SHGS - Chapter Eighteen: Oh Brother Mine

Disclaimer: I do not own, or profit, from Naruto, Star Wars, and all associated media.

A/N

"…"

- Darklighter

"Thoughts"

"Speech"

"Abnormal sentient thoughts"

"Abnormal sentient speech"

Naruto started the day in an extraordinarily good mood. He had only needed to take one look at Konohamaru – shivering from sleep deprivation and nervously sucking on one thumb, and he found the day's satisfaction.

Naruto left the boy to sleep and exited naked to perform his 'dry' morning absolutions. He was greeted by the rising sun, and also by Hinata and Mistress Qeral – both already ready for the day.

"Oh hai yo!" he called out to them jovially as he emerged from his igloo. Even their inane Jedi sayings wouldn't have been able to ruin his mood this morning.

"O – o – oh – oh hai…" Hinata couldn't reply. Blushing furiously she covered her eyes with her hands… but Naruto thought he could make out the silvery veins of her active Byakugan.

"O – Oy!" Naruto exclaimed as he hurriedly tried to cover himself with his hands. For a minute he had forgotten that he was not in camp amongst his familiar soldiery, and Mistress Pav broke out into peals of laughter. Naruto would have found her to be exquisitely gorgeous in that moment had he not been the object of her mirth.

"That's quite the package you have there," Qeral said sincerely. Hinata squealed and looked as if she wanted the ground to swallow her whole.

"What's going on?" Konohamaru asked as he clambered out of the igloo he shared with Naruto bleary eyed.

"Naruto? OH KAMI! WHAT IS THAT THING!"

"Shut up!" Naruto screamed. He'd never been so mortified in his entire life, and he knew that the rest of camp had surely been awoken by the commotion. He made a mad dash, and he and his three legs dived for his igloo.

"Just shut up!" he yelled.

Afterwards the going was cheerful – even though quite a few members of the party still maintained tinges of embarrassment.

Mistress Pav seemed immensely happy. Her tag team combo with the desert – excruciating heat coupled with draining conversation – was the ultimate ice breaker. The two groups unknowingly intermingled into one as they quested to avoid her good cheer.

The desert was a vast expanse. It was not as omnipresent as Tatooine, but it was more intense for all its restricted size. There was no escape from the sun, and they could not see far into the distance. Although to be fair they did not have a given destination.

Perversely Naruto allowed Qeral to lead the way, and she was game enough – almost dragging the reluctant horses and cart in her wake with sheer force of will.

Wanted to go hunting for assassins in the desert did they? Their present suffering served them all right enough.

The endless plodding went on for hours, and if not for Karin they would have been obliterated without warning.

"What's that?" she asked - innocently enough at first, but then. "Oh fuck…"

Naruto was on instant high alert. "Oh fuck," was Traitor code for something bad - something really bad incoming. "Oh fuck what?" he demanded. Both of his discs were already out.

The pop of his defensive disc blazing into existence and a lazy orbit around his personal perimeter sent Sasuke besides him skittering away to the side with a string of un-Jedi like curses. Naruto gripped his fighting disc in his left hand although he still kept his Lightsaber in reserve.

"What's fucking coming Karin?" the urgency in his voice increased. The others had caught on and they were starting to respond. The Jedi crouched down and levitated unlit blades to hand. Zabuza and Haku stood to the side conferring softly. The taller Shinobi had already unlimbered his decapitation sword, and his petite companion burst into a blaze of hand signs.

"Up there," Karin finally pointed out a rapidly approaching blip. "Its not a craft," she said. Her Overlord Array was alive with color and chakra. Wearing it she looked like some sort of tribal high priestess.

"What is that," Naruto murmured as he squinted against the sun and at the object. "Haku where's my cover?" he snapped. The rapid dot was growing larger. Now it had almost evolved to look like three splashes of ink.

"There's not enough condensation," Haku supplied – sighing and giving up on his sealing. He went on to arm each hand with five razor thin senbon needles.

"Three more massive signatures approaching on foot," Karin interjected. The first traces of panic entered her voice. "Huge killing intents… east, west, and south already locked in," she stated.

Naruto's mind was awhirl.

"What's going on?" Sakura had stolen up on him and was clutching at his shoulder.

For Kami's sake!

His defensive disc almost claimed her head…

"Don't breach my perimeter like that again," Naruto ground out the words.

"We're under attack," Mistress Pav was there suddenly. Her voice had a way of calming those under her charge. "I believe this is your area of expertise Uzumaki?" her eyes were also on the approaching shape. It ate up the horizon, and now it was close enough that they could all make out the figure of a sort of giant bird. There was the shadow of a single individual standing on its head.

"You knew this would happen didn't you?" Naruto breathed as it suddenly dawned on him. "The ten of us gamboling about on planet like this… you've used yourself as bait… you've used me as bait!"

"Yes," Qeral answered honestly, but her voice was stern. "I had no other valid options. If we are actually to accomplish anything here then we cannot spend our time constantly looking over our shoulders…" she said. From the way she looked at him it was like she fervently needed him to agree with her.

"Besides," she gave him a weak smile. "Perhaps we Jedi are not as cowardly as this whole planet seems to believe we are," she said.

Looking at her standing as she was – still bearing trace evidence of her Speeder crash Naruto could hardly bring himself to disagree with her, nor could he bring himself to pursue the matter further.

"I guess you're not," he said instead and turned his attention elsewhere.

"Haku," Naruto commanded. "Give those portables to Konohamaru. Karin… Go with the boy. Find cover and call it out for me. We'll trace your signal when it's all over. Oh yeah… take pinkie with you," he said.

"W-What?" Sakura was still standing close to him. A stiff wind started up and began to blow sand all about. Sasuke and Lovett had both edged closer, and both men had looked relieved at his words.

Naruto looked away from all three of them impatiently. Hinata was engaged in a hushed conference with her mentor.

"I need to stay here," Sakura demanded… giving herself away a bit by glancing at Sasuke.

"If there's going to be a fight then I need to be here to heal… to support the rest of you," she drew herself up and the sudden strength in her stance took Naruto by surprise.

"I can protect myself," Sakura said.

"Two minutes to contact," Karin said loudly – pushing her helmed form in betwixt the two of them. "Listen lady, I'll take the time to resent you for the implication that I can't protect myself later. Right now we need to leave. I wasn't joking when I said huge killing intents," she grabbed Sakura forcefully by the upper arm.

"But!"

"But fuck you!" Karin was relentless as she began to march Sakura away. Naruto wasn't surprised by the relieved visages Sasuke and Lovett bore.

"Have you forgotten there's a kid to think about?" Karin demanded. "the group needs a fall back position," she said.

Sakura didn't answer, but although she glanced back again at Sasuke she went with Karin willingly, and the girl with the Overlord Array was able to loosen her grip.

To his credit Konohamaru wasn't shaking too badly. Naruto was proud of his apprentice. The boy hadn't put up any blustering protestations that he could stand and fight. The boy realized that his Master judged the risk of this impending conflict much too great, and he had a healthy appreciation of his own fear and mortality. All four approaching signatures were close now, and they could feel the heavy weights of their chakras bearing down on them.

Instead Konohamaru followed orders and collected the portables from Haku. Then he cut loose the horses. They had been neighing with their eyes wide and rolling in fear. Once free they bounded off into the dry desert raising clouds of dust as they galloped away on nervous legs. When he was done he set off on his own after Sakura and Karin.

Meanwhile Zabuza and Haku drew back into a defensive position behind Naruto. Sasuke and Lovett covered his right side while Hinata and her former Mistress took the other. For the first time Naruto remarked that he hadn't thought to worry about the petite dark haired girl.

She doesn't exude confidence… she personifies it.

He blinked away the thought which had filled him with a strange elation. He watched the three he had sent away make good their escape northwards… They were in the clear.

"That bird's getting awfully close," Sasuke remarked dryly. Both of the raven haired youth's blades came on with a snap and hiss. One was green whilst the other blue and the secondary blade's design differed wildly from the primary.

"Nice," Naruto murmured in appreciation… He considered himself to be something of a violence connoisseur.

"Seriously that bird… we need to do something about it. Get in the first strike," Sasuke said.

"I thought you Jedi were all about defense," Naruto asked, but he turned to the target. His great defensive disc stopped its erratic arcs around his form and tumbled down to rest in his right fist. The other three attackers were visible now. They could track them from the large columns of dust their Speeders raised. They all wore billowing black capes and they covered the distance rapidly. Naruto thought that he could see red clouds painstakingly stitched into those capes.

"I've got it," he said. Sasuke was about to ask about the bird again. Something about the other three approaching caused his blood to run to ice. This wasn't a game anymore, and it definitely wasn't a joke.

"One bird coming down," he began to spin and for the first time he tried pumping chakra into the defensive disc…

He barely managed to hold on to the power. The ancient blade screamed at the cold touch of the foreign essence. The normally protective weapon urged him to release it. Urged him to rip – urged Naruto to kill.

Naruto did so – hurling it with a guttural cry and the posture of a champion thrower. The disc shot out from his hand eagerly – breaking the sound barrier almost immediately with a deafening clap that was painted by Naruto's flaring blue chakras.

The approaching bird was massive, and now close enough that they could tell that it was formed out of some sort of clay. The Shinobi that rode on its head had his blonde hair pulled back into a streaming ponytail. Laughing maniacally he had begun to dive bomb at them before Naruto's throw, but he took one look at the lance of destruction that exploded out of Naruto's grasp and abandoned ship.

The man with ponytail tumbled through the air with wide eyes. He was still high up enough that impact with the ground would probably kill him, but his relief was still palatable as Naruto's disc made contact with his construction.

There was the barest of anguished cries as the living clay creature's face twisted in agony, but it was short lived as the chakra powered blade pierced its breast. The beast seemed to fling its wings backwards in a vain attempt to hover in place before there was a resounding explosion of Naruto's cutting wind natured chakras.

Bits and pieces of the clay falcon's broken for pounded the blond attacker as the man fell from the sky, but fresh velar was already streaming voluminously from his palms. However Naruto had no time to pay further mind to the Shinobi. A second attacker broke through their lines.

This one was a hulking blue humanoid with a bandaged oblong strapped to his back. He looked ridiculous riding his Speeder- like an adult on top of a child's toy.

He was the first to break through their lines however and he came with a swirl of dust that made Naruto choke, and sent him scrambling out of the way. The Shark man's power Speeder was on a collision course with Haku and Zabuza who had been left exposed by Naruto's sudden evasive movements.

The pair of them were ready however. Haku hastily constructed a protective shell of ice in front of them before he rolled away to the side. Given his earlier problems conjuring a simple mist it must have taken a monumental effort.

"Look out!" Naruto called out as he futilely tried to get back into a position to render aid. Hulking blue leaped up and off of his ride before the moment of impact, and only Zabuza was left in its hurtling path… but Naruto should not have underestimated the dark Shinobi.

With only the barest of sidesteps Zabuza was out of the way and he brought his gigantic sword swinging across to slash the Speeder in half as it burst through Haku's ice shield. Then with a springing step Zabuza was lunging forward to engage the enemy.

Haku was already peppering the blue nin – who had landed on his feet – with senbon, and the warrior had been forced to loose his bandaged blade and protect his eyes. Now Naruto watched as Zabuza came crashing into the being. There seemed to be sparks of recognition under his friend's bushy brow.

"Kisame!"

The enemy responded with a mocking laugh which revealed shark-like teeth. Although his eyes were still covered and protected from flying senbon by his weapon's heft Naruto heard the smile in his voice as he spoke.

"Ho Zabuza… Its been a while… Fag," Kisame said. He was already using his greater strength to push Zabuza backwards and Haku abandoned his useless senbon assault – beginning to sprint forward when out of nowhere Lovett entered the fray – landing besides the two with a cascade of crackling Force energy.

Alcatraz's long hair whipped around as he pirouetted with his lit purple double bladed Lightsaber. He forced the shark – like Kisame to disengage and dodge away from his jabs. Naruto could see that – at the least – the three together would be able to hold the behemoth at bay for a while…

Which was a very good thing…

For the other two had finally arrived.

"Karin… you getting all of this? Where's Clay man?" Naruto spoke into his comm. Link as his eyes studied in the budding battles.

Kisame had made his entry with violence, but his companions had calmly and politely parked their vehicles a distance away before approaching serenely on foot. There was another blonde and one with dark hair. The two of them broke out into Shinobi shuffles in response to some un-given signal.

"Clay man made himself some sort of cushion," Karin said. Linked to her Overlord Array she was perceiving the fight on a scale that the rest of them could never comprehend. 'It's some kind of… clay flower," she finished lamely. "He's inside but I can't tell what he's doing," she said.

"Keep an eye-" Naruto began to instruct, but there was sudden motion to his right. Sasuke had burst out of position and was sprinting flat out towards the still somewhat distant enemy.

"Where the fuck d'you think you're going?" Naruto yelled out after him, but he wasn't graced with a response.

Momentarily he forgot the raging battle between Haku, Zabuza, Lovett and Kisame behind him. Momentarily he forgot Hinata and Qeral stance ready by his side, and momentarily he forgot Karin whispering information into his ear.

"It's him isn't it?" Qeral asked her former apprentice and Naruto watched in frustration as the dark haired girl simply nodded.

"We have to go after him," she stated plainly as she and her Mistress took off in huge Force assisted leaps.

For a moment Naruto stood incredulous and alone. The only island of sanity in the midst of all the flowering madness.

"Who's he!" he wailed out the demand as he took off after them.

Sasuke hadn't been able to believe it at first. He had faced the attack calmly, and he had been about to render aid against the marauding Kisame before Alcatraz preempted him. It was strange but he had almost missed it.

At a distance the dark haired figure was wrapped in a cloak and further obscured by the shifting dust in the atmosphere, but after all these years…

After all of these years how could Sasuke fail to recognize his brother?

In an instant the slate of forgiveness and temperance was wiped clean. The precepts and pillars that the Jedi had built into him crumbled into dust when he witnessed the blood red eyes of his clan's executioner once more. The lessons that he had received on Coruscant seemed millennia away.

Sasuke did not realize that his body was moving and that both of his blades were still lit. Orton had taught him well. Without thinking he conjured green nimbuses of electrical power to tingle through his hands, and he sent licking green vines to wrap themselves around his sabers.

He covered the meters between he and his opponent in a single instant. Sasuke did not even deign to notice the pierced blond who matched his brother stride for stride, and waved a lazy hand to intercept Sasuke's careening form.

Something strangely similar to Force energy took hold of Sasuke and threatened to push him backwards. However the young man's rage was too great. It was too potent. Sasuke burst through the invisible wall with a wordless scream and much flaring of his own power. He felt as if he was leaking energy from his very bones.

The pierced man's face narrowed in consternation as Sasuke forced his way through. Dimly Sasuke was aware that Qeral, Hinata, and Naruto had set out after him, but he only had eyes for his brother. It was as if he was trapped in the hypnotic red glance of a deadly basilisk.

"Good. Very good," Itachi seemed to murmur as he fell back faced with Sasuke's assault. However sound could not come to Sasuke's ears. His blood was a pounding inferno in his head.

"Well done," Itachi said appreciatively as he parried a particularly vicious blow. He wielded a Vibrosword that was embedded with weaves of cortosis and Sasuke caught glimpses of stellar body armor under his brother's black cape.

"Now watch out for the thrust!" Itachi instructed as he came forward, and Sasuke was barely able to get out of the way. Itachi chided him as he advanced – almost as if they were still kids training in their parents' backyard.

"You're better than this," Sasuke's brother said in a disappointed tone. Itachi's placid face suddenly turned harsh and for the moment all Sasuke could do was shield himself with both blades from the relentless barrage. Itachi seemed impervious to the green sparks that struck at his body each and every time their blades clashed.

"Use your anger," his brother's tone was dark and deadly. A tendril of fear wrapped itself around Sasuke's heart. "Don't be used by it," Itachi instructed him further.

All of a sudden his brother was inside his guard. Sasuke reversed his tonfa and tried to stab him through the neck, but with the crook of his elbow Itachi batted the strike away. His Vibrosword clattered sideways into Sasuke's primary weapon exposing his chest. Then the very same hand whose elbow had disengaged Sasuke's secondary weapon twisted into a seal. For a millisecond his brother's palm seemed to glow brilliantly, and then Itachi punched that very same palm into his sternum.

Protected as he was by the finest armor a Jedi Knight could own Sasuke felt a crack of pain and a dull throbbing in his chest as he was flung away by the explosion of heat and chakra.

"Oof! Got ya," strangely someone cushioned his fall. Bleary eyed Sasuke looked up and into Naruto's blonde locks and clear eyes.

"We'll take it from here champ," the boy said, and although there was mockery in his tone there was also respect.

"N-No!" Sasuke struggled to get out of Naruto's grip. He could see Hinata and Qeral clashing with the other blonde. He could hear the buzz of their Lightsabers, and although he tasted iron in his mouth he could still see his brother standing serenely with folded arms only a few meters away. He was watching the other battle. Watching and judging.

"Rest here for a moment," Naruto said. He actually had to use a lot of his strength to restrain Sasuke's still struggling form but he didn't let it show in his voice. Naruto didn't even have eyes for Itachi who was standing still and not offering any immediate threat.

He looked instead to the massive clay flower that had bloomed in the distant desert. His greater disc had since come back to swing into lazy arcs around him, but his Lightsaber was still unlit.

"Karin. Sitrep on the others," he asked - placing one hand over the communications device in his left ear.

"Zabuza's group are holding their own… shit! Eyes on the flower!"

"Yeah I see it," Naruto had already been looking towards the massive clay bloom and he finally released Sasuke. Thankfully the young Jedi Knight was also temporarily rendered still from shock. Ponytail had burst out of his cocoon with a falcon twice the size of its predecessor.

This construction had bandy plates of hardened clay armor across the chest, and ominous looking cannons sprouting from its shoulders.

Naruto whistled appreciatively.

"I want one of those," he said.

"Can you take this seriously?" Sasuke demanded as he struggled back to his feet. He telekinetically summoned his discarded blades.

"We need to kill these guys," he stated – glaring across at the still motionless form of his older brother.

"Now you're talking," Naruto grinned and finally deigned to lay eyes on Itachi. Sasuke felt his rage begin to build again as his brother smiled and lazily slicked back a strand of oily hair. He gestured at the both of them with a come hither motion.

"Don't look into his eyes," Sasuke instructed without explanation. Naruto frowned but immediately adjusted his stance to compensate.

"I'm on your six," he murmured.

The clay Shinobi was rapidly winging his way into the fight. Itachi looked up casually to monitor his approach. He paid no mind to Sasuke's charging form – shielding his eyes from the sun's glare with his left hand.

"This time," Sasuke ground the words out of his bloodied lips as he attacked again.

"This time I'll kill you!" He leaped forward – instinctively subsuming his green lightning into his very body. The energy raced through his synapses as liquid fire doubling his speed and reaction time. Even so the delicate circuitry of his brain began to smolder under the duress.

For the first time concern entered Itachi's look – although Sasuke could not tell if this was concern for his own life, or concern for Sasuke's.

"What are you doing?" Itachi demanded of the snarling grimace assaulting him, but he was pushed back with no response. Never one to pass up an opportunity Naruto waited until Sasuke launched himself into a flying knee before darting out into what should have been a blind spot.

The knee connected and Itachi tumbled away – dirtying his cloak with sand. Frustrated the S rank Shinobi began to struggle out of the material – revealing the dull glint of imported armor.

Sasuke was on his last legs and despite how much he willed it he could not follow up his successful strike. Naruto sent his fighting disc streaking at Itachi at a rapid clip and the Shinobi was forced to parry it away with his Vibrosword as he regained his feet.

The disc was not a normal projectile however and he failed to swat it out of the sky.

Sasuke was prone and clutching his head – although he still struggled to rise. As Naruto rushed past he left his defensive disc to form a buzzing guard around his downed companion. His attacking blade continued to circle and dart angrily at Itachi, and the unrepentant missing-nin was becoming increasingly vexed.

Naruto ignited his pearl-rouge Lightsaber with a fiery crackle – finally bringing it into the fray. He fought with his eyes down – watching Itachi's feet and his shadow – heeding Sasuke's advice to avoid eye contact yet still putting himself at a distinct disadvantage.

Even if he had been able to fight normally Naruto shouldn't have been able to duck and weave as he did against a bearer of the Sharingan. He shouldn't have been able to coordinate strikes between his aerial hornet and molten sword as he did, and yet he did. He was guided by the Force.

Naruto fell deeply into trance. Itachi was as silent as he was. He knew when he faced a deadly opponent, and Naruto lacked the passionate chains that had slowed Sasuke. The two of them battled for their lives.

There was a sudden break in the sword fight. They had been so engrossed in their personal struggle that they had stumbled right in between the storming conflict that had Qeral and Hinata on one side and Mr. Piercing on the other.

Trained warriors looked around in surprise, and yet there was only a slight millisecond of re-orientation before new opponents engaged.

Hinata sprang upon Itachi – launching herself into a preternatural series of Force assisted acrobatics, and her former Mistress shadowed her as if they shared a symbiotic connection. Almost as if they were one organism – two halves of the same coin.

"Who are you?" Qeral demanded as her blade locked Itachi's away from his face. She could not have been expecting an answer though because his exposed features were soon met by Hinata's planted feet.

Naruto would have watched more but he had his own problems to face. Sasuke had managed to clamber to his feet but Ponytail was swooping down at him on his clay apparition. Naruto had to fling his defensive disc telekinetically into its path, and although it did not contain the power of his first throw it ricocheted away off of the falcon's head – forcing it to break off its attack.

Meanwhile Naruto had his own problems to face as he faced up against the pierced man. Gradually it began to dawn on him how similar the man was to a Force user, yet still was truly a Shinobi.

Naruto chambered three kicks at the blonde. High – low- high.

The first two were intercepted as expected but the third caught him on the chin, yet the un-named Shinobi was unfazed. Casually he broke Naruto's links to both of his disc blades with a burst of power and they fell from the sky and clattered into the sands.

The Shinobi sprang backwards and began forming a sequence of seals, but Naruto pursued in an effort to stop him. However he could only arrive in time to clash with the midnight rod the man had fashioned from nothingness.

Naruto grunted in surprise. The rod exerted an attractive or repulsive force that affected his Lightsaber. Thrusts were pulled out of their pitch and slashes were drawn inexorably to fizzle out against the man's blade-form.

"What are you?" Naruto breathed rhetorical as he locked frustrated eyes on the man's purple orbs. He was greeted with a chilling smile as he tried a kick to push them apart but was mirrored with a punch to the body. They both took the blows and staggered backwards.

"The original," came the cryptic reply, and them Mr. Piercing was launching himself into a fresh attack.

Concussive blows tore through the air as his dark weapon changed shape and took on the aspect of a short headed mace. Naruto was forced back by the blows of gravitational power that the weapon emitted, but he quickly threw up a shield of his own turbulent wind natured chakra.

For a moment he was sheltered from the battering forces, but then suddenly the whole battle was turned on its head and the scenery changed.

From the distance where his friends battled against the terrible Kisame came an incongruous and gigantic wave of salt water that towered above them all.

The roaring and rushing waters came smashing down to immerse all of the combatants and almost knocked ponytail's clay falcon from the sky.

Struggling not to breathe in and with eyes closed firmly against the building pressure Naruto clawed for the surface. He heard dull blows and thuds which sent buffeting blasts through the water as ponytail began to cackle madly and his bird released its deadly payload.

"I'm finally at the party!" the mad man said, and as Naruto broke the surface he choked up a spluttering cough.

Great…

A/N

100 k plus words… Thank all of you that have been on this journey with me. Review this chapter in celebration!

SHGS - Chapter Nineteen (Sneak Peek)

"If we don't get down there now," Karin said in measured tones. "They're all going to die,"

"But what can we do?" Konohamaru barely kept from wailing. "That fight is beyond us!"

"We can get them out of there. That's what we can do," Sakura bit her trembling lower lip but she matched Karin's determination. "That's why Naruto made us form this fall back position," she said. "He was worried."

"Yes," Karin agreed robotically. She was more or less a chakra fueled super computer when she was linked to her Overlord Array. She no longer seemed to be quite human.

"Our window is slimming," she warned them. "Grab hold of yourself Konohamaru," her voice was stern. Coming out of her helm it was metallic and stern.

The boy gulped but he managed to nod. He adjusted the belt that held his training saber and old fashioned shuriken pouch.

"I'm ready," he said, and all three exited the half buried igloo that shielded them from the battle above.

"Let's go."