Book One: The Return
Chapter 5: Negotiations
The Jedi temple, not the original one mind you, was a magnificent sight to behold, even by the very Sith that had been sent to rip it down to its foundations. Ironically it looked almost just like it had back in Naruto's own time, accept there was a lot more security around, meaning that the Jedi could at least learn from their mistakes. The Jedi Sentinels stood at attention as the entire Jedi Council, yes some of them had even traveled back to the Temple just for the Sith, walked out to greet the landing shuttle.
Naruto himself could feel the Force nexus, underneath the massive temple, flux ever so slightly as he approached. The moment the shuttle touched down it was as if the temple itself remembered what Naruto had done those thousands of years ago, it wasn't all that noticeable but the way the sentinels tightened their grips on their lightsabers was all the information Naruto needed. Ah yes...and now here stood the mighty Jedi Council, a group of people that he had wanted to kill ever since he first tasted Jedi blood. Well, apparently he would have to hold off on that little pleasure...at least for a while.
As Naruto approached the Jedi council, noticing the way the Jedi and Republic troops moved around to box him in, the blonde haired Sith gave the most pleasant smile he could muster. Naruto swore that the Dark Council were more relaxed than this lot, then again...the Dark Council would kill anyone who crossed them, so maybe this group was the lesser of two evils?
"Believe the reports I did not, a Sith you are, hm?" asked the little green Jedi, who no doubt was one of the strongest ones in the temple, if Naruto's connection to the Force wasn't sending him mixed signals.
"Oh, I'm as much a Sith as you are a Jedi, although past experience has taught me that you want to ask a completely different question. So go ahead and ask, I won't bite all that much." Naruto joked, knowing it was a poor attempt at humor but he mainly did it to see if he could get under this green creature's skin, which apparently didn't work.
"Inside you will come, many things to talk about we have." said the Jedi master before he turned around and continued back into the Jedi temple.
The moment they all stepped into the temple, Naruto saw possibly every Jedi Knight in the temple and they all seemed to be lining the path that Naruto was to take. Republic soldiers stood on the balconies above with their weapons trained on the Sith's body, they wanted to make it clear that if he tried anything then he would stand no chance of surviving. Whatever the Sith had done, be it the old war or after, had clearly left its mark upon the Jedi, a thing that made Naruto gain a very savage grin. With each step Naruto took, his metal boots clicking against the stone flooring, some Jedi looked about ready to either attack or shit their pants, sometimes both.
"I'm curious about something, my little green friend, are you all so scared of me that you would turn your temple into a massive contingency plan against any aggressive behavior on my part?" Naruto inquired, a hint of Sith smugness to his voice, as he glanced down at the Jedi Master.
"Keepers of the peace we are, ignorant we are not, your presences a danger it is. Foolish it would be, to underestimate you hm?" asked the green Jedi, this time sounding like he was teasing Naruto, a feeling that made the Sith grin even more.
"Finally! A Jedi with a sense of humor! By the Force, I never thought a Jedi with actual emotion existed, much less one able to get a joke! Might as well program lightsaber fighting forms into droids, you Jedi are so cold, unfeeling and indifferent!"
Aayla, on the other hand, had yet to still her pounding heart, she could still feel the way the dark side easily entered her mind again. Did it really matter that she had pushed herself away from the dark side? Could it really just enter her mind so easily? This Sith, this Naruto, had nearly made her regress into what she had once been, she had nearly turned back to the darkness!
"Master Secura, are you all right? You don't look well..." said Ahsoka as she looked up at the blue skinned Jedi master, worry evident on her face.
"I'm simply tired from our trip, I believe I will return to my room after the council meeting."
Minutes later, the entire Jedi council sat in their comfy little chairs, with Anakin and Ahsoka standing off to the side, and Naruto standing right in the middle of the room. In all honesty, this kind of reminded him of the Dark Council's own meeting room, except it was a lot darker and there was always the possibility of offending one of them and ending up dead. Still, at least they allowed Naruto to keep his lightsabers, no doubt a sign of good will on their part.
"So, you all have your questions, so why don't we avoid the philosophical part of this little chat and just jump right into the thick of things?" Naruto suggested, a hint of sarcasm in his tone, but his overly blunt behavior didn't seem to faze most of the council.
"Agreed, Skywalker says you claim to be a part of a Sith Empire, one that hasn't existed for thousands of years, not since Darth Bane," said Jedi Master Mace Windu, who gained Naruto's attention the moment he spoke.
"I don't know anything of this Darth Bane so he must have been after my time, however I am still from that relative time period. I was the apprentice to Darth Malgus, born a slave in the temples of Korriban, and trained in the Sith arts until I was given the title of Lord of the Sith," Naruto explained, watching each and every Jedi for a moment of weakness but these were masters of the light side and they would not show fear so easily
"Come here you have, by what means?" asked master Yoda as he leaned in ever so slightly.
"I don't know. Last thing I remember before ending up in this era was being caught between a Sith armada and a black hole. I was ordered back by the Sith Council but it was a trap to kill me, something they couldn't seem to do to my face. The Sith Council often didn't agree with my methods concerning specific Jedi and I seemed to have forced their hand." said the Sith Lord.
"What could the Sith be so disturbed by, you would think they would agree with the torture of Jedi?" said one of the other masters, who seemed to have a rather large and narrow head.
"You misunderstand, the strong Jedi that I fought, the ones who manage to impress me, I allowed them to escape if they so wish. I allowed them to keep their lives in the hopes that we will once again meet on the battlefield," Naruto said and if that had surprised the council then they didn't show it in the slightest.
"You said that you were a slave that became a Sith, how did that come about?" asked Master Windu.
"My childhood is no longer relevant, it has happened, and there is no point in retelling it. Keep you nose out of my business in regards to my past." Naruto stated with such a lack of emotion in his tone that he could have been mistaken for a Jedi, had the menacing aura not been present of course.
"Correct you are, your future we must decide." said master Yoda.
"My future? How is my future in any way yours to decide?! I came here for the sole reason of joining yet another war, because there is no other place that I am more at home. Me being here is simple a courtesy, that I don't often give, and to inform you of my intentions." Naruto stated, his chin tilted upwards to make it look as if he was above the Jedi in authority while his yellow eye glowed with dark side power.
"Your intentions hm? Curious I am, explain if you will," said Yoda, who wasn't even fazed by the dark side power that seemed to warp around Naruto like a thousand snakes snapping at anything that got too close to him, while also feeding off of him at the same time.
"I'm going to find any Sith that still exist in this timeline and I'm going to kill them without hesitation. I don't care about your courts, your laws, or even your ethical code, I will have my revenge against those who betrayed me. Even if I have to deliver it against their latest generation. This Count Dooku claims himself to be a Sith Lord and so he shall die, this droid army serves him so they will all be cut to pieces. Those are my intentions." Naruto said with each word sending out a cold wave of pure dark side energy until it simply vanished the moment Naruto stopped talking.
"Enemies we need not be, a common enemy we share. Perhaps an alliance we might form hm?" asked the Grand Master of the Jedi order, which got shocked looks from the council members and the one Jedi Knight in the room with him.
"You can't be serious! The last time a Sith entered this temple, it was nearly destroyed! Not to mention it was the disguise of a treaty that allowed them to sack this very planet! No Sith can be trusted, no matter how much their goals align with ours!" declared Jedi Master Oppo Rancisis, to which Naruto sent him a sideways glare.
"If I make a promise then I keep it, if you make a promise and don't keep it then I'll make you regret doing so." was Naruto's response to the Jedi master's accusation that he could not be trusted simply because he was Sith.
"Despite the dangers, I believe that having this Sith could give us an edge over the Sith Lord that is currently against us. Obviously there must be rules that both sides agree to but an alliance could be worth the risk." said Master Windu, who may not like the idea of working with a Sith but he could see the advantages of doing so.
"Agreed." all of the other council members said at the same time before the meeting was officially over and Naruto was given permission to stay inside the Jedi Temple for the time being, although he was to be escorted by several Jedi Sentinels until an actual alliance could be formed between them.
Deciding that since the last time he had been to the Jedi Temple, it was on fire, Naruto began to explore it in it's entirety with his escort of four Jedi Sentinels in formation around him. Naruto had to say that he was actually impressed with the mental shielding that the Jedi Sentinels possessed and their resistance to his subtle probes with the dark side. Still, the Jedi Temple truly was something of a marvel, much like the Sith Temple of Korriban. The main difference was the feel that the Jedi Temple gave of, it was a sense of peace in a universe constantly trying to rip itself apart. There were no massive statues that helped inflate a Jedi's ego but their library was at least three times larger than the Sith's. Then Naruto stumbled upon the training courtyards where Jedi of all ranks were practicing their forms or sparring with one another.
"So, my silent escort, would any of you like to spar with me?" Naruto asked the four masked Jedi around him, all of whom didn't even so much as glance at Naruto when he asked them a question.
"I'll take that offer." A voice called.