VanDread The Fox

by Freedom Guard

Yet another creation of mine using Naruto, the Megele crew strike out at the Ikazuchi, unaware that there is a new person in the ship who is a man, but NOT one of the men of Talark.

4. Filling In

VanDread : The Fox

Disclaimer: I don't own the companies that make Naruto and VanDread, if I did, I wouldn't bother making this story.

Chapter 3

Fitting in…

( ): Thoughts

…

The pirates were currently trying to get used to the myriad of changes all throughout the ship and it was not going to be an easy situation for everyone. However, there had been some radical changes that had happened only hours after the battle with the unknown enemy that decided to jump them for no apparent reason. The first was the fact that Magno had announced that the men had to be integrated into the crew in order for them to better understand the ship as well as head home to their respective home system. The men were no longer prisoners but full members of the crew with Duero handling the medical department and Bart being the navigator of the ship.

These decisions were made due to the fact the former had proven to be a skilled doctor, even more so than their current medical professional Paiway, and the latter was due to the fact that for some reason that still baffled everyone, including the engineer, the ship would only move when Bart was in command of the Navigation well. This naturally didn't quite sit well with the rest of the crew since they were not too happy with the idea of the men being onboard.

The only male who was not in the same viewing point of the two Talark youths was none other than the blonde self proclaimed Shinobi Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki. The blonde was what Magno mentioned a special case and therefore was not under the rules that the crew had for the men and of the rules their people had for men in general. The blonde didn't seem to be bothered by that and mostly kept to himself and would be routinely found in the area assigned to the men and in the Vanguard paddock where his new Vanguard was being kept.

He had taken part in rescuing both Dita and Gascogne when they had been left behind at the wreckage of the alien ship after the Paeksis dragged the ship away and into a nebula, and had done so without any hesitation whatsoever. This had endeared him to the red haired Dread pilot Dita who was more than willing to do everything to get close to the blonde male.

The other reason as to why they were taken into the crew was that the aliens had began an operation known as Harvest and it was involving the total invasion of both Talark and Megele and while the pirates had no loyalty to either world, it was not in their best interest to let the two worlds fall and they had to return home as soon as possible.

Of course, that hardly meant that it was going to be smooth sailing from here on out.

…

In the men's section…

Naruto was happy to have a room of his own for now, he pointed out that it would be better this way since while he didn't mind hanging out with Duero and Bart since they were fellow men like him, he was not sure that it was a wise idea until they got used to him being a man but far different from them.

The room had a spare bunk in it some basic amenities and a shower room, for which he was thankful since he certainly needed it. This section of the ship had been given to the men by the Captain and since it was connected to some of the old colony sections, it suited their purposes just fine.

As soon as he was done tidying up the place a bit, he sat down and removed most of his outfit until he was only wearing his black undershirt with his shorts, he had also taken off his forehead protector, coat, kunai pouch, shuriken and scroll pack and his swords, placing them to the side. The blonde had learned early on in his married life to start cleaning up after himself to make his place more presentable when he became Hokage. While Hinata didn't mind doing some of the household chores, having done that in her younger days even when servants were about, he tried to even up the workload for his wife.

And that was due to both Temari and Sakura making sure that he cleaned up after himself…after making sure that he got the message to not turn his place into a pigsty with a few well placed whacks on the back of the head. They cared for him a lot but they didn't hesitate to remind him that as a Hokage, he had to be a man of class, not to mention that when he was a clan head and a father, he had to be good example to his kids.

It took a while but he accepted that and always did his best to clean up, much to the appreciation of his wives when they were still alive, and besides, after a while, he got used to doing that a lot since it made good sense with him being a Hokage as well as a clan head.

The blonde groaned a bit and felt his stomach growl loudly as it occurred to him that he had spent the whole day without eating.

(Man…I forgot I haven't eaten a thing in a while, man…this stinks, anyway, I better go and find the ship's kitchen and hope that the women there don't freak out at the sight of a man coming to eat their food.)

He didn't have to worry as a certain someone came to his room, and that certain someone had something that was going to perk him up real quick.

"Mr. Alien!"

Dita Liebely arrived and had with her a bento, she had wanted to surprise Naruto with a meal from Megele as she wanted to show to her first contact that women were not really bad people, and she knew that good food would help. As soon as she was before the blonde, she presented the bento to him and spoke.

"Here! I made something really nice for you Mr. Alien!"

Naruto looked and quickly recognized just what exactly was it that Dita was carrying and his eyes glittered and his smile grew even wider the second he picked up a whiff of the smells coming from the thing.

(Is that…YES! HONEST TO KAMI FOOD!)

"Is that…food? Honest to Kami food?"

The redhead nodded and took out a set of chopsticks and a spoon and fork and sat next to Naruto and asked him a question.

"Which do you want to use Mr. Alien?"

Naruto pointed to the chopsticks and she gave them to him and unwrapped the bento, Naruto looked and his eyes glowed with happiness the second he smelled the rice, the beef slices there cooked in just the right fashion, and the fish as well. He wasted no time and spoke out his happiness in finally getting the kind of food he enjoyed.

"Thank you so much! Time to eat!"

Naruto took the chopsticks and wasted no time and ate the food, the very second his taste buds were greeted with the taste and feel of hot cooked food, the blonde felt like he had gone to paradise and relished each bite like it was his last. It didn't take very long before the bento box was completely empty and the blonde was not yet done as he placed aside his chopsticks and licked the box clean of any food particles left.

As soon as he was done, he felt his body literally sing with delight at the feel of food going down into it and his smile was warm and strong. As soon as he was done, he looked at Dita and smiled warmly at her as he reached out and held her hands and was bowing down in happiness, much to the surprise of the red haired Megele girl who had never seen a man act like this before.

"Thank you so much! I have not tasted anything that good in a very long time! Did you make this?"

Dita nodded and replied.

"I made it for you Mr. Alien, I learned how to cook a long time ago and thought that I can show you that we women are not bad people."

Naruto grinned at that as he found the redhead's innocence to be really nice and refreshing, he could tell that unlike the others, with the exception of the elderly captain, that she was an open minded girl and very kind hearted. He found that to be very endearing, combining that with her undeniably attractive face and body, it was a potent combination. He however placed that aside for a better time and replied.

"I can see that, and I am impressed, you are a great cook Dita."

The young woman smiled warmly at the praise and replied.

"Thank you Mr. Alien, if you want I can make you some more food when you want."

"That would be nice, but wouldn't that be taking away most of your time?"

"Not really, I usually spend time reading books, learning things from Ezra, and being with my friend Paiway."

The conversation stopped when Naruto's stomach growled once more, much to the blonde's embarrassment as he realized that his body now craved more food and he knew his own appetite was rather large, still, it galled him a bit to have his stomach act like this before such an attractive girl. His wives didn't mind that as they found it funny, and he was a lot older now so it took a lot to embarrass him, but it still embarrassed him either way.

"Sorry, it's been so long since I've had food like that…"

Dita smiled warmly and replied.

"No worries, how about I take you to the galley and you can have all the food you can eat, we've got a lot of supplies when we were still in the base after all."

Naruto's smile grew even wider and for the first time in nearly forty six years, the blonde smiled in the same manner he did when he had a very interesting plan in mind.

…

In the galley…

The women were looking totally wide eyed and couldn't help but look on in shocked fascination, and who could blame them as one table in the area was now playing host to a soon rising array of plates with it having only two occupants with one of them eating like mad.

Naruto was gorging away on the food that he was able to get when he came into the galley with Dita behind him after wearing his pants and sandals. The very second he and Dita walked into the galley, he was nearly driven to hysteria at the sudden assault of the smells of cooking meat, vegetables and the like. He moved and he was literally drooling at the sight of all the food which were on conveyer belts and had calorie tags on them. Even though he loved ramen a great deal and that hardly disappeared, he did develop a love for other foods during his growing up years and had kept his promise to his mother to eat vegetables and other things as well. And after being forced to eat tasteless nutrient pills for six months…this chance to eat well made food was heaven to him!

And right now, he was eating dish after dish and piling the plates, after he ate one dish, he got out of his chair and ate another and sat back down to eat once more. At this rate, he had now eaten at least twenty plates worth of dishes, and he also managed to get up and get a glass to drink as much water and cool herbal tea.

Dita was amazed at how much Mr. Alien could eat right before her eyes and couldn't help but notice that despite eating that much food, he didn't seem to be getting any fat on him whatsoever.

Jura was stunned and so was Barnette as they looked at Naruto eating away while Paiway looked on with surprise all over her face while her jaw dropped as well. They were not alone as several of the crew looked on as the blonde male was eating enough food to feed them all for a week.

One thought was in the minds of all the women…

(How is he doing that?)

The blonde Dread pilot looked at the man who ate away and spoke out.

"How on Earth is he able to eat that much and not burst at the seams?"

The blonde Dread pilot always watched her weight and that was why she ate only light and non fattening food, though she did enjoy a heavy meal every now and then. So to see this guy packing away enough food to feed the Dread Squadrons for a week and seemingly not getting sick was something she had never thought she would ever see.

Barnette was looking on in shock as she had her spoon half way to her mouth when she spotted the man walk in, she was not happy to see the man walk in even though they had been integrated into the crew by the Captain and she thought that he was not going to understand what this place was and what the women were doing here, no doubt the men were so used to eating pills that he had no idea what cooked food was.

Imagine her shock when the man got a pair of dishes, sat down, took out a pair of chopsticks as if he knew how to use them, and began to eat…those two dishes, one having sliced beef in light sauce with roasted potatoes and some carrots, and the other having sliced tuna sushi, squid balls, steamed celery, and string beans were but the first in a now growing number of plates on the man's table.

She had to admit that she was in agreement with Jura as she placed down her spoon and looked at the man in shock and spoke.

"I don't know…I thought the men only ate pills!"

Paiway looked on and soon moved to Dita and soon spoke to her young friend as soon as she was next to the redhead.

"Dita, how is he eating that much? I thought that men only ate pills."

Dita replied to that with a smile.

"Mr. Alien is different Paiway, he loves cooked food."

Naruto placed down his plate and looked at Paiway and gave the young Megele nurse a grin and replied.

"I'm not from Talark actually, I have been waiting for the chance to eat honest to Kami cooked food, and I am very happy to have this chance to finally eat some very good cooked food. I have to thank your friend Dita for making my day and giving me that pack lunch…oh my name is Naruto, Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki, what's yours?"

Paiway didn't know what to say until she replied.

"My name is Paiway, and I have been Dita's friend for a long time now, ever since we joined the pirates."

"Really? Well you're very lucky Paiway-chan, to have Dita as a friend, she's very kind and friendly to have actually taken the time to bring a meal to me in my room."

This surprised both Paiway and Dita with the two looking at one another. Paiway was very surprised to hear a man actually complimenting her for having Dita as a friend while Dita herself felt happy that Naruto was complimenting her for being a good friend to Paiway as she and the others continued to look at the blonde put away the food before him.

They were not the only ones looking though…

…

In the bridge…

Ezra was amazed as she looked at the screen.

"Oh my…he can really eat."

She and the other bridge crew were also looking on in shock, one of them, a blonde by the name of Belvedere Coco spoke out.

"How can a man actually eat that much food?"

Her fellow bridge operation, a dark skinned woman with her hair in long dreadlocks by the name of Amarone also spoke out at the sight before her and the others.

"He's an eating machine of the likes I've never seen before!"

Even Buzam had to agree with the statements of the three women who were looking at the sight before them all as she also spoke to the elderly Captain who was looking at the blonde eating machine.

"I have to agree, I've never seen anyone eat the way he is right now nor pack away the amounts, by all rights he should have passed out from eating that much food in one go."

The elderly woman nodded in agreement though she did have a smile of amusement on her face as she looked at the man digging away and piling plate after plate of food.

"Well, we can't exactly fault him, he did say that he had go without real food for six months so I am not surprised that he's willing to eat like a black hole. Though I have to agree with what you all have stated, it's been a long time since I've seen a man, but I've never recalled seeing a man who can eat like this young one here."

Buzam then spoke to the Captain, she was a bit wary of Naruto, after witnessing his…Kage Bunshin in action and also seeing him use his Vanguard in battle, she had a feeling that he had a lot more things hidden about himself. She was not keen on finding that out yet as she needed to take her time in figuring things out more effectively before making a move of her own.

"Captain, I don't mean to sound offensive, but I still feel that this Naruto is hiding a lot about himself. The fact that he knows things about us women is a bit odd, what would a man like that be doing in Talark of all places?"

"I understand your wariness BC and I do rely on it a lot when things become too murky for us to be walking into. This Naruto is definitely going to be a handful, and the fact that he treats women differently is no doubt going to be a real shocker to the rest of the crew, and I can't even begin to guess how the two men from Talark are going to view him. Still, he has helped us willingly and shows no hostility to the crew so we should at least show him respect. Besides, I have a feeling that he hides those things about himself for a good reason, and if he is the genuine article as a Shinobi, he keeps secrets because it's what keeps him alive and breathing."

"I suppose…however, I hope that he doesn't do this often, we might have enough supplies to feed our crew, but we never took to account having a man with a black hole for a stomach."

Magno chuckled at that.

…

Later in the galley…

Naruto placed down the cut of herbal tea and gave a loud sigh of utter satisfaction.

"Yes….NOW I feel much better!"

The women were still there, looking in shock and some level of relief at the fact that the man had finally stopped eating like mad and that allowed them look at the plates. The plates were in a very high pile, numbering at least thirty dishes in total and all of them were licked clean as the blonde youth had used his tongue to clean the dishes of every trace of food, showing just how much he missed eating food.

Dita counted the dishes and smiled widely.

"Wow! You ate thirty meals Mr. Alien, are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm all right, I would have eaten more had the food been ramen."

"Ramen? Is that your favorite food Mr. Alien?"

The blonde smiled warmly at that and gave her his answer to that question.

"Yeah I love ramen a great deal, and I eat it almost everyday, but I do eat other foods every now and then. Still, if there is any ramen here, I would really love to taste it again."

Dita saw the wishful expression on Naruto's face and decided to try and see if this will help her get to know Naruto a lot more. Besides, she did know some ways in cooking ramen though there were not that many people in Megele who cooked ramen and she was lucky that her parents taught her how to cook ramen as well.

"If you want, I can cook you some ramen Mr. Alien, I'll try and make you some that you like."

Naruto looked at Dita with wide eyes and saw that she was not kidding and he very happy to hear that she was actually willing to do that. And Naruto MISSED ramen, the food he had already was great and he was full, but the idea of actually getting the chance to eat ramen after being denied the food for six months was WAY too good a temptation for him to say no to.

"You'd actually cook ramen for me? Wow, thanks! But are you sure you have time for that?"

Dita smiled and nodded.

"Don't worry Mr. Alien, I'll do my best for you."

Naruto smiled and did something surprising to the others, he hugged Dita!

"Thanks Dita-chan! You're a really nice woman, well, I should get going and fix up my Vanguard, I now have the energy I need to do the repairs and upgrades! Bye!"

The blonde left and Dita smiled warmly as she could see that Naruto was indeed happy that she was willing to make him his favorite food and she hoped that he would find her cooking of ramen to be to his liking. She also wondered why she felt a bit…warm when she was hugged by Naruto, she then noticed that all of the women in the galley were looking at her oddly and with some level of shock.

"Hey, what wrong?"

Jura replied to that.

"What's wrong? He just hugged you Dita! You need to take a decontamination bath quick!"

"Huh?"

…

Later…

"YAAAAAAHHHHH! SO COLD!"

Dita cried out as she was in the shower room in her undergarments as she was being decontaminated in her home-world's fashion by Paiway while Jura and Barnette were there. The blonde Dread pilot turned to the young nurse and spoke.

"Is she clear now Paiway?"

"Just about."

Dita then spoke out.

"Paiway! Please let me out already, this water is really cold! And I have to keep my promise to Mr. Alien to make him his favorite food!"

Paiway replied to that.

"Just a few more minutes Dita! Once all the male germs are gone!"

Meia soon arrived and was surprised to see the whole situation that was going on before her.

"What is going on here?"

Jura filled the aqua haired Dread Squadron leader and when she was done, Meia looked at Jura with an incredulous look and spoke out.

"You mean to tell me that the man had eaten THAT much food in one setting?"

"Yeah, we were surprised by the whole thing ourselves."

"And then you decided to have Dita take this decontamination bath after that blonde male hugged her?"

"Yes, she's almost done though."

It was then that Magno and Buzam came in and the elderly woman told them to put a stop to the whole thing as Dita seemed to be all right and it would be best that she warms up and gets to relax. The elderly woman had to admit that her crew might have taken their reaction to seeing Dita being hugged by Naruto as a sign of his thanks a bit overboard, but she actually found the whole thing both endearing and humorous at the very same time.

As soon as Dita was fully warmed up and feeling a lot less cold, she went back to work in trying to find the right kind of ramen recipe to give Naruto.

…

As for the blonde, he was busy working on his Vanguard to try and fix some of the things that was in the machine due to the sudden transformation of the machine by the Paeksis hours before. With his stomach full and his desire for cooked food calmed for the first time in six months ever since coming to this world, he had more than enough energy to do the things he set himself to do for this day.

He was back to wearing his usual gear and carried his weapons after making his way back to his room and then picked up a tool box and headed off to work. It had been a while since he fiddled with a Vanguard but he kept the knowledge and was happy that the Paeksis didn't alter his Vanguard too much so he could do some serious work soon. And he had to admit his Vanguard no longer looked dorky and boxy, something that the disliked in the original Vanguards even though they were effective.

No matter how old he got, Naruto still believed in looking impressive to surprise and impress the audience and at least his Vanguard was both effective and classy.

…

After several hours, Naruto decided to take some time off after doing enough work on his Vanguard and find something to do in the meantime. He placed aside his tool box and headed off to the place where he could at least get a chance to work out. It had been a while since he had some chance to put his combat skills to good use and see if he can keep himself from getting rusty. It took him a while but he finally found the gym and it seems that a number of the Nirvana's security teams were there as well as a number of the Dread pilots, including the blonde babe Jura. Naruto was hoping for some privacy to keep some of his more lethal skills as a Shinobi in check, so this somewhat annoyed him.

However, being the upbeat guy that he was, he decided to bid his time and see just what these women were capable of in close combat, he had already sparred with a number of highly skilled Kunoichi in his time and he was married to three of the best in his home village of Konoha, as well as fought with and against a few others as well.

So far it seemed that the women had some combat skills, but apparently it was not up to the Shinobi standard, heck even when he was his grand kids' age was not too bad in Taijutsu though he was not at the level of Neji, Rock Lee, or eve Sasuke at the time. He had improved ever since and was toted by one of the best in the village though he hardly made it worth mentioning, he had picked up some combat tips from both Sakura and Hinata as well so he was able to employ some of the techniques they had into his arsenal though he doubted he could replicate his Hinata-chan's Byakugan style of fighting due to not having the Byakugan like she and her family did, nor did he have the full power that Sakura-chan had though his Sage Mode and years of training had improved his level of physical strength.

As he watched the mock battles going on, he could tell that the close combat skills of the pirates might work in some cases, but hardly in others as the training sessions went on. It was then that one of the security personnel looked at the blonde Shinobi and wondered just what he was doing here of all things.

The woman in question was Jen Kazuma, she was a tall woman and was at the same height as Jura herself but had her light blonde hair in a long tail and she was equally gifted in the figure and bust department. She was one of the leaders of the security teams onboard the Nirvana and was considered to be fairly good in the department of hand to hand combat with only Meia, due to her past life in the mean streets of Megele being the better of the two. Jen was a former police officer on Megele and left because she got tired of the antics of her fellow women and decided to join the pirates.

She was good and had actually met Meia before, but she doubted the younger girl remembered her, unlike the other women who scorned Meia in the past, the older security officer had sympathy for the Dread pilot. But after seeing how the young woman had changed, she decided not to bring it up that she actually knew the Dread pilot. However, she did have her pride as a woman of Megele and didn't like the idea of men being on the ship.

"Hey you!"

Naruto turned and saw the woman calling his attention and he had to admit that she was not bad looking either, or rather, she was very attractive in her own right. He came to the conclusion that since the women of Megele were left to procreate with one another, then it would make sense that they would breed the best traits from the female gender, which explained why the women here were all attractive as hell.

He could bet that a lot of the men in his world would have been more than willing to trade their left nut to be in a situation like this. But considering how the women of Megele saw men, he had very accurate doubts that the woman was calling him over for a friendly chat. And he was right as he spoke back to the woman.

"Yes? Can I help you with something?"

"What are you doing here in the gym?"

"I came here to get some time for myself, work out and test my Taijutsu skills as well as Kenjutsu skills as well, I have to keep myself sharp after all."

Jen looked at the man and decided to see if what she heard about this man was true, as a former police officer, she didn't like criminals all that much and assassins were in her mind the epitome of criminal. Added to the fact that the assassin was a man, made the woman eager to see just what this man was capable of.

"Really? So you have some skills in combat?"

Naruto looked at the blonde security officer with some level of curiosity on why she was asking him that question of all things. He decided to answer her question in order to find out just what she was driving at.

"I do have skills in combat, why are you asking?"

"Why don't you show us your skills as a fighter then so we can see if you have them in a match, or are you not willing to do so in front of us?"

Naruto easily detected the challenge there in the woman's voice and wondered if he should, the blonde knew that this could work in a number of ways. But being the confident guy that he was, he decided to accommodate them. He got off from where he was sitting and moved to the practice mat and was soon in front of Jen who was soon flanked by her fellow security team members. The women were all eager to see just how this man would be able to stand to their leader and they grinned as the blonde was now on the practice mat.

As soon as he was there, the blonde Shinobi began to get his mind into the battle that might erupt, he might have been calm on the outside, but he was already keeping an eye on the other women, there was no telling if one or all of them were going to suddenly blind side him if given the chance, as well as focusing his senses into the environment around him as well as the women who apparently were taking a loose formation around him, usually the kind associated with an all area attack.

He looked squarely as Jen and spoke.

"What exactly are you asking from me anyway…wait, I didn't get your name."

"The name is Jen, Jen Kazuma and I happen to be one of the leaders of the Security Teams here on the ship. I heard that you were a Shinobi right?"

Naruto grinned with pride at that and nodded.

"Yep, and one of the best by far where I come from!"

"Right…why don't you and I see if you can prove that, you're skills against mine, and afterwards, let's see how you can fight all of my team at once?"

"There's a reason for this I take it?"

Jen smiled and replied to that question from the blonde Shinobi.

"I just want to see how good you are, and how you handle being hit all at once."

The blonde gave the woman a smile and nodded.

"All right then, your move."

Jen grinned and launched a punch at the ninja and replied.

"You got that right!"

However, that did not work out the way she expected as her punch was easily evaded by the blonde Shinobi while he stayed in position and he launched a light strike to her chest, not hard enough to hurt her badly of course, but enough to send her back with some considerable force. Naruto quickly got himself on the ready as he had no doubt that this was but the beginning.

…

Later…

Naruto looked about while keeping himself at the ready as the women in Jen Kazuma's group were now on the mats and were looking a bit worse for wear. After all, they had just fought a former Hokage, Jinchuuriki, and a Sannin as well. Jen had gotten up and quickly tried to attack with a one-two attack consisting of a punch and a kick to the side, Naruto turned the punch aside and ducked downwards enough to evade the kick, he quickly grabbed the extended leg of the woman and then tossed the woman over himself. The blonde ninja was soon on his feet as Jen rolled herself back to her feet and tried to attack with several more punches and kicks, but the attacks proved to be useless as the Ninja was able to counter her attacks and take her down a third time. It was not long before the others in the woman's security team decided to get into the act.

Two women tried to attack him together but Naruto quickly bypassed their attacks and flipped over them, landing on his feet behind them and hitting them quickly, placing them to the mat. Another tried to attack him at the right, Naruto countered by moving right past her and at the same time while driving a knee strike into her stomach, he then rolled over her bent form and landed a kick to the chest of another attacker and sent her back. Another female charged with a ready Laser Ring, but the Shinobi was quickly moving towards her before she could fire and quickly caught her arm and threw her back into the two he had beaten earlier, sending all three women sprawling to the ground.

Another pair came and managed to grab him, but the blonde quickly used some of his strength to move one aside off of her feet and then does the same to the other woman and leaps into action, plating two kicks to send the women back. The last attacker tried to attack the blonde Ninja while he was on the ground, but Naruto quickly gets to his feet with a flip and then rolls forward, forcing the woman to follow him when he turns around and lands a open palm strike to force her back away from him and he then moved in and lashed out with several strikes with his fingers in the same style as Hinata and Neji, the attacks quickly stunned the last attacker and sent her to the ground.

Naruto relaxed himself and looked at the women who he had just beaten and noted that they were all looking at him with shocked eyes as they had even managed to land a single blow on him at all and he had managed to overpower all of them in a few minutes. Jen looked at the blonde male who had just beaten her in a very short time, with shock and some level of resentment; however, she had to admit that the man was actually quite skilled in battle and had proven that he was quite good in a fight.

Nevertheless, her pride as a woman of Megele was strong and she couldn't help but feel her resentment grow at the thought of being bested by a man. She looked at him as he moved over and offered his hand and spoke to her.

"It was a good fight Jen-san, but I think you and your fellow team members might need to retrain a bit more, I can…"

Jen snarled and knocked away his hand and got up and dusted herself and looked at the blonde who looked at her with some level of disappointment and replied.

"Don't give me that look, you might have beaten me and my team, but I have no intention of letting this slide."

Naruto however smiled and replied.

"All right then Jen-san, if you want a rematch, then by all means I'll be waiting for the call, but if you want, I can teach you some moves as well."

Jen looked at the man and nodded as she and her crew left, Naruto looked at them and though a perverted side of his nature admired the figures, he had a feeling that he might have made some new enemies among the women. He hoped that he could iron things out between him and Jen, the last thing he wanted was to make enemies when he was there to make them to begin with at all. He looked about and since no one in the room seemed interested to fight him in a sparring match, he sighed and decided to focus on his Kenjutsu skills to keep his skills razor sharp on the off chance that he would need to fight a foe with bladed weapons.

He took off his coat and placed it down and reached behind him to take out both of his swords and place one on a nearby rack, he then got ready to begin his Kenjutsu training. He had started learning Kenjutsu when Koyuki gave him these swords as a wedding gift when they were married. The blonde had no experience with swords and had no idea how to use the swords but he talked to both Yamato and Kakashi had used swords in the past and eventually was trained by his friend Killer Bee in the art of sword play, namely with two swords.

It took a while but he learned more than enough to hold his own, though he doubted he would ever be in his friend Bee's level of Kenjutsu skills. He then began to go through the motions and after a while was getting into the swing of things as it were in his training with the sword he had with him. It was when he stopped briefly that he noticed that the blonde Dread pilot had moved forward and was actually looking at his other sword with a very open eye of curiosity and interest.

Jura might not show it much but she had a very deep fascination with swords, in her younger days back on Megele, she had taken a fascination with swords when she saw an old film about female swordsmen and decided to try her hand at it. She enrolled in one of the few prestigious fencing schools on Megele, which while prestigious did not have serious students in their roster who were interested in the art of sword dueling.

She later developed a talent for it and her coach, after three years of training the future blonde Dread pilot, declared that out of the students who were under her, Jura was by far the best one she had ever taught. This made Jura beam with pride and while she was not happy with not being able to find other women who had the same level of skill she had with swords, she didn't mind at all, she also developed an eye for appreciating not just the things that most if not all women of her home planet loved, but also for well made blades, even though there were not that many makers of such things on Megele.

She looked at the sword the blonde carried and noted that the blade quality was very good and no doubt whoever made it was an expert in the art of sword making and she had to give the person credit as well. She had seen many swords in her time in the fencing school and therefore, she knew quality work when she saw it.

(Nicely made, it looks as if it's more of a fine painting or a sculpture than an actual sword, where did this man get such a weapon?)

It was then that she noted that the blonde man in question was now right in front of her and giving her a smile, no doubt noticing her appreciation for one of the swords he had with him.

"You like the sword?"

Jura admitted that she did and replied.

"Yes I do, it's very well made and the metal looks to be top quality for sword-making."

"Thanks, by the way, I guess we were not really introduced that well, the name is Naruto, Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki, and you are?"

Jura smirked and replied.

"The name is Jura, Jura Basil Elden to you, normally I don't really have time for this, but I want to see just how good you are, and this time, it's with swords."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that and saw that the gorgeous blonde carried a sword on her person and while it was certainly not like the various swords carried by many ninja that he had met in his long career as the Hokage in Konoha, he could tell that it was not a show piece, but a real weapon. He looked at the beautiful blonde and wondered just what he was going to do, he certainly couldn't harm her as who knew what the result might be if he did something like accidentally harm her.

"Are you suggesting to me that we fight one another with blades? No offense meant or anything, but why do you want to do that?"

The blonde replied.

"I just want to see how good you are, I already saw your skills in hand to hand, so why don't I see you use your sword then? Just so we're clear, I do know how to use a sword so I might be a more interesting challenge for you."

Naruto could tell that Jura was serious about her desire to spar with him and he nodded, hopping that he was not going to land into a situation that was really going to get him into hot water with the people on the ship.

As the two of them faced one another, Naruto decided to fight with only one sword as the swords given to him by Koyuki were usable as a single weapon or in a pair with the other sword, he moved to a two handed grip and waited as Jura took out her sword and got into some sort of fighting position where she had her left leg in an L style formation allowing him to see both of her well formed legs as they were revealed by the slits on her dress while she placed her sword in front of her face with the flat edge before her in what he could guess was some sort of salute, she then moved her sword to point at him while moving her free hand back and she was ready to fight with him.

Naruto had no idea what to make of what Jura was doing in front of him but he could see that she was very serious as he readied his sword. The two faced one another with Jura smiling warmly and Naruto couldn't help but smile at the blonde babe, and that moment, Naruto and Jura attacked one another.

The blonde sword users began quickly trading slashes and thrusts with one another while they blocked, evaded, and parried the attacks that they sent at one another as well. The two were dueling with one another very well as their battle soon drew the attention of the rest of the crew who were in the gym. Naruto and Jura were very much fighting in full focus on one another though Naruto was having a hard time in keeping his focus on the woman who he was sparing with.

And it was for a very good reason as the way they were moving against one another in both offense and defense made the blonde Dread pilot's body move in a way that was guaranteed to be VERY distracting. Her more than considerable bust would move with her and bounce, which was REALLY distracting, couple that with the fact that her long skirt would move about to show her long and well formed legs to his eyes as well as her hips, and also the way her body looked with her smile, and her hair moving about, it was a wonder that he was not suffering a case of tight pants right now.

The blonde Shinobi had to use a great deal of his long earned self discipline not to lose too early with this duel with the woman but that was not easy as he was easily being distracted by the woman's beauty while they fought with one another and he had to do his best not to leer at the blonde beauty as he crossed blades with her.

In Jura's case, she was enjoying herself as she realized that she found someone who could actually prove to be a real challenge to her with swords as she was now using a good portion of her fencing training to fight with the man who was proving to be very capable. And when he attacked her with his sword, she had to use her skills to a high level to defend against his attacks. She enjoyed this fight and made it obvious as she smiled warmly at the blonde who she noted seemed to be blushing form some reason or another.

The battle between the two blondes lasted for quite a while now and it was not going to be long before one of them had to give. It was not long before both blonde sword users stopped fighting one another and began to pant a little, Jura had never been pushed that hard before in fencing but she liked the feeling as the adrenaline was still flowing in her veins and she liked that feeling as she panted a little while smiling at the blonde Shinobi.

Naruto himself couldn't help but smile while blushing as he had to admit that despite the fact that the blonde babe was breathing hard from the results of their sparring, she still looked undeniably hot and he couldn't help but have his more perverted self take over as he couldn't help but begin thinking VERY improper thoughts towards the blonde Dread pilot.

However he managed to recover himself as Jura saluted him and smiled warmly while saying something to him.

"You're pretty good with a blade for a man, but I can bet I can beat you again, I just have to dust up my skills once more, and then we can REALLY see who is better skilled with a blade. Bye!"

The blonde Dread pilot moved away and she moved with a sway in her step while moving her blonde hair aside, allowing Naruto to get a good view of her back as well as her hips as well as her well shaped butt. Couple the delicious view of the blonde babe's backside with what he had already seen, and it was a sight that Naruto was going to enjoy playing again and again in his own mind as he had a number of rather perverted ideas and he couldn't help but mentally whistle at the blonde woman.

(Damn…she is HOT!)

Naruto quickly noted that the blonde was soon greeted by the sight of the green haired woman who walked over to the blonde babe and they were talking and soon the emerald haired woman walked over to him with the blonde woman in tow and the two were soon before the blonde. The emerald haired woman glared at the ninja and spoke out seriously.

"You fought with my friend?"

Naruto replied to that as diplomatically as he could as he could tell that the emerald haired woman was seriously not happy.

"I didn't fight your friend seriously, she asked to spar with me using her sword while I used one of mine, I agreed and that is why we were sparring with one another."

Jura then replied.

"Sorry about that, Barnette is rather protective of me after all."

"I can see that."

Naruto had to admit that this Barnette was also attractive in his own way of seeing women and she certainly had the face to go with the figure. She was not as…well developed in the chest department as her blonde friend, but she was hardly lacking and wore and outfit that would REALLY added some serious fuel to a man's hormones, just like his at the moment. But he could tell that she was not very happy with her friend associating with him, so no doubt that she was one of the women who believed what her people said about men.

(Damn shame that one. But still, despite the I hate men look she's got on, she's hot.)

It was then that Naruto decided to try a train of thought that he knew would have gotten him into serious hot water with women who were friends, but considering that the two of them came from an all female planet, it was possible, but there was only one way to find out.

"So you two are friends, are you CLOSE friends?"

The blonde smiled warmly and replied to that question.

"Oh yes we are, we joined the pirates together."

"I see…"

Barnette looked at the blonde with some wariness, not exactly sure what was the reason he had taken this train of questions and decided to reply.

"Yes we're close to one another, we're lovers in fact, is there anything wrong with that?"

To their surprise, the blonde didn't look shocked and instead his smile became more…odd, and he replied.

"None whatsoever, I can guess that being from an all female planet can do that to you two so I'm not surprised. Couple that fact with both your figures and good looks, I can bet that things between you two can get VERY interesting when you two get to have some private time together."

"You're not troubled by that?"

Naruto replied to that.

"Not at all, truth be told, I actually find the idea of two women being intimate to be…well exciting. That's probably because I've had…experiences with some women before who were in some ways like you two, and I've been around women before so I don't get surprised that easily when it comes to women. I'm not from Talark by most standards so I don't see women the way they do by any standard of their world. I do KNOW more things about relationships that can occur between men and women that have nothing to do with killing one another of course…but that's best saved for another time."

With that, Naruto got his swords and walked away, Jura and Barnette looked at him curiously while Barnette still had some level of hostility towards the blonde male. She had arrived there and despite the fury in the sparring matches she had witnessed she had seen the way the blonde male looked at Jura and she didn't like it, what also confused her was that he looked at her the same way, and that…was a bit disturbing to the emerald haired woman.

As for Jura, her interest was piqued.

As Naruto walked away, he was quick to have some very interesting images involving the two women doing what he now knew they did in private and grinned perversely to himself. He had seen those images before…after all, being married to more than one woman in his past life had allowed to see what women could do to one another when they were able to develop an intimate attraction to one another. He had seen that happen between Sakura, Hinata, Amaru, Temari, and Shion and they did it because they wanted to make him happy as well as finding it exciting themselves on their free time. Of course he had partaken in said activities as well with them in the past so that was why he was hardly bothered by what Barnette said and truth be told, the next set of images that popped into his brain was what he could do to them separately or when they were together…

He knew that Barnette would be riled to hell if she caught him thinking those things about her and Jura, but he hardly cared, after all, none of the women here were mind readers.

…

In the bridge…

Magno and Buzam were talking about the images they had just witnessed concerning the battles that Naruto had been in with the crew and while they were worried, they saw that he didn't harm their crew at all. Already the ship's rumor mill about the blonde was on the way. Thankfully no one was aware of the conversation between the blonde and the two Dread pilots…yet.

Some of the women thought that it was only through sheer luck that he beat Jen and her group, while others admitted that for a man, he fought pretty well, while holding his own very well against Jura who was recognized as one of the best and only sword user here on the pirates. The rumors all depended on what they thought of the blonde, unaware of the fact that Naruto had a lot more to show them in the future.

…

The next day…

Buzam was busy in the sub bridge, she had to load a copy of the data that they recovered from the ruins of the alien mother ship that had been destroyed hours before and completely this time by Naruto and Dita when the blonde had gone out to help the two female crew members of his own personal choice, though the silver haired woman wondered why he seemed more eager the second he found out that one of the missing crew back at the wreckage of the alien ship that was destroyed was Dita herself. The commander of the pirates was soon finished, just as the leader of the pirates came on a screen.

"Is everything ready Buzam?"

"Yes Captain, all the data we have complied about the aliens and 'Harvest' operation is here and ready to be sent out."

Magno then commented about something she was quick to notice while the silver haired woman was in the bridge.

"How come you are sending out two pods BC?"

Buzam turned to the other pod and replied.

"The other one is for the men of Talark, they might not listen to us because we're women, but we have to tell them either way since they are also going to be attacked as well by the Aliens like our people are."

"True, they do deserve to know, all right, the sooner we get the message out, then all the better for everyone here on the ship."

"Roger."

Buzam pressed the switch and both pods were taken into the Launch tubes and were soon sent out from the Nirvana and on their way to their destinations as their engines kicked in. However, to the shock of Buzam and Magno, it was not long before the aliens came on the scene. The pods were quickly destroyed and that was enough to sound the general alarm all over the ship which was now termed as the Nirvana as four alien fighters were now on the scene and attacking the Nirvana.

…

Meia and Jura were already on their way to their Dreads, they had stored the modified Dreads in the men's side of the ship so they actually had less time to waste in order for them to get to their Dreads. They were resting in the galley when the attack happened and they were on their way to their Dreads to keep the enemy occupied with the other Dread pilots scrambled and faced off with the enemy.

However as soon they arrived, the Dread Squadron leader was surprised to see that Dita was already there and yet not in her Dread.

"Dita! What are you doing out here? You're supposed to be in your Dread!"

Dita replied while spinning in a pirouette.

"I came here and I saw Mr. Alien got into his Vanguard and took off! Whoosh, he was SO fast!"

This got a reaction from both the female Dread pilots.

"He's out there already?"

Jura was surprised at how fast the man had gone out to fight the alien fighters that they now dubbed as the Cube Fighters, namely due to how they were deployed in battle by their new enemies.

Meia on the other hand was far from happy as she looked at the outside area of the Hanger Bay.

It was not long before Naruto's Vanguard came back into the Hanger and landed safely in dry dock, once the Vanguard settled in, Naruto climbed out, somewhat deep in thought on something. When he had gone out to face the threat, he had expected the alien fighters to be escorted by that seed like ship from before, however, it seemed that the attackers were in a four unit group. That told the blonde that the attack was not merely to damage the ship in any possible fashion, but to gather information.

(But for what I wonder?)

His train of thought was cut short however once he was on the floor and found himself facing none other than Meia Gisborn who was showing a good deal of dislike for his actions. This was enough to stop the blonde as he decided to see if he could find some way of avoiding a possible incident with the crew which was in the same level when he had faced Jen and the members of her security team only two days ago.

"Yes? Can I help you with something?"

The woman glared at him and spoke out.

"What were you doing out there?"

The blonde was very much confused by that and replied.

"What do you mean by that exactly? I was fighting the enemy and dealing with them before they got a chance to cause even more mischief."

"You went out there without authorization!"

Naruto looked at Meia and wondered just what was going on here, you didn't need authorization to deal with an enemy as far as he knew, of course having been a Hokage for most of his growing up years after the Fourth War, he knew that following orders was needed in the battle field. But he was not a regular Hokage and his time with Kakashi-sensei and many others taught him that action was needed in very difficult situations. The four Cube Fighters were a mystery, but he didn't like mysteries when it came to the enemy.

"Authorization? You mean to tell me that I have to sign some forms to go out and fight the enemy or something? This kind of weird if you ask me."

"That is not what I meant and you know it!"

Naruto gave a cheeky grin at the way Meia was glaring at him, making the aqua haired Megele Dread pilot even more annoyed by him, he noted that easily enough and then spoke out.

"You know, if you just relaxed a bit more, it would help keep you healthy, stress is a sure fire way to get sick and age faster. And that would really ruin someone as attractive as you Meia-chan."

"Stop trying to change the subject! Get one thing straight, we don't need your help, we can handle things just fine without your help!"

Naruto laughed at that and replied.

"Yeah, I have no doubt you can, but I doubt the enemy is going to wait for you, as you can guess, they aren't exactly gentlemen. The sooner they were dealt with then the ship would be in better hands. I'm not saying that procedure is wrong, but if you get bogged down by, it becomes more trouble than it's worth."

Meia snorted at that and replied.

"You're one to talk, you happen to be a prisoner on this ship and as such, you have no right to just do what you want on this ship."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that and replied with a smirk on his face.

"If I were to recall, your Captain allowed me as well as Duero and Bart to be part of the crew so I'm no longer a prisoner by any standard and I am doing what I am good at and that is fighting the enemy. And speaking of the enemy, the fact that they sent four units with no backup tells me they were just a small group gathering intelligence data, I've seen that before so if they are planning something, you're going to need my help at some point Meia-chan."

Meia glared even more and replied.

"Don't give me that, you rely on that Vanguard a great deal, but I can bet without it, you would not be of much help in a fight, I heard how you fought with both Jan and Jura in the gym yesterday."

"You did huh?"

"Yes, and while I can bet you do know how to fight, don't let those things get to your head. Unless you can fight the enemy without that partner of yours, stay out of the business of my fellow Dread pilots."

Naruto laughed a bit and replied.

"I hope you're not suggesting I go out in a space suit and fight the enemy with my bare hands the next time they show or something Meia-chan, that's just plain foolishness and you and I both know that to be very true. I might be very capable as a Shinobi, as well as having some other talents that I prefer not to show just yet, but I do have limits after all, and one of them is fighting out in space bare handed. Besides, I am no longer a prisoner no matter what you say, unless you decide to talk to the Captain about it of course."

The two glared at one another and Meia was getting even more annoyed by the way the blonde Shinobi looked at her and Naruto could tell that this was not going end until one of them did something to the other. As much as he didn't like the idea of antagonizing allies, he was not a big fan of authority figures unless he respected them and while he could tell that Meia was no slouch in the department of combat and leadership, judging by what he's heard and seen, he was no slouch either, he wasn't going to give up to her, not by a long shot.

Meia then replied.

"I don't like you Naruto Uzumaki."

"I can see that, but I don't care, I am not a man from Talark after all so your rules towards them don't apply to me."

"Says you…"

"All right Meia-chan, how about this? You try and knock me out with a single blow, if you do, then you can say your rules towards Talark men can apply to me, but if I knock you down, then you stop trying to boss me around."

Meia arched her eyebrow and replied.

"Are you playing with me?"

"Playing with you Meia-chan? Trust me, if I wanted to play with you, it would be in a far more…pleasant game. But in this case, no, I am a man of my word."

Meia snorted and replied.

"A man of his word huh? I find that hard to be believe coming from a Shinobi of all people."

Naruto then gave up his usual smile and became serious and stern and replied.

"I am a man who keeps my promises Meia-chan, and I mean it, so do you want to do this or waste both our precious time by staring at me all day?"

The aqua haired woman nodded and got ready and quickly attacked the blonde, showing to the blonde that she fought like a brawler, just like those who were from the streets, there was a story there, but right now Naruto was not interested in reading Meia's life story, she doubted his ability to keep a promise and that was among the few things that were powerful enough to get his temper up, apart from several other things that he prefer not to remember.

Naruto dodged several punches from the blue haired girl as well as a powerful side kick, Naruto quickly leaped over her and he quickly flipped backward as she tried to punch him the second he landed on the ground earlier and then as he landed, he quickly grabbed her arm and tossed Meia to the ground, Meia had the mind to get to her feet before she landed, but she left herself open and Naruto took this chance to strike a hard but not too powerful blow to Meia, sending her hard to her posterior.

The battle lasted only half a minute, but Naruto had to admit that Meia had great potential as a fighter and would be a good Kunoichi had she been born into the village of Konoha, or any of the known villages for that matter. However, he looked at Meia was looking at him with a very heated glare and one of her hands rubbing her backside. He then spoke to her with a serious tone.

"I win the battle, so I hope that you live up to your promise not to see me as a man of Talark. But if you plan to do otherwise, then be prepared Meia-chan, I am not someone who will bow down easily to anyone, the only people I bow down to…are the ones I respect, and to be honest, you have yet to earn mine."

With that Naruto walked away, leaving Meia, Jura, and Dita alone for the time being.

Meia looked at the blonde male's back and fumed at how he had easily flipped her like a flapjack, she had every intention on getting her chance to even the score. He may not be a man of the all male planet, but she was not going to let that stop her from showing him that he was not going to have free reign on the ship even if he was not a prisoner by the order of the Captain.

She was unaware of the fact that Naruto knew that she was going to do what she could to get even with him after what he had done to her earlier. He had seen the fire in her eyes and while it added to her attractiveness, he knew that the same fire was a sign that she was going to find some way to get even with him in any possible fashion, and since she had a high standing in the pirate crew, she might get away with it. But that hardly bothered him, after all, after all he had been through, there was no way he was going to let anything take him down without a fight.

Besides, if he played his cards right, he might turn the whole thing around and make into an advantage. And knowing his level of luck, which was described so well by Tsunade as the luck of the devil itself, he was going to have fun doing it too.

…

Later…

"He's a danger to this ship and to the crew Captain."

Meia was currently there before Magno and speaking about the blonde male who had just become someone that she seriously disliked and wanted to beat in some fashion. It was bad enough to her that he had free reign around the ship without being watched, but him acting the way he did and snubbing authority was something that Meia could not ignore.

Magno could see that this was something that Meia was not going to let go of and she knew that this was something that had to be dealt with quickly before things got out of hand. She was able to guess that considering his abilities and skills, Naruto would prefer to do things his way, and while she had to admit that they did work, they seemed to grate the nerves of others.

"I take it you don't approve of Naruto being part of the crew Meia?"

"That's a very gentle way of saying it Captain. He's impulsive, he does not follow orders, and he's…so…infuriating! Not to mention the fact that being an assassin of all things makes him a serious threat to the crew if he decides to attack us."

Magno had to admit that Meia did have a point there, however, she had to also accept the fact that Naruto had proven himself an asset so far to her and the crew. Not to mention the fact that she was curious as to how things would play out with her crew and the blonde male. She could already see that things had gotten a lot livelier in the ship since they took the men into their crew, and considering that Naruto was quite capable in his own right, coupled with his knowledge of women, he could handle himself fine. And truth be told, she was actually curious what he would do.

"I suppose that is true, but we must not forget that he has already done us a number of favors and his skills as well as his Vanguard are valuable assets that we cannot afford to waste in any fashion. But if you believe that he is a danger to the crew, namely to the Dread Squadrons, then maybe he will agree to taking a different assignment while on the ship?"

Meia smiled as she was already planning to show that man his place, even if he was not from Talark.

…

In the Medical Bay…

Duero was currently working on studying the state of Ezra, ever since seeing that the rumors of women being able to have children internally, the young doctor took a great interest in learning as much as he could about how such a feat could be accomplished. At the moment, the doctor was currently running some tests and checking on the young mother to be. He looked to Ezra who was currently lying down on a bed and rubbing her belly.

It still amazed him that the women were truly able to have children internally, he and the men of his age group along with Bart were born in factories or rather, special birthing vats that allowed them to be born into term. It was a hard and difficult process and constant vigilance and prudence was needed to bring many of the children to full term. To actually give birth to children internally and not waste time and resources in the same way birthing factories did, it was a very interesting thing.

When he found out about Ezra having a baby, or being 'pregnant' as it were, he took an interest to see how the baby would be born and he did what he could to learn as much as possible. He turned and spoke to Ezra who was waiting expectantly for news on her growing baby's health.

"You're daughter is growing nicely and so far, I have detected no physical anomalies."

Ezra smiled and replied.

"Thank you Doctor, I feel much better though I still feel a bit tired, I guess my daughter is very active."

"I suppose you are correct, the fact that you've increased your food intake from before tells me that you are now feeding both yourself and her."

It was then that Naruto walked in and he smiled at Ezra, the sight of the gentle bridge officer being pregnant brought back a stream of memories for the blonde Shinobi as he recalled just how his wives had been when they had been pregnant. He recalled all the good and bad memories when he raised his children as well as helping his grand children when they were young, and he could see that the baby was going to be in good hands. He walked over to the mother to be and spoke warmly to her.

"It's nice to see that you are going to be a mother Ezra-san, looks like your little wonder is growing nicely right now, make sure to eat a lot of healthy food as well as some sweets every now and then. Babies can develop a love for food that their mothers eat while they are pregnant and when they are born, they love that kind of food once they get old enough to eat solid food."

This surprised the two in the Medical Bay and even Paiway was surprised as she spoke when she came in from the other side of the room.

"How do you know that?"

Naruto grinned and replied.

"I had some experience with pregnant women and I watched them raise their babies as well after their little bundles of joy were born, so I have it on some solid authority."

Ezra smiled and replied.

"I heard the same thing as well, I'll take your advice Naruto-san."

Naruto grinned warmly and spoke.

"Do you mind if I…well, touch your stomach Ezra-san?"

The gentle bridge officer nodded and Naruto did so, smiling as he felt through his chakra senses that the baby was healthy and growing nicely. He rubbed Ezra's belly slowly and when he was done, he gave a slightly sad smile as he recalled just how he felt when he did the exact same thing feeling his first born children when they were still in his wives' wombs and how it filled him with fatherly pride. He missed that a great deal…along with the pride of being a grandfather when he felt his grandchildren growing as well in their mothers' wombs.

Ezra saw that and she was surprised at the look of sadness in his smile, she wondered why he was like that and asked.

"Are you all right Naruto-san?"

Naruto shook his head and looked at Ezra.

"What?"

"You looked happy…and yet, sad, why is that?"

The blonde gave a smile and replied.

"I'm fine…anyway, I wish you and your baby a good life and I have no doubt you will make a wonderful mother to your baby."

Ezra smiled though she was still wondering why Naruto became like that, Paiway was confused as to how could a man know those things, while Duero realized that since Naruto was not from Talark, he might know some things that might help him understand more about how pregnancy in women actually worked. As Naruto sat down and Duero went to check on him, the Talark doctor began to take into account that Naruto seemed to be normal at first, but after what he had seen his fellow male do, he doubted that he was anything but normal.

After some scans, Duero had to admit that he was somewhat…disappointed and that was easily noticed by the blonde as he spoke.

"What seems to be the problem Duero? You look disappointed for some reason."

"I will admit that I am a bit disappointed, your anatomical data shows no anomalies, your organs show healthy signs, no foreign organisms or mechanisms of the sort, no abnormal body functions or temperatures, nothing. You're perfectly normal."

Naruto raised his eyebrows at that and replied.

"Isn't being normal supposed to be a good thing?"

"Yes it is, and truth be told, you are in the bloom of health, better than most I've seen, but still…I was hoping to find out just how you were able to do the things you were able to do."

The blonde grinned and replied.

"Oh, you mean my Jutsu skills huh? Well, I guess it won't hurt to explain some of it, the reason I can do those Jutsu is because I use chakra."

"Chakra?"

"It's an energy that can be found in all living things and even in nature, all my Jutsu uses a certain level of chakra after all. You gain chakra by training both physically and spiritually as well as learning how to focus your chakra and shape it into making your Jutsu work, it also augments other abilities if you have the skill and time to train. The chakra of nature however…requires certain conditions."

"Fascinating, do you happen to be the only one to use it or is it for everyone?"

"Well…that depends, most if not all people can use chakra, even you Duero with the training and discipline, but there are the rare few who cannot for one reason or another."

Before Duero could delve further into this new discovery however, Meia arrived and she had a smug grin on her face while looking at Naruto.

…

In the Register…

Naruto looked at the outfit that was being offered to him by Gascogne and the way that it looked made him raise an eyebrow. He had a feeling that Meia's decision of assigning him to the Register was a way to get back at him for what he did before. Pretty petty in his mind, and was no doubt made to try and humble him in some fashion and no doubt she was going to have him do menial labor to show him…his place as it were. Naruto however had been through far worse and actually figured out already how to turn this whole thing around on it's head. But first, he had to be sure…

"So let me see if I get this right, I'm supposed to wear this outfit while working here?"

Gascogne nodded and replied to that.

"Yes, you do realize that the Register is an all female outfit so you have to dress the part."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that.

"You do realize I happen to be a man right?"

The head supplier had to admit that she found the guy to be rather funny in an odd fashion, but she was all business, and while she had a very accurate idea on what was Meia's plan with having the blonde male in the Register, she couldn't shake the feeling that this might not work out the way Meia had planned.

"I know that, but we don't exactly have uniforms for men in the Register so you'll have to make due. Here…"

The head supplier then took out some sort of vest with pads on it and the blonde had no trouble recognizing what was for since there were two fleshy looking orbs on the front. He looked at Gascogne and spoke.

"Let me guess, I'm supposed to wear this so I would have a woman's bust right?"

"Yep, look, you might not like it, and I doubt you'd ever agree to wearing the outfit but since you're here, you are under my command so you'll have to dress the way my girls dress."

Naruto smirked and realized that this was going to work to his advantage after all, it was about time he found a more…PRACTICAL use for one of his personal Jutsu. He took the uniform from Gascogne and he spoke.

"Fair enough, I've done far worse than wearing a dress after all so I am used to doing things most men would be adamant in avoiding, give me a minute."

"You're going to need the vest you know…"

"Don't bother Gascogne-san, I have a plan."

The head supplier raised her eyebrow at that and wondered just what was the blonde male planning, she expected him to adamantly refuse ever wearing a woman's outfit. But for some reason or another, the blonde didn't seem all that bothered and as much as she didn't want to say it out loud, she had a feel that whatever Naruto had in mind was going to be rather shocking. She didn't have to wait for long as Naruto came back now in the dress.

Gascogne had to admit that seeing the dress on a woman was all right, but on a man, it was hardly stellar. However Naruto then smirked as he did some sort of position with his fingers and she asked.

"What are you doing?"

"Just getting into character, I have to work with an all female crew and I have to dress as a woman, so I might as well LOOK like a woman."

"Huh? What do you…?"

Gascogne had no chance to finish her question as Naruto shouted out the technique.

"OIROKE NO JUTSU!"

The smoke surprised Gascogne for a moment or so and when it cleared, her eyes widened at the sight.

Naruto was there, but he…had turned into a SHE! Before the head supplier was a woman who was at the same height Naruto was but had longer hair in a pair of long ponytails and had an undeniably mature and sexy female look. The…whatever the blonde had turned into before her filled out the dress quite nicely and it looked to be downright perfect as well. The chest area had a bust that was equal or a bit larger than Jura's own and she was seen as the most endowed one in the Nirvana in terms of the bust department followed by Buzam and Barnette. The only that remained constant were the whisker marks on the cheeks.

The transformed male turned around in the dress and showed a figure that would have made even Jura green with envy, along with a large number of women as well. Naruto in his transformed state placed his left had on his hip and did a provocative pose and blew a kiss and spoke in a very much female voice that was older and spoke of maturity and sexuality.

"How's this Gascogne-san?"

Naruto had perfected the Oiroke No Jutsu as he had never gotten rid of it for any reason and it had changed along with him, the female form became better proportioned and had a much more female voice. It had proven to be something to pass the time well and while Sakura was around to keep him from using it, he did have time to use it on more than one instance.

Gascogne was flabbergasted as she looked at Naruto from head to toe and after a moment or two, she finally got her thoughts together and spoke out to the blonde before her.

"How did you do that?"

"Oh, you mean turn into this? It's just a Jutsu I personally made in my free time as a kid. I figured that since I have to work with women it would be weird if I have to look like a man in a dress so why not turn into a woman instead?"

The head supplier moved forward and was tempted to touch to see if it was all real and Naruto saw than and replied.

"Go ahead, it's all natural Gascogne-san, nothing fake about it."

Gascogne did so and soon found to her shock that the blonde's disguise was actually feeling very real. The blonde Shinobi grinned and had to admit that taking this form was actually a very good move as it made things less stressful for him. His time in perfecting the Jutsu he had made for himself just for kicks had made every part of his female disguise had made it all feel very real. Once the head supplier was done seeing the fact that Naruto's disguise was very much the real deal, she looked at Naruto with an utterly stunned expression.

"There's nothing fake at all, how did you do that?"

Naruto grinned even more and merely replied with a cheeky reply in his now female voice.

"That is a secret; let's just say that at least you won't have to worry about the fact that you have a man in your staff."

Gascogne couldn't help but agree with that assessment, whatever technique this self proclaimed Shinobi could do to take the form of a woman was pretty damn good. She did wonder just how the others in her staff were going to handle the new addition to their roster.

…

Later…

Jura, Barnette, and Meia came into the room and the aqua haired girl wondered just how the blonde male Shinobi was dealing with the new working conditions. And while most would consider her actions as nothing more than petty and not really worthwhile, she felt otherwise and hoped that this would be enough to take the man down to a peg. As for Barnette and Jura, they wondered just what the man was doing in the Register and if it was going to be funny in some fashion or another in Barnette's mind.

Imagine to their surprise when they find a new face in the Register who was female and had a figure that made Jura's own figure look a bit lacking. The female was a blonde woman who had her hair in two ponytails and she filled the uniform of the Register quite nicely. The woman was currently working in the supply section and seemed to be talking with Gascogne. The only thing they noted which was a bit odd was the fact that the woman had three marks on her face, which didn't actually make her ugly in any sense, but actually give her a more….exotic appearance.

They walked over to Gascogne and Meia spoke to the head supplier.

"Gasco, where is that blonde male named Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki who I sent here to work with you and the others here in the Register? And who is this one? I don't recall you having any new members in the staff before we left the base on the raid."

The three looked at the blonde woman who seemed to be smirking at them, Jura and Barnette had to admit that this new arrival was certainly an attractive one though there seemed to be no name tag on her uniform. As for Meia, she wondered just where the arrogant blonde male had gone to, she was wondering if the man had just decided to make life miserable for her again by taking a chance to leave, if she were to ever find him.

Gascogne then replied.

"That Naruto guy is here…only…he…uh, I'm still trying to wrap my brain around it."

Meia was confused by that and made that confusion clear in her next question.

"What do you mean by that?"

It was then that the new woman spoke in a very amused tone.

"What Miss Gascogne-san is saying is that I am right here Meia-chan, only I took a more female appearance, how is your posterior feeling by the way? Still stinging you or something? I can find a way to make it feel better if you like?"

Meia was utterly confused and looking at the new woman as if she had lost her mind, while Jura and Barnette were even more confused by this and wondered just what was the woman talking about. As far as the two friends knew, no one else in the crew acted this way towards Meia before, let alone call her that way of all things.

It was then that the woman spoke once more with an amused expression.

"Come on Meia-chan, you should be able to recognize me well enough, after all, you've already seen my birthmarks when we first met in the reactor room."

Meia was still confused until a thought came to her mind, she quickly considered that train of thought to be outright ludicrous as there was no way that such a thing was possible. But still, it was the only thing that can come close to making sense, and she kept in mind that since she knew that Naruto could make copies of himself, there was no telling what else he was capable of.

"Is that you Naruto?"

The woman grinned even more and replied.

"You got it Meia-chan, it's me."

The three women couldn't help but look at the disguised male with absolute shock as they were still trying to figure out just how he had turned from a man to a woman. As for the blonde male in question, he was enjoying himself a good deal right now as the looks were too funny for him to resist looking at.

Meia then looked at Gascogne and spoke.

"How did he?"

Gascogne shrugged and replied.

"Beats me Meia, I'm still trying to figure out exactly how he did it, all I know is that he went into the changing room, got into the dress, and then did something with his hands and after an explosion of smoke later, he came out like this and called it a Jutsu or something."

This really got Meia on edge as she looked at the still grinning…man…woman…whatever Naruto turned into and couldn't help but feel rather disturbed.

Naruto saw that and replied.

"If you think this is fake, then touch it, it's all natural."

Meia blushed at the thought of doing that in the Register of all places, Jura and Barnette on the other hand were not that particular and began to touch the now female Naruto who grinned at their actions, and both the blonde and emerald haired women were shocked to see that he was not joking, it was all natural. As soon as they moved their hands away, Jura spoke out in wonder and a bit of shock.

"How in the name of Grand Ma did you turn into a woman?"

The blonde replied to that.

"Follow me into the changing room, I'll get into my old outfit and you'll see."

The three women did so and followed Naruto into the room in question. Naruto then got into the changing room and after a moment or two, the blonde was back into his own clothes, and when he came out, the three women had to admit that even if it he was in his normal outfit, the disguise he had as a woman made him look very…different. They watched as Naruto then placed his fingers into a position and then spoke out one word that was accompanied by a small explosion of smoke.

"KAI!"

As soon as the smoke cleared, all three Dread pilots were surprised to find that before them was Naruto once more, only this time he was very much a male. They were trying to figure out how he had turned from male to female like that while the blonde still continued to smirk, naturally annoying the same woman who had sent him into the Register in the first place.

Meia finally lost her patience and spoke out.

"How the heck did you do that?"

Naruto snickered at the look of fury in Meia's face, looks like his chance to turn it all around worked big time and she was trying to figure out what to do in a situation like this.

"I did say I am not from Talark already when we first met Meia-chan, besides, it's going to look borderline weird for a man to work in an all female place while wearing a dress after all, so I decided to use one of my Jutsu to at least look like a woman so it would not be so weird. Why are you so upset about it Meia-chan?"

Meia glared at the blonde who was still grinning and she couldn't help herself as she felt as if her plan to show him his place was ruined. After all, she was hoping that having him wear women's' clothing would have done the trick and then having him do the cleaning of toilets and mopping floors would have evened things up as well. But it seemed that Naruto had found a way to make her planned punishment lose it's bite. She however took solace in the fact that he was no longer going to be interfering in the operations of the Dreads from here on out. With that salving her wounded pride, she moved out but not before glaring at Naruto and leaving. But not before Naruto decided to rub in a bit of humor to the whole thing.

"By the way Meia-chan, I forgot to tell you something, you look very attractive when you're angry and you've got a nice butt when you move like that."

Meia glared even more and couldn't help but actually blush a bit, much to Naruto's growing amusement as she finally stomped off, leaving the blonde alone as he laughed his own butt off while Jura and Barnette looked at the blonde male, still trying to figure out what to make of him.

…

As the days passed the ship by, Naruto continued to work in the Register, and soon it was fairly obvious that Meia's attempt to show Naruto his place didn't work out the way she expected. Naruto was no stranger to manual labor and therefore was quite used to it. After all, he worked in helping rebuild Konoha more than once, cleaned his own home, and cleaned up the results of his pranks back when he was a kid and defacing the Hokage monument.

This was why he maintained a cheerful and confident demeanor that surprised a number of people and he did so in his female disguise, the only people who knew that the new crew member was actually the blonde Shinobi were Jura, Barnette, Meia, and Gascogne though eventually Magno found out about the whole thing. The elderly Captain managed to speak to the young blonde and after figuring out that he did this to make it less shocking to the crew as well as tease Meia, she had to admit that it seemed to work.

Whenever Meia was about and Naruto was, the disguised blonde would wink at Meia and smirk, further angering and flustering the Dread pilot and there was not much she could do about it. Since it seemed that no else knew that Naruto had taken a very realistic female disguise, there was no way she could hit him since doing so would have made things really awkward for her, so she had no way of countering the blonde Shinobi when he began flirting and teasing her when they met, especially in public where the others would gossip, adding an even sharper edge to Naruto's teasing and flirting with her.

This was something that really grated on Meia's nerves and the only salve she had was that in the battles that happened in the span of the days after assigning the blonde male to the Register, Naruto was not around to upstage the Dread pilots and she began to see that they didn't need his help in fighting the enemy and kept that frame of thought for a while. Naruto could see that but that hardly bothered him as he knew eventually the enemy was going to throw a new weapon that would require him to be in the group once more, so in the meantime, he might as well do a good job for his new boss Gascogne, who he found to be rather civil and very friendly and a good card player.

As for Gascogne, she didn't mind having the blonde around, Naruto proved to be a hard worker and very dedicated when the time came for some sweat to be shed. Since he was a real man underneath the disguise and the dress, he was not bothered by the things that would bother the normal female crew and did his all to make sure that he was not being idle. This told Gascogne that the blonde was no stranger to hard work and when she told him about something important, he managed to grasp it well and do it as best he could. He was not adverse to asking for help either from her or the others in the crew, showing to her that he was not self centered or thinking that he could do things on his own.

Not to mention the fact she now found herself a very good opponent in cards, Naruto's luck was very strong as Gascogne had found herself losing more than once before the blonde, but she gave back as good as she got and won a number of hands when they played against one another. The two became good friends over the game and Naruto's hard work in the Register though he helped every now and then in his normal form and his normal clothes.

All in all, he was not half bad, and she made this clear in one time when he was back in his real form and his outfit and off for another round of ramen courtesy of Dita.

"You know, for a man who can disguise himself like a woman, you're not half bad as a worker."

Naruto laughed a bit at that and replied.

"No problem."

"If I didn't know any better, you've done stuff like this before."

"That's true, I'm not adverse to doing those things since I've done it before, anyway, I have to go now Gascogne-san."

As Naruto left, Gascogne shook her head and tried not to laugh as she recalled just what Naruto pulled whenever he was there before Meia, and she had to admit that seeing Meia get angry yet not being able to fight back was a little amusing. Still she hoped that both Naruto and Meia would one day work together and hopefully that would show to Meia that working with someone, even if it is a man is a good thing.

…

Gascogne had no idea that the event she hoped for was about to come right at them.

…

The Nirvana was still on it's mission to head back to the system that had both Talark and Megele but then they were forced to stop as a large force of the aliens they now marked as the Harvesters were now before them all. There were a number of Cube Fighters, a pair of the now designated Seed Ships and one massive looking ship that seemed to be a mass of globes with one massive eye in the middle. The Dreads were soon out and things were about to get interesting, Bart was ordered to get into the Navigation Well and Duero was called in to be ready to receive casualties.

Naruto looked at the force while he was in the register, this time wearing his normal clothes and in his real form as he had been there in the place during a game with Gascogne. The blonde looked seriously at the force, but reserved all of his attention on the new ship. He had never seen it before during the previous attacks and he had a sneaking suspicion that this was what the Harvesters were cooking up with the intelligence they had been gathering.

"That new ship of theirs…I don't like it, and it's got nothing to do with appearances."

"What do you mean exactly?"

Naruto looked at Gascogne and replied.

"That's a new addition to their arsenal, and I've got a feeling it was made for a purpose, what that is I have no idea, but I've got a feeling that whatever it is built for, none of us is going to like it."

…

And sure enough, that was proven true as soon as the Dreads attacked, the pilots were used to fighting the Cube Fighters and even the Seed Ships as they knew just what the two ship types were able to do and what they could not do. But the new ship utterly surprised them as it unleashed several numbers of spines that were all over it's form, they became jagged and bent and looked like a sea urchin.

Jura commented on the ugliness, but the Harvesters seemed to care little for aesthetics and that appearance had a purpose as the jagged spines rendered missile attacks useless as they took the brunt of the attack and even deflected the missiles allowing the ship to remain intact, it also unleashed waves of spines like rockets, and it's speed was unreal as it evaded even Meia's Dread despite it's speed both before and after it was boosted by the Paeksis transforming it.

This went on for some time and the Cube Fighters were quick to use this to their advantage to attack the pirates in conjunction with the urchin ship, attacking both the Dread Squadrons and the pirate ship. Bart cried out in pain as the damage was shown with several gashes on his arm due to the link between him and the ship.

Barnette quickly commented as she managed to take out some Cube Fighters.

"This is bad! If we don't take out that ship of theirs we're done for!"

Jura then replied.

"That might be true, but there seems to be no way we can hit that thing! Everything we fire at it, it either evades or blocks! Unless we get rid of those ugly spines, we can't touch it! And those Cube Fighters aren't making things easy either!"

Dita then cried out.

"Maybe we should get Mr. Alien out here?"

Meia was quick to shoot down that idea.

"No! What have I told you about relying on others?"

"But he's a good alien and one of the crew now Leader!"

"We don't need his help! He is a man and still our enemy! We can beat this thing on our own!"

Meia gritted her teeth as she shot down several Cube Fighters and tried to take out that ship and thought about what Dita said concerning a certain blonde Shinobi.

(I WILL NOT ASK A MAN FOR HELP! I REFUSE TO ASK FOR HELP! NAMELY FROM THAT ONE!)

Meia's pride in her abilities and that of her fellow pirates was not unfounded and not without merit, but this time, this pride was soon going to be more of a liability than an asset.

…

In the bridge…

Buzam looked at the situation and spoke.

"This is bad, that ship of the Harvesters seems to have been built to counter the Dreads specifically, those spines can be as shooting weapons en masse and as defenses to counter missiles, the Dreads can't even hit it with beams since it's too fast and those Cube Fighters as well as the Seed Ships are not making it easy either."

Magno nodded.

"It seems that Naruto was right about the Harvesters when I spoke to him a few days ago, their attacks from before were merely to gather data on us and what we can do and not do, this is the result of their gathering of data."

"If we don't find a way to even up the odds soon, we are in serious trouble."

…

Gascogne powered up her personal shuttle the Dreki, a heavily armored supply and recovery ship used by them and the Megele Navy to reload Dreads in battle while shielding them with it's heavy armor plating, and also for recovering pilot pods from badly damaged or lost Dreads when the pilots abandoned them. Along with her was Naruto who sat down and did his best to help. They had been given the signal that several Dreads were running low on power and ordnance and needed to be resupplied which was why they were now on the way after being fully loaded by the girls at the Register.

As soon as they were out, Naruto as they were soon able to meet several of the Dreads, namely Jura and Dita's Dreads as well as Barnette's own Dread. Naruto watched as Gascogne quickly worked her magic and soon the Dreads were being re-armed and refueled for combat, their missiles were replenished while their energy weapons were fully charged and fuel added to their engines.

The four girls were relaxed and Dita was the most vocal of the ending of the Transfer as soon as Gascogne told them that they were fully fueled and ready to go back into the battle.

"I'm so full!"

Instantly the Dreads were released back into the fray as the Dreki's armor held the line against the attacks from both the Space Urchin and the Cube Fighters that tried to destroy it. Naruto however, relying on his near sixty years of knew that no matter how many times the Dreads would be revitalized for combat, they would not make much difference if that urchin like vessel was destroyed.

He directed his attention to Gascogne and spoke about that matter seriously.

"No matter how many times the Dreads are rearmed Gascogne-san, they are ineffective against something like that ship. It's been made to counter them specifically after all."

The head supplier nodded and then replied with a smile.

"That's true Naruto, which is why I had my girls load a surprise into the Dreki before we took off to do this job, I believe it will make the tide turn in this battle, see for yourself."

Naruto did so and looked at the monitor and after a second or two smiled and replied.

"You are a saint Gascogne-san."

Gascogne smiled and watched as Naruto moved to the area of the Dreki to get what she showed him, she wanted to see just what else this young man was going to show in this battle, apart from what she had seen already.

…

The Dreads were still fighting hard, even though they had cut down many of the Harvesters Cube Fighters, the Seed Ships were well protected by the others and by the Space Urchin, allowing them to reinforce it and their surviving units, if this kept up, they would be in serious trouble and without any support, they were done for.

It was then that they noticed something, the Dreki had not left the scene and Barnette commented on that.

"What is Gascogne doing here still? She needs to get back to the Nirvana and resupply the Dreki before coming back out here."

Jura nodded and replied.

"You're right, maybe there's a package she had not delivered?"

Before the others could answer what it was, the Dreki's cargo bay door opened and out came a very familiar Vanguard. The black and blue colored Vanguard quickly gets out from the Dreki and fires both Chakra chains and catches two passing Cube Fighters and used both Cube Fighters like weights. The first Fighter was sent smashing into several Cube Fighters and when that happened and the Cube Fighter was released, the blonde unleashed a barrage of energy shuriken into them, destroying them quickly and effectively.

The second Cube Fighter that Naruto caught with the second Chakra Chain was send smashing into another bunch of Cube Fighters, but instead of releasing the captured unit, Naruto reeled himself in at high speed with his Vanguard using one of it's swords and quickly cut that fighter down and then took out the other sword and quickly moved to cut down more of the Cube Fighters in close combat and in combination with the chakra blades to extend the reach of his weapons.

Naruto spotted the Cube Fighters and their supporting Seed Ships and knew that in order to relieve the pressure on the pirates, those units had to be taken out permanently. But he knew that attacking the Cube Fighters alone was not going to be enough. With the Seed Ships making more of them every chance they had, the only way to end their numbers was the Seed Ships and he needed to terminate all of them in some fashion, and he already had an idea.

Naruto focused his chakra and hoped that this would work as he summoned the chakra, saw his Vanguard react to his implanting of the chakra into the systems and then unleashed his technique.

"KAGE BUSHIN NO JUTSU!"

In that exact moment, Naruto's Vanguard glowed with power and then large orbs of light speared around the lone Vanguard and soon expanded to take humanoid form and then exploded in clouds of light to reveal several more copies of the Paeksis enhanced Vanguard. These new arrivals completely caught the Harvesters as well as the pirates off guard. Naruto's Vanguard was now surrounded by twenty other copies of it. The new Vanguards went on the offensive with the original; ten were wielding swords while the other ten unleashed their energy shuriken for long range support.

…

Meia and Jura, as well as Barnette and the other pilots in the Dread Squadrons looked on in shock, with the Dread Squadron leader being the most shocked as she had thought that Naruto was only able to make these…'Kage Bunshin' when he was not in his Vanguard.

Gascogne nodded in approval while Dita was awed once more of the power that Naruto had shown to them.

"WOW! MR. ALIEN IS SO COOL!"

In the Nirvana, Buzam was silent for a moment until she recovered and spoke.

"So…his Vanguard is able to work with that Kage Bunshin technique as well, that is a serious advantage."

Magno nodded at that.

"I agree, he can literally create an army on the move, he really is an interesting young man, and I must admit, considering what we've seen so far, having in the crew was a very wise move than we first thought."

…

Naruto guided his Vanguard as he and his massive Kage Bunshin force began to unleash hell on the Harvesters as many Cube Fighters were being cut down, those who were able to avoid the attacks from the swords of the blonde Shinobi's Vanguard and it's Kage Bunshin were destroyed by the energy shuriken of the other Kage Bunshin who supported those in the front. The Harvesters managed to down a small number of the Vanguard sized Kage Bunshin, but they learned quickly that these were merely illusions, but with substance.

The blonde however sensed that making the Vanguard sized Kage Bunshin was going to be too taxing and so he summoned the purified chakra of the Kyuubi once more from the now fully secured place where he stored it for the past forty to nearly fifty years. The chakra flowed through him and he soon empowered his Vanguard Kage Bunshin as well as the original and began to take out the rest of the Cube Fighters that sought to take him out. The blonde closed the gap and attacked the Seed Ships, he quickly ordered his Kage Bunshin to herd the Seed Ships into one massive cluster in order to hit them all at once in a pincer move.

The strategy was risky to the extreme, but it was better than nothing as the blonde continued to press the attack as he and his Vanguards alternated their attack methods to further confuse the Harvesters and as soon as the Seed Ships were now in position, Naruto quickly summoned his Rasenshuriken, using as much chakra as he could to make the Rasenshuriken large and powerful, the other Kage Bunshin, being fed the blonde's purified Kyuubi Chakra did the same.

Soon the surviving Kage Bunshin and the original Vanguard were carrying a wide number of massive Rasenshuriken and when those were ready, the force made by Naruto unleashed the attacks and soon those Rasenshuriken smashed hard into the massed Harvester units. Naruto decided to disperse his Kage Bunshin and all the Vanguard sized Kage Bunshin faded away in explosions of light. Their attacks however could not be countered as the Seed Ships were turned into exploding ruins as the numerous Rasenshuriken expanded, engulfing the Seed Ships and destroyed them all in one fell swoop.

…

The battle was no longer in the favor of the Harvesters, with the Seed Ships and a massive number of their Cube Fighters now reduced to nothing but debris, this left only the Urchin vessel as the last Harvester weapon as the Dread Squadrons were quick to kill the last remaining Cube Fighters who could no longer be reinforced and then they directed their attention to the Space Urchin. But it was hardly giving up as it was still fighting the Dreads and also attacking the Vanguard piloted by the Shinobi.

Naruto studied the unit and realized that in a way this was similar to how two people he knew well had fought the first time they met. His fellow Konoha ninja and friend Tenten was one of the best weapon users in Konoha and never missed a target with any weapon. However when she fought with his future wife Temari, her attacks were rendered useless due to Temari's skills and use of her Iron War Fan which worked as both shield and weapon. Unless her weapon was taken away from her and she was attacked at close range, Temari was not easy to defeat if she had the advantage in the battle before her.

The same situation was before him with this Space Urchin as it was capable of countering most attacks thrown at it by the Dreads with both missiles and beams with spines for the former and it's speed for the latter.

Close combat was a possible option once the spines were taken out of the way, but the only way to do that was with his Vanguard and even with the speed his Vanguard had, the Space Urchin was faster than his Vanguard so they needed range and not just long range firepower, but overwhelming long range firepower to bypass the defensive abilities of the Space Urchin, and that meant only one option.

Naruto quickly spoke to the speakers and tried to get in touch with a certain red haired Dread pilot.

"Dita-chan! We need to combine to form our VanDread for us to end this threat! I need your help!"

The redhead was more than willing to do just that and being asked for help by Naruto made her feel very happy as she guided her Dread to merge with the Vanguard. However, the Harvester's last unit realized that while it could counter the missiles of the Dreads, it stood no chance against the energy cannons of the VanDread it's makers had faced before.

It soon attacked the two machines, hoping to not only stop the fusion of the two machines but also stop them cold. It's spines were fired at the Dread. But Dita was protected as Meia came in and managed to knock Dita's Dread aside before it was skewered by the Harvester attack ship. However, this move had placed her in collision course with Naruto's Vanguard and soon the two of them combined as a massive wave of light hit the area…and as soon as the light came out…something utterly new came from the fusion of the two machines.

…

Jura looked on in awe at the newly emerging machine that was the result of Naruto's Vanguard and Meia's Dread fusing together..

"Wow…."

Barnette was surprised as well as she looked at the machine.

"How?"

Dita was utterly stunned by what she saw as well.

"No way!"

The others in the Nirvana looked on in surprise as they gazed at the new VanDread. It resembled the armored knight of the VanDread Dita and Naruto's respective machines made when they fused, but it was slimmer, less heavily armored and a more aerodynamic look with several nacelles on the back which were shaped like wings and a pair glowing circles in both the palms of the hands as well as the hips on sleeker but no less armored forearm guards. It lacked the cannons of the VanDread that Dita and Naruto piloted previously but it certainly was not unarmed in any sense as no one knew just what sort of abilities this one possessed. The new Vanguard remained stationary and was colored silver grey with black and blue lining in key joint areas and glowing lines of power in them as well.

Bart spoke out at this.

"That Shinobi never seems to run out of tricks."

Buzam looked at the new mecha and spoke.

"This is unexpected, we may win this battle yet Captain."

Magno nodded and gave a slight smile as she looked at the new VanDread.

"Maybe, but the real question now lies before us BC. Can those two who pilot that new miracle work together?"

…

Inside the new VanDread…

"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

Meia cried out in outrage and confusion as she now found herself being joined by Naruto himself and in a rather…undignified position to boot. When she tried to recover and move forward, she felt something on her front and opened her eyes, only to find herself leaning towards the back of the one man who both confused and infuriated her in equal intolerable measure. She naturally reacted and tried to force the man out of the cockpit which was just as well spaced as her Dread's cockpit and seemed to have not changed in the slightest.

Naruto turned and looked in surprise to find Meia her right behind him, he reacted the very second he felt something soft, or rather two soft things press into his back and he couldn't help but wonder just what was going on here. He however cringed at the way Meia was shouting at him, while he could understand her reaction, her need to raise the sound level in the cockpit was hardly something he would welcome and that was why he decided to shout back a bold move, but better than nothing at this point.

"STOP SHOUTING IN MY EARS!"

The two were pretty much not in the best of moods though despite his own growing temper, another part of Naruto's mind was once more playing the role of randy rabbit at the way they were currently sitting in the cockpit of what apparently was a VanDread. However, Meia was having none of it, it was hard enough to know that the man who infuriated her had come to save them once more, but now they were in this situation.

"I DIDN'T ASK FOR YOUR HELP! SO GET OUT!"

"IN CASE IT ESCAPED YOUR ATTENTION, WE"RE IN SPACE! WHERE EXACTLY AM I SUPPOSED TO GO?"

Naruto however spotted the Space Urchin coming right for them at high speed and no doubt ready to take advantage of their distraction. He wasted no time and managed to move the VanDread to the side, but realized that the machine was only operating on half power, and no doubt it needed him to be supported by Meia.

That was enough to make him speak to the still angry blue haired woman seriously.

"We don't have time for this Meia-chan, if we don't hurry up, that thing and it's masters will win, and we lose. I can move this VanDread but it won't respond just to me alone, I need your help and I need it now."

That stopped Meia cold and looked at Naruto with disbelief in her eyes and spoke out.

"You're asking for my help?"

"Yes I am, you think just because I'm a man that I won't ask for help when I need it to save my pride? Then you are wrong, asking for help when things are at their worst is not a sign of weakness, it is showing that you are willing to work with others to achieve the greater goal. I didn't learn all these skills on my own you know, I had help and I never turned down aid at all if I knew that it was needed."

"I don't care if you hate me or not because I'm a man, because that thing out there doesn't care at all, it is the enemy and I KNOW that I can't defeat it alone, so I am asking for your help here and now! Will you help me?"

Meia looked at Naruto and saw that he was serious, he needed her help and didn't hesitate to ask it without any malice or ill intent, this further confused her but she knew he was right, neither of them could defeat this thing alone, if they worked together now, they might have a chance. With that in her mind, she moved her hands and replied.

"I will, but don't think that I am going to forget how much I still dislike you Naruto."

The blonde smiled and nodded as he began to move in time with Meia.

…

The very second both Meia and Naruto began to work as one, the VanDread which was once moving slowly suddenly came to full life and quickly moved with a speed that defied imagination as it streaked out at a speed that made all the other Dreads look like they were crawling at a snail's pace. The VanDread's acceleration completely caught the alien ship off guard and it tried to fire it's spines at it, but the weapons missed as the VanDread dodged them though it stopped in doing so, the Urchin Ship managed to make more spines and fire ,hoping the second barrage would kill the new VanDread.

The VanDread however countered that attack by moving it's arms forward and opened it's palms and then fired out a barrage of energy shuriken which were larger and fired faster than the previous energy shuriken that the Vanguard Naruto piloted was capable of firing from before.

In that moment, the two barrages slammed into each other with the shuriken winning as they cut through the spines and destroyed them on impact. The VanDread then unleashed four chakra chains from it's hands and the forearm guards to catch four of the spines and then use them to attack the Urchin Ship which managed to replace it's lost spines like before. The VanDread used the spines like bladed weights and smashed those captured spines hard into the enemy and then moving at high speed once more.

The Urchin Ship tried to evade until the VanDread fired a kunai made of energy that seemed to glow in a different color than the previous ones it had fired at the Urchin Ship, the Harvester was able to dodge this and fire out another barrage of spines at the VanDread to end it's threat once and for all, but then the VanDread actually teleported out of sight and appeared right behind the Urchin Ship.

This surprised every member of the pirates as Barnette spoke out.

"I can't believe it! Not only does it have such speed and acceleration…but it was the ability to actually teleport itself!"

Jura looked on with stars in her eyes as she spoke.

"Wow! Meia is SO lucky!"

…

Naruto wasted no time as he focused his chakra, unaware of the fact that Meia felt the effects of the chakra he was releasing, while it was his normal chakra it was flowing out of him faintly and affecting Meia who had to lean to him in order to manipulate the controls with her hands as well as her feet. She had no idea why was it that her body seemed to tingle for some reason or another and she ignored the slight glow in Naruto's form attributing it to the lighting in the room.

The result of Naruto feeding his chakra was obvious when the sphere of the Rasengan appeared and soon took the form of the Rasenshuriken , he was about to throw it but instead the Mecha actually charged right at the Urchin ship and it's nacelles unleash a massive burst of speed and power. The VanDread suddenly glowed with power as the lines that were there in the body that flowed with power were now acting up. It was not long before the VanDread was soon overcome by the Rasenshuriken which expanded and was soon covered by a giant Rasenshuriken and smashed hard into the enemy ship. The ship was intact for a moment or two as the Rasenshuriken covered VanDread moved away with considerable speed and when it turned, the Rasenshuriken faded away and left the VanDread totally intact.

The Urchin Ship however was not so lucky as it was soon falling apart in slivers, showing that the massive Rasenshuriken had cut it severely and at the molecular level. It was not long before the now sliced apart Urchin Ship began to explode and soon it was joining it's slain comrades as debris as the new VanDread was looking over the ruins.

The victory went to the pirates in this round.

Magno and Buzam relaxed a lot more as they gave the order for the Dread Squadrons to head back into the Nirvana and get back to rest and recover as well. The elderly captain wondered just what else was going to happen on their journey back to the home system of both their world and that of the men of Talark.

…

Inside the VanDread, Meia panted a bit as she leaned back while Naruto was in a calming trance, something he learned from his Godfather Jiraiya in his training days with the Pervy Sage and recovered nicely. He opened his eyes and looked at Meia, he quickly managed to get his perverted side from getting any funny ideas considering the rather…suggestive way Meia leaned back.

(Geez…I just spent a half minute shouting at her, and now…I want to do things to her so I can be sure that the next time she shouts out, it will be because of another reason entirely, Damn hormones…)

"You all right Meia-chan?"

The girl panted and looked at him and spoke.

"I…am fine…"

"Good. We should get moving…"

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you ask for my help?"

"It's obvious…I already knew I couldn't beat that thing alone with it's speed and it's weapons so I asked for your help, just like I did ask for Dita's help before when we needed to use ranged firepower to take that thing out. Like I said before, asking for help is not a weakness. If I have to work with you even with your issues towards me to do what I can to do the mission, I will do so without a moment of hesitation. We're fighting to survive so it doesn't matter if we're men or women at all, we HAVE to work together. "

The blonde then grinned as he replied.

"Besides…it was kind of cool working with you when we're not trying to anger each other, but still, I like it when you get angry or embarrassed Meia-chan, since you still look attractive in both states."

Before Meia could retaliate, the VanDread glowed and soon they were back to their original machines and Naruto sped off to head back to the Nirvana, leaving the blue haired woman even more confused as well as angry, she also wanted to know why was it she felt something stir in her when she accidentally pressed herself into his back.

(Naruto…you…argh!)

…

Dita pouted and spoke out as she guided her Dread back to the Nirvana.

"No fair! Mr. Alien's only supposed to combine with me!"

Jura on the other hand came to a realization, she knew that her Dread had also been affected by the Paeksis before and had been also transformed by it to be better than it was when it was still a regular Dread. This meant that if she did the same thing with Naruto's Vanguard…

"Maybe I can make something elegant and powerful too….hmmm, that would be nice. But how do I convince Naruto to combine with me?"

…

To be continued…

…

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the delay in this chapter, I decided to squeeze in both episode 3 and 4of the anime to change the pace while removing some elements of the story and replaced them with my own original scenes to add some personal flavor to the story and not follow canon too closely. It's been some time since I looked at the VanDread series so I am a bit rusty to say the least.

Not too original, I'll admit to that, but I had a load of laughs cooking the many new scenes up, and I know that making Naruto a bit childish when it comes to food is a bit much, but what did you expect after being stuck on an all male planet where the primary foodstuffs there were nutrient pills?

I took the idea of him having the chance to show his Taijutsu skills as well as his Kenjutsu skills since one of you, my reviewers send me a message with the idea. I also thought up the idea of him also sparring with Jura in this since he does happen to have skills in using swords in combat and unlike Jen in the beginning, Jura does learn to appreciate sparing with someone who appreciates swordplay like she does.

I usually wondered why Jura carried the sword and decided to have her use it more often, namely in fighting with Naruto and this will actually help her establish a bit of a rapport with the man since he is by all rights the only sword user in the ship apart from her. I happen to be a big fan of swords so it annoys me that Jura's carrying the thing and rarely gets to use it in a more serious setting, and it galled me when it was thought she shaves her legs with the darn thing.

A rapier for shaving your legs…weird…

Who knows, she might even develop a liking to the blonde Shinobi, though that might take a bit of time and effort after the whole Register incident with the Oiroke No Jutsu.

…

I decided to upgrade the Oiroke No Jutsu and find a use for it in this chapter just for the sake of some laughs, and besides, being forced to work in an all female workplace, looking and sounding like a woman is a good thing. This trumps out Hibiki's works by a mile in my personal opinion, and I borrowed a few ideas from several anime, comic, and game ladies, namely Mai Shiranui from KOF, Ivy of Soul Calibur, Emma Frost of X-Men, Felicia Hardy and Mary Jane Watson of Spiderman, and Rangiku Matsumoto of Bleach as well as Tsunade Senju of Naruto herself.

They each were used to help me improve the Oiroke No Jutsu as I looked at their body shapes and took the best from all of them and threw it into the stew pot to mix with Naruto's Oiroke No Jutsu.

And judging by the reactions of the women to this trick, this was worth the effort, at least to me. To you guys, I'm not so sure, feel free to comment when you can okay?

On a side note…I was listening to Kesha's Tik Tok song when I was thinking of how Naruto's Oiroke No Jutsu would look in the Register outfit, it's a bit much but I liked it.

…

As you have read, the Dragon Vanguard that Hibiki and Meia made in the original VanDread is out and replaced with a more unique model. It is human in form but is more agile and less armored than VanDread Dita. I blended the features of both the original VanDreads which were first seen in the anime and fused the elements of the two and discarded the bird like design of the original for a more human design. It does incorporate speed and power of Meia's original VanDread but has the human design of Dita's original VanDread but without the cannons and the heavier armor.

It has some long range weapons such as the energy shuriken and kunai though they are fired at a much faster rate and cannot be thrown. It can fire more chakra chains than Naruto's Vanguard which at the moment is limited to firing only two, and has the ability to launch specially marked kunai that can give it short range teleportation abilities in line with the Flying Thunder God Technique of Minato Namikaze in battle. And it can use the close combat variant of the Rasenshuriken to separate it from the original but it does not cause severe damage to either the machine or to Naruto and Meia and can be covered by the Rasenshuriken to further improve it's power in high speed attacks.

Hope that this model is not too bad or too new to be considered junk, but I personally like it and hope that it will pass the test of time in this story.

…

See you in the next chapter!