A/N: I'M NOT DEAD! Ahem, sorry, sorry, sorry about that. Couldn't help myself. I've been on a wee bit of a hiatus as of late, enjoying time off and healing up after sustaining some injuries. BUT I'm alive! And though my legs might be busted up, my spirit hasn't faltered in the slightest. I've also seen the Force Awakens several times, so if you haven't seen it yet SPOILERS ABOUND WITHIN! I seriously suggest you see it, though. It was great!
Now, someone asked about Naruto having the force, or teaching Rey jutsu, etc. To answer the question, well, its complicated. The sage's chakra belongs solely to Naruto. Even if we're talking 'bout regular chakra here, I'm not sure that's just something you could TEACH to a random stranger without an intensive regiment. As to Naruto even wielding the Force itself, well, this chapter should illuminate that aspect, a bit.
Now, I proudly present the next chapter of...
...Not So Far Away!
...make of it what you will! On another note, this story starts approximately a few months before the events of The Force Awakens...hope ya like it! I tried to keep everyone in character, given that a certain someone suffers a tragedy in this chapter...but I humbly ask that you be nice and enjoy the story! Yes, yes, yes, Naruto is NOT overpowered in this one, so don't worry...
...and remember, he's still recovering from a bad loss...
"What are you making?"
"Honestly? I'm not sure."
"How can you build something and not know what it is?"
"I just can, I guess."
~Naruto and Rey.
Sins of our Fathers
"I don't like this."
"You don't have to like it to use it. Now hold still."
"Hush."
Naruto blinked from his prone position on the table, a look of utter shock overcoming his irritated features. "Did you just shush-
Rey reached up and swatted him on the nose.
"Ow!"
"Shh!"
The scavenger exhaled testily to herself, blowing a stray strand of dark hair out of her eyes. Naruto's words registered little more than a distant echo to her now; because her mind was decidedly elsewhere, focused on the task at hand. Delicate fingers probed circuits and components, questing, twisting, turning. Syn had come through with the parts in exchange for a pair of old servomotors, but she lacked the expertise to make what they needed. That task fell to Rey, a chore that had consumed her attention for the last three days and if, she was perfectly honest, fascinated her to no end.
How very strange!
She'd never even remotely attempted something of this magnitude before; and a tiny part of her warmed to the challenge with childlike enthusiasm. Building a functional leg was one thing, anyone could do that with the right parts. But attaching the leg to a ravaged stump, securing it, and forcing it to function? It tested every bit of expertise she'd acquired over the years-but she remained confident in her skills. Surely there had to be a way. There just had to be...
Naruto protested once more:
"I really don't like this."
Something in his voice made Rey take pity on him.
"You don't have to like it." she reminded him gently, adjusting another motivator, tweaking it to the left. "Its just a stopgap until we can get you something better." She daren't say if for fear of dashing his already slim hope of recovery. Rey could understand his discomfort; having most of your leg replaced with synthetics wasn't something she envied. When said synthetics were little more than barely-functional junk cobbled together out of discount parts-well, one got the point. Naruto wouldn't have anything resembling full functionality unless he got off-planet.
Strangely enough, that thought saddened, her somehow.
What would she do if he actually left? Stop him? How? She'd only known him for a few cycles, now. It shouldn't matter. People passed through her life all the time. She was a loner. Always had been. Yet the thought of being alone again was...unpleasant. It made her heart wrench with all sort of unpleasantness. In the span of only a few short weeks the blond's snark and dry humor had become an integral part of her life. She hadn't realized just how much she'd missed talking to someone until this brash boy had crashed-quite literally!-into her life. By the sands, what was she going to do once he was gone?
Ironically, Naruto saved her from that very thought.
"Oh, so its "we", now, is it?" the blond snarked, staring at the ceiling. "I was under the impression that you couldn't stand me."
"You have your moments." Rey quipped. Another tweak, and satisfaction flooded her as she slapped the casing shut. "There. Try it out."
"You sure?"
"I'm the best damn scavenger on this planet." she replied, supreme in her confidence. "I know what I'm doing." Mostly. She'd never crafted something so complex before; she could only hope that she'd make the proper adjustments or Naruto was never going to let her hear the end of it. As it was, maimed ninja stowed his retort and looked at her for a long, piercing instant. At length, he nodded.
"Alright."
Then, with great care, he pulled himself off the table and stood on both feet.
Disaster.
For a critical moment Naruto wobbled wildly, unused to the odd weight of his new limb." Gah! Shit!" Arms flailing, he struggled to correct himself, lest he crash face first into the door. Incredibly, he regained his balance a nanosecond later. The look of boyish delight on his face broke her heart. The idea that something so simply as a prosthetic leg could make someone so happy was beyond her; but in that instant the dark clouds all but vanished from Naruto's face.
To Naruto, it felt like he was whole again.
Well, mostly whole.
"Well." he swore quietly. "I'll be damned, 'ttebayo!"
He took a slow, tottering step forward, testing the leg's weight.
Then another.
Another.
Another still.
"Heh! This isn't half-URK!"
For all of five steps the synthetic implement had born Naruto's weight and strength.
On the sixth it fell apart, sending him sprawling on the floor in a clatter of parts and pieces. For a mortified eternity Rey stood there, petrified, frozen between mortification and amusement. Eventually the former won out and she tossed him her staff to aid in his standing. Unfortunately, she misjudged her aim.
It whacked him right in the head.
"Sorry, sorry!" the words spilled out of her in a rush as she hurried to help him. "I'll make the next one better, I promise!"
"The hell, Rey?!" the words weren't sharp at all; indeed, it took her a moment to realize Naruto was actually laughing. "You'd better! I'm using the next one to jump!"
Before long, she was laughing, too.
(Later that Night...)
Nights on Jakku were unpleasant...
...to say the least.
Not only in the literal sense, but in the physical as well. By day the sands were blazing, enough to scorch . At night, without the sun to heat the dunes, the temperatures dropped dangerously. If you didn't have a proper shelter you might survive the long night, but without heat? You were out of luck. Rey considered herself lucky in that regard, she'd long since rigged up a generator to provide some semblance of warmth to the battered AT-AT she called home. Of course, that generator had only ever needed to provide warmth for one person.
Not two.
"Damnit."
Rey swore softly as faint blast of frigid air snaked beneath the too-small blanket and snarled at her toes and, reluctantly, sat up.
Tonight was worse than most; the wind whipped and howled across the dunes like a mournful beast, viciously etching itself into every crack and crevice of their small home. Worse, the generator had gone on the fritz in typical fashion. No matter how hard she huddled against herself, the thin blanket that normally provided some sparse amount of warmth for Rey did nothing to ease her chills. It was one of the few time when she found herself actively regretting not securing something in the way of warmer clothes for the night.
At least Naruto didn't seem to mind the cold; he refused to elaborate, but for some damn reason he didn't wake from chills as she did when the night got nasty. The thin cot that they now shared afforded just enough in the way of room to prevent her from outright freezing to death. While Naruto snored loudly, dead to all the world.
Lucky bastard.
Steeling herself once more against the chill, the scavenger screwed her eyes shut...
"Sakura!"
A soft hiss jerked her back to wakefulness like a lightning bolt.
"Naruto?" she whispered cautiously into the dark.
Reaching for a light confirmed that the blond was still very much nearby, and shaking like a leaf.
But not from the cold.
He was dreaming.
Again.
When she tried to touch him he recoiled explosively, crying out, "Don't! Its a trap!" Rey flinched slightly, until she realized his words hadn't been directed at her. Sakura. He'd said the name twice now. Just who was this "Sakura" individual? One could only wonder. Whomever she was-one could only assume as much-she clearly had him rattled. Cautiously, Rey pushed herself up on her elbows and dared to drape a significant part of the blanket across his shuddering torso, watching him intently for another outburst.
She hadn't long to wait.
"No," Naruto thrashed onto his side, gritting his teeth in agony, "I didn't mean to...wasn't my fault...
The broken shinobi shivered again in his sleep despite the blanket, whimpering as though he'd seen something utterly horrific, a force so terrifying that it frightened even him. Such thoughts unsettled her deeply, more than she preferred to admit. Gone was the snarky, smart-mouthed shinobi who always had something to say, the wayward warrior who'd become so damnably cynical about everyone and everything. There was none of that here, none of it all, and his torment moved her to untold pity.
"C'mon," she nudged him firmly, feeling wretchedly guilty as his face screwed up in agony. "Fight it. Its not real-
That made it even worse.
"KAGUYA! I'll kill you!"
Kaguya?
Now that was an odd name, and apparently a hated one that. Ignoring the vicious vitriol that spewed forth from Naruto's lips Rey stroked his cheek, massaging the whiskers on the right side of his face. Her hand came away wet with tears. The ninja was crying in his sleep. How did one even do that?!
"Naruto?" she breathed, softer now, so as not to provoke another outburst. "Relax. Its only a dream."
More gibberish followed, a rapid string of syllables she couldn't hope to decipher. His hands clenched into claws, crooking and clasping at some unknown force she couldn't see. Desperately trying to rip at something. Or someone, Rey mused, chilled by such an idea. Naruto never spoke of where he'd come from and she didn't begrudge him that-she wasn't too keen on speaking of her own past, either. But her past didn't torment her in frightful nightmares, awful terrors haunting him even when he slept.
"Its alright...
When that didn't calm him, Rey didn't know what to do. In lieu of thought, her body simply...moved. Thin arms wrapped around his stiff form and held fast, her body spooning against his in warmth and comfort. Naruto grabbed her right arm so hard she was certain every bone would shatter, but she held fast. And though he continued to mutter, his cries gradually grew softer as she held to him, his grip looser until at last, Rey found her arm free again. She stroked his head soothingly, small fingers tracing the ninja's matted locks.
"You're safe."
Trapped in the throes of his nightmare, Naruto was powerless to respond verbally, but he quieted at her touch.
The terrors troubled him no more that night.
Rey was also chuffed to discover that Naruto was something of a human furnace.
(...)
Rey woke the next morning to find herself alone and wrapped in the blanket they shared.
Of Naruto, there was no sign. Indeed, now that it was dawn all traces of the nightmare seemed to have been forgotten by Naruto altogether; for the blond was nowhere to be found. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Rey silently rebuked herself for last night's foolishness. It was her own fault, really. He'd been hurting and she wanted to help him. She'd ruined everything. Now she was certain things would be positively awkward between them all over again. By the sands, where was he?
Perhaps he'd gone out...?
"Shit!"
The distant clatter of machine parts and muffled cursing said otherwise.
Discarding the blanket, she changed into a pair of worn leathers and departed the small compartment that served as their sleeping quarters.
Sure enough Naruto wasn't far; he'd taken up residence near the back shielding of the AT-AT or what she supposed used to be shielding. It had something to do with that table he'd scavenged the other day. His back to her, he remained firmly focused on the little workbench, deaf to all of the world and its wants.
...hello?"
For a fleeting moment she feared Naruto was trying to reconstruct his leg, but no, further inspection revealed that the device in his hands was much too small to function as such. Ah. It was that odd project of his, the one he'd been keeping secret from her ever since he'd received that crystal from Syn. This time he'd didn't shove her away. He actually let her come close, penetrating his personal space, enough to risk a good look at the notched, orange-and-red-rimmed creation he was crafting.
In the days gone by he'd acquired himself a dark, tattered jacket the color of blood and a pair of dark pants to go with it; it was the closest thing to his old attire he could get. That he'd discarded the former over one of the racks and rolled up the sleeves showed just how intent he was on his...whatever he was trying to create.
"What're you working on?" she asked, absently snatching up a nearby cup of caff from the steamer.
"Not sure." Naruto didn't begrudge her it as he turned back to his "project", frowning quietly. "I think I'll know once its finished, though."
Rey found herself slightly irritated by his nonchalance. "That doesn't make any sense."
Her companion barked a laugh.
"Tell me about it...
He glowered at her and she dissolved into hysterics.
"Its not funny!"
"Yes, it is!"
With a wry smile, Naruto willed himself to return to his work. Or perhaps the work willed him to return to it. He wasn't sure. This little experiment of his had taken on a life of its own in the past few days...
His hands seemed to move of their own accords, pulling things apart, attaching others, only to disconnect them all over again. Naruto supposed his actions seemed unnatural to the scavenger and rightfully so. Even he didn't rightly understand it himself. Something compelled him to do so, a niggling urge, an itch he couldn't scratch. It was there whenever he dared to draw on his Senjutsu, sans the visions. He couldn't explain it. It felt as if someone's hand was just...just there guiding him, aiding him, telling him what to do. It felt right. His fingers nearly knew what they were doing before he could even think. Building. Shaping.
Molding.
Rey watched him for a few minutes, trying to understand what, exactly, he was crafting. It didn't look very impressive, but she'd seen that orange crystal slip inside the housing like it was born to be there. In fact, the longer she looked at it, the more it seemed almost...familiar to her. That was impossible of course she told herself, she'd never seen such
It was beginning to look like a hilt.
Realization struck her all at once.
Rey inhaled sharply.
"That's...
"What?" Naruto blinked, regarding her curiously. "Its what?"
The answer eeled through Rey's grasp before she could grab ahold of it. In the end she was left with faint images and oily sounds, none of which made any sense to her. But what? Why did some small part of her insist that this thing was so damnably important? She couldn't find an answer, and beneath Naruto's questing stare, eventually yielded.
"Well?"
Reluctantly, she offered a shrug.
"I swear I've seen it somewhere before...
(...?)
Days passed.
Days became weeks.
Time flowed like the wind.
In a world Not so Far Away.
Naruto found he still had a talent for making trouble whenever it suited him. He also discovered a keen talent for blasters when they weren't aimed at him! He was even accurate with the damn things...most of the time. It was a chore to learn something new, but he threw himself into the task with a singular determination nonetheless while Rey worked diligently on his new leg, adjusting, modifying, shaping it into something she would be proud of of; something that would serve him well.
Eventually, she succeeded and they drank to her success.
Their uneasy alliance was struck down that very day and in its place came friendship and trust.
And for a time, all was well.
Until that night.
(...)
"Hyah!"
Naruto flung a fist forward with power and precision, droplets of stale sweat slicking forward from his arm to evaporate on the breeze. He barely noticed them, stepping forward into the third kata. The next blow carried his artificial foot forward, obliterating a nearby dune in the distance, shredding it to dusty particles. Pausing, he took a moment to observe his false foot, staring at the gleaming matte-black metal in the faint light of the crude fire he'd erected. This one was the third such creation Rey had crafted for him. What was that old saiying? Third time's the charm?
Naruto supposed it was.
Tonight was one of the more moderate nights on Jakku, one of the few in which he could garner some form of exercise. It felt good to stretch again-his new leg included. The limb wasn't perfect-far from it-but the limb suited his needs. He could run again, jump again, move with all the speed and power he'd worked to hard to garner over a long career.
All thanks to Rey.
Rey.
Funny how a simple scavenger had changed so much for him and yet so very little at the same time. He didn't know what to make of her. She was fierce, independent, determined. She didn't take any flak from him and she gave as good as she got, it not more so. Perhaps it was her enthusiasm, but the more time he spent with her, the less bitter he became. Oh, his failures of the past were still a shadow knife in his gut, but bound his bitterness was, a feeble flame compared to what it had been some weeks before.
Against all odds, he actually found himself enjoying her company. He'd even admitted as much the other day when she'd called him on it.
"Yeah, you're pretty cool." He'd relented under her insufferable smirk. "Happy, now?"
For some reason, Rey seemed terribly pleased about all that.
...the hell am I thinking?'
Frowning, he forced another movement out of himself, slicing through the sands in a vicious riposte.
His strength was returning, if not necessarily his chakra. Sometimes it was there, other times it wasn't. He could consistently create his staff six-out-of-ten-times now, at least. What had remained constant were voices. They were there, waiting for him, whenever he tapped his Senjutsu. Like tiny feather whispers in the back of his brain, poking him, prodding. Just like his project. The little creation was nearly complete, yet he still felt that it lacked something...more. So it sat unfinished with the rest of his tools, awaiting a day when he could bring himself back to the odd task of completing his work.
His chakra might've faded to a dull flicker, but his senses...those were still sharp as ever.
Speaking of sharp...
...?"
In the distance he heard them all at once; pained cries, the sharp staccato of blaster fire. Perhaps "heard" wasn't the right word. The sounds struck him as a sixth sense of sorts, painful images burning in the back of his brain like a living brand, hot and searing. Claws of anger and noise sank their hooks into him, turning him away from the AT-AT that he and Rey shared. For a long moment he stared back at the broken hulk, considering what to do, thinking, pondering.
Exhaling bitterly, he started striding towards the sounds.
Before long he found himself sprinting.
(Several Moments Later...)
"Orders, sir?"
Kylo Ren observed the broken prisoners before him, coldly pondering.
They had fought well, nearly to the last. He'd never admit as much of course, but they had. Their resolve was something to be admired he supposed; if the soldiers of the First Order could fight with such ferocity, they'd be a force to be reckoned with indeed. Of course, these rebels had chosen the wrong side. That made them traitors. And there was only one fate for traitors.
With a dismissive gesture, he gave Phasma the order she so desired.
"Kill them-
"HEY!"
Ren's head snapped up as a sharp cry rang through the night, angry and piercing like a blaster bolt. In the same instant, a boulder the size of a human head smashed Captain Phasma off her feet and slammed her into the shuttle. Collapsing with an audible grunt, the stormtrooper fell. She did not rise again. A blow like that would render her insensate, Ren estimated, but not kill her. Live or die, she wasn't his concern.
He didn't care; his eyes were decidedly elsewhere.
Cast in the light of a smoldering homestead, a lone figure stood, right hand extended, feet planted firmly apart.
Perhaps that wasn't the right word.
This young man didn't so much stand as he seemed to tower; rise from the very flames themselves, shaking off the soot and smoke as though it were made of flimsy sticks. He shook himself roughly, like a wet nekku cleaning its coat. He looked like little more than some homeless vagabond; with his torn coat and battered appearance, his head sheltered from view by a tight hood. In his hand he clutched a slim black rod, seemingly little more than a walking stick. By all rights, he didn't look like a threat. But it was the eyes, those eerie, angry blue eyes, that warned of something more.
"Oi."
A lone finger thrust itself in his direction, pointing.
Accusing.
"The hell is wrong with you?" the intruder demanded in a loose, drawling voice. "These folks ain't done anything deserving of execution. Let 'em go." Let them go? Preposterous. Ren scoffed. In his mind, this wasn't an execution; this was only a proper chastisement, a punishment for standing against order in the chaos. That anyone would suggest otherwise was the very height of arrogance.
"They're guilty of crimes against the First Order."
"What. The. Fuck. Is. That?" came the incredulous reply. "You know what? Nevermind-I don't care." the man was descending the shattered hill now, fury gleaming white-hot in his azure eyes. "Look, I'm not in the best mood right now, punk." the words were a growl. "So I'll say this once. Leave the villagers and beat it. Or don't." he shrugged, hefting his weapon. "Makes no difference to me."
Incredulous, the dark side user scoffed.
...do you have any idea who you're threatening?"
"Not a damn clue. But," to his eyes the whiskered warrior merely twitched; just the slightest movement of his arm-of his eerie black rod-and the stormtrooper who'd fired found himself sporting a smoking hole in his helmet. An awful moment of silence passed between them. "I don't like being shot at." The rest backpedaled away from their comrade's corpse, baffled. The blond spun his weapon once, and grunted, balancing on a leg that looked like it had been cobbled together from spare parts.
His smile, it one could call that expression such, reminded Ren of a hungry rancor.
"Anyone else? Didn't think so."
Behind the mask, Kylo Ren frowned.
"Who...are you?"
"Naruto. Doesn't matter." Blue eyes snapped into sinister red slits. "I've changed my mind, anyway."
"You have." Ren deadpanned.
"Yeah."
Vzzzm!
Even with all the might of the Darkness at his command, Kylor barely ignited his lightsaber in time; the vents had only just opened when the stranger's staff slammed down into his weapon. Incredibly it didn't cut clean through; instead sparks ignited, spraying wildly as saber and staff vied against one another. Incredulous behind the mask, the would-be-sith gawped at the black rod. Absurd! Any other weapon should have been shorn in half by his blade! Not parried...like this!
Then, to his utter dismay, his foe leaned forward across their deadlocked weapons.
And he hissed.
Six.
Little.
Words.
"I'm gonna kick your ass, bub."
What followed was a deceptively simple maneuver-one Ben barely had time to counteract. Naruto spun and flung the battered cloak into Ren's face in a move that carried him away from the dark-side wielder all at once, disguising a feint of his own. Ren came in high, and in the same instant, Naruto swept low. The sheer force behind the blow numbed Ren's arm to the elbow and set his fingers screaming in protest against his blade's hilt in spite of his best efforts.
Gritting his teeth, Kylo pivoted and swung his blade into a savage slash to meet the blond's cheek, eliciting a sharp recoil on the staff-wielder's part. The acrid stench of burnt flesh filled the air and for the first time since they'd met, his foe's face lost its pleasant grin.
When his head snapped back around, all traces of mirth were gone from his visage, replaced by an eerie, bloodthirsty snarl.
"Have I touched a nerve?"
Ren responded with a vicious blast of dark side energy, flattening his foe to the floor. At least, that was the intention. But instead of being ground to a pulpy red mass, the force push met resistance. Instead of crushing all before it, the force merely drove his aggressor back a handful of steps. Then something pushed back.
Like a giant wave
Slowly the blond stood, and to Ren's dismay, he watched the ugly wound slither shut.
"Okay." came the grunt. "Space magic. Neat."
"WILL YOU SHUT UP?!"
Seething, Kylo stalked after the battered blond in a controlled fury, leading with a flurry of slanted slashes that pushed his foe back on the defensive. Not one of them met their mark. Staff met saber-met-staff again and anew each clash sending blood-red sparks skittering across the sands. Frustration emboldened him and he fed on it, using his hatred for his new-found foe as a catalyst, driving his enemy into the ruins of the village. Hemming him in. Whether it was known to him or not, this tactic proved most effective, restricting the broad strokes of his arms to little more than frenzied parries and awkward bocks.
Until the blond brought a house down on him.
It came completely out of nowhere; one moment he was driving the blond back, the next the man's arm snapped up and Ren's vision was filled with a crumbling homestead.
Caught unprepared, he foisted the debris away with a forceful pulse of energy-
-and out of of the dust, a shadow slammed into him, whooping loudly.
Now it was Ren who found himself on the back foot, desperately trying to weather the ferocious storm created by his own actions. There was no form to Naruto's attack, no elegance, just an assault of pure aggression, a hateful presence that existed for no other reason than to beat him into the ground. This was a far cry from fighting a peace-loving padawan or a jedi, famed for their non-aggressive approach. This...this was a hurricane, plain and true, and it wanted to render him a pulpy red mass on the ground.
And it was showing.
Shing!
Staff met saber again, but instead of committing himself to both hands this time the blond ducked low and took out his legs in a sweeping movement that could only be called a liquid blur. For a brief, tenuous moment, Ren found himself weightless, handing suspended in the air. Until a clawed hand closed around his face and levered him into the dirt with enough force to wake the dead. For the first time in a long time Kylo Ren found himself flat on his back. Pain ripped through him in a glorious, angry wave and he rode it to its climax, railing against the searing agony in his back.
"What the hell was that?" he scowled behind the protection of his mask.
"Ninja don't fight fair." the blond cat-called. "Haven't you heard?"
Ren spun his saber and lunged!
A vicious backhand was the blond's retort.
Crunch!
"Owowowowow!" While it did dent Ren's helm and send him staggering away, Naruto's sharp hiss of pain was sweet, sweet satisfaction to his ears. "What the hell is that helmet made of, eh?!" Ren swiped at him with a roar to which Naruto narrowly stepped backward, allowing the blazing blade to carve an angry red furrow in the sand. Sand sprayed upwards, momentarily obscuring their vision.
It was then that the decisive blows were struck.
Whack!
Naruto's staff swept out of the shadows and took Ren low and hard in the stomach, driving the breath from the man's lungs and forcing him to a knee In the same instant, his saber found flesh, a brutal crosscut tearing twin angry canyons through the unprotected chest of his foe. It was a fatal blow, Ren told himself. It had to be. Yet instead of falling, Naruto hissed and clocked him firmly on the back of his skull, stunning him, sending Ren's ears ringing beneath the mask. By the time he'd gathered himself up enough to move again, Naruto was already swooping down on him, whooping like a tusken raider.
In that moment he caught sight of his attacker's true face. Blue eyes gleamed red and angry, furious slits like blood leering down at him, cold and intent.
"You know," the battered ninja began hoarsely, "I was going to be the nice guy, here. Now...
"Now?"
...I'm not feeling so merciful."
His was an altogether terrifying expression, and something in the force wielder snapped.
With everything he had, he pushed at the blond in the same instant that he cut down.
'I hate you!'
That was his last thought before the blackness took him.
A/N: DOES REN SURVIVE?! DOES NARUTO?!
Poor Naruto. Sorry if this chapter is so terribly, short, but I needed one for the interlude. Now, before anyone says anything, Naruto is NOT at his max in this. Nowhere near it in fact. In short, he's gotten his arse handed to him, most of his powers reduced/stripped away, flat. Yes, he's stronger than your average human, but don't expecting him to be tossing any buildings around just yet...
So, in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...REVIEW! And May the Force be with you! No preview this time!
R&R! =D