Book One: The Return

Chapter 4: Old Memories

It was odd to be in the presence of Republic soldiers without slaughtering them by the hundreds, or at least engaging them in some sort of battle. Instead of training actual citizens of the Republic, it seemed that they now resorted to using a clone army. From what Naruto overheard, the clones consider themselves all brothers and seemed to be mostly proud to serve the Republic. However, there were those among them that felt like they were being used by the Republic, that their lives didn't matter and could be thrown away as simply as one throws away trash. Yet Naruto found himself spending most of his time talking with the clones, gaining an insight as to what their different personalities were like.

The only reason Naruto agreed to even travel with the Jedi, instead of just jumping into his ship and taking off, was the fact that he needed answers. The Sith Empire received no reports of the Republic being engaged with another faction and they wouldn't have been able to keep it a secret for the many years they were fighting the Sith. Now supposedly they were going to the Jedi temple located on Coruscant, which should be nothing more than a burning pile of rubble at the moment. However, Naruto felt a strange uneasiness take hold of his heart and it was beginning to slowly form into full blown nervousness. He did not trust these Jedi not to have an ulterior motive and he felt as if he was walking into a trap of some kind.

"I was wondering when you would seek me out, little padawan." Naruto said, as he stared out into the blackness of space without even turning to see the person who had just entered the observation deck.

"My master told me to stay away from you." said Ahsoka Tano, her arms crossed and a defiant look on her face, making Naruto's lips twitch into a barely noticeable smirk. Willful, huh? He liked that. Good to know she wasn't mindlessly obedient like most other Jedi padawans he had known. Not that he would ever tell her that.

"Then perhaps you should listen to him before he begins to think I'm turning you to the Sith." Naruto taunted, poking fun at the Jedi's belief of simply being around a Sith meant that you must be becoming one of them.

"I can make my own choices!" Ahsoka almost growled, narrowing her eyes ever-so-slightly.

"Well, if you've come here to debate me on the ethics between our two orders, then I will have to politely decline. I've heard all such arguments on our respective orders' philosophy." said Naruto, wanting to get that out in the open before Ahsoka said anything else, but she seemed almost relieved at his words.

"Thank the Force, I hate lectures like that...So, what's your title in the Sith? You guys do give yourselves silly names, right?" Ahsoka asked as she moved to stand next to him.

"Silly names...yes I suppose some of them are rather ridiculous when you think about it. However, it is our masters that give us our titles. My master, who is a Darth, made me his equal by giving me the title of Darth Strakh." Naruto informed the padawan, seeing no harm in telling her his title.

"Strakh, huh? I thought that there were only ever two Sith at any one time, a master and an apprentice?" asked Ahsoka. That information caused Naruto to actually turned his head to glance at her.

"Only two, how ridiculous...there are thousands of Sith, an entire empire ready to crush the Republic. Although I never really cared for all of that, no I am a student of war and I am only at home when I'm on the battlefield. Also, I suggest you make yourself scarce. Your master's coming." With that said, Ahsoka hurried out of the observation deck, sensing that her master was indeed looking for her and she did not want to be caught going against his orders.

Left on his own again, Naruto decided he should walk around the ship one more time, just incase he missed anything when making a rough schematic of the ship. If it was a trap, then Naruto wanted to know the fastest way to blow up one of these ships so he could escape. So, as he walked down the long corridors, to his surprise, he bumped into Jedi Master Aayla Secura.

"Jedi," Naruto greeted, bowing his head ever so slightly to the female Jedi Master.

"Sith," Aayla greeted back.

"I must say, this ship bares a striking resemblance to those that the Sith Empire uses, I'm curious as to how you retrieved the design?" Naruto asked as he slowly began to circle the lone Jedi, probing her mind ever so lightly for any valuable information, only to find a deadly blue lightsaber pointed at his neck.

"Stay out of my mind!" now that wasn't a very Jedi-like response...this was interesting.

"You have been touched by the dark side before and you apparently didn't enjoy your time under its shroud." Naruto almost laughed as he slowly placed his hand over Aayla's and forced her to lower the glowing blade of death, or peace in a Jedi's case.

"Yes, I have experienced the lies of you Sith and your ways, I will not be tempted again." Aayla said, clearly calmer than she was before but the signs of hostility was still noticeable in her tone, and that just made Naruto want to delve deeper.

"The person to turn you must have been so cruel, so sloppy in doing so, for you to suddenly act like those you claim to fight." Naruto commented, releasing the small hold he had within the Jedi's mind as he slowly leaned in closer, backing the Jedi up against a wall.

"Release me!" Aayla silently demanded, feeling fear grip her heart when she stared into Naruto's mismatched eyes, more so his yellow one that reminded her of her own encounter with a Sith.

Aayla could feel the dark side slowly worming inside of her mind, dark trendels pushing through her mental shields with practiced ease. Her eyes began to roll upwards as she continually attempted to block out the dark thoughts slowly beginning to take over her mind. Naruto, whose smile had become savage and unkind, suddenly frowned and pulled away from Aayla as if he had been burned by fire. It wasn't that she had somehow harmed him, or even resisted him to the point of pushing him back, it was that he wasn't consciously trying to turn her.

"That...was unexpected," Naruto managed to say before he, once more, found himself on the business end of a lightsaber.

"Enter my mind again and I will perceive you as my enemy!" Aayla snapped before quickly walking away, leaving Naruto standing all alone in the middle of the empty corridor, a thoughtful look forming on his face.

"Interesting, yes very interesting."

Still...what he had seen in her mind almost reminded him of his own training. Naruto shuttered, grasping the lightwhip he carried, remembering the day he got it.

(Flashback)

Wapeesh

"AH!"

Wapeesh!

"AAH!"

Deep in the hidden dungeons of Korriban, a place devoted to the suffering of those unlucky enough the incur a Sith's wrath. A ten year old Naruto, who looked to be starved to the point that they was almost no meat on his bones, could be found strapped in between two poles. Standing behind him was a full blooded Sith, a savage grin marring his face, as he brought an electric whip down on Naruto's unguarded back. This had not been the first stroke, no less than twenty bloody cuts could be found bleeding on the boys back. Each one having been more painful than the last and the boy could barely find it within himself to beg for it to stop, for that only seemed to make the Sith strike harder.

"Scream boy, scream louder!" the Sith roared as the poles binding Naruto suddenly surged with electricity and made the boy's frail body stiff with pain, his eyes nearly rolling into the back of his head.

WOPEESH!

The pain had grown too much for Naruto's brittle form to handle and his mind retreated away from the waking world, to try and save itself from the horror that was his tormentor. Yet this didn't deter the Sith, who grabbed and electro pick with his free hand and roughly jabbed it into Naruto's bleeding back, forcing him to wake.

"That's enough, our orders were to break him, not kill him!" someone yelled from above and suddenly Naruto felt relief that there would be no more pain, he could rest now.

With a sharp hiss, the Sith left the room and the menacing red lights suddenly shut off, leaving Naruto in the consuming darkness. The darkness had become a safety net for Naruto, for it was the only time pain was not inflicted upon him. For an entire year he was tortured, thrown into a bacta tank, and made to suffer once more, day in and day out. Just as Naruto believed he could rest, the doors opened once more and the sound of heavy boots hitting the metal ground could be heart. This person was larger than the torturer, there was also an aura of primal anger about him, an anger that made Naruto's blood turn to ice.

"Why do you let them torture you boy?" the man asked, with darkness hiding his features from Naruto's puffy red eyes, not that he dared to look at a Sith in the eyes again, for the pain following had been mind numbing.

"I am weak...my only use is pleasing other's anger..." he sobbed, those words had been pounded into his head from the very day he had arrived in this room, that his sole existence in life was to suffer for other's amusement.

"Do you want revenge?"

"I am weak, my only use is pleasing other's anger," an almost jaw breaking slap crossed Naruto's face, making a sudden fire burn in his eyes as he dared to glare into glowing yellow eyes, since they were the only thing he could see of the person before him.

"Do you hate the one who gives you pain, do you want revenge?!" the man roared, his metal plated hands clasping around Naruto's throat, forcing the boy's windpipe to constrict and air to be almost completely out of his reach.

"Y-Y-Yes...YES!" with those two words, the man released Naruto's throat and a glowing red blade suddenly cut through the metal bindings that kept Naruto in place, allowing the nearly broken boy to fall to the unforgiving ground.

"Then take your revenge," the man said before a wicked looking dagger was dropped in front of Naruto's face and the man simply left the room. Naruto knew that the next person to enter would be the bringer of his pain.

With whimpering movements, Naruto grabbed the knife and moved to the corner concealed away from the entrance view. There he sat, his hands shaking with fear and anticipation, waiting for those cold black doors to slide open once more. Naruto wouldn't have to wait long, for not two minutes later the Sith had returned, whip in hand.

"Time to continue our time together!" the Sith sounded almost happy when he said those words, but his joy soon turned into a scream of pain when a cold blade sunk itself into his right thigh, his body reacting on reflex.

With a vicious slap, Naruto was sent to his back, fully aware what awaiting him now that he had missed his chance. The Sith cursed in languages Naruto had never heard before as he pulled the blade from his leg and glared angrily at his victim. Naruto didn't fully know what happened yet, only that all of his fear and anger suddenly overflowed his body and the Sith was sent flying into the opposite wall.

"Y-You little bastard! I'll kill you!" the Sith roared but before he could get up a blade sunk itself into his heart, making his body fall limp.

Naruto stood there, his hands trembling around the blade still embedded in the Sith's chest, blood covering his hands to the point that they matched the Sith's red skin. The torture, the pain, the fear, and all of the anger overcame any sense Naruto still hand and it drove him over the edge.

"Die," Naruto rasped out, as he pulled the blade from the Sith's chest and stabbed it right into his torturer's left eye.

"Die!" another stab.

"Die! die! die! die! die! die! die! die! DIE!" by the time Naruto regained his senses, his bone thin arms lay limp at his side and the Sith's face had been mangled beyond recognition.

Sticking out of the Sith's right eye was the blade that had killed him and sticking out of his left eye was the hilt of the whip that had tortured Naruto for an entire year. Naruto's hair, face, practically his entire body, was now covered in a mix of his own and the Sith's blood. His eyes had become mixed matched, with one yellow and the other azure, and he was now deathly still. Not even the sound of another entering the cell was enough to stir Naruto from his stillness, but the man's words reached him all the same.

"Impressive, it's now time for your next lesson."

(End Flashback)

Shaking the memory off, Naruto resumed touring the ship before he stopped and sighed, "You know, I don't believe stealth is your area of expertise," Naruto said without even looking at the man who stood behind him, his senses had long since been honed to a dagger's tip.

"You may have fooled the others, but I know what you really are Sith, a monster without remorse or any sense of morality." Anakin Skywalker hissed, his past issues with other Sith coming to light and allowing Naruto to receive a deeper understanding to just who Anakin Skywalker really was.

"Remorse and morality is something that no Sith can have if they wished to survive, and I am a survivor," Naruto claimed, his back still turned to the Jedi behind him, but Naruto could feel the anger buried deep within his heart.

"What's your real reason for being here? Do you plan on taking on the entire Jedi order by yourself, because there are far more easier ways to get yourself killed." Anakin taunted, trying to get a rise out of the Sith, and yet Naruto still didn't face him.

"I was there when the Sith Empire burned your temple to the ground, I've killed hundreds of Jedi and Republic soldiers, I have nothing to fear now more than I did when I killed your fellows." it was a simple taunt but one that nearly sent Skywalker over the edge, that and the fact that Naruto was subtly wearing on the young man's mind to make him more aggressive.

All would have gone as planned had the captain not sent Skywalker a message saying that they were nearing the capital of the galaxy.

After a few more hours, the ship landed and Naruto was lead out to behold Coruscant, utterly undamaged. This was a place that the Sith Empire had been trying to take over since before the war had even started and now Naruto was going there as a possible guest! Malgus would have gotten a kick out of the whole situation, but he had apparently been dead for the last thousand or so years. It was still shocking, for Naruto, to find that he was now in a time where the Sith Empire was little more than dust and ashes.

"A deserving fate for traitors..." Naruto said to himself, although he really should have seen it coming, you could never trust a Sith even if you are one.

Within a matter of minutes, Naruto found himself on a transport ship headed for the Jedi Temple itself, which would no doubt consist of several Jedi Knights just in case the young Sith tried to do anything against them. It was something to be expected but not something Naruto had to like, for it reminded him of his earlier years of being controlled by more powerful Sith. It reminded him of when he was nothing more than a weak boy, too scared to fight back against those who caused him pain.

"Welcome to the Jedi Temple...again."