Hello everyone! I'm not dead!
i just want everyone of my previous readers to know that nothing has been abandoned. I know it's been a while since my last updated story, I've had some issues with writers block.
this story is a way to get me back into writing, and I'm also really excited about it, so I hope you ALL ENJOY.
Star Wars
The Shinobi Smuggler
Episode 1
It is a time of civil war in the Galaxy. The Emperor has the Galaxy trapped in his fist, and the Rebel Alliance is fighting the Galactic Empire throughout all corners of the Galaxy.
Naruto Uzumaki, A smuggler and co-captain of the XS Series Freighter, The Starhawk, has been conscripted into the growing rebellion. He and his crew of smugglers work to deliver the Rebel Alliance supplies and troops under the Empire's nose. Their latest mission leads them to Kamino, the former breeding grounds of the Clone army, now an Empire outpost focused on forging Inquisitors and Purge troopers. There, a Rebel sympathizer has leaked information of force sensitive children held deep within the ocean planet's labs. Already, the children's lives are at stake, doomed to become genetic mutations enslaved to the Emperor's will.
Little does the crew know that danger lies outside the planet as well. If they want to make it out of Kamino safely with their new charges, they will have to face the biggest threat the galaxy has to offer, the Hand of the Emperor himself.
Darth Vader is here.
The metal flooring under his feet shuddered as the ship left hyperspeed, slowing to sub-light speed as it approached the planet's Imperial checkpoint. Naruto grimaced as he looked out the viewport. Giant behemoth starships floated above the otherwise beautiful swirling blue ball, their ugly greyness marring the view. He shook his head with a sigh, they'd have to cross through the checkpoint before they even got a chance to secure their real cargo. Whatever was currently in their cargo bay was just clutter to sell their cover.
Luckily enough for them, it seemed that there were plenty of other cargo ships floating around the checkpoint, so they'd have less of a chance of being noticed as out of place.
Sokasa Neesh, his captain (even if he playfully argued against the ship being hers) sat in the pilot's chair next to him. Her blue eyes steeled themselves on the forms of the Star Destroyers. "There's a lot more ships than what should normally be here."
Naruto's gaze left the Togruta, traveling back to the planet outside. He searched and counted the many Star Destroyers he could see. She was right of course, but there wasn't anything they could do about it. Instead of bringing that up, he shrugged, fixing a mischievous grin onto his face. "Well, the planet does have a large Imperial base here, it's obvious there would be more ships than the planets we usually visit. Besides, it's not like they'd know why we're here, we'll have no problem getting in."
"It's not the getting in that worries me." She left the implication open, and he hummed in understanding.
They would be facing hell trying to leave the planet if anything went wrong.
"We've faced worse odds before." The words did little to comfort them, because both knew the truth.
The odds had only been worse by a few starships, give or take, and those odds included having their enemy be aware of them.
If the Empire learned of their true mission, this would quickly go down in their crew's log books as the worst mission ever, regardless if everyone lived.
It would take a miracle for everyone to survive, even taking into account Naruto's ability to overcome any odds.
Sokasa pressed the button of the comm system, and Naruto heard the speakers around the ship crackle to life. "Everybody strap in, we're approaching the checkpoint now."
Sure enough, a group of Tie-fighters left the hangers of the Star destroyer closest to them, circling around their freighter in wide arches. The comm system pinged, and Sokasa answered.
The holographic form of an Imperial officer sprung to life between them, the man was young and sharp faced. He eyed them with contempt, and his baritone voice filled the cockpit.
"What business do you have on Kamino?"
Sokasa answered coolly. "We're transporting supplies to Kamino from Naboo, we'll be resupplying our ship's stores before we head out as well."
"Send over the ship's manifest and transponder codes."
Naruto watched as she sent the necessary codes to the Imperial officer. The cockpit was silent as the man looked them over.
Naruto knew that to be a smuggler it was imperative to know how to get past imperial blockades. The best smugglers knew how to trick Imperial customs into letting them through with hacked codes and paperwork. He also knew that this crew was among those numbers.
Even so, he could never get past the stage of being nervous as the custom officers reviewed their codes. While he might have been the very picture of total confidence on the outside, inside he was nearly shaking.
Finally, the officer looked back to them. "You are cleared to land in section B docking bay 12. Two Tie-fighters will escort you there."
The holo-call ended as abruptly as it started, and all but two of the Tie-fighters broke away to continue their patrol.
Naruto pulled the ship's controls to follow after their escort. He smirked at Sokasa, "Pleasant man."
She huffed an amused laugh, her orange cheeks pulling themselves into a smile. "You would be too, if you had to stand there all day and watch ships come and go."
"Nah thanks. Grey's not my color."
"You think that's why Imperial officers are so tense all the time? Always being surrounded by nothing but drab grey?"
"It's not just grey, I hear they allow bits of black too."
"Are you sure?" she grinned. "I thought that was only for big shots."
"Everyone's a big shot in the empire. It's why their helmets are so big, believe it."
"Well, they had to put their ego's somewhere."
He chuckled as they entered the planet's atmosphere. The nervousness had melted away with the banter, and now he could concentrate on the mission.
The ship began to rock a bit as it entered the planet's atmosphere, Kamino's ever present storm fighting to blow the ship off course. The computers compensated before it grew into a problem.
Soon, they landed on a covered platform, and the two moved to the main hold, where the rest of the crew was gathered.
Their crew was made up of six individuals including himself, all of whom were unique.
There was the "official" Captain of the vessel, Sokasa Neesh. She was an orange (his personal favorite color) skinned Togruta female with blue eyes to match the blue markings on her Lekku, or head-tails. Her montrals, the horns of her people, gave her a few inches of extra height. She tended to wear black clothing, which mainly consisted of utility pants, a sleeveless crop top and a leather jacket top that had been cut to just below her rib. She wore a few bits and bobbles as well, such as an arm guard, gloves and a belt to hold her blaster holsters.
He met her a few years ago, when someone (he didn't care to remember who exactly) sold him her stolen vessel. The XS freighter ship had been heavily modded, including a secondary cargo bay on the opposite side as the first. He fell in love at first sight.
It probably mattered which he was talking about, the woman or the ship. Either way, that was a story for another time. For now, his gaze went to the other crew members.
Next were the Argesta siblings, both of whom survived the destruction of Alderaan through sheer luck; they had been sent off planet on a school sanctioned field trip at the time. Of course, neither had anyone to turn to, no living family or friends. It was only chance that brought them to this crew.
Zalbaar Argesta was the younger sibling. He had a curious mind, and was quite handy with hacking. He was also good at sneaking, and he had quite a mouth on him, one that matched his spunky attitude.
Mission Argesta was the older sibling. She was more serious than her younger brother, prone to gravitate toward quieter past times than Zal. She also held quite the grudge against the empire since the Death Star blew her planet up. Recently, she had been inspired by tales of Mandalorian legends of old, and Naruto knew if it weren't for their crew she'd already be looking for some poor bloke to badger them into accepting and/or adopting her into their clan.
The only non-organic crew member was HK-52, the droid Naruto foolishly… ahem… pridefully built himself. His design was practically ancient, but with enough tweaks and upgrades the droid was functioning perfectly. Which was a bummer sometimes. The thing acted so much like that Sasuke kid from Konoha every now and then it pissed him off. It tended to angst itself around mostly, though sometimes it came up with witty banter. It thankfully had nothing to avenge, so there was no chance of it going rogue or something. (It still loved to kill, which suited some situations fine, so long as it didn't attack him or his allies.)
The crew's next member was Bowdaar the Wookiee, who tended not to wear much on account of his fur. What he did wear tended to function as weapon storage, so he generally wore belts and harnesses mostly. He was one of the tallest of their crew, and helped HK fill in as the crew's muscle.
And then there was himself, Naruto Uzumaki. Shinobi of the Hidden leaf village (for like, all of two days before being sent to 'discover the universe'.) turned smuggling captain (also for all of two days.). He liked orange almost obsessively, so much that when he outgrew his old jumpsuit he refused to part with it until he could find something similar. He had to make do with a jumpsuit of burnt orange. He did get to commission a chest plate with bright orange highlights recently however, so things were looking up. Over those, he liked to wear a dark red coat that went to his calves.
Captain Sokasa interrupted his inner monologue as she spoke up, grabbing the attention of the crew.
"Listen up" she walked to the ship's unpowered holo terminal, leaning against it and looking at each of their crew. "We don't have a lot of time, so I'll be brief. The imperial navy has a larger presence than we first expected, which means our chances of being caught are also higher. Each and every one of you needs to be completely focused, and follow our plan to the letter for this to work. We've already been briefed multiple times, so I'll save your ears an extra speech. This is the last time we'll have to ask, so any questions?"
Everyone shook their heads, and Sokasa nodded. "Good. We're on a tight schedule, so let's do this and get out of here before the rebellion strike force decides to arrive and blow the ground from under us."
Naruto stepped down from the boarding ramp, Sokasa at his side. The rest of the crew were still up the ramp, moving boxes of supplies to sell their cover story.
A good thing too, because a squad of Stormtroopers were waiting for them at the end of the landing pad, their iconic white armor still glistening from their march through the rain. At the front of the squad stood a single officer, marked by his grey clothes and pinned badges.
The man's strict face was pinched in displeasure, and Naruto could hardly blame him. The fabric material of his suit did little to block the elements like the armor of the Stormtroopers did.
The officer began to approach them, his platoon following behind. He stopped right in front of the both of them, eying the two head to foot.
"Which one of you is the captain of this vessel?"
Naruto grinned and began to answer before Sokasa had the chance to. "Well, in regards to who owns the ship, that'd be me. Now, if you're looking for whoever bosses everyone else around, that title goes to Sokasa here. It's a little confusing, but you'll get the hang of it eventually."
His joking banter earned him an elbow to the side, courtesy of the Togruta. She fixed him with a look before turning her attention to the officer. "I am Captain Sokasa Neesh."
The man ignored Naruto as he turned to the woman. "Imperial regulation demands our troopers to thoroughly check your cargo for contraband. While your cargo bay is searched, the captain of the ship will be required to stay on the landing pad, under Stormtrooper supervision of course."
Sokasa frowned. "How am I supposed to resupply my ship if I'm stuck under watch in the hangar bay?"
"One of your crew will be allowed to go on base and retrieve the necessary cargo with me as their escort." He looked at Naruto. "Seeing as you are already here, I suppose you will be the one to come?"
Naruto looked back to Sokasa, who nodded slowly. This was not a part of the plan, which seemed to have derailed the moment the ramp hit the hanger floor. The original plan had their contact waiting for them outside the ship with their sensitive cargo hidden away as supplies.
That plan was now shot, what with their contact and cargo missing, a squad of armored Stormtroopers poking around their ship, and the crew's two leaders being occupied, held practically as hostages.
But it wouldn't affect the mission much, they wouldn't let it. Smugglers were used to set backs, and working for the Rebellion taught them to adapt to any situation. As long as the rest of the crew did their part, and everyone kept in touch via communicator, they should be fine. If they needed to, someone else, probably the siblings or HK, would need to break away and find their contact. In the meantime, Naruto would use his "guide" to try and look for their contact as best he could.
Naruto walked behind the officer, tensing as two Stormtroopers moved to follow them.
The officer stopped walking and fixed them with a glare. "Just what do you think you're doing?"
The two Stormtroopers stopped mid-step, turning to glance at each other. "Covering you're back sir." the one on the left answered reluctantly.
"There will be no need for that trooper."
"Sir?"
The officer huffed in annoyance. He gestured to Bowdaar and HK. "If the crew tries anything, the Wookie and droid will need every able bodied Stormtrooper possible to contain! This one is not a Wookie. I will be fine in the base, surrounded by hundreds more Stormtroopers."
Oh, if only he knew. Naruto inwardly chuckled, fixing his face into a scowl to hide his amusement.
The Stormtroopers seemed to accept the officer's answer, their helmets turning to fix their stares at the Wookie. Naruto couldn't see their faces, but he imagined they were stuck either in the position of fear or weariness. Bowdaar noticed their stares, letting out a roar in his native tongue. That seemed to intimidate them even more, which was funny if you could understand the Wookiee's language.
Naruto left the safety of the covered landing pad and into the pouring rain, following the imperial officer in search of his contact. The only thing he knew about them were the code words they'd be using to reveal themselves.
It was all he had, and it wasn't enough. He scowled, cursing to himself. How was he supposed to find a rebel sympathizer in the middle of an Imperial base, especially being forced to follow one of their officers.
It was impossible, that's how! The only way he'd be able to begin his search was to slip away from the officer, and that would only raise suspicion towards his entire crew. He couldn't take that chance.
Naruto followed the man into the blindingly spotless interiors of the Kamino base, broken only by drab grey uniforms and white trooper armor. Occasionally, a window broke the bright white walls to allow the stormy grey sky of Kamino to peak through. They followed the twists and turns of the hallways endlessly, to the point Naruto was sure something was up.
Sure enough, the officer stopped next to a random door in a lifeless hall. He opened the door, dipping inside after beckoning Naruto to follow. He did, and the moment he was inside the door slid closed.
Naruto eyed the man, hand fingering his blaster warily.
The man stared down at Naruto's blaster in bemusement. He shook his head. "This is what I get for troubling myself with spacers from Tatooine."
Naruto nearly choked. What about him screamed he was from Tatooine? Naruto hardly if ever went there, the Hutts were problematic enough even when allied with them.
A niggling feeling in the back of his head made him think. What about that phrase was so familia- … Naruto wanted to slap himself. "The desert's a rough place to live, can't say I've seen as much water anywhere else than in Kamino."
"Hoth is a close second, though I reckon it's all frozen solid."
Naruto shook his head as the man spoke the code phrase and return phrase word for word. "You're the leak?!"
"Shhh!" The man hushed. "I've had enough trouble trying not to blow my cover without you shouting it for the entire base to hear!"
"Sorry." Naruto rubbed his neck. "I just didn't expect someone so…" Naruto struggled for words. "...accomplished?"
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing!" Naruto waved his hands around. "Just that it's rare to see anyone other than grunts defect."
The man fixed him with an unimpressed look. "I'll consider it a compliment not to be labeled a grunt."
Naruto shrugged his shoulders. It wasn't really meant to be a compliment or an insult. Just a statement of his surprise, "I don't suppose you have a name?"
"You can call me by my codename, Rondat. Listen, we don't exactly have much time. News has been trickling down from top brass about an inspection from an off world VIP. They're supposed to arrive within the next hour, which means we'll have to move fast if we want to make up for your lateness." The officer opened the door again, checking both ends of the hallway before stepping back out.
Naruto scowled and moved to follow him. "We got held up at your checkpoint. And besides, you were supposed to have the cargo already waiting at the landing pad for when we landed!"
Rondat sighed. "I ran into some complications. Look, I get it, there were failings on both sides. No plan survives first contact and all that..."
They hushed up as they passed a patrolling duo of Stormtroopers. When they were out of hearing range, the two picked their conversation back up in harsh whispers. "...the important thing now is that we need to hurry if the plan is to be salvaged at all. I have the cargo waiting in a safe location, all we need to do is load it up and transport it to your ship."
Naruto's eyes widened in slight surprise at that. "The cargo isn't loaded?!" He looked around to make sure the coast was clear before continuing in an even softer tone of voice. "They were supposed to be hiding in the cargo boxes by the time we landed. What happened?"
"I couldn't exactly load them up last night. They're practically under watch every galactic second. Besides, I had them ready to load this morning, only to get a call telling me to ready them for inspection. It was kriffing luck that let me get them all unpacked and rid of any incriminating evidence before their inspection. That was a few hours ago now."
Naruto nodded. "Will we need to collect anything before we can begin loading the cargo up?"
Rondat shook his head. "No. It's all waiting in one place. Just need to box it all up and take it to your ship. I suggest you get off the planet as fast as possible. Don't want to run into any more trouble, especially with big shots taking interest in the planet."
The two turned into a second hallway and walked into another random side room.
There were no windows, and the lights had been turned completely off. The only light was what spilled in from the open door. The door slid shut behind them, and the room was bathed in darkness again.
Rondat cleared his throat. "The coast is clear, you can come out now."
There was some shuffling around the room, before the lights flickered on and Naruto had to blink against the sudden brightness. When he was able to see again, he opened his eyes and checked his surroundings.
The children they had been sent to smuggle stood warily around the room, some still in the process of leaving their hiding places. There were eight total, three girls and five boys.
One of the boys was being helped to his feet by the only Twi-lek, the girl stepping away immediately after the boy was up. She continued hovering over her friend, and Naruto was sure he saw why. The kid's eyes were wrapped tightly with medical bandages. He didn't smell blood however, so the wound wasn't fairly recent.
Naruto noticed that a few more of the kids were grouping up as well. The two human girls stayed close together. And the rest of the boys grouped up and stepped in front of the others, a red headed human child taller than the rest seemingly in charge. Besides the redhead, there was one more human child, a Rodian and a green skinned Mirialan. All of whom were under 15 years old, some of them looked to be as young as eight.
"Who's he?" The redhead kid demanded, glaring suspiciously at Naruto.
Rondat gestured to Naruto. "This is one of the spacers that will be smuggling you all off planet…"
Naruto grinned, giving them all a cheeky salute. "Yo, names Naruto Uzumaki!"
The kids seemed mollified at that, relaxing and turning their attention away from him.
Likewise, Naruto turned to the officer next to him. "I counted them, Weren't there supposed to be nine kids?"
"Tak'lapa's been 'processed'!" A high voice called out bitterly.
Naruto turned his attention to the small Twi'lek girl, whose face was crumpled in anguish. The kid with the wrapped eyes reached out to her blindly, offering a comforting pat on her shoulder.
Naruto's head swiveled back to Rondat, seeking confirmation.
Rondat nodded slowly. "The ninth child… he's been compromised." He sighed heavily.
"How so?"
"This place… it's made to provide the Emperor force sensitive Soldiers, slaves to do his bidding. The only way to do that is to take away someone's free will… or at least make them more malleable to outside influence. And the ways they do that… they aren't exactly pretty." He shook his head. "The child broke under the pressure. Not surprising really, he's been here longer than most of the other children."
Naruto's brow quirked. "Where is he now?"
Rondat grimaced. "Apprenticed to one of the Emperor's Inquisitors. He's lost to us."
Before Naruto could argue about that mentality, the officer turned to the kids. "We don't have any more time to waste. All of you, start getting into the crates." His eyes turned to Naruto. "Once they're all in, start putting provisions over them. Hopefully any inspections will be left to cursory checks."
One by one the kids helped each other into their hovor containers, pulling sheets over their bodies and laying as close to the bottom as they possibly could. A few kids paired up to hide in some of the bigger crates. Naruto and Rondat began putting provisions over them, sticking to small and light things such as packaged dehydrated food and Kolto packs.
They stayed silent as they worked, a measure taken to prevent drawing the attention of curious patrols. The two youngest, the Twi'lek and the blind boy, were last to be lowered into their container.
The blind boy suddenly froze just as he was climbing into the crate, staring at the ceiling in surprise.
The Twi'lek girl sat up from her place in the crate. "Dean?"
"I have a bad feeling." The blind kid, whose name was apparently Dean, whispered.
Naruto scrunched his brow in confusion. "A bad feeling?"
"Right here." He held his hand to his stomach.
"It's probably that mulch the Overseer's been forcing you children to eat." Rondat sneered with disgust, quickly shaking himself back on track. "Quickly now, we don't have time."
The Twi'lek shook her head vehemently. "Dean didn't eat anything today." She looked at Naruto. "Mr. Usuumakee, Dean's never wrong about his tummy sense. He's better at using it than the rest of us."
Tummy sense?
The redhead peaked his head out of his own box, rolling his eyes. "Ash means the Force. Dean lost his sight about two months ago, he's been using the Force to see ever since, so he's had more practice with it than the rest of us."
Naruto's own gut clenched in worry. He knew enough Force users (and had been mistaken as one enough times) to know that when one said they had a bad feeling, you'd better hightail it out of there.
Of course, that was the entire plan in the first place, so he gave the kid a reassuring smile. "Alright, Tell you what. I'll get you guys out of here as fast as I can. While I do that, you use your… tummy sense to keep a lookout for us, how does that sound?"
Dean nodded, allowing himself to be packed away into the crate. Naruto went to each one, pressing the buttons on top to seal them shut. Rondat helped Naruto begin pushing them out the door and through the hall.
The blonde smuggler took a moment to signal his impending return through his communicator. His message had to be nonverbal, as they were passing through patrols of Stormtroopers.
Well then, lucky for him the crew knew Dadita, (which was a pain in his exhaust pipe to accomplish. He was the last one to have finally gotten it down.). He pressed the talk button on his communicator multiple times, varying the length of each press. Whoever was on the other end would hear nothing but long and short beeps.
He slid his communicator discreetly into his pocket when his message was conveyed, pushing the hovercrates after Rondat, who weaved his way through corridors like water. Naruto noticed he tended to turn down corridors with the least amount of patrols passing through them, which suited his purposes just fine.
They came to an outer hallway leading to his ship and crew. The walls along the right side of the entire hall were lined with windows, revealing the storm above and the swirling sea below. Rondat turned the corner to walk down the hall, towards the two Stormtroopers and one officer making their way towards their direction.
Naruto turned to follow, fixing his features into calm passivity. He had passed dozens of patrols by now, with none of the patrols reacting with suspicion. They would be fine, and any moment now they'd be back at the ship and practically in the clear.
Something in the air changed suddenly, like a static charge before a thunderstorm. The pressure around his body seemed to increase, and chills began running up and down Naruto's spine as the hall seemingly grew colder. He couldn't figure out what it was that caused his chill, but he kept an eye on the group walking closer to them. The most likely candidates of his bad feeling, since he could not see anything else that had changed in his surroundings.
They had nearly passed the troopers when one of the bigger containers, the one with Dean and Ash, began to shuffle as the children inside them pressed against the crate's lid.
He could hear Dean begin to hyperventilate, fighting against the walls of the container as Ash tried to wordlessly calm him. Naruto heard the boy's breathing catching and releasing over and over again, the boy fighting against his growing panic.
Naruto ignored his own as he cursed, turning back to the Imps they just passed while Rondat tried quietly shushing the children. The troopers pointed their blasters at Naruto, while the Officer addressed Rondat. "Halt! What are you transporting?"
Rondat shrugged his shoulders. "Just a few womp rats that some spacer left behind. We're taking them off the planet to ensure they don't breed, or affect the local ecosystem."
"Affect the ecosystem... On a planet almost entirelyof water?" the officer asked skeptically.
Rondat shrugged again. "Just following my Superior's order. We have enough space in our floating cities for them to become a problem, and we don't know what might happen if the creatures of this planet try using the rats as food."
The officer hummed, still glaring at them skeptically. Naruto hoped he would buy it.
He'd never really know whether or not the man might have, because just as Rondat finished talking another wave of dark foreboding hit Naruto, who fought his own body's urge to flinch.
He could not say the same of the children.
"He's here! He's here!" Dean began repeating over and over. He heard him start fighting against the walls, desperately trying to escape his claustrophobic panic. Either his panic caused Ash's, or else she felt what he did, because she suddenly burst into terrified sobs.
Soon, the rest of the children began cursing and crying, and Naruto knew the gig was up.
He didn't give the troopers a chance, just rushed them. He dodged away from the trooper on the left's aim, pushing the right one's blaster up and towards the ceiling. A shot rang out as superheated plasma came barreling out of the blaster, flying harmlessly upwards. Naruto pulled one of his own blasters out and shot the man in his stomach point blank.
He turned, holding the dying trooper in front of him as a shield when the second buckethead tried shooting him. He pushed the corpse into the trooper, who caught it and tried pushing it off. He was too slow.
The moment the Stormtrooper's blaster wasn't trained on him, Naruto rushed him, grabbing the man by his helmet and bashing it against the wall. He collapsed to the floor, dazed, and his helmet fell off. Naruto grabbed the man by his hair and bashed him again, to put him under. The man would live, but he'd be out until after Naruto and his crew were gone.
The fight lasted mere seconds, and when Naruto turned to look, Rondat had finished his own fight with the Officer. The man stuffed the corpses of the officer and trooper into a nearby trash chute. The unconscious trooper was stuffed in a closet, the lock shot to ensure it stayed closed.
While Rondat took care of the corpses, Naruto opened the Hovor containers. The younglings poked their heads out, terrified eyes looking back and forth, searching for the source of their terror.
All except Dean, who's blank eyed stare was pointed directly at the window, looking not with his eyes, but something far more. His mouth quivered, and the rest of his body shook.
Naruto grabbed his shoulders gently. "Hey, what's up, you okay?" Naruto's wide eyes scanned the kid for injury, he could see none. Nothing physical to explain the boy's panic.
But he already suspected it was not the physical world that was scaring the child so.
He kept mumbling the same phrase over and over, unblinkingly staring at the same area in the sky. The kid, though blind, focused on a single point of the Kamino sky with such intensity that Naruto couldn't help but keep glancing as well.
Dean's cries lowered to a whisper, struggling to breath past the terror clear in his voice.
"Who's here?" Naruto changed his question.
Finally the boy grew quiet. Instead of a verbal answer, he took his hand and pointed at the exact point he had been staring at with so much fear, the only space in the sky currently unobstructed from Kamino's continuous storm.
As soon as Naruto turned to look again, a large object jolted into place, slowing to a stop in a contradictory fast way. The ship was massive, easily dwarfing the massive Star Destroyers already in orbit. The triangular ship was as large as a city, much bigger than the base they were currency in. Even in orbit, the thing looked huge, blocking out the stars and reflecting the light of the sun, bright even though the planet itself was darkening with twilight. The side that was covered in its own shadow twinkled with thousands of lights.
Naruto's gut clenched as he finally sensed what Dean was feeling, the presence jolting into his awareness just like the ship jolted into existence in orbit. He was never known for being very observant as a kid, which probably had something to do with how differently he saw things than others did. Growing up, he learned to sense his surroundings the way Shinobi of his planet learned to do as they grew in their career. Naruto's sensory abilities weren't as great as they could have been, had he stayed and been trained formally in his people's techniques. He could recall learning of Shinobi who could sense things from miles away, and the leader of his village, the Third Hokage, was known to be able to sense near every presence in his village once he focused on the task.
He did not need near that much skill to feel the sheer presence that had come aboard the giant ship. The presence drew his attention in a way that made it difficult to acknowledge anything else, including the actual Star Destroyer it was on. It seemed to draw his eye no matter how much he tried not to look.
Struggling, Naruto turned to Dean, who stared at the ship with his mouth gaping open. His body shook with sobs, though his damaged eyes could not produce the tears he wished so desperately to shed. Though his eyes were dry, his nose began to run as the rest of him reacted to his fear filled grief.
Naruto's gaze traveled to the other children, who huddled into themselves and sobbed. Most of them had their eyes squeezed shut, blocking the world out with their arms. A few tried to bravely comfort the others, but he could clearly see them shaking. Little Ash was one of them, shaking hands clutching Dean's torso in an effort to comfort both him and herself. Her face was wet with tears, though Naruto could see she was struggling to stop them, her lips stiffened in her effort.
"I see him."
Naruto turned to look at Dean in surprise. "What?"
"I see him!" Dean hissed again, his shaking getting worse. "He's right there, looking down at the planet. I can see him!"
"You can't," Ash pleaded to Dean quietly. Her eyes darted to the ship and back down to him. "you have to stop looking! He'll see you! He'll find us!" she shook Dean's arm as she sobbed her words, trying to convey how important it was for him to just stop looking.
"I'm trying!" Dean bit out. "I can't!" He nearly collapsed in grief.
Sure enough, the boy's face was turned to the ship, looking like it had been frozen at that position and angle. Naruto had no idea how he was going to take care of this.
The blonde smuggler turned to Rondat, who stood looking back and forth, from the children to the ends of the hall. His face was scrunched with worry.
The moment their gazes met, Rondat began speaking. "Look, I don't understand what's going on…" as the only non force sensitive member of the group (and without having chakra like Naruto did), the man had not felt what the others had. He was unaffected by the sheer terror that blanketed the others. Naruto envied him. "... We need to move, or we'll be discovered. Every second we sit here, our chance of failure grows."
Naruto nodded, standing up. He surveyed the kids, studying each of them with an objective eye. They were in no condition to travel, at least not secretly.
"They won't be able to hide again, not like this. Their fear will give us away again." Naruto sighed, discouraged. It was taking all of his willpower to not give in to his own fear.
Rondat pulled out some injections, handing them for Naruto to study. He wasn't sure what he should be looking for though, so he turned to look Rondat in the eye. "What are these?"
"They're injections. We'll give them to the children. It'll make them sleep for a while, at least until we get them to your ship."
Naruto looked the kids over one more time, mentally debating. Would it be worth it?
Naruto nodded. It wasn't ideal morally, but at the very least it would ease the kids from suffering this fearful torment longer than they already had. "Let's do it quickly."
They both went to each youngling, injecting their necks with a small amount of the sleeping stimulant. He didn't know for what purpose the stims had been made, but it comforted Naruto the slightest that they were being used to keep the kids from suffering such a presence.
He almost wished he could use it on himself, to be honest.
The children were packed back into the hovor containers, and the two adults moved through the passages again, doubling their previous speed. The base was any moment from discovering the children missing, especially since that ship was now hovering just above the planet's atmosphere. Whoever was onboard was obviously the bigshot Rondat mentioned earlier, and the biggest possible reason they would come here was to inspect the kids and help turn them into the Emperor's tools. If they wished to prevent that, they needed to get off the planet an hour ago.
The two exited the base, rushing their way through the pouring rain and into the covered landing pad where the Starhawk waited. Sure enough, Naruto's crew stood next to the ship, having a glare-off with the imperial Stormtroopers who stood across from them in rank and file formation.
Rondat went into Imperial officer mode, glaring at the Stormtrooper in his superior officer way. "Report."
"The ship contained no contraband, although a few of the modifications the ship itself has aren't exactly legal. I wrote up a list that we can send to the Galactic Shipyard Regulation Office…"
Rondat scoffed. "I asked you to check their cargo for contraband, not kiss the GSR's ass in hopes of a desk job with weekends off! If we tried to arrest spacers for illegally modifying their ships, we'd have to arrest half the galaxy's noble families and write up every last of the Emperor's personal engineers. We will not bother ourselves, or the GSR, because a single cargo ship has a computer that helps it dodge asteroids better!"
"Yes sir." the buckethead bit out.
Rondat ignored him, turning to Sokasa. "I have brought the cargo you require. Once you sign the regulatory acquisition form you will be free to leave."
"Has the cargo already been searched?"the previous Stormtrooper asked, resigned.
Before the other troopers could begin rifling around the cargo, and discover what lay within, Rondat turned. "It was checked when the order was being filled by the supplies office. If you really think something could have magically been slipped in between there and here, be welcome to look. I shall not stop you from volunteering your time for free labor." He paused, as if thinking. "In fact, since you are so eager, I believe the mess hall staff needs more bodies to throw into cleaning their lavatories. If this morning's announcements are to be believed, last night's intergalactic build-your-own-taco-night left quite the impression on the floors… and walls."
The trooper jumped back to formation as quick as possible, holding his hands up in surrender. 'Sorry sir. I didn't mean to question this base's efficiency."
Rondat nodded, turning away from both groups and to the landing bay entrance. "We have duties to perform. Come quickly, we don't have time to sit around before today's inspection, especially you trooper Gary."
Naruto heard the trooper groan in frustration, whispering to himself. "I never should have transferred."
The troopers stepped into line and marched out, and Naruto finally breathed a sigh of relief. So close to a successful mission.
Sokasa turned to him once the troopers were out of hearing range. Her face was set into a grimace. "Did you find our contact? He wasn't here like what was planned, and the rest of the crew was held from going too far from the ship."
Naruto grinned at her. "You just met him."
Her face widened in surprise, before her eyes darted to the containers. "So then the cargo…?"
"Most of it's here, though one was lost before we got to the planet. Didn't you get my message?"
Sokasa sighed irritably. "I was separated from the rest of the crew the whole time, and I left my communicator with Mission in case the imps got too nosey." she turned to the crew, gesturing for them to begin loading the cargo.
Naruto hurried to walk next to her before she could walk away, and she turned and gave him a curious brow lift. "Something's up?"
"Yes…" Naruto huffed lightly at his next thought. "Technically it really is 'up' considering it's a ship. But yes, there is a situation."
Sokasa narrowed her eyes. "What is it?"
"A massive Star Destroyer just dropped in from hyperspace. Our contact said an Imperial Bigwig is supposed to be inspecting the base today, so I can only assume the ship is carrying the bigshot."
Sokasa hummed in acknowledgement. "If you're worried about the size of the ship, we've slipped past Imperial blockades before."
"It's not that… well, not really. Something's on it. Someone powerful, and dark. I felt him the moment he slipped in from hyperspace."
Sokasa paused to look at him. She knew he had some sort of sensory ability, though she could not say she understood it entirely. She had learned to trust his ability almost better than he himself did. "How bad is it?"
"Bad." he confessed. "The kids felt him coming even before he exited hyperspace. It sent them all into hysterics, almost got us killed. We need to leave now, before they find the bodies... or us."
She groaned when he said bodies. "OK, we'll skip the extensive Imperial Regulation checklist so we can hightail it out of here. The faster we're off planet, the better."
The two walked up the ramp of the ship after the rest of the crew, sealing it shut behind them. Inside the main hold, the siblings helped the children out of the crates, keeping them steady as they all groggily stepped away from their hiding spots. Mission helped them out, while Zal led them to sit at the Dejarik table.
HK and Bowdaar sat a little ways away, mostly to avoid intimidating the children. HK wasn't one to care about scaring others, so Bowdaar had to wrestle the droid into sitting, keeping one hand on the droid's shoulder to keep it there.
Naruto and Sokasa moved past this as they made their way to the ship's cockpit. Sokasa took the pilot seat this time, and Naruto easily slid next to her.
Their hands became a flurry of activity, flipping switches and pressing buttons. Around them, the ship hummed to life, systems that were dead buzzing to wakefulness as electricity coursed through them.
The Starhawk jolted slightly as the landing gear left the floor of the landing pad, and the weight of the ship shifted as it began to be carried by its engines. Finally, it turned and lifted out of the covered landing pad.
Sokasa maneuvered the controls, piloting the ship through the planet's stormy atmosphere. Rain pelted the viewport harshly, the fat pellets slightly obstructing the view. They were carried away by the wind too quickly to become much of a problem, and so the two were able to see their path somewhat clearly.
His captain was an excellent pilot, so much so that he didn't have much to do as the co-pilot. As such, the majority of his focus was left to locating the ship they were running from. So far, the dark clouds were too thick to see anything beyond them. He would have switched to the ship's sensors, but the electricity in the storm around them scrambled much of the signals.
Sokasa seemed to know exactly what he was thinking, because she glanced at him briefly before going back to piloting the ship. "Are the sensor's not picking anything up?"
Naruto shook his head. "The clouds are shooting off too much energy. I'll have better luck watching the viewport."
She nodded. "We'll be breaking through the cloud cover soon."
Naruto's gaze went to the viewport again, back to attempting to peer past the thick grey clouds. Soon enough, they broke through the cloud cover, the dull grey they had gotten used to receding to reveal the fading blue sky and the dulling remains of the sun as it set.
Looming above them, floating gracefully above the surface of the planet despite its massive size, the ship was.
Sokasa's eyes widened and she let out a tiny gasp. Her eyes darted across the massive Star Destroyer, taking in every detail. Naruto, though he had already seen the ship, could still not help but relate.
The Star Destroyer's shadow fell across the clouds far away from them, it's angle long as the setting sun drug it hundreds of miles across from their position. It was shadowed by itself, half of it's hull blocked out from the sun's light. Naruto could see the Star Destroyer's lights twinkling with a sharper clarity, and he realized each and every one of the lights were tiny clumps of windows. The light spilling out came from the rooms within.
"I haven't seen anything that big since… since the Death Star!" Sokasa stated.
Naruto nodded, eyes roving across its entire form in an effort to memorize it all. This was the first time he knew that anyone from the rebellion had discovered this monstrosity. They would need to convey as much as they could to the Rebellion, in hopes of finding some way to protect themselves against it.
The ship had thirteen gigantic engines at the back, so massive the ship's designers had to cut away at the bottom half of the back to fit them all. He could see the same treatment had been given to further up the hull, for reasons he couldn't understand. In effect, it made the Destroyer have a thinner triangular patch in the middle of the bottom. Across the entire body, he could see thousands of turbolasers, looking like tiny dots on something so massive. Alongside the cannons, he could see various other features that he didn't know the purpose of.
The Destroyer had to have enough room to carry hundreds of thousands of troopers, enough to storm a planet single handedly. That wasn't counting any of the heavy artillery, weapons and other machinery the Empire loved using in their war against the Rebellion. On its own, it probably had the ability to melt an average Rebellion fleet, as well as set siege to any Rebellion base this side of the galaxy.
Naruto didn't really want to think about why the Empire needed this much firepower, but he knew it was obvious. This was just another version of the Death Star, a tool the Emperor employed to tighten his hold on the galaxy, to hold many planets in their fear and discourage them from rebelling. Naruto could imagine it working, which didn't give him much confidence.
And yet, despite the size of the ship, despite its firepower and the complement of Imperial forces it carried, it seemed to be dwarfed when compared to the presence that came with it. Naruto knew that the average person wouldn't be able to feel the presence, but he'd never been average.
Everything about the Destroyer, from its size to the presence, screamed danger, and Naruto was keen to avoid it. He turned to Sokasa, who was mesmerized in horror. He nudged her shoulder, drawing her attention to him.
"I think it's best we avoid that ship as much as possible."
"Y-Yeah. That's probably best." she nudged the Starhawk's controls, moving their ship and setting it on a new path, one that would give the giant Star Destroyer a wide berth.
A moment later, the door behind them slid open with a hiss. He turned to see Mission enter, her face scrunched in worry.
"What's wrong?' Sokasa didn't turn her focus from the viewpoint, but her question was directed at Mission.
The girl looked at the two of them, before her gaze drifted to Naruto. "The kids are too wound up to go into the smuggling compartments. I figured since you helped get them out of the base, they might listen to you better."
Naruto sighed, looking at Sokasa. His partner nodded, giving him her permission, and so he stood.
He moved to leave the cockpit. "Would you mind covering for me? You won't have to do much, but it's better to have two pilots, just in case."
Mission nodded and moved into the cockpit, sliding into the co-pilot's seat. With that taken care of, Naruto turned and made his way to the main hold.
The children were still there, huddling in groups around the room. Bowdaar seemed to have taken HK out of the room for now, which left just Zal and the kids.
Zal was kneeling next to a few of the children trying to cheer them up. For the most part, it seemed to be working, or at least distracting them from the heavy presence even he could still feel.
Instead of going to Zal, who had drawn most of the kids into a game of Pazaak, Naruto turned to the opposite end of the room. The kids not interested in the game sat there.
He moved to the two that needed help the most. He wasn't sure if he should be surprised that Dean and Ash were the most affected, they probably were the most force sensitive of the group.
If he had been intimidated by the presence, Naruto shuddered to think how the children felt.
Naruto knelt next to Ash, who was doing her very best to comfort her friend. "How are you guys doing?"
"I'm ok." Ash said stubbornly. Her cheeks were just slightly damp and her eyes irritated, revealing that she had cried again sometime between now and the hallway. She bravely pushed it aside in favor of her friend, who was laying in a near fetal position, clutching his stomach and staring out into space. Naruto had a sneaking suspicion that he was staring straight at the source of the heavy presence through the walls of the ship. "Dean isn't doing good though. It's his tummy sense again."
Tummy sense. Naruto chuckled, he'd never tire of hearing that.
"His tummy sense again?" Naruto hummed. "Why do you call it that?"
"Cuz he's always holding his tummy whenever it happens." She turned to look at his face, tilting her head with an innocent curiosity only children could have. "Do you like cats?"
Huh? What brought that up? Naruto looked at the small girl in confusion, "Why do you ask?"
She pointed to his cheeks, "Your scars look like whiskers!" She grinned.
Naruto touched his cheek self consciously. He frowned. "They aren't scars dang it! They're birthmarks, believe it!" he grumbled lightly, even if he wasn't nearly as irritated at the girl as he was making himself out to be.
The little Twi-lek girl just giggled. "You are a kitty then!"
Naruto scoffed. "These are the markings of the ancient Fox Demon of my home planet. He had the power to smash mountains, and create tidal waves. He is not a 'kit-ty'!"
She wasn't impressed at all, and his rant only made the girl giggle harder. She turned her head cutely, regarding his whiskers a second time. Finally, she nodded to herself. "Nope! Those are kitty whiskers! You're a kitten!"
Naruto groaned and rolled his eyes, which set her off again. He smiled softly. Well, if anything, he was used to getting people to laugh at his antics, and if he could get some kids to laugh at his birth marks instead of being terrified at some evil presence, what better use did they have?
Besides, he did take a bit of perverse joy in hearing the great Kyuubi, the being that had given his early life so much trouble, referred to as a cat. It was probably pissing the beast off.
Naruto turned his attention to Dean, and his brows scrunched with worry. The boy was ignoring everything around him, too terrified at the presence he could most likely still see. Naruto couldn't understand the kid's position, but he imagined that being blind and seeing with the force, Dean was the most affected out of all of them by all of this.
He reached over and shook Dean's shoulder gently, trying to rouse the boy from his trance. It took several tries, and he had to put more effort into it, but he finally seemed to look away from the presence.
The kid blinked harshly, as if just noticing his new surroundings. His head didn't swivel, but Naruto got the distinct feeling that Dean was looking around. When the boy finally focused on him, Naruto gave him a cheeky grin. "You ok? You've been out of it for a while."
He nodded.
When he didn't offer anything else up, Naruto continued talking. "Alright then. Do you want something to eat? Or even a blanket or something? Sokasa, she's the acting captain by the way, will be taking the ship to hyperspace soon. It's probably safer to have you all hide in the smuggling compartments, but we're so close to getting out of here I don't think that'll be a big issue. I can let you borrow my bed for now if you want." he paused, considering the kid for a moment. "Then again, if you aren't feeling tired or hungry, we've got a few games you can play. Nothing for your age group, unfortunately, but what we do have you're welcome to…"
Naruto paused, wincing, as the presence on the planet seemed to intensify (the last Naruto had sensed it seemed to indicate that the source was on the ship, but if it was on the planet then Naruto wasn't sure when it moved) Naruto could practically feel its anger, even from here. The presence seemed to swell outwards, and Naruto had no idea what that meant.
And then, next to him, Dean gasped sharply, the blood draining from his face. He froze completely, head swiveled to stare down at where the planet would be through the floor of the ship.
"He sees me!" Dean hissed.
Shit.
Naruto jumped to his feet, turning to Zalbaar. "Zal, get the kids inside the smuggling compartments, now!"
Zal looked up, confused eyes meeting his intense ones. "What's going on?"
Naruto didn't know exactly. He only knew Dean felt something before, and ended up pointing at the ship moments before it arrived. He knew force sensitives, so he did not want to meet the one that could see them even without visual contact, especially when it oozed off darkness so thickly.
Which meant, if they wanted to escape, they needed to jump into Hyperspace now!
"Just do it!" Naruto rushed towards the cockpit as the children behind him seemed to finally sense what it was that Dean had. They all froze in horror, and whatever reaction they had after was cut off from the door of the cockpit closing on him.
Naruto clutched the back of Sokasa's chair harshly. "We need to jump now!"
Mission looked up with wide eyes. "But the Navicomputer still hasn't calculated our hyperspace coordinates."
Shit!
"They know we're here, or they will soon! We need to get out of here!"
Sokasa cursed in Huttese, pulling sharply on the controls. No sooner did their ship swerve to the left than glowing green bolts of plasma flew through their previous path.
"Too late!" she cursed, flipping the button for the ship's intercoms. "Bowdaar, get on the turrets! Zal and HK, arm up and get the little ones into hiding! I don't think we're going to be able to avoid the Imps!" she turned to Naruto. "I need you to get on the cannons with Bowdaar!" she jolted the controls again, just barely dodging another barrage of laser fire.
Naruto suspected these were just warning shots.
Naruto turned and ran through the ship's corridors, passing the panicking children and Zal as he pried the wall of the ship off, revealing the secret compartment behind it.
Naruto had no time to stay and watch. He jumped over one of the crates, sliding around the corner of the hall. He darted past the Captain's quarters and the kitchen, grabbing the door leading to the upper and lower cannons.
Across from him, standing in the opposite doorway and looking just as harried as him, Bowdaar huffed. Naruto could almost imagine the Wookie being out of breath.
Bowdaar growled at him, and Naruto took a moment to mentally translate what he said.
"Yeah yeah, you were right!" he huffed. "I'll take the top turret!" Naruto immediately grabbed the rungs, carefully climbing up the ladder as the ship spun around him. He could still feel the pull of the planet's gravity, making the climb more dangerous than it should be.
Finally, he climbed into the turret's controls, throwing on his headset and fiddling with the joysticks. The guns sprang to life, the bubble turret spinning to line up with his sights.
Just in time for him to pull the trigger and scare off the Tie-fighter that had been zooming straight for his ship.
Naruto growled. "Fuck off! I don't need you bastards trashing my baby again!"
He heard Bowdaar growling into the headset, his tone reprimanding.
"I know it was her ship first. That doesn't erase all the credits I spent to buy it from that prick!"
Bowdaar growled again, his tone amused.
"Um, I let her be the captain!" he scoffed. "She's scary when she's angry..." he paused to consider his words. "Or stressed… or sometimes happy… you know what, she's just scary."
Bowdaar growled again, and Naruto could almost imagine the Wookie nodding with amusement.
"Boys! Fighters. Focus!" Sokasa's voice cut through the comm in his ear.
He took a moment to grin, even as he lined up his next shots. "See Bowdaar, what'd I tell you. Scary!"
He heard Sokasa growl, and Bowdaar let out a Wookie's version of laughter. Naruto bit back his smirk as he shot a Tie fighter out of the sky.
Mission's voice cut through the chatter. "Alright boys and girls, strap into your seats, cuz we are out of here!"
He could hear the hyperdrive begin warming up and the ship churning as it got ready to enter hyperspace. Naruto let out a whoop of victory, flipping the bird at the approaching giant Star Destroyer, and the planet below.
He heard the hyperdrive give a whir as it prepared to go to light speed.
Until it didn't.
The hyperdrive let out another sound, like a sad warbling, as it powered down. Naruto cursed.
Over the comms, he could hear Sokasa groan.
"Uh, What just happened?" Zal's voice cut into the chatter.
"The hyperdrive malfunctioned?" Mission shrugged.
"Not that..." Naruto banged his head on the gunner's controls. "I just gave it a tune up, the hyperdrive shouldn't have failed!"
"It didn't." Sokasa cursed. "The Empire's holding us out of Hyperspace."
"How?" Zalbaar's confused voice questioned.
"That's how." Sokasa answered, likely pointing.
Naruto studied his surroundings and cursed as well. Floating just past the other Star Destroyers was an Interdictor class. A type of vessel the Empire commissioned specifically to prevent ships from entering hyperspace, or to pull ships out as they traveled.
They didn't stand a chance of leaving the planet.
"We'll just have to get away and hide on the planet until the Rebellion strikeforce gets here. We can probably get away in the confusion." Sokasa informed them, turning their ship back to the planet.
They didn't get a meter away before the ship rocked again. He heard even more groaning. "And what was that!?" Zalbaar hissed.
Naruto already knew, and he cursed again. He'd been in this situation too many times to not recognize the way the ship started rocking. "We're caught in a tractor beam aren't we?" he groaned.
Sokasa's voice came through the channel. "Yep."
Triple Shit!
"Everyone to the main hold… I think it's better we try to convince them we're innocent of whatever crimes they try to charge us with. I don't want to chance anything with the Empire." Sokasa's voice came out weary.
At the very least, Naruto shrugged, they'd get the chance to stall until the Rebellion got here.
He jumped out of the gunner seat as their ship was pulled to the gigantic Star Destroyer. He took the chance to get one last look at it as their ship fell into its shadow.
The other Star Destroyers were dwarfed at least twelve times over. It made him shiver.
Naruto hurried himself to the main hold, passing Zal and Mission as they quickly moved the empty crates to the cargo hold. They would be sure to close them, in case the ship was searched again (which was very likely... No need to try and explain why they had eight near empty crates in case the kids had already been discovered missing.
Below him, the ship shuddered as it was pulled into the Star Destroyer, landing harshly into whatever hanger bay they dragged them into.
Sokasa entered the room then, moving next to him as they both faced the hall where the boarding ramp led up to. Behind them, Mission and Zal hurried into the room, moving out of the way for whatever forces came up the ramp. Bowdaar came soon after, dragging HK away from the weapons the droid was trying to arm itself with.
Good, no need to blast their way out of this just yet.
He heard hissing as the boarding ramp was lowered. The soft click clacking of boots echoed up the ramp and into the main hold.
A figure revealed itself, a woman. Her red skin was covered in grey uniform and mask. Her form swept into the hall and around the corner.
Through her helmet, her smile showed through. Her mouth opened as she spoke, voice melodious and thick with danger.
"My Master bids thee welcome."
She grinned, fiddling with an iconic handle, its protector circular in official inquisitor fashion.
Well Fuck.
This story is a work in progress. I have a part 2 and 3 planned. I am posting this a certain way to figure out if you guys will even enjoy this concept.
if after part 3 you guys want more, I'll probably jump back to the moment Naruto leaves his planet, and then write the story from there.
If you enjoy this, give me a review and let me know if you are interested in seeing fan art of the characters. I'll try drawing something up.
I'm really excited about this story, so it would be nice if you leave me a review, so I can motivate myself with he fact people are reading.
if you liked this, try out some of my other stories. I'll be working on the next chapter of Naruto Evergarden sometime this week.