruto's attention, he hadn't been listening. "Naruto, right?" he held out his hand. Naruto shook it with genuine relief to see that Shiro was up.

"It's a pleasure to meet you face to face." He said as the man went to Pidge.

"The nervous guy is Hunk. I'm Pidge." She said shaking his hand. "Did anyone else from your crew make it out?" she asked.

"Not sure, I remember the mission and being captured." Shiro said. "But, after that, it's just bits and pieces." This wasn't good.

"Yeah, sorry to interrupt, but back to the aliens. Where are they now?" Hunk asked. "Are they coming for us? Are they on their way here at this very moment?"

"I can't exactly put it together, but I remember the word "Voltron." He stated. "It's some kind if weapon that they're looking for, but I don't know why."

"Considering how you said that they destroy planets, I'm going to take a guess and say that they want to either use it or destroy it." The blonde said.

"Right, so we need to find it before they do." Before anything else could be said, Naruto's eyes suddenly widened. Quintessence, he could feel something using the quintessence in his body to communicate with him. His gaze went to one of the pictures that Keith had hung up on the board. After that, everything went black.

Cave of the Blue Lion

A massive mechanical blue lion inside of a particle barrier. This is the first thing that Naruto saw when his vision came back. "Whoa, that's the blue lion." The blonde said. "Wait." He looked to the others. "Where are we?" he asked. "What happened?"

"You were in some kind of trance when we started tracking the energy source, you didn't say anything you just followed us for a bit before running off on your own." Keith stated.

"It was kind a creepy, plus your birthmarks started glowing blue, so is there—"

"Just forget about that, it's nothing important." He said turning back to the blue lion. There was an awkward silence among them for a few moments before Pidge spoke up.

"So, is this it? Is this the Voltron?"

"It must be." Shiro said.

"This is what's been causing all of this crazy energy out here." Keith said. Now Naruto knew what was pulling at him, the blue lion. The blonde walked up to the massive mech.

"There's a force field protecting it." Shiro said. Inside of his mind, Naruto could hear a low growling, and feel the lion pulling at his quintessence once more but this time it was lighter. Upon touching the particle barrier, the lion's yellow eyes glowed, the markings surrounding it glowed as well, and a vision played in the blonde's head.

Five lions taking to the skies and converging to form a massive humanoid robot. Voltron.

"Whoa." The group said in unison.

"You guys saw that too, right? It wasn't just me?" he asked.

"Yeah, we did."

"Voltron is a robot." Hunk said. "Voltron is a huge, huge, awesome robot!" now he sounded excited, but he was still nervous for obvious reasons.

"And this thing is only 1 part of it!" Pidge stated. "I wonder where the rest of them are."

"This is what they're looking for." Shiro said just as the blue lion lowered its head to their level. The mouth opened, inviting them inside. Naruto wasted no time in running inside, and into the cockpit. The blonde say down, and the chair moved forward causing the controls to activate after long.

'Alright, you gonna stop trying to forcefully take my quintessence?' The pulling ceased after a few moments. 'Thank you.' The screen activated.

"Um, guys I feel the need to point out, just so that we are all aware." Hunk started. "We're in some kind of futuristic alien cat head right now."

"True, but—" a deep purring sounded off in Naruto's mind. Though there were no actual words, he felt like the blue lion was talking to him in it's own way. "Ok, that was weird."

"What, what's weird aside from this entire situation?" Hunk asked. Naruto looked down at the controls, it was all in Altean so activating it was easy enough. It let out a roar that startled them.

"Good, now…let's get out of this cave!"

Earth – Miles Away from the Garrison

The blue lion busted out from the cave and flew high into the air. The blonde was having fun with flying the blue lion, his maneuvers weren't perfect at all, and Keith was quick to point it out. "You are the worst pilot ever!"

"Your point being?" Naruto laughed. "Now, this, this is how you fly!" he exclaimed. "Isn't this amazing?" he slightly let go of the controls. "And, now it's on autopilot." The blue lion was conscious, and had a will of it's own. Now it was going to act on that will.

"Oh, make it stop." Hunk said now feeling sick.

"Where are you going?!"

"It's on autopilot, it's going wherever it wants." He said. "But, there is an alien ship approaching Earth." He narrowed his eyes. "We're going to stop it before it can do any harm."

"What did it say exactly?" Pidge questioned not understanding what Naruto was say.

"It's not saying words, but I feel it's thoughts being transferred into my mind so I know what it wants." The blonde explained. "It's a…bond?"

"If this is the weapon they're coming for, then why don't we just, I don't know, give it to them? Maybe they'll leave us alone." Hunk suggested.

"You don't understand. These monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path." Shiro said.

"Giving them the lion isn't an option unless we want to doom Earth, because I doubt that they'll simply leave and never come back." Naruto said.

"Exactly, there's no bargaining with them. They won't stop until everything is dead." They looked to Hunk.

"Oh, well never mind then." He said.

The blue lion continued to fly upwards through the clouds, and out of Earth's atmosphere until they were in space. It didn't take but a few minutes for another alien ship to show up right in front of them. This one was massive, and made for battle. "Holy crow! Is that really an alien ship?!" Hunk looked to Shiro though the answer was obvious. Moments later, the ship began firing at them. Immediately, Naruto took control and began dodging the lasers as best he could.

"Sorry, about this, but I'm carrying precious cargo!" the teen returned fire via a single yet very powerful laser from the blue lion's mouth that cut into the side of the ship. The ship let loose a barrage aimed directly at them. "(Unintelligible)!" He exclaimed much to everyone's confusion. He'd said something in ancient Altean, and it was better they not know what he said. Dodging the barrage once more, he went forward while firing again; this time trailing further along the battleship. "Ha! Alright, time to get these guys away from Earth." The blue lion turned ad flew away from Earth with the enemy ship following as expected. "That's it, come on!"

"They aren't attacking anymore, they're…chasing us." Pidge said. "I guess they want the lion intact." Naruto was silent as they both became faster.

"They aren't letting up." Hunk stated. "I don't they plan on letting us go." The situation wasn't exactly favorable, and they were basically backed into a corner. "Guys, what do we do?!" the sudden sight of something on the dashboard screen caught their attention. Naruto recognized it. The Blue Lion barrel rolled to the left, speeding up as it did. The enemy ship was gone, but something opened up in front of them.

"Wormhole." Naruto said. "Guys, Blue wants us to go inside."

"Wait, what?!"

"Are you even sure its safe?" Pidge questioned. "We don't know where it goes."

"True, but our options are extremely limited at the moment." Shiro said looking to Naruto. "How sure are you that this is safe?"

"100%." Naruto stated. "But, I won't go inside unless we all agree on it." The others looked to each other. No words needed to be said; for the safety of Earth they would leave.

"Alright, let's go." Shiro said. 'Into the unknown.' Nobody could've predicted the fate that awaited them on the other side of the wormhole.

Chapter 3 End