Sith'ari

A/N: Sorry for being late, but I've got excuses! Blah blah blah and blah; that's it, hope you can understand my reason. Looking forward to Star Wars: Rogue One, even though there's no alien protagonist…again; like seriously there are like hundreds of species in Star Wars lexicon, fuck relatability.

This deed.

The warming bonfire was surrounded by tried Mandalorian; well, except one who still had quite the energy left in him. Above the bonfire were several critters and unknown vegetation putting on sticks and letting the flame roast them.

"I don't get why we don't just eat our rations," Matis stated.

"I don't get why we don't stay in that village," Oorn followed.

"Go ask mister Sith over there," Lanaal said and pointed her thumb over her shoulder to Naruto.

"For the first question, we are behind enemy lines, rations are precious; we will make do with what we found," Jango answered his teammate. "As for the second question, well…it to make sure we...didn't..." Fett trailed off and looked at Naruto. [1]

Naruto sat at the edge of the bonfire, radiant along with his hound.

Aegiria came to sit beside Jango. She whispered, "So what's your decision on him."

"No need to whisper. If he can hear Isab, he can hear us," Jango said outloud as he remembered that Horuset's ears were so sharp he could hear a low whisper from afar, while under heavy pressure no less. "If you want my honest opinion, then…I don't really care, rather I am glad he was on our team."

This caught the team by surprise, even Naruto though to a lesser extent.

"You're glad that a lightsaber wielding maniac who slaughtered an army single-handedly is with us?" Lanaal asked with obvious sigh of sarcasm, but also displeasure.

"You got your answer, 'with us,'" Fett told her. He turned to Naruto and shouted. "How about you get over here? The dinner's nearly ready."

"I am not eating that," Isab said and pointed at the toad-like roasted one.

Naruto strolled to the campfire before grabbing the stick with the toad-like creature and taking a bite at it without hesitation.

"So, why are you calling me over here, Fett?" Naruto questioned. He looked at the rest of the team. Most were, surprisingly, quick to dismiss the shock that he single-handedly defeated the Huk, with the exception of Lanaal and Alesha, as usual. He took another bite off his toad.

"Well, the dinner for one, but I also wanted to talk," Fett said before grabbing one of the sticks as well. "At first, I was really disappointed that you didn't tell us you were a Force-sensitive, but after knowing you were a Sith, I can see why you wouldn't," Fett said before taking a bite at his food, a vine-like vegetation.

"You know 'they' are out there, don't you?" he added.

Naruto paused, about to take a bite. He moved his mouth away.

"I have my suspicions, but I have not had an opportunity to investigate yet," Naruto replied before continuing on with his bite.

"Who are you talking about?" Silas asked. "The Jedi?"

"Not them, Silas," Jango answered. "Another group of Sith."

"You mean like the lesser Force cult?" Isab asked, having some knowledge on the subject.

"No, as in literally another Sith. Not some weakling untrained darksider, but this current era of Sith," Naruto answered, not caring that he might be offending Isab.

"You mean there are more Sith beside him?" Lanaal asked in panic.

"Not the same Sith, those are the reformed Sith. Their tactic is hiding in the shadows waiting to strike and destroy Jedi once and for all," Naruto explained.

"And you're not going to do the same?" Jango asked. Naruto went quiet for a moment.

"Great, now I feel like a hypocrite," he complained. "Then let me put it this way, those guys will forever be few, while my Sith will grow." He paused for a moment. "That still does not explain why you suddenly brought this up…or how you know it in the first place."

"True Mandalorian have some underworld connections. We're mercenaries after all, not to mention my dad is the leader. So yes, it has passed my ear that Sith still exist in the shadows. As for why I brought this up, well, do you recall what Sith and Mando used to do together?"

"Yes, yes I do, what about it?"

One could say that the whole history between Mandalorian and Sith was about Mandalorian being subjugated or manipulated by the Sith to join their side. This damaged their reputation as warriors and they became more of a pawn for the Sith. The worst part of this for the Mando was that as long as the Sith existed this would go on; in fact Naruto thought of doing it as well.

"Well, I want to make a deal," Fett said. This proposal caught others surprise, Naruto to a lesser extent.

"You can't be serious," Lanaal remarked.

"I am," Fett retorted.

"A deal with a Sith? What kind of deal? Let him take over True Mandalorian?" Lanaal said with as much venom as she could muster. "Sith are never trustworthy. Period."

"Hmm, you're not the one making the decision though," Naruto told her. She grunted before stomping to the edge of the bonfire's light. "And I know you tried to kill me in that hut," he shouted after her. He turned back to Fett. "What do you propose?"

"Mandalorian were always controlled by the Sith in whatever major conflict we took part in…I want that to stop."

"Easier said than done, Fett," Naruto said

"No, it's not. Your options of army are limited and any groups or races you try to recruit as followers might end up working for the other Sith. Heck, just making contact with the underworld would draw their attention to him. And who are you going to recruit then?" Naruto was silent at Fett's words.

"I can give you that solution. We can help you if you will promise this." The others had now tensed up. "You will treat Mandalorian as equal, not as pawns like your ancestors. You will think of us as an ally, not as henchmen. Accept this term, and in the future, we are at your service," Fett finished, both his proposal and his food. "I am going to scout a bit, giving you some time to think on it."

Fett moved away from the bonfire and eventually its radiance before going out of his squad's sight. Now the others turned to Naruto, though he expected it.

"I can sense that you four," he pointed in the general direction of Aegiria, PD, Martis and Alesha, "are confused. But I don't care enough to answer so ask the other. I have some thinking to do," he said before getting up and moving back to the edge of the bonfire's light, which allowed Lanaal to move back in.

The other looked at the ones with more galactic knowledge, particularly Kandosii and Isab.

"Well, which do you think we should explain first?" Isab asked Kan.

"I need some time to recall the old tales. You go ahead with whatever you want," Kan answered. Isab nodded before starting the explanation with Lanaal, Oorn and Silas adding or elaborating from time to time. Meanwhile, on the far side of their camp, the mastermind was considering his move.

Naruto had anticipated a deal of this kind, and he was ready to accept it, but should he give some kind of extra conditions? After all it was them who asked HIM to-

His line of thought halted.

He took a moment to review his previous thought, before cursing at himself in disgust. He had started thinking too much like him master again; that manipulative bitch.

In fact, his manipulation of PD was starting to leave a bad taste in his mouth. Not due to putting her at risk, because Adas knew he didn't care about that, but it reminded him too much that he's starting to become like his master, his most hated master. [2]

Yet the pragmatic part of his brain kept telling him to demand further conditions from Fett, but his, let's just call it the 'passionate part', told him to accept the deal as it stood.

'What to do? What to do?' he thought.

'Didn't Fett point out 'you' are the one who need them?' Kurama inquired from the depths of the mindscape.

'He underestimated me. What about you, what do you think?'

'Wouldn't hurt to accept the deal as it is. It's fair, and it's...something a...superior warrior would do. Fett beat you fair and square. Heck, I would even say he beat someone ten times more powerful than himself. He DESERVES something for that. Accepting the deal on equal terms would be a nice reward.' Naruto was silent at that remark. 'Don't tell me you planned to kill them.' [3]

'No, of course not. Let no one say that Horuset was a backstabber who killed his faithful...followers.'

At this point, Naruto's stream of schemes had stopped its flow. He had reached for the final decision. He would accept Fett's deal as it stood, to show, especially to the others in the squad, that anyone who was willing to follow, and even impress him, will receive their reward.

'I feel like you're trying to make me accept this deal fairly for some reason.'

'Why would I do that?' Kurama replied.

Naruto could sense something going on inside his canine friend, but alas, if there's one person in this galaxy he could not sense the thought of it was him, not at his current level of power at least. With that, he let the feeling subside, but he would be more wary of Kurama's advice from now on.

He closed his eyes before taking a deep breath and slowly letting his mind drift off to become one with the Force.

xxx

Hours had passed and the Kalee's moon was nearly at the peak of the sky. Fett made his way out of the bush. The team had finished their briefing on Sith, and the members had moved on to occupy themselves with other activities.

Oorn, Alesha and Isab had gone to sleep. Kandosii and Martis had engaged in a game using the dirt floor as a board. Silas, Peo and PD were on the treeline, being the first pair in the outlook routine. Aegiria and Lanaal were watching over Naruto, who was meditating with Zedra sleeping by his side.

Fett made his way toward Horuset, but on his way he stopped by Kan and Martis.

"Why aren't you two sleeping? We will move on very early tomorrow," he asked them.

"We are the next pair to be the guards actually," Martis replied.

"We woke up a bit early, so we decided to pass time with a game before our shift began," Kan explained.

"I see," Fett replied. He walked over to Aegiria. "Why aren't you two sleeping?"

"Think I can sleep with this 'snake' standing over me?" she asked in paranoia. Her eyes did not leave Horuset. Fett nodded to that and turned to Aegiria.

"Just looking over her," she answered.

Fett walked over to Naruto. "Are you done considering our deal?"

Naruto did not answer immediately. He took some time to drop out of his meditation stance before got up to face Fett. He stood in front of him. Their eyes met, and their gazes locked on each other, his cold blue eyes and Fett's harden brown pupils challenging each other. Nobody was willing to retreat.

"Well?" Fett asked, raising his voice.

"...I accept it," Horuset replied bluntly, showing no sign of emotion. Jango, however, openly smiled. They also heard a groan coming from Lanaal. "When will we be moving?" The blonde asked.

"Tomorrow morning. The Huk retreated to the south so we will follow them, unless you know where they are at."

"As a matter of fact, I do. Their main base is actually to the northwest, a week on foot, just five days if we do not encounter any danger," Naruto informed them.

"Very well, we will move in that direction first thing in the morning. Go get some sleep," Fett commanded.

"Nah, I'd rather meditate some more," Naruto answered before sitting down once again to meditate.

Jango walked away casually, passing Lanaal and Aegiria uncaringly. He made his way to his other sleeping teammates. He found a suitable area and lied down and closed his eyes. Aegiria and Lanaal looked at each other.

Aegiria swung her head towards the other as a sign. Lanaal seemed reluctant, but the tiredness of today's battle caused her to give up and walk along with Aegiria away from Horuset, who finally let himself relax.

And thus the day ended for Jango's squad.

xxx

The next day, the squad woke up at four thirty. They quickly ate their rations, and by five, they had erased their traces and moved on. The jungle was as treacherous as they expected; every step was met with poisonous bugs or venomous snakes, every bush that shook was a guarantee that something would jump out and any long-period of silence ended up with them getting ambushed.

For three days, the squad marched on, only stopping at night when they had to make camp to rest and then moved on as soon as they could in the morning.

This was their third night since they had started heading west.

The squad gathered around the bonfire like last night, with their food on the stick also. No one said anything as they waited for their food to roast fully. However, the quietness of the squad took its toll on one of the members for a long time, and she was about to snap.

"ALRIGHT! THAT IS IT!" Alesha snapped. This startled everyone. "It's been a month since I was stuck with you people, and we are not even close to becoming a real team!" She yelled to the top of her lungs. "I mean can't we all be friends and look after each other's backs?"

"Pfft, that's rich," Naruto remarked.

"We do look after each other, but becoming friends is not that easy. When people live with war, they're not going to see life as rainbows and sunshine as you do," Aegiria answered coldly.

"I do not see life as rainbows and sunshine. I did kill those Huk," she retorted.

"And? With a blaster it's easy to kill. You didn't see it; the look in their eyes as they died, their fear as their whole life was taken away from them, their pain as the blood ran over their body and their anger at the one who had taken their life. You don't see that by using a blaster; you can still see life as rainbows and sunshine because the blood was spilled too far away from your reality," Naruto countered.

"Geez, you really are a psycho," Lanaal sneered.

"I think it's more poetic than psychotic," Silas commented.

"Hmm, and you aren't? All of us have blood on our hands. We know that and live with it; if that makes me a psycho, then you all are the same. Except you, right? Little Alesha? You don't want to admit that, or rather don't know how to admit that," Naruto continued.

Alesha didn't reply or even look him in the eyes. Naruto kept his eyes on her and continued to analyze the girl.

"Tell us why you're really here. I did not expect someone like you to 'see the world' by becoming a mercenary," Naruto ordered.

"No," Fett interrupted in a stern tone. "If she doesn't want to talk, she doesn't have to talk."

"I thought you wanted the problem," he gestured at Alesha, "solved."

"I did, but the problem lies with her. If she's doesn't open up, we can't force her because that would never work," Fett said. Alesha brightened up a bit. "However," this caused her blood to run cold again, "if she continues to weigh us down, I might consider...field execution in the future," he added much to everyone's surprise, though none protested.

"W-wha-what?! You can't just- but we," she shuttered.

"This is a warzone, Alesha. If you weigh us down, we'll fail in our mission. So between you or failing, I think you know the answer," he said uncaringly.

Alesha looked at the others for support, but not a single one of them looked at her with eyes that showed a sign of sympathy. Her head fell. Her long hair blocked her face.

The silence intensified, and this time they knew it was not an ambush. Sound was finally produced when Naruto stood up. He slowly made his way away from the others.

"Where're you going?" Kan asked.

"Got a massage to deliver, asking Qymaen to send us some reinforcements at the Huk base. He looked important enough to sent some help," Naruto answered.

"You're gonna deliver it?" Silas asked.

"Nah, Zedra will," he said. He moved on away from the campfire to write his message. The others looked at Zedra, who slept like a pup near the campfire. "Now if you would excuse me, I've got a letter to write," Horuset said and walked off.

And the rest of the night went on without any more events that broke the subtle moral of the squad.

By morning, Zedra was gone, and the squad marched on without a word.

xxx

The rest of the week went on without many words since Alesha was in a low mood. No one would start the conversation.

And at last, they arrived at their destination.

"How large is their base and what's the structure, approximately?" Jango said through the link.

"The size of our flagship. It's a circle building with a big hole in the middle. I see lots of ships leaving from its left side, and the entrance is a bit to the right of it," Alesha briefed.

"I see," Fett replied. He pushed keys to switch channel. "Naruto, are the reinforcements here yet?"

"On their way. Zedra arrived ahead of them. Qymaensent a note, said about 30,000 Kaleesh warriors will join the assault, plus some Mando who they met or who received the news. I sent her back to give the exact location," briefed Naruto through the link.

Fett nodded to himself.

The chance of winning this without the main force was still low, but maybe he underestimate the Kaleesh. Yet measuring the situation, he knew that there's no way the Kaleesh would arrive without being detected, and if that was the case, the Huk artillery and airstrike would reduce their numbers considerably, or completely obliterate them if the Huk possessed capable and unoccupied spacecraft for an orbital strike.

He must make sure the Kaleesh remain concealed, which meant…

"Everyone, what we're about to do next is suicidal, but necessary for the Kaleesh to attack without being detected." Nobody replied to him. "We are going to attack the Huk base, all on our own, as a distraction." There was no reply for a few heartbeats, but eventually Silas replied.

"No offense, Jango, but with Naruto I don't think any of us worry about that."

"Oh, sure, make me do everything," cut in Naruto.

"No, he alone won't do for my plan. Now all of you listen carefully to what I am about to say…"

xxxxx

The invasion force of the Huk were busy. Busy because the Mandalorian arrived to help the Kaleesh out when they were about to advance their plan. Busy because a whole battalion just got wiped out with no survivors to report back. Busy...because there was a sudden explosion at the base entry.

General Y'hagu was not an impatient bug, but even he had his limit, and it was being tested right now.

"Report." He tapped on the terminal to the guard post nearest the main entrance.

"We are fine, general. The explosion killed a few personnel and damaged some defense, but nothing major," replied one of his men.

"How did it happen?"

"A survivor from the lost battalion found his way here. The idiot got a grenade stuck on his back all the way and didn't even realise it. When we noticed, someone rigged it."

"Rigged?" The general questioned.

"Yes, sir. It went off as soon as one of the guards shouted after him about the bomb."

Strange suspicion took over the general. Something was not right. If the bomb wasn't remote, then it would have exploded long before that survivor had arrived. Or was there a camera in the bomb? Then his enemy would know of this base!

He need to move this base, or rather call off the invasion entirely. He was already considering it after the Mandalorian arrived. He knew too well of the Mando reputation. If they were here, their plan to colonize this planet had failed.

Still, he had enough Kaleesh slaves to use as proof to the high command that he did everything he could and would have succeeded too if it wasn't for the Mando.

But a retreat of the whole invasion force was a complicated process especially if you wanted every last one of your men to get off the world, and their bureaucracy system did not help with that. The best he could do now was increase the security until he was authorized to retreat along with the transport ship to pick up his men.

xxxxx

Horuset watched over the gathering of the Yam'rii below from the shadows. The plan was quite simple, the blonde had to admit, but also likely to be very efficient. Not to mention the stroke of luck they had when the Huk Naruto let go managed to find its way back, along with the grenade.

"Are you set, Naruto?" asked Fett through the device.

Naruto cracked his fist and shook his neck. The sound of bone snapping was the answer he gave to Fett.

"Proceed as planned."

He waited in the shadows for the signal. He received it in the form of an explosive echo. He leaped from the ledge he was hiding in. He made no sound as he touched the ground, giving him a further element of surprise as the Huk were looking in the direction of another explosion.

He took out two blaster shotguns, both with under barrel grenade launchers. He started his job by blasting out two bombs, one into the fuel tank and another into the largest Huk group within his range of fire.

Now that he had their attention, he started to spray plasma bolts all over the center area. His weapon spit out several more grenades. That should give his other teammates their signal.

xxxxx

The Huk force was about to defend the central area from the sudden appearance of an intruder, but they were interrupted when two more popped up in the hanger, blasting their aircraft to smithereens.

Two giants, one in purple, the other in teal, were obliterating the hanger operational crews.

"Four credits, we won't make it out," said Oorn.

At first Kandosii did not reply, but when a gunship managed to start its engine and slowly rose up with its shield online, he jested.

"Make it 10."

xxxxx

General Y'hagu cursed at himself. He knew something would happen, yet he did not take any real action. Fighting the primitive for too long had made him soft to technologically advanced foes.

The hanger was set aflame by the explosion. The central area was cut off, and he had recently received word that there was a sniper hiding on the ledge and another group of enemies attacking the armory.

"General, what's your order?" asked one of his subordinates.

Y'hagu sighed. He knew what to do, but he didn't want to do it because he would be disgraced for his incompetence.

In case the base was attacked and lost, they would move off world as soon as possible with as many slaves and soldiers as they could gather. But if it became impossible to move off world, then they killed all the slaves and destroyed the evidence of invasion and attempting colonization to ensure that at least the Republic would not be on their backs later. [4]

Yet maybe he could salvage the situation. There were only a few intruders, after all. Their recent purchase from the Techno Union might prove useful. He turned to his subordinate.

"Activate the Assultron, and tell all personnel to get away from the armory," he ordered.

xxxxx

"Are you done?!" asked PD as she exchanged fire with an advancing Huk.

"Just hold them off. This thing takes time to set up," answered Isab. She had been working on the explosive device for five minutes now, and the longer she worked, the more reinforcements arrived.

"Stupid, insectoid, just die!" shouted PD.

"Just call them bugs," Isab muttered.

As if some kind of miracle happened, the attack ceased, and the Huk began to retreat. PD lowered her lance.

"Why are they stopping? I see no strategic value in that," she remarked.

Isab on the other hand hurried with arming the device. She knew something was about to go wrong if the enemy retreated for no reason. There's always a reason for retreat.

She finished her task. The bomb began to count down at five minutes.

"Alright time to ru-."

"Organized life form detected," cut in a robotic, static feminine voice.

"Unknown energy form detected," another one rang.

"Begin extermination, prepare yourself...meatbag," another one said. [5]

Both of them looked at the voice's source. Three droids were charging at them. A somewhat feminine figure, though they were bare of armor save the chest and head, which possessed a singular red eye. Their thin arms were pumping their three hook-like fingers, with the exception of a sole droid who possessed two vibroblades as arms. [6]

"Another scraps," remarked PD. She opened fire, but quickly discovered that these droids had the speed needed to dodge her beam, and they were closing in on her.

"Stop!" Isab shouted. "We don't have time for this," she said while start running off. PD, seeing the droids closing in, followed suit. The droids were still relentless in their pursuit.

The two made their way into the corridor where the Huk were on the retreat as well. They ran forth, intending to regroup with their nearby ally, Naruto. The droids continued to hunt them.

PD looked back at their pursuer. She noticed one of Assultron's eyes growing dangerously bright. She understood what it tried to do and saw that it was aiming at Isab.

"Look out!" she shouted and tackled the Vahla down right before the beam hit her. They both saw the power of the attack as several Huk who were running ahead of them were burnt to ash by it.

"Disintegration ray," muttered Isab.

She looked back at the closing in metal cyclop. The other two looked like their laser was nearly fully charged as well. She turned to Purple Diamond. "We need to split. There's no way we will survive all of them chasing us," she panted.

PD nodded as a response and went off in one direction, while Isab went to another. Unfortunately for her, two followed her while only one followed PD. But her luck turned up again when the explosion count down ended. The fire and physical force consumed the corridor behind her, destroying one of the droids, but one continued the chase.

Judging by its power, Isab doubted she could take it head on, on her own. Which is why she was running toward him.

xxxxx

Naruto had sensed something strange ever since he stepped into this base. A feeling he had sensed daily back on Korriban. A feeling that inspired dark thoughts and bloodlust.

There was a darkside nexus here, somewhere beneath his feet.

The source of this could vary. Maybe an old Sith temple, he did recall there were some Kaleesh Sith Lords or maybe the Huk were practicing the dark arts. Whatever the case, he would look into it if he had had the time. For now, though, he continued to slaughter the Huk.

They were retreating, however, or rather moving to barricade the left side of the complex.

He caught a feeling from Isab, distressed, tired and panicking, and she was heading this way.

"Naruto!" he heard.

He watched as the Vahla ran forward with a unique design droid chasing from behind. Isab looked to the droid before abruptly dropping down and allowing the beam to pass over her head...and come straight at him.

Naruto grabbed his saber with the Force and used it to defect the disintegration ray. The ray bounced off the plasma blade, but the droid did not stop. Naruto slowly turned his saber, allowing the beam to hit other targets more useful than just the wall. Like the fuel tanks, the ammo case or the Huk themselves.

Another scream popped up. Horuset shifted his head to see PD running his way with another unique droid behind her. He slowly shifted his saber to move the beam in her direction to get rid of the droid.

She ducked as the ray approached and let the unaware droid get cut in half by the reflected attack.

The ray finally stopped, but the droid was running straight at him. He tried to shoot it. But it dodged most of the shotgun blasts and kicked the grenades away, sometimes into the Huk group.

Naruto mentally nodded, unusual for a droid to be this quick; not just its speed but reflection as well.

Eventually, he stopped as it was obviously useless to try and shoot it. His hand holstered his blaster and went to the floating saber.

The droid leaped while spinning itself into a whirlwind. The steel blades made contact with the red plasma, creating sparks. Naruto was surprised that the metal was able to resist the plasma blade. Was this thing made to fight the Jedi?

It swiped both its blades down. He blocked both of them. It quickly slipped one arm off and jabbed. But he was quicker. He moved and let the blade miss underneath his armpit and locked them under it before using his strength to crush the blade.

"Aww, someone has a fetish," the droid remarked in a surprisingly soothing feminine tone.

"Hmm," Naruto sneered.

Without a second to waste, he broke the blade lock and slashed the droid's legs apart with speed quicker than it could match. With some force, he stomped into the droid's eye to make sure it could not charge its laser again.

'Now, to kill the-'

Before he finished his train of thought, the floor he was standing on collapsed, dragging him and the droid down into the darkness.

xxxxx

"Fuck!" screamed Silas.

He and Lanaal were tasked with rescuing the slave stored deep inside the base. The door was impenetrable, and the key had been taken away by the Huk. So he gathered as many explosive devices as he could and blasted the door.

It worked, but the floor collapsed down as well, somehow dragging Naruto down with it.

He would follow down to help, but he had his mission: arm the slaves and let them tear the base apart while they awaited the main force. Besides, Naruto could handle himself.

"If he comes to kill us, I'll say you did it," his companion told him as she helped the Kaleesh slaves cross the big hole in the ground.

"...fuck," he muttered to himself.

xxxxx

Now it was official. Whenever he was going to do something productive, the ground must break down. He shook his feeling of eternal bad luck off and focused on his new surroundings.

Statues made of skulls and brass greeted him in the large hall he was located in. Crimson light was emitted from the ceiling corners.

Yup, this looked like a darksider temple alright, guess his hunch was correct.

He looked to his new companion in the near complete darkness, the droid he had incapacitated.

"What model are you?" asked the blonde as he got up and dusted his armor.

"It's rude to ask a girl's name before buying them something," the droid teased back. Uzumaki only gave her a cold stare. "Designation: Assultron. Designed to provide a variety of security-related tasks to the buyer. Current status: Incapacitated."

"Who made you exactly? Your weapon is too high grade to be wasted on a droid."

"No prejudice at all I see," she remarked. "I was made by the Techno Union as a prototype for…" Her voice trailed off.

"For what?"

"For a model that would never be made. The disintegration ray was too expensive compared to its Disruptor weapons counterpart. Why bother strapping a laser to a droid when you can have one holding and shooting it, right?" she whined.

The Sith Lord looked down at the droid with some pity. So far one of the most disgusting things that he had found about the galaxy at large was how wasteful it was with everything. The food, the men's power, even the art, all wasted so easily. A rare droid could be a great use to him. Maybe he could salvage it in some way.

"Are there no other prototypes?" asked the blonde.

"There were ten of us that were made. Five were deemed unsellable and were scrapped, two went rogue, and two have already been killed," she answered.

"I see." He gazed up to the big hole above. "If you survive this, what will you do?"

"Calculating: If I survive, I would be stuck in this hole till my energy ran out, which will take a few years of sheer boringness. Then I would deactivate," she analyzed.

"Well, that's certainly likely, but what I mean is if you were, somehow, to get off this world, what would do?"

The Assultron stared at the Mandalorian for a few seconds with her broken red eye. She responded.

"Calculation: Are you offering to take me in?"

"That's too nice of a choice of words. I am offering you a chance to survive by serving me, out of necessity, not compassion," explained the Sith.

"The same to me. I have no problem with that. They never programmed me to be loyal, just serve the buyer, who's probably dead by now. Runtime conclusion: I accept."

Naruto nodded. He would drag the droid back to the surface, but for now, he wanted to see what this place had to offer.

xxxxx

The situation on the surface started to turn grim for the young squad. The Huk pushed the retaliation harder. While the armory and hanger were in disarray, the vehicle bay was not. Soon enough, tanks were deployed while the Huk began their evacuation.

Jango and Aegiria sprinted with all their might, trying to find the Huk commander, searching room by room as they went.

"If they make it out, the war will be prolonged," said Jango.

"That's not the worst part. Do you know how the Republic will respond to this?" replied Aegiria.

The worth of a Mando or Kaleesh voice was practically nothing within the Republic. The Yam'rii, who had ties with the Trade Federation, on the other hand, could easily victimize themselves as innocent colonists through bribes and favors.

They needed to get the commander as leverage.

"This is Jango! Matis, respond."

"This is Matis, what is it?"

"The Huk commander is escaping. Do you spot him?"

"Negative, but the Huk are marching to the vehicle bay, likely for evac. It's a possible location."

"Affirmative."

They ran past the vacant base of the Huk, encountering very little defences as they made their way to the bay.

Once they arrived, the bugs, thousands of them, opened fire upon them. This was more than he could take. He was smart, but not a one man army, not without plan. He couldn't take on thousands of troops without support or perimeter knowledge.

"There's no way we will make it through," Aegiria shouted at Fett.

"This is Fett, anyone respond," Fett said through his wrist device, but no reply came. "This is Fett, anyone respond!" His voice increased in volume.

"Anyone!" He shouted in desperation. This time someone answered.

"Stay tight, boy. We're on our way," responded a stern voice. Jango had difficulty identifying the voice under heavy suppression. He had no idea who that was.

But within a second the promised help arrived in the form of missiles that blasted many transporters into flaming scraps. Jango peaked over his cover.

As the Huk tried to recover from the attack that scattered them into disarray, a legion of Kaleesh warriors poured through the large loading bay and began their massacre of the Huk.

Above them Mandalorian warriors flew in on their jetpacks. Leading from the ground was no other than Qymaen himself along with another female Kaleesh, and leading the Mandalorian from above was a Mando in black armor and a skull-white helmet.

"Guess we owe Naruto on this one," Aegiria remarked.

Fett mentally nodded.

xxxxx

Naruto did not like what he was looking at. He didn't like it because he didn't know what it was.

The temple itself wasn't the problem, neither was any of the text. But the idol on the altar put him off. It was made of stone in an x-like symbol with one thick line added at the base and another thinner line cut in in the middle of the x. The upper arms of the x had two extended lines outward to match the new length made by the extra lines.

The damned thing was so oozing with darkside energy that it leaked out thin red mist.

He had to study this artifact, but he was not going to come back for it later. Who knew whether the Kaleesh would blast this place along with the base or not.

The blonde used the Force to lift the idol. After that incident with the ax, touching unknown darkside items was something he was reluctant to do.

At his feet was a stone chest.

The slab was pushed off, and the objects inside were papers detailing various weapons schemes of a lost age, probably some Sith left it here during Kaleesh's primitive day.

Naruto dropped the idol into the chest and slid the slab back on top.

"Are you done admiring the view?" the voice of the Assultron called.

"I suppose, I am," he replied.

He moved to the incapacitated droid and carried it on one of his shoulders while the other carried the chest. He checked himself and his surrounding one last time to see if he had missed anything. Upon knowing that this place had no more use to him, he leapt up the hole he had fallen from.

Once above, he was surprised that the base was occupied by Kaleesh both well-armed and ragged.

'Guess my first mission was a success,' he mused in his mind with satisfaction.

It wasn't long before he sensed the presence of many people approaching, but then they stopped.

"Um, Naruto, why do you have that droid with you?" asked Isab warily from quite a distance away.

He turned to face her along with his other teammates, PD, Oorn, Kan and Matis.

"It's useful to me," replied Naruto.

"Jeez, don't objectify me at all," she criticized. Naruto did not reply, knowing the droid was being somewhat sarcastic. Was it?

"Should just kill it, you have no idea how much trouble that machine can be," suggested PD.

"I will keep it, thank you very much. Where're the others?" he asked.

"Fett and Aeg are talking to a senior officer who came to help. Silas and Lanaal are on their way, but Alesha…"

"Huh, she finally dead, eh?" Naruto asked.

The others looked at Matis. He scratched his head uncomfortably. "Uh, no I just...lost contact with her," he confessed.

Staring in confusion at the sniper's uncharacteristic clumsiness, the Sith closed his eyes and filled himself with the Force then let it flow all over as far as it could get.

He could feel her. She was alive, but scared, confused, guilt-ridden and in denial. Another life force was near her, fading, bleeding. Now he understood what was going on and reopened his eyes with a smile from the corner of his lip.

"So?" Matis asked.

"Innocence lost," was all he said on the matter. "Now what?"

"I told Fett we're here, now we just wait," Matis said. He took out his Holopad and occupied himself with it. The others got the message and tried to find something to do while waiting.

Silas and Lanaal caught up with them. Silas nervously gazed at Naruto as they approached.

"Umm…" He tried to say something.

"Just forget about it," said Horuset, who was busy examining the droid with Isab. Silas sighed, but Lanaal retained her straight face. They moved on to do something else as well.

Naruto stopped working on the droid once he sensed a certain person approaching. He looked straight at her.

"Look alive, pigeon," shouted the blonde. Alesha walked toward them. Her wings and armor colored with light green stains, the Huk's blood color. "How's the first blood?" he asked further.

At first she did not reply, only stared him in the eyes. "...Cold."

"Literally or figuratively?" he asked, half jest, half truth.

"...both," she answered, looking down. He sighed and went to drag her in.

"Hey, it's okay," said Naruto as he put his arm around her shoulder and guided her to the others. "Tell us about it. Maybe you will feel better." He gave his teammates a quick, short nod to inform them of what he was trying to do. They seemed to be willing to cooperate.

"He...came up behind me, tried to kill me with his...claws," she started recalling as she sat down. "I grabbed my knife, but he...overpowered me, made me let go of it. He...raised his claw, but...I got my…" He looked down at her taloned hand, also stained with green blood. "Talons...I...poked his...big eyes with it then...pulled it out."

The others looked a bit surprised at the brutality that Alesha was willing to exact and disgusted at the image of the Huk's eyes being pulled out.

"He screamed...I...I, he collapsed, twitching with pain….I...couldn't see him suffer that much so...I…I...with my...talon...I..." She finally stopped, but didn't stop looking at her hands.

"Sound fun," the Assultron said. It was silenced when a piece of metal flew and wrapped around its audio speaker.

"It takes guts to kill for yourself." Lanaal was the first to voice her thought on the matter. "It takes greater guts to admit it." She gestured for Naruto to get up as she went to occupy his position beside Alesha. "And even greater to live with it." She sat down beside her, both her hands on the Shaliz'Na's shoulders. She looked straight into the winged humanoid girl's eyes.

She hugged the black haired girl. Much to everybody's, even Naruto's and PD's, shock at the display of softness. Alesha soon hugged back and finally let her tears loose.

"I...I had no choice," she sobbed.

"I know, we know," Lanaal replied and patted her on her head.

Naruto looked at the display of affection with a curious thought.

'What's the best way to make people accept killing? Brutalize them or make it a necessity? Solve it at one end or the other?' he mused with himself. His thought was cut off when Zedra ran up to him and jumped onto him, pinning him down to the ground and licking his face.

"Alright, girl. Alright, girl," said the blonde. She got off him.

Approaching behind her was Qymaen and another female Kaleesh. Both of them stopped in front of Naruto.

"You have done us a great service, my friend," cheered Qymaen.

"Yes, with your help this war can finally come to a close. Well, after the clean up of course," the female Kaleesh informed him. "Ronderu lij Kummar, pleasure to make your acquaintance," she introduced herself.

"We are here to return your hound and give you a proper thank you for this help, but we cannot stay for long. We must hunt the Huk down before they can regroup. Goodbye, my friend, and thanks again," he bid farewell before walking off with his companion. Zedra barked after them once. They responded by waving back.

"So we don't get any credit?" Silas asked.

"You want to try and take it?" Kan asked and gestured at Naruto.

"...Fair enough," Silas sighed. Naruto just shrugged.

He went back to working on the droid. While doing so, he received a memory from his clone that was sent to delete all footage of his fight here. Now he needed not worry about it.

Finally, after the long wait, Jango and Aegiria arrived. Leading them was a white helmeted Mando officer.

"Attention," he commanded.

The squad formed into a line and stood at attention. The officer paused in front of the line and inspected each member of the team.

"Overextending your order, lead an unauthorized assault, slaughter, no, massacred the Huk, put the lives of our Kaleesh allies at risk, wasted your supplies, rations and ammunition and improper uniform." He listed the last case while pointing at Naruto. The commander placed his hand on his helmet before lifting it off to show his stern, dark brown face and black mustache and beard.

He smiled. "Well done, ada. This deed won't go unrewarded by the high command," he congratulated, much to their surprised.

"Thank you, Alor`ad Reyes," Jango received the compliment. [7]

"What's your team name anyways, Fett? I don't recall you telling anyone yet," the captain asked.

"It's…" He paused to think of the name. "Jango's Grunt, sir," named Fett.

His teammates started firing their complaints immediately, except Silas.

The dark armored warrior laughed. "Now you sort this out, Fett. I have a lot of thing to get to, like interrogating the Huk commander." He walked off, but not before he made one last comment. "By the way, nice choice of weapon, ade," he told Naruto.

The squad relaxed after he was gone, but still argued with Fett about the team name.

"Wait, where's your bird, Alesha?" Aegiria asked.

The girl whistled a special tone, and within a second, the bird came to rest on her shoulder.

"Good job, guys, all of you," Jango said and looked over everyone on his team with a smile, especially Alesha. "Now, let's go clean up the place, Reyes's order."

He led his team to into the base complex.

Jango slowed down to catch up with Naruto and Matis.

"Did you push her limit as I asked?" he asked the two.

"Yes, we did," Naruto answered.

"And the result was pretty nice too, with a bonus. Lanaal stopped being a bitch now," Naruto added.

"Really? Good," he replied and increased his speed to be in the front again.

Naruto looked at the...friends in front of him.

'These few years are going to be interesting.'

Yeah I rush the later part a bit, not even gonna lie.

[1] Interpret it yourself.

[2] Hate is a powerful emotion. One's thoughts can change entirely because of it. You always think of the person you hated more than the person you loved. Most of us at least.

[3] I am...too tired to argue back at this point. Like this or not, this is how I choose to write it, leave quietly or stay and listen.

[4] Commit a war crime, basically.

[5] It's not only HK that called organic life forms 'meatbags'.

[6] Assaultron is from Fallout 4.

[7] Gabriel Reyes, also known as Reaper, is from Overwatch. And the rank was roughly 'captain' in Mando.