Warrior

by bladesandbaits2

Every Mandalorian has the heart of a warrior. Some refuse to listen to it. Others choose to embrace it, and become something more. Important AN in Chapter 3.

3. Return: Part 1

Word of advice to all future writers reading this: Do not try to write down an entire movie's worth of events in one chapter. I was barely lucky enough to keep my sanity before deciding to make this into two parts.

Thank you for all the favorites, follows, and reviews.

Arelious: Thank you for both the review and the name of the Youtuber you sent me.

Etsukazu: Thank you for informing me of this. I honestly don't know that got mixed up.

Avidnarutofan: Thank you for both reviews. I'm not sure how many original arcs I'm going to do, but I hope whatever they are pleases you. On the subject of Naruto and solo missions, I'm only going to have him work without Ventress when it comes to the criminal underworld or personal business. When it comes to Slick, I honestly didn't think about the aging process, but I have an idea that I hope makes sense when introduced.

All right, I'm going to be honest. When you read this chapter, you are going to see things that may completely betray what I had written in Chapter 2, even I recognize this. I did not properly portray the thoughts and feelings that I wanted to be shown in the chapter, and I am going to work on it. I've even thought about rewriting Chapter 2 before putting this one out. But then I realized that Fanfiction is a community, and it wouldn't be fair to change the possibly more favored chapter in this story without warning and without consultation. That's why I will be setting up a pole on my profile on whether or not Chapter 2 should change. If you love the way that Chapter 2 is now, or if you feel like that it needs to change, please, please let me know in the pole.

The pole ends on June 15th, so make sure you vote.

On a lighter note, after this two/possible three-part chapter, we are finally moving on to the series arcs!

*Chuckles evilly while rubbing hands together*

I'm especially excited for when I reach the Deathwatch arc.

ATTENTION! I'm currently looking for any DeviantArt artists that are willing to make covers for the following stories:

Warrior

Producing Pair

Working Again

16 Beasts

And one more story that I am keeping secret at the moment.

PM me if any of you want to give it a try.

I do not own Naruto or Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

(Author Input)

'Thoughts'

"Talking"

Warrior

Tatooine-Atmosphere

Obi Wan sighed as he stared at the dust ball of a planet through the visor of his starfighter. Out of all the planets in the Inner and Outer Rims, Tatooine was by far his least favorite.

Rivaling the Lower levels of Coruscant and Nal Hutta in presence of the criminal element, Tatooine was one of the few places that the Republic's laws weren't followed. That essentially made Tatooine almost like a safe haven for those whose work involved breaking the law. Common criminals, slavers, skilled bounty hunters, all could be found on Tatooine.

And Obi Wan was about meet with the one person that controlled it all.

After their invasion of Christophsis was finished, Obi Wan and Anakin were immediately given a new assignment.

Find Jabba the Hutt's kidnapped son.

Normally, the Republic wouldn't even begin to consider helping on of the most notorious crimes lords of all time, but they were desperate. The Separatists' forces have control of the majority of all hyperspace lanes, making it near impossible to get Republic troops to the Outer Rim.

If the Jedi managed to find and return Jabba's son to him, the crime lord would allow the Republic to move supplies out into the Outer Rim with the hyperspace lanes the Hutt's empire uses for smuggling.

The Republic was in dire need of the Hutt's hyperspace lanes, and now they had the perfect opportunity to get them.

Obi Wan himself knew how serious the situation was, and how important it was to get the lanes. The struggle and heavy losses the Republic had suffered on Christophsis was a perfect example.

Speaking of which…

Obi Wan didn't know why, but his thoughts always seemed to drift back to that moment when he was facing Ventress's Mandalorian ally back on Christophsis.

Back during the fight in the library, there was a moment where Obi Wan knocked the Mandalorian's helmet off and saw his face.

The bearded Jedi was expecting some grizzled, battle hardened man underneath the helmet, so imagine his surprise when it was revealed that Obi Wan was facing someone who looked like he had just barely entered adulthood.

Now double his surprise when he realized that his opponent shared a resemblance with her.

Satine Kryze, the Duchess of Mandalore.

For a split second, the thought of her face made Obi Wan smile.

He had met her during his days as a young padawan, when his master was still alive and before this cursed war had begun.

Satine's planet was in the midst of a devastating civil war that grew so large that it required the intervention of the Jedi. The Council had decided to send Obi Wan and Qui Gon to protect the Duchess from insurgent assassination attempts.

Eventually, Obi Wan and his master were forced to take Satine away from the planet and went on the run for an entire year. Bouncing from place to place, no idea what the next day would bring, it eventually became the catalyst for the bond between the Jedi and the one he was protecting.

She was the one he would never forget. She was the one that had wormed her way into his heart. She was the one that he would end his own life if it meant saving hers. She was the one that he was willing to walk away from the Jedi Order for if asked.

She was the one…that he loved.

And it was a love that she felt mutual about.

Obi Wan's reminiscing smile then transformed into a heartbroken frown when he remembered when their time together ended.

The uprising was eventually extinguished, and the death toll on her planet was nearly uncountable. The planet's population was nearly one fourth of what it started with at the beginning, and she was the only one left to pick up the pieces.

After receiving the news that the civil war was over, Obi Wan, Satine, and Qui Gon immediately returned to Mandalore to deliver the Duchess back to her people.

Any and all thoughts of celebration between the two of them were destroyed as soon as they returned, for Qui Gon informed his padawan that they were to return to Coruscant the next day. Obi Wan and Satine were devastated. After so much time together, after the bond they had formed strengthened so much, they were to be separated forever.

But if it was to be the end of their time together, Obi Wan and her decided it would be an end to remember, and that they would spend as much of it as possible together.

That night, while everyone was asleep, Obi Wan snuck away from the room that he was sharing with his master at the time and, while carefully avoiding guards patrolling the hallways, made his way into her chambers.

For the rest of that night, Obi Wan and Satine spent it just being in each other's presence and talking. Talking soon turned into intimate embraces. Intimate embraces soon turned into…well…

If it weren't for the beard now covering his cheeks, Obi Wan's face would've been glowing red when he remembered what they did.

There were many regrets that Obi Wan had in his life, but forsaking the Jedi Code, falling prey to his emotions, his love, for her, would never be one of them.

"Beep-beep?" R4-D2, the astromech assigned to Obi Wan's starfighter questioned.

The bearded Jedi was snapped out of his thoughts and brought back to the moment at hand when he heard his astromech's calls.

"I'm fine R4. Let's go meet Jabba." He reassured his worried droid.

With that, Obi Wan set his ship into manual control and flew down to the planet's surface below.

---

Tatooine-Jabba's Palace

Tatooine was a planet that had only one biome: desert.

Everywhere you could see, there was sand. No forests, no seas, and no arctic. Just a thick layer of dust that covered the entire planetary system. Thankfully, as if the planet itself knew that it wasn't entertaining to just see one thing everywhere one went on its surface, the deserts came in all shapes and sizes.

There were dunes, flatlands, salt planes from where there was possibly an ocean at one time on the now dry planet, and even mountainous regions, the last of which was where Jabba made his home.

Jabba's home was a large cylindrical building made of stone worn down from years of sand erosion, and surrounding it were multiple watch towers of varying height scattered across the cliff that the entire complex was settled on. The main building, the one that Jabba was residing in, had only one entrance and exit: a five-foot-thick door made from the strongest material this side of the universe, making a forced entry nearly impossible.

Thankfully, Obi Wan wouldn't have to worry about that. He was an expected guest of the crime lord and was there to assist the crime lord in reclaiming his son.

As soon as Obi Wan's starfighter was set securely on solid ground, the palace's rusted blast door began to open, revealing a protocol droid with a pirate escort.

Once the door was lifted high enough, the droid, along with the armed thugs surrounding it, made make their way towards the bearded Jedi's ship. Realizing that they were his escort to Tatooine's residing crime lord, Obi Wan quickly exited the cockpit of his starship, donning the traditional Jedi cloak in the process.

Trying to make himself look presentable, Obi Wan didn't have much time before Jabba's protocol droid spoke.

"We should not keep the wise and powerful Jabba waiting." The robot stated plainly.

'Not much for introductions.' The Jedi master thought before donning his classic smile.

"I wouldn't dare dream of it."

The only response he received was the protocol droid turning around and heading back the way it came followed by a snarl from one of the pirates.

Guessing that the droid was wanting him to follow, Obi Wan quickly began to match its pace and head to the complex's massive entrance. Once past the outer shell of the complex and inside the interior, the Jedi master had to stop himself from reaching for his lightsaber as the large door behind him lowered to the ground, sealing off the only exit out of the criminal infested building.

Shaking off the feeling and reminding himself why exactly he was there, Obi Wan continued to follow the protocol droid deeper into the palace.

Tatooine-Jabba's Throne Room

Life forms of all shapes and sizes moved around the throne room drinking, partying, and having an all together good time. If one were to see all of this, he or she would not be able to tell that the host of the celebration was dealing with his son being held hostage, something that slightly confused the Jedi master.

From the reports he had heard, Jabba was almost in a panic when he finally contacted the Republic for help, and now, it seemed like he couldn't give two poodoos about his son.

Speaking of the crime lord, the giant sentient slug was laughing and enjoying himself like all of the others attending the festivities, that was until he spotted Obi Wan.

Jabba's red, silted eyes widened when he saw the cloaked Jedi enter the main chambers, and almost right after, the partying mood the Hutt had been in up to this point vanished. Gaining a serious expression on his face, the crime lord held up one of his pudgy arms.

Every single party guest stopped their movements, and even the band that had been playing in the corner had stopped their music. Dead quietness reigned in the room as every single species present turned and stared directly at Obi Wan with narrowed glares that could pierce tank armor.

It was then that Obi Wan understood what he was witnessing. Jabba wasn't here having a good time, partying while his son was Force knows where. He was acting, putting on a show for anyone who might be interested.

It made sense. Jabba was one of the most powerful people in the criminal underworld, and any sign of weakness now more than ever could give his rivals a chance to seize power.

Back at the matter at hand, the Hutt who had silenced the partying hoards present in his throne room was now gesturing to the center of the room while staring at the bearded Force user.

Obi Wan, who had thankfully understood the message, quickly moved across the sea of party goers to where the crime lord gestured. On his way, the Jedi couldn't help but feel slightly unnerved by the number of eyes on his form as he made his way to the center of the room and had to resist the urge to reach for his weapon.

Once Obi Wan reached the center of the room, he stood at attention in front of Jabba, hands clasped together in front of him as he patiently waited for permission to speak.

The Hutt stared at Obi Wan's cloaked form for several seconds before finally voicing his thoughts.

Jabba's voice came out loud and booming, but not in the common speech of the galaxy. Instead, the Hutt spoke in his native language of Huttese, a tongue that Obi Wan unfortunately never learned during his time as a padawan, something he was slightly regretting now.

Once the large slug was finished, the protocol droid next to him, which was the same one that greeted Obi Wan when he first arrived, translated for his master.

"The mighty Jabba will hear you now."

Obi Wan donned his classic smile and stepped forward towards the crime lord. Giving Jabba an honorary bow in a sign of respect, the Force user cleared his throat before beginning.

"Mighty Jabba, one of our most powerful Jedi is on his way to rescue your son. We will not let you down." The bearded Jedi stated, putting on what his former apprentice would call his 'negotiation voice.'

Obi Wan didn't bother introducing himself, he figured that the crime lord wouldn't care enough to remember, and the Jedi didn't want to have to waste anymore time on the planet than he had to.

The sentient slug stayed silent for a few seconds, staring directly at Obi Wan with his large, orange eyes, as if he were looking for any sign of deceit or betrayal in the bearded Jedi's facial features. If the Jedi had to be honest, the staring was starting to make him a little self-conscious.

The Hutt spoke a few lines of Huttese, and although Obi Wan didn't understand, he could feel the power and authority behind Jabba's voice.

After the crime lord was done, the protocol translated for him like he had before.

"The most gracious Jabba has but one more small condition: he demands that you bring back the slime that kidnapped his…punky muffin."

Obi Wan had to resist chuckling at the nickname Jabba had for his son.

"Punky?" The Jedi responded.

Jabba spoke a few more lines of Huttese which again was translated by the protocol droid.

"Dead or alive."

Jabba continued to speak, and although Obi Wan couldn't understand the crime lord, he did perk up in attention when he heard the name 'Dooku.'

"If you do not succeed, Count Dooku and his droid armies will."

---

Teth-Republic Gunship

In Teth's gray, clouded skies, multiple Low Altitude Assault Transports, or better known as LAATs, were soaring through the air. Their destination, a small monastery nestled atop a cylindrical cliff that grew larger for each second the ships flew.

Inside each of the LAATs, soldiers of the Republic, clones bred from the aquatic planet of Kamino, stood stoically in their pearl white armor. Every single clone on each of the transports knew what their mission was, and that they were willing to die for it. That's why they were silent. Each soldier was mentally preparing themselves for what could be their final moments.

"How many times do we have to go through this?!"

All except for two.

"I'm telling you, it's pronounced twie-lek!"

"And I'm telling you that you're wrong! It's pronounced twee-lek!" A female voice responded with earnest.

"Twie!"

"Twee!"

"Twie!"

"Twee!"

"Twie!"

Rex sighed as his general and his padawan continued to shout at each other and wondered if this was some sort of cosmic punishment for failing to capture the traitor back on Christophsis.

After finding out that Slick was the traitor and the sabotage that followed behind him on Christophsis, the Jedi and remaining clones were left to deal with the mass of Separatist forces that had been in hiding, waiting for when they were most vulnerable.

They were outmanned, but fortunately, they weren't outgunned.

Slick's sabotage managed to destroy a majority of all the arms stored in the weapons depot, but somehow missed the heavy cannons they brought with them. When that was discovered, the army of the Republic knew they still had a fighting chance. The only downside was that even though the explosions Slick caused didn't hit the heavy cannons, somehow the paint that came with it did.

That meant that during the battle that followed, the soldiers of the Republic had to rely on heavy cannons that had bright, neon orange paint splashed on them.

The idea alone was ridiculous, even more so when they realized the paint didn't wash off.

It was during the final battle that Rex had an inkling of what the paint was actually for.

On Christophsis, the population thought for some reason that the only color they needed for their architecture was dark green. Everything was some shade of that color: roads, buildings, street lights, etc.

When the canons were set up, the contrast of the bright orange paint and the dark green of the city was more obvious than the difference between a Rancor and a Womprat.

The orange paint that came with the bombs made the cannons stick out more compared to the terrain, and in terms for battle, made them more obvious to the enemy when close enough.

Fortunately, they didn't have to worry about that, thanks to their positioning on the battlefield. Once the canons were set up, they did the job that was required of them which was keeping the Separatist forces as far away from home base as physically possible.

Unfortunately, they did their job a little too well. The General leading the Separatist assault realized that he would never get passed the canon fire and had his forces regroup for a new strategy.

It was at this point, Rex's General, Anakin Skywalker, had gained a Torgutan padawan named Ahsoka Tano, despite the scarred Jedi's objections.

Like all Torguta, Ahsoka was a humanoid alien that possessed orange skin, and in the place of her hair, had three blue and white striped head tails that reached her jaw. Two of the head tails were positioned on either side of her face while the third trailed down the back of her skull.

Her outfit consisted of a brown tube top that covered the necessary areas of her torso, leaving all other flesh exposed, and white leggings that trailed all the way down to her feet. Brown fingerless gloves that went all the way to her forearms covered her hands and nearly knee-high brown boots were her choice of arm and footwear respectively. Wrapped around her waist was a brown, cloth skirt that went only to the edge of her thighs which was held securely by a utility belt that also held the classic Jedi weapon.

Almost from the get-go, the two refused to get along, Anakin's reasoning being his refusal to have a padawan and Ahsoka's reasoning being the hardheadedness and stubbornness that came with all of those at her youthful age.

It even reached the point of where the two had given each other demeaning nicknames in order to get under each other's skin. Ahsoka had started referring to her master as "Skyguy" while Anakin referred to his snippy padawan as "Snips."

Although her relationship with her master was a bumpy one, Ahsoka was just what they needed to shift the tide of battle back in the Republic's favor when the General that Anakin and Obi Wan were battling against reared his ugly head again.

The leader of the Separatist army occupying Christophsis had a secret weapon up his sleeve that he had been waiting to use up to that point.

A city-wide deflector shield.

How does a city-wide deflector shield count as a secret weapon if the enemy is already in the city, you may ask? Well, this deflector shield was designed to start from a small circle around the generator that it came from and to slowly move outward.

That meant that as soon as its circumference was large enough, the Separatist's General could position his forces just behind the shield and advance without worrying about the canons destroying his troops.

The General's strategy proved true, for try as they might, the canons could not make a dent in the energy shield as it advanced, allowing their enemy's overwhelming numbers to get ever closer to the Republic's base of operations.

Plans were being created and thrown out left and right, and just as they were out of ideas, Ahsoka came up with the one that saved them all.

She suggested that some of the clones that were left sneak behind the deflector shield and create an ambush/distraction for the advancing Separatist forces. While the machine army wasn't paying attention, a much smaller group would make their way to the generator that was projecting the shield and destroy it, allowing for the canons to tear through them.

The plan worked, but Rex wasn't sure how. The group that had gone after the generator consisted of only Anakin and Ahsoka, and the story they told to the men kept changing from clone to clone.

Nonetheless, they had won the day, all thanks to the thinking of a padawan.

Now that history was out of the way, back to the moment that let to Rex wishing he could physically remove his own ears in order to get some damn peace and quiet.

It was just as they were about to board the gunship when Ahsoka had noticed some of the 'artwork' that was painted on the side of the vehicle.

The 'artwork' in question was an image of a Twilek woman wearing clone armor, save for the helmet, sitting in a…suggestive position and was blowing a kiss to any who was observing it.

When Ahsoka asked Anakin why exactly there was a Twilek painted on the side of the gunship, she didn't receive an answer. What happened instead, well…

You see, when Ahsoka said the word 'Twilek', she pronounced it 'twee-lek," as in tree, we, and bee, and Anakin thought it was pronounced "twie-lek," as in tie, lie, and buy.

One thing led to another, and now their argument has basically deteriorated into a shouting match.

The two of them had been arguing(yelling) at each other since they first got on board the gunship. Needless to say, it was starting to get on his nerves, and based on the postures of the other clones, Rex wasn't the only one.

A slight beeping coming from the portable hologram projector hooked on his belt drew Rex's attention away from the arguing duo. Unhooking the device from his waist, the captain checked who it was from, and he immediately tried to get his General's attention.

"Twee!"

"General Skywalker."

"Twie!"

"General Skywalker!"

"Twee!"

"GENERAL SKYWALKER!"

"Yeah, Rex?" Anakin asked nonchalantly as if he just heard him for the first time

Rex had to resist the urge to facepalm himself at how quickly his General went from arguing to acting like nothing had happened.

Pulling himself together, the clone captain gestured to the holo-projector in his hand and answered his superior.

"General Kenobi is trying to contact us."

Anakin gained a look of seriousness as he nodded his head to the artificially grown human.

"Patch him through then."

The Captain nodded back before hitting the answer button on the handheld communication device and allowing the holographic image of Obi Wan, now donned in his cloak with the hood on, to be projected in front of Anakin and Ahsoka.

"How's it going master?" Anakin asked with his usual confident smirk.

Obi Wan's projection didn't seem to share his former apprentice's positive attitude as evident by the troubled expression on his shimmering blue face.

"Not well Anakin. I hope you are faring better than I am at the moment."

Anakin's smirk increased in size before crossing his arms over his chest proudly.

"We're going to land and begin our assault shortly, but right now me and Snips here are having a bit of a disagreement over pronunciation." He stated, nodding his head over to the padawan next to him.

Ahsoka growled slightly before jabbing a finger at her master's face.

"I still say you're wrong, Skyguy!"

Obi Wan shifted his stare between Ahsoka and Anakin for a few moments before finally speaking.

"Is this about how to properly say Twilek? Anakin, we've been over this. The Republic's records say that the galaxy's official pronunciation of the name is 'twee-lek.'"

"Ha!" Ahsoka gloated, grinning from ear to ear at her victory.

Anakin's confidence and demeanor deflated as his master just destroyed any and all leverage on his side of the argument and muttered something under his breath before getting back on track concerning their mission. Unfortunately, that reminded him of who they were helping and put the scarred Jedi in a sour mood.

"What about the slug scum?" He asked with venom in his voice.

Obi Wan's hologram jumped slightly at Anakin's statement before looking around nervously.

The scarred Jedi raised a brow at his master's actions before realizing that whatever Obi Wan was looking around for was on his end of the communication and not inside the LAAT.

Once the bearded Jedi confirmed that whatever he was searching for was indeed not around, he turned back to his former apprentice, now sporting a disapproving frown.

"Watch what you say on this call, Anakin. If happened to escape your memory, I am still inside Jabba's compound, and it wouldn't be wise for one of his men to hear the Jedi that was saving Jabba's son referred to him as 'slug scum.'"

Anakin looked down at the floor of the gunship in slight shame, his master making him feel like a pupil under his guide once again. He knew Obi Wan was right, but that still didn't stop the way he felt about the Hutts.

Nor did it stop his robotic right hand from clenching tightly in anger, something that only Ahsoka noticed.

Obi Wan, deciding that he had berated his apprentice enough, quickly moved back on to more serious matters.

"Jabba has given us only one rotation to get his son back to Tatooine safe and sound."

"It won't take us that long master." Anakin said with a sly smirk.

Obi Wan sighed at his former apprentice's lack of seriousness of the situation.

"Take extreme care. We have no idea who's holding Jabba's son. When I finish negotiations with him, I'll join you."

Anakin's eyes widened as he saw his master about to cut off the communication between them and raised his hand to signal for him to stop.

Thankfully, Obi Wan's projection noticed this and looked at the Jedi Knight with inquisitive eyes.

"Before you go Master, do we have any news about Ventress's new friend?" Anakin asked with his arms crossed.

In the small time that the two had in between Christophsis and the mission that they were on now, the two Jedi had made it a priority to search every known criminal database available in order to find out about the mysterious Mandalorian that was with Ventress.

So far, Anakin had come up with nothing on his end, and he was hoping that his master had better luck than him.

"Yes, though it's not much."

Obi Wan's hologram slid to the left as a larger, more life-sized hologram appeared in front of the Skywalker and his apprentice.

The image of Naruto, his helmet equipped and covering his face from view, standing at attention appeared. On either side of him, Shadows stood in a V formation with their leader at the center, weapons drawn.

Anakin's eyes narrowed when he saw the familiar orange, but currently blue due to the hologram, visor containing helmet.

"His name is Shadow One, and he is the leader of an elite mercenary group known as The Shadows." Obi Wan stated, snapping the robotic armed force user back to the moment at hand.

Anakin's Torguta padawan snorted and crossed her arms.

"Someone's dramatic." Ahsoka stated with a snort.

Obi Wan's projection, however, kept his serious expression and turned to the amused padawan.

"It's a name well earned, young one. We were only able to get a small amount of information about this group from the entire Republic Criminal Database."

Anakin frowned at that fact. The Republic Criminal Database was the galaxy's largest collection of known criminals with profiles detailing every single fact that could be known about them. From names, to family to known associates, everything one needed to track down someone was on there.

If this Shadow One and his men were skilled enough to be an elite mercenary group and not end up on the RCD, then they were a force to be reckoned with.

Taking another look at Shadow One's projection, Anakin noticed a familiar piece of metal hanging off the Mandalorian's belt.

"Any idea where he got the lightsaber?" He asked the projection of his former teacher.

Obi Wan stroked his holographic facial hair as he replied.

"That itself is its own mystery."

The hologram zoomed in on the weapon dangling off the Mandalorian's belt. Like all lightsabers, save a few, it was cylindrical in shape and had black leather wrapped around the grip right below the activation button, which in turn was wrapped in a gray piece of cloth. (1)

"Could he have killed a Jedi and taken it?" Ahsoka chimed in.

Anakin couldn't help but agree with his snippy padawan. Jedi weren't indestructible, just highly skilled. Although it was rare, Jedi could be killed by someone skilled enough in combat, and even though his fight with the Mandalorian was brief, Anakin could certainly say he had some skill.

Obi Wan, however, had other things to say concerning the subject.

"That isn't a likely conclusion. There hasn't been a record of a Jedi with an orange lightsaber for centuries. The only lightsaber colors the Jedi have now, not including Master Windu and the Temple Guard, would be green and blue."

Anakin's brows furrowed in thought.

Since it wasn't possible for the lightsaber to belong to a recently deceased Jedi, the only other possibility Anakin could think of was that Shadow One made the unique energy sword himself, but that didn't seem likely.

In order to make a lightsaber, one needed the Force. There is no other way for one to be made other than using the Force, for the way that the weapon was assembled made it physically impossible for any tool to place all of the components in the right places for the saber to function properly. One would need the telekinetic abilities of a Jedi or Sith to do so.

Shadow One wasn't a wielder of the Force, Anakin could decipher that from the way the mercenary fought on Christophsis and the fact that the scarred Jedi couldn't sense anything from him.

Sighing at the fact that the mystery was still unsolved, Anakin looked at the small projection of his master.

"Whatever the story is, I'm sure that we'll find out when we bring him in." He said with a smirk

Obi Wan's shimmering blue likeness couldn't help but chuckle at his former padawan's attitude.

"Sometimes I admire your confidence, Anakin."

---

Teth-Temple

Shadows and droids alike were scurrying to their designated areas, preparing for battle. Naruto was at the center of it all, giving out orders as fast as he could.

"This is not a drill, people! Let's move!"

Grabbing the shoulder of a Shadow passing by, Naruto spoke.

"You! Get a few Shadows and make sure that anything that can be used for cover and isn't bolted down inside the temple is destroyed!"

The Shadow nodded and went to gather a few of his brothers in arms to carry out his orders. As soon as the soldier was out of sight, Naruto pointed at the droid in charge of the two battalions Dooku had sent

"You! Get the Spider droids up front to lay down suppressive fire on the transports."

The droid gave Naruto a mock salute.

"Yes sir!" Its mechanical voice responded.

The battle droid then turned around and began to run to where the Spider droids were…

…Only to run into one of his brethren on the way, causing them both to tumble to the ground. If that wasn't enough, battle droids that had been running around the same area that those two were began tripping over their comrades' fallen forms.

Naruto had to resist the urge to facepalm at the robotic soldiers' incompetence and quickly returned to what he had been doing before. Just as he was about to, however, a familiar, white armored figure came into being in the corner of the Mandalorian's eye.

"What do you need me to do?" Bo asked, all of the laid back and familial tones she had for the past three days was now replaced by a more serious one.

Turning and heading for the monastery door with his aunt following close behind, the whiskered mercenary listed off his orders.

"Get whatever Shadows that aren't doing something inside for the Nightfall Maneuver and tell the rest to guard the ships."

Bo nodded and was about to head off to complete her objectives when a realization came to mind. Putting a hand on her nephew's shoulder and pulling him back slightly so he would notice, the sister of Duchess Satine relayed the information she remembered.

"Speaking of ships, we brought yours just in case."

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise for a split second before the rest of his face morphed into a Cheshire grin.

"There isn't a scratch on her, I hope." The leader of The Shadows teased.

Bo snorted at that statement and placed her hands on her hips.

"Please, after what you did to Jarko, everyone knows what how to handle The Black Sun." Bo stated with a slight shiver, remembering what happened to that member of The Shadows.

It was no secret that the whiskered mercenary loved his ship, and what was a secret was what happened to those who damaged it. The only one who truly knew what the punishment involved was a Shadow foot soldier named Jarko.

It had happened back at the Shadow's base of operations, and was during the time when the rumor about sneaking up on Naruto was first circulating within The Shadow's ranks.

Naruto had been giving his personal star fighter, which he had named The Black Sun, an inspection. He checked the ship's guns, shields, and propulsions, the usual things a mercenary would want operational on his star craft. Everything seemed alright, and Naruto was ready to take it out for a test flight.

That's when it happened.

You see, The Black Sun, unlike most ships, had a custom-made glass for the viewing port of the cockpit. It was akin to a one-way mirror, as in from the outside, the material reflected all light that touched it in the same way that mirrors would. Inside the cockpit, the material was transparent like any other glass and was where the one-way part of one-way mirror came from.

The reason that Naruto had it made this way was so that no one would be able to see him flying the fighter if The Shadows ever took any space-based missions.

Unfortunately, the clever use of glass meant that anyone could be in the cockpit and not be seen, something that Jarko was hoping for.

When Naruto opened The Black Sun's cockpit, Jarko sprung out from it and threw a single punch at his superior. The whiskered mercenary reaction speed was faster than Jarko expected, for Naruto dodged the strike, grabbed the ambushing Shadow's outstretched arm, and by using Jarko's momentum against him, threw the soldier out of the cockpit and off The Black Sun.

Jarko landed on his back first, and every other body part followed. However, when the Shadow's arms hit the ground, the blaster gauntlet attached to one of them malfunctioned and fired a single shot.

That single shot ended up being the worst thing that ever happened to him, for the blaster bolt ended up hitting the one thing a blaster shot should never hit.

The scorch mark on the bow of Naruto's fighter was still smoking by the time Bo and two Shadows showed up by the whiskered mercenary's orders and for the life of her, Bo could honestly say that she had never seen her nephew's face so stoic, so featureless, and so emotionless.

Calmly, Naruto ordered the two Shadows to take Jarko by the arms and for them and Bo to follow him. The trio did as they were told, and the four of them, the fourth being Jarko, followed their leader down a hallway that none had ever seen before.

Eventually, the hallway led to a single door that was guarded by a ray shield and laser grid.

Sharing confused glances underneath their helmet, the Mandalorians watched as Naruto pressed a few buttons on the control panel next to the door, deactivating both the ray shield and laser grid and opening the door that hid behind the two.

After that, the son of Satine Kryze ordered the two Shadows that were holding Jarko to throw said Mandalorian into the room that the door led to.

The two soldiers were perplexed by their leader's unusual actions and only followed them after the whiskered mercenary insisted, this time with a growl in his voice.

Fearing that they may share the same fate as Jarko if they didn't comply, the two, black armored Mandalorians tossed the restrained Shadow with as much force as the could muster. Jarko landed on the ground roughly, letting out an "oof" as the breath was knocked out of his lungs.

In a twist of irony, the two that had thrown Jarko in there to begin with let out their own breath, this one being a breath of relief as opposed to Jarko's forced one.

When he saw that the one that damaged his fighter was inside the room, Naruto dismissed the two Shadows that had brought him there. The two soldiers didn't need to be told twice, for as soon as their leader said the word leave, they hightailed it out of there. As soon as he was sure they were gone, Naruto closed the door and brought the laser grid and ray shield back up with Jarko still inside.

It was that moment when Jarko's punishment began, and it was at that moment that the Shadow began to scream for fifteen solid minutes.

No one knew exactly what had happened inside the room and cause such a reaction, save for Naruto and Bo, and the rumors ranged from Jarko being forced to watch a Hutt sex tape to the transgressor being forced to listen to the absolute worst kind of Cantina music in the galaxy at full volume.

What was known was that when the fifteen minutes were up and the door was opened, Jarko was found in one of the room's corners with his face a paler shade than anyone had ever seen and was whispering "never again," and "I'm sorry," repeatedly.

When word reached the other Shadows about what had happened to their comrade, each and every one of them tried asking Naruto what he did.

His response every time was to simply gain a dark and malicious look in his eyes and walk away chuckling evilly without saying a word.

Jarko wasn't of any help, for whenever the slightest mention of the punishment reached his ears, he reverted back into the state was found in when the fifteen minutes were first done.

From then on, every Shadow knew to treat Naruto's fighter with respect and care in fear of receiving "The Jarko Treatment," a name given to the mysterious punishment to honor the first to have suffered it.

"Damn right, they better. That thing is my pride and joy." Naruto boasted and threatened at the same time.

"I still say what you did was too harsh." Bo commented as she and her nephew entered the monastery.

Naruto scoffed at his family member's notion and replied.

"And I say that I let him off too easy."

Bo looked at her nephew and gave narrowed eyes behind her red visor.

"He's still having nightmares about it for Mandalore's sake!" She stated in defiance.

"Those are just reminders of what he did. What do you want me to do about it?" Naruto shot back while shrugging his shoulders.

Bo was about to retort but stopped herself when she remembered that they were about to go into battle. The white armored Mandalorian opted to just let out a growl of frustration in place of any words and activated her pack, flying off to complete her orders.

Naruto chuckled at his victory before heading further into the temple's corridors.

He needed to find Ventress in order to find out where Rotta was going to be held during the fighting, just in case something was to happen to the Huttlet that would require his former protector to come and rescue him.

Searching for his partner, the whiskered mercenary absentmindedly noted that the Spider droids had begun firing their nose cannon…things outside, signaling that the battle had begun.

Naruto increased his pace and continued to navigate the various corridors and hallways, hoping to find Ventress inside the artificial stone maze that he had found himself in before it was too late.

Minutes passed, and just as he was about to give up and admit that he was lost, Naruto heard the familiar voice of his partner echoing off the walls of stone from the direction he was heading, along with some mechanical ones, obviously belonging to droids.

As he continued his path, the voices started to become more and more clearer. Naruto followed the voices until eventually, the hallway that he was traversing came to an end and turned out to be connected to a large domed room that was containing a very familiar Sith assassin, along with a few droids.

Ventress, now donned in a cloak similar to the one she used on Christophsis, was seemingly in the middle of a heated discussion with a simple protocol droid while a squad of battle droids were littered across the chamber, awaiting their next order.

The mercenary wasted no time and started to approach his partner, only to stop when he noticed that one of the battle droids closest to Ventress was holding an object in its cold, metallic hands. It was only when he got closer to the group that Naruto realized what it was.

'Rotta!'

The Huttlet looked worse for wear. His skin was a different shade of green than it normally was, his skin was looking slightly dry compared to his usual complexion, and if the Mandalorian listened closely, he could hear Rotta's small form let out a few coughs every once in a while.

He needed his medicine as soon as possible.

"Mercenary!"

Naruto snapped his attention back to the matter at hand and was greeted to the visage of his cloaked partner standing in front of him with her arms crossed and an annoyed look on her face.

Apparently, the conversation Ventress was having with the protocol droid had ended, and the SIth assassin had finally noticed that her partner was there.

"Sorry, could you repeat that, my mind was somewhere else." Naruto asked, his helmet concealing the embarrassed expression on his face.

Ventress rolled her eyes at the mercenary's words and muttered something unintelligible underneath her breath before repeating herself.

"I said, did you get the droids stationed outside ready?"

Before the mercenary could answer, one of the battle droids that was near them spoke up.

"I'll say. Based on the radio chatter I'm getting, Shadow One acted like they were about to face the entire Republic army." It stated.

A few other droids confirmed with a "roger, roger" about what their brother in steel was stating.

Ventress stared at the droid that had spoken for a few seconds, making the machine feel like if it had sweat glands, this would be the moment they would be used, and turned back to her partner with a raised brow.

"You do know that we're supposed to lose this fight, correct?" She asked with seriousness.

Naruto simply shrugged in response.

"We have to make all of this look real, so why not act like its real?" He stated halfheartedly.

Before their conversation could evolve into anything else than it already was, Naruto and Ventress were interrupted by the sound of a mechanical throat clearing itself. Both turned their heads to see the protocol droid that Ventress had been arguing with make his presence known.

"Who's this?" Naruto asked his partner, nodding his head towards the droid in question.

The protocol droid's body was the same model that all of his kind did, the only difference however, was that his body was composed of a sleek, stainless steel. However, unlike his body, the droid's head was what separated it from the rest of his kind.

While most protocol droids came with their heads designed in a humanoid fashion, i.e. two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, this one's head appealed more to an insect species if Naruto had to be honest.

Its head was larger than most protocol droids, and an antenna was sticking out of the left side and up into the air, ready to receive broadcasts. In place of the normal mouth slit, a triangular, hollow hole that began at the nose and ended at the chin was present for all to see.

The eyes were where Naruto got the insect like appearance from, and it was the hardest part to describe, as in it was hard to tell if it had one or two of them. They were large, made of glass, and had a hexagonal pattern spread across them. They looked pressed together, as if the distance between them that was normally made by the nose was erased.

"I am 4-A7, meat bag."

Naruto had the strangest feeling that he should've felt offended by that statement.

"Meat bag?" The mercenary asked, wanting clarification.

"Yes. Organic lifeforms are composed entirely of flesh held in place by a bag of skin, so in simple terms, you are a meat bag."

Naruto gained a tick mark on his face at the droid's simplification of an organic lifeform's body and was quick to retaliate.

"Well by that logic, you're just a container of scrap metal."

Now it was 4-A7's turn to look offended, at least, as offended as an expressionless machine could look.

"Why you! I'll have you know-"

Ventress placed a hand on Naruto and 4-A7's chest, getting in between them to interrupt the pointless argument about to take place and to get their attention on her.

"We do not have time for this." Ventress said sternly, her voice leaving no room for argument.

Turning to her personal droid, the Sith assassin folded her arms over her chest and gave what 4-A7 knew as, the death glare.

"What are you doing here, A7?" She demanded.

Standing at attention for his mistress, 4-A7 quickly answered.

"Lord Dooku sent me here for the next part of your mission."

Ventress's brow creased at the revelation that the reason her droid was there by her master's orders.

"And he didn't let us know ahead of time?" She asked, this time with a little less murder in her voice.

"Lord Dooku feared that any transmission sent could've been intercepted by the Republic."

Speaking of which, the sounds of battle outside had started becoming louder, indicating that the enemy forces were closing in on them as they spoke.

"While this conversation is interesting, lady and droidlemen (2), I suggest we move it away from the area that will soon be overrun with people who will want us dead." Naruto stated, drawing one of his WESTAR-35s as a precaution.

The Sith assassin nodded at her partner's statement before looking out to the battle droids with them.

"We're moving out!" She shouted to her troops.

The droids were quick to act. Since they were autonomous life forms, they had no personal belongings or items to collect, besides their blasters.

While the droids were preparing to leave, Ventress turned to the one that was holding Rotta.

"Take him to the detention center."

Just as the battle droid was about to follow her orders, Naruto quickly blocked his path.

"Actually, I was thinking that maybe I should take him down there."

Ventress snapped her head to her partner when she heard him and with eyes slightly narrowed, the Sith assassin silently encouraged the Mandalorian to explain himself.

Naruto, noticing his partner's intense stare directed at him, quickly followed through with the silent order.

"I haven't given Rotta his capsules for today."

The Mandalorian had been giving the Huttlet his medicine, but unlike Tatooine, Teth only had one sun, which was pretty much always covered by clouds. So, for the past three days, Rotta's Vitamin D supply has been almost coming directly from Naruto's specialized pills.

But they were limited in number, and since Rotta had been going through them like candy, Naruto had to start rationing.

Now, Naruto had started to wait until the very last second to give Rotta his pills before the Huttlet got sick, and the Mandalorian was planning on giving him a fresh dose of it first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, that plan was thrown away as soon as he saw the gunships approaching.

"Just give them to the droid. It'll do it." Ventress stated.

Slight panic from the part of Naruto that used to protect Rotta started to rise up in his throat and the Mandalorian was quick to shut down the idea.

"It's not that simple." He replied.

"Why not?" The Sith assassin asked with a raised brow.

"Remember how I had to force Rotta to take his pill?"

Ventress nodded, the memory of their time in the Trident resurfacing in her mind.

"That was just with someone he knew. Imagine how he'll react to some unknown machine trying to give him a pill he doesn't want."

Playing all possible outcomes in her mind, Ventress came to the same conclusion that the whiskered mercenary did and sighed in annoyance.

"Fine, but as soon as he is healthy enough, get out of there. Don't forget that we aren't supposed to be seen until after the trap is sprung."

Naruto sighed in relief and gave Ventress a grateful smile from underneath his helmet.

"Thank you."

The Mandalorian received no response from Dooku's apprentice for a few seconds, and just as he was going to ask if she was alright, Ventress spoke up again.

"What are you waiting for, droid? Give him the child." She ordered, looking directly at the battle droid holding Rotta.

The robot in question jumped when it realized that Ventress was talking to her.

"Right away, mistress!"

Wasting no more time, the battle droid paced over to the mercenary and assassin's area and held out the child for Naruto and Ventress to see.

Naruto, as he did before, felt a slight panicky sensation rise in his chest when he saw Rotta's form shiver and cough every once in a while, signaling how weak the Huttlet was at the moment. Every fiber and feeling in the whiskered mercenary's body were telling him to do something, anything to help him, and the whiskered mercenary was going to be happy to oblige them when he had the chance.

For some reason, the Mandalorian was able to tear his vision away from the sick form of his former charge and turned his head to his partner, and what he saw surprised him.

Ventress's face, which usually carried an angry, stoic, or annoyed expression, now had a fourth one to add to the list.

Empathetic.

From what he was seeing right now, Naruto's partner had an apologetic expression as she stared down at the Huttlet's sickly form. If the Mandalorian had to guess, Ventress allowed this emotion to form on her face, hoping that her hood would conceal it from view.

For Ventress, the sight of Rotta's sick form gave her a feeling of pain in her heart that she had never experienced before, and she didn't know what to do about it.

The only thing she could do was let her partner give Rotta his medicine, but that wasn't satisfactory enough for the hurt that was concealed inside of her.

The child in front of her was suffering, and there was nothing she could due to ease his aliment.

'That's not entirely true.' Light said in Ventress's mind.

Ever since their first debut in her head at Rotta's Barge, the female and Dooku voices stuck around, and since then, Ventress decided that for the time being, she would refer to the two as Light and Dark.

Light was the name for the female voice inside of Ventress's mind, and her personality matched it to a T. She held an aura of kindness whenever she was active in the assassin's mind, and always spoke in a more suggestive tone rather than the more do-what-I-say-without-question one that her counterpart had.

In every argument with Dark, the name that Ventress chose for Dooku's vocal imitation if it wasn't obvious enough, Light always chose the more kind and selfless side while her opposite chose…well…the opposite.

However, the one thing that about Light that slightly unnerved Ventress was how closely her line of thinking was to that of the Jedi Code.

Dark himself held an aura of power, and the comments made by him were directed more towards Ventress's self-interest and often held a harsh opinion on anything that didn't relate to it. Often times, he actively told the Sith assassin to commit cruel acts on those that opposed her.

If Light's line of thinking was like that of the Jedi Code, then Dark's was definitely parallel to the way of the Sith.

Back on the matter at hand, the Sith assassin's eyes widened a fraction when she heard the more morally good half of the duo speak to her about something besides her…issues with her past, and she was even more shocked to hear, or rather not hear, the other half speak up.

Hesitantly, Ventress reached out in her mind, and for the first time, conversed with the kinder side of the voices in her mind.

'What do you mean?'

Almost immediately after asking the mental question, Ventress felt something tingle within the back of her mind, and for some reason, the image of a kind smile came to her mind. It took a few seconds to solve the mysterious puzzle presented to her, and when she did, the Sith assassin was shocked down to her core.

The female voice was smiling.

Disembodied voices in your head didn't smile or make any other facial features because they didn't have any faces to begin with! The new information presented her made her half relieved and half shaken. She was half relieved because it meant that she wasn't going crazy, but that just made the reason for her shock more frightening.

Because if she wasn't going crazy, then that meant that Light and Dark weren't just voices in her head.

Before she could think any more about the subject, the more time sensitive matter, I. E. the sickly Huttlet named Rotta, broke her concentration with a violent series of coughing.

'What can I do!' Ventress demanded the female voice in her head.

'Remember back during the Barge, child. Back when you first heard my voice.' Light said, as if the person she was in the mind of didn't just come to a shocking revelation about her.

Ventress replayed the events of the attack on the Barge as instructed and widened her eyes when she reached the moment when Light first appeared.

'The toy!'

She didn't know why, but for some unexplainable reason, the Sith assassin had kept the item that helped Light come to surface. It had just felt instinctual to Ventress at the time, like she was supposed to take it with her, and now her instincts were proven right.

Reaching behind her back and for one of the few containers on her utility belt, Ventress unclasped one of the metal boxes and pulled out the item in question.

'I'm sure I don't need to tell what you need to do next.' Light commented.

Bit by bit, Light's presence in Ventress's consciousness began to fade away, and the same time, Naruto had begun to reach for Rotta, neither of which the Sith assassin wanted to happen yet.

"Wait."

'Wait.'

Both the Mandalorian and possibly figment of her imagination stopped in their tracks when they heard Ventress's vocal and mental call respectively.

Noting that it was best to start with Naruto first and then Light, the assassin brought the stuffed animal from behind her back and held it out to him without saying anything.

'I'll deal with you in a minute.' The apprentice of Dooku told the female personality.

"Here." Ventress said out loud to the Mandalorian.

Naruto's concealed head tilted down and looked at the object for a few seconds with what Ventress assumed was a shocked expression underneath his helmet, possibly due to recognizing the stuffed animal.

After a few seconds, the mercenary finally found his voice and put it to use.

"When did…" He trailed off, too shocked by realizing what his usually cold-hearted partner did for their prisoner.

"Back on the Barge." Ventress began, not wanting to waste time waiting for the mercenary to finish his prolonged thought.

"Why?"

Ventress tensed up at the question, for the explanation would've taken too long and held the chance of her being thrown into an insane asylum if heard by anyone else but her. Thinking quickly, the assassin made up the first explanation that came to mind.

"It would've been easier to deal with the child for three days if he had something to occupy himself with."

The Mandalorian tilted his head slightly in confusion and said nothing for a few moments, causing Ventress to start worrying that he saw through her fib.

"So you've just now remembered to give it to him when the three days were already over?"

'Thank the Force.' Ventress thought in relief when her partner asked the question.

Realizing that the best way to hide her tracks was to go along with what he said, the Sith assassin feigned becoming flustered and angered by Naruto's comment.

"Just take the damn thing, you fool!" She shouted, thrusting the stuffed animal into Naruto's chest.

Naruto caught his breath and focused long enough to grab onto the toy's fabric body so it wouldn't fall to the ground before letting out a few more chuckles.

"Guess you do have a heart." Naruto said with mirth in his voice.

Ventress grit her teeth in annoyance at the mercenary's teasing and quickly quelled the thought of stabbing him with her sabers.

"Don't you have to take the Hutt to the detention level?" She replied sarcastically.

Naruto chuckled once more before moving over to the droid that was holding Rotta.

Wrapping his arms around the Huttlet and taking him out of the droid's cold metal grip and into his warm embrace, the mercenary slightly shook Rotta to gain his attention.

"Hey, Rotta. How are you feeling?" Naruto asked the tiny Huttlet.

The son of a crime lord looked up at his former protector and voiced a few gurgles before it turned into a fit of coughs. The Mandalorian stared at the weakened form of the Huttlet with apologetic eyes, knowing that his strategy for rationing was the cause of the sickness.

"I know you're not feeling well, and that's on me. I'm sorry. But you aren't going to be that way for much longer because I got your medicine right here."

The son of Jabba gave a weak smile in response to the news.

With Ventress, the Sith assassin returned her attention back on Light with intent on solving the mystery that came with her and Dark's arrival.

'What is it that you wish to discuss, Ventress?' The female voice/possible person asked with kindness in her voice.

Ventress wasted no time and immediately began questioning Light.

'Who are you? Who are you really?'

The same tingling sensation Ventress felt before in the back of her returned, and the image of a smile came into her mind like last time. However, while the first smile was shaped in kindness, the one Ventress received just then came in the form of a coy grin.

'You will find out in time, but for now. I suggest you worry about this battle.'

Ventress's eyes widened at the tone that Light was using. It was one that a person used if they were leaving to go home or if they were saying goodbye.

'Stop!'

And then she and her presence in Ventress's mind were gone. Just gone. Light didn't fade out like she had tried to before Ventress stopped her. The female voice just vanished. Gone without a trace, leaving the assassin answerless.

Back with Naruto, the mercenary felt the old skills and instincts he had learned from protecting Rotta for years kick in when he looked down at the sickly child in his arms. Almost immediately after getting his former charge in his grasp, Naruto had started going over things in his mind about how to make sure the Huttlet would be alright when left alone.

'The temple's detention level has no source of natural light, which means there is little to no Vitamin D. Rotta's going to have to rely on the pills. Given that his current condition shows that it'll take more than one to get him back to normal, plus the fact that I need to give him enough to last a couple of hours or even more, then he'll need-'

Naruto's eyes widened as the math he was doing in his head ended, and the answers he received were not to his liking. Doing the math again only confirmed the answer from the first time, and also confirmed the horrid truth that came with it.

'I won't have enough to make it through this.'

In every scenario he could come up with, ones where the Republic captured Rotta and brought him back to Tatooine and ones where the Separatists convince Jabba that it was the Republic that took Jabba's son and 'rescued' him, none of them would be fast enough to get Rotta back to the planet with two suns before Naruto's pills would run out.

Naruto was sure of it for two reasons. The first was that he knew that the Separatists probably wouldn't even care, or that they would even want it to happen to get Jabba more vengeful towards the Republic. The second was that the mercenary knew the Republic would try to save Rotta of course, but due to the lack of knowledge on Hutt physiology because of the species' lack of appearance in the Senate, they would have no idea what to do in the small amount of time before the Huttlet would die.

Rotta would die, and there's nothing that Naruto could do to stop it.

'You could help get Rotta back to the Republic.' a small part of Naruto's mind said.

The mercenary shut down that line of thought before it could continue. That wasn't an option. That couldn't be an option. If he went down that path and Dooku found out about it…the mercenary didn't even want to think about the consequences.

The idea had been haunting him since when he and Ventress first took Rotta from the Barge, and Naruto had to suppress the idea by reminding himself about the deal between him and Dooku. That had been something he had to do constantly during the three days they were waiting for the Republic to show up, and now shouldn't be any different.

Besides, Naruto shouldn't care. He was supposed to be a professional for Mandalore sakes! He couldn't let his feelings get in the way of the big picture, especially the big picture that was being painted by Count Dooku.

'That sleemo.' Naruto thought in anger as he remembered The Shadows' 'employer.'

Despite the happy and cheerful attitude the mercenary always held towards the Count, Naruto hated Dooku. He hated the fact that Dooku had sent the whiskered mercenary on this mission, he hated how there was a mission for him to hate, and most of all, he hated that the Sith Lord was forcing The Shadows fight in his war.

That's right, The Shadows weren't being paid. They weren't gaining anything by siding with the Separatists. They were being forced against their will to fight in the name of the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

As much as he would love to help Rotta, there was still the leverage that Dooku had used against them in the first place.

Just thinking about what the Count had against The Shadows made Naruto hate the man even more. Believe him, he would love nothing more than to see Dooku's plan fail, and the Mandalorian would love it even more if he played a part in it.

But would it be worth the risk? Could Naruto put everything at stake just for a simple child?

Like most times he found himself torn between decisions, Naruto thought back to the legacy of his people, a legacy he lived by.

The Mandalorians of old weren't just pirates and soldiers. They were warriors. Most of the galaxy lumped the three together, but Naruto knew the difference between them.

A pirate listened to his greed and was willing to do whatever it took to get what he desired, even if it meant being one of the most vile and despicable beings in the galaxy. A soldier listened to only his orders, despite what he felt about them and was sometimes nothing more than a slave to the one who gave them.

A warrior listened to what his heart told him, and he would let no consequence get in the way of it, no matter how painful, damaging, or dangerous.

It seems like it was finally time for Naruto to choose which of the three he was going to be, and he didn't need a second thought when he made the decision.

"Where are we meeting?" Naruto asked his partner.

"The balcony overlooking the courtyard. Contact me as soon as you get out of there." Ventress replied.

The Mandalorian nodded before adjusting his grip on Rotta's form.

"Got it. Good luck."

Before Ventress could say anything in response, the Mandalorian had started to make his way down to the detention center, Rotta in his arms.

As he walked, Naruto was grateful for the fact that he had his helmet on, for if Ventress were to see the face underneath, she would've seen a look of determination, resolve, and most of all, defiance.

As her partner left, the Sith assassin raised a brow at the whiskered mercenary's retreating form, curious by the lack of questions or quips from him. However, she quickly forgot about those thoughts when she heard the sounds of battle drawing closer.

"Let's go, 4-A7." She told the protocol droid, who had been silent until now.

Said droid perked up at his name being called but didn't do as the Sith assassin ordered.

"Forgive me mistress, but Lord Dooku wished for my presence to be known by the Republic under the guise of being the temple's caretaker."

Ventress's eyes widened at the news and instantly voiced against the idea.

"Absolutely not."

"I'm afraid you have no choice in the matter, mistress. Lord Dooku ordered it personally, apparently it's for the next part of your mission."

That took Ventress aback. Dooku normally had others relay his orders, so to be given a mission in person meant that it was a serious matter, and although she didn't want 4-A7 in danger, she wouldn't go against her master.

But the acceptance of the order's authority did not cease the small amount of fear rising in her chest as the thought of 4-A7's cover being blown.

Not many people knew this, as in she could count the number of people on one hand, but 4-A7 was a lot more special to her than most people felt towards their droids.

4-A7 had been with her since before she began to serve Dooku, originally belonging to her old…friend, back when she was younger. They had been through a lot of things together, and to be honest, Ventress didn't know what she would do if something happened to him.

Pressing the palm of her hand on the machine's cold, metal chest and closing her eyes, Ventress took a shaky breath as she tried to mentally will herself to leave behind the one thing that she could honestly call a friend.

"Be safe, A7." Ventress said, her voice cracking due to the emotion she was trying to hide.

Eyes still closed, Ventress was surprised when what felt like a hand made of metal wrapped around the one she had placed on 4-A7's chest. Opening her eyelids and allowing her ocular organs to be of use again, the Sith assassin was surprised to see the simile that she had used to describe what had a grip on her hand was in fact the truth.

4-A7 had one of his mechanical hands holding hers in a comforting grip.

"Don't worry mistress. I'm more than capable of outsmarting a bunch of artificially grown organics." The droid said confidently.

Looking up at him, the Sith assassin felt something beginning to rise up from her throat. The feeling was unfamiliar, yet familiar at the same time. Unfamiliar in the sense that it was something that hadn't happen in years, and familiar in the sense that once upon a time, and somewhere far far away, the feeling happened regularly.

It slowly rose from Ventress's lower airway, past her esophagus, and then finally to her mouth. From then on, her instincts took over as her body slightly jerked, her lips parted, and sound came out

"Heh."

It was small and could barely be heard, but it happened all the same.

She had just laughed, even if it was the loosest definition the galaxy had to offer.

Shock would've been going through Ventress's body about the fact that she had just done something that had been absent in her life for years, but it was quickly overwritten as top priority due to the fact she was in a hurry.

Taking a step back, Ventress gave one last nod to 4-A7 before turning to her troops. The Sith assassin signaled to the battle droids with a wave of her hand before exiting the chamber, showing no sign that there had been anyone else besides 4-A7 inside of it.

---

Teth-Secret Temple Area

Step after step, Ventress proceeded alone down the long and narrow hallway towards her destination.

The battle droids that had accompanied her out of the chamber were no longer with her, for the Sith assassin ordered them to prepare the ship that originally belonged to the bounty hunters from the first day of waiting. She had no idea how things were going to play out and wanted to make sure that any and all spacecraft available to them was read for launch in case the worst happened.

But Ventress's thoughts were nowhere near the subject of ships at the moment. No, right now, her mind was focused on something else entirely.

The fact that someone was following her right now.

Whoever it was had shown up nearly a minute ago and had been following the Sith assassin to where she was going. Ventress couldn't tell whether it was a droid, person, or something else, and she couldn't tell what their intentions were.

So she naturally assumed they were the worst possible kind and went on the offensive.

SNAP! HISS!

Blood red light illuminated the hallway as Ventress turned around and pointed her saber towards the figure behind her, intent on making sure they knew she wasn't defenseless.

"Whoa! It's me! Calm down!" A feminine voice shouted in surprise.

Ventress tensed up when she heard the voice, but still kept her saber pointed towards the mysterious figure. Taking a few steps in the direction of the figure, the Sith assassin allowed the crimson glow of her weapon to light the hallway and make the details of the person with her.

As soon as her saber was close enough, recognition dawned on Ventress's face as she took in the description of the person in front of her.

"Bo."

The white armored, now a slight shade of red due to the light from Ventress's saber, Mandalorian had her hands blocking the visor of her helmet from view.

"Yeah, it's me. I already told you that." The female Shadow said in an annoyed tone.

"What are you doing here?"

"Can you turn that thing off first? It's starting to hurt my eyes."

Ventress rolled her eyes at the comment, but nonetheless complied. Sheathing her weapon, the Sith assassin allowed the room to lose its red hue and return back to the shadowy darkness it originally was.

Bo, noticing the red light was gone, poked her head from out behind her hands as if to check and see if the coast was clear before finally bringing her arms down.

"Thanks. I've got to ask, do those things have a brightness setting? Because if it's a yes, then you need to lower it a bit."

"Why are you here?" Ventress repeated, not in the mood for small talk.

Noticing her tone, Bo disposed the friendly attitude and went right on to business.

"I'm looking for Naruto to tell him the Nightfall Maneuver is ready."

Ventress raised a brow at the strange term used in the white armored Shadow's sentence.

"Nightfall Maneuver?"

Bo shrugged her shoulders and began walking in the same direction Ventress had been going in before their encounter.

"It's probably best to let him explain it. Speaking of which, do you know where he is?"

"Down in the detention center giving the Huttlet one of his pills."

Bo turned her head in the way one might do when they exaggerated rolling their eyes, though Ventress couldn't tell due to Bo's helmet shielding her facial features from view.

"Of course, he is. Anyway, what are you doing down here?"

Ventress followed after Bo, even getting a little bit ahead of the Shadow to lead the way and answered her question.

"I need to report to my master about the new developments that have happened."

Ventress didn't notice, but at the mention of Dooku, Bo's demeanor changed.

Her gloved hands tightened into fists, and her back straightened slightly

"I'll come with you. I've got nothing better to do."

Ventress said nothing that would oppose the idea, and Bo took it as a green light to do so.

The two walked in relative silence the rest of the way to their destination and eventually, Bo and Ventress reached a doorway at the end of the hallway they were in. Without saying anything, Dooku's apprentice pressed a single button on the door's control panel, opening the entrance, and walked in.

Bo was about to do the same, but slightly faltered when she saw what was inside.

Super battle droids were lined up shoulder to shoulder inside the room, taking up a majority of the space inside. The only way that Bo was able to tell that the room wasn't just stuffed with them was because of Ventress.

The sea of machinery parted the way for the Sith as she made her way to the center of room, only to stop and turn in Bo's direction.

"Are you coming?" She asked with a raised brow.

Getting over the initial shock of seeing the untold amount of killing machines in the room, Bo found her voice.

"Yeah, sorry."

Moving quickly over to her nephew's partner, the white armored Mandalorian now didn't give a second thought about the droids around her as she stood next to the Sith assassin.

Pulling out her handheld hologram projector, the apprentice of Dooku was greeted with the small, blue, shimmering form of her master.

Bowing her head in respect, Ventress gave Dooku her report.

"They have taken the monastery, master."

Her face scrunched up in disgust when she thought of the one leading the charge.

"Skywalker is here and is on his way to rescue the Huttlet." She grumbled.

Dooku, however, seemed to have the opposite reaction to the news.

"Good. All is going to plan." The Count's projection stated with a smirk.

After that statement, Dooku's hologram seemed to notice something about her broadcast, or rather, the absence of something.

Taking a complete turn around the room, the elder Sith's eyes scanned the rows of super battle droids acting as Ventress's bodyguards, which then narrowed when he failed to spot what he was searching for and focused his attention on Bo.

"Who is this?"

Bo folded her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes behind her red visor when she looked at the shimmering Sith's form.

"Shadow Two, second in command of The Shadows." She answered tartly.

Ignoring the attitude coming from Bo and looking back at his apprentice, Dooku had but only one question.

"Where is Shadow One?"

Ventress felt her breath hitch at that question.

"He's…" Ventress trailed off.

She wasn't sure how the Count would take to the news about Naruto going with Rotta, or how he would handle the news that Ventress had let him.

"He's busy setting up a trap for the Republic's ground forces." Bo said, saving Ventress.

Dooku's projection turned back to the female Mandalorian and narrowed his eyes at her. For a few seconds, there was nothing but silence as the hologram's projection pierced through Bo's form.

"Very well. Collect the data I need."

Both assassin and mercenary let out silent breaths that they didn't even know that they were holding when they heard Dooku concede.

Realizing that there was a very important question she needed to ask before her master cut the communication, Ventress spoke up.

"Master,"

Dooku's head perked up when he heard the title his apprentice used for him.

"I was curious as to why you sent 4-A7 here?"

Dooku's holographic eyes slightly narrowed as he looked down at his apprentice.

"Have you not asked the droid yourself?"

Ventress gazed up at her master as she answered.

"I did and he said-"

"What he told was the truth." Dooku interrupted before Ventress could even say the reason.

That threw the Sith assassin into a spin. How could he know it was true before Ventress even said what it was? Taking a risk, she began to ask her master a question.

"My master, are you-"

"Do you doubt me, my apprentice?"

Ventress's eyes widened at the implication and quickly to correct the misunderstanding.

Kneeling her head down in a shamed matter, the assassin closed her eyes and spoke.

"Never master! Please forgive me."

The blue holographic projection stared down the small form of his apprentice with fully narrowed eyes, obviously displeased by Ventress. Those eyes then softened slightly as the seconds went by.

"Look at me, my apprentice."

Ventress did as she was told and lifted her head up to look at the image of her master once more.

"Do not fail me."

That was the only thing he said before cutting off the transmission, leaving Ventress alone with a group of super battle droids and Bo.

A gloved hand reached down and grasped Ventress's shoulder gently, slightly shocking the Sith assassin.

Looking in the direction that the hand came from, Ventress saw that it was attached to Bo's arm.

"You alright?" She asked with sincerity.

The apprentice of Dooku quickly regained the composure she had before the transmission and stood back up in a hurry, shaking Bo's arm off her shoulder in the process.

"I'm fine." She said in a tone that left no room for argument.

Bo held up her hands in a surrender motion, showing that she understood the message Ventress was sending before placing them back at her sides again.

An awkward silence fell between the two. Neither of them really interacted during the three-day period of waiting, so they didn't know what to do or say around each other, and the only person that could've helped, that being Naruto, was off somewhere doing something concerning Rotta.

"Why did you lie for me?" Ventress asked finally.

Bo shrugged her shoulders.

"Probably the same reason that you hesitated to answer." She replied.

Before Ventress could inquire what The Shadows' second in command meant, a single battle droid emerged from the sea of super battle droids around the two and hurried towards them.

"Mistress." It panted, as if it had lungs that were in desperate need of air.

"What?" Ventress questioned.

The droid took a couple of strangled gasps for some reason. Ventress never understood battle droids, sometimes they acted as if they were organic and had minds of their own, and sometimes they acted like emotionless beings that only followed orders. It appears that this droid was one of the former.

Finally, the robot regained its nonexistent breath and answered her question.

"The Jedi have entered the dungeons."

Ventress's eyes widened in response to the news for only one reason.

Naruto hadn't contacted her, which meant he was still down there.

---

Teth-Temple Detention Area

If the whiskered mercenary had to be honest, the temple's dungeons had to be the creepiest place in the entire complex.

The entire "room" of the dungeon was just one long corridor, with one end leading to the upper levels of the temple, and the other leading to an intersecting T. The hallway going to the left lead to a store room and the other hallway led to the only other exit out of the prison, the one the Mandalorian hoped to use as soon as he was done getting Rotta situated.

However, that task soon began to seem impossible, for Naruto ran into a big problem.

After giving Rotta his much-needed dose, the Huttlet immediately turned back to his normal stinky self, as expected, but there was a problem. It had happened a little too quickly. It usually takes almost ten minutes for Rotta to return to normal after taking one of the substitute pills, but this time, it happened in less than three.

That was bad. Very, very, very bad.

You see, back Naruto's time as Rotta's protector, the Mandalorian went through multiple tests concerning Rotta's Vitamin D consumption, with Jabba's permission of course. Naruto knew what every reaction to his substitute meant and every outcome from the reaction. Too many of the pills resulted in in Vitamin D poisoning, and too little meant a weaker version of the sickness.

Rotta returning to normal quicker than usual after a pill meant only one thing.

His body had finally run out of stored Vitamin D.

That meant that he was relying directly on Naruto's dwindling medication now, and that the mercenary had to stay with him, continuously giving Rotta Vitamin D tablets whenever the previous one's effect had run out.

With the way his body was processing, once Naruto was out of Vitamin D, his sickness would return worse than ever, and could possibly end up killing the Huttlet in a few short hours.

Add the fact that Naruto's pills were now in the single digits, the son of Jabba's had a very little chance of survival.

The new information just grounded Naruto's determination for what he was about to do.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto switched from assessing the situation that he was dealing with right now to the one that was taking place above his head.

"I wonder what's going on out there." The Mandalorian stated out loud to no one.

The detention level seemed to be the only place that the battle above couldn't be heard, giving everything an unnerving silence to those who knew what was happening above. The only lighting available came from small sun rays that managed to intrude through cracks in the stone walls, pushing the blinding darkness back slightly.

He had no way of telling if the Jedi had gotten past the decoy forces that had been set up for them, nor could he tell if the decoys somehow actually won the fight.

Either way, he needed come up with a plan before the Republic took care of the droid forces and made their way down to where he was.

A slight tugging sensation was felt on his leg, and looking down, Naruto found it to be Rotta trying to get his attention by grabbing the cloth part of the mercenary's leg armor. Kneeling down and scooping up the small Huttlet in his arms, Naruto bounced the infant in his arms as he spoke.

"What's wrong, little man?" He asked, giving a playful poke to Rotta's snout.

Rotta, after taking a second to rub away the sensation of Naruto poking his nose, quickly responded with a series of gurgles and coos.

Naruto gave a small frown underneath his helmet, somehow still understanding the strange language that the Huttlet spoke.

"Sorry, Rotta. I can't play right now."

The Huttlet's expression became downcast at the news, making the Mandalorian's insides twist. He hated making Rotta sad, the Huttlet was like a brother to him, and no sibling wanted to see their brother cry.

Sitting down on the bench that came with the prison cell and letting his former charge sit on his lap, Naruto began to think of ways to try and lighten the saddened child's mood. A lightbulb went off in his head when a way to cheer the baby up came appeared in his mind and reached into his belt, wrapping his digits around the item's cloth body.

Pulling out the toy Ventress had given him earlier, Naruto spoke to the Huttlet with small glee.

"Look at what Uncle Naru's got, Rotta!"

Rotta, recognizing the toy from his room upon the Barge, cheered in happiness at the item's return and snatched it from the mercenary's hand, giving it a big hug.

Naruto smiled at the Huttlet's moment of innocence despite the situation he was in.

Innocence was a rare thing in their world, the one full of criminals, gangsters, and more. Seeing such a sight was refreshing in the Mandalorian's opinion after dealing with what had been going on in the past few days for him.

In fact, seeing him like this reminded Naruto of the day he met the little guy, and the same day that he was given the job of protecting him.

Flashback

Tatooine-Jabba's Palace-2 years ago

The palace's atmosphere screamed the word celebration.

Multicolored decorations of all varieties littered the exterior of Jabba's palace along with a variety of drunken guests stationed around the palace grounds.

At the palace's entrance, two hooded figures, the only ones not celebrating with those outside, stood side by side.

"Do we really have to do this?" The first hooded figure grumbled.

"For the millionth time Aunt Bo, yes. Without the work Jabba and the Hutt Families have been giving us, The Shadows wouldn't be where they are today." The second person replied.

As the second person was speaking, they brought their hands up and lowered their hood. Free from the constricting piece of cloth, a sleek black Mandalorian helm with an orange visor was displayed for all to see.

"The least we could do for them is to show up to a party dedicated to Jabba's son." An eighteen-year-old Naruto finished.

Walking up to the large metal entrance of the palace, the blond Mandalorian gave a series of knocks on the rusted material of the wall-like door.

Naruto took a step back, knowing that it would take a few seconds for those on the other side to answer.

A large circular hole formed in the place where Naruto had knocked his fist against, and from within it, a large, metallic eye attached to a metal pole jutted out into the open air.

The metal ocular organ blinked a few times before its artificial pupils adjusted to the light of the outside. Looking down, the eye spotted Naruto and Bo's figures and spoke in a strange dialect.

"Hey, Myzak! It's Shadow One and Shadow Two! We're here for the party!"

The eye 'squinted' at the two of them before the voice on the other side of the door spoke again.

Naruto sighed and dropped his head when his mind translated what Myzak said. Reaching down to his belt underneath the cloak he was wearing, the leader of The Shadows brought out his deactivated lightsaber for the eye to see.

"Here. Is this proof enough, you paranoid bastard?"

The eye immediately zoomed down to the weapon in Naruto's hand, going over every detail and description it could see.

FWAASH!

The orange blade sprang to life from inside its prison, and the eye backed up a couple of inches due to the suddenness of the action.

"Can we come in now?" Naruto asked in an annoyed tone of voice.

While he understood the necessity of the check, he still hated how long the eye would take doing it.

Naruto's answer came in the form of the large blast doors of the entrance rising. Just as soon as the door was high enough, the whiskered mercenary began his trek into the building's interior, shutting off his lightsaber in the process.

Jogging slightly to catch up to her nephew, Bo decided that the best way to spend the time it took to get to the throne room was with conversation.

"I still can't believe that Jabba found someone that was willing to 'reproduce' with him." Bo stated while walking, making air quotes at the word reproduce.

Naruto, however, gained a confused look when he realized what she meant.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know. Doing the sacred dance under the sheets, making the beast with two backs, parting the pink sea-"

A thought came into Bo's mind as she listed off the numerous innuendos for procreation, causing her to stop while holding an arm out in front of Naruto to stop him.

Turning to her boss/family member, the white armored Mandalorian asked a very serious and important question.

"Do we need to have The Talk for a third time?"

Underneath his helmet, Naruto felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment at the mention that he had the talk not once, but two times.

"Oh, by Mandalore, you're never going to stop bringing that up, are you?"

Bo chuckled as she folded her arms over her chest.

"Nope."

Naruto sighed as he walked past his aunt and continued to make his way down to Jabba's throne room.

"For the last time. I. Had. Amnesia." He stated over his shoulder.

The whiskered mercenary heard his aunt laugh behind him before increasing her pace to match his.

"I know. You were so innocent to the galaxy during that week, nothing compared to the guy I'm talking to now. I even got you to call me Auntie Bo again."

Naruto sighed, remembering the resurgence of the embarrassing nickname that he had for the white armored Mandalorian and decided that the best course of action was to change the subject of the conversation back to what it was originally.

"I haven't forgotten how a baby is made. The reason I was confused by what you said is because Hutts reproduce asexually."

Bo cocked her head slightly in thought of the new information.

"So, they lay eggs or something?" She asked.

"I don't know. I only had enough courage to search on whether or not Hutts have sex, and now I have to live with the fact that that question is a permanent part of my Holonet history."

"Well, now I can't stop imagining Jabba sitting in a giant nest."

Naruto was about to reprimand his second in command for saying such a thing about their employer, but before he could, the two arrived at the throne room.

A sea of people had flooded the throne room. Each person was either dancing, drinking, or doing some sort of spice. In all honesty, the only thing that seemed different compared to the other parties Jabba had hosted was the occasional guest with a party hat.

Naruto heard Bo sigh next to him and placed an assuring hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'll make this quick. Just try to have a good time until then."

His aunt dropped her head in acceptance and gave another sigh.

"Fine, but if any of these drunk assholes try to get handsy with me, I'm ripping off the thing that makes them a man."

Naruto laughed it off as a joke, but his face cringed from inside his helmet.

After all, it wouldn't have been the first time his aunt did that.

Separating from his second in command and walking into the horde of bodies that was the party, the whiskered mercenary set his sights on where he was going.

Jabba was sitting where he always was when he was in his palace, only the difference this time was located on his side, wrapped up in a baby blue blanket and laying in a nest made by the Hutt's curled tail. A female Twilek slave was next to the bundle as well, picking it up and shushing it whenever a cry erupted from the tiny form.

Looking at the area around Jabba, the Mandalorian noticed a line was forming from the partying masses, leading all the way up to the crime lord, and each member of the line was holding some type of wrapped gift.

'Must be for the kid.' Naruto summarized in his head.

The mercenary then realized something when he looked at the guests again.

'Aw crap, I didn't get one.'

Naruto wasn't sure how Jabba would react to one of his best assassins not bringing a gift for his son, and the Mandalorian was worried the Hutt would see it as some kind of insult.

Before the Mandalorian could think of further details about the subject, the large and booming sound of Jabba roaring was heard.

Snapping his sight back to the Hutt's direction, Naruto's eyes narrowed at what he saw.

Apparently, the Twilek slave girl absolutely hated the slave girl portion of her title and was now taking her revenge, but in the worst way possible. Somehow, she had gotten ahold of a knife. Now that might not seem too bad, but when she pulled out said knife and held it against the throat of Jabba's son, it might as well have been the most dangerous thing in the entire galaxy.

Before Jabba could do or say anything, the slave girl ran to the center of the room with the Hutt's son in her arms. The crowd, who had heard Jabba's roar of anger, parted the way for her so fast that one might assume they would die if they touched her.

When she reached the center of the throne room, the Twilek slave made sure to keep her blade on the Huttlet's jugular as she scanned the entire room for any immediate threats. Seeing that there were none, the slave looked back at the father of the baby she had hostage with nothing but hate in her eyes.

Jabba stared back at the slave girl with a fury only a father could have if their child was in danger and spoke a few lines of Huttese.

"You dare to harm the son of Jabba?" The protocol droid translated.

Fire burning in her eyes, the slave increased the pressure on the blade against Rotta's neck, causing the tiniest of blood droplets to escape.

"I dare because no one else will!" The Twilek shouted back, her voice filled with fury.

Naruto, who had been pushed back all the way to the most outer edges of the crowd when they backed up for the slave girl, kept his vision on the Twilek's turned back as she continued her speech.

"You enslave us! Torture us! Use us for your own personal pleasure! Well no more!"

Squeezing himself past the party goers who made up the most outer wall of the crowd, the whiskered mercenary slowly began making his way towards the slave, stilled facing Jabba.

"You and your kind have caused more suffering than anyone could ever be able to measure without fear of consequence."

Naruto slowly pushed his way through the crowd, making sure that he wasn't moving too fast. He needed to make sure that his movement wasn't noticed by the hostage taker. If the mercenary was found out, then the Huttlet was as good as dead

"Did you know I haven't seen my daughter since we were taken by your slavers? I don't even remember her face, thanks to you."

When he was halfway through the crowd, Naruto noticed another figure moving through the masses. Taking a second to register what they looked like, the Mandalorian breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that his aunt was doing the same thing he was.

Noticing her nephew as well, Bo made hand signals that asked about what she should do.

Naruto signaled back for Bo to go from the side while he would continue sneaking up on the Twilek.

Bo nodded an affirmative before heading to her position.

"But that's okay. Because now you will face the consequences."

Naruto finally reached the inner area of the crowd. Any further and he would've been in plain view of the Twilek.

He needed to find the right moment to move, possibly when the knife wasn't against the child's neck.

"Now you will know the pain that you cause by losing the very thing you tear apart. Family."

'Come on. Come on.' Naruto begged mentally, hoping that the golden opportunity would come.

"When you look for someone to blame, there will be no one. Only yourself."

When she said the word 'yourself,' the slave foolishly took the knife off Rotta's neck and pointed it at Jabba.

And that was all that Naruto needed to strike.

Moving with a speed that even he didn't know he had, the whiskered mercenary came up from behind the Twilek and went to work.

Knowing that the knife was the most important thing to take care of first, Naruto grabbed the Twilek's wrist and guided the arm as far away from Jabba's son as possible.

Using his right arm, the mercenary wrapped his right arm around the Twilek's throat. Tightening the choke hold enough to where she couldn't try anything, he successfully restrained the rebellious slave before she had a chance to harm the child. But he wasn't done yet.

Naruto's grip tightened around the Twilek's wrist, and the sounds of bones snapping could be heard by those around them. Out of pure reflex to the pain she was feeling in her arm, the Twilek released her grip on the knife and let the blade clatter on the ground.

Looking up to his aunt, who was now out of the cover of the crowd, Naruto nodded his head towards the Huttlet still in the slave girl's arms. Understanding what he was implying, Bo sped walked over to the two, her eyes set squarely on the child.

Wriggling her arms through the Twilek's grip and securely around baby's form, Bo pulled the Huttlet out of the slave's grip and into her own.

Looking down at the little child, who had started crying from all the commotion, in her arms, Bo felt the motherly instincts in that every woman in the galaxy possessed when an infant was unhappy, even if the infant in this case has the likeness of a slimy insect (3).

"Shhh. Shhhh. It's okay, little one. You're safe now." She whispered softly.

Turning to Jabba, Bo headed over to the giant slug's position, intent on returning the newborn to his father as soon as possible. As she walked, Bo rhythmically bounced the Huttlet in her arms to keep him calm.

Almost as soon as his arms could reach, Jabba took his son out of Bo's arms and embraced him the best he could with his short arms.

Turning his attention to the white armored Mandalorian, Jabba spoke.

"The mighty Jabba thanks you, Shadow Two." The droid translated.

From underneath her helmet, the female Shadow smiled in respect.

The sound of the slave girl choking caused Bo and Jabba to look back at Naruto.

The mercenary had visibly tightened his grip around the slave girl's throat and. although no one could see due to the helmet, had a look of cold death iced over his blue eyes. The Twilek slave's eyes, however, were slowly becoming more and more bloodshot and teary as her lungs tried to gather oxygen.

In a desperate attempt at escape, the slave lashed her free arm wildly at the mercenary behind her to strike him. Most of her attacks missed Naruto, and the few that hit him didn't have that much force behind it. A slave's diet doesn't help build muscle it seems.

Bringing his head next to her ear, the leader of the Shadows spoke.

"I sympathize with you, I really do." Naruto whispered over the slave's choking.

Every single person's eyes were focused on the Mandalorian as he suffocated the hostage taking slave, her face turning a deeper shade of blue than its usually skin tone. The tears that her eyes held back now ran freely down her face.

"But you became just as bad as him the moment that you pressed that blade against a newborn's neck."

Bringing his right hand up to her chin and the hand that was gripping her wrist to the back of her head, Naruto forced her skull to twist violently to the right.

A sickening snap echoed throughout the room, signaling that the slave girl's spinal cord was severed from her skull.

Loosening his grip from the Twilek's now limp body, the Mandalorian let the corpse fall to the ground on its own.

"Sorry for the mess, boss." Naruto said to Jabba, finally interacting with the Hutt for the first time since arriving.

The Hutt was staring at the corpse with a mixed expression of happiness and disappointment, and Naruto had a guess for why the latter.

If the slave survived, Jabba would more than likely keep her around for the most horrifying types of torture he could think of to either send a message, get payback, or a mixture of both. That's why Naruto went ahead and snapped her neck.

It was a Mercy kill.

Jabba's booming voice snapped Naruto out of his thoughts and back to the moment at hand.

"The mighty Jabba accepts your apology, Shadow One." The droid translated.

After that, things returned to the way they were before the incident almost immediately. A couple of Jabba's men came and removed the body from the center of the room, and little by little, people began returning to the joyous and celebratory mood were meant to have.

The line of people with gifts didn't reform as quickly as the dancing crowd, which gave Naruto a chance to converse with his employer.

"How is he, sir?" The Mandalorian asked with respect and sincerity.

Jabba was still holding his son, which was understandable given what just happened a few minutes ago, and responded to the question in his native language.

"Other than a slight cut, he is as healthy and strong as can be expected from the son of Jabba. Though it would not have been the case without you, Shadow One."

Naruto, since his face was hidden from view, shrugged his shoulders.

"Just doing what my boss would want. So, does he have a name?"

For the first time in a long time, Jabba said a word that Naruto didn't need translated for him.

"Rotta."

Smiling underneath his helmet, Naruto leaned in to get a look at the face of the newly named Rotta. The bundle moved slightly in Jabba's arms and the whiskered mercenary reached to pull back the covers to get a look at his employer's son.

However, just as he was about to, the Mandalorian remembered the events that had just happened and how Jabba might feel about such actions after said events.

Looking up at the crime lord with an aura and tone of respect, the whiskered mercenary went about making sure what he was doing was acceptable.

"May I?"

Jabba looked on with the smile of a proud father and nodded his head for the mercenary to continue in his actions

Naruto smiled from underneath his helmet in relief before reaching again, and using only a finger, pulled away the blue blanket to reveal the child inside.

Naruto had to suppress a giggle, because for all intents and purposes, Rotta looked like a mini Jabba.

"Hi there, Rotta. My name's Shadow One." He said in a soft voice, as to not cause the infant any more distress then he had already been subjugated to for the day.

Reaching out with a finger, Naruto was surprised to see Rotta reach out and grasp the appendage with one of his tiny hands, giggling the entire time.

Smiling at the Huttlet's actions, Naruto leaned in close to Rotta's ear.

"But between you and me, you can just call me Uncle Naru." He whispered so that Jabba wouldn't hear him.

The newborn Huttlet cooed happily in response as the whiskered mercenary pulled back.

Naruto chuckled at the reaction, and he was going to continue interacting with the child but was interrupted when Rotta's father spoke.

"Not that the mighty Jabba wishes to sound ungrateful, but he wishes to know. Did you bring a gift for his son?" The droid asked for its master.

Naruto cringed slightly.

He knew that this topic of conversation was going to happen eventually, but the whiskered mercenary wanted to hold it off for as long as possible.

"Sorry, boss. I didn't know we were supposed to bring one until it was too late. Is there something that the little guy doesn't have yet that I could get him?"

However, contrary to what Naruto originally thought before, Jabba didn't show any signs of anger. In fact, the crime lord of Tatooine's reaction seemed to be the opposite.

His large mouth contorting into a happy grin, Jabba once again spoke in his language, which his droid translated.

"The mighty Jabba has an idea."

End Flashback

And just like that, Naruto was made Rotta's bodyguard.

Naruto wasn't sure why him specifically for the most part. His group, besides the mandatory soldier training, was mostly specialized in assassinations, covert missions, and other similar subjects. Maybe the Hutt saw something in the Mandalorian that he didn't see in himself, or maybe he just wanted his best man on it.

Whatever the Hutt's reasoning was, he made the right choice in Naruto, for now all that the whiskered mercenary cared about was getting the crime lord's son home.

However, if Naruto was going to do this, he was going to do it right. His mind racing, the Mandalorian began formulating plans mentally about how to successfully complete his objective. The mercenary was currently thinking about stealing a suit of clone armor from a dead trooper and disguising himself with it while delivering Rotta, but the thought was interrupted when he realized one obstacle that he would need to overcome in order to get the Huttlet to the Republic safely.

Ventress.

Naruto wasn't so sure that the Sith assassin would be pleased at the fact that he was about to go AWOL and help the enemy accomplish their mission.

He wasn't planning on it being a permanent thing. Don't get the wrong impression, the Mandalorian wasn't going to have The Shadows suddenly change sides and fight the Separatists that had hired them. He couldn't do it, not with what was at stake.

Naruto could not stress how important it was that his deception was not discovered. The consequences were too dire for it to happen.

Back on the subject of Ventress, the Mandalorian knew that she had some good in her, somewhere. He had seen glimpses of it a few times since they were first partnered up, examples being during their argument before attacking the Barge and the way Ventress almost looked sick when she finally saw Rotta.

And even if he was wrong about that, Naruto had a feeling if he handled the delivery, and not get his head lopped off by a laser sword in the process, he could convince her just this once, especially if what he had suspected of her was true.

The Mandalorian was brought out of his thoughts by the sounds of blaster fire and droids screaming emanated from outside the cell door.

"Dammit." Naruto whispered as the sounds grew closer.

He could hear the sounds of lightsabers cutting through metal and could only assume that it was whatever Jedi leading the clones coming down there to personally get Rotta.

Internally cursing himself for taking too long, Naruto tried to think of a way to get out of Rotta's cell without being seen. That task appeared to be impossible since all of the cells were a part of the same corridor which was just one single hallway.

He could use a smoke grenade as soon as the Jedi open the door and escape in the confusion, but the cell was tiny, meaning that the vaporized concealment wouldn't space out and would cause damage to Rotta's still developing lungs if he breathed it in.

If he ran out of the cell and down the hallway to the other exit, the Jedi at the other end would see him, which would make them want hurry to get Rotta-

All thoughts came to a halt as the whiskered mercenary's eyes widened in realization.

This was exactly what he needed to help get Rotta out of Dooku's clutches.

You see, the agreed plan between Naruto and Ventress was to stay out of sight until the Republic was ambushed by the Separatist fleet. The reason behind it was because if the Jedi saw either her or Naruto, both much more dangerous than battle droids, then they would be in a much greater hurry to leave the planet.

If the Jedi saw him, he could 'fight' them and end up 'losing.' Then while they went to get Rotta, he would escape and get back to Ventress.

The Jedi, paranoid that Naruto would attempt to get Rotta back, would get off the planet as soon as possible, missing the Separatist fleet in the process!

But he needed to make his end of the fight look good. There was no other way around it. He couldn't just give Rotta to the Jedi. That would take away their incentive to leave in a hurry and also leave the chance that Dooku would learn of his betrayal.

Naruto wasn't sure if the Jedi that were currently out in the hall were the kind to take prisoners or the kind to take heads. They were going to go after him with the intent to kill, and Naruto wasn't 100% certain if he was skilled enough take on one, maybe two, magical space wizards on his own while holding back.

It was possible that he was just going to have to hope for the best and go out there.

Placing the Huttlet situated in his lap on the ground, Naruto stood up from the cell's bench. Unholstering his blasters, the mercenary was about to walk out of the room when the sound of Rotta crying reached his ears.

Turning his head back down to the small slug, Naruto felt his heart shatter slightly when he saw that the Huttlet had tears streaming down his eyes and was reaching up to him, wanting to be held.

Kneeling down in front of Rotta, Naruto placed his pistols down and wiped away some of the tears on his former charge's face.

A thought occurred in the whiskered mercenary's head as he was comforting his former charge.

Rotta really, really didn't like strangers. So much so that he would do everything he could to get away from them. If what Naruto had planned worked, then Rotta would be with two people he had never seen before and the Mandalorian would be long gone.

Tears would be shed, and the Huttlet would have a tantrum the entire time until either Naruto returned, or if he saw his father on Tatooine.

Of course, the Jedi would take him, but it would be with Rotta kicking and screaming. The Huttlet didn't like strangers, plain and simple, and he especially didn't like strangers showing up and taking him when he was expecting someone else in their place.

It was most likely that he would try to get away from them at first, and that could end up putting him in danger.

Guiding the Huttlet's face with his hand to where he was staring at the Mandalorian's orange visor, Naruto spoke with an atmosphere of seriousness.

"Rotta, buddy, I need to go out there and handle something, okay?"

Before Rotta could deny him, Naruto continued, this time with a tone that screamed 'do not argue with me.'

"On the off chance that I don't come back right away, there'll be some nice people coming to take you home to your dad."

Rotta objected and let out a few gurgles of baby speech.

"I'm not saying that it will happen, but if it does, I want you to promise you'll be good for them and do what they say, okay?"

It appeared that he had gotten through to Rotta, for the slug son of a crime lord nodded sadly as his arms dropped down and hung at his sides.

Nodding back to the Huttlet, Naruto turned to the cell door, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath before opening the door and stepping through into the hallway.

Opening his ocular organs, Naruto scanned the area for his targets.

The corridor was empty on the side that led to the second exit and the store room, but the Mandalorian could see two figures standing a few yards away in the other that led to the upper areas of the temple.

Deducing that were the Jedi thanks to common sense, Naruto began to casually stroll towards the figures at a leisurely pace.

As he got closer and closer to the voices, their muffled words became clearer and clearer and two figures soon started to become more detailed.

"Nice, you remembered to destroy their weapons first."

'Isn't that the Jedi I hit with a rock?' Naruto inquired in his head.

Shaking his head and looking again, Naruto saw that his vision was indeed not playing tricks on him, and

Turning his attention to the other Force wielder, Naruto was surprised to see that it wasn't the bearded man that had knocked his helmet off, but instead it was a Torguta girl, a young one at that. She couldn't have been more that fourteen or fifteen years old.

Naruto grimaced at that thought. He hated fighting kids. They didn't belong on the battlefield, they belonged at home, or out in the world experiencing life, not taking it.

"But," Anakin began, snapping Naruto out of his thought process

The scarred Jedi the activated his sapphire blade, flipped it into an underhand grip, and stabbed behind him. The sound of the saber cutting through metal was heard, and a battle droid that was hiding in the darkness fell forward with a smoking hole in its chest.

"Noooo…." The battle droid stated as the destroyed insides caused it to shut down.

"You missed one." Anakin finished as he sheathed his lightsaber.

The Torguta gave a look that told she knew he was right but didn't want to give him the satisfaction of her admittance.

"I meant to do that."

Naruto scoffed at that statement and decided that then was the time to reveal himself.

Pointing his blaster at the roof, the Mandalorian fired a single shot in the air. Almost instantly, the two Jedi were in defensive position, their hands hovering over the weapons attached to their waists and their eyes searching everywhere to locate where the blast was fired from.

In merely seconds, Anakin and Ahsoka spotted the orange and black wearing mercenary that was standing in between them and their destination.

"To be fair, both of you would be wrong." Naruto remarked, as if he hadn't just discharged his weapon in the air.

Anakin glared daggers at Naruto as he recognized the black and orange markings on the Mandalorian's armor.

"You." He stated with nothing but malice.

Naruto holstered his blaster and held his arms out in a way one might use to greet a friend that they haven't seen in years.

"Rocky! How have you been? Any better at dodging?"

Anakin simmered in annoyance when Naruto reminded him of that particular moment in their first fight. The Torguta, however, gained a confused look and faltered in her stance slightly.

"Rocky?" She asked curiously.

Grinning like the devil underneath his helmet, Naruto gave a response.

"He knows what I'm talking about."

FWAASH!

Before the Torguta could inquire anymore, she was interrupted by the sound of her master's weapon being activated as a blue glow illuminated the dark corridor all around them.

Anakin stared at the black armored individual that had bested him on Christophsis with a look that could give even inhabitants of Hoth a chill.

Naruto seemed unaffected by the activation of the Jedi's and instead turned his attention towards said Jedi's Torgutan padawan.

Ahsoka had to resist the urge to shiver at the chill down her spine when the Mandalorian's expressionless helmet turned to her and gave her form a once over.

"Who's the kid?" He asked plainly.

Ahsoka growled in slight annoyance. First that droid and now this guy? She was not a kid! Ahsoka worked hard to get where she was, and she wasn't going to let some mercenary scum let her think that it didn't mean anything.

"I am not a kid!" Ahsoka stated in irritation.

Naruto, acting as if he didn't hear her, continued.

"Sure, you are. Tell me kid," Naruto began, smirking when he heard Ahsoka groan at the word 'kid.'

"When you were little, did the Jedi tell you what you were getting yourself into by joining them? Or was it one of those situations where your parents decided for you while you were still in diapers."

Ahsoka seemed almost shocked at the accusation and quickly changed her expression back to irritated, causing Naruto to smirk.

"Stay focused, Ahsoka." Anakin ordered his apprentice. The last thing he needed was for her to lose her patience and charge at the Mandalorian.

'Ahsoka's her name, huh? Alright then.' The Mandalorian thought in the back of his mind.

"Doesn't matter whether she stays focused or not, Rocky, the question is still there."

Anakin, ignoring Naruto's nickname for him, was quick to reply.

"What if that was the case? From what I studied, Mandalorians back in the day pretty much did the same thing."

Although Naruto showed no outward reaction to Anakin's statement, he was internally cursing the scarred Jedi.

Anakin was correct in his statement about the Mandalorians and how similar their methods were to the Jedi. One of the few things that Naruto hated about his people's past was that back in the old times, as soon as you were able to walk, you were trained to fight. There was no choice in it. You would either train to survive or end up dead. There was no in between area one could hope for. Young Mandalorians would only ever have one choice.

Fight or Die.

It was one of the few things that Naruto refused to do when he started the Shadows. It was his belief that children should wait until they were older to make such a choice.

That's why he disliked the Jedi's method of recruitment. As he stated before, as soon as a child was found out to be Force sensitive, the Jedi would immediately swoop in and either convince the young and impressionable mind to join them, or if the child was too young, make a deal with their parents.

Shaking his head of the thoughts bothering him and focusing back on the matter at hand, Naruto smirked beneath his helmet when his mind thought of a comeback.

"But aren't you Jedi supposed to be so much better than my people?"

Ahsoka, out of either impatience or irritation at the whiskered mercenary's blatant disrespect for the Jedi order, pulled out her own lightsaber.

FWAASH!

Green aided blue in the hallway's lighting as Ahsoka activated her weapon and aimed the point of it at the mercenary.

Naruto smirked at the reaction he got out of her and prepared for what all three knew was about to happen. Hands hovered over his pistols, the mercenary and two Jedi had a Mexican standoff as one anticipated the other's first move.

But before anyone stuck the first blow, a thought entered in Naruto's mind, one that would help get Rotta to the Jedi and have him not hold back during the fight.

"Well then, why don't we make this interesting?" The whiskered mercenary asked.

FWAASH!

Reaching down to his belt, the Mandalorian unclipped his own saber and activated it, adding orange to the green and blue glows that lit up the dungeons.

Moving sideways to the two Jedi, Naruto bent his knees at an angle, then stretched his left arm towards Anakin and Ahsoka while pulling his right, the one holding the saber, as far back as it could and bending his elbow to where the saber was parallel with his left arm.

"Shall we?" He asked.

Neither had time to ask, for seconds after he asked, Naruto struck.

Play Pray by Jeff Williams (0:15)

Thrusting his saber towards Ahsoka in a spearing motion, Naruto was unprepared for the blue saber that intercepted his amber one and knocked it to the right, indirectly causing the Mandalorian to be misdirected as well.

Ahsoka was the next to make a move. Running up next to her master, the Torguta padawan slashed at the whiskered mercenary in a horizontal arc with her emerald blade.

Thankfully, Naruto saw the attack coming at the last second and used his rocket pack to launch himself a few feet backwards and away Ahsoka's potentially life ending attack.

The Jedi followed after him and working in tandem, slashed together at the mercenary's middle, intent on having their combined strikes cut him in two.

Naruto, seeing what the Jedi were attempting, held his saber's blade in front of him with both hands and blocked the two slashes with it. The sabers collided together causing a spectacular flash of white as the solid light weapons battled for dominance in a saber lock.

Looking for a way to gain the upper hand, the Mandalorian spotted his chance when looking at Ahsoka. Letting his left hand free of the burden of keeping the saber lock, Naruto closed his fingers into a fist and sent the back of it across Ahsoka's face.

The padawan, unprepared for the strike, was sent to the ground with pain ingrained into the side of her face.

Quickly shaking it off, the padawan got to her feet and focused her attention back on the fight. Looking for a weakness in the Mandalorian's stance, Ahsoka was happy to see that without her there, Naruto had focused his attention completely on winning the saber lock with Anakin and that he had left the side that she was at completely unguarded.

Grasping her saber with both hands, Ahsoka ran back into the fray, intent on striking the Mandalorian's weakness.

Naruto, seeing that he was about to perish if he didn't do anything, reached down to one of his holsters with his left hand, pulled out one of his WESTAR-35s and blind fired at the padawan while still trying to keep pressure on his side of the saber lock.

Eyes, widened in panic, Ahsoka was forced to switch from attack to defense and began deflecting the mercenary's blaster shots while trying not to direct one towards her master's exposed back.

Anakin, seeing his apprentice was in trouble, reached forward and grabbed the wrist of Naruto's blaster holding arm with his robotic one and yanked it towards him, taking the Mandalorian's aim off Ahsoka. Unfortunately for him, the scarred Jedi didn't account for the lack of pressure in the saber lock taking one's hand off caused like Naruto did, and the Mandalorian noticed immediately.

The whiskered mercenary pushed his orange blade back against Anakin's blue saber with all that he had, putting as much force as possible into the advance. Anakin, feeling his albeit weaker arm being slowly edged back towards him and also not in the mood for being wounded by his own weapon, pushed back and through some miracle, broke the lock. That ended up knocking the arm holding Naruto's saber back towards the Mandalorian.

The scarred Jedi didn't have time to feel successful, for the Mandalorian used the momentum of his weapon being knocked back and circled around for an overhead strike. At that moment, Anakin realized that he still had a grip on the Mandalorian's wrist and that his opponent was aiming for his robotic appendage.

Anakin's apprentice noticed the target of their opponent's attack moved quickly towards the two. Thrusting her emerald blade in between Anakin's arm and Naruto's weapon, the apprentice had to squint slightly when the orange and green lightsaber clashed together, making a spectacular flash of white light.

Moving fast enough so that Naruto didn't have enough time to react, Ahsoka forced the Mandalorian's saber away. Knowing that he would just do the same maneuver that she just defended against her, the padawan looked for a more permanent solution to incapacitate her opponent.

Her question was answer when she saw that her master's hand was still clenched tightly around the mercenary's wrist and that said mercenary was struggling to get out of it. Her eyes traveling up Naruto's arm, Ahsoka found the perfect place to attack and immediately went to work.

Crouching down low enough to where her attack would be most effective, the padawan sent an upward kick right to the place where the mercenary's upper bicep connected to the rest of the body.

There was nothing but the feeling of pain going through Naruto's mind as the upper part of his arm was forcefully shoved back while the lower part of his arm was held securely in place by Anakin's mechanical grip.

The pain only multiplied when he felt the appendage be ripped out of its socket.

"AARGH!" The mercenary roared in a mix of pain and fury.

Holding his saber in a reverse grip, Naruto made a horizontal slash at the two Jedi, causing them to jump back in order to avoid the amber energy sword.

Now that his enemies were far enough, the mercenary took a second to assess the damage to his arm. Trying to make it clench into a fist and only getting the fingers to bend confirmed what the Mandalorian already suspected.

Turning back to the Jedi, who were surprisingly not attacking him while his guard was down, Naruto gritted his teeth at the two Jedi in front of him.

Clenching his saber tightly, the whiskered mercenary let out a battle cry and charged towards the master and apprentice despite his arm being dislocated. When he ran up to them, the Mandalorian gave one final attack in the form of a slash at both Anakin and Ahsoka.

Anakin ducked under the Mandalorian's futile swing and stayed in the ducking position for his apprentice. Ahsoka ran up behind her master and, using Anakin's back as a stepping stool, launched herself in the air.

Naruto felt the padawan's leather shoe impact his helmet with tremendous force and was sent to the ground painfully with his saber being deactivated in the process.

Ahsoka, seeing that her attack was successful, immediately went back to her master's side and waited for the Mandalorian to get back up.

The man in question was currently on the floor, fighting off the disorientation the kick gave him. Blinking all of the black spots out of his vision, the blond internally groaned when he saw one single crack going over the glass in his visor. Then he remembered that there were things much more important in his visor, such as the two Jedi he was fighting, and began to pick himself up.

Anakin and Ahsoka tensed up, blue and green sabers ready to strike, as the Mandalorian, slowly but surely got off the ground and on his own two feet.

Holding his dislocated arm with his good one, Naruto stared at the two Jedi through cracked glass. Knowing that he was defeated, the whiskered mercenary said only one thing to the master and apprentice.

"Come on!" He roared/taunted.

Anakin and Ahsoka shared a look and nodded to each other before springing into action. Bringing both their arms back, the two Jedi closed their eyes in concentration before throwing their arms forward in a shoving motion.

Although Naruto didn't see anything that would indicate so, he knew what was about to happen.

Shielding his face and bracing his body for what was about to happen, the Mandalorian felt a powerful and invisible force strike his entire being, trying to push him back. Naruto dug his feet into the ground to ensure that he didn't go flying, but his were attempts were futile.

Little by little, the whiskered mercenary felt his body being push back by the invisible force until eventually, his feet were swept out from under him.

Naruto couldn't do anything to prevent his ascension to the air, so he was sent flying all the way back to the 'T' intersection part of the corridor.

Stop Pray by Jeff Williams (2:25)

Pain exploded from the nerves in his back, only becoming more agonizing as gravity pulled Naruto down to the ground, scrapping his back against the stone in the process. Landing roughly on the seat of his pants, Naruto cringed as his now limp arm bumped against the dusty floor.

Disoriented from the crash, the Mandalorian tried to stumble back to his feet, only to stop as his eyes from behind their orange visor, spotted a blade made of pure blue energy being pointed at them from a few centimeters away.

"Where is the Hutt?" Anakin demanded

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the Jedi from behind his helmet.

He needed to make this look good, as if he didn't want the Jedi to find Rotta.

"Try Tatooine or Nal Hutta. Hell, I think even Coruscant has a few."

Anakin brought his saber closer to the mercenary's person, moving he blade's point from Naruto's face to his neck.

"You want to try answering that again?" The Jedi asked threateningly.

Naruto chuckled slightly at Anakin's attitude before replying.

"Careful, isn't torture what leads to that bad side of the Force that you guys fear so much?"

Anakin gritted his teeth in anger.

He hadn't come all the way out here to save the son of the person he hated most in the galaxy, risked his life and the lives of his men, and most of all, get into a long argument about pronunciation of a species' name just to hear some smart mouthed scum crack some jokes.

Just before the scarred Jedi could do anything, his apprentice came running up next to him.

"Has he told you where Jabba's son is?"

All of the frustration Anakin had been feeling seemed to fade away as Ahsoka asked her question (4).

"No, he hasn't." He replied.

Just as he spoke, however, Anakin realized something now that anger wasn't clouding his though process.

They were in a detention center.

A guarded detention center.

And here he was, asking where a very important person was being held prisoner.

Anakin felt like facepalming himself for his own lack of common sense, but decided against it since it meant taking his eyes off the person he was holding at saber point.

"Check each of the cells." The scarred Jedi ordered his apprentice

Ahsoka nodded before heading back out into the hallway that had previously been the battlefield between her, her master, and Naruto.

The whiskered mercenary watched as Anakin's padawan rushed to the other end of the hallway and started checking the cells, moving to the next room when the one she checked yielded no results.

"So, Rocky. When did she become a part of the picture? Last time I checked, you seemed like the kind who liked working alone."

Anakin said nothing, but kept his saber pointed at the Mandalorian's jugular. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to keep Naruto from talking to himself.

"It definitely wasn't during the last time we saw each other. No, you were with that other guy, the one with the beard. What was his name again?"

Anakin refused to answer, despite his rising annoyance with the mercenary in front of him.

"Owen Cannoli? No? Ben Kebolly? Come to think of it, I don't really know your name either."

The scarred Jedi was gritting his teeth at the absolute disrespect that the mercenary was showing to his master and tightened his grip on the handle of his saber.

"I'm getting way off track here. Let's see. Since she wasn't with you when we first met, and the teamwork you guys showed means that you've had at least some time training together, then that means…"

Naruto's head cocked up in realization, and the Mandalorian chuckled at what it was.

"She became your padawan right when you were dealing with the 'surprise' me and Ventress left for you on Christophsis, didn't she?" He asked between laughs.

The Mandalorian then went to full blown laughter.

"Her first ever mission as a padawan taking place on a full-blown battlefield? Oh, that is rich!"

Remembering Christophsis reminded the whiskered mercenary of one of the more important events that happened on the planet.

"By the way, how did you like the little surprise that the bombs I gave Slick did to your surviving weapons? You have to admit, that was smart."

By now, Anakin was doing everything in his power to keep his temper in check. Rex had explained what he thought the orange paint splattered on the canons were for, and now the Jedi could say that the clone captain was correct.

And that just made him even more frustrated.

Naruto knew what effect his words were having on the scarred Jedi and was planning on going even further. He was playing mind games with Anakin, making him angrier so that he would act more recklessly and less contained. That would make it easier for the whiskered mercenary to make his escape.

He was just about to make more comments to Anakin to make him even more frustrated, but was stopped when the Jedi's apprentice finally found the cell Rotta was in.

"Master!" Ahsoka's voice shouted from the hallway, "I've found him!"

Anakin foolishly turned his head to look at his student in the hallway and called back to her.

"Is he harmed?!"

"I don't think so!"

Naruto, seeing that the Jedi were distracted by Rotta, decided that then was the best time for him to make his escape.

Using the hand from his non-dislocated arm, the Mandalorian dug around slowly in his utility belt for a smoke grenade. However, the whiskered mercenary's eyes widened in horror behind his helmet's orange visor when his fingers slowly wrapped around a familiar, bottle shaped item.

Pulling it out slowly as to not draw the attention of the Jedi, Naruto's fears were made real when he released his grip and the almost empty bottle of pills it was holding rolled into place in his palm.

Adrenaline began to move throughout his body, causing his heart to race and as a somewhat positive side effect, slightly numbing the pain caused by his dislocated arm.

Without that medication, Rotta would die. There was no way that the Jedi could reach Tatooine in time for Rotta to soak up the twin sun rays to get him back to healthy, and Naruto very much doubted that whatever Republic doctors the Jedi could get the Huttlet to would be able to find out what was wrong with him in time.

Knowing that he was the Huttlet's only hope and forgoing all sense of stealth and self-preservation, Naruto spoke up.

"Rocky!" Naruto shouted.

Anakin stopped the conversation with his padawan when he heard the call and turned back to the fallen Mandalorian. With curious but narrowed eyes, the scarred force user watched as Naruto unclipped the pill bottle from his belt and tossed it to him.

With lightning speed, Anakin snatched the projectile out of the air and looked at it in the palm of his hand.

The Skywalker's eyebrows rose, however, when he saw it was a mostly empty bottle filled with tiny, black, capsules.

Looking back at the black armored mercenary, Anakin signaled for him to explain.

"Whether you believe me or not, Rotta'll need those."

Before the Jedi could ask what the whiskered mercenary meant, Naruto finally found a smoke grenade in his belt and threw it on the ground, surrounding everything around him and the Jedi in an opaque vapor.

Unbeknownst to the whiskered mercenary and forgotten by the scarred Jedi, the latter had dropped the pill bottle in surprise when the smoke bomb was detonated, letting it roll off somewhere unknown to the two.

Instinctively, Anakin covered his mouth with one hand and swung his lightsaber in a preemptive strike with the other, making sure that if it was a surprise attack, that the Mandalorian would be bisected before he could do anything. However, once the Jedi Knight had realized that his saber had hit nothing, Anakin peered through the smoke in confusion, looking for the cause of the gaseous camouflage.

Naruto, determined to move as fast as he could to escape, pressed the button on his wrist blaster that usually activated the jets on his pack.

His determination quickly turned to shock when he didn't feel the usual heat on his back that accompanied the pack's jets. Looking over his shoulder, Naruto's eyes widened when he finally saw the smoke billowing from inside the pack and the sparks of electricity that came after.

It seemed that when Anakin and Ahsoka used their combined Force powers to throw him against the wall, it damaged his pack in the process.

Pressing the button again only led to more smoke and sparks, causing Naruto to start panicking. There was no way that he could outrun a Jedi without it, and Naruto sure wasn't going to try.

Pressing the button rapidly as an impatient person might do to an elevator button, the Mandalorian became more and more frustrated as each attempt mirrored the last.

'Come on, come on!' He screamed internally.

Finally, out of a combination of sheer desperation and frustration, Naruto looked back over his shoulder at the damaged pack and threw himself into the wall that started all of this, back first.

The Mandalorian's pack wearing back hit the wall with a loud thump and to his surprise and joy, the familiar flames of the jets ignited and pushed him forward.

In the smoke, Anakin heard some sort of collision and in a split second after, two small, blue flames came into existence inside the smoke. Before he could do or say anything in response, the flames jettisoned towards him at high speed.

The scarred Jedi barely had time to realize that the flames were carrying something human sized before having to duck to the ground so it wouldn't hit him.

The shape soared over his body, and Anakin winced slightly when he felt the heat from the flames graze his back. Through squinted eyes, the Jedi Knight saw the flames take an immediate turn towards the right corridor of the 'T' and out of the smoke cloud.

Eyes widened at realization at what was happening, Anakin sent a small force wave in the direction that the flames took off, clearing the smoke around him in the process. The Jedi's eyes narrowed, and then widened again, when he saw that his suspicions were correct, and that Naruto was indeed attempting to escape.

The Mandalorian was using his pack at full force down the hallway and towards a blast door that would take time to cut through even with Ahsoka's help.

Not intent on letting Naruto succeed and evade capture, Anakin chased after him while using the Force to heighten his speed.

The scarred Jedi quickly began to catch up with the Mandalorian's pace, something that both parties noticed immediately. Arm outstretched and intent on grabbing the closest part of Naruto's body, which was his foot, Anakin felt his fingers just barely scrape across the whiskered mercenary's sole.

"Stop!"

Naruto turned his head back towards his pursuer and was quick to react.

"Not happening!" Naruto replied in equal volume.

Slowing his jetpack down slightly so what he was about to do would reach Anakin, Naruto twisted his body in mid air and brought the heel of his boot across the saber wielding sprinter's face.

Pain spread across the Jedi's facial features, causing him to lose his concentration, and by affiliation, the Force connection that kept his increased speed. With the loss of the galaxy's supernatural force aiding him, Anakin's body immediately went back to normal speed, but due to the kick, also caused him to lose his balance and fall to the ground.

Anakin felt his feet fall out from under him and internally prepared himself for the pain that usually came with it. The Jedi's body came crashing to the ground fast, and through the robes, Anakin could feel like his body was skidding across the ground from the momentum.

Pain shot through his nerves from the skin involuntary scraping stone floor, and in an attempt to halt it, Anakin curled his body in a tuck and roll position and hoped for the best.

Fortunately, doing that did stop the scraping.

Unfortunately, the momentum wasn't gone, and since his body wasn't allowed to scrape against the ground, it began to roll to compensate.

The Jedi's equilibrium was thrown off as his body began to roll over again and again on the ground. At one point, Anakin felt like he was about to vomit. But thankfully it didn't come to that because eventually, the Jedi's momentum began to slow enough to the point where he could stop himself.

Holding his left arm out to catch himself before the next roll, Anakin felt everything inside him come to a halt as his open palm collided with the cold, hard, dusty floor. For a second, the Jedi thought about lying there to catch his breath, but then remembered the cause of his predicament.

Pulling himself together, the Jedi Knight looked up just in time for him to see Naruto reach the blast door.

The mercenary gave a sigh of relief when his damaged pack managed to carry him to his destination. That sigh of relief quickly transformed into a gasp of realization when he remembered that his escape wasn't complete just yet.

Once he was past the blast door, Naruto twisted his body to where his back was facing the ground and he was essentially laying on his pack. Aiming with his right wrist blaster, the Mandalorian fired a blast towards the door controls.

The control's metal wiring and circuitry instantly fused together when they made contact with the superheated energy projectile, and as a result, forced the door to seal shut.

It couldn't have happened at a better time, for as soon as Naruto shot at the controls, his damaged pack finally gave its last breath. The blue jets at the bottom were snuffed out while the Mandalorian was in mid-air, something the mercenary noticed almost immediately.

Gravity took over, forcing Naruto's body to the ground, back first. Unfortunately, like what happened to his Jedi opponent, the momentum stayed, and Naruto was sent flying down the hall like a blaster shot.

Thankfully, the jetpack that had gotten him in his predicament also saved him slightly. Due to his positioning at the time of the pack's shut off, the flying device was currently in between Naruto's back and the ground.

The whiskered mercenary's back made contact with the ground, with the pack in between, cushioning his fall and taking most of the damage that came from the involuntary friction of two substances.

Sparks ignited as the metal from the Mandalorian's pack grinded against the stone of the floor beneath it. The tiny fragments of ignited substance slightly lit up the hallway as Naruto slid across its floor. The mercenary winced slightly when some of the sparks managed to reach the cloth portions of his armor and burned their way through to his skin.

The pain was necessary sacrifice, for in addition to cushioning his fall, the pack's friction with the ground also slowed down the Mandalorian's speed greatly.

Naruto's body slowed more and more until eventually, the mercenary came to a complete stop.

The spiky haired blond let out a sigh of relief at the new development and took a second to collect himself. That second was then cut short when the adrenaline stopped flowing through his body and pain decided to give him a reminder about his injured arm.

He hissed in discomfort when his nervous system sent the pain signals to his brain and quickly grabbed his arm in an attempt to lessen the hurt.

Laying on the ground and wincing at the pain his arm was sending him from the shoulder down, Naruto only had one thought.

'Why did it have to be the same shoulder that got shot?'

On the other side of the door

Anakin was glaring at the door that the mercenary had used to block the Jedi with a fire in his eyes.

He wasn't going to let the mercenary escape, not if he could help it.

FWAASH!

Once again, the sapphire blue of his saber lighted the dark and dusty hallway as Anakin began to make his way to the door blocking him from his goal.

"Master!" Ahsoka's voice called out back from where Anakin had been before the chase.

The sound of his apprentice's voice made Anakin stop in his actions.

Something echoed in his mind right then, something that he had started to realize since Christophsis.

'You're not in this alone anymore.'

Before getting Ahsoka as a padawan, Anakin was known as a maverick type. Always reckless, always thinking about the moment and not the future, that's the way he's always been. The scarred Jedi always acted like that because he knew his actions would only affect him.

Now, he had someone to teach, someone to look after, and someone who relied on him for guidance.

Now, his actions didn't just affect him, his actions affected both him and someone else.

He had seen how Ahsoka had fought with the mercenary. Sure, the two of them together were able to beat him, but there were moments in the fight where Ahsoka was struggling to stay alive. Going after Shadow One now, although the person in question was injured, wouldn't be the best course of action.

Heck, going after him while he was injured could've been more dangerous since it meant that he could be looking for help.

That also meant that they didn't need to waste any time in getting back to the cruiser that they had circulating the planet, because if the mercenary was there, that meant Ventress wasn't that far behind.

Sighing, shutting off his lightsaber, and hooking it on his belt, Anakin rushed back to where Ahsoka was without hesitation.

Ahsoka was there waiting for him and was now holding what looked to be like a miniature Jabba in her arms. The miniature Jabba himself was holding what looked to be a stuffed animal tightly to his body.

"Where's Shadow One?" Ahsoka asked her master.

"He escaped." Anakin frowned.

Ahsoka sighed as she adjusted her grip on the small Huttlet in her arms.

The Huttlet himself was acting curiously. The son of Jabba was scanning the room, as if looking for somebody. Whoever it was didn't seem to be there, for the child's expression became downcast, and Anakin could've sworn he saw his eyes begin to water slightly.

Shifting his gaze from the Huttlet to his padawan, Anakin noticed something immediately.

"You've got a bit of a shiner on you, Snips."

Indeed, a medium sized bruise was forming on the apprentice's cheek from where Shadow One backhanded her during the fight. Anakin slowly brought a hand up and grazed a finger over the area, causing the Torguta padawan to hiss in displeasure.

Frowning at her master's actions, Ahsoka was quick to retaliate.

"In case you haven't noticed, you've got one too, Skyguy."

Freeing one of her hands from the burden of holding Rotta, Ahsoka used the fingers attached to the hand to press into the side of Anakin's face.

A dull ache echoed from the area Ahsoka was placing pressure on, and Anakin thought back to what could've caused the injury.

'Probably from the kick to my head.' He summarized after a second of thinking.

Deciding that enough time had been wasted, Anakin gently grasped his apprentice's hand and took it off the area that it had been placing pressure on. Returning it to her person, Anakin spoke in a serious tone that signaled that there was no room for argument.

"Come on, we need to get back to Rex and the rest of our men."

---

Tatooine-Jabba's Palace

Back on the dust ball of a planet in the Outer Rim, one Obi Wan Kenobi sighed as he walked up to his grounded starfighter.

Negotiations with Jabba were next to none after the bearded master informed him of the rescue attempt that the Republic was doing for Rotta. It seems that the crime lord didn't believe that the Republic didn't kidnap his son as much as he didn't believe that it wasn't the Separatists. The Hutt's reasoning had something to do with there being lightsaber marks on the bodies of the men Jabba had assigned to protect his son and the fact the only side that had lightsaber wielders to spare was the Republic.

Obi Wan, who had now discarded his Jedi robe due to the sheer heat of the planet, climbed into the cockpit of his starfighter.

"Beep-beep-beep?" R4 asked in his droid language.

Obi Wan wore his tiredness on his voice as he prepared his ship for departure.

"I know, R4. I want to get out of here too." He muttered in disappointment.

The main engine of the starfighter powered up as the rest of the controls came online. The hover mode of the starfighter came alive as the landing gear of the fighter retracted into the vehicle's interior, kicking up dust everywhere around it.

Just as the bearded Jedi pointed the nose of his ship towards Tatooine's bright blue sky, he inputted the final commands to launch into space.

'I hope Anakin's having better luck than me.' Obi Wan thought as his ship blasted off into the atmosphere.

Unbeknownst to the bearded Jedi, he had been watched by someone since the moment he arrived. A single hooded figure just a few feet away watched as the Jedi starfighter disappeared into the cosmos and out of view.

Count Dooku held onto the edges of the hood shielding his face to keep it from being blown away from the gust of wind that Obi Wan's ship left in wake of its departure.

He had been waiting for the Jedi Master to leave, so as soon as he was gone, Dooku could plant the seed of doubt in Jabba's head that Rotta's kidnapping was the Republic's doing. Now was the time to strike.

The Sith Lord gave one last look at the sky that the Jedi had disappeared into before heading inside the crime lord's palace.

---

Tatooine-Jabba's Throne Room

The guests that had stopped their celebration when Obi Wan arrived had officially restarted by getting drunk and having a good time, so it was easy for Dooku to sneak past them.

Jabba, however, wasn't in a partying mood like he was when Obi Wan arrived and had a stern face on as he sat in his usual place.

Dooku chose this moment to reveal himself.

The center of the room where Obi Wan had been standing when he had conversed with the crime lord hadn't been filled with the partying masses, and that made it easy for the elderly Sith to stick out amongst the crowd when he stepped in it.

Jabba's eyes landed on him almost immediately, and the Hutt recognized who it was after a few seconds.

Everyone stopped partying when Jabba sat up in his seat as he stared at the Sith Lord in front of him.

Dooku didn't even bother with the introductions and went straight to the point.

"Oh, great Jabba. I have news of your son."

Jabba's eyes widened a fraction at the mention of his punky muffin.

Dooku smirked in his mind at the Hutt's reaction before taking a step forward and lowering his hood.

"I have discovered that it was the Jedi who kidnapped him."

Multiple gasps were heard from the crowd in response to the accusation, and they were only silenced when Jabba began to speak.

"How have you come by this information?" The protocol droid next to him translated.

Dooku tried to make himself appear humble and somehow beneath the Hutt of Tatooine, something that disgusted him internally, but the Sith Lord managed to swallow that pill.

"I have my ways," Dooku began, "But more importantly, I bring a warning."

Jabba seemed to edge a little closer in his seat as Dooku continued.

"The Jedi are planning to destroy you."

Jabba let out a growl of anger and spoke.

"The most wise Jabba wished to have proof." The droid said.

Dooku again smirked in his mind when he saw everything happening as he predicted.

"And he shall have it." The Sith Lord replied.

The seed had been planted. Now all Dooku needed to water the seed was wait for his apprentice to contact him.

Everything was going according to plan.

---

Teth-Temple Balcony

Up on a balcony overlooking the courtyard from a distance, Ventress gazed at the enemy forces that milled about without a care in the world.

Clones littered the courtyard, either moving in formation as a patrol or conversing amongst themselves as they waited for their leaders to return. Some were also cleaning up the dead droid bodies that used to be the decoy force that Ventress had been for the last three days. Last but not least, a large AT-TE Walker was strolling about, which was possibly difficult given the size of the tank compared to the size of the platform that the entire area resided on.

Bo had went off somewhere after the two were informed that the Jedi were in the dungeons, and when Ventress had asked where she was going, the white armored Mandalorian had replied with,

"I'm going to help with the Nightfall Maneuver."

Ventress hadn't seen her since, and the Sith assassin was okay with that at the moment.

Despite the noise from the Walker and the voices of the clones, it was relatively quiet, something Ventress most desperately needed after the developments that came from the day so far.

In order from least to greatest importance, the first thing to cover was what Naruto did right after she returned Rotta's item to him and also what caused her to pause in her actions.

He had thanked her.

He had thanked her.

Ventress couldn't remember the last time anyone, other than 4-A7, had thanked her. Not Dooku, not the droids, nor anyone that the Sith assassin could think of had ever shown the tiniest form of gratitude for her actions, yet a mercenary, someone she had known for less then a week, had done so for something as simple as giving a toy.

Granted, Ventress would've never done something like that for anyone else, but after some pushing from Light, added by the fact that because of the assassin, she and Rotta now share some…similarities in their childhood, the apprentice of Dooku could say that it was one of the first signs that she was beginning to change.

The second sign of how she was changing was also the second least important development of the day.

Back when she was leaving 4-A7, the protocol droid made a joke and she laughed. Even though it could've been barely counted as a chuckle, it had still happened. It wasn't the first time 4-A7 had made a joke to cheer her up, but never, ever, had they been able to make her laugh. Laughter was an action she could count on one hand when recalling the amount of times she had done it.

Asaji Ventress does not laugh, unless it's the evil cackle she sometimes uses to get under her enemies' skin, and even then, the action was forced.

Thinking about 4-A7's joke in turn reminded Ventress of the third development of the day.

The arrival of 4-A7 was way too sudden and way too late for it to be a part of the plan. Speaking of which, 4-A7 managed to contact Ventress after the Jedi (thankfully) bought the excuse about him being the temple's caretaker and told her of what the plan was.

Once the Republic got ahold of Rotta, Ventress and Naruto were going to use the holographic recorder installed in 4-A7's head to capture images of the clones stationed in the courtyard below to make it seem like it was the Republic that had taken Rotta and were holding him at the temple instead of the Separatists.

That, combined with fact that Ventress and Naruto only used their lightsabers on the Barge, would make it pretty convincing that the Republic was the culprit behind the kidnapping, since they had more than a few lightsaber wielding, Force users to spare, while the Separatists only had two.

There was, however, one issue that Ventress had come across.

Why use 4-A7?

Ventress could've used her hologram projector to record the Republic's actions with the exact same quality as the one in 4-A7's head, and there was no doubt that Dooku knew that.

Another thing that didn't make sense was her master's reasoning for 4-A7's presence there to begin with. When she had contacted the Sith Lord, he didn't mention once about how it was possible for communications to be intercepted by the enemy once! In fact, when the assassin started to recite what her personal droid had gave as reasoning, Dooku interrupted her before she could even start to say it.

Something else was going on with Dooku and 4-A7, and Ventress had to find out what.

With all other developments discussed, the Sith assassin was left with only one last subject to cover, which was possibly the most important.

Light and Dark.

Just hours ago, Ventress found out that the two voices who had plagued her with suggestions and orders, each pertaining to either side of the moral spectrum, may not be just voices at all. She had discovered that there may have been a chance that Light and Dark could in fact be people.

That theory was both outlandish yet supportable. The fact that Ventress was able to see a smile made by Light, something that shouldn't be possible for a disembodied voice, was one of the main points for the side of the theory. However, so far this was the only piece of evidence that she had against the mountain load that was against it.

People that suffer from psychological damage did experience things like this, and given Ventress's…history, she may be a part of that collective.

But despite all the evidence against it, if what Ventress suspected was true, if Light and Dark were real people, then that meant that they were watching her. That thought just raised more than a number of questions in the Sith assassin's mind.

Who were they? Where were they in the real world? Why were they watching her? What rational explanation possible could detail how they were in her mind? And how could she get rid of them?

Ventress placed a hand against her temple due to the stress of all that was going on.

So far, none of this was making sense. Ventress was starting to care for others, she was starting to show emotion, the only friend she had was keeping secrets, her master was being more secretive than usual, and she was beginning to think that voices in her head were actual people.

In all the confusion, and in all the stress in her mind, Ventress could only think of one thing that tied all five subjects together.

All of it started at the arrival of the mercenary.

"Ow…"

The assassin's thoughts were interrupted when a voice, its delivery the same as one who was dealing with an immense amount of pain, spoke behind her.

With reflexes honed from years of training, Ventress switched from her calm stature to a stance of battle in a split second as she turned to face where the sudden noise came from.

Her battle stance was dropped however, when Ventress saw the subject that she was just thinking about, her now very obviously injured Mandalorian partner, standing across from her and at the second entrance to the balcony.

His visor was partially cracked, and he was using his right arm support his left, which was noticeably hanging limply from the shoulder. The mercenary's jetpack was letting off a small amount of smoke and gave off the occasional spark, indicating that some of the wiring was loose.

"What happened?" Ventress demanded, seeing the Mandalorian holding his injured appendage.

Naruto didn't answer and instead tried taking a step forward towards Ventress. Only to stumble slightly and almost fall to the floor. Thankfully, he caught himself on the side of the wall before his body could be damaged anymore.

Leaning his good side up against the stone wall as to not antagonize the pain sending nerves located in his injured arm, the whiskered mercenary focused his attention on his partner instead of the fire burning from his shoulder down.

"One of the Jedi from Christophsis. The younger one with the scar across his eye." Naruto groaned

Ventress gritted her teeth, knowing who her partner was speaking of. It seems that Skywalker had taken Rotta, and that the next part of their plan was to commence. Still though, if her master had just let her deal with them, they wouldn't need the rest of the plan.

Turning her attention back on her partner, the Sith could see that he would need some minor medical attention, and possibly a cast for his arm if it was broken.

"Why didn't you leave after giving the Huttlet his medication?" She asked.

Naruto grunted as he tried to shift himself into a more comfortable position against the wall.

"His body was going through the medication quicker than usual, and with how dark it was inside made it impossible to tell when he was going to need another dose."

Ventress growled in frustration, but nonetheless saw the whiskered mercenary's logic. It was better to keep Rotta alive if they could, Jabba would be easier to deal with that way in making a deal with the Separatists against the Republic.

That reasoning and seeing that the Mandalorian would be of no use to her in the condition he was in, was the reason Ventress walked up to Naruto and began doing what she could to heal him.

While she herself was no medic, they currently didn't have any other option than her. The clones had already destroyed the decoy droid force, and the only other assistance they had were Ventress's super battle droid escort and Naruto's men.

'Speaking of which…' Ventress thought as she began her inspection.

She hadn't seen any of The Shadows, sans Bo, since after Naruto first went down with Rotta to the dungeons.

The Sith assassin placed her hands on the sides of the mercenary's black helmet, forcing Naruto to look her in the eyes. Examining the exterior of the head protector, Ventress noted that there were no serious dents that would injure the cranium of the person wearing it.

"Where are your men?" Ventress asked as she worked.

Lifting the helmet off of his head, she was greeted to Naruto's familiar whiskered face, only this time it came with battle damaged features.

There was a medium sized, purplish bruise forming on the left side of his temple and a barely noticeable line of blood dripping from the left corner of his mouth. A small coat of sweat covered the skin of his face, either a leftover effect from the Mandalorian's fight or from the pain his arm, Ventress couldn't tell.

Setting the helmet on the ground next to their feet and placing her thumb on Naruto's bruise, the Sith assassin applied pressure to it to see if it was serious or not.

"Some are guarding the ships they came in; the rest are getting ready for the Nightfall Maneuver." Naruto replied, wincing slightly at his bruise being agitated.

Ventress cocked an eyebrow at that statement. This was the second time she had heard of that name and remembered what Bo said.

Taking her thumb off Naruto's bruise, the Mandalorian's partner checked for a concussion next.

Switching from her thumb to her index finger, the Sith assassin held it in front of her partner's face and between his eyes.

"Follow the finger without moving your head." Ventress ordered her partner.

Moving her finger from left to right, she watched as the Mandalorian followed her instructions and kept his shiny sapphires locked on her digit.

"What's the 'Nightfall Maneuver'?" She asked as she repeated the process.

Naruto, while still following the Sith assassin's finger, showed Ventress a Cheshire grin in response to her question.

"It's a surprise."

Knowing that her partner wouldn't give her the answers she wanted easily, Ventress didn't bother prying and just continued with her examination.

He didn't have a concussion, nor any brain damage, that was good news. It meant he could still fight if the time called for it.

Looking at the next two items that she had to examine, Naruto's arm and back, Ventress deduced that the smoking/sparking jetpack could be the more dangerous of the two, due to its high probability of exploding, and went to deal with it first and save the arm for last.

"Turn around, I need to take a look at that thing." Ventress instructed.

Naruto did as she said without argument and turned to where his back was facing her.

Ventress studied the smoking flight tool to see where she could open its insides and see the full extent of the damage.

"Where did you learn medical training?"

Ventress was taken aback by her partner's sudden act of speech.

It had been so long since she had thought anything remotely similar to that question. To her, it was one of those things that she always knew how to do. It was kind of like learning to eat or breath to her. The knowledge was always there.

The question made her think back a long way in her memory. The earliest that she could remember was during…

Ventress flinched when she realized she was approaching the memory of that part of her life. Almost immediately, she began to shut down, like she had so many times before, but unlike all those times before, something different happened.

Just as her psyche began shutting down on itself, Light and Dark spoke up, something that Dooku's apprentice didn't particularly welcome, given what had happened the last time she conversed with one of them.

'You can't keep doing this! Please, Ventress!' Light begged the Sith assassin inside her head.

Despite Ventress's current disdain and lack of trust of the two voices, Ventress found herself agreeing with Light and seeing the voice's logic.

What she was doing wasn't healthy, no matter how tough she thought she was. If she accepted it, accepted the memories, then she wouldn't have to deal with the pain of remembering before shutting down anymore. It would all be over, and she would be able to move on.

'But why should she subject herself to the pain of those memories? And what would happen to her after? It's her choice.' Dark interjected, conflicting with Light's ideology.

Dark's logic was sound in its own way, just like Light's.

What would happen if Ventress did accept the memories? What if the pain of accepting them was far greater than the pain of rejecting them for years to come combined? What kind of person would she become? Someone who finds what they're doing for the Separatist's beyond redemption. Someone who takes joy from the actions instead? Or would it be something in between?

And just like what happened on the second day of waiting, Ventress found herself in a stalemate between the two voices.

Both points were equal to each other in Ventress's mind. Not one had a logical advantage over the other, and Ventress herself was, she dared to admit it, scared of what might happen if she chose one.

For whichever she did choose, there would be no going back for a redo.

Noticing the flinch and prolonged amount of silence from Ventress, Naruto spoke.

"Does it have something to do with that past you don't want to talk about?"

Snapped out of her thought, Ventress realized that she was in the middle of something when the impromptu argument with Light and Dark happened and quickly went back to work.

Tracing her finger tips around the edges of the pack, Ventress searched for the main control panel. Her attempts were successful when she felt her phalanges hook around the edges of a panel in the center of the pack.

Pulling it out, Ventress was greeted with billows of smoke wafting out of the opening she made. Covering her nose and mouth with one hand as to not inhale the black vapor and fanning it away with her other, the Sith assassin brought her face closer to the opening so she could examine the insides.

"If it is, then you can talk about it with me." Naruto stated out loud.

Ventress ignored him and continued her check.

Although she was no mechanic/tech wiz/whatever specialist it was that repaired Mandalorian jetpacks, Ventress could definitely say that the thing was beyond repair.

Wires were disconnected and broken, any and all circuit boards she saw had cracks in them, and if what she smelled was correct, then fuel was leaking internally.

"You're going to need a new pack after this." She told her partner.

Disconnecting the pack's magnetic lock, Ventress placed the damaged equipment off to the side, leaving the Mandalorian flightless like her.

Checking the Mandalorian's actual back for any signs of damage now that the pack was out of the way, Ventress was somewhat happy to see that the Mandalorian's equipment had taken the brunt of whatever damaged it, and that the worse thing that she could see was that some of the black paint on Naruto's armor was scratched off.

Seeing that there was nothing else to see concerning Naruto's back, Ventress moved on to the final thing on her checklist, the mercenary's arm.

"Face me again." She instructed.

Like when she told him to turn the first time, the Mandalorian followed her orders, but unlike last time, he didn't stay quiet about it, something that was beginning to annoy the Sith assassin greatly.

Taking his left arm in both of her hands, Ventress slowly guided them up the mercenary's arm, stopping every few inches to apply pressure and feel for any sort of break.

"Like what you feel?" Naruto joked.

For a second, for one split second, Ventress felt her face heat up when she realized what the mercenary was insinuating, but then forced those feelings down as she continued her check.

Just as she reached the very end of the mercenary's arm, which came in the form of his shoulder, Ventress's patient spoke again.

"I was being serious back when I asked about that flinch. If you ever want to talk about-ow!"

The Mandalorian was in the middle of his continued attempt of convincement when Ventress decided that the best way to shut him up was to apply pressure to his injured shoulder.

Naruto glared at his Sith assassin partner, who in turn was giving him a somewhat cruel/playful smirk.

Returning her attention back to the shoulder, Ventress was about to start checking for what was wrong with it, now knowing that it was the issue due to the mercenary's reaction, when the hand that she had used to apply pressure in the first place felt something bulging against the skin.

Tracing its shape with her fingertips, the Sith assassin immediately knew what was wrong with Naruto.

"It's dislocated."

"Really? I was thinking that I just pulled a muscle." The Mandalorian replied sarcastically.

Ventress ignored the remark, knowing that if she were in his position, she would probably act the same way.

"This is going to hurt. We'll need something for you to bite down on." The Sith assassin stated.

However, just as she was about to start looking, Naruto stopped her.

"No problem." He stated nonchalantly.

Before she could ask what the whiskered mercenary meant, Ventress witnessed Naruto unhook his saber from his belt, place the leather grip portion of it in his mouth sideways, and bite down hard on it.

Giving her a thumbs up sign for her to begin, Naruto closed his eyes and prepared himself for what was about to happen.

Ventress gripped her partner's left hand with her right. Using her free hand, the Sith assassin dug her fingers into the mercenary's muscle to rediscover where the socket was. It turned out that doing that caused the Mandalorian pain, for as she searched for the socket, Naruto's grip on her hand increased (5), turning it paler than it already was.

But the Sith assassin continued, and eventually, she found what she was looking for.

Guiding Naruto's humerus to the socket, Ventress readied herself for the next action. Managing to get her hand out of the mercenary's iron grip, she used it to grasp his upper arm instead.

"You ready?" She asked her partner.

Eyes still closed, Naruto nodded an affirmative to her question, and that was all she needed to begin.

Trying to get it done quickly, Ventress immediately shoved the humerus into the shoulder socket and felt a bit of relief when she heard it pop back into place.

Naruto let out a growl of pain through his clenched, lightsaber holding teeth as his humerus and shoulder socket became connected once more. The pain only lasted for a second, but it felt like hours to the mercenary.

The pain finally subsided, and Naruto felt his arm return to the normal feeling it gave him before the dungeons.

Testing it out by throwing a few punches in the air, Naruto was delighted to see that not only had the pain stopped, but the arm was back to one hundred percent operational.

Reaching up to his mouth with his now healed arm, the Mandalorian released the grip his jaw had on his weapon and let the lightsaber fall into the palm of his hand. After cleaning any and all saliva that had been coated on it during the reattachment, Naruto hooked the weapon back on his belt and turned to Ventress with a beaming smile.

"Thanks for the checkup, doc." He stated cheekily.

Ventress didn't show any reaction to Naruto's tease and simply drew her attention back on the clones like she had before the Mandalorian showed up.

"I would've just left you in your injured state for letting the Jedi escape with the Hutt," Ventress began coldly.

"But thankfully, my master was planning on that."

The last part of that sentence was spoken with irritation in the assassin's voice, something Naruto noticed immediately.

"You're making it sound like you just found out about it."

Walking up next to her, Naruto folded his arms over each other and used them as support as he leaned against the railing of the balcony.

Ventress scoffed and kept her attention on the enemy forces below them before speaking.

"I contacted 4-A7, and he informed me that part of the plan was for the Jedi to be seen with Rotta so we can make it appear as if it was the Republic holding him hostage and not us."

She was careful in her wording, making sure to not confirm nor deny the Mandalorian's assessment.

Naruto nodded before looking down at the subject of his partner's attention.

The two stood in absolute silence for a few seconds, and Ventress was the first to break the quiet.

"Why did you get injured so much?" She asked suddenly.

Naruto didn't take his eyes off the clones down below when he answered.

"I was forced into a lightsaber duel with two people who were more skilled then me."

His answer was short, simple, to the point, and lacked a great deal of detail, something that Ventress noted came from someone who she knew gave complicated explanations about ninety percent of the time.

The Sith assassin needed to dig in further, so she recalled back to when Naruto first made the weapon known.

"You didn't have that problem when we were on Christophsis." She stated.

She of course was referring to when he saved her life from Kenobi and Skywalker's saber strikes by blocking them with his own.

Naruto didn't seem to miss a beat and didn't even need to pause to think about his response.

"True, but back then I had the element of surprise, after all, what's more surprising than a normal, non-Force user wielding a lightsaber?"

The whiskered mercenary tilted his head slightly before adding,

"Not to mention I had the best backup this side of the galaxy if poodoo went sideways."

Ventress's eyes widened at the comment, knowing that the compliment could've only meant her, before turning her attention back on what her partner was saying.

"And I'll admit, fighting the Jedi in the detention center may or may not have been the first time I ever crossed sabers with someone." The Mandalorian finished, scratching the back of his head nervously.

That was his plan from the very moment he brought out his saber against the two Jedi.

The Mandalorian knew that he was outmatched in terms of lightsaber skills when compared to two Jedi who had been trained since childhood to wield the weapons.

Naruto bristled slightly at the remembrance of that fact, but he quickly continued his train of thought.

He himself wasn't that well experienced in the art of saber combat, really. The only reason that he didn't make sloppy and impractical strikes was because he adapted old Mandalorian sword fighting techniques to fit a lightsaber, but that's not the point.

The point is that using mainly his saber, Naruto wouldn't have to hold back against the Jedi in their fight. From their perspective, it would've appeared that he was being cocky, something that his people's warrior past were known for being, and it would've looked like he had ended up being sorely mistaken by losing.

Ventress snapped her head towards her partner, her face a combination of anger and surprise.

"What?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders indifferently before answering her.

"Before being hired by the Separatists, I had never been in a lightsaber duel."

Her eyes narrowed in frustration, the Sith assassin had to resist the urge to lash out at Naruto with her weapon as she would have if it were a droid telling her the news.

Taking a deep breath through clenched teeth, Ventress thought that it would be best to at least hear his explanation on why he decided to take part in a duel he was destined to fail. After all, she trusted her master enough to know that he hadn't hired a complete buffoon to be her partner.

"If that was the case, then please tell me why you didn't use your other weapons?"

Naruto sighed before running a hand through his blond, spiky hair, and once again explained himself to his partner.

"The infrastructure of the dungeon was weak. If I had used any explosives, then I would've brought the entire place down on us. And the walls were thin enough that blaster shots would've just gone right through them. I didn't want to risk hitting Rotta accidently."

Ventress was forced to admit that the reasons stated were valid, but that still didn't excuse the Mandalorian from not taking other routes to avoid the fight.

"So instead of retreating so you would get off without a scratch, you decided to engage in a duel with an enemy who was trained for years with the weapon you used while you yourself only knew how to attack?" She asked in anger.

Remembering that he had to act as if he hadn't intentionally let the Jedi get Rotta, Naruto acted as if he had been angered by Ventress's statement.

"Hey, I know more than just how to attack, I've trained as much as I could with this thing ever since I got it."

"A fat lot of good that did. How did you train? By swinging your lightsaber around in an empty field thinking that you were doing cool moves?" Ventress snorted.

Now Naruto was getting angry for real. It was one thing to insult the level of his skills, but insulting his methods of training? The same training that Mandalorians of the Old Republic went through? That was something he wouldn't excuse.

"That was only the first week! After that, I started taking things seriously. Hell, I trained old Mandalorian Vibrosword techniques and adapted them for lightsaber use."

Naruto jabbed an accusing gloved finger in Ventress's face as he spoke.

"Mandalorians learn to use all weapons at their disposal! Anything less is an insult." Naruto growled out.

Ventress was taken aback by the mercenary's anger as it quickly overpowered hers and could only watch as her partner continued.

The whiskered mercenary, at this point, was full blown furious.

He just had his shoulder dislocated, the visor on his helmet cracked, now distorting his vision for the rest of the mission and had his personal flight pack rendered useless. It was safe to say that all that had made him annoyed.

Now Ventress, his partner, was insulting his way of life, and his peoples' way of life, one of the most important things he held close to his heart?

That changed Naruto's mood from annoyed to angry, and sometimes when he was angry, he tended to run his mouth without realizing what he was saying.

This was one of those times.

"And about retreating, there was no way I could without them seeing me. If they did, they would've known that there were more to worry about than battle droids here. That tidbit of information might just make them want to hurry up in their extraction a little. So, I thought if there was even the tiniest of a chance to kill them to stay hidden, then I needed to take it!"

Naruto panted slightly, saying all of that in a single breath would do that to a person, and waited for Ventress to say something.

The Sith assassin was still processing all the information she had received when she realized something.

The Mandalorian said that his and Ventress's presence being known could've increased how fast the Jedi wanted to leave. Well thanks to the same Mandalorian, the Jedi now knew that there were more threats than battle droids at the temple.

Knowing about how short on time Rotta was before getting sick thanks to Naruto, Ventress could assume that the sickness would start soon if it hadn't already begun. Since the Republic are the more moral of the two armies, it was more than likely that they would want to get the Huttlet off planet as soon as possible. (6)

And since the courtyard was the only place big enough for ships able to carry all of their forces to land.

That could mean that…

"They're on their way outside now!" Ventress exclaimed.

Shoving Naruto to the side and walking to the balcony's most interior area, the hooded assassin activated the comm-link on her wristband and contacted 4-A7.

"4-A7, get up to the balcony now!" She ordered with urgency.

Although Ventress could've done the recording part on any holo projector, her master wanted it to be done by 4-A7, and she was going to do whatever it took to make it happen.

"What is the matter, mistress?" A7's voice asked on the other end.

"The plan is happening faster than anticipated! Get here ASAP!" Dooku's apprentice replied.

While Ventress was focused on getting 4-A7 up there with them, her partner was trying to resist the urge to facepalm himself.

Distraction had become a part of the plan to get Rotta home as soon as Ventress told him what the next part of the plan was.

The whiskered mercenary planned to keep the assassin talking or get embroiled with what he was saying do much that she would take her attention off of the Republic, so when the Jedi arrived and began evacuating their troops, she would be unprepared.

But then she had to go and insult his fighting skills, and it all went downhill from there.

Cutting off the communication with 4-A7, Ventress turned around and pointed a cautious finger at the whiskered mercenary.

"You had best hope that 4-A7 gets here in time, or there will be hell to pay."

Raising his arms up in a surrender/dismissive gesture, Naruto replied with,

"Crossing my fingers and toes."

Ventress growled in frustration as she continuously shifted her gaze in between the two doors leading to the balcony, hoping that her metallic friend would show up soon.

Naruto himself leaned his back up against the railing and folded his arms over his chest, staring at the doors as well.

However, while his sight was focused on the doors, the Mandalorian's mind was focused on another thing entirely.

'This is just great.' He thought to himself sarcastically.

Convincing Ventress now was going to be more difficult than originally anticipated, she was agitated by his actions and would probably be in a negative mood when he talked to her. And if there was one thing Naruto knew about his partner, it's that if she was agitated, then the sabers had a chance of coming out.

But that wasn't the only problem he was going to come across.

It was possible that the Sith assassin would be able to bridge what happened in the detention center to the fact that Naruto wanted Rotta to go home when he asked her to help him.

Ventress wasn't an idiot; Naruto knew that was a fact. If he tried convincing her, and it failed, then it was possible that she was going to connect the dots and suspect that he already put things into motion for Rotta's escape when he lost in the detention center.

Of course, that would lead to her questioning him about it, with the more than likely chance that she wouldn't believe anything said by him.

Cue the sabers turning on and then cut to either Naruto dead with smoking gashes covering his body, or Naruto winning and have everything he worked for with The Shadows, Jabba, and pretty much everything else he cared about being destroyed.

It was just short of being a lose/lose situation, but Naruto didn't care.

He would do anything to bring the Huttlet home, even if it meant his death.

Minutes counting into double digits passed as the two silent agents of the Separatists waited for their third to arrive, and just as Naruto was ready to go inside the temple to personally carry 4-A7 back up to the balcony to quicken the pace, the door on the far right of the platform opened with the droid in question stepped through.

Unfolding his arms and taking his weight off the railing, Naruto was the first to greet the protocol droid.

"Took you long enough." He said curtly, narrowing his eyes at the machine.

4-A7 simply looked at the Mandalorian addressing him with his expressionless face and spoke.

"Protocol droids were not made for speed, meat bag." The robot replied with sarcasm.

"Don't call me a meat bag, you piece of scrap metal!"

Ventress wasn't paying attention to the two's bickering. Instead, she was focusing her attention on the courtyard again, searching for any sign that the Jedi had already arrived.

The Sith assassin let out a breath of relief when all she saw was that the clones had finished cleaning up the droid corpses and were now just standing around and talking.

Turning back to her two allies, Ventress felt the frustration at the whiskered mercenary return when she set her sights on him, but the frustration turned to relief when she switched her attention onto 4-A7.

The Sith assassin was grateful to see her friend was unharmed. Of course, she knew that he was safe when he called her to detail the rest of the plan, but sometimes the best proof that someone is alive is to just have them standing in front of you.

However, remembering the conversation between the two brought back the subject of why Ventress had the droid up there with them.

"4-A7." Ventress called out sternly.

The protocol droid had halted whatever insult he was about to hurl at his mercenary opponent and shift his attention on the Sith assassin.

"Yes, mistress?" He asked with as much respect as his programming could create.

Ventress smiled slightly underneath her hood before continuing.

"Get over here. We have no idea when the Jedi will arrive with the Huttlet, so we need to be prepared."

Almost immediately the droid followed his orders.

"Of course, mistress."

As the droid walked as fast as his speed challenged legs would allow him, Naruto watched the two with a brow raised in interest.

'She's different.' He thought with surprise.

Ventress had a sour mood ever since their talk, and from what Naruto knew, the Sith assassin always displaced her frustrations not only on the one who caused them, but also on others as well, droids especially.

Yet here she was, not only keeping her emotions in check, but also showing some form of respect to a droid. The Mandalorian had suspected that something was different about the protocol droid, especially when they were in the temple's main chamber, but now this confirmed it.

With Naruto's curiosity peaked, and the subject of the curiosity being right in front of him, the whiskered mercenary decided to investigate.

Clearing his throat, the Mandalorian gained the attention of both the droid and the assassin.

"So, what's the story between you two?" Naruto asked, using his right index and middle fingers to point at Ventress and 4-A7.

Ventress gave a confuse look at the question ad replied with one of her own.

"What are you talking about?"

"My 'we have history' radar is going crazy for the two of you, and to be honest, it has my attention."

Ventress stared at him for a few seconds before shaking her head and staring back at the troops gathered below.

"It's none of your business." She stated coldly.

Naruto raised his hands in a surrendering motion, showing that he got the message.

"Alright, I understand. But that means that I going to start guessing scenarios until I get it."

Ventress said nothing, showing that she either didn't hear him for some reason, or she just didn't care.

Which ever one it was didn't stop Naruto from doing what he said he was going to do. His mind began to think, using what he knew and didn't know about the two to create possibilities for what could be between the assassin and droid.

However, one thing came to mind that gave the Mandalorian a look of horror on his face that none had ever seen.

That scenario was just plain disturbing, but it was still possible. Hell, from what Naruto remembered, when Revan had become a Jedi again while still being an amnesiac, the Force user had come across such a case on Dantooine.

The thought of that possibility being the truth was driving Naruto mad, so much to the point that he finally needed to ask Ventress to put the entire thing to rest.

"Hey," He called out to the two.

Ventress and 4-A7 turned to the Mandalorian when they heard him call.

"You guys aren't like-close, are you?"

Ventress gave a confused glance at the mercenary's wording, not entirely sure what he meant

"What are you talking about?" She asked.

The Mandalorian sighed, knowing that the next few minutes were going to be very, very awkward.

"You know-" He began.

Using his hands, Naruto made a series of gestures that weren't suitable for children, signaling what he was trying to reference for the assassin.

"That." He finished, both in his sentence and in making the gestures.

The gears inside Ventress's head slowly began to turn, and after a few seconds, the apprentice of Dooku pieced together what the Mandalorian meant. It was safe to say that if it weren't for the hood of her cloak, Naruto would've been able to see Ventress's very red and very flustered face.

For a few seconds, the only sound that came out of her mouth were a few sputtered and incoherent words, a reaction that, while extremely rare for Ventress to do, was understandable given the unusual and intimate question she was asked.

Finally, the assassin was able to properly use language again, and wasted no time in doing it.

"By the Force no!" She denied with enthusiasm.

Naruto raised his hands up in an apologetic matter while the assassin continued.

"Why would you even think that?"

The whiskered mercenary raised his hands up even higher before he responded.

"I'm sorry! Some reason my mind just goes to the worst-case scenario when I have to guess!" Naruto replied.

"And the worst-case scenario is me and 4-A7 involved in…that?"

"Apparently so!"

Ventress facepalmed at her partner's absolute idiocy at the moment and sighed.

Somehow, she should have expected this. Well, not exactly this, Ventress doubted that anyone could've prepared for what conclusion Naruto had come to, but she should've expected that he wouldn't leave the subject alone.

Now for all she knew, he was going to continuously bring it up again and again with more absurd theories, something that she didn't want to deal with now or in the future.

Sighing once again, the assassin decided that it was better to get it over with and tell the Mandalorian wanted to know.

Even if it would hurt slightly.

"If you must know, then 4-A7 originally belonged to…" She began, gaining Naruto's attention.

Remembering of a time before Ventress's mind moved quickly to find the registered answer and get out before any unwanted memories appeared uninvited. Just like anyone that remembered, the answer to the mercenary's question was found easily, but unlike others, this one came with baggage.

For a second, for just a tiny, split second, an image of a person entered Ventress's mind.

He was a human in his early to mid-forties with brown hair that was tied into a small pony tail. Dark brown robes were his clothing of choice, but they were not Ventress's main focus. That belonged to the man's facial features.

Covered in a layer of tan skin that was wrinkled from years of making expressions. The eyes of the face were a sparkling blue that seemed to shine with kindness and warmth. On either side of the nose between the two ocular organs were blue tattooed patterns. A third tattoo was located right at the man's chin, underneath a small brown goatee that rose all the was to the man's bottom lip.

That was when Ventress felt her breath hitch.

The man's mouth was curved into a proud smile, akin to one that a father would give to his offspring. It was a smile that said that he thought that whoever he was giving it to could do no wrong. It was a smile that Ventress had not seen in what felt like forever, but she knew the reason why that was.

Then came the pain, the regret, the guilt, and the shame that always came with remembering that portion of her life, and it was too great for her.

Like a hand that had grasped a hot coal, Ventress's mind quickly drew away from the memory, intent on not letting it hurt her anymore.

However, she was just a second too slow, for while she was retreating from the memory, a voice called out. A voice that only caused her to feel more shame and pain.

"You make me so proud, Ventress."

And just like that, the assassin was back on the balcony, accompanied by the presence of a waiting mercenary and a protocol droid observing the activity below and not paying attention to what was happening next to him.

Almost immediately Ventress realized that the trip that she took into her mind, while it felt like minutes, was just a few seconds in the real world, and the apprentice of Dooku also realized that Naruto was still waiting on an answer.

Thinking that it would be best to not keep him waiting longer than necessary, or else she would possibly deal with questions concerning the pause, Ventress quickly finished her sentence.

"An old friend." She said with a shaky breath, hoping that he wouldn't notice.

Unbeknownst to her, the Mandalorian did notice, but didn't show it on his face.

'Whoever it was must've been very important to her.' He thought in curiosity.

The pain of remembrance stung inside Ventress's mind. She just wanted to complete the mission and return to Serreno.

Turning back to the enemy forces below and away from the whiskered mercenary, Ventress felt a drop of wetness fall down from her right eye and streak her pale cheek with moisture.

However, due to having her back turned away from him, Naruto was unable to see the assassin's emotional plight and asked another question.

"Does this friend have a name?" He asked, oblivious to his partner's emotional state.

Ventress gasped silently as the name flashed in her mind, along with more negative emotion.

Grasping the edge of the railing, the hooded assassin felt more tears threatening to fall as she tried to regain her composure.

Naruto noticed this, and after walking up behind her, grasped Ventress's shoulder in a show of concern.

"Beautiful?" He asked, hoping that by using the nickname, he would be able to get some reaction, or any reaction, out of her that was different than the one she was showing right then.

"Please, don't make me answer." Ventress replied, her voice was quivering and quiet, more so than any level that a whisper could achieve.

Naruto gained a look of confusion in response from not understanding what she had said.

"What was that?" He asked softly.

Her sight still remained on the clone forces below, away from him, and due to the hood of her cloak, Naruto wasn't able to see the sides of her face. That meant he couldn't see the two tears shed from either of Ventress's eyes and fall on the ground below.

"Please, Naruto." She started, this time with more volume, though the quivering had increased slightly.

The whiskered mercenary gained a look of shock at the sound of his name leaving the assassin's lips due to the fact that she would always refer to him as 'mercenary' the same way that he would refer to her as 'beautiful.'

"Don't make me answer. (7)"

He had struck a goldmine of nerves in his partner and seeing her like this now made him want to glue the rocks he had broken to get to it, seal off the entrance, and shut down the mine forever.

Nodding his head, not that Ventress could see, and giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze, Naruto spoke softly in his reply.

"I would never do that to you, Ventress."

The assassin said nothing, and Naruto felt like he was deserving of the silence.

Letting go of his grip on Ventress's shoulder, the whiskered mercenary walked over to the wall that divided the two doors leading away from the balcony and leaned his body up against it to rest. Closing his eyes and concealing the sapphires they held, Naruto thought about everything he knew about the assassin, adding the development that had happened just seconds before.

Ventress's character was an interesting one. She always tried to display herself as cruel and uncaring, something that Sith were known for, and she was for the most part. But there had been moments where she had been more than that. Short, simple, and quick moments, but moments all the same.

From what he had seen so far, the cruel and cold of the Sith assassin were the dominant traits of Ventress's personality, but every once in a while, the remorseful and moral traits fought to change that.

An example of one of those moments was back when Ventress had frozen up in Rotta's room on the Barge.

Naruto had seen the look of shock on the assassin's face when she saw the interior of the Huttlet's living quarters. If Naruto had to guess, Dooku didn't tell Ventress how young their target was or it could have been that the reality of what they were about to do had caught up with her, but that's another subject entirely.

The point that the mercenary was getting at was that in those seconds of shock, he saw a flurry of emotions shine through her eyes, and the one that he saw the most in those seconds was what caused him to ask if she wanted to continue with the plan.

It was refusal. Plain and simple refusal.

In those seconds, Naruto saw Ventress would not allow herself to do what her master told her to do, and the mercenary had hoped that it would've stayed that way. Sadly, through what the mercenary could only guess was sheer will, the cruel and uncaring traits returned, leading them to this point.

But the kind and remorseful were getting stronger and stronger, and eventually, they'll either overpower the cruel and uncaring or the two sides would reach a stalemate.

But why was she like that to begin with?! It was driving the Mandalorian crazy!

Naruto was a firm believer of the Nurture route of the Nature vs Nurture discussion on murderers and psychopaths, and while he knew Ventress wasn't either of those, he suspected that her upbringing and childhood were similar to those that helped support the Nurture kind.

No one was born evil, nor was someone born good. There was an equal balance of the two that was then they affected by the individual's environment.

Ventress's must have gone through some very, very traumatic in order for the cruel and uncaring to be the dominant traits. Something that Naruto couldn't even begin to imagine.

However, if the kind and remorseful were able to fight back, maybe even win against the cruel and uncaring, then not only did it mean that Ventress found some sort of escape from the torment, but there was a chance that he could use it to convince her to help with Rotta!

He needed to find the trigger for the struggle though. If the moments Naruto had been seeing only started recently, then there must have been some sort of common factor.

Looking back on their time together, the Mandalorian searched every inch and detail in every memory that had been formed while he had been in the presence of the assassin. He found nothing that would've suggested anything correlating to Ventress's emotional struggle during the beginning part of their short partnership. The same could be said for the middle of it during their attack on the Barge.

The mercenary had reached the memories of the day before the one he was experiencing today, and Naruto feared that his theory would be proven wrong.

However, a particular moment of that day came to mind in Naruto's head and unleashed a wave of clarity for the blond.

Flashback

Teth-Temple Courtyard

Day Two

"Since our mission on Christophsis, I've been catching myself trying to recall certain moments in my life that I'm not too fond of. In fact, I would've preferred that they were erased from my mind completely." Ventress explained, feeling a small weight being lifted off her shoulders.

"No, you don't." Naruto instantly replied, finally looking at the Sith assassin.

"Excuse me?"

"Never say that you want to forget your past." He started, shuffling a few stones in his hand.

End Flashback

It was her memories!

Naruto felt like slapping himself in the face for not making the connection sooner.

Memories shape a person's attitude and personality. However, if every single memory up to a certain point was repressed, then the personality that was created by them would've been repressed too. A new personality would take place that was created by the newest memories.

That meant that if Ventress's repressed memories are surfacing, then that could mean that her old personality could return and fight for dominance over the new personality.

More and more realizations piled up in Naruto's mind, creating a puzzle that was impossible to complete for the moment, but the whiskered mercenary did give a final thought directed towards the Sith assassin before focusing his attention back in the real world.

'Who are you, Ventress?'

The Sith assassin in question had calmed down enough from her sorrow to focus back on her task. The pain of the memories still ached in the back of her mind, but the pain was dull enough to ignore.

Ventress should have been angry, she should have been furious at Naruto for what he did to her.

But she wasn't.

Try as she might, the Sith assassin couldn't make herself feel any kind of resentment towards the Mandalorian behind her. Instead, she felt…

Happy.

It was nearly impossible for her to conceive the idea and something that she refused to show on her face. She had remembered, something that Ventress swore she would never do, something that she knew would cause her pain.

Yet she was happy. Happy to see him. Happy to see his proud and smiling face one more time. It was something that she didn't realize she missed until she saw it again, and it was all thanks to the mercenary. To Naruto.

The small feeling of joy the Sith assassin was feeling was like a spice (8) to her. She wanted feel more, but she didn't know how to go about it.

Just then, the assassin felt two other presences in her mind and knew what they were.

'I can think of how.' Light stated in a tone of suggestion.

The Sith assassin automatically knew what the voice was meaning, Ventress needed to stop repressing her past, but before she could respond, Dark did it for her.

'Those memories are locked away for a reason!'

Ventress then felt Dark's turn his attention away from Light and directed it towards her.

'Don't expect one good experience to define a whole life of pain.'

The struggle between the two voices was the last thing that Ventress needed right then. She needed to focus on her mission and for them to be gone, so she took a little risk.

Gathering up all the strength and courage she could, the assassin said one mental statement in her mind that seemed to echo throughout her subconscious, something that she wasn't sure attributed to how powerful it was, or if it was an assist in a joke where the punchline was about her head being empty.

'Not now.' Ventress thought.

Light and Dark were stunned, she could feel it. They said nothing, either because of the sheer strength of the refusal, or because the assassin had responded to their comments. It was most likely both, Light was shocked by Ventress's strength since the assassin had talked to her already, and Dark was shocked by the fact that she had responded to him. Whichever the reason was, Ventress didn't care.

After a few seconds, Dark was the one to speak first, but Ventress refused to play along.

'Ventress-'

'Not. Now.' She repeated with more intensity than before, something that she and the duo didn't know was possible.

Light tried to speak up, but the assassin wasn't willing to listen to even her.

'Child, please listen-'

In fact, the assassin telling them what she thought instead of the other way around.

'No, you listen!'

She was at her edge with everything that has been happening. Her master, Naruto, 4-A7, Rotta, and of course Light and Dark, all of them had caused some sort of mental stress or fatigue that pushed her to the point of snapping.

'I have been through more than enough stress today, not even mentioning the past week. You two, of all people, know what I have gone through and have even caused some of it yourselves. So, whatever it is, if it's one of those situations where whoever the hell you are won't leave me alone even if I demand it, then I'm telling you. Not. Right. Now.'

If she had been using her real voice instead of her mental one, this would've been the point that she was gasping for air.

The two voices were silent, now either shocked by Ventress's outburst or the sheer strength that it had carried inside her mind. The assassin was hoping that they would listen to her, and that in the possibility that they were voices in her head instead of people like she suspected, that Light and Dark wouldn't tear her mind apart because of her refusal.

Suddenly, Light and Dark spoke.

'Very well.' The two said in unison.

And just like that, they were gone.

Ventress let out a breath that she didn't know she had been holding. She had done it. She had fought against the two and not only win, but she managed to make them listen to her.

However, the Sith assassin quickly realized something.

If it wasn't for Naruto's strange thoughts about her and 4-A7, she never would've considered looking back at her past. If she didn't look back into her past, then she wouldn't have felt joy and hungered for more. If she hadn't felt joy and hungered for more, then Light and Dark wouldn't have emerged. If they hadn't emerged at that moment, Ventress possibly would never have stood up against them the way she did.

To make a long story short, Naruto had semi helped her in her achievement. Granted, if she went back a bit further in the timeline, she would've found evidence that could suggest the opposite, but the Sith assassin didn't care.

Going over the timeline again, Ventress stopped when she came across a specific moment. When she recalled who 4-A7 belonged to in order to shut Naruto up, and the question he had asked after, to be exact.

"Does this friend have a name?"

The words in her mind echoed out as Ventress thought of the answer.

Turning her head to her left, the Sith assassin stared at 4-A7, or more specifically, the droid companion's neck.

Protocol droids were a special kind of droid due to the fact that their limbs, head included, were interchangeable without the need for modifications. With them, it was as simple as insert Point A into Slot B, even a child could do it.

4-A7 had to be built first when Ventress first met him, so she knew how every single piece of 4-A7 fit together.

The protocol droid's neck and head were one in the same part, despite that a protocol droid's torso already appeared to have a neck. What most people didn't know was that what they saw on the exterior wasn't a neck, it was more of a plug of sorts for the neck attached to the droid's head.

For reference, use the 'Point A, Slot B' simile. Imagine the torso as 'Slot B' while 4-A7's head was 'Point A.' When assembled, the neck of the head plugged into the neck attached to the torso, combining the two into one singular neck. (9)

The reason that Ventress was able to remember this especially now was because she remembered the connection between it and Naruto's question.

As she stared at the area where the neck of 4-A7's head and the neck of 4-A7's torso combined, Ventress knew that it was still there.

It was probably faded with age, and covered by the grime created by machinery, but it was still there.

Right on the small metal tube that served as the neck for the head, concealed by the torso's neck, written in purple marker with horrible spelling and handwriting that only a child could produce, Dooku's apprentice remembered the words there.

Property of Ky Narec.

Ventress repeated the words in her mind in a somber tone.

How would he react if he saw her now? Vntress felt like she knew the answer, but the question carved itself into her mind.

The Sith assassin closed her eyes in regret and guilt.

It didn't matter how he felt. There was no turning back for her.

'I'm sorry, Ky.' She thought.

Feeling a cold finger tap her left shoulder, the reminiscing apprentice turned her head to see her fellow watcher staring at her with his expressionless, metal face.

"The Jedi are here." 4-A7 stated, his mechanical voice broke the silence of the balcony akin to a rock destroying glass.

Naruto's sapphire blue eyes shot wide opened when he heard the sentence and was immediately to his feet. Walking over to his two companions and squeezing in between 4-A7 and Ventress, the mercenary searched the courtyard below for who Ventress and 4-A7 had been looking for

"Where?"

4-A7's robotic hand pointed right towards the entrance of the temple.

Squinting, the whiskered mercenary could barely make out two forms amongst a group of clones seen gathered around the entrance but couldn't tell whether or not they were Anakin and Ahsoka.

Intent on solving the issue, Naruto reached into his utility belt and pulled out a small, pocket sized pair of binoculars. Setting them up to look through, the Mandalorian peered through the sight seeing device to get a closer look at the entrance.

It took only seconds for him to spot the orange skin of the padawan, Ahsoka if he remembered correctly, holding the green and slug like form of Rotta in her arms. Right behind them was Anakin.

"Yep, that's them." Naruto deadpanned.

Ventress, who had hardened her features back into their usual shape, tried to see where her two companions were looking at. Unfortunately, her eyes alone were no match for the robotic ones of 4-A7, or the assistance provided by Naruto's binoculars.

"I can't see them." She said in frustration.

A tap on the side of her arm drew her attention away from the courtyard and back on the balcony. Looking at where the sensation on her arm had originated, the Sith assassin was surprised to see her partner holding out a second set of binoculars in his right hand while still looking through his own pair with his left.

Taking them from his hand into her own and staring at the objects in disbelief, Ventress looked back at Naruto, who was still looking through his binoculars.

"Do you always carry an extra set of these wherever you go?" She asked with genuine curiosity.

Naruto didn't stop looking through the device as he answered.

"Don't you?"

Ventress had no response to give and seeing that there was no reason to look a gift horse in the mouth, she accepted her partner's strangeness for once and used her pair to spy on the enemy below.

---

Teth-Temple Courtyard

'Something is wrong.'

That was the thought that haunted Ahsoka Tano as she followed her master back to the courtyard where their forces were gathered.

The reason she was thinking this was because of the thing that she was carrying in her arms. Rotta the Hutt had a small body, as most children do and wore no clothing. Both of those made it very easy to feel the heat that the Huttlet's skin was giving off. And it was increasing by the minute.

It was only when Rotta let out a few coughs that Ahsoka decided to say something.

"Master," Ahsoka called out, grabbing Anakin's attention, "I think something's wrong with Stinky here."

'Stinky' was the nickname that Anakin and Ahsoka had given the son of Jabba, on the account that the child reeked like there was no tomorrow.

The Jedi Knight was immediately by his apprentice's side, checking the Huttlet for any injuries.

Don't get the wrong impression, he would be happy with one less Hutt in the world, but this particular one's survival was essential for the Republic's effort in the war, so Anakin had to put aside his feelings on this one.

"What's wrong with him?" Anakin asked with seriousness in his voice.

"He's burning up and coughing. I think he may be sick." Ahsoka replied, rubbing the top of Rotta's head to try and comfort the suffering Huttlet.

Anakin placed his non robotic hand against the Huttlet's forehead and was surprised to feel it burning, especially so because he could feel it through his glove. His mind racing, the Jedi Knight tried to think of a way to deal with the sickness. It wasn't long before a recent memory came to the front of his mind.

"Whether you believe me or not, Rotta'll need those." The mercenary's words echoed in his mind.

Could this be what he meant? Did he know that Jabba's son would get sick and the strange capsules that the Mandalorian had given him were the medication necessary to combat the illness?

Searching around his utility belt for the pill bottle that had been given to him just an hour ago, the Jedi Knight cursed when the search for it came up negative.

'Must've dropped it during the escape.' Anakin thought.

The scarred Jedi then took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. He needed to act rationally on this, for his emotions had been controlling his actions for a while on the mission.

After taking a few breaths to cool the heat within himself, Anakin began to think for a few minutes before finally reaching a verdict.

It was probably best that the pills were left behind.

Anakin's reasoning was valid, at least to him.

Shadow One was the one who was guarding Rotta, and he was a mercenary that the Republic knew very little about. They didn't know how far his morals were and what he and his men were willing and not willing to do for money.

He seemed like a man who liked contingencies. It was possible that he knew he couldn't face two Jedi at the same time, so he made sure that he gave Rotta something in order to increase the chances that if the Separatists didn't get Jabba on their side, then no one would.

The pills that Anakin had received probably did nothing, and if anything, they could've been poison and what made the Huttlet sick in the first place. Anakin had no way to tell at the moment.

He couldn't trust the word of Shadow One. The man and his group were working with the Separatists after all.

With all other options not available to him, the scarred Jedi did the only thing that came to mind.

"Medic!"

---

Teth-Temple Balcony

Naruto tensed up when he saw the first signs of Rotta's sickness begin to show and had to remind himself that he had given the pills to Skywalker in case of such an event…

…Only to tense up again when said Jedi called for a medic after checking on Rotta's conditions.

"Dammit, Rocky." Naruto muttered under his breath.

Ventress heard her partner's whisper and put down her binoculars.

"What was that?" She asked her partner, slightly suspicious.

Naruto cursed mentally at his actions. The mercenary had hoped his statement had been quiet enough to go unnoticed by his partner.

He was wrong.

Thinking quickly, the mercenary gave a response that he hoped that the Sith assassin would accept as believable.

"Just hoping that I get a chance to pay back the Jedi for what they did to my arm."

Ventress, eyes narrowed, stared at the mercenary for a solid minute before diverting her attention back onto the scene below.

---

Teth-Temple Courtyard

One of the surviving medics came rushing at the call of his general and was almost by their side in an instant.

"What's the problem?" He asked the Jedi.

Anakin gestured to Ahsoka, who then gestured to the sick Huttlet in her arms.

"He's burning up and coughing like crazy." Ahsoka said.

As if on cue, the Huttlet let out a few wheezing coughs.

The medic gestured for Ahsoka to put the Huttlet on the ground for him to examine. Ahsoka did as she was told and lied Rotta on his back and let the medic do his job.

Placing one of hands against the Huttlets forehead, the medic could definitely feel the fever coming from the child and made a mental note of it.

Next, he pulled out a strange looking device from his belt.

It appeared to be some sort of data pad with a cord sticking out of the side of it and connecting to the end of a pen.

Holding the data pad in his right hand and the pen attachment in his left, the clone pressed a few buttons on it with his right thumb. A bright blue light came out of the open end of the pen attachment and was then promptly shined all over the Huttlet's body. After a few seconds of it, the medic stopped and inserted the pen into the data pad, similar to a flash drive.

The data pad's screen immediately lit up and shifted through various images of different species along with a list of information next to each picture. The screen never stayed the same, only lasting as long as a second before moving on to the next one.

"Come one, come one." The medic muttered as the shifting of the images grew more rapid.

Finally, after a few seconds, the screen the transitioning of different images stopped on the screen and was replaced with a red symbol.

Sighing, the medic looked up at his two superiors and spoke.

"I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do."

The two Jedi were flabbergasted at the statement and immediately began to question the clone.

"Why not?" Anakin asked, folding his arms.

The medic sighed again as he stored the data pad away on his belt.

"We were never trained to handle Hutts. They're not a part of the Republic, so we don't have information on their biology. If I tried anything now, there's a chance I could make it worse."

Ahsoka couldn't believe her ears.

"Surely there's something you can do?" She asked.

The cloned medical expert shook his head.

"No, ma'am. Without knowing his physiology, there's no way to tell what can help him and what can hurt him."

Anakin sighed as he began thinking.

The best chance they had was to get Rotta back to Tatooine. Jabba would be able to know how to heal his son's condition, but they needed to be quick. They would be slowed down by the need of carrying Rotta, but Anakin had a solution for that problem.

"I need a backpack!" The Jedi Knight shouted.

---

Teth-Temple Balcony

Everything was in place. There was no sign of the droid forces that had originally been on the temple, the clones were in place that could suggest they had been there a while, and the two people they needed for the icing on the cake were in the dead center of the courtyard, struggling to place one son of Jabba into a backpack.

Speaking of which…

It took all of Naruto's willpower not to get down there and teach the Jedi a lesson when the sound of Rotta's screams reached his ears. It was even more difficult when the Mandalorian knew why the child was screaming.

When a Hutt begins to have symptoms like Rotta's, their skin heats up to extraordinary levels and becomes more sensitive to touch. The backpack he was being placed in was made of metal and like most known metals, its usual cold at room temperatures.

With how sensitive his skin felt and with how hot his body had become; the coldness of the metal was more intense for the Huttlet.

Essentially, the room temperature cold of the metal felt more like an ice that was frostbiting Rotta's skin, and the Jedi had no idea.

As much as Naruto hated it, it was exactly what they needed to paint the picture they were trying to create.

"Start recording." Naruto said while still keeping his eyes on Rotta.

4-A7's eyes lit up with a blue glow, indicating that he had started recording the events below.

While the protocol droid was doing his assigned task, his mistress was focused more on something else entirely. Her partner, to be more specific.

She saw Naruto tense up when Rotta's cries started and was worried about the implications of them.

Reaching over and placing a hand on the mercenary's shoulder, the Sith assassin was surprised to see Naruto jerk in shock at the sudden action before settling down again. Staring at his partner with inquisitive eyes, the mercenary silently questioned why Ventress had done those actions.

"Are you alright?" She had asked.

Although the question sounded sincere out of context, the way Ventress had said it made the entire question have an entirely different message in it, one that Naruto could understand perfectly.

Don't do anything stupid.

Taking a deep breath, the mercenary nodded an affirmative to her question.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be fine."

Ventress's blue eyes coldly pierced through Naruto's form as he waited to see what else the assassin was going to ask.

After a few seconds, the Mandalorian's partner finally spoke.

"Good."

And like that, the assassin focused her attention back on the activity below.

---

Teth-Temple Courtyard

Rotta wanted his new friends to stop.

The thing they were trying to put him into was cold. Too cold. It was so cold that he couldn't stand it. Try as he might to tell the two to stop, they wouldn't listen.

How could they? How could anyone? No one was able to understand him yet, and the only one that could understand the Huttlet was nowhere to be found. If only he was here, he could tell Rotta's new friends to stop.

He looked around everywhere for someone, anyone to help him!

That's when he saw it. The flash of unmistakable blond hair. It was a distance away, but there was no doubting it. Uncle Naru was there! Up on the balcony!

If Rotta could call to him and get his attention, then he would save him!

With determination swelling within him, the son of Jabba called out with all the strength he could while reaching for the Mandalorian.

Hopefully the whiskered mercenary would be able to get him out of there.

"What's he reaching for?" Rotta's female friend asked the other.

The two stopped their attempts to place Rotta in the metal container and began to turn their heads to where Rotta was looking at.

---

Teth-Temple Balcony

Naruto's eyes widened when he realized what Rotta was doing, and what it would mean to him and Ventress.

"Oh, shit. Get down!" The whiskered mercenary ordered in a whisper.

Ventress didn't' get a chance to react, for as soon as the mercenary spoke, he placed his hand on her back, and pushed Dooku's apprentice to the ground and behind the cover of the solid stone railing.

The Sith assassin was unprepared by the mercenary's actions, even more so when he jumped on top of her, and was about to demand an explanation. Before she could, however, the Mandalorian placed a gloved hand over her mouth and pressed the index finger of his other hand to his lips.

"Shhh!"

Ventress, definitely not in the mood to 'shhh', let out a few muffled words behind the mercenary's hand and struggled to get out of Naruto's grip.

The Mandalorian was adamant in his hold on her, however, and kept his grip firmly over the Sith assassin's mouth to prevent giving the Republic their position.

The Sith assassin still continued her attempt to escape the mercenary's grip and was about to reach for her sabers when an idea came to her mind.

Readying herself, the apprentice of Count Dooku opened her jaws and sunk her teeth into the palm of the gloved hand covering her mouth. The effect was almost immediate.

"Ow!" The Mandalorian groaned as pain began to spread across his palm.

Taking his abused hand off Ventress's mouth, Naruto glared at her as he instinctively tried to shake the pain away.

"Did you seriously just bite me?" Naruto asked incredulously.

Answering his question with another question, Ventress spoke.

"What are you-" She began, her voice at normal volume.

Her words were interrupted when Naruto's index finger pressed up against her lips in a shushing motion.

"Shhh!" He stated again.

Thinking that this was some sort of game to her partner, Ventress was preparing to yank the mercenary's finger off her lips and demand for him to stop, only to stop herself when she looked into Naruto's sapphire eyes and saw the sense of urgency in them.

Deciding to see what had caused this kind of reaction from him, Ventress nodded in understanding to her partner and felt the finger come off her mouth.

Now able to speak again without having to worry about someone's digit in her mouth, the Sith assassin began her questioning, this time following Naruto's instruction and keeping her voice down.

"What are you doing?" Ventress asked in a whisper.

Naruto scratched the back of his head bashfully for a second before answering.

"Rotta kind of…saw me."

The whiskered mercenary felt like facepalming himself from how dumb that answer sounded.

In his defense, it wasn't his fault. There was no way that he could properly explain his actions in the short amount of time Ventress had thrust upon him to explain.

Speaking of the Sith assassin, Ventress felt annoyance boil inside her in reaction to Naruto's sentence. That was completely ridiculous! She didn't even know where to begin to explain why the reply was so utterly incompetent and foolish

"How would a baby be able to see you all the way up here, and in fact, why would a baby seeing you up here cause you to act like this?"

Naruto sighed as he tried to find the right words to explain his reasoning with out sounding like a complete fool.

"To answer your first question, he has damn good eyesight for some reason. And the second…" The Mandalorian trailed off, still struggling with words.

After a few seconds of silence and thought, Naruto continued.

"As you know, being put in the backpack made Rotta upset and cry, right?"

Ventress nodded at the obvious fact. After all, recording the process of Rotta being put in the bag was an essential part of Dooku's plan.

"Like all children do when upset, Rotta was looking for someone to comfort and console him. That's when he spotted me and began reaching for me to come and pick him up."

Ventress once again nodded, showing that she was following his line of thinking.

"To the Jedi's perspective, it would look like he was reaching up at nothing. Curiosity would spike, and they would follow his line of sight to see what he was looking at, i.e. one apprentice to Count Dooku, one mercenary son of a Duchess, and one bucket of bolts."

The Sith assassin's frustrations were immediately destroyed when Naruto finished his unique line of thinking and was once again reminded of how the mercenary had a brain underneath all his brawn.

"Um, mistress?" 4-A7 said, breaking the assassin out of her thoughts.

Ventress looked past the mercenary on top of her and widened her eyes in panic. Noticing her ocular expression, Naruto followed her gaze with curiosity in his eyes, which just like Ventress, soon turned to panic as he saw what Ventress was seeing.

Apparently, not all of them were able to hide in time.

---

Teth-Temple Courtyard

"Isn't that the caretaker droid from earlier?" Ahsoka asked her master.

After looking towards where Rotta had been reaching for, the two Jedi were surprised to see a familiar face.

Sometime earlier, before their spar with Shadow One, the two Jedi and their troops encountered a protocol droid who said that he was the one who kept the temple's insides neat and tidy. Nothing really emerged from the interaction, other than Ahsoka threatening the machine's life when he referred to her as a 'servant girl,' and this was the first time the Jedi had seen him since.

He was just standing there, unmoving and staring at them.

"Why would Stinky here be reaching for the caretaker droid?" Anakin questioned.

Ahsoka put her hands on her hips and thought for a second.

"Maybe the droids made him take care of Stinky?" She suggested with a shrug.

Anakin looked at the droid above with narrowed eyes. Something was setting off his 'this-is-suspicious-but-I-don't-know-why' radar, causing him to drift his hand towards his saber resting on his belt.

"Maybe." He said hesitantly.

Ahsoka didn't notice her master's actions and preceded to stick her hand up and wave her hand towards the droid.

---

Teth-Temple Balcony

Back with the Separatist trio, the two members that were hiding were waiting for the third to tell them what was happening.

"Well, what are they doing?" Ventress asked her protocol droid.

4-A7 turned his head just an inch towards Naruto and Ventress so that they could hear him, but also still appear alone on the balcony.

"The servant girl is waving at me." The protocol droid relayed uneasily.

Naruto and Ventress glanced at each other for a second and then back at 4-A7 with questioning gazes.

"Servant girl?" Dooku's apprentice asked.

If 4-A7 had eyes to roll, he would've done it then.

"The Torguta girl."

Naruto and Ventress's mouths simultaneously made an 'o' shape in realization of who the droid was talking about.

A hint of anger rose within the whiskered mercenary's chest when he thought about Skywalker's apprentice.

"Can't wait to repay her for dislocating my arm." He muttered.

Ventress looked up at her partner perplexed. Back when she was healing him, Naruto had said that it was Skywalker who had injured him, and now he was saying the opposite.

"You said it was Skywalker who dislocated your arm."

Naruto looked down at his partner in confusion.

"Who?" He asked with seriousness.

Ventress was about to snap at the mercenary for forgetting the name of their enemy, but then quickly realized that there was never really a moment that he could have learned it.

Sighing, Dooku's apprentice decided to refer to Skywalker as the nickname that her partner had given the Jedi to clarify who she was talking about.

"Rocky." She said it quick and plain, for she hoped to get past this and back to the original conversation the two were having.

The Mandalorian's mouth made another 'o' as his mind connected the dots and realized who the Sith assassin was referring to, and he was quick to answer.

"Oh, him. Yeah, he did."

Rolling her eyes in annoyance over the mercenary's lack of realization that he was contradicting himself, Ventress sighed at the fact that she would have to be the one to keep the communication running between the two.

"Well then, who was it? Skywalker, or his pet?"

"To be honest, it was more of a combination of the two, really."

A mechanical clearing of the throat was heard by Naruto and Ventress, interrupting their conversation. Looking to where the sound came from, their attention was immediately drawn towards 4-A7.

"Not to interrupt this lovely conversation, but what do I do?" The humanoid machine asked tensely.

Reminded of the situation they were in, Naruto began searching for a solution. Thinking as quick as possible and scouring all areas of his mind, the Mandalorian could only think of one answer.

"Just…act natural." Naruto whispered to the droid.

"And how do you suggest I do that?"

Naruto felt himself beginning to roll his eyes at the smart mouthed translator.

"What do you think, you dumb bucket of bolts? Wave back!" The Mandalorian answered angrily, though still in a dialed down volume so he wouldn't be heard by the enemy.

4-A7 growled in annoyance towards the whiskered mercenary's insult, but nonetheless complied.

Raising his right hand up and positioning it into a right angle with his elbow, the droid robotically (no pun intended) cocked his forearm side to side in what appeared to be the loosest definition of a wave possible.

---

Teth-Temple Courtyard

For a few seconds, the caretaker droid didn't respond to Ahsoka's wave, causing both Jedi to raise questioning brows.

"Something wrong with him?" Ahsoka asked in confusion.

Anakin folded his arms and glanced at his apprentice with a smirk.

"Maybe he's still mad about you threatening him." The Jedi Knight suggested.

Ahsoka felt her cheeks heat up when she was reminded of her rash and very un-Jedi like response to when the droid had called her a servant girl.

Just as she was about to retort, the caretaker droid finally put up his hand and waved back to the padawan, much to her delight and relief.

However, a question did pop up in the Torguta's mind.

"I wonder why he took so long to respond?" She asked out loud.

Before her master could stop her, Ahsoka cupped he hands around her mouth and shouted to the protocol droid.

"Hey! Are you still mad about me threatening you?!"

A few of the clones immediately stopped what they were doing when they heard the strange question being yelled, but as soon as they saw who their general's padawan was talking to, they quickly continued on with their business.

---

Teth-Temple Balcony

Anger and a sense of protectiveness came into Ventress's mind when she heard Ahsoka's question.

"She threatened you?" She whispered to her droid.

4-A7 said nothing, causing the Sith assassin to become even more angry.

"Answer me!" She demanded.

Ventress felt the mercenary on top of her tap her shoulder, gaining her attention. Looking up at Naruto, the assassin was surprised to see the mercenary staring at her with intense eyes.

"I'm sorry that the brat threatened scrap metal here, beautiful. I really am. But could you, oh, I don't know, save this for a moment that we aren't on the edge of being discovered and killed in the most violent and horrible way possible?"

Ventress was about to retort, but after a second of contemplating, the assassin bit her tongue and nodded in agreement.

Seeing that his partner wasn't going to be an issue, the Mandalorian turned his head back to 4-A7.

"Just shake your head no." Naruto told the protocol droid.

---

Teth-Temple Courtyard

For another few seconds, the droid didn't respond, and this time, both Anakin and Ahsoka were suspicious.

"There he goes again." The padawan stated.

Anakin's brown eyes narrowed even more than before and had to resist the urge to pull out his saber just in case the worst happened.

Finally, the droid shook his head no, and that only made them more curious.

Cupping her hands to her face again, Ahsoka shouted to the droid.

"Why are you responding so slowly?!"

---

Teth-Temple Balcony

"What do I say?" 4-A7 asked urgently.

Naruto's mind raced for any kind of response that would suit as an answer for the padawan's question. As he thought, the mercenary's eyes began to wander, only to stop when his eyes landed on a particular shape on 4-A7's back.

The whiskered mercenary gained a Cheshire grin as a lightbulb switched on in his head.

"Tell them that your low on battery."

---

Teth-Temple Courtyard

For the third time, the caretaker droid delayed in his response, and the long amount of time that it took for the responses to happen began to annoy Anakin greatly.

Just as he was about to decide to Force-jump up to the balcony and bring the droid back down to them, the machine in question finally reacted.

Shifting his feet to where his back and the battery attached to it were facing the Jedi in full view, the protocol droid pointed his right thumb to the latter of the two items and positioned his left hand to make a gesture resembling a short amount of something.

The pieces of the puzzle handed to them clicked, and the two Jedi realized what he meant.

"Low battery?!" Ahsoka asked/yelled in order to confirm that was what the droid was saying.

Surprisingly to the two Jedi, the protocol droid turned around and nodded immediately to their answer instead of waiting a few seconds like the times before.

---

Teth-Temple Balcony

"That's great," Naruto said in encouragement, "Now just act like you're going to go charge yourself and leave."

Ventress's eyes narrowed at the mercenary's commands and tapped his arm, gaining his attention.

"Why does he need to leave?" She asked her partner.

Naruto sighed before running a hand through his blond, spiky hair.

"We already have the recording, and if we're staying on this balcony until the Fleet arrives, then its better if the enemy doesn't constantly look up at our location."

Ventress cursed her partner's logic before looking up at her protocol droid. (10)

"Do it." She ordered.

---

Teth-Temple Courtyard

The protocol droid jabbed a thumb behind him to the door on the left side of the balcony, signaling that he needed to leave, something that both Ahsoka and Anakin saw.

"You have to leave?!" Ahsoka shouted.

The droid nodded his head in affirmative and began edging himself towards the door.

Ahsoka, not believing that a simple protocol droid could be capable of malicious intent, waved the machine with legs off to his destination.

"Okay! See you later!"

Anakin was a different story.

"Wait!" He shouted, startling both the droid and his apprentice.

The caretaker of the temple stopped in his tracks, looking down at the Jedi Knight with his robotic eyes while the Knight's apprentice looked at him with questioning eyes.

"Why'd you stop him?" Ahsoka inquired.

Anakin took his eyes off the droid and put them on his apprentice.

"Why was he up there to begin with?" He asked.

"What?" Ahsoka replied.

"I'm just saying that it's a little suspicious."

"You're being paranoid."

"No, I'm not. I'm just trying to keep us safe from-"

"-A protocol droid! Honestly, how dangerous could one of them be?"

"I-"

Before Anakin could finish his thought, an image popped into his head.

It was a scene where a gold-plated protocol droid had just finished vacuuming an apartment on Coruscant and was going for the switch to turn off the vacuum, only to trip on its power cord and fall down to the ground while somehow getting entangled in the cord in the process.

The Jedi Knight clenched his jaw as the memory ended and he was brought back to the temple on Teth with a padawan awaiting his response.

"I what?" Ahsoka asked impatiently.

Anakin said nothing. Instead, he simply turned to the awaiting droid on the balcony.

"Never mind! Go on!"

The droid seemed to relax at that statement before continuing his trek and disappearing from view behind the door of the balcony.

---

Teth-Temple Balcony

Naruto and Ventress let out simultaneous sighs of relief as their droid companion safely left the view of the Jedi, however, they did not move from their position.

Both of them knew that the Jedi would still keep the balcony in their minds for the next few minutes and would probably place part of their attention on it in case something happened. That meant that the assassin and mercenary needed to stay hidden until enough time had passed for the Jedi to focus on something else other than their location.

"How long do you think that we need to stay hidden before they forget about the balcony?" Naruto asked his partner.

Ventress guesstimated how long it would take, taking in variables to consider and soon after, had an answer for the Mandalorian.

"About ten to fifteen minutes-why is your face red?" She asked after drawing her attention back onto her partner.

Indeed, the whiskered mercenary's face had a red coloring to it, and that was putting it lightly. If Ventress had to put it into words, she would have to say it was glowing.

Naruto said nothing, but his sapphire eyes did find Teth's cloudy sky interesting for some reason.

Ventress, still confused, raised a brow and was about to lift her hand up to check if he had some sort of instant fever when she finally realized what it was.

They hadn't moved their position since Naruto first grabbed her.

Ventress was laying on her back with Naruto's form hovering right over her. The Mandalorian's left and right hands were on either side of Ventress's head and were assisting Naruto's knees in preventing him from lying on top of the Sith assassin. But despite the distance between them because of the whiskered mercenary's limbs, Naruto and Ventress's faces were still within close proximity of each other.

All of that together made it very easy for Naruto to see down into the cleavage hole of Ventress's top.

Almost immediately, like what any other woman would do, no matter who they were, Ventress used her arms to cover the hole of the top and tried to settle the involuntary heating of her cheeks.

However, the Sith assassin's actions caused the mercenary to blush more, possibly because of the fact that he knew she realized the same thing that he did.

For a few seconds neither of them said anything, too focused on cooling down their faces in an attempt to hide their embarrassment. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Naruto broke the silence.

"So, agree to never speak of this to anyone?" He suggested.

"Agreed." Ventress replied, her cheeks still burning with redness.

A few more seconds went by until finally, Ventress's blue cerulean met Naruto's sapphires again.

"Would you please get off me?" She asked quietly.

Naruto's head jerked when he realized how uncomfortable this was for his partner, and being the gentleman he was, immediately complied with her commands.

"Yep, that sounds like a good idea."

Rolling off the assassin while staying behind the sight line of the balcony's railing, the mercenary scooted over to the section of railing next to the Sith assassin and leaned against it, sitting criss cross style.

Ventress followed the mercenary's example by shifting herself up into a sitting position next to the mercenary and leaned her back against the railing.

The two sat in silence once again, either from embarrassment for what had transpired or because of the fact that the enemy below could still be focused on their position.

After a minute or two, Naruto though of a way to pass the time.

"Want to play Twenty Questions?" He asked in a whisper.

Ten to fifteen minutes later…

"Can it travel through space?"

"Yes…and no."

"Does it have fangs?"

"Yes…and no."

"Can you eat it?"

"Yes…and no."

Pulling on his spiky blond hair, Naruto groaned in annoyance at the fact that after ten minutes, he had yet to find out what Ventress had picked for her answer.

It didn't help that they were still on the first turn and that Naruto had gone well over twenty questions at this point, and the only responses that he had been receiving from the Sith assassin were only half answers.

"What is it then?" He asked in frustration.

Ventress smirked as her partner finally conceded and decided to put him out of his misery.

"It was the spirit of adventure." (11)

Naruto froze for a few seconds as his mind processed how that answer could've matched and not matched each question he had asked. After a few seconds, the Mandalorian spoke.

"…Dammit." He muttered as he hung his head in defeat.

Ventress reveled in her victory for a few seconds before glancing up towards the edge of the railing, the one thing that had been keeping them hidden from view up to that point.

Choosing to risk seeing whether or not if the Republic forces still had their attention on the balcony, the Sith assassin reached up and grabbed the railing. Pulling herself up, Ventress carefully peered over the edge of the railing and examined the situation.

Her risk turned out to be worth taking, for the forces on the ground no longer seemed to care about the balcony and were busy with whatever assignments that Skywalker was giving them.

Looking behind the railing and at her partner, who was awaiting the verdict, Ventress spoke.

"We're clear."

Naruto gave a sigh of relief as he reached up and grasped the railing like Ventress.

"Thank Mandalore." He whispered.

Slowly with Ventress, the Mandalorian pulled himself up to his feet, ignoring the sounds of his bones popping from sudden use.

Ventress herself stretched out her back, it popping as well, as she reveled in the ability to move again.

As she did this, the Sith assassin recalled of how the day's events, rough as they, eventually worked out.

Rotta was still alive, they finally had the recording to frame the Republic for kidnapping the Huttlet, and most of all, she had managed to quiet Light and Dark inside her mind and gained some private time with her thoughts.

Although there will still things that troubled her, the changing of her personality, the mystery of 4-A7, and the secrets of her master, Ventress ignored them in favor of savoring her victories.

Everything was finally going according to plan.

"I think we should let them take Rotta back." Naruto stated out of the blue.

Then that happened.

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1. Here's the link in case the description doesn't make sense. (I do not own this image and am simply using it for my non-profit story, if this isn't something I'm allowed to do, then please let me know.) .

2. Like gentlemen, if the joke didn't make sense

3. Had to google it, but it turns out that slugs are indeed a part of the insect class

4. I feel like I need to clarify this before it blows up in reviews, no this isn't an AnakinxAhsoka story as well as a NarutoxVentress story

5. Can someone let me know if it's possible to grab something if you dislocate your arm?

6. I know that it seems like the story is just repeating itself, but please remember that I'm trying to write the perspectives and thought processes of two different characters.

7. I know this isn't in Ventress's character, but to be fair, her story is a sad and traumatic one, and we've never truly seen the events brought up and discussed before the Nightsisters. So, I'm just taking a leap of faith on this, Let's hope I land on the haystack below.

8. Spices mean drugs in the Star Wars universe, right, or did I read that Wiki article wrong?

9. I feel like this explanation is confusing, so just imagine the plug in of earbuds and the headphone jack on phones as the head and tors respectively.

10. Okay, I'm just now realizing how I'm making Ventress dumb when it comes to these things and it's too late to change that. I will make sure this isn't the case after this chapter, I swear.

11. You get an entire bakery's worth of cookie's if you get the reference. (racsagadaM fo sniugneP nwo ton od I)

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So, what do you think of the new developments?

Does Naruto's change make sense in the way I describe it? Or does it seem a bit too easy? Is the way that he got Rotta back to the Jedi believable, or is it confusing? Is the plotline with Ventress, Light, and Dark seem interesting, or does it just make you lose interest? Before you answer that one, please note that I have a plan concerning them, it will just be far in the future, like season 3 or 4 of The Clone Wars.

And finally…

What the hell do you guys think happened to Jarko?

I'm going to be honest, some parts of this story I think may not be well done. When I read the explanations and motivations I've written down for characters, they seem robotic and not paced well. What emotions I do have the characters feel a little too intense for the situation, but I can't seem to find anything less to describe them. What do you guys think?

Before anyone starts to rant about how I somehow depowered Naruto when it came to saber skills, I would like to point something out.

Vizsla, in every saber fight he has ever been in (at least from what I've seen in the show), has always lost. The only one that I've ever seen where he was close in skill level was when he fought Ahsoka, and even then, he lost.

Naruto, in this case, is about equal to Vizsla in terms of saber skill, but I promise that this will change in the next few chapters.

Remember to review and give constructive criticism. Blades out.