He usually always had something to say, some comment or random thought, no matter what situation he was put in. But now as he stood in his own mind, speaking to what was arguably the demon king who just happened to be sealed inside his stomach, Naruto was for lack of a better term "speechless".
The kitsune gave a loud snort as he sized up his jailer. "Look at you, and here I thought that man was turning you into something half worthwhile. Quit shaking, boy. As much as I would like to, these bars prevent me from ripping your sorry ass apart."
The booming voice of the Kyuubi was only amplified by the chamber they were in, enough so to make the ground literally shake beneath the blonde's feet. He stumbled a moment but regained his composure.
"You... you're the reason why everyone hated me. You're the reason I have no parents!"
"Spare me your pity cries, runt. I've watched from day one how those moronic humans have treated you, how they starved you, isolated you, even beat you. It's a wonder how you haven't wiped yourselves out, considering all the fighting and inbreeding you're so fond of."
"You saw everything, and you never lifted a finger to help?"
Kyuubi had to laugh at that one. The chamber shook with even more force, sending Naruto toppling into the water.
"Help you? Your misery was one of my few comforts in this hell your blasted Hokage banished me to. I want nothing more than to see someone end you, make you squeal as they squeeze every last breath out of you, but I can't even do that. Begrudgingly, even I have to admit the Yondaime Hokage was a genius, a rare example of the best humanity can offer. He tweaked the seal, altered it so that not only would it keep me bound in here, but it would grant your body access to my power."
"What's that supposed to mean, that I can go all rawr-rawr with claws and a tail?"
"Don't try to be snide. You're like an ant trying to push an elephant. It means that my chakra by extension becomes yours. My brothers and sisters have had similar seals placed upon them with their jailers, but ours literally ties the chakra coils together. While they can switch the flow of demon chakra on and off at a whim, you have constantly cycled mine as a natural part of your body since you were an infant."
"He planned for me grow up with a foreign chakra. He wanted my body to adapt naturally so I could use it freely..."
Realization had dawned on him. All those hated insults, the glares and abuse he had suffered before Revan had shown up, even during his visits into the village. He now knew why, and he felt so livid. Naruto clenched his fists and teeth, trying so hard not to lose control of himself. But how could he not? Wasn't he supposed to be the village's savior? Wasn't his very existence keeping the demon in front of him from leveling Konoha? So why did they want to kill him? He was no hero, he was a martyr, and damn pariah.
"So I really am a demon...?"
"By Kami, he has a brain in there. Yes, that is exactly what he planned to have happen. But don't even begin to think you can call yourself one of us. You're a hybrid, a damnable abomination of mortal and demon; a hanyou if I remember correctly."
Kyuubi grinned as he felt anger literally roll off the child in front of him. Steadily, he let a stream of his chakra leak through the seal, the red tendrils rising from the water to encircle the blonde.
"That's it, boy. That is your power. Use it, grasp it, take it as your own. Your anger and your hate is what can fuel you. It is what can make you strong enough to take your revenge on all those who wronged you."
The crimson tendrils started wrapping around the shaking child. He clenched his fists and teeth, his nails digging into his palms and drawing blood. He felt rage, rage against the villagers, rage against the old man Hokage who obviously knew, for sending him to that blasted orphanage with full knowledge of what was happening. He wanted to hurt them, make them cry, make them suffer as he did. Then he thought of Revan, his teacher, his surrogate father, one of the few to acknowledge him as a person, and not a thing. He couldn't betray him, no matter what happened in the past. Naruto breathed in fresh air, or as fresh as it could be in a sewer, and reigned his emotions back in check. The red tendrils of chakra pulsed once, twice, then fell away, dissipating in the waters once more. The kitsune furrowed his brow as he felt what was roiling anger fade away.
"Damn, so close too," the massive fox inwardly mused. "He might have some real strength after all."
"I know what you're trying to do. You're an embodiment of the Dark Side, you want me to use that power so that the seal will weaken and set you free," he breathed as calm returned to his senses. "As far as I'm concerned, you might as well make yourself comfortable behind those bars. This is my body and mind; I'm in charge here fox, whether you like it or not."
"You may have rejected me for now, but remember I am now a part of you. Eventually there will come a time when your own strength will fail. You will have no choice but to draw my chakra for aid. You will taste true power, you will revel in the ecstasy it will give you. And I will be there to seize control as I rightfully should, as a demon over a mortal carcass."
The Kyuubi turned with that final comment and strode to the very back of his cell. Naruto soon felt his body getting lighter. He watched as the floor dropped beneath him and the walls faded away. He inhaled a deep breath of sterilized air as he returned to full consciousness. A part of him felt relieved he discovered the reason why he was so hated. Another still felt that simmering anger for those who did it to him, for putting that thing inside of him. Why a child, a newborn child should have to keep the world's most dangerous creature at bay simply by existing was beyond his understanding. Naruto wondered if Revan knew as well. It wouldn't surprise him; the Sandaime was a fairly close friend to the elder jedi. Then there was his much more experience jedi sense. If nothing else, Revan knew from the beginning simply by sensing his soul. Yet he was still here, still teaching and raising him. Originally, the blonde wanted to be a shinobi more than anything. Now though, he wasn't so sure. He had basic ninja training like any other academy student, but he was being raised to be a jedi knight, and he liked it. Revan showed time and time again that he cared.
Rather than camp out in the cockpit like he did the previous jump, Naruto made his way to the crew quarters and collapsed in one of the bunks. Too much was going through his schooled but still ten-year-old mind to sort through as he let himself fall into blissful slumber.
He had his orders; protect the Republic by any means necessary, keep its military strong, keep them ready to fight, rebuild those worlds that were devastated in the Mandalorian Wars and the Jedi Civil War after that, but there was only so much one man could do for an entire armada, even if that armada had been cut down to less than half in the past couple years. Admiral Carth Onasi pinched his brow as he went over yet another report, this time from an old friend who was reuniting the scattered Mandalorian clans. Easier said than done though, for many of the noble families had been splintered in the two wars they had been dragged into, the stragglers having as much honor as a street thug with a brief case filled with credits. Still, he admired the tenacity Canderous possessed. He was an honorable Mandalorian at the core, if a bit rough on the outside.
The aging soldier switched off his desk lamp to turn in for the night. He glanced out the window into the deep abyss that was space. His thoughts ran through the many memories he had of his travels with Revan and Bastila. They had done so much with so little; a ragtag group of soldiers, jedi, street rats and droids. For all intents and purposes, the mission should have fallen apart, but Revan kept them tied together. The bickering between Bastila and Mission and the near violent confrontations he shared with Canderous would have torn any other group into splinters, but their captain inspired them to work together towards a common goal. He chuckled at the memory of meeting him on the Endar Spire, their crash landing on Taris, how he attempted to take charge of the situation only to steadily fall into the backdrop. He got them off planet with one of the fastest ships in the galaxy, just in time for a Sith bombardment, retrained in the Force, then led them on an insane hunt for ancient starmaps they may or may not have functioned. He took them into the Shadowlands of Kashyyyk, the near bottomless abysses of Manaan, the vast Dune Seas of Tatooine, even the decrepit tombs of ancient Sith Lords on Korriban, and he did it all with a smile and the unwavering conviction of a legendary leader.
"Where are you now, you savvy bastard?" he thought. "You've been gone for far too long."
He flinched suddenly when he heard a familiar beep from his computer. Onasi sighed, thinking it was yet another status report from some backwater planet. He shuffled back over to the console and pulled up his mail box. To his surprise, it was from Mission and had been entitled "We might have a problem." He wondered what could go wrong, because at this point he figured the Republic had already gone through the worst. Curious, he opened the attached file. It was a collection of photos.
"Probably some new kind of creatures she dug up in an alley," he thought. The young Twilek had a habit of getting into unusual, dirty places. Old habits die hard.
What he found was something much more interesting, much more startling. It was the Ebon Hawk, which hadn't been seen for over five years. What followed was a slideshow of snapshots that would make any spy proud. He knew that face; the dark brown locks of hair, the angled and chiseled face, those brown eyes that could read your every thought. Revan had come back to the galaxy. He wondered if it was the Force at work again. How else could Mission happen to be in the same place as their missing knight the very moment he returned to known space? What puzzled him however was the little companion he had with him. He was dressed in the same traveling cloak as the jedi, same boots, same equipment, but he couldn't be any more than a child. It was a little blonde boy with sparkling blue eyes and odd whisker markings on his cheeks.
"Did you pick up an apprentice?" he wondered as he flipped through the slideshow. They took a stop in an extreme weather shop but that was about it before they headed back towards the starport. But what could possibly cause them problems?
The next few pictures answered that question disturbingly. Revan and his student had their lightsabers drawn and were engaging some black-clad figures, all of them wielding force pikes. Carth felt his brow begin to sweat as the pictures soon included those familiar silver armored soldiers they knew so well from the last war. All of a sudden, a myriad of thoughts and possibilities went through his mind. How can the Sith be back so quickly? Were they leftovers? Was it a splinter group that wanted to keep fighting for Malak's old cause? Did Revan find them on his journey? Were they tracking the Ebon Hawk? He shook his head to calm his brain; panicking never helped anything. The slideshow ended with a question from Mission, a question he had no idea how to answer.
Are we getting dragged into another war again?
"I don't know Mission. I hope not..." he said aloud as he finally switched off the computer. He needed time to think and process what he had just seen. Then he would inform Bastila. She needed to know that her wayward husband was back. After that, well... maybe it was better if he kept it under wraps for now.
"Force help the poor guy when they reunite."
Was it morning? It sure felt like it as Naruto pried himself from his pillow. Rubbing his eyes and yawning loudly, he shuffled down the hall and towards the cockpit. T3 gave him a little beep in greeting, the little droid moving to and fro between the many computers and mechanisms that made up the Ebon Hawk. As he got closer, he saw Revan steadily piloting them through a vast asteroid field.
"Ah, you're awake," greeted the jedi as Naruto plopped down into the copilot's seat. "We're almost there, this is the final stretch."
The Ebon Hawk fired a couple bolts every now and then to blast away some of the smaller rocks.
"Almost there? All I can see is space junk."
"It's just beyond the field. We should be coming up on it any minute now."
Naruto patiently waited as they maneuvered around the countless tumbling rocks. He wanted to ask his master about the Kyuubi but had no idea how to go about it. Revan had to have known, there was no way he couldn't. And if he did, did he have any plans on telling him? Did he want to just keep it a secret? The blonde felt slightly betrayed that his master would keep something like this from him. It was literally affecting his life since birth. He had every right to know.
"Something bothering you, kid?" asked the jedi.
"Just uneasy," he half-lied. "Where are we this time?" he continued as a light blue planet came into view.
"This is the planet Ilum. It's a remote system in the Unknown Regions, home to a very extensive maze of crystal caves. This is where you will be having the first of your trials. Hope you're ready for it."
Naruto leaned forward eagerly, thoughts of the Kyuubi fading away as he focused on a new goal. "I'm always ready."
Revan chuckled as he brought the Hawk into the ice coated planets snow-swirling atmosphere. "That's what I like to hear."
The planet Ilum was best known for being a training ground for the Jedi Order. Its unique location in the uncharted Unknown Regions made finding the planet impossible, the mix of hyperspace lanes navigable only by experienced Force sensitives. As a result, the snow covered world had been left largely untouched and unspoiled, save for a single jedi temple constructed at the entrance of Illum's extensive network of crystal caves. The landscape varied little from place to place; some parts were endless fields of snow and hills, others bore massive, bare and jagged mountain ranges. Violent snowstorms would often batter the already barren landscape, driving the few native species to seek cover in caves or burrows they dug into the ice.
They sped across the glaringly white fields, a jagged mountain range quickly coming into view. They were bare and well worn from the forceful winds that whipped about them, the ship lurching every now and then from the turbulence. Carved into the base of the mountain were the tell-tale signs of jedi architecture; the cathedral-like pillars and windows, similarly jagged spires blending into the mountain proper. It was almost postcard material.
Revan set the Hawk down adjacent to the temple, the mountains giving a natural defense against the mighty winds of the snowstorm.
"I forgot to ask; have you ever seen snow before?" the elder jedi mentioned.
"Konoha would have light sprinkles, but nothing more. This is just overkill," replied Naruto.
"You like it?"
"No," he deadpanned.
"Get used to it. We're going to be here for awhile. Go suit up, I'll be with you shortly. HK and T3 will be helping us in getting our gear staged inside the temple."
"Master, what is my trial going to be?" asked Naruto.
"All jedi are tested in all aspects of their training; physical conditioning, mental willpower, connection to the Force. You are just another in a long line of aspiring knights who have attempted to progress further into our arts. I can't tell you unique aspects of your trial because I'm not the one who makes it, but the Force itself. The caves in this mountain, the very planet will test you."
"I don't understand," replied the blonde.
"You may not now, but trust me, you will."
Naruto mulled over what Revan had told him as he pulled on a thick arctic tunic, protective goggles, wrappings for his head and hands, similarly thick trousers and heavy, white leather boots. He checked all the straps and buckles, making sure his second skin was properly secured, and hit the button for the exit ramp, the wind whipping into the ship, carrying in countless snow flakes. The blonde grimaced as the cold hit him. For all his warming layers, Ilums unforgiving freeze still stabbed into him like thousands of tiny needles.
He stepped down the ramp and into the white, crunchy, foot deep powder. Behind him on the cargo elevator was Revan, their speeder loaded with the various crates they purchased on Metellos. With him were T3 and HK, both droids blissfully ignorant of the biting cold. The elder jedi nodded to him and they quickly made their way into the temple halls, the speeder steadily floating behind them. Snow and wind continued to flow inside the vast hall as they trekked forward. The temple seemed much larger on the inside; massive stone pillars reached up into the dark ceiling, giving it a grand, majestic feeling. That was all there was though. The rest of the hall was empty, save for the day's new visitors. By now they were far enough inside to escape the howling gusts Naruto hated so much.
"This is a good spot. Let's set up camp."
The group halted near one of the walls as architecture gradually became natural formations. The floor was rough, the walls more jagged, and the pillars steadily being replaced with stalagmites and stalactites. The two jedi and droids unloaded the crates; heat generators, lamps, a couple computers, a month's worth of rations, tents and sleeping bags, toiletries, even drinking water was present. Among the minimum of survival supplies was a small workbench and a refresher for cleaning clothes. Naruto grimaced when he realized he wouldn't be showing for who knows how long, that is until he had an idea.
"Master, what's the point of bringing these things with us if the ship is right outside?"
"Simple; the ship won't be outside."
Naruto paused. "Come again?" he asked worriedly.
"The Ebon Hawk won't be sitting out there. I'm having T3 take it into orbit to prevent everything from freezing up. Unless you want to spend hours on end in the blistering cold, busting ice off the engines?"
"I'll start unpacking..."
He hated this place already.
A/N: Uh yeah. Long ass time since I last updated. I had a bit more trouble with this chapter, about which direction I wanted it to go, even what to put in it, but alas I made it work. Sorry to keep you guys waiting, if any of you stuck around this long xP. Please review, your feedback is what motivates me to write!
In case I didn't address it before, which I probably didn't, the timeline in regards to Star Wars is approximately 4000 years before the Battle of Yavin in episode 4.
