First off, I want to offer my sincerest apologies for such late updates. I got very busy and by the time I got free time I lost motivation to write. I don't think there will be a long ass wait like this chapter again, but you can expect some time to pass between updates.
God Of Stuff: I wanted to put rouge drones into this. And I tried to in the last chapter but every time I tried to add it, I keep seeing how it would come back to bite me in the ass for what I have planned. Sometimes less is more. As for the last bit of text being all italics. Yeah I'm not sure what to make of that. It happens from time to time and I've seen it happen to other stories as well. You bold or italicize ONE letter, then ALL text after that becomes bold AFTER you upload it and post it on the site. I suspect it has something to do with the word processor I'm using, this never happened on my other computer. I've double-checked and re uploaded the chap 3 times and it won't fix so I'm stumped.
OutlawJustice. Lol I'll assume you mean manager of the abyss. Lol a moron like him won't stop me from writing;) my low drive to continue writing when I take a break however, can. And yes EVE has shown that they are very adept at nano-technology, even their stations are mostly build with it lol.
Got quite a few pms about me dropping the fic. I assure you it's not gonna happen, as I said my life basically got busy so my updating slowed down when I finally got the free time again I just couldn't get in the groove to write again, on the bright side, a lot of my ideas were allowed to float around in my head and got polished. But enough banter on with the story.
Oh yeah. i don't own mass effect or naruto
Shepard, along with Garrus and Miranda went off into purgatory to retrieve Jack, a powerful, but highly unstable biotic. Naruto with Sakura's help, managed to copy all the data from his terminal to their personal Omni-tools, but not before Sakura sniffed out what appeared to be bugs. Having taking care of them, they were now safe to use the Omni-tools as they pleased. After an hour, Naruto and Sakura decided to wonder the ship, first drifting into the engine room. They struck up a conversation with the two engineers in charge of maintaining the engines. They didn't have much time for talk however, apparently they were in the process of calibrating the ship's engine. They drifted around the ship until they found themselves in the tech lab.
"Ah your Naruto correct?" Mordin asked.
"Yes." Naruto said "And this is Sakura" He added while pointing at her.
Mordin nodded and continued his work.
Naruto looked around in the tech lab before his eyes focused on a glass container that held a single insect looking creature. Naruto moved towards it for a closer inspection. After looking at it up close, the incest tried to make a rush at him repeatedly, only to hit the glass container repeatedly. "Huh not much in the way of brains." He commented.
"It's kinda cute." Sakura said.
"What is this thing?" Naruto asked.
"A seeker." Mordin answered. "They are a part of the collector's strategy in abducting humans, exactly what part they play, and how to counter them is what I am trying to find out."
"If you don't mind my asking, what have you learned so far?"
"Nothing much, only just started. Preliminary studies shows seekers inject unknown compound into victims. Possible compound may be some form of paralysis agent."
"Would you mind if I assist?" Naruto asked.
"You?" Mordin asked. "I take it you have some knowledge in scientific research?"
"Yes I do. I am sure I can be of help. The compound that the seekers inject into their victims, you extracted some of it?"
"Yes I have some right here." Mordin said as he pointed to a near-by test tube.
"Naruto looked at the brown, luminescent substance curiously and moved in closer. Mordin simply went back to work, not actually believing that Naruto had any real scientific knowledge. After several minutes Naruto grabbed a nearby syringe and drew up some of the substance, this caught Mordin's interest.
"What are you doing?" the Salarian doctor asked.
"We're pressed for time. We need it as soon as possible, I'm just trying to shave off some time." Naruto answered as he looked at Sakura.
"Uuuh uh no no no you're not going to use me as a guinea pig again." Sakura said adamantly.
"Come on Sakura, don't you trust me?"
"Hell no! You use that stuff on yourself!"
"But I'm just a squishy human."
Sakura rolled her eyes at Naruto using her little insult towards organics.
"I'll make you a new integrated analyzer and code breaker." He said in a slight singsong voice.
"Huh? Why didn't ya say so?" Sakura said happily as she extended her arm towards Naruto. "Fire away."
"Now hold on! You can't test on her. Not even sure what the compound does!" Mordin objected.
"It's alright she can handle it."
"That's not the point! Human testing is unethical, sloppy! I will not allow this!"
Before the argument could go any further, Sakura snatched the syringe from Naruto. "You better hold up your end of the bargain." She said as she injected herself with the solution.
"Wait!" Mordin shouted but it was too late, Sakura had already injected all of the contents in the syringe into herself.
"Reckless!" Mordin shouted.
"It's okay doctor." Naruto began. "Sakura can take this."
Hmm, I don't feel any different." Sakura commented. "Maybe that stuff wasn't as harmful as you thought it was."
"Or maybe it can't work on you." Naruto suggested as he looked at the distress doctor Mordin. "Allow me to explain why I'm so open about using Sakura as a test subject doctor." Naruto began until he heard a strange noise from Sakura. Upon turning their attention to her, they were surprised to see her completely frozen in place, completely unmoving, emitting a strange energy field. Naruto inspected Sakura momentary. "Hmm. It did work."
"This is what I was afraid of. How do we get her back to normal?"
"If I'm not mistaken, she's only in stasis of some sort, and I fairly certain she's fully aware of what's going on around her."
"That still doesn't solve how we can remove the stasis effect."
Naruto turned his attention to Sakura. "Hey Sakura, if you can hear this jump in another body and head back up here." He then looked at Mordin, who was clearly displeased. "I think there are a few things I should explain." Naruto went on to give Mordin a short version of his story, and explained that Sakura is in fact, an a.I.
After explaining, Mordin had seemed to cool off considerably. "I see, so she is an A.I." He said. "A sentient one no less….dangerous."
"That seems to be quite the consensus here. However from what I read with the situation with the geth, you guys brought that on yourselves." Naruto said. "You put yourself in the geth's position, you are starting to become aware, because of this, your creators try to destroy you, would you simply sit and allow it to happen?" Naruto asked.
"Point taken." the doctor admitted. "On other note, I find myself intrigued by your nano-tech…. would like to talk more about in free time."
"Of course. I'm always willing to discuss theories and trade info with fellow scientists." Naruto said. Moments later, the door to the lab opened, revealing Sakura. "Welcome back."
"You just remember your deal." Sakura said.
"Of course. I'll begin making your reward as soon as I'm done here." Naruto said. "Now let's take a better look at your other body."
An hour later…
Using Sakura's body as a research specimen, they uncovered a few facts that would no doubt be helpful.
"You know." Naruto began. "Stasis is almost always the same, essentially freezing the subject in time. How this is accomplished is varied."
"Agreed. If we can find out how stasis is achieved we can find an effective method of nullifying it." Mordin admitted.
"I'm starting to think the compound is in fact a process form of element zero that somehow induces stasis."
"Hmmm interesting theory." Mordin said. "It may be possible. It's very rare, but there are biotics that induce stasis on others although the effect only lasts for a very breif time…..30 seconds at best."
"The whole branch of technology that involes the use of element zero originates from these reapers, meaning they may very well be much more advanced in the use of element zero. The collectors work for the Reapers, It would be safe to assume the Collectors would have similar level of element zero technology. If a few biotics can make stasis fields, then I think it's safe to assume that the collectors can do something on a much larger scale."
"A sound theory. We'll need to look more into it." Right after that statement, Joker's voice sounded over the inter-comm.
"Attention all combatants. Commander has come under attack on purgatory. All combatants are to be on standby."
"Looks like things may liven up in here a bit." Naruto commented as he, Sakura and Mordin made their way for the armory.
Upon entering, they found Jacob, fully prepped and ready to go. "I had a feeling things were going too smooth." He said. "You guys better get ready."
"Right."
In only a few minutes Mordin, Jacob, Sakura and Naruto were standing by at the entrance, just in case things got too intense of Shepard and the others. After 10 minutes of waiting, the doors opened, revealing Shepard, Garrus, Miranda, as well as one other person who everyone assumed to be jack, with several armed gunmen hot on their heels. Working quickly, Naruto and the others started picking off some of the gunmen after Shepard and company before they ran into the ship. Joker quickly closed the door and undocked.
"Good work everyone." Shepard said as he turned to jack. "Come with me I'll debrief you on out current situation." He said as he led her into the briefing room.
"Whoa…..she looks like one badass bitch." Sakura commented aloud, causing everyone who knew of jack's volatile personality to worry.
"Sakuraaaaa" Naruto drawled in annoyance.
"What it's true." Sakura said.
At this jack smirked. "Pinky here is observant." She commented as she left with Shepard.
"That mouth of yours is going to land you in trouble one of these days." Jacob said.
"It already has." Naruto affirmed. "On more than one occasion."
3 months later…..
After the incident at purgatory, Shepard set out to recruit the Krogan warlord. Instead, he brought back another Krogan who would later be named Grunt. With final member of the crew recruited, they had no choice but to wait for any activity from the collectors. During this time, Naruto, and Mordin worked on the counter for the seekers. It turned out that Naruto's theory was correct. With the help of EDI and Sakura, they were able to develop a method of processing element zero, which allowed them to make a sort of cure that would allow them to free anyone who is locked in stasis by the seeker swarms and even give immunity for a few days. However, it was determined that this "cure" alone wouldn't be good for actual combat. Why? Well it was a little mistake on Sakura's part. The simple seeker slipped away when she was handling it and it flew off and stung both Naruto and Mordin. Luckily, the lab was sealed off and Sakura managed to administer some of the cure to Naruto and Mordin. What did they learn from the incident? Seekers. Bite. HARD. Having something like that chomping at you in the middle of a fight is not desirable. So they studied the biology of the seeker itself and devised a way to make them invisible to the insect like creatures.
During this time, Naruto and Mordin had developed a great deal of respect for each other. Mordin at first thought Naruto was reckless but slowly he began to see that Naruto was in fact a very competent scientist. The only thing limiting Naruto, was his understanding of the Milky Way's theories and technology, however this is something that is being rectified fairly quickly as Naruto learned more and more thanks to his exchanges with Mordin and Sakura's information she hacked.
The crew of the Normandy kept to the Terminus systems. Helping anyone in need, and gathering resources. But that was about to come to an end.
Currently, Shepard was in the communications room, having been called by the Illusive Man.
"Shepard we have them." the Illusive Man said as he pulled up a hologram of a planet. "Horizon has just gone silent. We suspect the collectors are on the move."
"I'll set a course for horizon right away." Shepard said as he turned to leave.
"One more thing Shepard." illusive man began, getting the commander's attention. "I have reliable Intel that your former crew member Ashley Williams was stationed there as well." He said, no doubt telling Shepard so he could be driven to fight harder.
Shepard said nothing stepped out of the platform used to communicate with the Cerberus leader. He then opened up a channel to joker. "Joker come in."
"Yeah commander?"
"Set a course for horizon."
"Roger commander."
Shepard then opened all the inter-comms on the ship, allowing everyone to here what he had to say. "Attention all ground troops report to the briefing room." He ordered.
1 hour later…..
After being briefed about the situation, everyone was in the hanger, ready to land on Horizon. Shepard chose Naruto, Mordin, Sakura and Grunt to accompany him on the surface. While the others were on stand by in case back up was needed. They boarded the shuttle and took off to the planets surface.
As they made their decent, Shepard spoke. "Are you sure these counter measures will work?" He asked.
"Of course Shepard." Mordin said. "The modifications implemented into armor should make us invisible to seeker swarms. Will be first time testing in high concentrations….exciting."
"In addition to that, we have a sort of cure to counter the effects of the seekers. We can use it to free anyone who is locked in stasis."
"Good to hear. If luck is on our side, we'll be able to save the colonists." Shepard said.
Not long after, they touched down the planets surface. They exited the shuttle and were immediate greet with the sight of countless seekers flying around, no doubt looking for their next targets. Then out in the distance, a huge ship that appeared to be made of metal and rock could be seen.
"Hmmm so that's a collector ship." Sakura said. "If that's a cruiser, then I wonder what a freaking battleship would be like."
Enough talking. Let's go pick a fight." Grunt said eagerly.
"Alright let's get to work." Shepard said as he drew his weapon and led the way.
Not long afterwards, a buzzing sound could be heard in the distance. It rapidly got louder and louder until the source of the sound came into view. Three insectoid beings flew in and began to open fire. Everyone took cover behind a nearby wall. Grunt took out his shotgun and charged right at one of the collectors, firing off a concussive shot, sending his target on the ground, he continued charging at his fallen target intent on making sure he finished the job.
"GRUNT!" Shepard shouted.
Before grunt could react, he was blasted by a laser that made him stumble back. He barely managed to get behind cover to allow his shield to regenerate.
Naruto and Sakura opened fire on them, since they had no cover of their own. However, they only managed to get a few shots on them before a yellow shield appeared and gave them cover. Shepard knew exactly how to bypass the problem. He threw a grenade on the ground behind the shield. Upon exploding, it killed two of the attackers, one still being alive because it happened to move to another cover in an attempt to flank them. Unfortunately, for the collector, grunt happened to be right there. Grunt rammed into it, sending the insect-like invader to the ground. Grunt followed up by stomping his foot on to the collectors chest to pin it down followed by a single shot from his shot gun, completely obliterating the enemy's head. Everyone regrouped after the skirmish.
Naruto eyed the powerful laser weapon the Collector used and picked it up. He fired off a short burst into the distance and whistled astonishment. "The Amarr would kill to have something like this." He commented, causing Sakura chuckle.
"Let's move on." Shepard said.
They continued until they reached into that appeared to be the housing area of the colony. They saw a few collectors making their way out of the area with several strange pods following them. Seeing they weren't detected, Shepard ordered everyone to quickly take up positions to allow for the quick disposal of the collectors. Upon opening fire, all but one of the collectors went down. Before they could kill it, three husks came out of nowhere, catching Naruto completely off guard and tackled him to the ground. Sakura grabbed the husk by the neck and ripped it off Naruto and slammed it on to a nearby wall before punching its head in. As Naruto got up, he saw the surviving collector about to blindside the commander. He took out the collector particle beam gun and fired on it, sending it onto a nearby wall.
"Thanks." Shepard said.
"No problem." Naruto said as he looked at the collector gun. "I think I like this thing."
What were they doing with these pods? Sakura asked as she looked in the viewing window of one of the pods. "Hey there's someone in here!" She said trying to look for a way to open it.
Naruto and the others tried to open other pods as well by with no luck. "Screw it." Sakura said as she punched the pod, causing it to crack. After three more punches it was opened, exposing the captive inside locked in stasis.
"Sakura open up the other pods, I'll administer the counter-measure on them." Naruto said as he took out the tools needed for the task.
10 minutes later….
The colonists in the pods were freed and now mobile again. While Naruto administered the cure, Mordin and Sakura secured one of the nearby buildings for the colonists to take refuge in. The colonists were very grateful and took shelter in the building that was secured.
Having rescued the colonists, Shepard and company continued on, investigating any pods they come across and freeing any colonists they could find and killing any collectors that they came across. It wasn't until they reached a large storage yard that they were met with tougher opposition. 10 collectors flew into cover. One of them however suddenly started hovering in the air by an unknown force and started glowing brightly. This was followed by a sinister voice. "Assuming direct control." The Collector then began advancing to the squad's position, firing energy fields and gunfire.
Everyone ducked for cover as the slow moving energy field impacted their last position, severely damaging the nearby wall. "What ever happens don't get hit by that thing." Shepard shouted as another one it impacted on to his cover.
Naruto tried to use the collector weapon on the possessed collector only to be shot at by the other collectors in the area. "Dealing with that thing with all these freaks shooting at us is going to be a bitch!" Naruto shouted.
"I'll take care of them." Sakura said as she moved from cover to cover to engage the weaker collectors.
"Mordin you go with her." Shepard ordered.
"Understood." Mordin shouted as he moved to follow Sakura, an energy ball barely missing him. Soon after, several gunshots could be heard in their direction with occasional explosions.
Shepard wiped out of cover and unleashed a hail of bullets on the powered collector, only for them to be halted by its personal shield.
"We are harbinger. You will be destroyed Shepard." The collector threatened as it launched several waves of energy.
Shepard ducked behind cover again, pleased to see grunt and Naruto about to attack. Naruto used the collector beam cannon, while grunt used his shotgun. The joint attack seemed to have taken down harbinger' barrier. Shepard threw an incendiary grenade at harbinger. The charge exploded into high intensity flames, causing harbinger to stagger. They all took the opportunity to off load as much ammo as possible. After one solid minute of continuous fire, harbinger simply evaporated.
Gunfire could still be heard in the area where Sakura and Mordin were fighting. "Let's go help Mordin and Sakura out." Shepard ordered. Upon reaching the firefight, they saw that most of the collectors were dead, only one still alive due to it hiding behind a shield. It stated to float up in the air, before a high-powered energy beam blasted it.
"No way in hell I'm going to let one of those fuckers get powered up again." Naruto said as he stowed the collector beam weapon.
Now that the battle was over, Shepard and company could take stock of situation. The area had several pods, easily around 100. "Get those pods open." Shepard ordered.
Sakura and grunt began ripping open the pods while Naruto and Mordin administers the cure to the colonists.
When they were finished, they were faced with a dilemma, where to keep the newly freed colonists. "We need to find a secure location for the colonists." Shepard said.
"Excuse me." One of the colonists said. "We could take shelter in that underground bunker over there." He said, pointed to a large door across the area.
"Alright, Naruto, Sakura stay here with the colonists, we'll see if that bunker is secured." Shepard said as he left.
Upon reaching the bunker, Shepard found it locked. It was easy enough to hack open, and upon entering, they found it to be completely empty, or so they thought. A sound from behind a tall stack of containers put everyone on guard. "Who's there? Show yourself!" Shepard demanded.
"D-Don't shoot!" A voice pleaded. A man slowly came out of his hiding place with his hands up, completely terrified.
"What are you doing here?" Shepard asked.
"T-t-those things attacked out of the blue." The man began nervously. "They got everyone. I managed to lock myself up in here."
"Those are the collectors." Shepard explained. "They've been attacking human colonies recently."
"The collectors? I thought they were something the Citadel made up to keep us from coming to the Terminus systems."
"No they are very real." Shepard said as he looked around. "How secure is this place?" he asked.
"It's pretty good. It managed to keep those bastards out."
"Good we managed to save a few of the colonist; this would be a good place to keep them."
"You mean some survived?"
"Yes the rest of my people are watching over them but they are out in the open, we need a more secure place for them to stay until we finish dealing with the collectors."
"Yeah yeah of course. This place is built like a bomb shelter it'll take a fair deal of effort for anyone to bust in."
Upon hearing this, Shepard opened up the comm to speak to Naruto. "Naruto its clear here, bring in the colonists."
"Roger that commander."
Not long after, Naruto had brought the saved colonists to the bunker. Unsurprisingly, the colonists were antsy, but managed to keep enough calm to not cause a panic. "Alright we'll have to leave you guys here." Shepard began. "You'll be safe here. Just make sure not to leave this place." He then turned to the man they found in the bunker first. "Can you open up this other door?"
"Yeah. I'll be sure to lock it back when your gone." The man said as he used his Omni-tool to open the door.
As Shepard and the others left, EDI came on to the comms. "Commander, I've detected several recently installed orbital gun emplacements, however they don't seem to be calibrated as of yet."
"We could use those to fire on the collector ship." Shepard said in revelation. "EDI can you calibrate the guns for use?"
"I can, however, it would take time."
"Time is something we don't have." Shepard said.
"Let me handle it." Sakura said. "I might be able to take direct control over the guns. If I'm in the system, there might not be a need to calibrate the guns targeting systems."
"Then get on it." Shepard ordered.
Sakura nodded and started making her way to a nearby building. "I won't be able to move when I start so I'll be hiding in a safe place while I get into the system." she explains as she entered the building.
Not long after sakura entered the building, the anti-ship turrets activated, bombarding the collective ship. By this time, Shepard and company were nearing the collector ship.
"Looks like they're scrambling to leave." Naruto said.
"Understandable." Mordin said. "Ship's shield likely inactive since it entered planet's atmosphere. The orbital guns bombarding could prove…..problematic for them."
"Look at all those pods!" Sakura said looking at all of the pods that were going to be moved into the ship.
"Yeah I see them." Naruto said as he looked closer with binoculars. "It looks like the collectors are leaving them behind. What's the plan commander?"
"We wait." Shepard said. "They're far too many of them for us to fight and the pods are a safe distance from the ship's ensure when it takes off." Only 10 minutes later, all of the collector were on board of the ship and were taking off, leaving a great deal of their human cargo. Shepard and the others made their way to the pods to ensure they were secure it was going to take a loooong time to free them all
Time skip 1 day later….
The Normandy was headed for the Citadel after Shepard had received a message from Anderson who wanted to see him. Upon docking, Shepard called for Naruto and Garrus to accompany him. They left the Normandy and entered the elevator. As they were ascending, Naruto spoke.
"Commander, I've been meaning to ask you something." Naruto started. "I couldn't ask in the Normandy because I really doubt it's 100% safe to discuss in there."
"What is it?" The commander asked.
"I was wondering if it would be possible to acquire a ship of my own." Naruto answered. "I have a few things I need to work on for the federation and the Normandy just doesn't have the means I need to start my work, that and it seems that your friend constantly bugs the ship, I don't take kindly to being spied on."
At this question, Shepard rose an eyebrow. "I can understand that you have your own people to work for, but the Reapers are a more pressing concern." He began. "You're proving to be a valuable asset, I can't allow you to just up and leave, can't you wait until we're done with the Reapers?"
"Honestly I really need to make better means to keep in touch with my superiors." Naruto answered. "This also works to your advantage. By setting up the means to communicate, I'm also benefiting you and your cause as well. I would have a place where I can research and develop with complete impunity with all the tools I'm accustomed to."
Shepard remained silent in thought. Mordin has given Naruto the highest praise, and there was no secret that Cerberus has been trying their best to get into Naruto's terminal for the information he possess. Naruto told him about some of their tech back in new Eden and really, some of them would spell trouble if Cerberus got their hands on them and figured them out. The reaper threat would be dealt with, only to deal with Cerberus pumped up on tech from another galaxy. Naruto and Sakura have been doing a good job keeping their information out of Cerberus' hands, but sooner or later, Cerberus could get what they are after, all it would take was a slip up. Yes Naruto going off to his own devices may be better in the long run.
"Alright. We'll arrange for a ship for you, anything in particular you're looking at?" Shepard asked.
"As long as it has enough space for all my stuff it's ok."
"There is still the matter of you controlling it." Shepard pointed out. "All ships require a crew."
"I can manage with Sakura in the ship's systems."
"Alright then. We'll set you up after we're done here." Shepard finished as he got out the transport, Naruto and Garrus close behind.
They soon met Anderson and the council. Naruto found a liking to Councilor Anderson, the man was proactive, realistic, and trusted his gut, obviously had some military background. Just from their breif conversation, Naruto understood that Anderson was a man of action, he didn't sit on his ass and twiddle his thumbs. The other councilors on the other hand, annoyed Naruto somewhat. They were Bureaucratic in every sense of the word. Afraid to stir things up, unwilling to look further into the attack they barely survived. Then there were the politics involved. All in all, Naruto felt like the council were setting themselves up for a repeat of what happened 2 years ago. Yes rules are important, but sometimes those rules must be bent or flat out broken for the greater good. This is something one learns very quickly in New Eden.
The meeting wasn't too long, the council restored Shepard's spectre status, although according to Anderson it was symbolic at that point.
"It was good seeing you again Shepard. I hope you know what you're doing working with Cerberus." Anderson said.
"Don't worry. I'll deal with Cerberus." Shepard said, trying to put his former commanding officer at ease. "There is no question that they'll double cross me, but I assure you, I'll be ready for it."
"I hope so. The galaxy needs you Shepard." Anderson said. "It would be a shame to lose you again."
Shepard nodded in understanding before glimpsing at Naruto. "Sir I'd Like to ask a favor."
"What is it?"
"I need a small cargo ship for Naruto here." Shepard answered, while pointing to Naruto.
"That's easy enough but why not just buy one out of Cerberus' Pocket?"
"Because I don't want to make it easy for them."
"Meaning?"
Shepard began to tell the story behind Naruto's origins….
"So you're telling me he's from new Eden? The same new Eden from the tales?" Anderson asked.
"He is." The commander answered. "Cerberus wants him or at least as much information they can get from him as possible. To that end, they constantly try to spy on him. His A.I has been good at keeping their info under Wraps, but sooner or later she'll fail."
"I see your concerns, and I share them. If Cerberus got their hands on tech that is new and on another level than ours, it could spell trouble." Anderson said. "I can get the ship easy, I'll also pull a few strings to make sure their departure time will be undisclosed, Cerberus has eyes and ears everywhere, even here on the Citadel. Without proper steps, it would be safe to say that they would know exactly when the ship will leave."
"Thanks Anderson, I owe you one." Shepard said.
"I'll make the preparations, should only take a few hours."
Three Hours Later…..
Naruto and Sakura had relocated all of their cargo off the Normandy and temporarily stored it in the ship that Anderson provided. The Normandy had left an hour ago, they were now sitting tight, waiting for Anderson's signal for them to leave.
"Ugh this is so boring." Sakura said.
"If you're so bored why don't you jump into the ship's systems and find something to do?" Naruto asked in slight annoyance.
"Hmm good idea." Sakura said as her eyes grayed out and her body became lifeless. Her voices then came on to the ship's intercom. "I would imagine Miranda must have been a bit pissed when she realized we were no longer on the ship." Sakura laughed.
"I would think so. It was rather convenient how she and Jacob where away when we made the move." Naruto said. Immediately after that Anderson called in.
"Naruto, you're clear to take off." he said. "I would try to get as far away from the Citadel as fast as possible if I were you."
"We well. Thanks a lot for this Anderson." Naruto said as he shut off the comms. "Sakura, get us moving."
"Where to?"
"The planet Daratar in the Faryar system."
"Isn't that in the Terminus Systems?"
"It is. But nearly all the planets I looked up in Citadel space don't have element zero." Naruto explained "And the ones that do are populated and already have extracting operations on them."
"Hmmm it'll be like our first time in null space back home." Sakura said as she made a holographic image appear on the HUD got Naruto to see. "And it's not far from Omega, only a few jumps."
"An added bonus. However, or first priority is to get set up. I'll be counting on you to deal with the ships operation Sakura, get us going."
"Gotcha."
With that, the docking latches on the ship released, allowing it to pull out of the docking bay. After clearing, they engaged their FTL drives and began to make their way to their destination.
MEANWHILE IN CERBERUS HQ….
The Illusive man was currently reviewing the little information he had on Naruto. As time went on, be started to become more and more intrigued by the young man and the galaxy he came from. Were it not for the fact that the Reapers were breathing down their necks, he would put full attention on "recruiting" him to their cause. He was an excellent fighter, but it's his mind that impressed the most.
The Illusive man was bought out of his musings by a notification from Miranda. He pressed a button on his chair and immediately the room darkened, soon a holographic image of his closest agent appeared before him.
"Miranda." He began as he took out a cigarette and lit it. "How can I help you?"
"I think you might be interested to know that Naruto has left the ship and is now on his own." Miranda said, catching her superior's interest.
"Indeed, that is very interesting." The Cerberus leader said. "When was this?"
"It was around 4 hours ago." Miranda began noticing the slight look of dissatisfaction on The Man's face.
"It to that long for you to report this?"
"I was out on that assignment you gave me and Jacob." Miranda explained. By the time, we got back, Naruto and everything he had was gone. Then Shepard kept me busy, no doubt as a way to keep me from getting in contact with you."
"I see." The Illusive Man paused in thought. "I'll see what we can dig up. Thank you for the information Miss Lawson." he said as he cut the comm off.
"Well then, things just got more interesting." The illusive man said to himself as he took a long drag from his cigarette.
A/N: Guess my estimation was right. It DID take six chapters before Naruto branched off on his own. Now we'll be breaking away from the mass effect storyline. Do note that this was in the works long before any info about ME3 was out. I've already decided how this is going to end. I may put a few elements for ME3 if I can work with them but don't be surprised if I write with no regard for what happened in ME3. Hell I may just throw things in ME2 out the window as well :P