AN: Thanks to Batsu Espada for helping me through a tough spot :o), wub you~!
Chapter Four: K0-N0's Voice
It was sweltering hot as she trudged through the forest, and she swore and tore off her helmet after the visor had fogged up completely for the eighth or ninth time since she had been dropped in this forsaken jungle. Her limbs were aching, as a gunrunner for the frontlines and demolitions expert it was her duty to carry most of the supplies and weapons, a position that made her equipment unbearably heavy and downright torturous in this climate.
She felt oddly naked without the traditional helm on her head, the maroon colored armor cradled against the matching chest plate, but she'd rather risk the vulnerability than face an opponent she couldn't see.
Her heavy boots stomped through the foliage, only stopping when she bent low to the ground to place a plasma, cryoban, or thermal detonation mine, her fingers tapping the datapad to signal the coordinates of the hidden weapons to her fellow Mandalorians.
She inhaled deeply again, her pack lightening but not enough to combat the fatigue from the heat, and she scolded herself for the millionth time that to succumb to the elements was not honorable. Her gloved hand swept back the dark brown hair that kept falling into her similarly colored eyes, and her other hand switched the datapad for a communicator.
"Base, this is Delta, I have planted all demolitions, over," she said into the speaker.
It hissed, the communication agent's voice on the other end coming through in a burst of static, "Acknowledged. Any hostile encounters?"
"Negative."
"10-4."
She switched off the communicator, placing it back into the utility belt around her hips. She sighed, reaching down to grab the water in her survival kit when a large blast flashed somewhere in the trees in front of her.
Her eyes narrowed, hands automatically going for the heavy blaster on her back as she forced herself to stand. She strained her ears, but she could make out the sound of repeating blaster fire, the large noises of grenades going off as well as the softer hum of energy shields.
Immediately, her hands went to her communicator, "Delta to Base, I believe I've located the scouting party."
"Transfer your coordinates."
"Coordinates transferred."
"Die honorably. 10-4."
The communication halted, and she pressed her lips tightly together, before freeing her hands and placing on her helmet, knowing she was about to encounter the enemy. Her hands then bent over to pick up her weapon, the left hand supporting the weight of her blaster as her right index finger teased the trigger.
She made her way through the trees as discreetly as possible when carrying enough ammunition to supply an entire squad, but when she finally reached the clearing, she found it hard to believe her eyes. She pulled the helmet off with one hand, and her grip on the blaster went slack.
Republic soldiers, tens of them, most of which were collapsed on the ground in angles that implied they were no longer alive, the red spirals on their back looking like targets. A few stragglers were still fighting, even more than that were retreating, running through the jungles.
Running through the jungles straight into mines that she had placed hours ago.
Her stare darted to the opposing side, her side, where a few squads of Mandalorians fought alongside Sith soldiers and Dark Jedi, outnumbering the fledgling Republic squads at a ratio of about twenty to one.
It showed with the casualties.
She dropped her gun. This was no battlefield.
A young Republic soldier, wearing the orange jumpsuit of a pilot, screamed something, lobbing a red grenade into the opposing forces before being clipped in the shoulder with Mandalorian fire. A girl about his age, wearing the medic's symbol, if she recalled correctly, was at his side almost immediately, administering a medpac to the wound while a mechanic stood above them, providing them cover with a light repeating blaster.
She swallowed. This was a slaughter.
More and more Republic soldiers dropped liked bantha flies, and it wasn't long before she heard the sounds of her mines going off, screams filling the air almost as potent as the smoke and the blaster fire.
Tenten threw her helmet on the ground, backing away towards the evacuation point.
There was no honor in this.
---
Four years later…
"Son of a nerf herder!" Tenten hissed, shuffling the hot caf to her other hand while trying to start a food processor with her elbow.
K0-N0 let loose a peal of mechanical laughter, the woman struggling to prepare dinner hilarious in its optical sensors.
Tenten blew away a strand of dark hair that had escaped her buns, "Laugh it up, you bucket of bolts, I hope you like having limited motor function for the rest of your miserable existence."
K0-N0 wisely stopped making any noise, wheeling up beside Tenten and offering his flat head as a tray for her to place her pot of caf on.
She smiled, "That's more like it," she set down the caf, her hands running over the food processor. A clump of some unidentifiable mush poured out of it and landed in the proffered bowl with a large 'schlump!' sound.
K0-N0 gave a tinny groan.
Tenten sniffed, offended, "It's edible!"
At that cue, the door to the shop/apartment where the Aburame family made their home swung open, a tired, slumped over man walking in.
"So I see it's not just the end of the swoop track that takes you awhile to get to," Tenten said, deliberately facing away from her husband as she shuffled ceramic bowls, glops of mush not moving with the bowl.
Shino slowly pulled down his racer's hood, revealing a tuft of matted dark brown hair, his hands taking off the thick bantha leather gloves on his hands.
"…I won my heat," there was a ghost of a smirk on his face as he made his way over to the table, not that anyone would see it with the tall collar of his jacket. When he sat, he leaned forward, folding his arms across his chest as his goggled eyes took in the newcomer, "Who's this?"
Tenten's eyes slid from the liberally titled dinner to the droid who was pretending to be a piece of the furniture, "That's a K-N unit, found him at the swoop tracks while I was watching you make a mockery of the competition." She was smiling.
Shino was silent, although his eyebrows rose just a fraction above the rims of his goggles, and he leaned back in his chair. The man's dark lenses never left the droid, and K0-N0 gave a low, nervous whistle, followed by rapidly rolling over to Tenten's side.
"I figured he can help me out with your half of the shop when you're away," Tenten said, giving the droid an absent double pat on the top of its head.
Shino inclined his head, "There's no ownership tag?"
"None that I can see, but we both know droids are your specialty," Tenten said, setting down a bowl of food for Shino. It made a heavy, echoing sound and Shino stared at it as if he were expecting it to leap up and go for his jugular, "Although that's enough shop talk for right now. We are going to pretend to be normal and eat dinner like a normal married couple," she set down the mug next to the bowl. The liquid hardly moved.
Tenten went back to the food processor and grabbed her own meal, taking a seat across from Shino, "Sorry about missing the last of your heats…you know how the races are on my blood pressure."
Shino quite noticeably smirked this time, as he unbuttoned his collar to brave the meal his wife had made.
"…hey, it's your fault," she said with a roll of her shoulders, digging into her mush, "So anything interesting happen?" She asked between very exaggerated chews.
"Something…strange happened tonight at the swoop tracks," was all her husband said, sipping from the mug of hot caf. He paused, whishing the liquid around in his mouth for a few beats before swallowing, "…it's gotten much better."
Tenten beamed, ruffling the top of his greasy, sweaty hair, "Good. But it's still your turn to make dinner tomorrow."
Shino let loose the rare smile, his face twisting slightly when his pudding crunched.
---
"…I believe that there has been some miscommunication," was the first thing Sai said when he could feel his jaw again, pushing himself up off of the floor. His eyes were trained on the woman who punched him, his muscles tense and his fingers flexing towards his lightsaber.
"Really? I thought I made myself clear," she said, her fist still clenched tight by her side.
"Sakura? What are you doing?" Came the fat man that Sai had hypnotized earlier, his face twisted into a mask of concern as he walked over to the woman, "You can't just punch Jedi!"
The woman, Sakura as the fat man had identified, turned to him, "Chouji, stay out of this," while her tone was softer than it had been with Sai, there was still a heavy undercurrent to it. She bowed her head, "This involves Sasuke."
Chouji's eyes widened, taking a few steps away from her, "…sorry," he mumbled, although he was still poised to intervene.
Sai's eyes drifted slowly from the violent woman to the man, mentally filing that both of them held a familiarity with Sasuke, 'Sakura' especially.
Sai closed his eyes for a moment, taking a second to draw a deep breath and regain his control before he proceeded. Rash action, especially on a planet such as this, would severely jeopardize his mission, and he couldn't risk two possible leads. The odds, at least for now, were in his favor.
He opened his eyes, and forced a huge smile onto his face, "I'm afraid we have gotten off on the wrong foot. I'm Sai, Jedi Knight, and I have been sent on an important mission by the Council on Coruscant. I would appreciate any assistance in the matter," he bowed.
Sakura only glared at him, but she crossed her arms over her chest. Sai noticed she leaned far too much on one side, a sign of drunkenness if the slur to her speech hadn't given her away, "I bet it hurts to smile like that."
Sai forced his smile wider, his cheek throbbing, "Terribly."
"What do you want with Sasuke?"
"The Council-"
"What do you want with Sasuke?"
Sai stood up from his bow, realizing it wouldn't be returned anytime that century, "I am to locate, detain, and ship wanted criminal Uchiha Sasuke to Coruscant for trial."
Her nostrils flared, "Ship? Ship?! Sasuke is a person not some piece of cargo you miserable-"
"Sakura, calm down-" Chouji said.
"I told you to stay out of this!" Sakura snapped, and it was clear that the substances she had consumed earlier were clouding her rationality.
Chouji frowned, looking almost hurt as he backed a few steps away from her.
"I'm going to tell you this one more time before I get ugly," Sakura whispered stepping close to Sai. He could feel her hot breath, reeking of juma juice, on his face. She bunched a fistful of his robes near his throat, "Leave Sasuke alone."
Sai continued smiling, "That is not possible."
He heard her knuckles crack, "It wasn't a request."
"That is irrelevant."
She wobbled a bit, her feet unsteady, and her head lowered so it seemed as if she was addressing Sai's chest, "Don't make me hurt a Jedi."
Sai frowned, that time her voice was much softer when speaking.
"Sakura, stop it," Chouji said, louder this time as he seemed to finally decide on a course of action.
"Chouji let me handle this!" She all but screamed, slamming her fist against Sai's throat, he gave no reaction other than the slightest wavering of his smile.
"Sakura." Chouji's face was no longer kind, rather drawn into a tight line as he grabbed her by the shoulders, "You're in no condition to fight-"
"What do you know about being ready to fight, Chouji?" She asked darkly, juma releasing her inner demons little by little.
"I know you getting killed by a lightsaber isn't going to help Sasuke," Chouji said quietly, dragging Sakura away from Sai. Her fingers clung desperately to the fabric of Sai's Jedi robes before Chouji managed to separate the two.
"Listen, Jedi," Sakura said softly, only halfway struggling against Chouji, "Abandon your mission, if you know what's good for you. Chasing after Sasuke will only end in pain for you," her eyes glazed over for a moment, "I would know."
"Sakura, let's go…" Chouji insisted, wrapping one of his large arms around her shoulders and steering her away.
Sai watched the pair leave, his mind already forming deductions and facts based upon the brief encounter.
She was indeed ugly with him.
He needed to return to The Paper Tiger and locate the files on Uchiha Sasuke, there was much research to be done.
But first, he had an errant astromech to find.
---
"Tenten?"
"Yeah?" Tenten called from over the divider of the Aburame shop, her attention focused on unjamming the carbine for a heavy repeating blaster. She was surrounded by rows upon rows of weapons lining her half of the shop.
"…Where did you find this droid?" Her husband's lower voice traveled from his side, littered with droids and parts. K0-N0 was immobile under his palms, its core processor open as Shino rifled through the droid's wiring, searching for either an ownership tag or an obedience chip.
"I told you, at the swoop track," Tenten said, her tongue poking out as she finished assembling the blaster.
"…I suggest we bring it back there."
Tenten's eyebrows furrowed, and she set aside the fixed gun, "What?"
"It's a custom model."
She sighed, standing up slowly and walking across the large expanse of space until she moved around the divider. She leaned against the wall, watching with curious brown eyes as Shino continued investigating the droid.
"So? Finder's keepers on Nar Shadaar, everyone knows that."
"It's tagged. Republic," Shino didn't look up, a crease forming between his eyebrows as he lowered a binary visor over his eyes.
Tenten felt something like a durasteel brick drop in her stomach, and she pushed herself off the wall, "Almost everything without an owner is tagged Republic," she mumbled, starting to nervously readjust the buns on her head.
"Whoever made this droid was a genius," Shino said flatly, "It's impervious to memory wipes, obedience chips, and overriding programs…" his eyebrows creased further as he withdrew his tools from the core processor, shutting the flap before shifting his attention to the memory core, "…and…there's an anomaly."
Tenten snorted, "An anomaly."
"It's impervious to memory wipes, but there appears to be…blocks."
"Blocks?"
"There's information stored in this droid's databanks," Shino ran the back of his hand across his forehead, "Information that can't be accessed."
Tenten stared at the lifeless droid, a scrutinizing look covering her face, "So what would be the point of that?"
Shino shook his head, "It's too complex. It'd need an expert-"
"I thought you were an expert-"
"I was just a tech, we both know that…" Shino's eyes widened behind the binary visor, his hands tensing for a moment before a hiss of static filled the air, "I…believe I've found something-"
The static hissed louder, followed by several broken words.
"…don't…a lot…time…Sarutobi…find…Uzumaki…holocron…Dantooine…the rest of the…fodder…up to him…before Coruscant…trust no one…irritating…Orochimaru-"
Tenten frowned, "An auditory recording?"
"…don't…a lot…time…"
Shino shook his head, "A hologram. I've skimmed the surface of it, but it would take a master technician to break the security perimeters."
"Sarutobi…find…Uzumaki…holocron…"
"What is this supposed to mean?" Tenten murmured, ears straining to hear past the static.
"…Dantooine…the rest of the…fodder-"
Shino frowned, "Military code?"
"No," Tenten shot down immediately, "The voice…it sounds so familiar…"
Shino stared long and hard at his wife, "Mandalorian?"
"…unlikely."
"-up to him…"
"I have a bad feeling about this," Shino said quietly, hands withdrawing from K0-N0's wiring.
"-Before Coruscant…"
Tenten stood behind him, watching the shutdown astromech with a heavy feeling in her chest, "…that makes two of us."
"…trust no one…"