Sith'ari
Hunters
Naruto walked through the ruin that was once a capital ship of the Sith fleet of the Sith Empire. Even in its ruined state, the ship was still the grandest thing Naruto had ever seen. He walked pass the area, he assumed to be the hanger, where fliers and bombers would dock, and had arrived at the bridge.
As soon as he pushed the door out of the way, the first sight that greeted him filled him with disappointment. The whole bridge was stripped clean of all consoles and computers; there was nothing left at the commanding bridge but the floor. Naruto mouth hung agape in shock before he let out a groan. It seemed he was too optimistic about the bridge; the looters had already taken everything.
Now he had to search the whole ship to find a single battery, which would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Maybe it wasn't a total lost that he came to the bridge though. From here, he could get a view of the ship layout. He might be able to determine where to go searching first. He took out a paper and a charcoal stick, both of which he found in his master's tomb, and began to draw a rough layout sketch of the ship.
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Naruto was almost finished with his sketch. From his sketch, most parts of the ship were still intact from the outside. Only the eastern wing had broken down. As he wondered which parts he should explore first, he suddenly sensed a malignant intention coming from other sections of the ship, and then, two of them.
He hurriedly packed his equipment before running out of the bridge as fast as he could. This mission just gotten worse. With whatever that was hunting him from behind his back, he needed to search this ship as fast as he could and then get out immediately. He could try to fight them, but he doubted he would win since there were two of them. No, the only opinion was to retrieve the battery and then get out of there.
His Force Sense [1] determined that one of the predators was coming from the eastern side of the ship, and another was coming from the northern-center area of the ship. If he went to the west side, he might encounter the center one, but he should be safe from the other.
As he made his way through the corridor, he felt the rush of adrenaline, his heart beating faster and his five senses sharpening.
Would he survive, or fall as prey?
xxxxx
Naruto searching the western wing of the ship as fast as could. He could sense that one of the predators was getting closer, and he had searched several rooms, but there were still no electronic devices he could salvage.
He opened the final door in the wing and, finally, he found something. The room was filled with destroyed metal things; they were droids, that was what he remembered his master call them [2]. Silently, he entered the room and began salvaging all the droids. He had no idea what kind of power source these 'droids' had or if it could be used on the console or not, but he had no time to think.
He quickly gathered anything he believed to be batteries, power cores, energy stores, or other items like that and put them in his pouch. Finished, he started to leave, but as soon as he took the first step out of the room, he stopped.
His Force Sense could not feel the predators' killing intentions from a distance anymore, but instead, could feel it coming from all around him. Naruto gritted his teeth. He was too slow and now he needed to fight this predator to escape this ship. He couldn't pick up where his enemy was exactly, but he knew that it was close.
He slowly reached for his dagger. He could hear his heart rate increase and his muscles tensed up. His hand rested on his dagger handle. He swept his eyes over hallway left and right, waiting for any sign of attack. He waited and waited, the tension rising slowly the more time passed. His adrenaline and instinct was ready to replace all his common sense at any moment.
Then he heard a sound of metal crash coming from behind. He swiveled around ready to fight anything that attacked him, but there was nothing. He was greeted by the same room full of droid scraps.
'...Maybe I was just being over-dramat-'
Suddenly something leapt onto his back, viciously securing him. Naruto tried to struggle, both his hand tried to reach for the creature that was on his back, trying to grab it and throw it off. The task, however, was made even more difficult when the attacker sank its claws into Naruto's back.
Naruto jumped backward and slammed his back onto the wall, crushing the creature with his body weight. The claws on his back loosened up and he was able to grab the creature and throw it off his back into a pile of scarabs. He pulled out his dagger, ready to strike, when the creature attacked again. The creature clawed its way out of the iron pile.
Now, Naruto could see it clearly. It was a Tuk'ata, with blue eyes.
"It's you!" Naruto said in surprise as he remembered that the creature before him was the same one he saved three years ago. He was able to remember it because no other Tuk'ata he had encountered had blue eyes. Master XoXaan once told him that Tuk'ata were semi-sentient. Still, its brain was too limited for advanced tasks such as talking in Basic or making fire. Naruto shook these thoughts off. Now was not the time to think of lessons, now it was time to fight.
The Tuk'ata finally made its way out of the scrape. It saw Naruto and, without any hesitation, tried to jump on him again. This time, however, Naruto was prepared. He dodged to the left and was about to deliver a kick to the Tuk'ata's side, but then the Tuk'ata quickly turned its head around and bit him in the leg. Naruto was about to strike the Tuk'ata with his dagger, but, before he could do so, the Tuk'ata used its superior strength and pulled Naruto's leg, causing him to lose balance and fall down. [3]
Now, seeing its chance, the Tuk'ata started to swing Naruto around the floor while it sank its teeth deeper into Naruto's leg. Naruto used his other leg to kick the Tuk'ata a few times, but it only made the Tuk'ata swing him faster and harder.
Seeing no other alternative, Naruto readied his dagger. He took a few moments, trying to aim the best he could and then threw his dagger towards his attacker. The dagger was able to land a wound on the hound's cheek, causing it to pause its attack for a moment. Naruto used this moment to deliver a more powerful and accurate kick in the Tuk'ata's face. The hound let go of his lower leg as it was sent backward.
Naruto stood up. His leg was injured by the bite, making it difficult to walk and near impossible to run. The Tuk'ata was still dazed from the kick, but for Naruto to have any hope of winning, he needed his dagger, which he already threw and was now behind his opponent. By his prediction, there was no ways he could walk fast enough to retrieve his dagger before the hound recovered.
'Kurama, could you lend me a hand here?' He asked his prisoner through his mind.
'Sorry kid, but I know you can do this on your own; I saw you take down the bigger one before', Kurama pointed out.
'That was only because I had enough time to plan and set up a proper trap! Not just charge in blindly!' Naruto explained.
'Well, you could always start now', Kurama said and Naruto could hear a small chuckle from Kurama in his mind.
"Curse you!" Naruto shouted in anger. His opponent was still dizzy, much to his fortune. He looked at his dagger. "Guess I don't have much a choice, do I?" He extended his hand toward his dagger then took a deep breath and focused. The dagger began to shake.
Come on, move, Naruto thought. He looked at his opponent briefly; it had recovered and was preparing to attack him again, haunches gathering and muscles tensing. Naruto ignored it and focused his attention solely on the dagger, which was now slowly moved toward him.
'Move.' The hound came closer.
'Move.' The hound leapt up.
'Move!' The hound was about to pounce on him.
"Move!" he shouted out, and finally the dagger flew toward him, but before it or the hound could reach him, the whole floor collapsed, sending everything downward including Naruto and the hound.
xxxxx
Slowly, his eyes were opened. He was on rocky and sandy ground of Korriban once again. He was in an area underneath the ship with large metal junkyard. Naruto looked upward and saw a large hole over his head. He began to think back on what happened.
The floor he was fighting with the Tuk'ata collapsed down, sending him and his enemy downward, passed through the ship and down to the ground. The reason he couldn't remember the fall was probably because something must had hit his head on the way down and knocked him unconscious.
He slowly got up from the ground. He scanned his surroundings for any clues of where his enemy, or his weapon, was.
When suddenly, he remembered something vital.
He used his Force Sense once again, and what he feared was true. He could not feel the other predator beside the hound.
The signal of the creature was not in the distance anymore and the signal was coming from all around him, which meant it was too close for him to accurately locate. Naruto quickly looked around, trying to find his weapon. He spotted his dagger on the ground and quickly moved to retrieve it. As soon as he picked it up, he heard the sound of footsteps running through metal scraps from behind one of the alloy piles. He got into his fighting stance and prepared.
On top of the pile, he spotted the hound running down the pile toward him. He prepared himself, the hound would likely to use higher ground advantage to jump on him again, so he readied his dagger to stab it mid-air when it did so. As it ran closer, he steadied himself. His eyes never left the hound, but when it reached the range to jump onto him, it did not. Instead, it ran toward and then passed him.
Naruto looked after the hound's trail in confusion, wondering why it didn't attack. Suddenly, behind him, a loud roar was heard and something burst from the scrap pile. Naruto turned around and was horrified by what he saw. A gargantuan creature he had feared the most in this world; the Terentatek.
The beast spotted him and roared a mighty roar as it made its way toward him. Naruto immediately took off after the hound, in his head, he was only thinking of one thing. Déjà vu.
As he ran on and on, he hoped to find an exit or some advantages over the Terentatek. He chose to follow the hound's footprints, because one thing he learned from living in the dessert was that these animals always knew their way around endless desert and maze-like valley of Korriban. To put it simply, the hound might know an exit.
At last, he saw the hound, but instead of running it stopped and stared at something. Naruto was confused at why the hound did not run, but when he got close enough, he saw the reason why the hound stopped. He slowed down and stood beside the hound, in front of them was the dead end. The ground began to shake behind them, as he and the hound turned around and readied their weapon, Naruto looked slightly at the hound and said.
"It's your fault." The hound gave him an annoyed, yet surprised look and a low growl, but remained still.
Finally, the Terentatek came around the corner. It immediately spotted Naruto and the Tuk'ata. It pounded its chest several times while roaring like a beast before charged at Naruto and the hound. Once it reached them, it slammed both its hand onto them, creating a storm of dust. Once the dust cleared out, nothing. It looked around, trying to find out where its prey went.
Suddenly, something jumped onto its back. It was the boy and the hound. Both of them dodged to each side of the Terentatek and used the dust cloud to cover them while prepared to attack it from behind. Now on the Terentatek, Naruto and his new partner began to attack the Terentatek. Naruto was about to stab it when it used its hand to grab him and threw him off.
He was able to land on his feet when he hit the ground. He quickly recovered and looked at the beast. He instantly dodged as the beast charged at him. The Terentatek ran into the wall and stunned itself. During the crash with the wall, the Tuk'ata was thrown off the Terentatek's back and was knocked unconscious.
As for Naruto, he used this chance to run up the Terentatek's back all the way to its head. Once he reached the spot, he jabbed his dagger into the beast's eye socket. The beast roared out in pain and pushed Naruto off its face. He was on the ground again, but this time without any weapon.
The Terentatek was now on a rampage because of the pain and the loss of its eye. It destroyed anything in front of it. Luckily for Naruto, he was not in its line of sight right now, but the hound was and had not recovered yet. The Terentatek made its way toward the hound, no doubt wanting to kill it.
Naruto wasn't entirely sure what to do. According to all his common sense and logic, he wasn't supposed to save the hound. He could use this chance to come up with another plan of how to escape or kill the Terentatek, but his feeling told him otherwise.
It told him to save the hound, and in Naruto's heart he wanted to save it as well. He was never much of a Sith. He may accept the Sith's idea, but he was not a firm believer of it.
When he fell to the dark side three years ago, it was mainly because of his rage toward the Third and Konoha. He would take revenge against them, that was guaranteed, but even so his mind and belief in general wasn't changed much, only enchanted by the Sith's belief and philosophy his master taught him. [4]
He continued to stare at the helpless hound and the advancing Terentatek. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, he knew what he had to do. He extended his hand toward the beast, calling on the well of energy he could feel boiling in his chest, and he concentrated.
The Terentatek was going to crush the Tuk'ata with its two gigantic arms, when suddenly the dagger that stuck in its eyes was pulled by an invisible force, and in the process, yank out one of its eyes.
'This is much easier than the first time', Naruto thought in delight when the weapon landed in his palm.
The beast looked at where the dagger had flown and saw Naruto, standing tall, with a bloody blade in his hand. It didn't waste any moment and charged toward him. Naruto took a defensive stance and remained calm, watching the beast coming to kill him. The beast was getting closer and closer and yet Naruto did not move; he did not fear.
Five more steps before it hits me, he thought and began counting each steps of Terentatek. 1. The Terentatek was only a few meters away from him. 2. It raised one of its arms up. 3. The beast raised another arm. 4. The beast was about to slam both of its hands onto Naruto. 5. With the last step, Naruto leaped.
He slashed his weapon along the other eye of The Terentatek, blinding it completely. Now that it lost its sight, the beast went out of control. It swung it arms left and right, like a mad beast… and all mad beasts must be put down.
Naruto raised one of his arms up and concentrated. He gathered the Force within his hand. After a few seconds, his hand was literally full of the Force, to the point where the blue aura was visible in his palm. At last, he unleashed his power and pushed the dagger into the Terentatek's head, forcing it through its skull and out the other side of the beast's head. [5]
Naruto jumped off the beast as its corpse collapsed. He dusted himself a bit, though he was going to need a bath if he wanted to clean all the blood. He might be able to bathe at the oasis, though drinking from that water source again would be harder from now on. He shook those thoughts out of his head. When he walked to recover his blade, he looked briefly at unconscious hound, but did nothing and walked away.
He searched the area and found his bag that contained his batteries. He then made his way he had come in. While he wanted to spend more time tried to recover more power cores, he doubted the hound would allow that, and to kill something he already saved two times was not something he fancied. So he simply walked away.
xxxxx
He arrived at the exit, which was close to the entry of the ship. The sun was about to set; he could begin his travel back soon. Suddenly he felt something behind him, and he spun, pulling out his dagger. There, he saw the hound sitting and staring at him. Naruto could not feel any killing intention coming from it, which meant it was not here to fight.
The hound stood up again and walked closer to him. Naruto also noticed that there was something in its mouth, but he didn't clearly see what. It stopped it front of him, both of them stared at each other for long minutes, but then the hound dropped the objects. It was a piece of meat.
Naruto was taken aback, but now he was curious at why the hound would give him a meat, which had undoubtedly belonged to the Terentatek's that he killed. That was when he had an idea. He slowly moved his hand toward the Tuk'ata. When it seemed that the hound was not going to bite it, he rested his hand on its head and slowly stroked it. The hound closed its eyes and let its new master stroke its head. As he stroked the hound, he could feel some of its emotion; gratefulness, affection and happiness. [6]
A small smile formed on Naruto's face; it appeared that his journey on Korriban might not be as lonely as he thought after all. He picked up the meat and put them in the bag.
"Thanks," he said to the hound, who gave him a happy bark. "So wanted to tag along?" The hound barked again.
"You know…you could use a name, but what should it be?" The hound tilted its head. Naruto began to observe the hound tried to find anything that could give him a clue of what to call it.
First, he must determine its gender. He crouched down and looked for its certain parts… ah, a female. Second, he must find its special features? The answer to that was obvious, it had blue eyes instead of red.
Naruto began to think of the word that would fit to be a name. The first word that popped up in his head was 'blue', but that was a bad name for a dog, never mind a war hound [7]. Then he came up with another name, a name which also meant 'blue' in Sith's language: 'Zedras'. No; it was too masculine, but it was close to perfect…maybe he could modify the word.
"How about Zedra?" he asked the hound. It barked happily.
"Zedra it is, then!" Naruto said with a smile.
The two then began their journey. It might just be a journey back to Naruto's home for now, but they had no idea that a long journey awaited them both in the future.
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[1] Force Sense- ability to sense movement, location, and present using the Force. An advanced Force sensing user may even be able to sense a specific person across the star system.
[2] Sith war droid Mark I model, again if you want an image let me know.
[3] Keep in mind that Naruto was just 8 years old, and the Tuk'ata, despite being called hound, was much bigger than the biggest dog. An average adult Tuk'ata should be as big as rhinoceros. They keep growing larger as time passes and they live a long life.
[4] This is basically nature vs. nurture inside Naruto.
[5] He used Force Push, in case you didn't know. You have no idea how hard it is to write detailed stuff when your first language is not English.
[6] Zedra was grateful that Naruto saved it and didn't kill it, so it swore allegiance to Naruto; don't forget the Tuk'ata are semi-sentient. That is one of the characteristics the Tuk'ata had: fierce loyalty to its master.
[7] A reference to a certain kid's show with a blue dog as its icon ;)
A/N: If you wondered why this chapter took so long…blame Hearthstone. College barely took away my time, it's the opposite actually, I just wasted most of my time on computer…no, not to write fanfic.
Character profile:
Name: Zedra
Species: Tuk'ata (Sith hound)
Gender: Female
Sexual orientation: Not sentient enough to understand the concept.
Age: Roughly 9 years old.
Homeworld: Korriban
Allegiance: Naruto and Sith (no era)
Profession: Naruto's Sith hound
Birth date: Around 65 B.B.Y.
Birth place: Valley of the Dark Lords, Korriban.
Religion: Not sentient enough to understand the concept.
Relationships: Naruto; master. XoXaan, master's master.
Appearance: Bluish black mixed with blue skin. Blue fur in some area. Blue eyes. Several horns, spine spikes and sharp claws and teeth.
Bio: Born as a simple hound on Korriban. She lived her life as normal hound until she crossed path with Naruto two times. After he saved her life, she pledged herself to Naruto.
