Hey! New chapter coming at you, so sit back and enjoy the read. Read the ending notes because they will explain part of the writing behind the chapter. Enjoy!
TitsMcgee: Okay, I like your vote. This is what I look for in criticism. But here's my response; we have no exact time in the Naruto universe. Yes, they don't have cars or guns, but they have TV and radio. That's modern tech. But again, they were on their own like many planets before being found by spacefaring civilisations. Te Empire found them in the first chapter, a bit before technically, and introduced them to future tech. As for the Lord of the Rings thing, I don't like those fanfics but that's just me. Thanks for the review!
Chapter Seven - Helping a Lord
"Breathe in, feel the Force all around you. Allow it to go through you, to use your body for its host."
Inhale. Exhale.
"To take something, you must give something. The Force merely wants to feel what you feel when you use her power. She admires the mortality of every being in the world, and craves for it every day."
Of course.
"Now, lift those Walkers in the air."
Inhale. Exhale. Slowly, she was able to feel a grasp on something through the Force. It was small for some reason. Nonetheless, she lifted it, feeling something tickle her senses as she did so. It was almost blissful, but unlike what you gain through material or pleasure it was stronger - almost pure. What she held onto was squirming now, confusing her slightly as she kept it levitated. But Walkers don't squirm...
"I'm not a walker, am I Frysus?"
The young Twi'lek gasp and stopped using the Force, opening her eyes to see her master falling on his ass from five feet in the air. "M-master, I'm so sorry! I thought I had control of the Walkers!"
"It's okay Frysus," Naruto laughed before laying his head on the grass. "Let's take a break, yeah?"
"Yes, master."
It was silent for the minute after that, Naruto slowly falling asleep and Frysus watching her master. It was her turn that day to train with him while they didn't have any missions to do. Granted, for the last week Naruto had nothing going except for when a cyborg man named Darth Skotia that came to "establish connections" with "the future of the Empire". Funny, really, since the man actually seemed powerful in his own right and had Trandoshan warriors protecting him. But, Naruto and he got along and traded knowledge. The blonde's library had grown exponentially for the two months he's been a Lord and most have been from conquests against Jedi and their base on Quesh.
Quesh. That was a massacre Naruto felt great about. Red Fox, the Harrower-class Dreadnought, and Black Talon, the optimised Gage-class Destroyer, appeared out of hyperspace when they got a go-ahead from the Hutt Cartel to eradicate the Republic. Naruto had achieved what no one has in the galaxy and that was get the Hutts to agree to a set of terms that benefitted both sides. The Empire would be able to work off all of the Hutt worlds while sharing twenty-five percent of resources gathered, and the Hutts got the most powerful Sith Lord to help do their dirty work.
After the Esseles' defeat, Ambassador Vyn Asara was sentenced to death by the Council of Moffs and executed at midday on Ziost. The Republic were in an outcry for a while, especially Grand Master Satele Shan since she was once again outwitted and embarrassed by Naruto and his forces. She was tired of being defeated countless times and found the Force only enhancing her dark feelings while in meditation. The Council and Senator have seen how distraught she is and were worried about the new threat.
"Naruto," Shikamaru interrupted as he entered the room. "Lord Zash is here. She requires your attention."
Naruto gave a deep groan but waved his friend away. "Tell her I'll be there."
"Okay,"
Naruto sighed and looked at Frysus. "I'll make up your training time when I get back. We only did an hour, right?"
"Yes."
"Well, I better go see what Lord Zash would like." Naruto stood up and brushed the grass from himself. He silently walked back into his house, grabbing his mask from a small table next to the back door. He heard laughing as he got closer to the main hall and saw Zash smiling at Kory as they talked in the hallway.
"And what did he do after that?"
"Oh, let's say it involved Shikamaru and I to bail him out before he died of boredom." Kory grinned and giggled at her own story.
"What are you guys laughing at?" Naruto asked cautiously, seeing Zash's grin broaden upon seeing him.
"I was just telling her about your date with that Sith woman Ladra." Naruto paled at the mention of that woman and a silent shiver went up and down his spine. "How she droning on and on of her life, her admiration for dead Sith Lords like Tulak Hord and Kallig."
Naruto knew what Kory meant. It weren't Sith like Tulak Hord she talked about, but her obsession with Revan that scared him. She spoke of him nonstop, how thanks to Lord Baras's attack on Grathan's estate she was able to get Revan's priceless mask back. She even pulled it out and showed it to him! She spoke so lovingly of the mask and Revan's dark tendencies that it was clear how deep her insanity went.
"Never bring up that crazy woman again. It was my worst mistake in my life."
"I thought it was letting Sasuke live at the Valley of the End?" Haku called from the dining room.
"Fine, second to worse." Naruto grunted before turning to the smiling Lord. "I was told you wanted something of me?"
"Yes," Zash nodded before pulling out a book. "My apprentices had uncovered this book in one of the tombs on Korriban and it spoke of something interesting. It says that Tulak Hord had something called a Shadow Killer, a being that could feast on the Force of his foes, and had since locked him away in his tomb. However, both my apprentices are on their own missions to unearth more of these 'dark holocrons' that it mentions so I was hoping you would do this for me and see if what it says is true."
Naruto thought about it and eyed the book in his hands. He had sparingly learned how to read and write Aurebesh and could see mentions of the Shadow Killer. "If this beast is alive, may I keep him?"
"Of course, I only ask that if you find one of the holocrons in the that I can have it."
Naruto nodded and handed the book back. "You got yourself a deal, Lord Zash. I will see about that Shadow Killer for you."
"Thank you. And while you are doing that, I will read more about Tulak Hord's life. See where it leads next."
"Have fun," Naruto responded before turning on Kory. She took on a nervous look and lowered her eyes slightly, but stood tall nonetheless. "You are coming to Korriban with me. Let's go."
Kory nodded and followed the blonde out of the estate to the private landing pad.
Korriban - Tulak Hord's Tomb
Naruto took out another droid before appearing before a wall at the end of the tomb. He and Kory had gathered the rods that were placed around the temple like the book required and had made it to the room that would lead to Tulak Hord's inner chamber. It is in an octogonal shape, with the wall across from the entrance brittle with a weird scripture written on it. He didn't recognised it but with what he noticed as a far archaic version of the Sith language that named Tulak Hord and a Dashade on their conquest of many worlds.
Is the Shadow Killer something called a Dashade? I haven't heard of that species.
Naruto stood on a pedestal in the middle of the room as Kory put the rods into their needed statues. It was a while before something happened; lightning manifested from a small gathering of the Force immediately shot from the rods and into Naruto's body. He tensed his stomach and clenched his fist to stop them from spasming before gathering the lightning to his hands and redirected it to the enscripted stone wall. It rumbled, slowly cracking under the pressure of the Force, and suddenly burst into the large chamber on the other side.
He felt the Force sting a little before dissipating and he was left a smoking mess. He slowly dropped from the stone slab he stood on and started making his way to the opened entrance. As he got closer he could see a large beast suspended in the air, steel-colored skin and a dark cloth covered his groin. He stood at seven feet, with a dominating mass of muscle that would make him over three hundred pounds. Quite the intimidating specie.
Naruto sent a wall of the Force when a few old droids came to life to attack him, shattering them to pieces as he kept walking without halt. He was left undisturbed as he continued his descent to the chamber containing the locked beast. As he turned the corner, he started walking over a small catwalk to the pillared platform the beast was locked up in.
"Has my master finally come for me? But why he send a puny Sith instead of coming himself?"
Naruto blinked as he noticed the language from his time in the holocrons he found in Grathan Estate or borrowed from Skotia. It was interesting to understand a bunch of guttural words but nonetheless spoke back. "My name is Lord Naruto Uzumaki. Are you the Shadow Killer?"
"I am Khem Val, servant of Tulak Hord. My master has suspended me in animation until he came back." Khem answered, his eyes looking to the blonde before him.
"I'm sorry to say this, Khem, but Tulak Hord has been dead for centuries. I know not of his cause of death but it has been a long time." Naruto saw how his words impacted the Dashade, first there was surprise, then sadness, before turning to anger. "I have been sent to retrieve you from your prison, and to obtain the knowledge of your previous master."
"Why have you left me master!" The monster bellowed out before struggling against his binds. He soon broke out of it, surprising Naruto and making the blonde step back but no fear reached his face. When facing against death for your whole life you lose fear in everything in the world except for that of your friends. However, the monster turned to him and gave a ferocious roar, bearing his nails and ragged teeth."I will consume you, puny Sith! And then I'll turn to the rest of the Empire!"
"Interesting." Naruto said simply, dodging to the left to avoid a clawed attack. "I was hoping for a more mannered conversation."
Naruto kept weaving through the Dashade's strikes, and with what happened to the stone pillar being obliterated he suspected it would take one hell of a time to heal from such a wound. And a lot of pain. However, the Dashade wasn't the fastest he had to fight against. When going against a madman and a woman with the power of God in her hands he hasn't faced against someone of their speed yet. It was kind of relieving, if he was serious with himself. After all, if everyone had the power to simply obliterate worlds the galaxy would no longer be safe.
Bending a ninety-degree angle with bent knees, Naruto watched as a strong swipe nearly gutted him on the spot. He blinked silently, kicking on his legs so he can spin on his hands and send a Force-enhanced kick to the large Dashade. Time to be on the offensive.
Naruto twirled on one hand before landing on his feet, gathering the Force into his hand to create a small bubble. With the hand he used to get back to his feet, he used it to send Khem into the wall adjacent to the catwalk. Containing the ball just a bit more, Naruto sent it at the grumbling beast and watched as the wall and floor explode from the impact of his attack.
Breathing a little in anticipation for another attack from the Dashade, he was pleased to see the beast laying on the ground in a crate of a new room. "Rooms just keep popping up in this place, huh?"
Kory poked her head into the room, having decided to stay back as her master fought Khem. "Is he still alive?"
"He'll live." Naruto waved his hand as he approached the new room and downed Dashade. He looked around and found holocrons in small shelves built into the wall and was pleased to see the one that Zash described on a small pillar that went to the waist. By the time he had pocketed the object, Kory grabbing the others and using a sealing incantation that Naruto's people made with the Force, Khem started grumbling as he awoke.
"Welcome back to consciousness, Khem. I hope you got the fighting out of your system for a while." Naruto grinned at the Dashade's scowl, or what the blonde perceived as a scowl. "So, do you want to come with me as part of my group or would you like me to finish you here and now?"
Khem actually stopped his approach to the blonde. Much like his master, the blonde held an air of power that was outclassed to the everyday Sith. It was refreshing to the Dashade to feel that presence once more. He started questioning whether this Sith was the incarnation of his old master, and that would explain how the blonde could get into the chamber. No normal person can do such a thing, and even the toughest Sith failed to open his chamber.
"Fine, puny Sith. I'm convinced that you are the incarnation of my old master. I will travel with you but if you show a lack of power like your previous life I will take your honor so you may retain your honor."
"Uh," Naruto twitched in amusement and fought a grin. "Thank you. Welcome to the family, Khem."
Kory came forward and presented the scroll to her master. "I got all of the holocrons into this...seal."
"Thank you," Naruto nodded and pocketed it before heading for the exit. "Now let's get out of here."
As they left the caves, the blonde started getting a connection to his fellow blonde Sith Lord. Once he got her he grinned. "I got the holocron and Dashade. Say hi, Khem!"
"I don't acknowledge weak, puny Sith."
"Well fine then. Have you found out where the other holocron is?"
"Oh, yes!" Zash exclaimed excitedly. "It's right here on Dromund Kaas! I don't know how I didn't think of it, but Tulak Hord had a rival; Lord Kallig! The man was able to match Tulak Hord in the Force but he disappeared from the galaxy and when he did he also took one of Tulak's holocrons. His crypt is in the Sith catacombs near Kaas City. You can head there now, but be careful. A powerful Sith entity is affecting the weak-minded slaves and Sith."
Naruto nodded. "You got it. See ya!"
Naruto turned off the holo before boarding his airship.
Kaas City, Dromund Kaas - 20 Minutes Later
Naruto stood before the large catacombs with a smirk on his face. They were built into a mountain where robed Sith were carved into the sides of the entrance, but the way he had just came from - to say, the front door - was broken down and swarming with controlled slaves and Sith. They were more than likely under the influence of one or more of the many Lords that were buried here.
"This is what you get for disturbing the rest of the strongest Sith of their era." Naruto muttered, sending a simple slash to a slave's chest. Khem was having a ball, consuming the Sith that attacked them while Kory defended herself against her opponents. "Now, where is our Lord's coffin?"
Naruto pulled up a holo of the catacombs and saw the yellow dot marked on his map. It was a few floors up, and it's only stairway is in the back of the large main hall. Enough enemies from the blonde's position to there.
He grinned and shut the holo off, pocketing it in his belt. He turned to his two companions and cocked his head. "Let's continue, shall we?"
And with that the three continued their journey. While an occasional slave attacked them, they were mostly undeterred from their walk. While Khem instigated some of the Sith to attack so that he may consume them, Kory simply stuck to the blonde's side. She wouldn't be like the silver beast and pick a fight she had no desire to fight and only wished that her heart would stop beating so sporadically. As soon as they had entered the catacombs a dark feeling of the Force started tickling against her mind and senses and she became unsure whether it was one of the Lords trying to enter her mind or something else but it made her anxious. She was afraid to bring it up to Naruto, thinking it could make things complicated for him and her and decided to just let it pass over.
"You okay Kory?" Naruto asked, sensing his apprentice's distraught. With the Force, he learned to feel other's emotions and intent, though while not completely accurate it helped him get a good idea of what to expect.
"Yes," The redhead nodded before looking to the side, unsure. "It's probably nothing."
"And if it is something?" Naruto asked, getting the girl's attention. "We're in the burial place of dead strong Sith Lords. If there is anything going on I need to know so that I may protect you from their influence."
"I…" Kory stopped as she looked down, stopping in front of the entrance to their desired burial chamber. "I feel something picking at my mind. Not exactly trying to influence it, but divulge for information or something. I feel nothing different but the Force swimming in my head at the command of someone else."
Naruto nodded and pressed his hand to her forehead, his gloved palm resting softly while she closed her eyes at his touch. She felt a new feeling enter her, easily pushing the other influence from her head and a pleasant aura replaced it around her whole mind. It made her relax, and breathe an exhale she held during the whole process.
"There, I put a decent barrier around your mind. It won't last long but it'll be enough until we get what we need done." Naruto removed his hand from her head and smiled under his mask. "Now come one."
"That was a waste of power, young master." Khem decided to voice his opinion, looking at the redhead with small distaste. "If she can't protect herself from harm than she is useless."
"Just because someone can't protect themself from someone who made the title of Lord, and she apprentice, that does not mean she is useless." Naruto chastised, continuing his stride without slowing. "I am sure you won't be able to stop the influence of a Sith Lord either, why else would someone like Tulak Hord have command over you?"
Khem Val grumbled but decided to hold any more comments to himself.
The three entered the new room and up a few stairs was a sarcophagus of their desired Sith Lord. Naruto stalked to the coffin and noted the sudden breeze. "Do you know anything of Lord Kallig, Kory?"
Kory followed her master and walked to the other side of the coffin. "Kallig was a Sith during Tulak Hord's era, supposedly even in power in the Force and lightsaber dueling. Tulak Hord and Kallig would later fight in a Kaggath for the title of Dark Lord of the Sith. Kallig would lose, before retreating beyond Sith Space and I'm guessing this is where he would take Hord's holocron because he would come back years later and challenge for the name once more, but this time just the two. Hord, within these few years, sealed up the Shadow Killer and no longer had his support. Kallig and Hord were both dealt lethal wounds and both died in this battle. Both factions would fall into dissension."
"Interesting." Naruto nodded before reaching to lift the coffin top.
Immediately, he was thrown across the room from a strong push of the Force before smacking his head to the stone walls. He watched as Khem went to attack the apparition of the Sith Lord before being thrown back like a ragdoll, and could only force himself up when he turned to Kory. "No you don't!"
Naruto was able to use the Force to stall the man's hand movement and get to his feet. He knew little of what to do against a Force apparition and simply had a stare-off with the Sith Lord. "We come in peace, Lord Kallig. We mean no offense in disturbing your rest but we need Tulak Hord's holocron within your sarcophagus."
Kallig snatched his hand from the blonde's grasp. "You walk into my room, no gifts or offerings for consolation, and demand to take something of mine? I should kill you here."
"Many have tried," Naruto shrugged with a chuckle. "I would usually welcome someone to try but I'm sort of on a mission from a friend."
"So," Kallig muttered, though clearly, "this is the kind of master my descendant has to listen to."
That made Naruto blink. "Your what?"
The man now turned to Kory. "Flesh of my flesh, it was my influence you felt upon entering here. While I was trying to find out if you really are my descendant, I was also protecting you from another Lord's influence otherwise you would have gone mad without some protection."
"Wait, Kory is your descendant?" Naruto asked surprised, watching as she stared just as shocked. "So, what does this mean?"
Kallig turned to the blonde man and held his hands behind his back. "Now that I know that my blood has not died through the time, I wish to help her make the Kallig name feared once more. And you will help."
"I was planning on doing that anyway," Naruto said slowly, rubbed the back of his neck. "But, I guess she can come here to learn some of your skills. It would serve her some good to learn about the family she never thought she had."
"Good," The man nodded before making the slab of stone covering his tomb lift with the holocron. "Take the holocron. With it in the hands of the flesh of my flesh it would be safer than being in my chamber."
"Thank you, Lord Kallig." Naruto bowed slightly to the man before grabbing the object. "We will visit sometime in the future."
"I look forward to it."
So, some differences here. I made it that Kallig took one of Hord's holocrons before dying, as explained by Kory, and that - in the SWTOR canon story - Zash had one of her new apprentices get it. We have no idea Kory's background because she is literally the first to be killed and I simply expanded on the idea. I have a poll on my profile on what Naruto's Darth name should be so just click on my name up there and cast your vote. Please! With 80+ of you favoriting the story and 110+ following it can't be that hard to get a decent amount of voters. I was thinking this would be shorter and more as a filler than anything but good thing I came up with what I did.
Also, for those who didn't get the link in the last chapter I edited the day after, I made a small Google site that contains the information in this story for the OCs and whatever: site/lordfishcake01/home