Mass Effect 2: Naruto's Mission

by I.K.A. Valian

Naruto wakes ten years in the future with no memory of what happened to get him there. Following the only clue he can find, he embarks on a mission to find and save the rest of Team Seven and gets swept back into the events of a galaxy threatened by Reapers. There, he learns that despite the difficulties it puts on him and his mission, it might be better that he doesn't remember.

6. Shepherds, Archangels, Ninjas

Mass Effect 2: Naruto's Mission

Written by I.K.A. Valian

All characters and material from Naruto are the property of Masashi Kishimoto.

All characters and material from Mass Effect are the property of BioWare.

---

Chapter Six: Shepherds, Archangels, Ninjas (Or, when the shepherd's away, the archangel's play, and ninjas fly to the moon)

Last Time

The leaders of the free Ninja world gathered under the request of the Representative of the Lands of Fire. The other Kages and Representatives were shocked to learn that Naruto had reappeared after missing for ten years and even more incensed that they hadn't been informed at all until the meeting. However, the Water Representative pointed out that just Naruto alone wouldn't have warranted calling a full summit of Kages and Representatives. The Hokage then presented a recording of Reaper Harbinger taunting Naruto for resisting the Reapers and essentially declaring war on the Ninja world and their galaxy.

Despite their fear and apprehension, those gathered at the summit came to a decision. Showing their faith in Naruto, they chose to follow his lead, and fight the Reapers. As they decided how to go about doing so, the aforementioned blond ninja set out for what could possibly be his largest adventure yet.

---

Naruto gasped and choked as he fumbled with the helmet to his suit. He coughed and forced his lungs to not breath the toxic Omega station air while he pulled the helmet on. Blackness creeped in to the edges of his vision while Jacob helped him by sealing the helmet on.

Then sweet, sweet relief appeared in the form of filtered air. It wasn't cool, rather, the filter just made the air not smell. But what a relief sweaty humidity was over the cesspool of garbage floating in the air and into the lungs of anyone brave or foolish enough to breath without a helmet on.

Naruto could only stare incredulously at the others in front of him through the clear faceplate of the helmet. They had, of course, no problem breathing this putrefied gas. Why was it that only he had such a problem?

"I hate you," Naruto grumbled as he looked at them incredulously. "Why can you breath this… bleh…" Naruto swallowed the bile rising up his throat. He took a few more moments to compose himself before he said, "It stinks in here."

Jacob smirked down at the doubled over Naruto. They stood in the access hallway to to the docking arm that attached to the Normandy, which was basically a decrepit hallway carved from the rock of the asteroid Omega was built into with glass windows on one side. Visible through the window was the Normandy in all her glory, not that anyone other than Shepard and her ground team would ever see it from this point. "You get used to it after a while," Jacob said. "Some of the old cities back on Earth are still dealing with worse pollution, like Los Angeles."

"Hah," Miranda laughed. "Omega. What a piss hole. I can't help but agree with Naruto. I feel like I'll need a shower after being through decontamination."

"Let's just make the most of our time here," Shepard said, though it was obvious that the grime that has already attached itself to her exposed neck and face had grossed her out. Being the marine she was, though, she pushed through it. "EDI, any local news or chatter about Doctor Solus or Archangel?"

The four members of the ground team proceeded through the door at the end of the hall and entered into a large reception hall that looked more like a garbage dump. It is a garbage dump, Naruto realized as he noted several piles of old equipment, rusting metal, and other refuse best left undescribed. Several different species milled about the area, but none of them paid Shepard and her companions any mind.

"News reports and radio chatter seem to indicate that a plague has broken out recently in the slums. Doctor Solus has reportedly opened a clinic inside the quarantine zone in an effort to help the sick and cure the plague. I have no news to report on Archangel."

"Thanks EDI," Shepard said. "Keep an ear out for Archangel. The rest of us will head to the-"

"Ah, Welcome to Omega," a bug eyed Salarian greeted cheerfully to Shepard. She leaned back as the Salarian leaned into her personal space. "You must be new here. I can always tell. Allow me to-"

Loud, clomping steps echoed into the reception area. Several people that used to be minding their own business quickly made themselves scarce as an armored, human-shaped Batarian walked up behind the Salarian. The Salarian spun around and shrank into himself as he took a step back and bumped into Shepard. Shepard scowled and pushed the Salarian away from her so that he bumped into the black, scratched up chest plate of the four-eyed Batarian.

"H-hello Moklan," the Salarian squeaked up at the grimacing Batarian. "I-I was j-just-"

"Leave Fargut," the Batarian snarled. "Now!"

"Hehe!" Fargut laughed nervously. He grinned idiotically and quickly ran away as he said, "Of course, Moklan. Anything she wants!"

"Fucking scavengers," the Batarian grumbled. He turned back to Shepard and her crew and opened his arms. Derisively, he said, "Welcome to Omega… Shepard."

"I get the feeling you already knew we were coming," Shepard said. Her hand twitched, but remained by her side as she stared the Batarian down. That was the only indication that she was contemplating grabbing her hip-holstered handgun.

"Of course," Moklan said. "You're not as devious as you'd like to think. We had you pegged the moment you entered the Omega Nebula. Aria wants to know what brings a dead SPECTRE to Omega. Go to Afterlife and present yourself. Now."

"I didn't come here to cause trouble," Shepard said. "But that doesn't mean I'll bow down to any dictator that comes along asking for my allegiance. I'll meet Aria when I'm damn well ready."

"Things seem to explode wherever you go, Shepard," Moklan said imperiously. "You can't blame Aria for being cautious. Afterlife. Now."

That said, the Batarian turned and marched off. The people that had come out from wherever they were hiding scurried away again. Shepard and the team stayed where they were until Moklan was gone.

"What a fun guy," Naruto said. "What crawled up his ass and died?"

"That's just how Batarians are," Jacob said. "I think they get a hornets nest shoved up their butts at birth." Naruto snickered.

"Let's take a look around the area before we head to Afterlife," Shepard said. "I'm feeling spiteful all of a sudden. I doubt we'll have an easy time here if we piss off its ruler and head into the quarantine zone without permission, but we can make her wait just the same. We need supplies anyway. Any upgrades and weapon mods you think we can use?"

"There might be some good upgrades for our guns here," Jacob said, "though I wouldn't get your hopes up. Omega's known more for it's shady business deals than honest trade."

"Omega has its fair share of relatively legitimate shops," Miranda said. "And then there's the black market where you can get anything from stolen prototype weapons of mass destruction to slaves."

"Slaves," Naruto said. "The hell kind of place is this?"

"This is Omega," Shepard said as she started forward. "Probably the darkest and deepest pit in the galaxy that can still support life. Though," Shepard paused as she regarded one of the residents of the stations, wearing rags, sleeping on one of the support struts for the walls. "It's hard to call this living."

---

As the ground team made their way through Omega's Market, which Naruto fondly called a gang of thugs selling junk, they inspected several different shops. Harrot's had a hack module that Shepard found was still in good repair and some kind of ship component at a Quarian's shop. Jacob found some kind of mod that he said would make a shotgun shoot for more damage. Miranda found a biotic amp upgrade that she'd described as 'rare' and 'unobtainable'. Naruto, being himself, found and bought a magazine called Fornax without knowing what it really was until Shepard grabbed it and chucked it over the railing into the depths of the city below. Shepard and the Cerberus operatives couldn't help but feel slightly violated at the deeply disturbing chuckled Naruto made afterwords.

After a few hours of moving through the market, haggling with shop owners, and paying another Quarian's way off the station (for a rather modest discount at his store kiosk), Shepard and the ground crew found themselves in front of one very flashy, very exclusive club. A line had formed in front of the door with an Elcore acting as bouncer.

"I take it this is Afterlife?" Naruto asked. He bent his head back until his neck hurt to look up at the enormous Asari dancing in skintight clothing on a screen that looked to be taller than the Hokage Mountain. "This place is huge!"

"Hey, you!" a Batarian at the door called out. He pointed at Shepard and then jerked his thumb at the door behind him. "Aria's expecting you. You sure took your sweet time."

"Well, it's now or never," Shepard said. She marched forward, the others behind her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," the Batarian at the door said. "Just you, Shepard. The rest of your group can stay out here."

Shepard pulled her hand gun and pointed it at the doorman. "I'm not walking in there alone," she said. "Now move." The doorman was shaking, but didn't move. "Do you really want to be responsible for keeping Aria waiting?"

"Hey, whoa!" the Batarian said, holding up his hands in front of his face. "Yeah, yeah. All of you can go."

Shepard lowered her gun and smiled. "That's better," she said as she walked past the doorman and entered Afterlife's antechamber.

"Couldn't we have asked more nicely?" Naruto asked. "That just seemed kind of mean."

"This is Omega," Miranda said. "If we show any weakness, they'll rob us blind or kill us and take our stuff anyway."

"This still doesn't seem right," Naruto said. "What kind of ruler lets a place get this bad anyway?"

Shepard opened another door on the far wall of the antechamber to reveal a much larger lounge. Two bars were on either side of the round chamber, along with several tables and Asari dancing in various stages of undress on top of said tables. Occupying the center of the room was a large circular stage with a holographic projection above it of the very naked, very well endowed Asari dancing on the stage so that anyone in the entire club could see the evening's 'entertainment'.

"W-Wow! Those are the biggest… Holy shi-" Jacob punched Naruto in the arm. "Ow! What the hell…" Naruto saw that everyone else had moved on toward the back of the lounge. Jacob was giving Naruto a knowing look as he jerked his head in a way that told Naruto they were moving on. "Err, thanks, Jacob."

"Anytime, man," Jacob said with a snicker. Naruto paid the man's jab no attention as he followed slowly behind so he could watch the large projection of what were most certainly largest pair of blue-

"Naruto!"

Naruto jerked out of his reverie by Shepard who was waiting with the others by a set of stairs. He focused himself, silently glad that the helmet he was wearing would hide his flushed face and what he thought was a line of blood leaking from his nose. When he caught up to Shepard she gave him a small glare and then turned to ascend the stairs past a Turian holding an assault rifle.

Naruto had the sense to hold his head down in shame as he followed. It's not like he could help it! They were so… so… big! And Blue! Probably best not to think about it any longer. Stupid Pervy Sage was probably laughing his ass off in the afterlife right now. Or taking notes and giggling like a school girl. Heh, ironic, considering the name of this place.

"That's close enough." The feminine voice drew Naruto away from imagining what his dead Godfather would be doing in his place. He looked up only to find the barrel of a gun shoved into his face. The metal of the gun clinked when it hit the face plate. Shepard was further ahead of Naruto being scanned by a Batarian with an Omni-tool.

"If you're looking for weapons, you're doing a piss poor job of it," Shepard said as she pulled her hand gun out. She didn't point it at anyone, but the bodyguards standing idle reacted by pulling their assault rifles on them. Miranda and Jacob already had their hand guns out and were back to back, surrounded by a circle of gunmen. Naruto noted and was slightly miffed that he was only deemed worthy of having one gun on him. He should have liked to have had three, or ten. Though, considering that the armored Turian had his gun this close to Naruto's face… Naruto decided that arguing the point wouldn't really be worth it.

"They're clean," said the Batarian that did the scan. He took a step back and let Shepard have a unobstructed view of the ruler of Omega, Aria T'Loak. The Asari in question had her back to them as she looked out over the Afterlife Lounge.

"You could have been anyone," Aria said. She turned around and faced Shepard. "Or anything. The reports of your demise were downplayed, but hardly a secret. It's not everyday a dead SPECTRE reappears. I must say, that's some impressive trick."

Aria motioned to the couch as she took a seat on the one behind her. Shepard took a step forward and sat down with her arms stretched out along the back of the couch. "I was told that you were the person to come to if I needed to know something."

"Depends on the questions," Aria said, glaring straight ahead. "And who's asking them."

"So you're the leader of Omega then?"

"Haha," Aria laughed lightly. Then she tilted her head and looked directly at Shepard. "I am Omega." Shepard stared just as hard back at the Asari. "However you want to put it, Queen, Leader, Dictator, it doesn't matter. Omega has no titled ruler and only one rule." Aria smiled sweetly. "Don't fuck with Aria."

"Sounds simple enough," Shepard said. "I have similar rules. It sounds like we both don't like being jerked around."

"That would matter if we were on your ship," Aria said. She straightened her gaze and made a dismissive motion with her hand at Shepard. "So what is it you wish to know?"

"I'm putting a team together. I'm looking for two people here on Omega," Shepard said. "A mercenary that goes by the name Archangel and I need to get into the slums to find Mordin Solus."

"Hah," Aria barked. "You certainly are interesting, Shepard. Archangel has gone to ground. All the merc groups in the Terminus Systems have his head in their targets, and they're all combing Omega to find him. Unless you get lucky, I doubt you'll find him before them. Even I don't know where his secret base is. You're going to make a lot of enemies teaming up with him."

"What did he do to get that kind of attention?"

"He seems to enjoy doing everything he can to piss off the different merc operations around the sector, mainly on and around Omega," Aria said. "But he seems to know enough to stay away from me."

Shepard grinned. If Archangel was this badass, then he'd be perfect for the mission. It took a special kind of hardass to piss off every merc group in the Terminus Systems. "Sounds perfect," Shepard said.

Aria snorted. "As for Mordin, I always liked him," Aria said. "He's as likely to heal you as he is to kill you." Aria smiled at some random memory that flitted behind her half lidded eyes. "Just don't get him started talking. He never shuts up. You can take a shuttle to the Quarantine zone. Good luck convincing the guards to let you in. You won't be let out until after the quarantine is lifted."

Shepard nodded and stood. "Thank you for your help," she said.

"Good luck," Aria said, though her tone was bored and she was still staring lazily into space directly in front of her. Before Shepard could lead her group away from Aria's 'throne room', Naruto stepped forward. All of Arias bodyguards raised their rifles at Naruto, which caused Shepard to whirl around and do the same with her hand gun. Miranda and Jacob followed suit.

"Aria is done speaking with you," the Batarian who'd scanned Shepard said. "Leave. Now."

"I'm not leaving until I find out if Aria knows anything abou-"

"I said leave," the Batarian said. He took a step forward and placed his hand heavily onto Naruto's shoulder. Before the Batarian could do anything, though, Naruto grabbed the arm and hurled the Batarian over his shoulder. The four-eyes of the Batarian were open wide in shock as he sailed over Aria's head and down a level to land on his back on the floor below, the air knocked out of him.

"Fire!" one of the body guards said. The ring of body guards around Naruto started shooting. Shepard was about to start herself, when she noticed that Naruto wasn't in the middle of the circle anymore.

"Where'd he go?" one of the men asked.

"Up here, bozo," Naruto said. They all looked up to the ceiling, where Naruto was standing with his hands on his hips.

"Now you're dead," shouted the body guard. They all raised their weapons to shoot, Shepard did the same. Miranda and Jacob glowed violet with the power of their biotics. Naruto put his hands together into a hand seal.

"Stop!"

"Huh?" Naruto glanced at Aria. "Aw, c'mon! I was gonna kick their asses!"

"Shepard," Aria said. "I didn't know you had Ninja in your squad… again. Lower your weapons. You know what she could do. I get the feeling this one is much more dangerous."

"Aria," one of the body guards said uncertainly. "But we-"

"Are you questioning my orders?" Aria asked quietly. The body guards all silently lowered their weapons. Shepard did the same as the biotic glow left Miranda and Jacob. Naruto lowered his hands, though with extreme reluctance. "What was it you wanted to ask?" Aria asked.

Naruto dropped from the ceiling and flipped in mid-air to land on his feet. He took a few steps toward Aria before he stopped. "I wanted to know if you knew where Uchiha Sasuke or Haruno Sakura was, or if you knew where I could start looking. I'm on a mission to find them and bring them home."

Aria smirked. "She thought you'd come here, looking for her."

"She?" Naruto asked. "Do you mean Sakura?"

"In exchange for help with a little expedition out into the depths of the Terminus Systems," Aria said, "she worked for me for a couple months. Nothing major, just knocked a few heads together, took down a syndicate, child's play really."

Aria stood and walked up to Naruto. She smiled, not unlike a predator smiles at its prey, and released the seal on his helmet. Naruto's cheeks were bulging as he held his breath while Aria removed his helmet.

"She asked me to pass on a couple of messages," Aria said as she grabbed Naruto's armor suddenly and locked her lips onto Naruto's. Naruto's eyes widened comically. A look mirrored on the everyone else in the immediate vicinity. Aria was still smiling when she pulled back, like she'd just caught the canary in her sharp feline fangs.

"Th-that was the message?" Naruto asked, dazed.

"The first part," Aria said, her grip tightening dangerously.

---

There was a loud scream that rent the air of Omega. The scream was followed by a crash as an orange blob was sent flying through the wall of Afterlife. That orange blob continued to scream as it sailed across the markets and smashed into the inner wall of the station with a resounding thud. That was the final straw for Naruto, and he popped. The resulting white cloud of chakra smoke quickly dissipated.

---

"Naruto!" Shepard shouted over the radio. "Naruto! Respond, damn it!"

Naruto, standing in a dark corner of the lower level of Afterlife, grimaced and immediately raised his hand to his ear. "I'm here, Shepard. That was a hell of a punch though."

"Damn," Shepard muttered several curses Naruto hadn't heard before under her breath. "Are you okay? Do you need help? We're on our way to find you now."

"Don't bother," Naruto said. "I'm nearby the Normandy. I'll just… go back there and recover. My arm's hurt. It's not bleeding or anything, but it does hurt."

"Damn, that bad, huh?" Jacob asked. "Have Doctor Chakwas look at it when you get back."

"We'll have to get Doctor Solus without Naruto, Commander," Miranda said.

"Naruto, get patched up," Shepard ordered. "We'll meet you after the mission."

"Got it," Naruto said. Then he disabled the radio and downed the rest of his drink. The nice Batarian bartender, who'd given him the drink for free, tilted his head incredulously as Naruto belched, grinned happily as he paid for the drink, and walked off with nary a hitch in his step.

Naruto didn't really like lying to Shepard, but he needed to do his own investigation too. He hoped she would understand. Just to be safe though, he'd left a clone near by the docking ramp that should now be headed back on board. It wouldn't do to make Shepard suspicious when she didn't need to be. He doubted he'd find anything more than what Aria told his clone, but it couldn't hurt to ask around on his own.

Naruto wandered around the lower bar as slowly as he could, trying to pick up on any gossiping drunks or alcohol loosened lips. There were other humans here, but there were also a lot of aliens. Big hulking aliens that his Omni-tool told him were called Krogan.

"Damn Vorcha," Naruto heard one of the Krogan standing nearby say. It was a big, hulking specimen of it species with a large, hard looking, red plate on its head. Its eyes were yellow and like Orochimaru's, vertically slitted. The Krogan waved one of its hands at back door of the club. "The damn things are always stinking up the place. I wish they'd go back to whatever hole the crawled out of."

"They're not as bad as they used to be," the Krogan's buddy said. It was another Krogan with a green plated head and orange eyes. "I hear they used to be more of them than any other thing on the station. Aria's sure cleaned up the place."

"Yeah," the red plated Krogan said. "It sure is nice having Aria in charge. Old Patriarch never got it this good. But still, someone should just vent those damn vermin into space."

"Like that would kill them," the green plated Krogan said with a snort. "Besides, they're just annoying, not like that damned Archangel. Now he's a pain in the quad."

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he leaned against the bar with his head down. He'd learned this position from Jiraiya during his training trip. Granted, his godfather usually had a woman, or two or three, hanging off of arms. When the Krogan mentioned Archangel, Naruto forced himself to remain still and listen more carefully.

"I hear Archangel finally pissed off too many merc bosses," the red plated Krogan said. "He attacked Garm, Tarak, and killed Jaroth's top lieutenant recently. I hear they're all hunting for his secret base so they can deal with that bastard once and for all."

"I got something even better than that," the green plated Krogan said with a grin that showed too many rotten teeth. "My cousin is in the Blood Pack. He told me that they just found his base and have him pinned down. They're going to launch and assault on him in a couple of hours."

"I hope they rip him apart," the red plated Krogan growled. He pounded the bar and caused his drink to spill. "That asshole destroyed my shipment of Red Sand and my ship when with it. I just wish I could be there to personally add a hole into the bastard's hide."

The green plated Krogan patted his buddy's hump. "I know what you mean. Several of my shipments of Eezo were confiscated by the C-Sec because of that asshole. But that's not the best part."

"What are you talking about?" the red plated Krogan asked.

"My cousin told me that the merc bosses want to hire as many freelancers as they can for the assault on Archangel," the green plated Krogan said. "We could go sign up and plug him full of holes!"

"I like the sound of that," the red plated Krogan said with a devious grin. "Where do we sign up? I could use a good battle. Especially if Archangel is dead at the end of it."

"They're gonna be recruiting at the transport hub just outside of the club here," the green plated Krogan said. "If we want to get in early, we should go now."

Both Krogan pushed back from the bar and started flexing their arms. They grunted and grumbled, roaring as they psyched up for the battle to come. Then they both quickly charged out the door of the bar. Naruto grinned as he waited a few seconds and then followed. He may not have found anything on his friends, but Shepard was looking for Archangel. Lady luck must still be on his side.

As Naruto exited the club, he found himself confronted by a group of creatures. He scanned them with his Omni-tool. The read out showed him a picture of the creatures standing in front of him and several facts about their species, including that they were Vorcha.

"So these things are called Vorcha," Naruto said quietly. The sheer number of them milling about was a little disturbing, especially considering how ugly and possibly terrifying they might be. Honestly, the only people he knew to have sharpened teeth was Sasuke's friend Suigetsu and that shark guy Kisame. And these Vorcha looked like neither.

Moving as stealthily as he could, Naruto moved closer to the gang of Vorcha in an effort to bypass them and get to the transport hub. Unfortunately, one of the Vorcha saw him and ran up to him with the rest of the gang behind it. It started snarling and spitting at him as soon as it got close enough. "You!" it shouted. It swung it's really nasty clawed hand at him.

"Me?" Naruto asked innocently. Best to act like he belonged. "What about me? I'm just walking this way."

"You tell Captain Gavorn," the Vorcha slobbered, "we no kill no one today!"

"Why would I tell Captain Gavorn anything?" Naruto asked. "Hell, who is Captain Gavorn?"

The Vorcha snarled at him, getting spit all over his armor. Naruto thanked Miranda silently for making him wear the thing. "No tricks!" the Vorcha snarled. "You tell Captain Gavorn! We no kill no one! We leave!"

"Why don't you tell him yourself?" Naruto asked.

"NAHHH!" The vorcha spit and snarled at Naruto more. Then it ran off, quickly followed by the rest of the Vorcha gang. This left the back door to Afterlife clear of any obstacles.

"What just happened?" Naruto asked. He shook it off and continued to the transport hub. There he found the two Krogans who were, if possibly, emulating the fangirls Sasuke alway had following him around. The object of their agressive attention was the Batarian wearing blue armor standing in front of a transport. The Batarian's armor had a white spot at the top of a white circle painted on the chest plate of his armor.

"I already told you," the Batarian said to the Krogan. "We need to wait for a few more freelancers before I make the trip, otherwise it would be a waste. Just hold on. You'll get your chance at that bastard Archangel soon enough."

"Oh, I can't wait," the red plated Krogan said. "When I get him, I'm going to tear him apart."

"You just gonna keep staring kid, or are you coming too?"

Naruto jumped when a man appeared next to him and clamped a hand down on his shoulder. While he mentally berated himself for letting anyone sneak up on him, he glanced over to see who was talking to him. It was a rather tall man wearing yellow armor, though one of his thick, muscular arms was covered in a black mesh material and the other remained bare to show off the numerous tattoos covering every inch. The thing that stood out about the man, though wasn't his tattoos, but his face. It looked like someone had smashed it in and then he healed. The scarring was intense, like nothing Naruto had ever seen before. He blinked and his brain kicked back into gear when he realized that this man, no, warrior, had asked him a question.

"Err… yeah, I'm going," Naruto said.

"Good," the man said. "If you weren't I was gonna kick your ass out of my way. Let's go. We got an angel to kill."

"You the last two?" the blue armored merc asked Naruto and his companion as they approached.

"Yeah. Name's Zaeed Massani," the man said. "I got another job I'm waiting on. Figured I could spend that time getting paid."

"This is the place then," the Batarian said. "What about you kid?"

Naruto grimaced, doing his best impression of a badass, hardcore, warrior as he was able to, and thumbed his nose. "Yeah, I want me some of that Archangel. He pisses me off."

"You and everyone else in the Terminus Systems," the Batarian said. He activated his Omni-tool and waved it over the transport. The top lifted up and the merc got in behind the wheel. Naruto climbed in and sat next to Zaeed while the two Krogan grinned at each other and sat down on Naruto's other side.

As the driver closed the hatch and the transport lifted into the air, Naruto idly wondered if going off into to save Archangel form certain doom alone was a good idea. After thinking over for a few seconds, he shrugged internally and shook his head. Archangel was on Shepard's list and that meant that he was a possible ally. Plus, if he was being targeted by all these merc groups at the same time, then he needed help. Shepard was busy getting that Doctor Solus guy, so it was up to Naruto to get Archangel out of this alive.

---

Shepard, Miranda, and Jacob stepped from their transport as soon as it was safe. The edge of the residential district they entered was completely empty with the exception of two Turians standing guard at a door. Both Turians had their assault rifles trained on the new comers.

"You were expecting us," Shepard said. "I'm Commander Shepard."

"Right," one of the Turians said. Both guards lowered their guns. The one who spoke motioned toward the door they were guarding with their head. "Past here is quarantined. Once you go in there, you're not getting out until the plague has passed or your dead body is being carried out."

"We can handle ourselves," Miranda said confidently. "Besides, from what we heard, humans are immune."

"Humans and Vorcha," the second Turian said. "The Blue Suns run this neighborhood. But since the plague hit, Vorcha have moved in and started to take over. It's a war zone right now. Both sides are shooting anything that moves."

"We have to find Mordin Solus," Shepard said. "If he's in there, that's where we are going."

The first Turian guard nodded. "The Doc's clinic is on the far side of the residential district, just before the commercial district and Ventilation Control. I hear he's working on a cure, but I'll believe that when I see it." The two guards turned and raised their assault rifles at the door. The one guard nodded to the other, and they opened the door. Nothing was waiting on the other side, but it couldn't hurt to be careful. As Shepard and her team entered the quarantine zone, one of the guards said, "Good luck," just before the door slammed shut, locked, and powered down.

"Somehow, I get the feeling we're about to have a long stretch of bad luck," Shepard said. "Well, no point standing around here. Let's go find the good doctor."

Before anyone could make a move, they received a page beep from the Normandy. Shepard put a finger to her ear to activate the transmitter implanted there. "Joker, go ahead," she said.

"Commander, it's Naruto," Joker said. He didn't sound panicked, so she reasoned the ninja hadn't gone berserk. No, the helmsman sounded more annoyed. "He's disappeared. What came back through the airlock was just a clone. We tried tracking him, but he seems to have turned off his transmitter."

"Naruto has run off," Miranda said. "It figures."

"He's probably trying to find out more about his friends on his own," Jacob said. "Or he's gone to get revenge on Aria. Not sure which is worse though."

"That isn't all, Shepard," EDI said. "I've completed decrypting the transmissions I detected earlier. It's a varying encryption algorithm of some strength used exclusively by the Eclipse Mercenaries. They've found Archangel, Commander."

"Shit!" Shepard cursed. "Damn it! We just entered the quarantine zone."

"EDI," Miranda said, "we're stuck in the quarantine zone for the moment. Is there anyway to tell what Archangels' status is? How long we have until we are unable to retrieve him?"

"According to the transmissions I've intercepted so far," EDI said, "he has been cornered in his base of operations in a warehouse district on the opposite side of the station from where you currently are. The mercenaries believe they will have him in a couple of hours from now. My own estimate of the situation gives him eight hours before he is too tired to continue fighting and the gathered mercenary armies overwhelm his position."

"That doesn't leave us a lot of time," Jacob said.

"Why not send Naruto?" Miranda asked.

"We don't even know where he is," Jacob said. "And he turned off his transmitter. We have no way of contacting him."

"That just means we'll have to find Doctor Solus and hope he can cure this plague in the couple hours we have," Shepard said. "EDI. Continue to monitor the transmissions for any change in Archangel's status."

"Of course, Shepard."

Shepard armed herself with her sniper rifle and said, "Come on. We don't have a lot of time."

"We have all the time in the world," Miranda said. "Archangel… not so much."

---

Naruto grunted as he and the other freelancers stepped from the transport. As soon as they were out, the driver closed the hatch and the vehicle lifted off. They'd been deposited at another transport hub just outside of a bunch of buildings that looked nothing like the market that surrounded Afterlife. These buildings had no windows anywhere and appeared to only have one door.

Further ahead, up some stairs, were several mercs crouching behind a barricade. Every few moments they'd lean over and loose a bunch of shots at some distant for. Just as Batarian wearing more blue armor walked up to Naruto's group, a loud bang rang out and one of the men on the barricade fell backwards, dead.

"Ah, good." Naruto turned away from the commotion further ahead and faced the Batarian that had just walked up to the four of them. "It's about time they sent me someone who looks like they can actually fight…" The Batarian glanced from Zaeed and the two Krogans to Naruto skulking in the shadows behind the taller man. "…well, better than the last group, anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto grumbled. "You wanna fight or something?"

"Heh, I don't get paid to fight freelancers," the Batarian said. He shrugged and added, "I would think you signed up because you wanted a fight."

"We heard Archangel's here," the red plated Krogan said. "Just point me at him. I've got a score to settle with that one."

"I like your attitude, but we have a plan in place." The Batarian threw a thumb over his shoulder at the blockade where several men were leaning out of cover to loose as many bullets as they could before frantically ducking back into cover when the report of a sniper rifle was herd. "Archangel's pinned down at the end of the boulevard over there. He's got superior positioning and the only way in is over a very exposed bridge. It's a killing ground, but we've been at this for almost a day now. He's finally wearing down and we're getting ready to make the final push."

"So you're just throwing us at Archangel hoping to wear him down so you guys can take him out easier?" Naruto crossed his arms over his chest. "Sounds like you guys need to be shown how it's done."

"Heh, whatever you say kid," the Batarian said dismissively. "Archangels been annihilating you freelancers so far. But whatever, just do your jobs and you'll get paid. Easy money. You all will be part of the distraction team. We've got a infiltration team already inside, but they're pinned down, and you need to keep Archangel busy so they can finish him off."

"That's goddamn suicide," Zaeed said. He scowled at the Batarian, but the mercenary just shrugged it off.

"Pretty much," the Batarian said. "But you look like you can handle it…" The Batarian glanced at Naruto and added, "most of you, anyway."

Naruto scowled something fierce but remained silent. In truth, he really didn't care what this guy said about his ability. He wasn't going to nit pick when he'd likely be helping Archangel putting these idiots down later. Everything for now was just an act, though inside, he winced whenever a memory of him actually acting like this when he was younger popped into his mind. He acted like such an idiot.

"Head up to the boulevard and go to the third barricade," the Batarian instructed. "Talk to Sergeant Cathka. He's in charge of the freelancers."

The Batarian turned and left. The two Krogan grinned at each other, pulled out shotguns, and trundled off toward the barricade. Naruto bowed his head as he moved forward slowly in thought.

"Hey, kid."

Naruto looked up to see Zaeed giving him a curious stare with his one eye. "Yeah?" They were both alone in the street. Just Naruto and Zaeed.

"Just what the hell are you doing here?" Zaeed asked. "You aren't a merc, but I can tell you got some fight in ya. You don't have any guns except that pea-shooter, so you aren't going to last half a second once you get onto that bridge. And drop the act, I've seen better. I can tell, you're not here to kill Archangel."

Naruto swallowed. "I…" Zaeed continued to glare at him for a full five seconds of silence. Naruto lowered his head and said, "No, I'm not."

"Heh," Zaeed shook his head. "Good." Naruto blinked and looked up confused. "I'll let you in on a little secret," Zaeed said. "I don't give a shit about Archangel. I figure he has the right idea, killing mercs. And since Archangels gained so much attention, he's drawing all the bloody bastards to him. I came here to do a little gutter cleaning. That's why I'm here. What are you doing here?"

Naruto regarded Zaeed guardedly as he wondered whether telling him about Shepard was a good idea or a bad one. Well, the man had already figured him out, so it was no use trying to play that angle with him anymore. Especially if he was telling the truth about his own desires to off mercs. On the off chance that Zaeed was lying and trying to get Naruto to confess to something that would get him killed, it would probably be best to play it safe and give a similar reason. Besides, killing these mercs and saving Archangel were practically the same thing at this point.

"I've got a score to settle with these guys," Naruto said. "I really don't care about Archangel either. But I figure if he's got it out for these morons, I might as well give him some help. It gets me to my goal either way."

"Nice," Zaeed said. "I think I like you kid. But you really don't know the first thing about fighting a battle if all you brought is a hand gun." Zaeed narrowed his eye for a moment, considering something, and then shook his head in dismissal. "Come on, let's see if we can find you some proper weapons so you won't go dying too soon. Then we'll have to figure out how to 'help' get rid of these mercs."

Naruto smirked. "Sounds like a good idea to me. The more dead mercs, the better." Especially because that means Archangel is more likely to survive.

---

Shepard quickly leaned out of cover and immediately felt her senses tingling. Everything seemed to slow down as she brought the cross hairs of her scope over the unsuspecting head of the Turian Blue Sun's mercenary standing guard outside the door to the next section of the slums. With a small exhale of breath, she squeezed the trigger. The Turian's head exploded into a fine blue mist as his body slumped to the ground.

The Turian's buddies, a couple humans and another Turian, all part of the Blue Suns, immediately started to shoot back, wildly spraying the former dining area with assault rifle fire. By that time, though, Shepard was already back in cover and Miranda had sent a blast of biotic energy at them.

The biotic wave knocked them back and disoriented them as Jacob took that opportunity to launch a container of flammable gas at them. Shepard counted to two, leaned out, and shot the container just as it reached them mercs. The resulting explosion took the group of Blue Suns out completely, removing armor and the body parts underneath in a grand ball of fire.

"All clear," Miranda said as she peaked out from her cover. She stood up and nodded at Shepard, who also had just stood. "That was good thinking Jacob."

"I thought so too," Jacob said. The three of them moved forward, keeping their guns ready to shoot at any mercs that might appear. "Though I don't think that there should have been enough cooking fuel in there to cause that large of an explosion."

The three came to the area where the explosion had occurred and noted the remains of several gas canisters. "I guess that explains the size," Shepard said. "Come on, let's keep moving. We don't have a lot of time." As they moved past the carnage, Miranda leveled her hand gun at one of the merc's bodies and shot him in the head.

Shepard checked the chronometer on her Omni-tool and grimaced. It had taken the three of them a little over an hour just to reach this far. It was a good thing that the clinic was just past this section of the residential district of the slums, but she couldn't help but worry that they might just not make it to Archangel in time.

As they opened the door to the next sector of the slums, the sounds of an intense gun battle reached their ears. Shepard silently motioned forward with her head and then raised her sniper rifle and took point. As she moved, she noted that she had maybe six shots left before she'd have to resort to smaller weapons. She really missed her old HMWSR X, but that got blown to bits with the original Normandy. Beggars can't be choosers, but it seemed a bit ridiculous that with all of Cerberus' resources, they couldn't get a copy of that gun for her to use.

As they neared the source of the sounds, they discovered a set of stairs leading up. Shepard considered that if the firefight that was currently taking places just a few feet from where they stood got any more intense, it might be a good idea to have a better vantage point. Besides, it sounded like the side closer to her and the Cerberus Agents was losing.

They found a large and spacious balcony overlooking the battle at the top of the stairs. On the far side of the balcony was another set of stairs leading back down a floor, straight into the line of fire of the Blue Suns and the multitude of Vorcha that seemed to be growing in number despite the inordinate amount of dead bodies piled up around them.

"Seems like we reached the front line," Miranda noted as she and the others took cover behind the balcony railing. "We should let them fight it out to thin their numbers before we try to move past here."

"Waiting here and conserving our ammo might work for us, but that won't cure the plague or save Archangel," Shepard said. "Besides, I don't think the Blue Suns are going to last much longer. The Vorcha are calling in reinforcements."

"And we took out any back up the Blue Suns had getting here," Jacob said.

"Commander," Miranda said, "We don't have the resources for a prolonged battle."

"We won't last much longer with the thermal clips we have left," Jacob said. "I'm almost out as it is."

"And our biotics aren't infallible," Miranda said. "I may have impressive abilities, and Jacob is no slouch, but their numbers alone would overwhelm us before we even tired out."

"Well, if we can't take them out directly, we just have to come in from the side," Shepard said. She chanced a quick glance over the railing and quickly took note of the layout of the room below. Directly below the balcony they were hiding on was the last of the barricaded Blue Suns. They were firing across the clearing to another barricade behind which dozens of Vorcha were massing. Both sides were shooting at each other with grenades, missiles, sub-machine guns, sniper rifles, hand guns, flame throwers, and assault rifles with the odd shot gun going off every now and then. There really wasn't any place to hide between the two barricades, meaning that it had become a killing ground. The Blue Suns had more skill and thermal clips, as evident from the contrast between the different number of fighters on each side. There was probably eight Vorcha for ever Blue Suns mercenary. But the Vorcha had more fights coming in all the time to fill in any holes left by those killed by the Blue Suns.

"Where are they getting their numbers?" Miranda asked. "If the Vorcha had this many of their kind they could have taken over the station already."

"It's likely that they've been directed to gather as much of the station's Vorcha here for this push," Jacob said. "But…"

"By who?" Miranda ashed, finishing Jacob's statement.

"Well, I have an idea that just might work," Shepard said. "Sasuke came up with it on Ferros to combat the masses of Thorian Thralls. It'll take some set up, though, and I'll need cover when the Blue Suns are finished."

"We got your back, Shepard," Jacob said.

"Just give the word, Commander," Miranda said.

Shepard nodded and reached into her leg pouch. She pulled out several grenades and a length of wire and began to string the wire through the grenades where she could. Just then, the last of the Blue Sun's fell to the ground dead.

"Show time," Shepard said as she stood up and ran. Miranda and Jacob also popped up, giving Shepard covering fire.

---

Naruto collapsed the assault rifle Zaeed had pilfered from the Eclipse armory and attached it over his shoulder like Zaeed had. He didn't plan on using it, but if it made the man happy, why not wear the extra ornament. Besides, Zaeed seemed to really like the rifle he'd found, called it "Jessy's nasty older sister" or something. Not like Naruto understood anything the old guy was talking about half they time anyway.

The building that the Eclipse were using exited onto the boulevard behind the second barricade. Just as Naruto stepped foot from the building, a sniper rifle shot was heard. The head of the man who stood closest to Naruto on the barricade exploded in a shower of gore and pink blood spray.

Naruto watched the brutal display with his eyes open wide in surprise. That could have been his head. With quick, measured steps, Naruto crossed the boulevard to the shelter on the other side of the barricade running across the open street. Zaeed didn't pay the mess that used to be a living being any mind as he walked right through as if nothing were wrong.

As they approached the third barricade, a man motioned for them to stop next to him. He was wearing a lot of armor, but otherwise looked healthy enough, unlike the dead guy on the ground next to him.

"You Sergeant Cathka?" Zaeed asked.

"No," the human said. He nodded across the boulovard, passed the third barricade, at a gunship with several ugly men and the two Krogan standing around it. "He's over there. Go if you want, but I'm staying here."

"Bloody coward," Zaeed said as he turned and marched steadily across the street, ignoring the bullets that whizzed past his head as he went.

"Say what you want, but I'm not crazy enough to attempt to take that bridge," the man said, mostly to Naruto since Zaeed had gone to far to hear.

Naruto kept his head down as he crossed behind the barricade and quickly arrived on the other side. When he arrived, he saw Zaeed talking to one of the men who looked like he'd been there a while. Behind the gunship, a shower of sparks fell to the floor.

"So what's the deal?" Zaeed asked. "We going in now or not?"

"Sergeant Cathka says they have some sort of plan that they're waiting on," said the man closed to Zaeed. "We're just waiting for the order to jump over the barricade and storm the place. Heh. Easiest pay I ever earned."

"Right…" Zaeed quietly turned and moved off to a darker corner. Naruto followed him slowly, so he didn't seem suspicious. When he got close enough, Zaeed said, "We'll go over last, start taking out the others and hope that this Archangel guy gets the idea we're on his side. But that gunship is gonna give us a hell of a run if it ever gets airborne. Those guys said Archangel blew out its engines, but once it's repaired, I doubt they'll give him another opportunity to do so again."

"Why not disable it now, before we go over?" Naruto asked. "Or steal it when it's done being fixed."

"Because there's too many people," Zaeed said as if it were the most obvious reason in the world. "Kid, I get that you want some action, but how far are you really willing to go with this?"

"I'll hold up my end of the fighting," Naruto said.

"Check!" Both Naruto and Zaeed looked over to the Batarian that came out from behind the gunship. "Distraction team. Go Go Go!"

"That's us," Zaeed said as he pulled out his assault rifle and grinned. "Try not to die, kid. Give 'em hell if you do."

"Same to you, old timer," Naruto said. Zaeed snorted and moved to follow the slew of freelancer mercenaries rushing the third barricade and the bridge beyond. The number of shots fired increased dramatically as the number of targets increased.

Before he followed, Naruto put his hands together and quietly said, "Shadow Clone Justu!" Five clones appeared. Naruto nodded to them and said, "You know what to do."

"Yes boss," they said before vanishing with a Body Flicker jump. Naruto pulled out a Kunai and ran full tilt at the barricade. Just as Zaeed landed on the other side of the bridge and began to take out all the mercs that had gone ahead of him, Naruto jumped and flipped over the barricade. Zaeed concentrated on putting bullets into the back of the freelancers heads while Naruto made due with sticking his kunai into them.

---

When Archangel saw the last merc start shooting the others in front of him, and then what could only be a ninja, jump over the barricade and start helping the last merc, he could only smirk. He didn't know if it was Sasuke or Sakura hiding inside that armor, but he was glad for the help. And it appeared that they had the help of whoever that other guy was. The old guy didn't look so great, but the man was putting people down as fast as he was from his sniper's perch.

Best bet: protect the ninja and their mercenary partner from his vantage point. He quickly aimed his heavily modified HMWSR V and took out the barricade defender about to open fire on his two new allies. The barricade defender's partner quickly ducked back down when he tried to shoot him too.

Despite having back up, finally, Archangel really didn't feel all that relieved. Yeah, he had more hope for getting out, finally, but at the same time, a foreboding feeling had settled over him. Everything had gone to hell, so while he was tempting fate by wondering how it could get worse, he smiled and took aim again. If it got worse, he'd just shoot it till it died.

---

Mordin Solus, professor of biological technology and former Salarian Special Tasks Group member, now retired, stood in front of a computer console deep inside his makeshift clinic. Behind the holographic interface of the console was a table, upon which a sick Batarian lay. The computer displayed several self updating charts and scan results from the Batarian plague victim on the table.

After staring at the read out for several minutes, Mordin's eyes widened and he nodded. Then the computer beeped, indicating that it had finished analyzing the plague and had calculated a cure, mirroring the conclusion that Mordin had come to moments before. "Cenozine was the catalyst," Mordin said as he activated his Omni-tool and initiated the minifacturing device behind him and set the newly calculated cure as the base pattern. "Bonds to genetic markers. Hard to find. Addition of ninja chakra as stabilizing element curious, indicative of high end biological engineering capacity."

As the heavy machine behind him began to hum, Mordin applied a basic Medi-gel to the Batarian. The Batarian's pained groans lessened somewhat. "Cure will be ready soon," Mordin said. "Rest easy."

"Thank you," the Batarian rasped. His breathing was shallow, but his condition was otherwise stable.

Mordin turned away and began to pace. "Why Cenozine? Expensive to mass produce. Heplacore cheaper. No, too unstable. Inconsistent. Demozane better. No, toxic to humans. Resists chakra. Not an option. Not an-" The ground suddenly shook, stacked crates along the wall fell over, and some intruments and equipment fell to the floor from tables. Mordin narrowed his eyes as the lights flickered and then full power came back. "Explosion. High power. Likely one large or several small. Close to entrance. Should investigate. Cure needs time to accumulate. Time enough to deal with possible threat."

"Doctor!" Mordin looked up just as the man who volunteered to lead his security mechs ran up to him. "Doctor Solus, the plaza outside the clinic just went up in a giant explosion. I don't know what caused it, but all the Vorcha and Blue Suns that were fighting out there are gone."

Mordin tilted his head in thought. Gripping the Carnifax Hand-cannon he'd pilfered from one of the Blue Suns he'd dealt with earlier, he started moving toward the entrance to investigate. "Possible large scale weapon of last resort. Vorcha unsophisticated enough to handle or produce. Blue Suns getting desperate. Should take extreme caution." Just before Mordin opened the door of the clinic, he turned around and addressed the man helping with security. "Prepare mechs. Could be anything."

"Ahh… yes! Of course, Doctor Solus." Mordin smiled as the man ran off to activate more mechs. The Salarian doctor turned and opened the clinic's front door. Smoke filled the corridor, but it was slowly clearing away as the ventilation systems of Omega did their job.

Slowly, and with great caution, Mordin stalked into the plaza outside. The further he went, the thicker the smoke was. When he got to the main thoroughfare, he paused to both get over his shock and to analyze the level of chaotic destruction.

Pattern of destruction indicated several small explosive devices rigged to explode at the same time. Reinforced explosion multiplied force for devastating effect against the Vorcha and the Blue Suns. Both sides appeared to be decimated. Mordin narrowed his eyes as he took in the rest of the area. The barricades of both sides were mere scrap metal now. Fire still burned from several of the broken wall panels, the ceiling, and the small craters carved into the flooring where the small explosive devices were placed.

"Impressive," Mordin whispered to himself. "Though confusing. Vorcha and Blue Suns fighting here almost constant. Would have had to traverse unsafe terrain while holding off Vorcha and Blue Suns."

"Damn, Shepard." Mordin fell silent and hid behind a broken piece of the ceiling that was just large enough to conceal his form. "I've never seen grenades used like that before. I'll have to remember that the next time I'm up against overwhelming numbers."

Grenades? Yes, possible. High-explosive grenades rigged to explode simultaneously. Mordin nodded as he easily could see this much, if not more, damage being dealt by such a tactic. Very clever. Must have been using any of fifteen stealth techniques to plant grenades.

"Sasuke's version was a bit more powerful. And it involved a giant flaming dragon, if that helps." Mordin tilted his head to the side as he noted the difference in pitch. Most likely human. Female and male. High-explosive grenades indicate training. Likely more mercs. Destruction of Blue Suns indicate loyalty to another group. Threat level indeterminable. Need more data.

"Come on, Mordin's clinic is just ahead."

Another female. Pitch and frequency of voice point toward another human female. Three in total. Squad tactics. Mordin nodded. Seem to be here for me. Should confront them here. Best to keep violence out of clinic.

Mordin casually stood from his cover and level his hand-cannon at the three people just now making their way toward his cover. The three of them didn't notice him at firs, so he give them a warning shot by their feet. Now they were paying attention.

"State names and intentions," Mordin said succinctly. Humans. Three of them. Armored. Well equipped. Not refugees. No mercenary symbols. Quarantine not yet lifted. Here for something else. Looking for clinic, not battle, Vorcha, or Blue Suns. Possible investigation into plague as bio-weapon? No, not enough data equipment. Soldiers, not scientists. Hired guns. Maybe. For who?

The red haired woman standing at the front of the group raised her hands in the universal human sigh of peace and submission. "Relax pal," the woman said. "I'm Commander Shepard. Were here looking for Mordin Solus. He's curing the plague and runs the clinic not far from here."

Mordin tilted his head as he consumed this knowledge and added it to his earlier assumptions. As he contemplated what that meant, he kept the hand-cannon trained on them with a steady hand. After a few moments, he said, "No longer need to find Mordin Solus. I am he. Why were you looking for me? Not scientists, not mercs. Possibly hired guns looking to make a hit. But not hired by Blue Suns or Vorcha. Targeted me directly. Referenced the plague. Possibly here to confiscate cure, research, or force stop of cure efforts. Could be here to-"

"Relax, Mordin," Shepard said. "We're here to recruit you for a critical mission. We could really use your expertise."

Mordin's eyes widened in surprise. This was one result he hadn't foreseen. "What mission?" He asked, his curiosity getting the better of him for a moment. Then he shook his head. "No, no. Plague still spreading too fast. Clinic understaffed. Cannot leave." Mordin lowered his gun and left.

Shepard glanced at her companions before she moved to catch up to the retreating doctor. Mordin ignored the three humans and re-entered the clinic. He waved the security mechs down, letting them know it was not a threat and continued on his way.

"We're on a mission to stop the Collectors," Shepard said when she caught up to him. "We need your help to develop a counter to their technology."

Mordin stopped moving toward his lab at the back of the clinic. Several of his patients sitting or lying around the waiting room of the clinic glanced at him, but remained otherwise silent. "Collectors," he said. "Interesting. Plague hitting these slums is engineered. Collectors one of few groups with technology to design it. Our goals may not be so different. But! Must stop plague first. Already have cure, just need to disperse into ventilation systems. Vorcha guarding it." Mordin nodded. "Need to kill them."

"Great, so you have cured it." Mordin glanced at the man and woman behind Shepard. He blinked only once at the Cerberus insignia on their uniforms. Interesting. Cerberus logo. Not reflected on Commanding officer. Likely liaisons. "Shepard, we don't have much time before Archangel is overrun."

"I know," Shepard said. "Doctor. You said the clinic is understaffed. Let us take the cure to the ventilation system and disperse it into the air while you stay here and help as best you can."

"Hmm, yes," Mordin nodded. "A sound plan. Best use of personnel and their abilities. Come. Cure should be finished accumulating."

At that exact moment, there was a loud clunk from the ceiling followed by all the lights going out. Those in the clinic began to panic, someone screamed, then the red emergency power lights came to life.

"Not good," Mordin said. He activated his Omni-tool and scanned the data streaming by. "Vorcha de-activated environmental controls. Dispersion of cure via air ducts impossible until repaired."

"This day just gets better and better," Shepard said. "Come on, Doctor, we need that cure before we can take care of the Vorcha."

"Right." Mordin nodded. He walked into his lab and began to extract the container holding the cure from the minifacturing unit. "Also, should mention. Daniel, assistant, went to help refugees in Vorcha controlled territory. Hasn't come back yet."

"We'll keep an eye out," Shepard said as she took the container full of the cure. It looked like a brownish-red liquid through the transparent casing, but in the red of the emergency lights, everything seemed to have a red tint to it. "Thank you Professor. We'll be back shortly."

"Good luck," Mordin said.

---

Naruto flipped over the head of the last guy between him and the second floor chamber where Archangel was. This one had been a particular pain in the ass during his and Zaeed's journey through Archangel's base. The entire time this jerk had been tossing grenades and shooting missiles at them.

As soon as Naruto landed behind the man wearing Blue Sun's armor, Naruto kicked him. With the added punch of chakra enhanced muscles, the man was launched all the way to the other end of the short hallway where Zaeed was standing. Zaeed had to lean back to keep from being knocked over. When the Blue Suns merc had past, Zaeed calmly leveled his gun at the man and blew some extra holes into this head.

"I gotta say," Zaeed said. "I wasn't expecting much from you. But you've been bloody brilliant."

"Heh," Naruto grinned and nodded confidently. "That's cause I'm awesome!"

As Zaeed strode past Naruto, he bopped him on the head. "Don't shove your head too far up your arse. There's still more fighting to be done. C'mon. Archangel is through here."

Zaeed paused just before he opened the door. He took a moment to regard the door with uncertainty. Then, with a shrug, knocked. The door's activation panel went from red to green.

"How nice," Zaeed said, "he's inviting us in."

Zaeed palmed the panel and the door opened to reveal a Turian wearing full body armor holding two assault rifles. One was pointed at Zaeed's head and the other at Naruto's. Zaeed responded by crossing his arms and giving the Turian a look that conveyed "really?", while Naruto just stood where he was without making a move. He'd found, since arriving, that sudden moves made people's trigger fingers itchy.

"While it's nice to have some help," Archangel said, "I don't know if I can really trust you. I appreciate the help with the mercs, but I did have everything under control."

"Under control?" Zaeed asked incredulously. "You mean you wanted them to set that bomb off underneath your little perch there?"

"Like I said," Archangel said to Zaeed. "Thanks for the help. I was working on something to take care of that when you two appeared. Now…" Archangel faced Naruto. "I know you're a ninja. I know only two ninja who you could be, but you fight like neither. In fact, you fight like the only ninja I know who I've killed five times. Please, take off your helmet so I can see who you are. If you really are Sasuke or Sakura, please forgive me. I'm sure you understand."

Naruto swallowed loudly. This Archangel guy must have met him when he was indoctrinated. It didn't take a genius to figure out what Archangel would do when he found out that it really wasn't Sasuke or Sakura. And if he didn't comply and take his helmet off, he'd probably get shot anyway.

With a grunt, Naruto decided that he'd just roll with the punches… or bullets. Whichever came his way. He reached up and released the seal for his helmet. The seal came undone with a his and he slowly lifted the helmet up and off of his head, but held his breath. Maybe… maybe if Archangel didn't shoot him, he could put his helmet back on and breath the relatively clean air again instead of the crap that Omega had. As the helmet cleared his eyes, he saw that Archangel was much closer than he was and the assault rifle he was holding to his head was now shaking.

"So…" Archangel said, "you really don't know how to stay dead. I would have thought blowing Sovereign up with you inside of it would have done the job. But of course not." Archangel sounded almost hysterical as he moved closer and shoved the barrel of the rifle against Naruto's forehead right between his eyes. "No, no, of course not. Bullets don't kill you. Vacuum doesn't kill you. Exploding Reapers probably wouldn't kill you either."

Naruto wanted to look away or turn away. But the urge to hide his shame was overpowered by the urge to not piss off the guy with an assault rifle to his head. Naruto couldn't really look into Archangel's eyes, since he was wearing a helmet, so instead he closed his eyes. Maybe he deserved this guy's anger if he was on Shepard's-Shepard!

"I'm here with Shepard," Naruto said. Archangel jerked the assault rifle and Naruto squeezed his eyes shut, expecting the worst. He'd seen people's heads explode from gun fire and he was hoping that he wouldn't be aware enough to feel it happening to himself.

"What did you say?" Archangel asked. More like whispered.

"I'm here with Commander Shepard," Naruto said. He opened his eyes and gave Archangel his most serious of serious expressions. It always seemed to get his point across to all the other enemies he'd talked down. Well, the ones who could be talked down. "I joined her on a mission to stop the Collectors who are abducting humans from colonies in the Terminus Systems. She's putting together a team and as far as I'm aware, you're on the list."

"Well whaddya know," Zaeed said. "Now isn't that a coincidence. Shepard's the contact for my next mission."

"Shepard is dead," Archangel said. He pushed the assault rifle harder against Naruto's skull until it began to hurt. "She died two years ago. And unlike you, she can't come back to life from being blown up with a ship."

Naruto frowned. "No, I was just with her a couple hours ago. I don't know how, but it was something Cerberus did."

"Cerberus?" Naruto winced from the pressure being put on his head. It felt like if he pushed any harder, Archangel would put his gun through his head without the use of bullets. "What does Cerberus have to do with this? They're a splinter-"

"We don't have time for this shit," Zaeed announced. He pulled a sniper rifle from behind his back and expanded it to look through the scope. "I think they've realized their infiltration squad didn't work. They're sending mechs over the wall." Zaeed pulled the trigger and the sound of a mech's head exploding waved over to the three. "One less now."

Archangel looked over his shoulder and then back to Naruto. "I don't have time to deal with you," the Turian said. "Just tell me why you haven't actually tried to kill me yet? I don't really think I'll believe you, but if Shepard really is alive, then maybe she'll have some answers."

"I'm not indoctrinated anymore," Naruto said. "Sasuke saved me. And yeah, Shepard can vouch for me. Seems no one will believe me anyway."

"A little help over here?" Zaeed said from his cover behind the railing of the balcony overlooking the bridge.

Archangel looked back and forth between Naruto and the balcony. For a moment he pushed the rifle harder into Naruto's head. Then the pressure was gone and Naruto was left blinking in surprise.

"If you make me regret this decision," Archangel said, "then you can be sure I'll plug you with more holes than you can heal."

"Uh…" Naruto rubbed his head and for the first time realized he was breathing the crappy air of Omega unfiltered. Only it wasn't that bad here. Pushing that epiphany to the side, Naruto nodded, though only to himself because Zaeed and Archangel were both shooting down at the bridge like crazy. "Right," Naruto said. "Prove I'm not a threat to Archangel. Challenge accepted. Time to show these mercs who's boss!"

Naruto ran toward the balcony and jumped. Archangel had spun around, his gun ready to shoot. Then he watched like a statue as Naruto sailed right past him and Zaeed, over the balcony, and flipped midair to land on the bridge amid the LOKI mechs stumbling forward in their mechanical fashion. Legs spread, hands in the ready position, Naruto shouted and charged forward.

The mechs didn't stand a chance. One moment he was kicking the head off of a mech's body, only to grab the mech's headless body and toss it at another mech. While the first mech's body was still in the air, Naruto launched himself at another one shooting up at the balcony and used his kunai with a little bit of wind chakra to cut its arm off. The arm hadn't a chance to hit the ground before Naruto spun around and sliced the mech's head off. A quick kick to the headless, armless mech's chest, sent it careening through the air to smash into another mech. All four mechs thus attacked fell to the ground at the same time.

"Bloody hell," Zaeed said as he watched from the relative safety of the balcony. "The kid's got some nice moves. How the hell is he doing all that damage with only a goddamn knife?"

"He's a ninja," Archangel said sagely. "It's what they do." He quickly brought his HMWSR V up to his eye and took out one of the Eclipse about to vault over the barricade to join the fight with the what was left of the mechs. "Now the fun begins," Archangel said.

"Now we're talking," Zaeed said as he brought his own sniper rifle to bear.

Naruto dodged another mech's clumsy attempt at shooting him and gave it a good punch to the face. He let off another disappointed sigh. These mechs were barely good enough to be called punching bags. Who in their right mind would use these things to fight their battles. They were too slow and so flimsy.

"Freelancer scum!" Naruto paused after launching the last mech with a kick off into the side of a building some yards away. He kept his leg extended as he looked to the barricade and saw what looked like a woman lining up a large tube at him. Before he could figure out what she was doing with the tube, a bright blue missile shot from it and made a beeline straight for him.

Naruto's eyes widened. He quickly crouched down and jumped, doing a back flip right over the missile, which veered off after missing and futilely smashed into a wall. When he looked back at the barricade, more mercs in yellow armor had joined the first and were advancing on him.

From the balcony, Naruto heard a pair of shots go off and in front of him two people holding hand guns fell as their heads exploded. Jerked out of inaction, Naruto gripped his kunai tighter and charged forward. He ran up to one of the mercs shooting a constant stream of bullets at him, running diagonally until he came up to the man, ducked under his feeble attempt at punching him, and buried his kunai into the man's head through his chin. With wind chakra laced into the blade, it was as if the armor didn't even exist.

Then Naruto's kinetic barriers began to take hits as two mercs on either side of him unleashed their own streams of bullets. Naruto leaped backwards just as his shields went down. Just before he landed behind a waist high wall directly below the balcony, Naruto tossed the kunai he was holding straight at the woman who'd shot the missile at him.

The kunai flew straight and true, right into the woman's face. Then the tag attached to the ring of the kunai started to smolder. Two mercs more mercs had the bad timing to jump over the wall and land on either side of the dead woman just as the exploding tag went off. Two more bodies were added to the pile on the bridge.

While Naruto waited for his shields to recharge, he glanced over cover to see what was happening. Above him, Zaeed and Archangel were both sniping the Eclipse mercs as they came over the bridge. Those that weren't sniped right away, took cover behind some bridge supports where they leaned out to take pot shots at the balcony and Naruto.

Just as the mercs were thinning out, roughly a dozen more began to stream over the barricade. They pushed through the bridge faster than Archangel or Zaeed could take them out and were making to enter the base. Instead, they got a face full of Naruto Shadow Clones.

Before any of the mercs could make heads or tales of how there were more people fighting for Archangel than there were attacking him, Zaeed and Archangel had switched to assault rifles and were spraying down into the crowd behind held just outside of Archangels base by the seemingly never ending wall of clones. It didn't matter how many of them the mercs took out, another one just magically popped into existence to take up the slack.

The siege lasted for just a few seconds over all, but eventually, all that was left were Naruto clones and a bunch of dead mercs. Archangel kept shooting. In short order he'd slain all the clones.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted up from below. "Why'd you do that?"

"Old habit," Archangel shouted down. "I'm sure you understand."

"Old habit my ass," Naruto grumbled. He fell silent when a huge mech was flown and dropped on the bridge. "Shit," Naruto cursed, "not another one of those things."

"Heads up," Archangel shouted. "Heavy mech being deployed."

Zaeed chuckled and said, "That problem should take care of itself, mate."

Naruto's shields were long recovered by this time. He was about to jump from behind the low wall and charge the mech when he noticed another wave of mercs jumping over the barricade. He cursed as the mechs started firing on him and ducked back into cover. And then he popped back up again when those same mechs started screaming in terror combined with the sound of the YMIR mech's missiles exploding and heavy machine gun going off in a constant stream.

The wave of Eclipse mercs quickly dwindled under the fire and then a third wave came over the barricade. This one was full of mercs toting hand guns and missile launchers. They focused their fire on the YMIR as soon as they had their weapons up, and it wasn't long until it was on its last leg.

Just as the Mech fell over, a Salarian hopped over the barricade. He and his remaining men from the third wave began shooting at Naruto and up at the balcony. Archangel brought up the holographic interface on his HMWSR V and activated the armor-piercing mode. A yellow set of holographic attachments came to life on the long barrel of the rifle as Archangel quickly leaned out of cover and aimed.

Archangel took the shot and for a moment, Jaroth thought he'd been shot. The Salarian patted himself down in the few seconds of time it took him to recognized the high pitched beeping noise. Slowly, Jaroth and the last wave of the Eclipse attack on Archangel turned to face the YMIR mech as it gave off the warning siren of a breached fusion reactor core.

Unlike the doomed Eclipse mercs, Naruto recognized the noise from his time on Freedom's Progress. The young ninja immediately dashed away from the cover he'd been hiding behind, waiting for a moment to leap into the fray. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, which was pretty darn fast when chakra enhanced one's muscles, and only barely escaped the shock wave of the fusion bomb that went off. As it was, his back felt like he'd been laying out in the sun for too long.

"Hot damn," Naruto heard Zaeed say from above. "That blast took out the whole goddamn bridge."

Naruto peeked out at where the bridge used to be and quickly noted the smoldering piles of molten metal and whatever the floor was made out of. There was now a large gap between the base and the boulevard. The barricade was gone, along with whoever might have been on it at the time of the blast.

Naruto made his way back up to the second floor. He felt strangely hollow as he entered the room with Archangel and Zaeed. Of course, the odd feeling went away when the barrel of a hand gun was put against his head.

"This again?" Naruto groaned.

"We both know you're good at lying," Archangel said. "Or need I remind you of the stunt you pulled on Noveria. You nearly killed Sakura and you did break several of my ribs, my arm, my legs, and several of my vertebra were crushed."

"Damn it!" Naruto shouted. He snarled as he fumed at Archangel. "How the hell am I supposed to prove I'm not going to stab anyone in the back if you won't give me a chance! I swear," Naruto shouted, "I'm not going to hurt you! I'm not lying! I'm not indoctrinated! I'm not this evil asshole all of you people seem to remember handing your asses to you!" Naruto didn't really care if Archangel believed him or not at this point. He'd had it up to his neck with this mistrustful crap. Sure, he understood, but they weren't even giving him a chance. "Have I done anything to hurt you here? Have I done anything to help those jerks trying to kill you? Hell, I can't even remember being in this galaxy! Why the hell would I want to kill you?"

"Do you think shooting off at the mouth is going to make me sympathize with your plight?" Archangel asked. He lifted his hand gun and slowly started to squeeze the trigger. "Think agai-"

A loud boom shook the building, causing Archangels hand to tilt up just before he pulled the trigger, missing Naruto's head my millimeters. Archangel cursed and activated his Omni-tool. "They've penetrated the tunnels," he said and then cursed under his breath. "I suppose they had to start using their heads eventually."

Seconds later, the glass at the end of the room was destroyed as a man wearing the Blue Suns armor crashed right through it. Archangel and Zaeed turned and shot the man dead before he could so much as lift his sub-machine gun to fire, but more and more blue suns were beginning to repel down the side of the building.

"Someone needs to go down and seal off the lower levels," Archangel shouted. "If we don't we'll be overrun."

"Just hold them off while I take care of it," Naruto shouted as he vaulted over the railing of the balcony overlooking the interior of the building and made a bee line for the basement entrance. Behind him, he felt and heard several explosions go off as Archangel and Zaeed began repelling the invading Blue Suns. "I just hope I know what I'm doing," Naruto grunted as he got to the door and dashed through to the lower levels.

---

Not for the first time in her life, Shepard wondered exactly what it was she did to deserve situations like the one she was in right now. They'd found Daniel alright. He was at the environmental controls, pinned down by a veritable hoard of Vorcha.

Getting to Daniel was the easy, for the most part. The Vorcha launching missiles and shooting were all facing Daniel. Shepard and the Cerberus operatives merely needed to put holes in the backs of all the heads of the Vorcha attacking.

Getting out would be more difficult. After Shepard had led her team in to where Daniel was hiding behind one of the environmental control consoles, more Vorcha appeared. And this time, they brought Krogan, rockets, and grenade launchers. To say that the Environmental Control Center was a battleground was like comparing a desert to hell. The place was in total chaos.

"I don't know how we're going to get out of this, Shepard," Miranda said from behind one of the consoles as she reloaded. "We're running low on thermal clips. They, on the other hand, don't seem to have any problem throwing more bodies at us."

"I don't think we'll be able to disperse the cure now either," Jacob said. He reached out and biotically lifted a Krogan into the air. As the flailing Krogan sailed higher, Jacob launched a strong biotic push. The Krogan was quickly sent sailing through the air and smashed into a group of Vorcha coming down the halls to reinforce their comrades. His handwork done, Jacob ducked back behind cover and said, "This equipment has been blown to hell."

"EDI," Shepard called, as she leaned out and sniped a Vorcha making good with a grenade launcher. "Any way we can get this place operational?"

"Shepard, I've analyzed the layout of the station and I may have found a secondary control station," EDI said. Shepard leaned out and sniped two Vorcha standing next to each other in quick succession. "However, reaching it would prove problematic, as it is past the Vorcha forces."

"I think we'll have to pass on that one, EDI," Jacob said. "There's no way any of us could get there without being seen and killed." He leaned out with his shot gun and pulled the trigger point blank on a Krogan charging at him. The blast was powerful enough to lift the larger creature from the ground and send him flying several feet backwards through the air. The poor unsuspecting Vorcha that the Krogan's dead body landed on didn't stand a chance, but managed to let out a mewling gurgle as it was crushed to death.

"That's not totally accurate," Miranda said cryptically as she sent a wave of biotic energy at an oncoming trio of Vorcha and a Krogan. The wave sent the Vorcha flying but the Krogan just kept moving forward. "Shepard can do it."

"Me?" Shepard went to look at Miranda with a mixture of curiosity and incredulity when a Vorcha charged. Shepard grabbed the disgusting creature by its throat and kneed the thing in its gut. As the Vorcha fell backwards from the assault, Shepard pulled out her hand gun and unloaded five shots into the creatures head, ensuring its death.

"I haven't been completely honest with you, Shepard," Miranda said as she took a few shots at the Vorcha and ducked into cover again. "About the upgrades the Illusive Man approved."

"Gee," Shepard said as she leaned out of cover and took some shots. "Why doesn't that surprise me."

"Yes, he said no to the control chip," Miranda paused to shoot another approaching Vorcha and launch it into the group following it with a biotic blast, "but he did agree to a personalized tactical cloak. It should be accessible from your Omni-tool."

"A tactical cloak?" Jacob shouted. "How did you get one of those into her?"

"Long story," Miranda said. She activated her Omni-tool and entered some commands. "Look we can talk about this later, but right now, Shepard, you need to get this cure to the secondary control station."

"Right," Shepard said. She activated her Omni-tool and quickly discovered that one of the locked out functions was now operable. "What about you two, you think you can hold out?"

"Just don't take all day and we'll be fine," Miranda said. She jerked her head away when a bullet hit the console near her head. "Just go. The faster we get done here, the faster we can get to Archangel. You should have about thirty seconds of cloak time. Make the most of it."

"Good luck," Jacob said. Shepard nodded and activated the cloak. She vanished in moments and was gone.

---

Cleaning up the Vorcha and the Krogan on the lower levels was child's play. Litterally, Naruto hadn't had that much fun screwing with people trying to kill him since he was ten years old. If the situation wasn't so serious, Naruto might have been inclined to take his time bodily tossing the Vorcha and Krogan out of the lower levels.

Unfortunately, Naruto had promises to keep. There were three different shutters that were available to completely lock down the lower levels. Reaching the first shutter was a simple matter of running up to the large, blinking, green button and smashing it. The shutter lowered and there were no problems.

The second shutter was at the back of a large room filled with vehicles, Archangels base equipment, and the Blood Pack. That was where Naruto had a little fun at the Blood pack's expense. Tricking the Vorcha into shooting each other and then the Krogan reminded Naruto of the Genin Test Kakashi gave team seven so long ago. Back when Kakashi had Naruto fighting his own clones with a simple replacement jutsu. Same thing here, with clones and transformations thrown in for fun. Mix, shake, and presto, shutter was closed and the Blood Pack killed themselves.

The third, and final shutter was the simplest. He just threw all the rest of his clones down the short corridor. Since the ten or so Vorcha defending didn't know how to handle a couple dozen clones running up and down the walls and ceilings, they were easily dealt with. It didn't take long for several clones to close the final shutter.

With all three shutters closed at practically the same time, Naruto nodded from the top of the stairs leading back to the upper levels. It was at times like these that an army of clones at your command was invaluable. Now all he had to do was get back to Archangel and keep the Turian alive, even if said Turian didn't seem to reciprocate the feeling.

As soon as Naruto got back to the upper levels, Naruto ran smack into a Blue Suns with a rocket launcher. He was hiding behind a pole and shooting up at the balcony to try and hit Archangel, who was doing a rather bang up job blowing the hell out of anyone who came close to the stairs leading to the second floor. Naruto had distracted the Blue Suns Heavy just as he pulled the trigger and the missile went astray and hit another Blue Suns running toward the stairs on the other side of the room.

"Oops, sorry," Naruto said. Before the Blue Suns merc could think of moving, Naruto had buried his foot into the man's head and sent him flying into the wall with a satisfying crack. "Or maybe not." Naruto brought his hands together and said, "Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

About a hundred clones popped into existence on the lower floor and began kicking the shit out of any merc they found. The mercs were, generally, able to defend themselves, but now they were distracted. Naruto used the opportunity to run up the wall to the second floor and was about run across the ceiling when he notice a particularly powerful Krogan run straight up the stairs.

This red plated Krogan was shot several times by Zaeed and Archangel. Several of Naruto's clones tried to stop him. The abnormally powerful Krogan shrugged all these attacks off and just kept charging right up the stairs to the second floor.

Naruto changed his coarse and flipped down from the ceiling to land in front of the Krogan. The Krogan went to charge through Naruto, probably believing him to be another clone, but Naruto ducked down and launched his foot up and into the Krogan's chin. The blow was sufficient enough to stop the red plated Krogan and knock him back a few steps.

"You're one powerful Krogan," Naruto said as he shook his foot out. "That hurt. But damn if someone wasn't beating you with the ugly stick."

"I don't have time to deal with your pathetic attacks," the Krogan said. "Archangel is mine. And no one is going to get in my way. Raaaaah!"

The Krogan charged again. Naruto leaped back and formed a Rasengan in his hand. Just as the Krogan reached him, Naruto thrust the Rasengan at the Krogan, but the swirling sphere of chakra bounced off of some kind of purplish barrier around the Krogan. Naruto's eyes widened when the Krogan smashed into him and kept going, taking the both of them into the room where Archangel and Zaeed were doing their best to fend off the Blue Suns on the lower floor and the ones repelling down the side of the building to the window of the second floor. When the Krogan stopped charging, Naruto didn't, and flew straight into the wall. When he hit, he cracked the back of his head against the wall and cried out in pain.

"Archangel!" the Krogan roared. "I finally have you where I want you!" The Krogan pulled out a shot gun and began unloading at Archangel, Zaeed, and any Blue Suns that got in his way. Archangel, Zaeed, and the few Blue Suns smart enough to take cover, tried shooting back, but whatever damage they could do to the biotic Krogan healed too quickly.

"What happened to your friends, Garm?" Archangel taunted. "Get trapped down stairs or something?"

"I'm going to kill you!" Garm roared. "Archangel!"

"Ouch!" Naruto hissed from his place on the floor. He felt the back of his head where the pounding headache he had originated. When he pulled his hand back he saw blood. "Shit. I'm going to make that bastard pay! And I gotta save Archangel!"

Naruto pushed himself to his feet with the help of the wall and unsteadily tried to stay there. The floor was moving back and forth beneath him, but he forced himself to remain standing. Concentrating hurt like a bitch, but he knew of one attack that would take out this asshole.

Naruto put his hands together and two shadow clones appeared next to him. The pain from concentrating to do just that much almost knocked him on his as, but Naruto stayed standing. He ignored the few pot shots that some of the Blue Suns made at him and held out his right hand. He forced chackra into his hand and started it spinning. One of the clones started helping with the spinning while the other one started adding wind nature to the growing sphere.

Moments later, the room was filled with the reports of gunfire and a high pitched whistling. The two clones vanished when the attack was finished forming. Garm was still shooting away with his shot gun, trying to blow the head off of Archangel and Zaeed, but the two were continually moving about the room and the Blue Suns weren't trying to kill them now, so much as avoid Garm.

The room wasn't swimming around as much as it was before, so Naruto started running as fast as he could toward Garm. Garm saw Naruto coming and unleashed a blow from his shot gun on Naruto point blank. Naruto was thrown back a bloody mess. Garm grinned, only to watch stupidly as Naruto popped, revealing he'd been replaced by one of the rather soft and comfy looking pillows from the couch.

"Futon: Rasengan!" Garm barely had time to turn, and couldn't bring his shot gun to bear, on the real Naruto as he ran up to him from the side. In his hand a swirling ball of bluish-white light with four small white blades orbiting it like a propeller. Naruto thrust the Futon: Rasengan straight into Garm's chest.

The attack was at first repelled by the purple barrier just like the regular Rasengan. Then the Biotic Barrier shattered like so much glass. The Futon: Rasengan plowed into and through Garm's red armor like a hot knife through butter, and then the flesh beneath that armor in similar fashion.

Naruto stumbled after delivering the attack and was quickly knocked back by the blast of wind as the Futon: Rasengan entered its secondary phase. Blades of air consumed Garm's entire body like a tornado.

When the winds died down, Naruto looked up from the spot he'd landed and saw Garm was still standing. He grimaced as he went to push himself back to his feet when Garm simply fell apart. Where Krogan was standing seconds before, was now a pile of red mush.

Archangel peeked out from cover and noted the pile of mush with some lack of surprise. The Blue Suns behind Archangel and Zaeed noticed that it was not their turn to try and kill Archangel. Archangel beat them to it with several quick sniper shots. He wasn't even looking for the last one as he walked forward toward where Naruto was slumped against the wall, trying to get up, but was too dizzy from the head wound.

"Bloody hell," Zaeed muttered as he inspected the former Blood Pack leader. "I sure as hell am happy he's on our side."

"I still have my doubts about that," Archangel mumbled. But he didn't have his gun on Naruto anymore.

"Archangel!"

Archangel spun around just as the gunship flew into view outside the balcony. The main gun opened fire right on Archangel. The Turian's shields didn't last more than a second and soon he was being riddled with bullets. Zaeed threw himself to the ground and Naruto could only watch as Archangel fell to the ground in a growing puddle of blue blood.

"You're going to die in there, you bastard!" shouted the pilot. The gunship lowered and a missile was launched.

"Archangel!" Naruto shouted. He threw himself forward, grabbed Archangel, flipped over, and flung the bloody Turian away form the impact zone. Then the missile hit. Naruto was sent flying. Though his shields and armor had, miraculously protected him from losing any limbs, there were now holes where there weren't any before and shrapnel littered his body. Naruto grinned though, and said "Boom."

The gunship exploded as over a dozen exploding tags attached to the fuselage went off.

---

Shepard could barely keep from laughing as she attached the cure to the dispersion unit at the secondary controls. Seconds later, the cure was sucked into the system and the giant fans that powered the ventilation of Omega came to life again. She grinned and activated the tactical cloak again to leave.

"Mission complete," Shepard said over the radio. "How you holding up?"

"The Vorcha and Krogan seem to have gotten the message that they've lost, Commander," Miranda said. "They're retreating as we speak."

"It could be that they realized they were fighting a losing battle with their dead covering the streets," Jacob added.

"Good," Shepard said. "When the coast is clear, escort Daniel back to Mordin's lab and then wait for him. I'm going to head for Archangel now."

"Roger that, commander," Miranda said.

"Uhh… Commander…"

"What is it Joker?"

"We found Naruto," Joker reported. From the way he said it though, Shepard was inclined to believe that the news wasn't all that great.

"Lay it on me Joker," Shepard said. "I just love bad news."

"The emergency beacon in his armor has been tripped, Commander," Joker said. "We tracked his beacon back to the general area of where Archangel is located." Shepard stopped walking when she heard that. How did Naruto get to where Archangel was? Shaking her head, she started running to the closest transport hub. "That's not all. The merc radio chatter has completely died. I don't think you need me to tell you what that could mean."

"Commander Shepard," EDI said, "I'm receiving a distress signal from one Zaeed Massani. He claims to have been hired by Cerberus and is currently with Archangel and Naruto."

"Just what the hell is going on?" Shepard wondered. "Hang on, I'm on my way to a transport hub. Miranda and Jacob will be escorting Doctor Solus to the Normandy when he's finished at the clinic. I'll be heading straight back tot he Normandy. Send a shuttle to this Zaeed with a full escort, just in case he's full of it. If he's not, tell Doctor Chakwas to be ready to receive a couple of guests."

"Copy that commander," EDI said, "Shuttle away. ETA: Four minutes."

---

Note from the Author

Bloody hell, indeed. That was one of the longest single chapters I've ever written. Damn! The next time I get the bright idea to merge two recruitment missions together, I'm going to bash my head into a wall until the idea isn't so bright anymore or I'm unconscious. I sure hope that I executed it well, because it's hard to tell.

This chapter saw the ultimate failure of Naruto's Talk no Jutsu. "Archangel" just wasn't giving him the time of day. At least, not until he took out Garm. I suppose it's hard to believe someone is on your side as an ally when they've pretty much done everything up to torturing you to death, except you lived to talk about it. My effort with Garrus here is to turn him into a kind of sharpshooter who's honed his abilities with a gun until he's practically a crack shot at whatever he lays his little Turian hands on. It's been a long two years for poor old Garrus.

I hope I got Zaeed and Mordin right. Zaeed's just awesome, but putting his curses in at the right places were an exercise. Mordin is all about analyzing the situation in short, succinct blurbs. No waste of thought or time, or so my impression of him goes.

Giving Shepard the tactical cloak out of the blue like that may seem kind of like an ass pull, and yeah, I admit it was a pretty large ass pull. But at the same time, I wanted to explore the idea of what kind of upgrades Cerberus gave to Shepard. I doubt that they'd just install a handy little network of cybernetics to bring her back to life and that's it. The idea that Miranda is holding Shepard back on the Illusive Man's orders just seemed like something that the Illusive Man would do, backstabbing asswipe that he is. So, please, excuse my ass pull.

Speaking of tropes, I am curious how many of you good readers actually know how many there are in this here story so far. I enjoy myself a trope every now and then, but I'm not fluent in it. If anyone of you good readers happen to have such a fluency, I'd be interested in hearing your verdict of this story so far.

MEleeSmasher, I'm afraid that I already have a loyalty mission in mind for Naruto that plays into his personality a bit more than just giving him his parents back would. Rest assured, though, that I am working on figuring out how to bring mama and papa Naruto into the picture. Might not happen for a bit, but I'm determined to make it work.

kitsuneLovers94, Naruto is physically 17 - 18 years old as well as mentally. The mental scarring that Sasuke applied to Naruto only erased maybe 9 to 12 months of his life in total. How this is possible, where, and when the shinobi planet is will be explained in the course of the story.

Marvey4, as you can see, Garrus didn't react all that well at all. I like to think he's grown on the Turian a little though by this point.

ShiftySpaceCow, you will see how well Naruto and Grunt get along when they pick him up. I'll give you a hint, it involves pranks.

XKhaosXKyuubiX, thank you very much for your praise. As it was my intention to use Naruto's sympathetic nature to help draw people into the story, it makes me glad to hear that it's worked. That Naruto also has amnesia and can't remember what he's done that has so adversely affected the lives of everyone he's meeting makes this a journey of discovery not only for Naruto, but for the readers as well. Because this idea of a Naruto villain being the same person as the Naruto we all know and love just doesn't match up. That causes tension, which amps up the drama and makes the story more interesting. That was my hope, anyway.

Quathis, it never really made sense to me to make Naruto bitter and cast off from his home. He was already cast off from his home before he became a ninja, so clearly he wouldn't just give up after fighting this long to gain recognition. Now if some story starts out with Naruto literally being tossed out of the village at a really young age, then it'd make more sense, but he wouldn't be the awesome ninja we all know, making it an AU story. I suppose he's just not Naruto without being the idiot blond with indomnitable will and a love for his village (even if they don't love him back).

To the rest of you dear readers who have reviewed, faved, and alerted, thank you very very much. And all of the rest of you are just as awesome. Thanks for reading chapter six of Mass Effect 2: Naruto's Mission. Hope you liked it.