Hello readers and welcome to my new chapter. We got a fight in the sky, on the ground, and a well deserved break for the group. Also at the end, some development between Hope and Naruto. Before I begin, I would to say a few things.

I would like to tell you all that there is a new poll for a future story I'm planning after I complete one or two of my other ones. Two planned stories actually. A Walking Dead fanfiction, one game version and one tv version before I merge them together. Don't have a name yet for the tv version, but it's depend on the pairing. I'm trying to decide on Rick/oc or Rick/Beth. What do you think? Just check my profile and vote for who you want Rick to be paired with.

So, now that's out of the way, enjoy the story.

Disclaimer: I do now own Naruto or Final Fantasy XIII.

Chapter 6: Firefight

So, let take a debrief of what happened. They just got out of Lake Breshka.

Good.

They found a new friend, and Snow got a new Eidolon.

Also good.

They found a ship, fully intact, after fighting a flying monster bird.

Good as well.

And now, they are flying in that ship, while several PSICOM ships are chasing after them. And shooting at them.

….Not so good.

Suddenly, somewhere from above, lasers and bullets started raining down on them, causing everyone to cry out. "Give us a break?!" Naruto cried out. He suddenly started agreeing with Sazh. They have very bad luok.

"Give me that!" Lightning said, causing a cry of "What?" from Sazh. She took control of the guns and started shooting back at them. When they were high up, they saw that she only shot one of them.

"Did we get them?"

"We got one of them." Lightning answered Vanille's question. The PSICOM started shooting at them again, causing Hope to cry out that they are still behind them. Lightning and Snow started fighting for the controls as they fly through several buildings until Sazh finally got the controls.

"You wanna die?" Sazh said to Lightning. "If not, let me handle the controls." He started maneuvering around the buildings, trying to lose them, but to no avail.

Hope is near panic mode again, but his mother manage to calm him down by holding his hand. "How are we going to lose them?" He yelled through the fire of bullets behind them.

"Beats me kid."

"Then let me drive!"

"No, thank you, Soldier Girl!"

Sazh then started flying up, pushing through the close quarters of rocks. Finally, he manage to get out the cracks and into the sky. But unfortunately, the PSICOM were still on them.

Sazh look behind the ship. "They still on us?"

"No, they are on the ground, chasing a cat." Naruto retorted. Sazh didn't have time to retort back, as he went down to try to escape the other ships. But the PSICOM were stubborn and continue on the chase.

Sazh growled. "Come on, give me break!" He started driving through the canyons, thinking of a way to get rid of those ships. "Hang on!" He started going faster, passing through the rocks as the PSICOM shot at them. Instead, they shot at those rocks and either blocking their paths or destroying some of them. When Sazh got to clear sky, he quickly boosted out of their before anymore could chase them again.

Once everyone was sure that there is no PSICOM are chasing them, they all sagged in relief. Sazh slammed his fist on the wheel and dipped his forward in exhaustion. "Oh, for the love of all that's good!"

Suddenly, everyone was hearing a news update of the purge. It's saying that the Sanctum announced that the Purge was successful and that the civilians arrived safely at Pulse. Naruto snorted at that.

"Safe rival. And I'm a PSICOM soldier." Naruto dryly said. It then show the Primarch defending the relocation of the bodhum civilians. Sazh roll his eyes. "Yeah, right. If it makes the Sanctum look bad, it never would've happened."

"Agreed." Naruto, Snow, and Fang said at the same time. The primarch continue his speech, stating that they are going to use every available resource to keep Cocoon safe. "Meaning that we will run for the rest of our lives."

"Hey, um…." Vanille started. Sazh look at her when she spoke. "Who's this guy?" Sazh sighed and dipped his head forward in the screen again in exasperation while Naruto chuckle a little.

He got his head back up to speak. "What do they teach kids these days?" Sazh mumbled to himself. "He's Galenth Dysley. The Sanctum Primarch."

"Murderer in Chief." Naruto added in, something to which Sazh agreed to.

"Just another tool of the fal'cie." Lightning muttered as the news continued on. The news stated the Sanctum might do additional purges for the safety of Cocoon, making Naruto slap his forehead.

"Six years I've been traveling and the government is more idiotic than I remembered it."

"You mean it wasn't like that before?" Fang joked, making Naruto chuckle. "But seriously, killing other civilians for everyone supposed 'safety'?"

"That what the Sanctum think we should do." Sazh replied, throwing his hand up in exasperation. "Let purge everyone! That'll get rid of the l'cies in the area." Suddenly, they heard an alarm coming from the ship, alerting everyone.

Naruto suddenly heard bullets being shot at them and he knew the PSICOM are chasing them again. He sighed. "So much for the peace. They're determine, I'll give them that."

"Points for perseverance." Sazh added in. A light suddenly shone through the window, getting everyone to cover their eyes. When they got higher up, they were met with the Sanctum Fal'cie. Vanille gasp in amazement at the site.

"Woah."

"A sanctum fal'cie up close and personal." Sazh said as he drive. "Cocoon's own light in the sky." The ship got hit by a couple of bullets, causing it to lurch a little. Sazh sighed. Here we go again.

Lightning look at the fal'cie in front of them. "Fly in." Lightning advised. When Sazh look at her like she was crazy, she explained herself. "We can lose them in there." Sazh sighed (He's been doing that a lot lately). What does he got to lose?

Sazh then started maneuvering through the energy inside the fal'cie while the PSICOM continue on the chase. They saw a few of those ships started getting blown up on the chase, getting caught in the energy waves.

Sazh grin. "I like this fal'cie." Just as he said that, one of the engines suddenly got destroyed, causing Naruto to curse out loud.

"Spoke to soon Sazh." He said as the ship started crashing down to the land. This is gonna be one hard landing.

(The Vile Peaks)

Naruto groan, getting himself up from the floor. That crashed hurt. A lot. He look over to see the rest of the group unconscious, with the exception of Lightning, who is getting up off her back as well.

"Well….that hurts." Naruto groan out, stretching his arms out. He look around to see that they are at Vile Peaks. "Great, we're at another deadly place. Our luck seems to get better and better."

Lightning didn't say anything to him as she was trying to rouse Serah back up. Snow, Fang, and Gaara slowly got up as well, feeling as bad as Naruto and Lightning.

"I…." Snow groaned. "Hate those guys."

"Agreed." Fang said, stretching her arms. "The next time I see them, I'm going to stab their head through my spear." Gaara didn't say anything. He merely narrow his eyes at where he's staring at.

"Something coming." His voice was a whispered, but everyone heard him. They all tensed as they heard several fast footsteps, and took out their weapons. Soon enough, several red and white hounds showed up all around the place.

Naruto sighed as he swung Oblivion and Oathkeeper around. "Great, Pantherons. We can never catch a break, can we?"

"Hey, our life would be boring otherwise." Snow replied. Before anyone could say anything else, the Pantherons ran at them. Naruto slice down the one that came at him before bending down on one knee and slicing another by through it's stomach. Three more that came at him, he blew away by a burst of wind he controlled.

Meanwhile, Snow is punching each one of them back, when they got to close while Gaara stabs the one that are brought down by several sand spears. The two of them are in front of the still unconscious people, to make sure that they aren't attack, with Gaara making several sands walls behind them and at their sides.

Fang, herself, is stabbing through any canines that was coming at her. In the stomach, through their sides, in their feets and through them to another group, etc. Lightning is at her side as well, cutting up her own group while shooting any that got to close to Fang.

Soon enough, Vanille slowly woke up and got off of Sazh's body. She woke up to see Naruto, Lightning, Fang, Snow, and Gaara fighting the pack of canines. "Hey!" Vanille exclaimed, shaking everybody else up. "You guys! Wake up! We need to wake up!" Hope, Sazh, Nora, and Serah slowly got up at the sound of Serah's voice and saw the others fighting off the group of Patherons.

The group scrambled up on their feets and got their weapons before joining the group. Vanille launched her pole at a hound was about to jump on Fang, who was stabbing one through the eye. Before it could take a bite of her, Vanille pull it away and through at another group, bringing them all down. She started doing that, helping Lightning and Fang fight off the hounds.

Sazh and Nora, meanwhile, are shooting through the hounds with Gaara, helping him and Snow out. Each hound Gaara missed, they shoot down while taking down some of their own.

While they are doing that, Serah and Hope are helping Naruto. Serah launch several arrows at the hounds that were to close to Naruto while Hope kept throwing his boomerang at them. The Patherons didn't had a chance at the onslaught from the group and soon enough, the dogs had no choice but to retreat with their tails behind their legs.

Once the rest of the dogs were gone, everyone put their weapons up. Vanille, Sazh, Nora, and Serah lay on the ground, very tired from everything. "Man, I'm beat." Sazh commented tiredly. He then notice Lightning still walking on, despite the fight they just finished. "What, no break?"

Lightning stopped her walk, but she isn't looking at him. "They're tracking us." It wasn't an 'if' about it. It was a cold hard fact.

"I know that. I know that all to well." Sazh explained. "But we aren't soldiers. We don't have that kind of stamina."

"You have enough to complain." Lightning retorted. Naruto laugh a little at that.

"She got you there old man." Naruto chuckled out, ignoring his glare. He then walk up to Lightning. "But in all serious Lightning, we need a bit of break. We're no good if we are tired." Naruto saw that Lightning is thinking about this, something that surprised the others (Except for Snow and Serah). Making sure she would accept it, he continue on. "And remember that Serah is in the group and that she's tired as well. We can't protect her all the time."

Lightning sighed. If it was someone else, she would've rejected them without letting them make any other explanation after giving one. Alll except for Serah and Naruto. The two people she cared more about.

"...Okay." Lightning finally said, surprising Sazh, Hope, and Vanille even more. "We'll rest for half an hour. Then we'll leave quickly so they won't find us." Naruto smile and nodded in agreement to that.

"Good. And to buy us some time…." Not look at Gaara. "Gaara, can you form your sand around us and make it look like part of the ground?"

Gaara didn't say anything. He merely raise up his hands up, getting the sand come around the whole group. The sand slowly form up, spinning around like a tornado or a sand storm before it closed up. The sand then harden before it look like they are in a cave.

Snow whistled. "Damn. Never thought I would see anyone do that."

"When you're a l'cie and a guardian for a few years, you pick things up." Gaara said with a shrug as everyone layed or sat down. Snow sat on the ground with Serah, who latched onto his arms and snuggle on his shoulder, something which Lightning glared at.

Fang roll her eyes and gag. "Can you save that for when you have a room to yourself please?"

"Agreed." Lightning said, but their statements were unheard. Naruto chuckle softly at that.

"You should know that it would be hard to get those two to stop being lovey dovey with each other once they start Light." Naruto said, not bother by the scene. He's seen a lot when he was with them. "Anyway, we should lay down you guys. We'll need the rest." Everyone was agreement to that.

As everybody is resting, Hope is looking at Naruto. When they traveled at Lake Breshka, Hope has been admiring Naruto. His skill in battle, his tactical abilities, his leaderships, everything Hope could ever wished to be. He also has something that gain his confidence back, that stops him from running away.

He wanted to talk to him, to get to know him better. But he was also nervous of talking to someone so powerful. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder and he look to his right to see his mother smiling at him. "If you want to talk to him, go ahead Hope."

He wrung his hands nervously. "But what if he doesn't talk me? What if-" Vanille suddenly pop in the conversation.

"It's not good if you focus 'what if'." Vanille advised, standing at Hope's side and startling him. "Come on, let's go talk to him." Before Hope could protest, Vanille grab his hand and pull him towards Naruto, making Nora giggle. She could tell the two are going to be a cute couple.

Naruto was resting on the ground, with his hand behind his back and his left leg on top of his upward right leg. He crack one eye open when he heard Vanille and Hope walking to him (Well, Vanille skipping and Hope getting dragged). He smile and got up from his position to see what they want.

"Hey you two." Naruto said to them, leaning on the rock wall behind him. "So do you guys need anything or just want to talk?" Hope was even more nervous now, so Vanille spoke.

"Hope wanted to talk to you." Vanille stated bluntly, ignoring Hope shaking his head. "He's probably thankful for you saving his mother."

Naruto smile at Hope, who scratch his head nervously. "Like I said, it's no problem. I would've done that for anybody."

"Still though, thank you." Hope said sincerely. He then look at the l'cie mark curiously. "Where did you get the l'cie mark?" Unnoticed by Hope, the others are listening in when Hope asked that question.

Naruto look at the l'cie mark branded to him. "I got it just before I left Bodhum to search for my own parents." That caused Lightning's, Serah's, and Snow's eyes to widen. It happen just the day before Naruto left?

Naruto continued. "When I got home, I saw no one inside. Only this amulet. The eyes suddenly opened up, revealing two slited orbs. The eidolon you saw back at Lake Breshka, that was the one inhabiting this amulet." He showed the amulet that is attached to his hand to Hope.

Hope look at thing with a bit of surprise. "That small thing hold the eidolon?"

"It also turn me into a l'cie." Naruto said. "Gave me the powers to protect the amulet and to an extension, myself. Prove really handy when I was travelling."

"Like when you saved from becoming a crystal?"

"Exactly like that."

Serah flinch at the reminder of her near fate while Snow gain a tighter hold on his girlfriend. Even though he believes the legend of eternal life, he was glad he could still be with Serah like this.

Naruto and Hope kept talking, with the boy asking more and more question about his travels. Naruto kept telling him tales of his adventure to the boy, making him more and more relax while Vanille listen in and add in her own comments.

Nora smile at the scene. She is glad that Naruto is acting a brother figure for Hope. Her son will need all the support he could get and she could only do so much, being the only regular person here.

In the end, she hope that her son would come out of this alright and well.

And that's the end. I hope you guys like the little development between Naruto and Hope. Naruto is going to be a big brother figure for Hope and also, don't expect Hope to be so angsty like in the canons. Since his mother is still alive, he mellowed down. And not wanting revenge on Snow.

Review, favorite, and follow and I will see you later.