Hey guys, sorry for the wait, but I keep my promises. Chapter 6 is finally up and I believe it's the longest chapter yet. Btw I got asked whether there will be Prometheans in this story and the answer is NO. The prometheans first appeared before the Chief in Halo 4 and this story takes place before that. Instead I decided on a different kind of enemy.

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The Master Chief started his night watch with a stroll towards a close-by rock. Close, but far enough not to be heard by the others.

"Cortana." John started "Come on, you're acting strange. What's bothering you?"

The A.I. didn't answer at first, leaving John dumbfounded. He almost repeated his question when Cortana finally spoke up.

"Beautiful night, isn't it?" was what she said. John didn't know how to respond. In his opinion this was completely beside the point, but knowing Cortana, she'd probably have a very good reason for responding that way. He had to ask though, just to be sure.

"What? I'm not sure I understand…" John tried to say, but was cut off by his artificial companion.

"That's exactly what I mean!" Cortana said. Or rather shouted. John was taken by complete surprise at that sudden outburst. "It's all about fighting, being efficient and being a good soldier with you! You never step out of line, you never disobey orders, but you also never think about anything outside of combat. What are you, John? Man or machine? Sometimes you make it hard for me to tell."

To say that the SPARTAN was surprised would have been the understatement of the millennium. He felt a little hurt by her words too, but giving it some serious thought, he could understand her point. At least to a certain degree. Still, that kind of outburst was more than untypical for the ever cool and collected Cortana.

"I do what is necessary." Was all he could muster in that state of surprise.

"Necessary my virtual ass!" Cortana sighed. "I clearly read your confusion, at Ms. Hyuga's attitude. The way she laughed at a clearly bad joke. Do you mean to tell me you didn't notice the obvious by now?"

"What in the world are you talking about?" John asked desperately, his confusion growing stronger by the minute. Cortana was obviously acting weird and John could only suspect the possible cause of her emotional outbreak. Though that was something he didn't want to believe.

"Affection John! Love! Ever heard those words before? Hinata is obviously head over heels for Naruto." Cortana said. "And apparently you are as dense as he is, otherwise you would have noticed. I mean it's not like she's really hiding it."

"Is that really the reason for your anger?" John asked the artificial intelligence. He really hadn't noticed. Mostly because he usually didn't pay attention to such 'trivial matters'. He was used to focusing on the mission and the mission only. He himself had never shared such a relationship with another person. The closest any of his relationships ever came to this was his with Cortana, though this could hardly be compared to a loving couple. "I'm sorry." Was all he could think of to say.

"Well, I guess after all these years of being a killing machine it's hard for you to regain your humanity. Please don't take this the wrong way, but for your own good, be a bit less of a perfect soldier and a bit more of an imperfect man." Cortana said, apparently calmed down a bit.

Thinking that the matter was settled for now, the Master Chief returned to the camp fire, that some villagers had made.

"I'm sorry." The voice came from behind the Master Chief, so he turned around to see who it belonged to. It was the man from earlier that had nearly experienced a mental breakdown after seeing the SPARTAN for the first time. "For earlier I mean. I was just so scared."

"Don't worry about it." John tried to reassure the man. "You're not the first person to ever react this way towards me."

"Still I feel bad about it. After all you came to protect us… right?" the man asked hesitantly.

"That is my mission." The Chief answered.

"My name is Tetsumaru by the way." The man eyed the Master Chief carefully, making him feel a little uncomfortable. Just as John was about to ask what was up he continued. "I don't know if it's rude to ask, but… do you know the legend of the Nobleman of Death?"

"I'm afraid not. I'm not really from around these parts." John answered. And since he didn't have anything better to do than watching the motion tracker in his visor, he added: "Care to tell me?"

Tetsumaru's face brightened at that request.

"Sure. I'd love to. So a couple of years back a group of five men from our village was in the mountains to hunt some deer. They were doing really well until they were ambushed by enemy Ninjas. In a matter of seconds the hunters became the hunted. Two of our hunters were killed while on the run. The other three tried to hide in an old hut that they had found, but it turned out to be a death trap. The Ninjas easily spotted them and were closing in. Two of the hunters tried to secure the front door while one of them took care of the back door. However the front door was busted down and the two securing it were killed. The last survivor already saw his fate sealed, when suddenly a lightning struck into the hut, directly in front of him. One of the Shinobi chose the opportunity to strike, but he only hit a hard metal armor, for in the lightning had appeared a mighty noble warrior in glorious armor. He who should henceforth been known as the Nobleman of Death counterattacked the enemy Shinobi and easily annihilated all of them. He told the last surviving hunter to run and not turn back, so that's what he did. He returned to our village to tell his story, but when we checked the place, we only found the dead bodies of the Ninjas. No sign of said warrior." Tetsumaru concluded. Or at least John thought it was a conclusion as the man in front of him didn't seem to have anything left to tell.

"If you never found that warrior, how do you know your hunter told the truth?" John asked. It was a legitimate question. That story was ludicrous, even for this strange world.

"The one hunter that had survived was my older brother. He wouldn't lie about his friends' deaths. Also they could never have beaten the Ninjas by themselves, so I believe him." Tetsumaru said, giving the Master Chief a stern look. "I figured that you might know something about that story, seeing as you quite closely resemble that Nobleman of Death."

John mentally face-palmed. How could he be so dense? If this story was true, that would mean, that another SPARTAN had come to this world before him. And that SPARTAN was quite likely to still be there.

"Maybe that story of yours isn't so ludicrous after all." The Chief told Tetsumaru absentmindedly.

"Hey John!" John turned around to see who had called him. It turned out to be Shikamaru. "I'm gonna take over now. You should get some rest."

John simply nodded and headed for his resting place. He felt like he could fall asleep and never wake up again. The battles of the previous day did take a toll on his body after all. He laid down on his mat and felt himself slowly drifting off to a light sleep.

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The next morning came quickly and the villagers started getting ready for their trip to Konoha. Shikamaru organized the preparations for the journey, while the other Shinobi were helping the villagers to pack their belongings. Except for Naruto and Sai, who were patrolling the area to keep the group safe from potential attackers.

When they were all ready to leave, Shikamaru called the team together to give instructions.

"Sai, Ino and I will secure the front of the group in a triangular formation. Naruto, Hinata and John, you will be doing the same thing for the rear. Got it?" the pineapple-haired strategist asked.

Everyone nodded in unison and got in position. John took the driver's seat in the warthog, Hinata got in on the passenger seat and Naruto, after agreeing with John that having him at the canon would be too dangerous, sat on a piece of metal above his teammates.

They had been on their way for maybe 15 minutes, when Naruto spoke up. "Hey John, what do you think about these metal warriors, that the villagers told us about? Think they might become a problem to us?"

"Probably, yes. I can't say for sure until we meet them, but SPARTANs would never attack innocent civilians. Whatever those warriors might be, I doubt I have faced them before." John admitted. Not knowing what he was up against, was worse than being faced with a strong enemy.

"Well too bad we don't have any fire-style users with us. Otherwise we could just melt those metal guys and make new Kunais for the Academy. Granny Tsunade would love not to have to spend money on those resources. She would instead probably waste it with gambling which in her case equals losing. Am I right Hinata?" The blond Ninja flashed a smile at his female companion.

Hinata instantly blushed a bit and chuckled at his remark. John was now paying more attention, after his 'talk' with Cortana last night and he could see, that the girl was getting nervous. This was the first time in a long time that he was paying enough attention to other people's behavior to read an emotion such as nervousness. He didn't say anything, but decided to pay more attention like this in the future. It might come in handy one day. He felt a slight warmth in his mind and could instantly picture Cortana's satisfied expression.

After about an hour of slow-paced travel an explosion boomed way behind them. John already knew shit was about to hit the fan. "Cortana, is it possible for you to take over the turret?" John asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Of course not." The A.I. answered. "Warthogs and their turrets are mostly mechanical structures. They're not made for A.I. controlled firing or driving."

The Master Chief hit the brakes and the Warthog quickly came to a standstill. It could only be a matter of minutes before the enemies arrived.

"Guess we have a fight coming?" Naruto asked rhetorically. "Good, because I'm really curious about those metal warriors. Hinata tell Shikamaru to keep moving and that we'll handle the situation."

While Naruto was giving the shy girl in the passenger seat instructions, the Chief was already outside the SUV and hopping onto the turret. He decided that that alone might be too dangerous so he handed Naruto a portable bubble-shield projector.

"Take this Naruto. I need you to throw it between us and the enemies in case their fire-power outclasses ours."

The blond Ninja looked at the object in his hand for a second. Then he looked up at the SPARTAN with a determined grin. "You got it. Hinata can you tell us where they are?"

"Got'em!" John shouted before the young woman could even say a word. In that same instant he fired a shot at a tree about 20 meters away from them. If his motion tracker wasn't broken, that was where an enemy had appeared only a split-second before he had fired.

Out of the cloud of smoke jumped a red and violet figure and landed right in front of the Gauss canon. John couldn't believe his eyes, he had never seen anything like that. The figure was about as tall as he was, but it appeared to be completely composed out of metal and only slightly resembled the shape of a human body. In its right hand the figure held a long staff with a three-bladed tip, which gave it an aura of authority, but at the same time made it seem even more lethal.

"Hello, stranger." The figure said and with that it swung its bladed staff towards the Master Chief. John was quick enough to jump off the turret in time, but when he saw what had happened to said canon he was shocked. The blade had cleanly cut through the metal construction and split it in two.

"What the hell is that thing?!" Naruto shouted from up in a tree.

"No idea! But it's at least as dangerous as it looks!" John answered.

"Target located." The figure said and pointed the staff towards John. A blast of plasma came flying straight towards John and John was too startled to react. The plasma hit his shields and almost completely depleted them. Then a second shot was fired. John snapped out of his shock and quickly jumped out of the enemy's sight behind a tree.

"Cortana, what is that thing?" John asked.

"It appears to be some kind of robot." Cortana answered. "Based on what I've learned from observing, there should be no way for such advanced technology to exist in this world." She sounded nervous.

"The Covenant could be behind this, but what reason would they have? Didn't the Elites sign a peace treaty with the UNSC?"

Before Cortana could answer that question the tree John hid behind was cut down in a single swipe. "I found you stranger." The robot said. "Elimination protocol engaged."

With that the robot slashed its staff towards the Master Chief again, but this time John was quick enough to counter. He caught the staff in his hand below the blades and quickly turned for a roundhouse kick to the robot's chest. To his surprise the robot did not break or even let go of his staff, but just flew a few meters backwards before landing after a gracious backflip.

"RASENGAN!" was the last thing John heard before seeing the robot explode into pieces under the force of the blond Shinobi's technique.

"Are you alright?" Naruto asked the SPARTAN with a concerned look. Only now the Master Chief felt a slight pain in his palm where he had caught the robot's staff. That hit had a lot more force behind it than he had anticipated.

"I'm fine. Good work." He answered shrugging the stinging feeling in his hand off. He went over to the remains of the robot to see the staff still intact. John didn't think too long about it and just grabbed the weapon. Chief Mendez had once told him and the other SPARTAN trainees 'If your enemy gives you a weapon, take it. It might be the last chance you get'. Maybe he could figure out how it worked and use it in battle.

"Watch out!" Hinata cried out. John and Naruto instantly jumped back, one second later and they would have been smashed. A gigantic figure crashed down right where the two of them had stood just a second ago. At first John thought it would have to be hunters, but the creature he saw before him was nothing like the walking tanks of the covenant. It wasn't even a creature, but a robot as large as two hunters combined.

"TERMINATE YOUR FUNCTIONS, HUMANS!" The robot shouted in a deep, metallic voice. While saying that it extended its arms to reveal two Gatling machine guns, one on each arm instead of hands and an ominous looking tube on its shoulder.

"Okay never mind that last one. What the actual hell is this now?" Naruto shouted.

John was about to attack the huge robot when he saw a red flicker on his motion tracker behind him. He drew his energy sword and turned around just in time to block the other energy sword coming down on his face. Before him actually stood an Elite Ultra wielding an energy sword and giving John the most hateful glare since the first time John had met the Arbiter face to face.

"Demon!" The elite shouted. "Your reign on the battlefield ends today and at my hands."

John was in a bad spot. He shoved his adversary back, but he knew that in a sword-fight he had no chance. His UNSC training never covered that, let alone energy swords which were a whole lot different to handle.

"I'm a little busy here guys. You have to handle the big one!" John shouted and hoped Naruto would hear him. He grabbed the shotgun from his back and unlocked the trigger. Then the Elite dashed forward, sword extended.

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Naruto had understood the SPARTAN, but didn't have the time to respond as the tube on the metal puppet's shoulder launched something in his direction. Luckily he was quick enough to evade before the projectile blew up the branch on which he had been a second earlier.

He threw a couple of Kunais at the puppet, but as he had expected they were of no use against the metal chassis of their opponent.

Suddenly the giant turned away from him and pointed his 'hands' directly towards Hinata. The barrels began to spin and a storm of extremely fast projectiles was unleashed towards the lavender-haired Kunoichi.

"Hinata! Watch out!" Naruto screamed, fearing to lose his friend. But he was astonished when he saw her reaction to the attack.

"Eight Trigrams Sixty-four Palms!" Hinata shouted and unleashed a flurry of chakra-enhanced palm strikes in all directions, effectively blocking every single projectile coming her way. "Naruto, attack it now while it's busy!"

"Right!" Naruto shouted. He charged up an enormous amount of Chakra in his palm and used it to create his most powerful technique. "Rasenshuriken!"

The wind-chakra-infused ball of energy flew towards the enemy at incredible speed and it would obliterate the mechanical warrior. At least that was the way Naruto had planned it. What he had not accounted for, was the tube on the figure's shoulder to turn around and fire a large projectile directly into his Rasenshuriken.

When the two of them hit they went up in a huge explosion that covered most of the clearing in a cloud of dust and smoke. Silence ensued.

Three seconds later as the dust was about to settle Naruto heard a 'bang' from where John was fighting that other creature. After that the Master Chief stepped onto the clearing a glowing sword-like weapon in one hand, a strange-looking metal rod in the other.

"Hey, any idea how we get that thing down?" Naruto asked the SPARTAN.

"Have you tried that glowing-orb-technique of yours yet?" John answered him. "That seemed pretty effective the last time."

"I doubt…" Naruto started, but was interrupted by the metal giant.

"TARGET FOUND! BEGINNING TERMINATION!"

Naruto found himself at a need to evade another projectile. Meanwhile John had put away the sword and thrown a metal ball at the puppet. Before Naruto could even wonder why John would throw a ball at this monstrosity the ball blew up and ripped off one of the metal giant's legs, leaving it to hop around on the remaining one.

Naruto jumped down next to the Chief as they took cover behind a big rock.

"Hey. Remember that thing I gave you earlier in the Warthog?" John asked.

"Yeah, you told me to throw it between us and the enemy, if their power outclasses ours." Naruto said, proud that he remembered it so well. Hinata suddenly landed next to them and the machine opened fire at the rock they were hiding behind. At least their enemy didn't seem to be of the genius kind.

"Right, forget what I told you. Throw that thing directly at it, so that you hit the robot." John told Naruto.

"Robot?"

"That huge thing that's attacking us. That's a robot. We will need a distraction though. If that thing destroys the projector before it activates… that would be bad." John explained.

"Leave that to me." Hinata finally said. "I'll get its attention long enough for you to go through with that plan."

Naruto was a bit worried. "You sure you want to do this?"

Hinata simply nodded, blushing lightly, and then jumped away effectively gaining the robot's attention. "Eight Trigrams Sixty-four Palms!"

"Now!" John shouted and Naruto threw the object he had been given. It hit the robot and when it did it released a huge bubble around the robot. At the same time John dashed towards the Warthog and grabbed something big. Then he returned to the rock and pointed the large construct at the robot, which at the moment was trying to destroy the barrier from inside by shooting it.

When the bubble broke down and the robot turned around to once again shoot at them, Naruto was certain they had failed. But in this very moment John unleashed a huge red beam towards the metal giant, which ripped right through the enemy and resulted in the robot blowing up. For a second Naruto could've sworn to have heard the robot scream a final "NOOOOOO!" before it was destroyed.

When they all realized that the fight was over, Naruto broke the silence. "Holy crap, what was that attack?"

John turned towards him. "That was my SPARTAN-Laser. I only have a very limited amount of shots with this, but it was the only heavy weapon besides the destroyed Gauss canon that I had with me."

"Awesome…" Naruto said in awe. Then another thought struck his mind. "Hinata! Are you okay? Where are you?"

"Over here!" Hinata answered. When they got to her Naruto saw that she had been hit by a piece of metal and was bleeding from her thigh. "I'm glad you did it.." was all she could say before she fell unconscious in Naruto's arms.

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John could hear Cortana say "Aww." in his mind, but was worried about her condition. Naruto was frantically trying to wake her up. Upon closer inspection John decided that the injury wasn't lethal and told Naruto so to calm him down.

"You should carry her to the warthog, Naruto. And make sure to stop the bleeding with some cloth. I'm gonna collect some things that might help us and be with you in a minute." John told the blond Shinobi, who simply nodded and took their teammate to the SUV. John picked up the bladed staff that he had to drop earlier and found the rocket launcher from the robot's shoulder to be mostly intact. He grabbed both and then returned to the Warthog. He wondered if anyone would actually believe their story back in the village.

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Thanks a lot for reading and hopefully reviewing :) A lot of you might be confused about the robots that appeared in this Chapter as I told you they are no Prometheans. For all you confused readers out there: All will be explained in due time. Until then keep wondering and please tell me your theories. I'm curious what your ideas are now with this new twist :3