A/N: Alright ladies and gentlmen, good news and bad news. Good news first. I'm fresh out of my ANOTHER surgery-hurts like hell!-and I managed to put this up here at points between the forced anesthetic. Bad news is I still have more surgeries ahead. Still, I'm feeling a bit better now. Really. I'm hanging tough though, having just come out of my first surgery...with two more to go! UUUUUGH! I'm on painkillers almost daily and I feel like crap, as to that effect. And with that...

...onto the next chapter! Uzumaki Crossver was supposed to help me with this, but sadly, he lost the data he was working on, so here it is anyway at my hands. Anyhow...

...here we go!

"Destruction is but a choice...

~?

The Beast Returns

A deafening explosion shook the Normandy to her very bones.

Shouts of anger and exertion could be heard deep within the cargo bay. The scene was one of chaos; the Mako lay battered and overturned, its wheels rolling haphazardly, hull sparking from the impact that had tossed it onto its back. As if to echoe that very thought, another boom rattled the ship. One might wonder what could possibly cause such unmitigated destruction, what-or who-possessed such earth-shattering power as to be capable knocking something as large as the mighty six-wheeled tank on its ass.

Currently, that something was struggling in the iron grip of a krogan.

"Hold him down!" Shepard shouted, her voice piquing in the cramped confines of the hold. "Wrex! Kaidan! I said hold him before he tears out another bulkhead!"

"Easy for you to say, Shep!" The Krogan bit off a snarl as a helemted head slammed into his crest with all the force of a powered piston. Even with Alenko aiding him both krogan and human were still struggling to hold the writhing biotic in their grasp. It wasn't just a matter of strength; the sheer tenacity of their hostage proved almost impossible to fight.

"Damnit kid... why do you have to hit so hard?!" The only response came in the form of a ferocious snarl; accompanied by yet another brutal blow, this one shooting painfully into the ribs of Kaidan Alenko opposite him. The L2 biotic groaned against the unexpected strike but did not release the Phantom of the Terminus Systems. Under any other circumstances, Naruto would've lauded such durability, praised the man's resistance to an otherwise debilitating blow, one that had already tossed poor Liara clear across the hold. Now he simply hissed.

"I'd stop hitting if you stopped crushing me!"

Almost immediately Wrex intensified his grip.

"Godamnit, hold still!"

"You don't understand! Its Jack!" the blond raved. "She's like family to me! I have to save her! I have to! You need to let me go! Now!"

"You know we can't." Garrus called from across the hold, rubbing his fractured mandible from where the blond had flung him only moments ago. "We do that, and you run off to the Terminus on some wild goose chase for a girl we don't even know! Spirits, you don't even know where they took her!"

"I know more than you think! Now let go!"

"No!"

"We can't go into the Terminus Systems! It could be another one of Saren's traps! Hell, it probably is!" Shepard was suddenly there, here bright eyes boring into his. "This is exactly what he would want you to do. And you're just going to waltz right into it, guns blazing." Naruto slumped at her words; because they were the truth. He was perfectly willing to go running back to the Terminus Systems - anything if it meant freeing Jack from the claws of the Blue Suns or Saren or whoever had taken her.

"She's right."

Naruto jerked around to find himself face-to-helmet with Tali, his furious reflection staring at out him from her purple visor. He didn't need to see her face to know of the mournful expression inside. She'd always been a gentle soul amongst her people, one prone to empathy. She could see-knew-that he was hurting. And yet for his own sake... she was asking him to stop. He knew she was a part of his life too, an important piece of the precarious puzzle that had so defined his life ever since he'd found himself in this universe. He...cared about her. Hell, he loved her.

"If you do this, you're going to get yourself killed. Just...just stay here. For me."

A three-fingered hand rose to cup his whiskered cheek.

"Please?"

For a moment, there was silence. Just a moment. A sliver in time. And then:

Blue eyes narrowed. Softened. Maybe she was right. What did he owe Jack? She was a spectre from his past, one he hadn't seen in years. It wasn't as though...no!

The sudden realization that he was even considering abandoning Jack brought a wave of rage to his mind with the ferocity of a great and dark tempest. Despite Wrex's mercy towards him, Shepard's glower, Tali looking in his eyes, pleading for him to stop, the anger won over Uzumaki Naruto and he yanked his head out of the Quarian's gentle grip. A spark of red traveled from his face and into her gloved hand, causing the girl to start slightly in shock and pain as the touch of biotic energy opened a hairline fracture in her suit. The seals clamped down almost immediately, but the pain was still there. So was the injury.

"Ow!" she yelped! "That really hurt, you blond bosh'tet!" That touch of red energy shot through the tiny cut created in the palm of her hand, racing into her bloodstream like greased lightning. A hot rush came over her, her entire body trembling. What had just happened? He gawped at her for a moment and she at him; neither knowing what to make of this. He could see that her eyes were still wide behind the helmet, pained with the realization that he'd actually hurt her. Naruto realized it, too.

"Tali, I...

"Go." she stepped backward, quivering. "If she's that important to you...just go."

"Its not like that!"

She turned and ran, her lithe form darting back into the engine room.

Anger overtook him.

"Godamnit! Lemme go!"

Naruto roared aloud, furiously fighting the hands holding him back-but to no avail. They wouldn't bugde. Ordinarily this wouldn't have been much of a problem. He was usually an affable young man even at the worst of times, one not prone to emotional fits, cool under pressure during even the worst of circumstances. However, he wasn't in the right mind at present. Because Jack had finally contacted him. He, knew where she was. Or rather, where she'd been during their conversation on Feros. Where she was now-he hadn't the faintest idea. Purgatory, maybe? She probably had one hell of a bounty on her head. But none of that mattered so long as th crew of the Normandy was holding him down!

It was strange, really. How had it come to this?

Only hours ago he had heard her voice for the first time in years. Even with the grainy quality of distance filtered by his Omnitool, he'd known her voice immediately. It had been a strange, awkward conversation under fire, only growing stranger as they waded into Geth, and then the controlled colonists That had been...unpleasant. Not the conversation, just the knowledge that Exogeni would go so far as to actively experiment on the men and women of Zhu's Hope just to collect new data on the Thorian.

Just thinking of that overgrown weed made Naruto shudder. Killing it had been a pleasure, though his heart ached that they hadn't been able to save all the colonists. At the very least, he'd managed to prevent that Fai Dan felllow from shooting himself. Afterwards he'd radioed Jack the coordinates of the Normandy. One mass relay jump from the Terminus systems and she'd be safe and sound-

Then everything had gone straight to hell.

Just when he'd thought everything was going to be as it ought to be...then...came the attack. He'd still been connected to Jack and Zaeed when the Blue Suns hit whatever vessel the were on. their prescence only made known to him by the string of invectives she and Zaeed had sworn. Then the link went dead, leaving him standing in the cargo bay with cold sweat slicking down his face. Needless to say, all hell had broken loose. Now, the bodies of a dozen Alliance soldiers lay scattered about them.

Good men and women, knocked on their asses by the Crimson Biotic.

With the transmission having cut off in a blaze of gunfire at the hands of the Blue Suns, suffice it to say he was less than pleased. Furious, even. They'd had to call Kaiden and Garrus down just to restrain him. Nothing seemed to work. Not even Tali's soothing voice could calm the fire; if anything, it only stoked the flames higher. He'd hurt her. Hurt her.

"LET! ME! GO!"

Crimson tethers of mass effect fields erupted from him, his body threatening to warp, bend under the strain of his own power. Every cell of his body was united in the singular act of escaping the bind in which he found himself. So intense was pain that he felt his eyes branch with strain, his skin rippling in gooseflesh. A trickle of blood wormed its way down and out of his nose. His hair stood on end, body bristling against the powerful forces holding him at bay. One by one, he felt the strings that were his sanity begin to snap. Something stirred.

Something woke up.

Blue eyes snapped into slitted scarlet, branching with strain. "Yes!" With a final, monumental effort, he tore himself free. Wrex and Kaiden went flying backwards, tossed to either ends of the hold like ragdolls. Shepard and the others barely had time to recognize the shockwave for what it was before it flung them from their feet, bodily tossing everyone in a mile radius into the walls-sending them tumbling into the depths of slumber a few heartbeats later.

Naruto glowered at the prone form of hiscomrades for a long moment, an eerie red haze settling over his vision. When he looked down his fingers had crooked into claws, a familiar red aura seeping from his body. But that shouldn't be possible. It was dead. Lost to the abyss. There was no this thing could-ah balls. Something was moving his arms! What fresh hell was this?!

"Ah," a deep, guttural voice purred in his head. "Its soooo good to be back. Serves those Cerberus fools right for trying to destroy me!"

'You?!'

"Yes, me." a flash of white teeth blurred through his mind. "You didn't think I was gone, did you? I'll admit losing my physical form was troubling; if I hadn't dilluted myself into your blood back then, I would well and truly be dead. Fortunately, for me, that's not the case. These biotics of yours? Mine. You've been using my powers all these years while I've been growing in strength. Biding my time. And now, now that you've gotten yourself good and angry, you've ceded control to me. Don't bother fighting. I'm in your blood now, boy. Your body is my body, and once I restore our chakra coils you won't be able to-what are you doing?!"

With a strangled grunt, Naruto pushed his conscsiousness back to the fore. 'Yeah, funny thing about that. I'm not the same angry brat I was back then. I'm in control now. And I like my body the way it is. So, you...can go back to hell!'

"You can't! I won't stand for this!"

'Then sit the fuck down and shut up!'

In a single, gut-wrenching motion, he forced the fox to the back of his mind and trapped it there. Well after well drowned it, wall upon wall was erected to keep its prescence at bay. Merficully, it proved far too weak to fight him for long, succumbing after only a few seconds of resistance. Naruto exhaled, a cloud of steam twisting about his feral features.

"You have no authority over me." his voice still ebbed and flowed with the return of his tenant's unruly power, but Naruto was nonetheless pleased to see that retained full control of his motor skills. Good. Kyuubi's return was troubling enough, but it would've proved a very painful return if he was unable to suppress the ancient demon.

"We'll just see about that."

"Wha-

Too late, Naruto realized his words had been misinterpreted; what's more he'd just pissed off Wrex with that last throw. Already he could see the massive alien picking himself up standing tall and proud whilst all of the others still lay still. Oh crap.

"Oi! Wait a second big guy!" Raising a shoulder, he narrowly managed to stave off the Krogan's first punch. "I-

Block.

"-don't-"

Thud.

"Want."

Parry.

"To."

Pain.

"Fight."

More pain.

"You!"

Blows were exchanged in this fashion for a few minutes, Naruto outmaneuvering and battering Wrex while several odd blows landed in non-vital areas. The lumbering alien was still an ally, still a friend, and for just one second Naruto let his guard slip. Wrex leaped at him, a fist cocked to drive him into the plating below. He could have dodged and potentially left his side open yet avoiding the devastating attack but experience dictated the opposite and he balanced himself. Catching the fist was the easy part, it was supporting the tonne of krogan and absorbing the shock of the blow that was hard.

Wrex's grin grew as Naruto caught his arm and twisted it over his shoulder, as if preparing to toss him, and planting his feet. The grin slipped and a quizzical expression cracked as the blond absorbed some momentum before launching his shoulder into the arm while dragging the hand down. With a sickening snap and pop, the krogan's arm broke and the alien let out a roar of pain. He rolled, allowing himself to be tossed by the excess force and stood, ready for the next attack. Wrex's roar turned to a snarl and a dangerous look filled his eyes.

"You're pushing your luck, bo-

Before he could utter so much as another syllable, the Krogan found himself frozen. A stasis field-and a remarkably powerful one at that. Naruto nearly laughed for joy. Only one biotic could entrap him like this. In a way he found it ironic; Shepard had wanted to shoot her, he had insisted that she be kept alive. And here she was. The Thorian was gone almost all of the colonists were dead and the Cipher was now in Shepard's head. But instead of being dead-instead of staying behind with those few survivors, she was here instead. And she'd just helped him.

Shiala.

Naruto stared, goggle-eyed as the asari walked out of the elevator and strode over to the still-frozen krogan. Her dark violet skin seemed to shimmer in the dim lightning, every step was grace and beauty. Her face set into a stern scowl, the asari raised a blue-clad fist and struck out smoothly, knocking Wrex to the floor. Another blow sent him into blissful slumber with the others. Naruto tensed in anticipation of a fight, but the smile she set upon him was serene.

"I understand you are in need of assistance, young Phantom."

The shinboi's jaw nearly dropped clear off his face. It wasn't that her help was unwanted it was just...unexpected.

"But why did you...?"

"Because... you spared my life." came the genteel reply. "The Commander would have shot me for my crimes after she obtained the Cipher." She moved to cross the room, until she was standing before him." Instead, you advocated mercy. I confess, I was at a loss for what to do beyond serving aboard the Normandy in reparation for my crimes with Lady Benezia. Now I see my path." Before his very eyes, she dropped to a knee. "I will serve you, Uzumaki Naruto. Until my dying breath."

Naruto blinked. It seemed mercy had its benefits, after all.

"Well, I suppose we'd better tell Joker that he's changing course." Naruto drew his pistol and began the long walk to the elevator. Joker wasn't going to like that. Not at all.

Shiala fell effortlessly into step with him. For a moment he considered speaking to Tali, but no, she was hurting now, and the last thing he wanted to do was make it worse. What had he done wrong? What had he said? He didn't know, but he was resolved to figure it out. After he found Jack and Zaeed. If the Blue Suns were involved, then there was only one place she could be.

"What is our destination?" Shiala inquired as the door slid shut behind them, the elevator beginning its ponderous ascent upwards.

"Purgatory."

A/N: And there we have it! Jack and Naruto are dangerously close to meeting up, but will it actually happen?! WHO KNOWS?! Anything may happen! I enjoyed writing this chapter to be honest-the words just flowed and it was easy to keep everyone in character. Naruto's afraid to talk to Tali atm; he's never actually had a girlfriend before this, and he's afraid of botching it up. Add to that the fact that he's still not all that experienced when it comes to love, AND the fact he's determined to save Jack, and its all kinds of a mess. Now Kurama is back! In a lesser form, but his return is not a sign of good things to come...

And that red spark that hurt Tali and entered her bloodstream? What purpose was that for? You'll soon see but suffice it to say, ladies and gentlemen. she won't be dependent on that suit for much longer! Yes, ultimately, this fic is about to take a hard turn into the unknown, and not everyone will be making it back from this little joyride...

Anywho, I worked extremely hard on this one with blood sweat and tears, so I hope to hear what you think! Pairing is still somewhat up in the air! YOU DECIDE! And on a final note, thank you to everyone offering emotional support in regard to my health woes. Its greatly appreciated! An awful lot is going to change in this story soon! Look forward to an epic prank next chapter...provided my health holds out.

So...in the immortal words of Atlas...

...Review, Would You Kindly? And of course, enjoy the preview!

"Have you ever faced an Asari Commando Unit before?" Benezia asked gravely. "Few humans have."

Naruto's only response was a physical one. The air crackled with chakra, not just his own, but that of his former tenant, an eerie mixture of scarlet and onyx. a threat, Shepard knew at once, Naruto wrapped in tendrils that ebbed and pulse dangerously. They looked like snakes, writhing and ready to strike. Shepard winced, lifting her hands in defeat, letting him walk away. He stepped up past Liara's limp form then past Tali, his eyes straying slightly in memory of the injury he'd caused her before. His head inclined softly.

"She's mine," he hissed.

"Your strength is irrelevant, Phantom." Beneza sniffed, frowning at the human as he stalked up the steps. "You may have survived the trap we laid for you in Purgatory, but your prescence here changes nothing-

She never saw the shockwave coming until it was far too late. One moment the Crimson Biotic was standing before her- the next, his fist slammed into the deck and all hell broke loose. Asari Commando and Geth flew apart like leaves scattered on the wind, torn from the catwalks and dashed angrily onto the ground below. Another flick and they found themselves ground to a gory mass on the walls. Still Naruto came on, eyes white hot and filled with untempered fury.

"You're indoctrinated." he spoke the word almost casually. "So techinically, you're not responsible for your own actions. However," The crack of his knuckles split the sudden silence, "I'll be purging you of that, now." A red mass effect field shrouded him, warping the metal around them. "Though I'd be lying if I said I won't kick your ass first."

A small part of her, the tiny bit of her mind that she'd sealed away, rejoiced. The other, larger half dismayed.

Impossible.

"BENEZIA!"

That was the only thought she had time for before the Phantom of the Terminus pounced upon her, his synthetic fist sheathing itself into her stomach.

Another blow, and then his hand was around her throat, crushingly tight, the tips of his fingers digging into the sensitive folds at the back of her neck, lifting her clean off her feet. She froze, breath caught in her chest, not daring to move lest he do more damage there. Her wide eyes locked onto his wild red ones. Then there was only pain. She fought, lashing out with a furious warp. That proved a mistake. The fist came down on her head with a faintly metallic crunch-once, twice, three times. Each blow jarred his hand, sent pain shooting up his arm.

But a lot less pain shot up Benezia's.

Suddenly he had her by the head, forcing her down to the deck. Outside her tank, the Rachni Queen shrieked. Benezia barely heard it. Everything was growing faint. White. Fuzzy. Her vision blurred and dimmed as the iron vice around her face intensified, scarlet sparks spraying up and down his organic arm. A sonorous shriek tore through her mind, blotting out all else. And then, suddenly...

Peace.

Hope you enjoyed! R&R! =D