Shit, this story is getting way more in-depth than I had planned. These chapters keep getting longer and longer.

"Your mistake..." She says passionately, emotion finally leaking into her voice. "Is seeing the Spartans as military hardware..."

Federation Year 335

It came as no surprise that the Trouble Trio - Naruto, Sasuke, and Kiba - were going to try out for special ops. Naruto and Sasuke had always dreamed of joining the elite ranks of Federation military. Kiba had been the only one who was hesitant. For generations his family had served under the Federation's Military Police, both as investigators and inter-planetary bounty hunters. It was his mother (a high ranking and decorated member of the Military Police, also the scariest woman alive) who had finally called him had encouraged him to follow his own path.

But these three were not guaranteed positions in any of the special op programs just yet. They were still in their first year of service, despite all of the training that they had received in the military academy.

The Federation's main base of operations and training was on the planet Konoha. A week's worth of light-year travel from Haven Colony, it was considered a middle colony, not far out enough to be considered an outer colony, but nowhere close to the inner rings of the galaxy.

The planet was one of the largest planets in the Federation, although it had a relatively small population by comparison. It was not an industrial center like Haven or Iwa, rather, it dedicated most of its land to agriculture and mining. The few megacities that it did have were all military-based.

Konoha City was renowned throughout the Federation. It was the center for military weaponizing and industrialization. Given the smaller population of the planet, it was a safe place for the military to keep its classified intelligence and experiments. Lately, however, the Federation had begun transferring its assets from Konoha to Suna Colony, which was located in the inner rings of the galaxy. Due to Konoha's position as a middle colony, and with the Bijuu advancing steadily into their system, it was only a matter of time until they attacked Konoha.

Still, for now the planet continued to serve as the center for military training.

Naruto, Kiba, Sasuke, and Ino were all taken to Konoha city to begin their service after graduation. Shikamaru was hardly heard from once ONI had swiped up the little genius. Hinata and Sai remained in Haven, Hinata was preparing to take over her father's company while Sai was steadily becoming a renowned artist on the space-net. Ino saw little of her friends once she was taken in by the Federal Intelligence Agency (FIA), who had recruited her when its head, Morino Ibiki, had recognized her as the daughter of the famous interrogator, Yamanaka Inoichi.

However, today they were having a mini-reunion of sorts. It was just Naruto, Sasuke, Kiba, and Ino, but they had all been sorted in different areas of the military, and so they had seen little of each other in the first year of service. The four of them had met up in a bar in downtown Konoha City, a place that was commonly popular with the GI's.

The boys made it there first, as most of them worked the same hours. The infantry liked to have a moderated and unbreakable schedule, and so it was relatively easy to predict when the three of them would arrive. Ino was another matter. The FIA had a less predictable schedule, and she had called ahead to warn them that she really had no idea when they would let her take off, but rest assured she'd be off sometime between 19:00 and 20:00 hours.

Naruto and Sasuke had arrived together, immediately zeroing in on the head of unruly brown curls and twitching dog ears. Kiba hailed them from the bar and suddenly the three of them were talking as if no time had passed at all. They were sharing beers when Kiba, always on the lookout for a pretty girl, noticed Ino walk in.

He whistled. "Hot damn! You get sexier every year, you know that?"

Naruto and Sasuke swung around on their bar stools to look at Ino as she head over to them. Naruto gave her a large grin and Sasuke an almost-smile.

"Kiba." Ino sounded unimpressed. "You never change."

"Only for you baby -ow!" She flicked his sensitive dog ears.

Naruto chuckled and surprised her by sweeping her into a huge bear-hug. Ino gasped in an 'oof!', and awkwardly patted his head (Man, he was getting really tall!). Sasuke just raised his drink at her. Jerk.

"Wow, you cut your hair!" Naruto tugged teasingly on the short ponytail she now sported. During college, Ino had been the envy of every girl with waist-length platinum blonde hair that was as silky as it was voluminous. She had worn it in a high ponytail, which had trailed after her like a ray of sunshine. While Ino's hair was just as beautiful as ever, she had cut it to shoulder length once she had gone into service so that it would be more manageable.

"You like it?" Ino smiled.

"It's more efficient." Sasuke responded.

Ino scowled and whacked him in the shoulder. "That's not what I meant, baka."

Naruto and Kiba laughed as they sat down at a booth, the four of them ordering a round of fish'n'chips, and another round of beer. Ino ordered a 'galactic margarita', whatever that was. An hour passed in the blink of an eye as the old friends fell into their familiar jokes. Naruto told them how he was planning on marrying Hinata when he got off on leave in the next year, and but of course they were all invited! Kiba talked about how his mother was still in charge of (read: terrorizing) the Military Police force, and men were always coming up to him and asking 'how the hell do you live with a woman like that as your mother?!' and now the MP officers were more terrified than ever because his older sister, Hana, was entering the force, and boy she was just as bad as their mother! Ino laughed and told them that it was just as bad as her position in the FIA, because apparently her father Inoichi and Ibiki had been the most feared pair of interrogators in the history of the agency, and when people heard her last name, they immediately paled. Sasuke even joined in at one point, talking about how his father and mother had gone on vacation in Suna, and he was in line to receive a promotion soon.

And then -

BOOOOOOOOOM!

People screamed as the ground beneath them rocked like an earthquake, glass shattering as the windows, bottles, and glasses falling to the floor, dust whirling in the air, and their ears popped as the air was suddenly pressurized and a low whine echoed through the city.

"What the-"

They all froze when the sirens went off. On every street, every corner, in every establishment, the sirens shrilled and red lights flashed, and for a moment, the city froze as people understood the gravity of the situation.

Bijuu attack.

"Civilians to the bunkers!" The barman yelled, opening a reinforced steel door that was behind the counter, steps leading downward into an underground network that connected to bunkers filled with nonperishable food and bottled water that could last several months. Immediately civilians were following his instructions, filing two by two into the doorway.

"Report back to base!" Ino hissed to her friends, and they scrambled out into the street.

Outside, the damage almost made them pause. Hover cars were crashed into the ground, some had veered and run into storefronts. The plasterglass sidewalks were cracked, sometimes shattered, and a black plume of smoke, thick and foreboding, was rising from the eastern end of the city. In the sky, Fed cruisers were deploying, 09-Pelicans with their thick hulls and mac cannons, and the faster fighter jets, the F11-Vulture and the A57-Sabers, swooping in and engaging Bijuu crafts.

The Pelicans immediately began engaging dropships, in an attempt to prevent any Bijuu from touching down on the city. While the civilians entered the underground bunkers, the streets were filled with Fed soldiers that had been off-base, Naruto, Ino, Kiba, and Sasuke joining them as they raced back to base. Several Federal emergency hovercrafts zoomed through the streets, picking up the soldiers who needed transport back to base.

The friends jumped onto one, and they were off. Below the benches in the hovercraft were cabinets filled with emergency supplies: spare handguns, medic packs, minimum armor vests, and most importantly, communication devices. It didn't seem like much, but in the middle of an ambush, it was a godsend. Soldiers immediately began donning the vests and stashing medical supplies in their pockets, and everyone picked up a handgun and armed it.

A Bijuu fighter ship swooped out of the sky.

crackle crackle crackle - "Energy blast! Get down!" - BOOM!

Naruto and Sasuke were thrown out of the hovercraft as a Bijuu ship blasted it, Ino and Kiba jumping off before it had hit. Several of their fellow soldiers were burned or dead, and the hovercraft had lost its engine.

Sasuke cursed as he stumbled back up. Ino and Kiba were already jumping over to the hovercraft and checking for survivors. Sasuke glanced around for Naruto.

"Shit!"

He turned around and saw Naruto running towards him from an alleyway.

"Ino! Kiba!" Naruto yelled as he stopped next to Sasuke. He faced the three of them as Ino and Kiba ran over, holding up his comm device. "The Bijuu have touched down in the city."

Kiba swore and Ino gasped, covering her mouth with the hand that wasn't holding a pistol. Sasuke's eyes darkened and he glanced around, as if the Bijuu were going to jump out of the shadows at any moment.

"They've infiltrated the east side." Naruto said, the comms device spitting white noise, interspersed with voices as Federation soldiers communicated.

Ino grabbed her own comms device and began tinkering with it.

"What are you doing?" Kiba hissed. "We don't have time for that - we gotta get out!"

Ino shrugged him off. "I know the frequency for the higher ups!" They stared at her. "This way we get to hear the important intel, not the like the common frequencies with everyone panicking and screaming nonsense."

"Do I wanna know how you got this information?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her.

Ino smirked. "I'm my father's daughter."

At that moment she clicked her comms device, and the static went still.

"This is Konoha Colony to Federation! The Bijuu have attacked! I repeat the Bijuu have attacked!"

"Gee, never would have guessed." Kiba drawled as the four of them began making their way down the street, standard diamond formation. They were in the middle of the city, under attack but not yet encountering enemies.

A hovercraft began to approach them after Naruto waved them down, and they filed in beside the other soldiers. Like them, these men and women were also dressed for off-duty, with their only protection being the temporary armored vests and a handgun. People were listening in to the comms devices, trying to figure out what the situation was.

"This is Federation acknowledging Konoha Colony. We already have support en route. Special ops teams heading your way."

"Oh shit, they're sending in the special ops?" Naruto's eyes gleamed excitedly.

Sasuke elbowed him in the stomach. "Idiot! That means things are a lot worse than we thought!"

"Bijuu!"

Someone else yelled, and suddenly everyone on the transport had their gun up and pointed out. They could see, through the alleyways a couple streets down, the gleaming bluish-purple armor of the Bijuu as they stalked down the streets, shooting everyone in their path.

"Oh my god." Someone else whispered. "They've touched down..."

The hovercraft began to go faster, but they could still see the Bijuu forces sweeping through the city. Most of the civilians had gone down into the bunkers, but not all of them had made it. There were still people running around in panicked crowds, and the Nibi elites were cutting them down easily. There were six to eight Ichibi grunts to every Nibi or Yonbi platoon leader

"We're not gonna make it to base." Ino said darkly, flicking off the safety to her pistol and tightening the straps on her vest.

"Ino, what are you doing?" Sasuke asked her warily.

She glanced at the soldiers around them, making eye contact with as many as she could. "Those civilians need our help. And I'm not going to run away and let them be slaughtered like cattle."

A couple of the other GIs around them glanced at each other and nodded. Ino looked at her friends. Naruto and Kiba grinned roguishly and Sasuke muttered under his breath.

"It's against regulation."

"Sasuke, don't be a bastard." Naruto told him.

One of the other soldiers at the front of the hovercraft leaned over and flicked off the engine. The craft powered down and the soldiers leapt out. Ino immediately took charge.

"I need a couple of you to break off and find a bunker door that's still open. Another group is going to escort civilians to wherever a bunker door is open." She turned to her boys with an evil smile. "We are going to hold off the Bijuu while the civilians escape. You ready for our first field action?"

"Believe it!" Naruto cheered while Sasuke and Kiba smirked.

"Diamond formation." She said. Sasuke took point, Ino in the rear, and Naruto and Kiba took flank. Ino turned to look at a couple of the soldiers. "You four! Same formation, fall behind us!"

The soldiers saluted and they began to creep through the streets, guns up and feeling out of their league. None of them were from the same squad or platoon, since most of them were just soldiers that had been scattered by the attack, so their teamwork was off due to unfamiliarity.

"Bijuu forces closing in." Naruto said as he listened in on his comms device.

"Get ready!" Ino called over her shoulder to the team behind her.

The first sign of the Bijuu was the sound of energy blasts. Crackle crackle crackle ZOOM!

"Get down!" Sasuke yelled, and everyone ducked as the blast went over their heads.

"Take cover!" Kiba ordered (no one was really in charge at this point, save for Ino, and even she wasn't of a particular rank).

Everyone leapt out of the way, hiding behind overturned hover cars and alley corners. A platoon of Bijuu entered the street, a Nibi leader and six Ichibi grunts. Without needing prompting, the Federation soldiers began to fire. Ino was crouched down behind a car, firing two shots at a time, and then ducking back down.

They exchanged fire back and forth before a familiar and most welcome whine entered their range of hearing.

"It's a Vulture!" Someone yelled with a laugh.

The F-11 swooped down, the sleek body angling between the high-rises, following the street, raining down bullets upon the Bijuu platoon. They could just barely make out the shape of the pilot saluting them as they sped off, the soldiers on the street cheering for the small victory.

CRASSSSSSHHHH!

"Holy hell..." Kiba gaped, staring upwards as an alien ship slammed into on of the skyscrapers.

"It's coming down!" Ino screamed, and soldiers began running down the street as the skyscraper tipped and began to fall over.

Glass rained down on them, paper and dust fluttered down and filled the air. Above them, the sky was still alight with battle between Federation jets and Bijuu fighter cruisers. A large Bijuu mothership was slowly but surely making its way into the city, its plasma cannons glowing and raining down upon the streets.

Ino shrieked as one of the blasts exploded a nearby city block, incinerating several buildings and any poor soul that had still been inside. The blast knocked her off of her feet and she slammed into a window across the street, the broken shards tearing into her back.

Sasuke immediately went after her, jumping through the open window and crouching next to her. "Ino?! Ino!"

"Shit, that's a lot of blood." Naruto panted as he followed, Kiba right behind him.

"We need to keep moving..." Ino gasped through the pain, her eyes flickering wildly, a sign of a concussion.

Sasuke hauled her into his arms, and glanced back at Naruto and Kiba.

"We got your back." Kiba assured him.

They were back into the streets, attempting, mostly unsuccessfully, to avoid the areas of conflict where Bijuu platoon and Federation soldiers clashed. Keeping to the alleyways, Naruto lead them while Kiba brought up the rear, Sasuke and Ino helpless as he carried her. She was desperately trying to stay conscious, but Sasuke could feel the arm he had under her back was covered in her blood, and it wasn't stopping anytime soon.

"Oh God."

They paused as the alley exited into a city square. In the middle of it was a huge firefight between Bijuu and Federation. Soldiers from either side took cover behind potted plants and garden walls, the fountain in the middle had caught a grenade and now water was spewing haphazardly.

"Oi!" One of the Federal soldiers hailed them, standing on the half of the square that the Federation soldiers were holding. "Looks like you have injured."

Sasuke dipped his chin at Ino.

"Yeah, get her over here!" The man yelled. "We have transport coming! We'll cover you!"

The group ducked their heads as they ran into the square, bullets flying over their heads as Federation soldiers kept the Bijuu at bay. Kiba hissed as he was nicked on the cheek, but it was just a bullet burn, not serious. Naruto and Kiba joined the firefight while Sasuke and Ino made it over to where several other injured were propped against a building, two hover cars pushed together in front of them so that the Bijuu didn't get a shot.

Ino whimpered as Sasuke set her down. A field medic rushed over and began to give her some morphine, sitting her up and propping her forehead on Sasuke's shoulder while he looked over her back.

"We need to take this off." The medic ordered, and Sasuke helped him un-clip Ino's armor vest and slide off her uniform shirt. She was wearing a sports bra underneath, not that decency really mattered at this point. The medic wiped the blood off of her back, Ino growling as her cuts began to sting. Then she screamed as the medic sprayed disinfectant, digging her nails into Sasuke's arms.

"How does it look?" She asked him, panting.

Sasuke was pale as he glanced down her back. "Not good." He muttered. The window shards had sliced her back into ribbons, far worse than he had initially guessed.

"Nothing damaging." The medic told her as he wiped a salve across the wounds, though the sting was nothing compared to that alcohol spray. "It'll scar, but it'll heal completely."

Ino let out an amused huff. "First year and I already have battle scars." She muttered into Sasuke's shoulder as the medic hastily wrapped gauze around her torso.

"Reinforcements!" Someone yelled from the front of the fight. From the sound of panic in their voice, it wasn't Federation reinforcements.

Sasuke cursed and stood up, glancing over the hover cars and seeing an entirely new wave of Bijuu entering from across the square. Two platoons with Yonbi leaders, twelve Ichibi grunts, and -

"Sanbi! Fuck!" Someone else swore.

Ichibi were a pain, Nibi and Yonbi were hard to kill, but the Sanbi hunters were nearly impossible. The creatures stood nearly nine feet tall, dressed in a heavy armor shell with plasma cannons built into one arm, and a sheild built into the other. The only way to kill them was to somehow bypass all that armor plating and hit them in their soft fleshy faces.

"We're so dead..."

"Shut your whore mouth, marine!"

Naruto and Kiba glanced back as Sasuke joined them.

"Yep, were dead." Kiba muttered as the Sanbi began to glow, powering up their plasma cannons.

"Everybody duck!"

SHHHHHHOOOOOOMMMMM!

A green light lit the square as the cannon shot off, incinerating on of the hover cars. Naruto grabbed Sasuke and Kiba, and then dragged them away from the line back to where the injured were. The two fields medics in attendance had already started dragging the injured into a nearby building. Another plasma cannon went off and by the grace of unholy luck, hit one of the hover cars right in the engine.

BOOM!

The boys were thrown into the air along with several other soldiers from the resulting explosion. Kiba went sailing into a door, landing in a heap of wood splinters and glass, yet somehow not impaling himself. Naruto collided with a brick wall and slumped to the ground. Sasuke knocked into another hovercar, sliding across the hood, and face-planting into the pavement.

He scrambled to his feet, ignoring the throbbing pain of his skinned cheek and back. Glancing up he saw Naruto unconscious and on the ground. Sasuke hurried over to his friend, cursing when he saw the blood on the wall, and then the bloodstained hair on Naruto. Definitely concussion.

"Please be alive." Sasuke muttered as he pressed his fingers into Naruto's neck. There was a pulse, and then another. Sasuke's shoulders sagged in relief.

There was a scream behind him, which was suddenly silenced by the sound of an energy blast. Sasuke looked over his shoulder to see several grunts filing down the street, shooting the Federation soldiers who had fallen from the blast before they could get back on their feet.

And behind them, the Sanbi.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Sasuke growled as he dragged Naruto away, but he was fast enough. One of the Ichibi shot him in the leg, and he fell to one knee, pulling out his pistol and shoot the little fucker in the face. It's partner became angered, but before it could finish him, another shot killed it.

Kiba stumbled out of the doorway, wiping blood from his mouth. "Yeah, fuck you." He kicked the body.

But the Sanbi were still walking down the street, mowing down the soldiers that tried to stop them.

Kiba scrambled over to Sasuke and the unconscious Naruto. "Where's Ino?" He gasped.

"Dunno." Sasuke bit out, struggling to stand.

"No, no," Kiba shook his head, blinking fast. "No she can't be -"

Zoooom!

He ducked as another blast went by. The Sanbi were getting closer. Another blast, and Kiba was knocked back onto the ground. Now they were all down, Naruto out for the count, Sasuke unable to stand, and Kiba struggling to to sit up as bile filled his throat from hitting his head yet again.

"No..." Sasuke hissed as a Yonbi platoon leader leapt over a hover car and stood over him, energy gun raised.

He squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for it to end.

POW!

The Yonbi flew back as something punched it in the face, sending it flying back.

Sasuke's eyes flew open.

Standing above him was a soldier in armor that he'd never seen before.

The sound of feet landing on pavement.

More soldiers in armor dropped into the street, a pelican cruiser hovering overhead where they had exited. How they even jumped down so far without breaking their legs, he couldn't understand. Their faces were hidden by reflective visors, their body encased in mesh and armor plating. They stood a head above the average human, their genders indistinguishable.

More landed and immediately began to let loose a string of bullets, while the soldier above Sasuke went after the Yonbi they had punched, jumping onto the alien before it got up and slashing a knife into its neck. The soldier stood up and retrieved their assault rifle from their back.

Saved.

They were saved.

Sasuke sighed and let his head fall back.

"Spartan team!" One of the soldiers yelled through his helmet. "Sanbi! Formation Alpha!"

The team dropped into formation like a machine clicking into place, moving together as one body. The Ichibi grunt actually screamed when they saw these so-called 'Spartans', and the Yonbi leader growled. The Sanbi stomped, shaking the ground beneath them, as if digging into the ground against the force of these supersoldiers.

Crack!

The aliens jumped in fright at the sound of a sniper rifle, their remaining Yonbi leader crumpling with a hole in his face. Sasuke glanced up and saw another of those 'Spartan' soldiers had landed on the rooftops, currently reloading their H1.

The Spartans leapt forward, engaging the Bijuu fearlessly. They cut through the Ichibi like a knife through butter, mowing them down effortlessly. The largest of them had somehow maneuvered behind the Sanbi and jumped onto its back, nearly as big as the monster. He clutched a grenade in one hand and punched it into the sensitive flesh of the creature's neck, embedding it underneath the armor.

The Spartan jumped off just as the grenade went off. The Sanbi screamed as it was torn to pieces from within.

Its partner roared in rage, stomping its feet and bulldozing one of the Spartans. The soldier seemed unfazed by the hit, their teammates driving the remaining Sanbi away with gunfire as the Spartan got to its feet.

Crack! Crack! The last Sanbi fell as the sniper shot it twice in the face.

There was a collective sigh of relief.

The Spartans began to help the survivors as a Pelican dropped down into the square. Federation soldiers streamed out to begin helping the injured. The Spartans effortlessly lifted the injured and carried them into the ship's hull. He saw one of the smaller Spartans (smaller being relative, because they were still six-foot-something) go into on of the broken storefront and come out with Ino in their arms. Ino gave the person behind the visor a tentative smile, wincing a little as her back stung.

One of them, with the number '113' emblazoned on his chest, knelt next to Sasuke and picked him up. Sasuke felt like a child in the arms of these 'Spartans', they were just so tall and huge! Darkness closed in, and he surrendered at last to the urge to sleep, finally out of the fight.

He didn't hear a voice emerge from the helmet.

"Brother..."

"WHAAAAAAT?"

Sasuke groaned. Even in the infirmary, he still woke up to the sound of Naruto's annoying whining.

"Sorry, Sasuke." Kiba's voice chimed. "I told him about our rescue. Didn't realize he had enough strength to scream like that."

"Ugh, Naruto shut up." Sasuke opened his eyes, wincing at the light and rubbing the side of his face that didn't have road burn on it.

"Sasuke, you don't understand!" Naruto flailed in his hospital bed, oddly energetic despite the bandages wrapped around his cranium. "A super-awesome, mega-cool special ops team swooped in and saved us and I missed everything!"

Kiba sighed. "Naruto, seriously, calm down before you wake the other patients."

They were back at base, it seemed, in the infirmary wing. Naruto and Sasuke were lying down in hospital beds, while Kiba had gotten away with just a minor concussion. The Inuzuka kid had a couple of bandages here and there, but there had been no need to put him in a hospital bed.

Sasuke's leg had been hit by an energy blast, so the doctors had had to synthesize new flesh (essentially re-grow his leg) where a hole had been burned all the way through his thigh. He winced every time he shifted, as the new nerves in his thigh were still sensitive. His right side had skidded across the pavement, so his arm was bandaged, his back was bandaged, and his cheek was red.

Naruto had had the worst concussion of the three, obviously since he'd been knocked out. He'd undergone some minor surgeries in order to retrieve some pieces of shrapnel that he had picked up sometime during all of the fighting.

"Oh those guys?" Sasuke drawled, teasing Naruto with a smirk.

"Yes, yes!" The blonde said excitedly. "Tell me everything about them!"

"They're called Spartans."

They all looked up to see Ino as a nurse wheeled her in on a wheel chair.

Kiba scrambled out of the chair next to Naruto's bed and rushed over to her. "Thank God you're okay." He breathed, leaning down to hug her.

Sasuke stared at the wheelchair. "Are you...?"

"Don't worry." Ino rolled her eyes and shooed away her nurse. "They just don't want me to walk around for a while. The shards that I landed on tore my back pretty deeply. Nothing permanent, but it'll take a while to fully heal."

The boys sighed in relief. Ino was like a sister to them, and they took her safety rather personally.

"So wait," Naruto perked up. "You know who those special ops guys were?"

"Obviously not their identity." Ino said, then she smirked. "But I've gleaned a few things. They're a part of the SPARTAN program, and while most of it is very 'hush-hush', there are a few general facts that I managed to gather. The Spartans are some sort of supersoldier - and while no one has said anything officially about genetic enhancement, there's no way those six-foot and seven-foot monstermen are natural."

"Six or seven feet tall?" Kiba squeaked.

Ino nodded. "It's ONI - you know, the Federation military branch that doesn't exist." Her eye glimmered in amusement. "We were rescued by the best of the best. They are our best weapon against the Bijuu."

Sasuke eyed the blonde woman with a critical eye. "You're scary sometimes, you know that?" He said. "This 'ONI' would kill you if they realized that you managed to put that much together."

"Or hire me." Ino winked.

"How much you wanna bet that those are the people that hired Shikamaru?" Naruto chuckled.

Their eyes widened at the realization.

"Man, now I'm definitely trying out for special ops." Kiba said with a low whistle. Sasuke and Naruto nodded. Surprisingly, Ino also nodded.

Naruto's stomach growled loudly, a second later, Kiba's echoed his.

Ino chuckled under her breath. "C'mon boys, lets get some chow."

"They haven't been cleared for release yet." Kiba frowned.

Sasuke and Naruto both snorted.

"Since when do we willingly stay in the hospital?" Sasuke said in a snarky voice. He and Naruto were already unplugging themselves from various machines, while Kiba grabbed the handles of Ino's wheelchair and turned her around.

Walking into the hallways of the base, they looked around to see the damage. Out of the windows, the base overlooked the city. Most of the buildings were smoking or burned, several city blocks were nothing more than ash from the plasma cannons, and a few skyscrapers had collapsed. There were still fighter jets flying around the city, but the immediate danger had passed.

People were in various states of hurry as they walked through the halls of the base. Some were walking leisurely, mostly the injured who were enjoying their hard-won victory. A couple of paper pushers were running back and forth between offices, no doubt reporting to the Federation and calculating damage costs.

They paused by a window-lined wall that overlooked the hangars, looking down at the soldiers rushing around, the jets and cruisers with scratched and smoking hulls, cracked windows and flickering lights.

The doors down the hall hissed and slid open. The cadets froze when they saw who entered.

Thud.

Metal boots echoed loudly in the corridor.

Thud.

Their armor was worn, chipped, and scratched.

Thud.

Visors glint, faces hidden.

They didn't seen human. Other soldiers froze upon seeing the large soldiers walking in, taller than anyone else on the base. The shortest of them was at least six feet tall.

The way they walked was the most distinguishable aspect to Ino. They walked slowly, standing tall, heads up, proud. Yet their slow walk was not lazy, or leisurely, but rather as if the world weighed heavily upon them, and each step was just another road traveled, another mission completed, another battle fought, the sacrifices of those before them in each landing.

They were beautiful but... somehow tragic.

The Spartans passed them, the world holding its breath.

087

The Spartan glanced at them, and Ino could feel their gaze through the impenetrable visor. She felt her skin crawl, and a fire ignited within her. And she decided then and there, that she would join them.

She would be a Spartan.

"His file read 'Missing In Action'." She says determinedly.

The man scoffs. "Because 'Spartans Never Die'?"