Chapter 1: Moving?

Disclaimer: I own next to nothing.

"blah" Speech

'blah' Thought

"blah" radio

blah* footnote

On the edges of the Cardacian Republic, a nation that has dominance over 29 habitable worlds in the Milky Way, laid the worlds that were only just colonized a few decades ago commonly called, the Outer Planets. A good number of them are inhospitable desert worlds abandoned by the Goa'uld* but, Cardacians know ways to make an inhospitable world habitable. Most of Planet Morius is still desert with the citizens relying on the newly restarted water cycle creating snow runoff in the mountains and the aquifers below ground. It was enough to provide water for all the colonists and a small farm plot, but not enough to earn a living. Then someone found something that changed that, incredibly rich mineral deposits the Goa'uld missed. The revenue generated was enough to build a small spaceport, resupply station and have the land further terraformed until a quarter of the world became a thriving agriculture and mining planet.

Planet Morius

Present Day…

On Morius' windswept dusty desert planes it's mostly quiet and uneventful but today you could see one dust cloud pass by with 2 more far behind it.

The first dust cloud is really a 9 year old Naruto riding on his father's swiped crimson and blue, hover-cycle, basically a motorcycle with the wheels replace with flat-ish hover-engines. To cycle enthusiasts' relief it still had an engine that roared though. The clouds behind him are a couple of cops on cycles as well blaring their lights and sirens. The cops behind Naruto gunned their engines into the next gear and started catching up with the blond kid. Naruto noticed this and gunned his engine into overdrive and pulled away. Unfortunately for Naruto, every law keeper's cycle had a legacy* xenon fueled, electric rocket boosters attached in case extra speed was needed, and it was indeed needed. The cops fired their rocket boosters and slowly began to close the gap between them and the boy.

The noise they made awoke a third cop they passed by and he too joined the chase. Naruto saw he couldn't out run them so he took a hard right into a canyon. The cops had to reduce their speed if they were to avoid crashing in the narrow canyon so naturally Naruto took the lead. He weaved expertly through the narrow canyon confident he was going lose them. A little too confident. He could see he was nearing the end of it and he decided to take a look back at the cops to see if they were keeping up. They were just coming out and Naruto decided to be childish and stuck his tongue out at them. One of the officers waved both his hands wildly at him. Naruto just gave him a funny look and the officer shouted, "Stop!" The blonde just looked at him funny again until he turned forward and realized the end was a very steep hill.

"Holy craaaaaap!" Naruto shouted as he began speeding up uncontrollably down the hill, the cops stopped at the top of the hill and just looked down unsure of what to do. The kid tried to hit the brakes but he unfortunately hit them too hard, he flew out the seat and tumbled down the hill the rest of the way. The officers watching winced slightly, feeling a little bad for him. Once he'd stopped rolling the cops rode down at a more manageable speed, picked up the boy, hooked the cycle onto another and brought him to the station.

At the police station Naruto sat on a bench covered in bandages. His brown shorts and sandals covered in dust and his white shirt so stained with dirt it was hard to see the orange spiral on the back. He'd taken a pretty nasty dive down that hill but he'd taken less of a beating than expected, though it wasn't much of a surprise to the guys at the station since they saw him about once every couple of weeks or so. He said hi to some of the guys that passed by since he just about knew them all. He even was invited to help prank the new guy once! It would be awhile before John would arrive so Naruto passed the time by talking to a convict named Marcus he'd gotten to know.

"Hey Marc." He said.

"Hey Naruto! So what ya in for this time eh?" Marcus spoke in a bit of a drawl. "Taggin' a billboard? Paintin' a wall?"

He just smiled and said, "Nope."

"Hmm. Maybe one 'o the classics? Whoopee cushin' on the big guys chair?" He said pointing to the portly Sheriff behind his desk. "The black eye binoculars?"

"Nope."

"Diverted a road? Stink bombed the school? C'mon, tell me!" Marcus begged.

"Alright I… monster-fied the Monteras while it was on dry dock!" Naruto said breaking into laughter.

Marcus just stared at him until he finally broke into a smile and laughed along with him. "You took a Griffin Class Frigate*… and painted it… to look like a monster!" He could barely contain his laughter at the mental image that conjured up.

"Yeah! The head of it has teeth, eyes and horns. And the fighter hangers are claws now! I even added scales! You should have seen their faces when they turned on the flood lights this morning!" Naruto actually dropped to the floor in hysterical laughter, Marcus followed suit as well as a good number of the cops, and even the Sheriff was chuckling.

Eventually Marcus regained enough air to speak again. "You-your dad is… is gonna… is gonna… is gonna be soooo pissed!" He wheezed out.

"I-I know!" Naruto choked out. "I'm gonna… be grounded… for a year! At least… at least I got a… got a… picture!"

"Oh! You gotta… you gotta lemme… see!" Marcus said through gasps. Naruto pulled out a Polaroid picture of him standing in front of a big white ship much larger than him, painted with red paint to look like a monster. Griffin Class Frigates usually have long necks, and stubby wings that doubled as fighter hangers attached to a fat body. Without the paint it had the basic build of a monster whether the designers knew it or not.

When Marcus got the photo his laughter doubled at the sight of it. He began passing it around to the other laughing convicts in the cells and they did the same thing. "It's gonna… take them forever… to get it off! I used… that metal primer… stuff too!" Naruto said through gasps. The photo was passed around to the entire station and everyone else doubled over in hysterical laughter, a lot of people passed out from lack of air and even had the Sheriff laughing hard. This was all good and fun until John walked in.

"What the-? What's going on here?" John yelled.

One of the officers still standing and able to talk said, "It's what the kid did!"

"Okay I'm sure it's probably funny, what was it? Tagged a billboard, tagged the school or was it-" The cop handed him the photo. "-OH MY GOD!" he bellowed out. Naruto heard this and just stared at him not knowing what to do.

"Oh and he… used your cycle… to get away! It's in the… impound lot!" The cop choked out.

"Perfect! Thank you! You have just made my day!" He angrily yelled. "Come on Naruto! You're in a lot of trouble."

"'Kay. See ya Marc." Naruto just slid off the bench walked by the Sheriff, "See ya next week Maki."

The Sheriff said regaining his breath, "I count on it kid." And walked out the now semi- laughing station and followed his dad to the truck. John had changed a bit in the recent years. He wore khaki now, grew his hair out more, and wore a grey shirt & sandals. The ride to the impound lot and to home was mostly very quiet so John decided to break the ice.

"This is the ninth time this year Naruto you can't keep doing this. When I said to find a creative outlet I didn't mean prank the entire town 3 times a month! You're lucky you're still a minor and those cops like you." He said.

"Well I don't know what else to do! I don't like TV, there are not that many good video games around here and I don't have many friends. This place is boring!" He yelled.

"Then this is easier to say." John said.

"Easier to say? What do you mean?"

John just smiled and said, "We're moving."

Naruto just stared at him and yelled, "We're moving?"

"Yup. You happy?"

"Happy? I don't know! Where are we moving?" said Naruto.

"Planet Tenshi." Said John.

"Tenshi…Element? Never heard of it."

"Think about it. Where did the Nine Tailed Fox attack?" John asked.

"The Village Hidden in the Leaves where my Father, the Fourth Hokage sealed it into me, we've been going over since you told me a year ago." Naruto said bored. They'd been doing the same routine about every other week since John told him he was adopted and about the fox when he was 8. It was a lot to take in for him but it made sense since they had different last names and had been teaching him Hiragana and another style he couldn't remember the name of since he could write. As for the name, John had elected to keep Naruto's original surname and make his middle name Murdock when he adopted him so he'd always have a tie to his biological family.

"Yes! But! What country does the Leaf Village reside in?" He quizzed.

"The Land of Fire, where are you going with this?" Naruto asked getting annoyed with the all questions no answers routine.

"Right! And what is Fire?" John continued with a big grin plastered on his face.

"It's an elemen- wait…" Naruto's realization dawned. "Are you saying?" John just nodded with that cheesy grin still plastered on his face. "We're moving to the place I was born?" He yelled happily.

"Well, sort of." John admitted.

Naruto's face faltered for a moment. "Sort of? What do ya mean?"

"Well it's more of a trip. We'll still have our house here but if you want to stay there I can-" John didn't get to finish because Naruto was clinging to his arm begging.

"Yes! Please can we stay! Please can we stay! I always wanted to be a ninja ever since you told me about them!"

John chuckled at how childish the act was. "Alright I figured you'd want to anyway so I applied for my old position there as the Liaison."

"Whoopee! Wait… you used to be the Liaison there?" The still overexcited blonde asked.

"Oh I didn't mention that?" said John realizing he'd only told him he was the Hokage's assistant while he was there.

"Noooo."

"Oops…" John said scratching the back of his head rather sheepishly.

"So you served in the Army during the Carda-Goa'uld Territory War until the Finders-Keepers Treaty, promoted to Lieutenant and became the liaison for the Republic and the Leaf and assistant to my real father on Planet Tenshi. Now a Colonel and explosives expert and military supervisor at the mines here on Morius and now you're going back to Tenshi as a Colonel and the liaison?" Naruto said naming off the various positions John had during his 34 years of life.

"Yup."

"Yeesh man where will it end!" Naruto yelled out. They both arrived at their house. It was pretty standard, 2 bed 1 bath, a spacious living room, kitchen, plumbing, solar cells and a high power air conditioner. High power AC's were very cheap on Morius because the standard temperature was around 120 degrees Fahrenheit year round except for the winter months where it dropped to around 100. Naruto rushed inside his room, excited to pack and go see his birth world.

"Whoa whoa little man! We don't leave for Tenshi for another 2 days." John said.

Naruto stopped pack and stared at John mouth agape. "Two days? What am I supposed to do until then? Stare at the wall!" Yelled Naruto.

"Welllll, you could keep planning for that "Prank of the Century" you've been talking about." John hinted rather slyly.

"Prank of the Century? What are you… talking… about, wait. Are you-?" He started.

"Shhh! I didn't say anything." John said in a sing-song tone and walked out the room. Naruto broke into a wide grin getting at what his dad was getting at. Getting out a pencil and paper, he began planning.

Two days later…

Two days came and went like pizzas on Friday at school. John had the truck put in storage and they were riding the hover-cycle to the spaceport storage facility where the old shuttle he came to Morius in was sitting. Their luggage rode behind them in an old trailer they'd had sitting in the garage. Naruto sat in front with John behind him driving it. The ride there was uneventful with not much to look at but desert, mountains and the occasional Morisian lizard. Eventually the huge spaceport loomed into sight with ships of all sizes docking, launching or landing. Off to the side you could see the Monteras at the dry-dock site with men all over it trying to scrub away the paint job Naruto had done on it. John looked over and after seeing it for himself found it to be very funny. Then a thought struck him.

"Hey I just remembered!" He yelled over the roar of the engine. "What'd you do for the Prank of the Century?"

Naruto just smiled. "I exposed something embarrassing about Sheriff Maki." John had a bad feeling this would come back to haunt him if they ever decide to make a visit back Morius.

Meanwhile somewhere back down the road two cops were staring at a billboard that had been recently painted by none other than the blond prankster himself. The only vaguely heard the sound of another cycle pull up behind them.

"Alright what's this thing that's so big; I had to ride out 5 miles!" Yelled Sheriff Maki. The other cops didn't answer they just stared. The Sheriff, against his better judgment looked up. On the billboard painted in bright red letters was, "Sheriff Maki wears ladies underwear!" The other cops just looked at him.

"Oh come on he has no proof!" The Sheriff said defending himself.

"Hey what's that?" One of the cops pointed to a post holding the billboard up. Attached to it was a picture of Sheriff Maki, wearing a thong. They both had a hard time trying to contain their laughter in front of the Sheriff.

"I-I-I-I-I… It's for medical purposes… really! Give me that!" Maki took the picture out of the officers hands and was about to put it in his pocket when he noticed something on the back.

"Dear Maki, Marcus and everyone else at the station," He read aloud. "First off I'm leaving the planet to go live on my birth world. I wanted to pull of one last big prank before I left and if the billboard isn't clear enough, I wanted to go out with a bang. I guess that clears up why I dropped by the station to say goodbye to everyone. Also, sorry about causing you guys so much trouble, you could've put me away somewhere but you didn't. I don't know if it was because I always made you guys laugh or something but, thanks and have fun scrubbing off the paint. It's five coats and the first three are primer! Lastly tell Marcus he's been a great friend and I'll visit him again someday. Sincerely, Naruto .M. Uzumaki." Maki let out a small chuckle at the kid's latest work. He probably wouldn't admit it but he was gonna miss the kid. He kept things interesting around this boring dust ball of a planet he called home. He might've let a small tear fall had he not noticed the post script on the bottom. "P.S. There is a copy of this photo in everyone's desk….. Uh oh." No sooner had he finished that sentence he heard the sound of engines starting up. He turned around to just catch the other two officers heading back to the station at top speed to spread the news and find their pictures. Sheriff Maki stared at the two dust clouds heading away from him. A vain popped out on his forehead and he yelled,

"Narutooooooo!"

Back with Naruto and John, they were just pulling up to the entrance of the storage unit where the old shuttle was collecting dust when Naruto swore he just heard Sheriff Maki yell his name. He just shrugged it off thinking he was hearing things and went back to helping John to remove the last obstacle between them and John's old shuttle, a rusty door handle. They tried several methods to get it to move, they tried some grease, that didn't work, they tried hanging on it, that didn't work, and Naruto tried jumping on it, that didn't work either. They were just about out of ideas when they saw a maintenance guy pass by, John hollered him over, told him their situation, he gave that door a few whacks and it opened right up like the Fonze himself did it. They both just stared at him with a 'what the heck?' look on their faces and the maintenance guy getting the message walked away.

"This it?" Naruto asked looking inside.

"Yup this is it. It's gotten old but it'll still fly." Inside of the large storage area sat an old shuttle with a fat body, stubby wings and was covered in about two inches of dust. John with some effort turned the handle to open the side hatch into the shuttle. Thankfully the airtight seal still worked if the lack of dust on the inside was any indication but that's just one of the many systems that must be inspected before they could even get on the runway. The next couple hours or so were spent with John checking different systems on the old ship and explaining each one to Naruto. They checked the computer systems, the small sub-light engines* on the wings, the Hyperdrive and the Naquadah Generator*, very crucial parts, if the generator wasn't working right and it wasn't noticed that thing could go critical. The drive not as bad as the generator if something went wrong, it just meant they were stranded in unknown space. Once all the systems were checked and their luggage and the cycle were loaded on, John called for a trolley to take the shuttle down and parked next to the runway while they filled out the necessary paperwork. Naruto elected to stay in the ship while he did that browsing through the different stars on the Nav computer searching for Planet Tenshi. The Planets within the Republic were marked blue, Goa'uld worlds red & a symbol indicating affiliation, allied worlds green and protectorates yellow. He found Tenshi under the protectorate planets list a pretty good distance in Cardacian territory and each Nav computer is required to have some info on each planet so he decided to do a bit of studying.

An hour later John climbed into the cockpit and caught Naruto reading the info on his birth world. "Studying a little are we? That's not like you." Naruto jerked around not noticing he'd come in.

"I just wanna know more so I'm ready when we get there." He admitted a little sheepishly.

"Well that's fine and all but reading something on a computer isn't gonna help ya understand the people there. That is something you get from experience." John said in a sage-like manner.

Naruto looked at him in a strange way like he wasn't his father. "Okay who are you and what have you done with my dad 'cuse he does not talk like that!"

John just chuckled and said, "Nope it's still me. Now get outta my chair!" It was Naruto's turn to laugh but he complied anyhow and took the copilot seat. Then it was the waiting game again as they waited for confirmation to take off from the tower. While they were waiting Naruto asked a lot of questions about the different gauges, dials, switches and such and John explained them all, he even offered to give him flying lessons when time permitted and when he turned ten. Naruto of course was ecstatic at the prospect of learning how to fly. Soon enough the clearance from the tower and the shuttle was rolling on the runway and ready to take off.

"This is Zulu Alpha One Niner Eight* to Air Traffic Control requesting permission to launch over." John spoke into the radio.

"Roger this is Air Traffic Control, Zulu Alpha One Niner Eight you have a go for launch, have a safe ride over." Said the man from the ATC.

"Roger we are preceding down the runway now, have a nice day now." John responded. The shuttle taxied to the beginning of the runway.

"Engaging Inertia Dampeners, minimum requirement." John said flicking a switch. "Increasing sub-light to 15%." The noise from the engines increased as more power was fed to them. "Taxiing." The ship moved a few hundred feet down the runway before stopping. "Launching!" John pushed the throttle to ¾ of the way down and the craft shot forward and up into the sky. Naruto was sort of pressed into his seat because the Dampeners were set to minimum. John increased them a little, let up on the throttle, and the pressure let up. Through a side window Naruto took one last look at his home for over 9 years and he couldn't help but feel sad for leaving.

"Don't worry; we'll come for a visit sometime." John assured him. Naruto just nodded and looked out the forward window again. The blue sky had turned into blackness and stars. It was quite a sight to see. Thousands of stars as far as you could see. He wondered which one was Tenshi.

"Hey Naruto, want to work the Hyperdrive?" John asked.

Naruto looked at him to make sure he wasn't kidding. "Can I really?" John nodded and Naruto sprang into action on the Nav Computer.

"Alright now find the planet we want to go to." Naruto nodded and found Tenshi on the computer. "Enter the coordinates in the box at the right of the screen." Typing was heard as Naruto typed the coordinates into the computer. "Now enter them and give it a moment to process the info." The computer hummed while it processed the data. Soon the screen centered on the system displaying info on it. "Is that it?" Naruto nodded. "Good now flip those switches to transfer power to the drive." Naruto stood up on the chair to reach the switches above and flipped them in the order John said. A humming was heard from the back of the ship as the Hyperdrive received power.

"What next?" Naruto asked excited to be working the drive.

"You flip that switch and push that button to open a window, and then you punch down on this." He pointed to another switch and a blue button next to it and a throttle in the middle of them.

"Here we go!" Naruto flipped the switch, pressed the blue button, the hyperspace window opened in front of them and he punched the throttle in the middle and the ship shot forward.

"Whoa!" Naruto yelled. The ship fully entered hyperspace and they were on their way.

"That was cool!" He exclaimed.

"The first time always is." John said smiling. "Well it'll be about 5 hours till we reach our destination so let's get some shut eye. The computer will alert us if we're a couple light-years away. The chair reclines just to let ya know." Taking his own advice John reclined his chair and went to sleep. Naruto decided to follow suit and laid back himself to sleep.

Planet Tenshi

The Leaf Village…

In the Leaf Village the Third Hokage sat at his desk filling out sheet after sheet of paperwork on his desk. It was getting to one of those times where he wished they'd chosen the Fifth Hokage after the Fourth died, he was way too old for this. There was a silver lining to this, he'd gotten a communiqué from the Cardacian High Command recently that John was coming back as the Liaison between the Leaf and the Republic. That was the best news of the day until his old mind caught up to what that also meant. Naruto was coming back. That realization worried him a little because of the incident 9 years ago but he figured that no one would recognize Naruto anyways since he was a baby when that happened so that eased his old bones, which was reason enough for him to get through the paperwork as fast as possible to greet them at the gate.

Hyperspace

Naruto and John slowly woke to the beeping of the computer though Naruto was tempted to smash it since it reminded him of his alarm clock.

"Ugh, well I guess we're getting close. Better get ready." John said rather groggily.

"Do we stop now?" Naruto asked.

"No that's just the warning, we have to wait for a faster one, then we stop." He explained. True to his words a faster beep tone sounded a minute later. "Up! That's it. Pull back on the throttle." Naruto did as he instructed and pulled back on the center throttle and the blue-white expanse of hyperspace turned into the blackness of regular space with the stars dotting it. Naruto stared in awe at the blue and green world before them, Planet Tenshi.

"Wow." He said in awe.

"Yup. Somewhere down there is the place you were born."John said pointing to the planet. "C'mon we have to prepare to enter the atmosphere."

"Ok how do we do that?" He asked.

"First turn of the switches that feed power to the Hyperdrive." Naruto did as he said and flipped the switches he used earlier to their last position. "Now use those switches to route the spare power to the shield. Make sure most of it goes to the belly." Again he did as was told and flipped the switches he was told too. "Now strap yourself in this is gonna be bumpy." The both strapped on a four point harness and braced themselves as John put the ship closer to the planet. The ship started rumbling as entered the atmosphere. Hot plasma formed around the ship and could be seen from the cockpit. The rumbling continued for a few minutes until it ceased and the window cleared up. Naruto instantly undid his harness and looked out at the wide expanse, of water.

"Huh? Where's the land?" He asked.

"We had to enter over water so we wouldn't be seen. Almost no one knows that this planet is under a protectorate treaty with the Republic." John explained.

"Who does know?" He asked.

"The village Kage's, the clan heads, the council members and certain high ranking ninja. Oh! There's the land now!" Naruto looked towards the horizon and saw the coast coming up. At first it was mostly beach sand then it turned into mountains. After they got over the mountains it turned into a vast expanse of green.

"Wow." Naruto said in awe. "Wait can't people below see us?" He asked.

"No I set the shield to cloak the ship. No one can see us." They continued flying for several minutes 'till John started to slow down when they approached a specific mountain. John pressed a button on the dash and a section of the mountain opened.

"That's the hanger the ship will be staying in." He expertly piloted the ship slowly through the narrow space. "Shut off the shield will ya? The controls are marked." Naruto shut off the ships shields. Soon enough the narrow tunnel opened into a wide room large enough to park the ship. Some short landing gear extended from the belly of the ship and gently set it down. Naruto helped John shut off all the systems on the ship to avoid detection by thermal gear. After that they unloaded everything John shut the door and began spraying it with liquid nitrogen to cool it even more. All the while Naruto sat there impatient to get on their way to the Leaf Village.

"Come on!" He whined. "I wanna get going right now!"

"Just a little more and… done! Alright we can go!" Naruto cheered with absolute joy that they were finally leaving for the village. They hitched the trailer up to the cycle, loaded their bags on it and headed for the leaf village.

Later at the village gate Naruto and John walked up to the gate with the hover-cycle using a semi-solid hologram generator to make it look like a small pony. The guards at the gate let them pass when they confirmed that they didn't have anything dangerous and for the first time Naruto could remember he got a good look at his birthplace.

For the third time that day Naruto said, "Wow!"

"Big isn't it?"

"This place is huge!" He practically yelled. "I can't believe we're going to live here! Where are we going to live here?"

"We have to go to the Hokage first to get the house. Then I have an old friend of mine that has a kid I think should be around your age now." John said as they walked.

"My age? Do you think he'll be my friend?" Naruto asked.

"Well maybe but who said it was a guy?" He hinted.

In the Hokage Tower the Third was still filling out then mountain of paper work on his desk and was beginning to fear he might miss greeting them at the gate. He was fairly sure they'd arrived on the planet, there were reports coming in from the Land of Fire's coast to an outpost town only 5 kilometers from the Leaf about an enormous boom in the sky but nothing there. The descriptions sounded like the sonic boom of a ship and a cloaking device in effect. He knew that John would land the ship in the old hanger set into a nearby mountain and it was at least a 4 hour walk from there to the Leaf plus whatever else they had to do after landing. His thoughts were interrupted however when there was a knock at the door.

"Enter."He said. He heard the sound of footsteps walk into the office and the door close. "Please make it quick I have too much paperwork to do." He said over the mound not even knowing who it was.

"I'll say. What have you been doing for nine years, old man?" Said a very familiar voice. The Third took a glance over the pile hoping to see who he thought this was. And it was.

"John! Welcome back, it's been so long since I last saw you!" Sarutobi exclaimed.

"Heheh likewise and I think you know who this is." He said patting Naruto.

"Naruto? Last time I saw you, you were just a baby. You've grown a lot." The Third said ruffling his hair.

"Uh thanks." Naruto said embarrassed. "So you succeeded my dad?" He asked.

"What? No he used to work for the-"

"Uh Sarutobi," John cut off. "He knows. I told him a year ago."

Sarutobi looked from Naruto to John and said, "You mean he knows about the Fourth and-"

"That he's adopted and I had to take him away when he was a baby. I figured he was ready." He finished for him.

"Don't forget about Fuzzy!" Naruto put in.

"Fuzzy?" The Third questioned. "Does he mean the…" He trailed off.

"Oh just say it he knows that too! He met it once so I had to tell him and for some reason nicknamed it Fuzzy." John said.

"It annoys him! Haha!" The blond laughed and they couldn't help but laugh too.

"Well it's been nice talking to ya again old man but we came here for our house keys and we need a storage place for our 'pony.'" He said using air quotes. The Hokage didn't know what he was talking about when he said pony but said he had a place for it, gave them a couple keys and had their luggage delivered to the house and the 'pony' put in storage. Before they left John asked him to keep quiet about him to the council, he wanted to surprise them.

Elsewhere…

At the Hyuuga compound Hiashi Hyuuga was just out of a meeting with the clan elders discussing his least favorite topic, his daughter's progress in the Academy. It was always bad news because she was around average in her class and it was disappointing the elders. To them a Hyuuga should rise above the rest. Hiashi used to train her himself but she progressed more slowly than the other Hyuuga children and the council decided that she wasn't worth the time to train so they 'suggested' Hiashi send her to the Academy last year.

A knock at the door signaled a visitor. Hiashi sighed not really wanting visitors right now. "Enter." A Branch Hyuuga guard walked in looking like he'd been in a small fight.

"Pardon me Lord Hiashi but there is a man at the gate wanting to see you." The guard said.

"Tell him I want no visitors at the moment." Hiashi said.

"I tried sir but he told me to tell you, 'Tell that SOB to let me in I'm a diplomat for God's sake!' then he punched me." He said. Hiashi just noticed the bruise on the guards left arm and figured this guy wouldn't go away 'till he was let in.

"Very well let him in." The guard left and a moment later a middle aged man and a small boy walked into his chambers and Hiashi stood to talk to the man at eye level. "Well what is it; I'm in no mood for visitors right now."

"What, not even for an old friend?" Hiashi furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance. "Imagine me with flat hair." Hiashi stared at the man for a minute, he looked vaguely familiar to him but he just couldn't… wait.

"John?" He exclaimed.

"Finally! I was beginning to think you'd gone senile early!"

Hiashi chuckled. "You wish but where have you been all this time!"

"After the incident I took the shuttle to Morius, contacted High Command and explained everything and got myself a job on one of Morius' mines as the Military Supervisor and Explosives Expert."

"Wow, guess you've been busy for the last nine years."

"That and Naruto's a regular with the police." John said jabbing his thumb in Naruto's direction. For the first time since they walked in the room Hiashi noticed Naruto was there.

"Hello Naruto." Hiashi said.

"Hi!" He enthusiastically greeted.

"Heh, you know I have a daughter around your age."

"That's why I'm here actually. Why don't you get her, we can take 'em to the park and catch up." John suggested.

"That sounds good let me get her quick."

"Kay, I'll meet-cha by the gate."

Later Hiashi joined them at the gate of the compound joined by a small girl with violet hair and wearing a blue shirt with the Hyuuga Flame on the back. Naruto walked up to her and stared at her intently. She wasn't used to being this close to a boy from outside the clan and took a step back. Naruto took a step forward and leaned toward her still staring. Hiashi was just about to say something but John shushed him with a hand wave. Then Naruto broke into a smile and said, "Hi I'm Naruto, what's your name?"

"H-Hinata Hyuuga." Hinata timidly responded.

"Well now that you're introduced, let's go to the park." Said John.

When they got to the park John and Hiashi took a seat on a bench and caught up on what they'd each been doing for the past nine years, while Naruto dragged the shy Hinata to the sandbox.

"So what did you mean by 'he's a regular with the cops'?" Hiashi asked.

"Exactly what you think it means! When he was around eight he started getting frustrated and bored so I told him to find a 'creative' outlet in some way. So he started pulling pranks on the small town three times a month!" Hiashi just chuckled. "What are you laughing at? You didn't have to deal with this!" John yelled.

"Ok ok your right I didn't have to but the stuff he did can't have been that bad." Hiashi said.

"He planted a stink bomb in the school, diverted roads, planted whoopee cushions…"

"That's not that bad."

"…Painted billboards, 'fixed' the cop's cycles, painted a Frigate." John finished.

"Frigate? I may know about the treaty but I don't know what that is." Hiashi said.

John handed him the picture of Naruto in front of the still painted Monteras. "That's a Frigate and it's in the lowest class of the Navy. That is small compared to most of the other ships." Hiashi couldn't help but laugh at the picture and Naruto's handiwork on the ship. "Yeah yeah laugh it up." He said taking back the picture.

"I'm sorry that's just so funny!" Hiashi said through chuckles.

"Well what about you? How's your wife and Hizashi?" He asked changing the subject. Hearing this Hiashi became gloomy and withdrawn. "Whoops, sorry man I didn't mean to-"

"No it's alright…" Hiashi cut off. "…you didn't know. She died a few days after our second daughter was born. Post birth complications are what I was told. Hizashi well, that's a different story."

"You don't have to tell it now save it for another time." John said. He looked over to Naruto and Hinata who were building a sand castle. "They seem to be getting along well."

"Yes, it's nice Hinata has a friend outside the clan." He said.

"Hey, is she in the Academy?" John asked.

"Yes."

"Who's class is she in?"

"Iruka Umino's class why?" Hiashi said wondering where he was going with this.

"I'm enrolling Naruto in the Academy and I thought it would be nice if he knew someone in the class." John said.

Hiashi nodded and said, "When does he start?"

"Next week, I figure that's long enough to get unpacked." Hiashi nodded again. "Well it's getting late we'd better go." They both got up and called their children over. "Say goodbye Naruto."

"Bye Hinata!" He said.

"B-bye Naruto." She timidly replied.

They went their separate ways with the day fresh in their minds. Hinata glad she had a friend outside the clan and Naruto just glad he made a friend in his old and new home.

Goa'uld: Parasitic Symbiotic race that holds most of the Milky Way in an iron grip, posing as Gods allowing them to use humans for slave labor, soldiers or hosts easily. Whatever planets they don't control are dry of resources or rebelled against them in the past. The only major defeats the System Lords have suffered were at hands of Earth's SG Teams and Cardacia's military.

Legacy: In the context used, it means technology a few generations older than current.

Griffin Class Frigate: Class of starship in the Cardacian Navy. Frigate being an already low class in naval standards, the Griffin Class is the smallest, usually patrolling low-risk areas and basing on the Outer Worlds.

Naquadah Generator: A clean power source gifted by the SGC and fueled by the element, Naquadah with a power output estimated to be equal to several large Fission Reactors. Usually used in large houses or small ships but not widely used in the Republic.

Sub-light engines: The term itself can mean any engine that can only achieve subluminal velocities. In the case of this engine, it requires no fuel, only power and the different size and power of the engine determines how close to Light Speed the ship will come to. The latest, top of the line can reach 79.99% the speed of light.

Zulu Alpha One Niner Eight: I know nothing about the numbers on the side of planes so could someone explain them to me?