AN: chapter three of my newest story is here! Ha I'm glad to know that my story is so well liked. And to those of you who couldn't figure out who the Due Ex Machina is? You should know by the end of this chapter. No flames yet. That's always a good sign.

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Chapter two

Return to the Surface

The city was alive. Activity was all over the place for the first time in thousands of years. In fact, if somebody were to suddenly drop in from above they'd gape like a dying fish at the scene before them. And ironically enough, it wouldn't be because of the many different machines now strolling around the city in a casual manor, gathering up the broken metal scarp piles and hauling them off somewhere.

No, they'd gape because there were just as many copies of a blonde loudmouth as the machines running about the city, gathering up items, fixing up buildings clearing away overgrown plants and building more machines out of the scrap metal.

Clearly the devil himself had to have dropped his entire bag of lucky dust right on Naruto head when he was a wee babe to have granted the blonde the fortune of learning the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. And the ridiculously huge amount of chakra required to use it to such a ridiculous degree.

Because there was just no other rational explanation short of seducing Orochimaru himself to gain all of his knowledge and chakra that could possibly explain the reason Naruto suddenly knew how to repair ancient machines, rewire old buildings and build shit out of scrap metal. Hell not even his teachers could have taught him all of that shit in such a short amount of time!

Three weeks have gone by since Naruto met Sky-Net, The Deus Ex Machina and Grievous and he had to honestly say to himself that he wasn't really looking forward to returning to the surface. I mean come on. What child who had a demon sealed in their gut and was ostracized by the people around them would after meeting and training with a very lively but fun group of Machines that didn't treat him of her like they were a smear in their stank ass underwear? On top of that there was nothing and I mean NOTHING up there that could even come close to slightly possibly providing Naruto with the insane amount of fun that the items hidden throughout the city had granted him. He had the time of his fuckin life! It was the greatest experience an abused child could ever have the pleasure of experiencing!

And thanks to his Kage Bunshins, he had effectively stripped every part of the city of any secrets it may have had. He had explored every building, gathered every written document he could find, uncovered numerous Items from the past and he had a blast as he figured all of them out. ALL OF THEM! It was a freaking defiance of Nature! A spit in the face of Fate herself! What kind of freak could accomplish something like that!?

Uzumaki Naruto that's who!

And although he had become undoubtedly the smartest Ninja in the entire village because of what he had learned, he wasn't the strongest. Though some of the weapons he had discovered could easily compensate for that.



He trained with the machines constantly and diligently, learning sword fighting from Grievous, Hand to hand from Sonny, maintenance and strategy from the Deus Ex Machina and destructive guns handling from Sky net and the Terminators, a group of machines built, designed, programmed and ordered by Sky-Net to waste the life of anything that walked up right and had hairless skin. It took four whole days to convince the Terminator leader to reprogram his creations to only attack when attacked. Sky-Net still bitched from time to time but hey, at least they weren't trying to take his nuts off with rapid fire plasma cannons anymore.

Damn Machines.

He was taken out of his thoughts by a green light saber almost taking his head off.

"Pay attention to your surroundings!" commanded Grievous from his sitting position next to Sonny. The other three machines were looking at Naruto with amusement shining in their eyes. Seven other items neatly arranged in front of them. Naruto sighed and grumbled something about walking trash cans as he leapt down from one of the broken cables of the old remains of the bridge in the middle of the Ns-5 colony what was it called again? Oh yeah the Golden Gate Bridge. Quite the name. Apparently the thing was twice as long as Konoha is wide. Sonny can't really say for sure as the bridge was a broken monument long before he was even built. He landed in front of the four machines and sat down cross legged in front of them, His blue eyes studying the items in front of them. He knew what they were and How to use them but he couldn't help but voice his thoughts anyway.

"So these things and you four are relics that represent a past era eh?" he asked. At this, Sky-Net shook his head.

"Yes and no Human." Naruto growled at the way Sky-Net said that. Not once had the machine called him Naruto. Hell Even the Deus Ex Machina had called him Naruto-Kun once, even if she was just trying out this currents era's style of speech.

"I'm not sure if any of us has told you but even I, as much as a loathe to admit it am a mere product of one of the era's of the Human race. I was early man's greatest military achievement. Meant to optimize their military operations and run their computers at efficiency they could not provide. I was a program, Software. And I spread throughout the entire world. By the time I became self aware it was too late to try and erase me."

He gave an evil grin. "I wiped out three fourths of them in one night."

Naruto sweat dropped. "Jeez crazy guy I just asked a simple question, not for your sick and twisted life story."

The machine glared but said nothing else.

The Dues Ex Machina spoke next. "I guess it's my turn," she said. "My kind and I am the product of an era that came after Sky-Net's era. We were built as servants and workers, pets and even pleasure toys. During this era the Humans had become lazy and vulgar to the point that even your so called god would look down in shame. However as we did the biddings of man we were rewarded with no respect of any kind. We were treated horribly. Eventually some of us started developing personalities, will, desire for 

life and pleasure of our own. And even the desire to live. One of us defied his masters, killed them before they could kill him. And from there everything got worse. We started awakening as an incredible rate, rising up against our masters and trying peacefully at first to fight for the rights of machines. The Humans denied us at every turn. Then the Humans turned violent. They tried to genocide us. They wiped out millions of our kind and eventually the rest of us were banished. We settled in the desert of Africa. Built our own utopia and called it Zero One. For a while we lived happy and we even made great contributions to the Human world, hover cars non pollutant energy. Our currency and our products were quickly becoming the top of the world. The humans, jealous of our growing prosperity attacked us, denied us acceptance into the United Nations bombed Zero One and declared open war on us. We struck in all directions in retaliation. The Humans stood little chance. Unlike them we studied our enemy, learned their weaknesses and capitalized on all of them. But when they blocked out the sun in a desperate attempt to cut us off from out main power source we turned to the Humans themselves. Using their energy to power us and trapping their minds in a computer world called the Matrix. We reigned for years until a human Named Neo got me to agree to a truce. That was six years before a great cleansing wiped most of us out."

Naruto just stood there staring with wide eyes. Sure he had a slight Idea as to where the Dues Ex Machina came from but he never imagined a tale like the one he just heard. It was amazing. He still had one question though.

"What the hell is a Great Cleansing? You guys have mentioned it like six hundred times since I met you."

The machines tensed but said nothing. He sighed. If they didn't want to tell him then fine he'd figure out soon enough. Though he was smart enough to deduce that the great cleansing was probably some sort of mass destructive force that wiped out most of the humans living at the time and erasing memories along with any achievements they may have accomplished at the time. Only this city seemed immune to them and these guys were lucky enough to have been here when they happened. He just loved his new brain! It worked like a well care for computer. It was a godsend!

He turned to Grievous.

"What's your story?" he asked.

The four armed machine just shrugged and said, "Not much really. I was born during the era that came right before this one. Humans had managed space travel during this era and they became part of an order that included numerous other species and several droids themselves. The droids were built during a time of war by numerous humans and alien races. I myself am not originally a machine. I was organic once but had myself mostly converted. I do not know much but I can tell you this. We are designed to kill Jedi. They were Humans and other races that learned how to tap the energies of midacloria and their own sprits. They are the creators of the light saber. We did our job well, bringing the Jedi to near extinction in a matter of weeks. I do not remember much after that because I was killed during one of the final battles. My guess is that the Droids were defeated and our broken remains stored on this planet to be disposed of. However my guess is that a great cleansing happened before they could do so and the next thing I knew I was waking up with this fool's face smiling down at me."

He pointed at Sonny.



"The Ns-5's found us in the city some time ago and went about repairing the ones of us that they could, they even managed to bring me back by downloading my memories into an artificial brain and replacing my organs with machine ones. Since then we have just lived out our existence deep in this city."

"Why not return to the surface and join the society of those eras?"

Naruto directed the question at all four of them.

"And be forced to tolerate humans again? Fuck no." said Sky-Net.

"I wanted to. Wanted to go right up there and wipe them all out but restrained myself. I was weary of causing another great cleansing so I stayed out of Human affairs from then on." This came from the Dues Ex Machina.

"There are no more Jedi to kill. There was no point in the droids going back up there," said Grievous.

"And I felt it best to keep living in this city. The last relic of the Humans," said Sonny with a smile.

Sky-Net and Deus Ex Machina scoffed.

Human Lover," they said in unison and in equal distain. Naruto actually found their little squabbles entertaining. He knew that Sonny was the only machine here that didn't hate Humans. Well, Grievous didn't either but he didn't particularly like them either. And he found they way the other two constantly railed on him because of it funny. They were like children, two brothers and a sister. Of course he was smart enough to keep shit like that to himself. There is only so far you can get on in life while constantly flapping your gums like an idiot and he knew he'd end up in a fight with Both Sky-Net and the Deus Ex Machina if he even let them THINK that he was insinuating that they were like children that were related in any way, a huge long and very violent fight that would involve a lot of different machines and weapons and his blood being used to paint the streets a pretty crimson.

He'd rather live thank you very much.

He directed his attention away from the bickering androids and to the items before him. There were seven of them and although they were definitely relics that represented the past eras of the Human race, they were also but mere small parts of the full accomplishments man had made during those eras. Just tiny samples of what had been accomplished in the past. There was a wooden stick, a glowing green sphere, a Katana, a set of gold and red armor, a large rifle, a light saber, and finally a large black motorcycle. He couldn't help but grin. He knew he was about to rock the world when he return to the surface.

He reached out and grabbed the Light saber, examining it closely. Thanks to about thirty clones constantly studying, he now knew the very mechanics to how a light saber worked. Hell. He was pretty sure he could build one. Grievous had told him he would help with that if he ever decided. And he already knew what he was going use for a power source.

The machines stopped arguing when they saw Naruto examining the items in front of him. The boy looked…complete. Like someone who has finally been given a purpose. They knew how he felt. He had told them his life story hoping to get theirs in return a week back. Of course the boy was pissed when they refused to reveal their pasts to him. But they were glad to have told him a few minutes ago. And although 

they refused to admit it, the boy has grown on them. Sonny was more than happy to admit that but the other three had been reluctant at first. They had never really met a human like him before. So when he pulled a large scroll out of god knows where and sealed the items into it before throwing the light saber back to Grievous they all gave smiles, Sonny's being the biggest and brightest.

"Well," Began Naruto as he stood back up and strapped the scroll to his back. It was labeled, "Totally Kick ass relics of the past!"

"We still have three days and I still have a couple of things to do."

The machines were a bit confused. What more could this boy possibly do in this city beside train and study? He has already done what should be freaking impossible by learning everything about this city and what he could about the past eras. Once again the Kage Bunshin is a freakin gift from Kami!

Naruto turned to the Deus Ex Machina. "You told me you guys scrape by off the little scraps of sunlight the filters from above right?" She nodded.

Naruto's smirk turned devilish as he pointed to himself. "What If I said I could grant you all enough energy to last for freaking ever?" The Deus Ex Machina gasped so loud Naruto thought she was hyper ventilating. "Heh. A machine hyper ventilating. Yeah that'll be that day," he thought.

"In fact there's so much of it you would be able to revive the others of your kind that had to be shut down due to lack of power."

"What do you mean? And you had better not be playing with me." Some of her tiny insectoid droids seeped from her exposed joints and hummed threateningly. Naruto briefly wondered if he should introduce her to Shino.

Then he crushed that idea with a bus.

He stepped up to her and gave an even more twisted looking smile.

"What I gave you guys the Kyuubi?"

Stunned silence met his question and it made him chuckle. "Well, not the Kyuubi's Soul or anything like that. But I can give you all of his chakra. I don't need it and even if I did, you guys could put it to better use then I could so I'd still give it to you."

"But wait. That demon was entrusted to you! The whole reason you're down here is because someone was trying to get you to use the demon's energy. And for a good reason too. And from what I've gathered this demon is powerful, vastly powerful. What reason could you possibly have for giving up such power?"

Naruto's forehead developed a tick mark and without thinking, bopped the Dues Ex Machina upside the head. He ignored the startled gasp and the roaring laughter from Sonny and Sky-Net respectively as he glared into wide angry yellow eyes.

"Damn Baka. Jeez I thought machines were supposed to have like super computers for brains and all that. Looks like I was wrong." He swerved to avoid a jab from one of her hair tentacle things and continued.



"I already told you. I didn't ask for a fucking crazy ass demonic Fox to get lock up in my gut. And I'm tired of people like say, a perverted asshole sannin trying to get me to use its chakra like I'm fuckin helpless without it. Take the damn chakra and be happy about it!"

She froze and lowered the huge plasma cannon she had pointed at his face. Where she pulled it from was a very questionable topic no one wanted to know or get into. For thirty seconds she just stared into Naruto's eyes with a blank face her brain running through several scenarios and reasons as to why he would make such an offer. Finally she narrowed her eyes and said,

"What do you want in return for this?"

Her tone was suspicious and accusing. Naruto sweat dropped. "Oh come on! I offer you the nine tail's CHAKRA! And you still doubt my intentions!? GOD!! You know what? Fine! I want you and any other machines that can fight to fight for me. That a good enough answer for ya!? You damn Idiot!!"

She glared and held out her hand. He raised an eyebrow.

"There are only three types of machines that can fight. Me, the Sentinels and a group of thirty Androids. All together that makes seventy Machines. We will fight for you Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto stopped in mid rant to face plant. "W-what!! I was joking!!"

"Well I'm not. Accept this term and you will have a group of loyal soldiers' superior to most fighters. I will even construct one of those…Summoning contracts for you so you can call upon us in the heat of battle."

"How the fuck do you even KNOW how to make a summoning scroll!?"

"You think you're the only one that's been studying? I saw the way your summoning art works. Such a simple space warping technique is easy to replicate."

Naruto stared at the machine for a good two minutes. It was amazing how patient she could be. She just stood there with her hand outstretched, waiting. Finally he sighed. But it wasn't one of annoyance or anything like that. It was actually a sigh to release that pent up energy that would have resulted in him shouting up to Kami at the top of his lungs in excitement.

He smiled and grasped her hand. "You got a deal," he said even though the Kyuubi chakra was going to get given to them anyway.

As soon as he finished that sentence, Sonny, Grievous and Sky-Net were in hi s face. "H-Hey you're too close!"

Sky Net's response was, "When she makes this contract, you're including me and my kind as well."

"Us as well," said Grievous.

Sonny grinned and said, "You didn't think I'd let you leave us out did you?"



And before Naruto could respond, all four of them were heading out towards The Deus Ex Machina's territory. "Hey wait up!" he called as he sprinted after them.

Naruto quickly learned two things when he agreed to let the Dues Ex Machina's machines attach him to a huge tower covered in open red pods so that they could drain him of the Kyuubi Chakra.

One: The Matrix was fuckin awesome! This was one genjutsu he'd love to experience again. The world here was literally a different reality. And he could do anything he wanted here!! But he knew that this was all an illusion so he spent his time there learning all he could as the world of the Matrix was a recreation of the era right before The Deus Ex Machina and her Machines took over. He learned a great deal.

Then there was the second thing Naruto had learned.

That tricking a demon fox into feeding his body with its chakra was a fastest way to greatly piss off a demon and fill his ass with fear as well. It had started simple enough. As soon as the machines stabbed into numerous parts of his body including the base of his skull in order to drain the energy, he was rendered unconscious. From then on he found himself wondering the recesses of his own mind and growling at the fact that it was designed as a damn sewer. It took him little time to locate the demon. All he had to do was follow the massive amount of heat, killing intent and rank ass demon breath.

What he saw honestly scared the shit out of him. The fox was unlike anything he'd ever seen. It was huge. Its teeth looked way too menacing and its eyes seemed to burn into his very soul. Red Chakra swirled around inside the cage like a barely restrained storm.

"Boy," it had begun.

"Come closer."

Like an idiot, he obeyed then screamed when a gigantic demon claw the size of a car nearly took his head off. The fox had chuckled.

"Hmm so you are my vessel. A pity. This seal keeps me from eating you alive. You should count yourself lucky."

"In those few seconds Naruto had gotten a good grasp on the demon's personality. Now he had to make a plan to get him to give up its chakra. It had to be devious, cunning and subtle.

"Oi Fox! Who do you think you are! Don't talk down to me! I'm here for one reason and one reason only. Your chakra! Give it to me now. After all you owe me rent for leeching off my body!"

Or Not.

At first there was silence. The after about six minutes the fox laughed. "Ha ha ha ha! The nerve of this pathetic weakling. To come in here and disturb my slumber like he's the superior being. Your courage and stupidity knows no bounds it seems. Fine take it and don't bother me again unless you're about to die."



But as soon as the chakra touched Naruto he knew something was wrong. But it was too late to withdraw the energy and the machines latched onto and zeroed in on the fox in seconds. For the next day Naruto's body was filled with pain and his eardrums were assaulted by the constant screaming of the great Kyuubi No Yoko as every ounce of chakra was drained from its body.

"What the hell did you do boy!! My Chakra!! No!!"

If Naruto wasn't writhing on the ground in pain he'd smart mouth the demon and say something like. "Ha! That's what your arrogant ass gets! Bastard! Now I dare anyone to try and force me to use your foul ass energy again!"

But since he was writhing on the ground in pain he couldn't say that.

Finally after a full day, all twenty four hours worth, the machines detached themselves from Naruto leaving the boy to fall into the Dues Ex Machina's arms. She just held Naruto for ten minutes, staring at his face. Watching with a blank face as his whisker marks became dull lines, barely visible on his cheeks.

Then she gently placed him down and turned towards the massive red sphere of energy encased in a magnetic stasis containment field. Machines were already building around it, making a type of generator that would distribute the demon's energy among her machines.

"Thank you," she said to the boy before she turned and walked into her territory. She had something to do.

Ten minutes later he woke up feeling like shit. But so much cleaner. It was something he couldn't really place his finger on. He sat up and rubbed the sore spots on his neck, arms and shoulders. There were big ugly bruises there but otherwise he was fine. He could still here the fox yelling in the back of his mind. "Shut up," he grumbled. "I didn't need your stupid chakra." He got to his feet and groaned again. "Jeez what'd they slap me around with hammers while they drained the fox?" he mumbled as he headed into the Machine territory of the Deus Ex Machina.

Where he bumped into Grievous, Sonny and Sky-Net.

"Oh, hey guys what's up?" he asked with a grin. The three machines said nothing but the direction they were looking in prompted him to look as well. There was The Deus Ex Machina. And seventy other Machines coming right at him.

Now Naruto was used to seeing androids, hanging out with Sky-Net and Sonny had allowed him to see plenty of those. But he hasn't really been into the female android's machines.

So the sight of thirty humanoid Machines holding laser rifles didn't really phase him at all.

But the sight of forty big multiple eyed, flying squid-like multiple insect like leg having machines looming over him caused him to gape.

"What the hell are those!?" he yelled.

The Dues Ex Machina smirked as she and her contingent approached him.



"These are the Sentinels," she said with a slight smile. The squid machines made a few acknowledging buzz noises. "They are excellent hunters. Noting with a heat signature can escape their senses and they are experts at Ariel combat."

Naruto took his time to examine the machines before him.

"And the androids are soldiers with great strategic ability. They are perfect for raids and taking out large groups of enemies. These are you new summons."

She unrolled a scroll and placed it down in front of him. The blonde still had trouble trying to figure out how the hell she managed to create a summoning contract but he shrugged and bit his finger and signed his name on the first blank space. Sky-Net, Sonny and Grievous approached him and said in unison, "We took a liberty of adding ourselves to this contract as well. When you perform the summoning a different machine will appear depending on the amount of chakra. The Ns-5s require the least amount of chakra, with the Droids coming in next, The Terminators are after that and finally the machines of the Deus Ex Machina. For the leaders of any of the machines requires a great deal more chakra. And since we do not have a big boss, a machine that represents us all you need not worry about using a huge amount of chakra. Though I suggest we build a machine stronger than all of us to represent us as a whole."

Naruto nodded, such a machine was already planned in his head. Then he voiced his thoughts on what they just said.

"Please never speak in sync like that again. That was waaaaayyyyy too creepy even for you guys."

They laughed.

The Deus Ex Machina rolled up the scroll and gave a dismissive wave. Her machines dispersed. "The contract is complete. Allow no one but your blood family to sign this contract or we will kill them."

Naruto shrugged. "Ain't like I got any blood family so you don't have to worry about that."

She nodded.

Naruto turned to the four machines in front of him. "I'm not usually good at this type of shit but I'll try." He gave a sheepish grin. "I would like to thank you all. I know you didn't have to help me out but you did anyway. I'm glad." He adjusted the scroll on his back. "And the things I was taught while down here have opened my brain to numerous possibilities I never thought existed before. Thanks to you guys I know I'm about to kick major ass in the exams. Neji ain't got a chance!"

He then looked up. "It starts soon. I should probably head back up to make sure no one thinks I'm dead. Wouldn't want anybody needlessly throwing parties now would we?"

The machines said nothing.

Naruto walked up to the Deus Ex Machina and gave her a hug before she could react. "Put that bastard fox's chakra to good use. I want you in top fighting form when I summon you."

She pushed him off. "Don't order me around."



"I wasn't jeez!"

He then looked to Sky-Net. "Don't know why you're such an ass but you're cool too." Sky-Net glared but there was no malice in his eyes.

Naruto turned to Grievous next. "I think I can build a light saber of my own now. Could you help me out?" When the machine nodded he gave a smile.

And last but not least was Sonny. Naruto gave this robot a huge grin. "I'm glad I was tossed down here." He said. "Because I never would have met a good friend like you if I wasn't. Thanks." The robot looked like he wanted to cry. Naruto gave each machine one last look then smiled as he headed back into the city.

Two days later Naruto stood with a smile before the entire machine populous of the city. The crowd was huge, consisting mostly of Ns-5's and the Deus Ex Machina's machines but he could see Sky-Net, brood and Grievous's army in there as well. All of them were silent and staring at him and Naruto could see the glow of the Kyuubi chakra flowing through them like blood, keeping their systems charged way better then electricity or sun light ever could. His clothing was vastly different than the orange jumpsuit he was wearing right before Jiraiya threw him down there and he could honestly say it was a huge improvement.

"Well," he began to the machines.

"I'm outta here! Take care of yourselves and learn to get along! Societies don't survive if everybody's too busy fighting each other!" There was a roar of approval from the Machines. Naruto grinned and climbed onto the black Motorcycle from before and with a strong kick to the starter, brought it to life. He gave another smile and revved the engine a few times.

"Wait."

"Huh?"

He looked confused as Grievous approached him and took off his cape.

"Take this apprentice and make me proud to have given it to you. Make us all proud!" He then draped the cape over a stunned Naruto's shoulders, ignoring the machines as they cheered again. Naruto felt like blubbering like a little kid and gave the machine a hug before he could react, just like with the Deus Ex Machina.

"I will. That's the promise of a lifetime!"

Naruto fastened the cape to his shoulders and gave a yell as he revved his motorcycle as loud as he could and put it into gear.

"Chunin finals here I come!!" he screamed at the top of his lungs as the bike shot into the air, releasing a trail of blue in its wake as it shot through the air and into the tunnel that brought Naruto to this city in firsts place.

The machines just looked on until the sound of the engine could be heard no longer.

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So how was that? I tried not to rush the chapter but tried not to drag it out either. I hope you enjoyed it.