A/N: Spoiler alert for this A/N, because filler chapters linking Plot Point A and Plot Point B tend to be boring… We'll be seeing the other characters like Mizuki again in a couple chapters, so don't worry, I haven't forgotten that major change…

Remember when I said that genetic analysis said that Hinata had a couple signs of inbreeding? Hitomi (who didn't die from childbirth in canon because that image with her, Hinata, Hiashi and Hanabi together with her standing and smiling would have been impossible… unless they posed her corpse in which case I doubt Hinata would look so cheerful…) and Mikoto were just inbred enough to hurt their mental stability… and nothing else. On the other hand, if you really think Itachi could hope to even think of fighting Mikoto (Fugaku had been the sacrifice by the clan at her altar) then… you've got another think coming. The inspiration for that subplot came from the author Lucillia as per "Konoha's Greatest Hoax". Having it happen shortly after an episode of Mizuki trying to coach Naruto in street fighting by bar brawls was just icing on the humour cake. As a side note there's another big hoax in the Hyuuga Clan, but that's something else (and no, it's not Hiashi and his brother)…

The only Naruto character I know of taller than Ariel Williams in Aeon Infantry Armour (Model 3849) is Han.


Chapter 8: Passed By Default

Contact Day +2, March 27, 12 Years A9, 75 PWC (Post-Warring Clans)

"Team 8, led by Yuuhi Kurenai, will be Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, and Inuzuka Kiba. You will also be responsible for Konoha's relations with an important ambassador, who will tag along to observe our culture and customs, and help out as needed." Iruka said, before blinking at the size of the armoured woman who came in after Kurenai. "I'll not maul her name, as I doubt I can get it right given it is from a foreign language… wait… your first name is just…Hana?"

The exceedingly tall woman chuckled. "Close enough in pronunciation, I'm Hannah Shepard, from a culture where family names come second to denote that the group is nothing without its members, while members can survive without a group." It seemed a black-haired boy with dark eyes and mostly bluish clothes, who had previously been broody and uninterested, suddenly took note of the towering guest beyond the "wow she's big" phase. "I am a warrior who has been pressed in as a diplomat. The faction I represent is interested in local culture and customs" and in shunting the Elite Four out of the line of sight of Aeon and Cybran objectors to Hannah's possibly unwise choice of husband "so I've been permitted to tag along and assist with Hinata-chan's team. She was the first among your people to contact my civilization in her accident during the graduation exam." The Cybran remote-controlling the doll ignored Hinata's crimson flush in favour of noting with some annoyance that she wasn't wearing her armour today. What if they were to be tested today by the Jonin assigned to the teams?

Clearly, they had a problem if these kids were supposed to become soldiers. There were two options to train lifelong, professional soldiers. The first was from birth, which resulted in quick burnouts at best, lasting physical damage in worlds that lacked the technology to prevent stunting of growth due to excess stress, or at worst psychopathy like the Orochimaru story that Hannah had read from the local textbooks, or Itachi. The second was from mental adulthood like Coalition ACU pilots were, and even that had a sadly high rate of people going nuts and having to be put down.

What Hannah was seeing was trying to take the first approach physically and mentally, imposing its physical and mental burdens, but mostly trying to do the second. The problem was that they'd already begun with the first and all its curses, and were also getting the downsides of the second, which was a longer training period for the majority of people who would inevitably be cannon fodder. In forms of war requiring more capital and less manpower, why bother training so many brats when one could train a few professionals and leave the rest to breed more troops in the next generation? That was the extreme the Coalition went to, whereas this planet was on the opposite end of the spectrum.

While they were picking up their students, a pair of blue eyes watched the towering armoured woman with great suspicion. Uzumaki Naruto might have had two good meals with vegetables that weren't rotten for once, which was a nice change from his usual survival diet, he supposed, but he was still leery of the new woman. Letting his guard down would be a quick way to get killed or abducted because of what he contained… He would stay careful… but… curses, I'm already starting to think of her as a fellow abomination, someone who actually likes and cares for me. It's only been two fucking meals and she's already getting to me… did she drug the food or something? Experiment on my brain while I slept?

I must be more careful… but… Gramps explained things well enough, and… food…

Kids who spent most of their lives eating out of trash cans, being beaten by passers-by for being within their sight—or even just being found randomly, for existing—and full of hate were not so easy to earn the faith of. They were suspicious of everything. It had only been the Hokage's assurances (bought by some demonstrations, Hinata's testimony, and Hyuuga ANBU observations of the small base being built on Hokage Rock) that had led Naruto to eventually accept the offer of food. The agricultural building had been put up in mere minutes once the locally valid legal documents for land rental were filed, which went a long way toward proving their power.

As for how Naruto grew up like that, sadly for the Third Hokage's efforts to help him as much as possible, Hiruzen's Shadow Clones would flip him off before dispelling themselves in exceedingly painful ways instead of doing paperwork. Hiruzen had learnt to not call upon them unless absolutely necessary for paperwork, as in, something had happened to Naruto or the village as a whole (usually one or more of Naruto's major pranks going off at once). That was the only condition under which the Clones would stick around and do as they were told. The sensation of being castrated several times within a few seconds, conveyed by the dispelling clones, was not good for his elderly health. It wasn't the best for the psychological health of any male of any age, actually, but that was beside the point.

XX

After the obligatory introductions between the team members and the briefing about the true Genin Test, Hannah asked Kurenai to check out the local bars. The response was… "I doubt you would be interested in wasting alcohol on a body which, as you said previously, is a sex doll you are controlling remotely, so plying me with drink to get me to talk… you could have just asked." They shared a laugh at that.

"Very well, I wanted to inform you that Hinata will have to do the Genin Exam without any unit assisting her. She will have to make do with what she already has, namely the armour, with the user interface disabled. This is a matter of mindset in terms of adapting new and superior equipment to one's fighting style, and the lack of a display in front of her is because our sensors would most likely be retardedly overpowered against someone who specializes in illusions."

Kurenai hummed in acknowledgement of that information "Will you be participating on my side of the exercise? Since I don't have the teaching lineage to claim fair use of the Bell Test, I was thinking of using my red sash as a prize to divide them. It would be more realistic since there are cases of Genin being sole apprentices, but no cases of two-member Genin cells unless one died, was maimed into retiring, or is away sick. However, Shino is too smart, both boys are too pack-oriented, and Hinata is a shoo-in due to your entrance onto the scene. This is the one Genin team that is absolutely guaranteed to pass this year, and I'd be surprised if Shino didn't figure that out after you were introduced. So…"

"A skills exhibition then?" Hannah asked.

The smaller black-haired woman nodded "That is what I'm planning now."

"I recommend testing the durability of my armour first then so you have a good idea what to expect from Hinata. Don't worry, even if you pierce it I can fix this sex doll right up by using a silicon-based version of medi-gel."

Kurenai grimaced as they proceeded toward the training ground that Team 8 was assigned "I swear, I never thought I would ever spar with anyone who used any form of puppet technique on a sex doll."

"Yeah, well, I never thought I'd remote-control this thing as a body double other than trolling my husband sometime a decade or two down the road after the honeymoon phase ends. As you can probably tell I'm not exactly all that good yet at controlling this thing, so a lot of the actual fighting I might end up involved in would be me using this thing's movement coding and just aiming the cursor to make it aim its gun. I could still pick off targets myself by assuming direct control if needed, but honestly it's easier to multitask if I treat this like a video game… hell, even setting this to autonomous combat against designated targets could work fine given the disparity in power and such."

"Isn't overconfidence dangerous?" Kurenai prodded.

"It's not like I can't buy many more of these dolls with my pay grade, even if I couldn't write them off as mission expenses, which I probably can. In real life, well, rock does not normally beat laser, particular when the laser is this far ahead, can stand completely away from risk, and has multiple silos with city-killing weapons on standby. I got some weapons from a supply drop last night on the base up there." She gestured toward Hokage Mountain "I suppose we should test my armour now against the weapons and techniques you have available?"

"That would be agreeable, yes." Though… what's a laser?

"Alright, helmet on, because I don't want to have to run too many repairs to this thing's face." The Cybran, looking almost like a miniature counterpart of the Cybran ACU minus the various horns, looked at her new friend. "Let's begin."

"Let's try one of my better Genjutsu first to see if it has any effect… Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death!" If there was one thing fortunate with East Asian languages, it was that they tended to compress more information into fewer syllables, relying on intonation more often, because that was a lot longer in English translation than what Kurenai stated as a mnemonic of sorts.

"…Odd, the sensors can tell it's not real, but I am held mostly in place, it would require a great deal of force to break through this Psionic construct… or a way of destabilizing it enough without being patched by you quickly enough, which would require weapons fire or me fitting a Psi Disruptor on this armour as a customization. The problem then is, can you channel your chakra to do a major attack technique while holding this up, or are you restricted to weapons?"

Kurenai shrugged while sitting on one of the tree's branches "Depends on the opponent, someone sufficiently competent at illusions can limit me to only Taijutsu, kunai and shuriken, depending on the Genjutsu I use."

Speaking of weapons… "If guns exist in this world I cannot see how they haven't overtaken the bow and arrow in mass usage yet… ah, Psionics… it's always goddamned Psionics… you can enhance a bow and arrow, make it so that the gain in quantity from massed guns doesn't match up to the loss in quality… and you can conscript kids for that earlier than you can conscript gun users with early firearms due to the recoil." She grumbled to herself, before looking around "You know, I really don't think we can call chakra constructs like this illusions…"

"Well, they do come close to bridging the gap between Genjutsu and Ninjutsu…"

"Alright, how about you build up as much energy as you can in that kunai, and try stabbing me with it?"

"Sure, why not." Kurenai dispelled her Genjutsu, and did as Hannah asked.

"We treat kunai and shuriken as basically disposable, but this is a lot more disposable than I'd expected…" The Genjutsu expert noted as she examined the completely wrecked tool, with the front end smashed to scrap and twisted off the handle thanks to the amount of chakra-boosted force she'd put into it.

"Here, let me remake that kunai for you… so, tungsten carbide, titanium carbide, diamond, or plain old titanium?"

Kurenai didn't pass the practically destroyed kunai over, opting to ask "…what?"

Hannah's avatar rapped a fist on her own helmet in annoyance at herself. "…I forgot that you don't live in a post-scarcity society. Sorry."

Kurenai chuckled "Now I feel like a country bumpkin."

Hannah settled on using diamond. The size change due to density difference on a limited mass—she wasn't tapped into the Battle Network economically due to space and such restrictions on her equipment—was unavoidable, but at least Kurenai would have a good etching tool. Wait, diamonds were probably still precious gems in this world, so even if anything happened to Kurenai, so long as no one realized it wasn't a glass or quartz decoration before that, she could still probably have enough money to live out her life well enough. "Eh, well, at least a 22nd century human descendant with good psionic strength, like you, wouldn't get their neck broken in one good slap to the head from a 39th century human. A 20th century human would probably have their head torn off if I punched them. It was wise of you to merely hold my armour in place instead of trying to invade it with your chakra."

"I could sense that it was chakra absorbing. You seem rather callous about slapping people to death though."

"ACU warfare distances you from the act of killing, but I still have a long trail of blood under my belt."

"Menstruation?" Kurenai more or less stole Anko's joke the last time someone said they had lots of blood under their belt… though the last couple times Anko used such jokes had been "an erection?" and "hemorrhoids?" respectively, as it had been men saying that.

The glowing red helmet optics—designed for instinctive intimidation, much like how Kurenai suspected her family's red eyes had evolved—blinked. "…You still have that around here?"

"Well, all lineages I know do, even if it's once per year or so while staying fertile all the time in the case of some lineages I've heard of." Their chatter devolved into girl talk for a while, until they decided to seek out Kakashi to test elemental Ninjutsu, after Kurenai tested some of her other Genjutsu and some relatively basic Ninjutsu. Kakashi was the best all-round elemental Ninjutsu user in Konoha after all…


Slightly later, guided by Spooks patrolling over Konoha, among other things…

"Really, Kakashi? You still haven't gone to meet your students yet?" Kurenai deadpanned.

"A ninja has to give the right impression, after all. I want them to think I'm useless and see how long they take to figure out my reputation isn't bullshit, then come ask me for help, particularly coming together to ask me. That's assuming they even pass…" His eye swivelled back down to read his literature, and he mumbled a prayer to it "Icha-Icha, please tell me why I had to get the fan-girl and her idol on the same damned team…"

Hannah figured that the one-eyed Jonin was reading porn in broad daylight to help enforce that useless image, so she didn't mention it. She did however note "Your headband has an interesting energy signature under it."

"That would be my Sharingan, Shepard-san."

"Interesting… I'm guessing you wouldn't want me prodding further on that one. Would you mind testing some elemental Ninjutsu on me to test how well this armour holds up against local firepower?"

"It's Chakra Armour." Kurenai informed Kakashi, who sighed.

"Many Ninjutsu are ineffective against Chakra Armour, but it is true that elemental Ninjutsu tend to fare better because a huge boulder flying at someone is still, well, a huge boulder flying at someone, and a well-shaped, mostly self-stable electrical charge…" He was thinking of his Chidori and its higher-level counterpart.

"Well, I guess not so huge boulders, please, because I'm trying to test durability, not my ability to dodge, and tunnelling my way out from under a boulder would be a real hassle… not to mention rebuilding the head of this thing once it gets squished into a pile of synthetic flesh paste if I try it sans helmet."

Kakashi closed his book, also interested in testing the foreigner's armour for academic purposes if nothing else "Eh, why not… I'll start low and go up to my Raikiri if needed." Kurenai blinked at the mention of the famous Lightning Cutter. "If you don't mind taking the armour off and holding it out like a matador's cloth for me to test? I don't want to damage anything… delicate, even if you're only puppeting that doll."

Kakashi knew full well he couldn't take on the combined female population of Konoha and last more than about two seconds, and being seen beating a foreign ambassador's armour to pieces just to look like he was doing so to grope whatever was underneath was a Bad Idea by that standard. Sadly, Kakashi was just the sort of guy unfortunate enough that he could trip over in a mixed bath and somehow face-plant in a woman's crotch while simultaneously pulling towels off three others. Studying seals from Jiraiya really wasn't worth that incredibly specific and mysterious coordination problem… although where Jiraiya might have put a seal for such on him, Kakashi did not know.

History should note that Jiraiya did not in fact intend to teach him such a skill. It was just that when he was getting Kakashi into peeking, in order to remove the pole from the boy's ass, the boy used his Sharingan sometimes. Over the span of a relatively brief time learnt to imitate the delicate art of perverse bodily coordination from the Super Pervert without even realizing it. The Sharingan was not always a helpful tool… then again its associated perfect emotional recall wasn't always Curse of Hatred level problem either. In other news, Kakashi was still seeking pills—that weren't too sketchy to use—to induce erectile dysfunction to help him deal with his Sharingan memories.

Hannah grinned and shrugged "Ah, I've always been interested in the saying that the fastest way to a girl's heart is straight through it. Would be interesting to experience without having to undergo medical procedures after… or the stress of an accelerated rebuild while running on auxiliary circulatory and respiratory options."

"So many people would target you to study those augmentations if nothing else that I'm glad you aren't here in person… presuming your claim is actually true." Kakashi said flatly, trying to ignore the stabbing pain in his chest at the mention of how he'd killed his last girlfriend (Nohara Rin). His mind trembled and creaked at the effort to not show how sickening the memory was to him… because it aroused him.

Hannah shrugged, unknowing and uncaring of the man's internal struggle against the darkness in his soul and the rabid animal instinct of being aroused by blood and contact with death. "A valid concern if not for the forces at my disposal. Let's begin."


Even more slightly later…

"YOU'RE LATE!" There was only one Academy Graduate so good at sound techniques in Konoha…

Kakashi shrugged, not bothering to remove the blackboard eraser whose dust blended in with his hair "I got lost on the road of life… and had to get my hand healed after helping a new friend test her set of Chakra Armour with my Chidori and breaking my hand on the back plate after punching through the belly plates. The chest plate could probably have stopped me outright unless I powered up to Raikiri." She'd done as he'd asked regarding taking it off and holding the armour out for the test for the more powerful directed attacks. "My first impression is… I don't like you."

It was at this moment that Sasuke finally managed to process that the Sharingan Thief that his babysitters scared him with (strangely, they insisted he not speak of the stories to his mother and he'd complied… perhaps they used Genjutsu…) was in fact not only completely real but also looking at his eyes with interest. Then he emitted a scream almost worthy of the Haruno Clan's females, who were regularly invited to be ninja, but were still considered a civilian clan. The ensuing pursuit of a certain boy who was definitely related to Shunshin no Shisui lasted almost ten minutes before Sakura of all people (hmm, there's potential there was Kakashi's opinion) finally caught the boy. Sasuke promptly fainted upon realizing something more dangerous than the Sharingan Thief had a vie-hold on his head… a fan-girl… and a HARUNO at that!

Hmm… Speaking of which, Kakashi should really test Sakura's chakra affinity as soon as the team was reasonably settled. Haruno females tended to be either Wind or Lightning, as befitting their thunderous volumes. I wonder what any offspring of Sasuke with Sakura would be like… the Sharingan with area-of-effect Genjutsu casting by voice, or area techniques again by dint of concussive voice waves… that would be interesting indeed.

Wait just one moment… isn't partial Haruno ancestry at least partly responsible for Gai's volume? Kakashi paled at that thought as he beheld the prospect of the pink-haired girl inventing anything rivalling the Legendary Sunset Genjutsu. Uh, never mind, any offspring between Sakura and Sasuke would probably be more nuts than their grandmother…


A/N: Sure, you might get hurled if you get hit by Kubikiribocho, but it will not penetrate the surface of the armour unless you really, really, screwed up the angles and the guy put some Chakra-based Technique into it, and even then it wouldn't get far.

The Chidori can punch a hole through 3849-era belly plating (structural integrity field deactivated) when used by Kakashi. Given how strong the technique is… Hinata's armour is a huge boost.

I'm not going to make the Uzumaki Clan a Mary Sue Race like canon, unless I want to introduce another guest from the stars (e.g. screwing a more modern human, as in 26th-plus century instead of a descendant of 22nd century humans, was when they split off from the Senju, and is the origin of their longevity and healing factor). Canon's repeated catering to Sasuke in Part II can go suck a Mavor. Expect to see a lot of minor characters being elevated (e.g. Kurenai, etc.) and getting stronger.


The Next Day, March 28, 12 Years A9, 75 PWC (Post-Warring Clans)

"Hinata?" Kurenai greeted.

"Yes, Kurenai-sensei?"

Hannah's translator, from where she was in a tree with Active Camouflage and Active Stealth running, spat out Kurenai's response as… "To quote your father's frequent and epic failures in communication with children… don't take this too seriously, but… I am disappoint."

"Why?" Kiba asked that in protest, since Hinata had immediately wilted under Kurenai's frown, despite the disclaimer.

"Where is your new armour?" Kurenai asked.

Hinata poked her index fingers together "Um, well, it really doesn't fit well with the Gentle Fist style, especially the more advanced moves I've been learning so…"

Hannah held said armour up in front of the young girl, after pulling it off her back where she'd attached it. Cloaking systems were great for item retrieval after all… and for making the ninja present jump about a foot in the air as she suddenly appeared between them. "Kid, ninja take every advantage they can get, every… single… one. Now, unless you're telling me that you have a move ready that involves expelling energy from all over your body in a coordinated fashion at once," she had no idea how ironic this would turn out later "then I'm quite sure the Gentle Fist will be fine with just your fingers, or elbows at worst, exposed. You could have just not put those particular pieces on."

"Hey, stop bullying Hinata-chan!" Kiba said at the huge woman, since she didn't have a Konoha headband, he felt it proper to protect his pack from being pushed around by an outsider.

Hannah took the time to intimidate the boy by towering over him "Did you know, that almost two thousand years ago, only about two percent of soldiers came back from war unchanged, able to go on as if they'd never been to war? They called those people sociopaths. With modern war in my civilization, the proportion of the population that actually fights is less than one in a million… so almost every single ACU pilot is an extremely high-functioning sociopath by… well, pretty much any standards." She watched as her avatar came too close and the boy instinctively punched her in the belly to make some distance, since he'd already been tensed from her arrival. Then she chuckled.

Kiba felt as if he'd done something rather stupid with his hand as he pulled it back and shook it a bit "Ow… sorry, stupid reflexes…" Technically, this was not a reflex, as reflexes did not involve the brain.

Meanwhile, Kurenai was talking to Hinata and Shino "I had the good fortune to test the durability of the armour, Hinata." Kurenai grimaced, having barely hidden her reaction to Hannah's earlier words and suggested Technique. "By tabletop gaming terms if the standard mesh shirts count as something between five to ten defence points, then that armour set is something on the order of thousands, along with gigantic boosts to every physical statistic a character can have. Of course, I think Hannah will keep most of the more, ah, extreme power-ups disabled for now, because when I tested them, well… there's still a scuff mark on the side of the Hokage Tower where I literally went way too far when trying to check how far and high it could jump." Kurenai grinned at the funny memory, since it for some reason hadn't hurt at all to practically fly into the side of the Hokage Tower and come to a very sudden stop. Hinata cringed at the thought and Shino didn't react except one raised eyebrow "I was a bit disappointed that you didn't bring it yourself so that you could do a demonstration of what you could do with and without it, but now that we've clarified the utility of a good piece of armour that serves as extremely powerful Chakra Armour to even a ninja, not just samurai…"

"That's Chakra Armour?" Shino said loudly and very suddenly, causing everyone to stare at the boy who had been completely silent until now, as if only now registering his existence. "But my insects aren't detecting anything off with it?"

"That's because it only absorbs Psi energy if it gets invaded, and I didn't turn on the Psi Disruptor I installed last night on my back here, see this pack between the two thruster pods?" Hannah thumbed behind her at the whole ensemble she'd installed exceedingly recently "That thing could shut down weak Psionic users, constructs, links and projections within a hundred or so meters, stronger ones would need me be closer, and past a certain threshold of power things aren't affected anymore. Your sensei here could probably hold up her stronger Genjutsu at twenty meters or maybe even less when I have the device powered up, which is quite powerful given the disruption power fades with the inverse square of the distance. It's not nearly as powerful as the ones fitted on our actual land, sea or air units though. Those are intended to wear away at and tear apart souls they've killed so that they can't be collected and resurrected should the land be retaken quickly enough, as in within a couple days or so, before Psi residues fully fade from our detectability. The most any soul would feel near my device is a bit of irritation, and that's at the maximum possible output on this thing."

The three kids seemed very disturbed at that matter-of-fact claim. Kurenai shook her head as if amused by Hannah telling an exaggerated joke, but in reality to indicate that she really needed to steer the subject away NOW! Having the three students learn they were standing before someone who'd almost certainly murdered many millions of civilians and still acted terrifyingly normal would be horrifically counterproductive. Then again, Kurenai thought the information told to Kakashi and herself did prove a good point. If the woman could have a stable relationship and loving marriage across factional lines but remain loyal to her faction at the same time, then enlisting while emotionally more mature really did have its benefits for mental stability compared to, say, Itachi, Kakashi or Gai. Being able to speak of how your faction had technology designed specifically to destroy wandering, dead souls while otherwise living normally was an awesome feat indeed…

The Soul Ripper Experimental Gunship, in the first iteration that gave the whole lineage its name, had been truly experimental. It had been the first Cybran Psi Disruption Generator, specifically designed to kill Aeon and UEF filth as dead as the Illuminate and Federation killed all the Cybrans they could get their claws on. The chatter between Kakashi, Kurenai and Hannah then wandered to the subject of her marriage to an extremely (in)famous Aeon ACU pilot due to her use of the tem "filth" for the Illuminate and Federation. The story of their relationship and Xavier Fran's reputation beforehand had been quite an uplifting and hopeful tale to the ninja…

Meanwhile Hannah was continuing her explanation with "Now, your armour is a more basic set without these customizations I added last night, such as Psi Disruptor, Flight Pack, Personal Cloaking, or even Personal Stealth. However, it should still be ludicrously more powerful than anything this planet has of comparable size. We need to get you time to train with the augmenting effect of the armour so that the first time you use it in combat, you don't accidentally punch someone's head off in a spar." Hinata paled almost instantly, imagining sparring with Naruto and accidentally killing him. "But you still have to hit them, and hurt them, because an enemy would just kill them outright if they leave any gaps, any at all, due to bad habits from training." She remembered her own training in ACU warfare, where she kept getting smacked down in simulator match after simulator match until she learnt enough to win. Eventually (abnormally fast, even for a Cybran) she turned the tables on the training programs and finally qualified for actual training against real pilots… before her identification as a prodigy and subsequent, more intensive training. Then she became an SCU pilot, and after that, eventually graduated to piloting ACUs in time for some of the more crucial missions revolving around Black Sun and the Quantum Virus.

Kurenai clapped her hands together "Now that our guest has finished thoroughly disturbing you three…" Not that what she said is in any way disturbing compared to when she talked to us last Jonin-sensei night about how civilians kill counts were measured between pilots in their wars. She avoided talking about her own civilian kill count, most likely a very large number, and her husband was completely skirted around in an obvious fashion to discourage questions. Then she showed some of their basic units to us after inviting us to dinner at the buildings she'd put up on top of Hokage Mountain… "Let's see what you can do. Kiba, I think you'd like to go first?" I can't wait until the first time he makes a dumb comment about civilians' longer education compared to ninjas. A technological civilization's soldier-general-designer prodigy would tear him a new one verbally for undervaluing the maths and sciences… I think Anko is rubbing her sadism off on me.

"Yeah!"


A/N: Naruto is eventually going to get schooled for his disdain toward the maths and sciences. It probably won't be a lecture… more of a matter of "See that? That's what science got us after 1200 years of war, before it we still had infantry on the ground in warfare. What has your chakra gotten you after the Warring Clans period, compared to before it?" Actually, I think most of Team 7 will get schooled, particularly when Sakura and Sasuke greet her as "sir" with her helmet on due to lack of enough breasts to have bulges in her chest plate… and the sheer height. Sasuke wouldn't recognize her well without the face and with all her extra armour add-ons.

I repeat that I will not go the canon route and give out constant power-ups like candy to Sasuke and Naruto to distract readers with more and more flashy techniques. However, I will power up some canonically minor or at most support characters ("MY EYES!" Kurenai, and "Literal Bokukko" Tsunade) greatly to make the story more fun. Anyone who has read anything I ever wrote knows I vastly prefer having OP female characters than males, even if the male is the main protagonist. I also favour female characters getting power-ups.


After Kiba and Shino's exhibitions (not to be confused with exhibitionism)…

"It'll be the best for last, Hinata!" Kiba thumped her on the back, and she stumbled a bit pretty much reflexively by flinching away from the impact. She didn't like physical contact very much.

"Indeed, superior equipment should present a major advantage. I predict… no, wish, because of your confidence issues, it is better to show hope than assurance lest you feel too pressured and nervous… I explained too much again, didn't I?" Shino asked, looking around at the three facepalms and a nervously giggling Hinata "Ahem, so I wish you a favourable statistical outcome. Hopefully my foot-in-mouth syndrome has managed to defuse some of your anxiety." Hinata smiled at that.

Since Hinata understood that she should demonstrate without her new gear first, she ran through some of the katas for the Gentle Fist, then activated her Byakugan and looked around, reporting her scan radius of two hundred meters. Then she threw some kunai and shuriken at the targets hung up around the training field and demonstrated her levels in the various academy skills and other things she'd picked up, such as stealth (e.g. Naruto Watching) and traps. The wink at Kiba and petting of Akamaru gave away the fact that her flower message of "I hate dogs" was not serious. Unfortunately, Kurenai had to explain to Kiba while Hinata demonstrated other skills that no, the wink wasn't a hint of favour toward him, just a note that she didn't actually hate dogs like her flower message said. Akamaru proceeded to mime peeing on the flowers to express his opinion of the message… though he didn't actually pee since the message was not for real. Also, in the Inuzuka packs, it was frowned upon to pee on things that their fellow dogs often enjoyed smelling.

Then the time came to put her new armour on, with some minor pointers from Hannah it was remarkably easy. "Unlike Aeon armour, Cybran armour isn't so good for using Psionics through, so you will need to work on energy capacity to use what you call techniques through it. From what Xav told me and what I learnt on my own about how Psionics works, it's basically a matter of growing your soul to be more energetic and thus bigger."

"There's a problem, Hannah-sama." Hinata said before the helmet went on, and Hannah stopped, holding Hinata's helmet. "I wore this yesterday because I didn't want to alarm the villagers with any units… but the armour makes my muscles feel weak and my reaction time feel slower… though it compensates by helping me move."

"…Don't tell me you people teach your kids to use Psionic energy… or chakra as you call it, to reinforce their muscles from a young age… until they can do it and thus actually WILL do it subconsciously?" Hannah stared at Kurenai, who frowned.

"Unfortunately, to allow children to keep up without damaging their physical growth too mu—" Kurenai blinked as she shifted a little, while Hinata and Kiba stumbled a bit… and Shino outright collapsed. The Aburame seemed to be a bit strained just pushing himself back up off the ground… "Shino, are you alright?"

"It's one of the worst weaknesses of the Aburame clan." The boy gritted out as he dragged himself back to his feet. "Due to our insects requiring space and chakra, our muscles occupy less volume than others, which results in needing to use chakra enhancement to move at a reasonable speed for a ninja. The insects are familiar enough with my scent and environment to not go feral with this, but I must demand that you never activate such a disruptor near our clan compound, lest some of the younger children be harmed by their symbionts."

Kurenai had also consciously registered what was wrong once she searched within herself, while Shino was talking. Once he finished, she explained for Kiba and Hinata, who seemed rather disoriented and in Hinata's case had visible pupils. "Chakra disruption… preventing shaping or even flow beyond the minimal flow pattern needed to sustain life…"

Hannah scratched her doll's head and explained the actual quantitative science—the ninja world seemed awfully qualitative in a lot of things for some reason…—behind the matter. "Actually Psionic energy isn't needed for life at all so long as enough neurons exist and are wired together well enough. It's a by-product, really, of intelligent life existing, but can be used to improve neural function once it exists. It is part of why the Aeon called us Cybrans abominations, because most of us had no level of Psionic energy they could detect with early sensors. After better sensors were invented… the name had already stuck."

"I'm guessing you have medical scanners in that armour too somewhere." Kurenai noted. "After all the modifications you went and loaded up last night." Really, yesterday it had looked just like Hinata's…

"I stacked all the support modifications I could think of putting on this instead of the combative ones, so yes, I do have improved medical sensors and a field surgeon suite, along with other gear. The Psi Disruptor I have emits an active field, instead of just being local and passive as is the default for Cybran armours… but still your armour shouldn't have affected you like that… ah, I have an inkling now. Put the helmet on and the internal and external Psionic environments will isolate themselves from one another, except active abilities going out from within the field…" She frowned as she thought of how passive sensors, presuming the Byakugan was passive, wouldn't get a return through the armour. "Uh… I'll have to calibrate it to allow your White Eye ability to work through it too. Alternatively, I could do the easier thing and fit an enhanced sensor suite onboard for you, and modify the helmet to display full sensor feeds across all arcs except through your neck, so that you could see it all when you activate your ability… I can do that in a few minutes if you wish, and then you can customize stuff like the mini-map display options. Calibrating it to let the White Eye through will take longer, much longer, and almost certainly take way more scans and such of your eyes, and your Clan's for that matter, than is diplomatically viable at this point in relations."

In other words, they hadn't either generated a shitload of trust between the two groups, or terrified the primitives into complete submission. The Coalition had had quite enough of bad First Contact events after Seraphim II and the Seraphim War it eventually led to as retaliation against human aggression, thank you very much. Good First Contacts, such as with the Cybran protectorate called the United Drell Nations, were very much preferable indeed… though that one had been very much stick-and-carrot, even after the "we just fixed your planet for free" bit. Sadly any establishment of being worthy friends tended to be over the top, and many in the Coalition lamented that compared to various fiction series, they were either hideously OP, or the fictions got into destroying stars for fun or higher levels. Even some of those the Coalition would be able to overwhelm, if they had no equivalent to nanolathing technology.

"I feel like you prefer one option for Hinata to the other." Kurenai observed dryly. "But I do admit the protective abilities are so high that even a total inability to use the Byakugan while wearing the armour may in fact be worthwhile, depending on circumstances."

"But… but… for a Hyuuga to not get to use their bloodline… that's like me getting a really bad clogged nose!" Kiba yelped.

Kurenai grimaced "Which is why we're going to train you in dealing with or at least surviving your weaknesses, Kiba, Shino. For example, Kiba might have to wear a gas mask and full helmet which dulls sound perception, and learn to fight without Akamaru. We can't have you being a one-trick-pony, no matter how good that trick is. Shino, the same applies to you with your insects. They could, instead of using any pesticides, simply use a mixture of various nerve gases and corrosive gases. It's just not possible to breed in adaptations to exposure to all possible chemicals in large doses biochemically, so putting up a barrier may be the best method of surviving hostile conditions."

"The clan does have some techniques that form such barriers over our skin, while our bugs barricade themselves inside…" Shino said slowly, almost grudgingly. "But they are considered quite advanced…"

"They will likely be useful at some point when we venture into hostile territory, which indeed should take quite a while… unless I enter you into the Chunin Exams next time they are held in Konoha, purely to expose you to outside options." Kurenai smiled.

"Glad you're not averse to exploiting Hinata's backup as risk management." Hannah nodded at the shorter woman.

Kurenai returned the nod "Glad I didn't have to explain it outright. Besides, if you wanted to do anything weird, you already would have done it. Alright, Hinata, you probably won't get accustomed to using the armour for a while yet, but take a few swings and some manoeuvres so we have some idea of what we can expect." Hannah started handing out protective goggles "Please don't tell me that comes with some explosive abilities." Kurenai said as she put the goggles on just in case.

"Not in the base form she has equipped right now, I've even removed all the weapons schematics." Hannah stated, while Hinata finally practiced on some targets.

The flying woodchips from Hinata punching most of the way through a tree (she'd relaxed in surprise and stopped) were much harder to dodge and move much faster than the tree falling over (she didn't stop soon enough). Then there were some broken boulders to deal with… the goggles were very nice to keep the dust away, though it turned out Shino's sunglasses were already a set of goggles. There was no heads-up display there though, so he accepted the gift once it was pointed out to him.

"On the subject of weapons…" Kurenai ventured once Hinata finished running some basic tests on her enhanced strength and speed… and managed to punch her helmet on one occasion due to not being used to the power armour functions.

"You are asking me to demonstrate the weapons Hinata might get her hands on if I drop them?"

"If you would be so kind, then please."

There was a momentary delay before the avatar nodded "…Very Well. My husband has a Chariot Tier 1 Light Air Transport coming down now with our infantry weapon selection, as I don't have the full set with me and it was the most compact of the transports."

The shadow that snapped into existence above them must have been there the whole time, which made Kurenai wonder internally just how good Coalition stealth technology was. The four natives watched as the disc-like transport with its distinct lobed structure descended until it extended its landing gear and touched down. The boarding ramp opened, and along the internal walls were stored various weapons that had assorted aesthetics, which Hinata recognized well enough but were still mysterious to the others.

"The United Earth Federation infantry weapons tend to vary between pretty general-purpose and ridiculously specialized, but are universally relatively low in muzzle velocity." She pointed at a boxy looking weapon with a long barrel and a bunch of selector levers under a covered side, for manual use if not linked to armour. "For example, this Railgun is good for combat at just about any range, and the ammunition selection can range from an explosive squash head slug, which can be used for high-angle support, to an old fashioned hypervelocity dart, usually made from depleted uranium, for direct fire, or anywhere in between depending on what you need." Then she pointed to another, less boxy weapon "The Plasma Rifle is much better at making things blow up on impact, but doesn't give as many options and cannot do high-angle fire over obstacles. In exchange, it has considerably less weight and recoil. Then there is the Gauss Pistol, which shoots tiny darts," Cue a relatively small, one-handed weapon. Then she pulled out a large pack "This backpack is, when coupled with the Plasma Rifle, a Flamethrower, which can be anywhere between a really big gas-powered blowtorch, a long-ranged hose of flaming liquid, or a lava projector if you want to use a more solid form. It tends to do better than the plasma rifle at actually setting things on fire over larger areas, due to the plasma rifle simply being TOO hot to linger long enough."

Then she pulled out her personal favourites "These are my personal favourites among the infantry weapons, the Particle Rifle, with its standard red and black Cybran aesthetics, and the counterpart, the Laser Rifle, with these smooth and graceful Aeon lines." The briefing continued from there.

"If you are going to actually exhibit the effectiveness of those, I think we will need to bring the other Jonin over to observe…" Kurenai said once they were finished. "And given what I've heard about their female students…" She meant that in several senses.


Approximately this time, ROOT HQ

Danzo suddenly lost track of his thoughts in the middle of speaking as he sensed a great disturbance. It was as if there was a grave threat of some sort to the sanity, or perhaps even existence, of Konoha as a whole… perhaps it was the new emissary that had shown up out of nowhere? But… instinct told him to stay as far away from that woman as possible, and Danzo's instincts were very good… at self-preservation. His rants about patriotism were usually to cover up this fact and his very treasonous activities, after all.


Forecast, sometime in the future…

"Well, Oromo was the first thing I thought of when I thought of wanderers of a different religion going somewhere with strong warriors and settling." Kaguya scratched her head "And compared to how I used to look before I had to adopt certain modifications to gain an appropriate amount of distance from these superstitious natives, I looked like a hag back when that brat was born… hence Hagoromo…"


A/N: Anyone who doesn't get Supreme Commander: Mass Effect vibes yet should note the use of "assuming direct control" in this chapter and the United Drell Nations… I suddenly have a desire to have the actual Reaper War be fought behind the scenes post-ME1. Coalition tech is insane for Zerg Rush purposes… despite Paragons "only" being able to piss out 20,000 tons of raw mass per second. Most of the Mass Effect 2 plot would be Hannah just trolling her kids and their friends with fake stuff to give them more time to hook up with hot aliens, and showcasing for the rest of the Coalition just how mind-numbingly stupid the Citadel governments are. The gender ratio of the Coalition is still screwed up from how many liberated Symbionts were female and grown in artificial wombs for… assorted purposes, so polyamorous relationships are a matter of consensus among the grouping… but are considered inefficient for the majority of people as they rarely work for long.

Ah, I'm imagining Hannah's scream of impotent rage when she sees Tsunade, or even Samui… after judicious rage at Ino for binding her chest when young. The young Cybran believes in not messing around with her natural appearance too much, because she has no use for men made stupid just by a nice set of boobs. Still, being overlooked N times by male friends as just one of the guys really, REALLY got to her… And let's not talk about what happens if they happen to come into contact with my SI Archives universe in some way, shape or form. She'll be glad her counterpart is so powerful, but those boobs… the rage will be REAL.

As you should have realized last chapter, this version of Naruto doesn't need to overcome his inner demons. He's already assimilated/become a good share of them.

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