Naruto: A New Beginning
Chapter 10
(Date: June 29, 2552. Location: Epsilon Eridani System, Planet Reach)
" (Static Interference)There was music, and joy, and marijuana. Bzzzzzzz, Now Playing 21st century rap, get ready for a leap back in time homies we got Biggy smalls kickin it. . . Uh, it was all a dream I used to read word up magazine, salt an peppa and heavy d-up in the limousine. Bzzzzzzz, COME ON BY TO BARRY'S FAMOUS! (click)."
"God." Camilla said with a disappointed tone of voice. "There's really nothing good on the radio anymore." She said this while frowning slightly as well.
"I bet something nice would have popped up if you kept looking…." Naruto suggested with a small smirk in place. "Regardless the more time that passes by the more I'm starting to remember things, some of that weird music helped." Naruto said randomly.
Camilla was glad she had some sort of topic to discuss now before going into teacher mode again. "Really? Anything you would like to share." Camilla asked with a curious quirk to her tone of voice.
"Heh. Get this, I remember going to some bar with my friends and singing karaoke music, the memories pretty vague but it felt like a fun time." Naruto said with a knowing smirk.
"That's nice . . . hey look, were getting to the point I found you're raggedy self just lying there." Camilla pointed out with her right hand middle finger that was still on the car's steering wheel.
"Wait, STOP!" Camilla was surprised for a moment but stopped where you could still see the impression of where Naruto was found by Camilla.
"Why do you want to stop all of a sudden, more memories coming about?" Camilla asked with a peeved but still intrigued air about her.
"Yeah, wait here. I remember dropping something in the forest, I don't know what but I know it's there." Naruto quickly got out of the car and jumped through the bushes of the forest signifying it's improvised entrance.
The fact of the matter is, Naruto didn't stray too far from Camilla. In fact this was another one of his perceived chances to continue spinning his origins story. He decided to unseal one of his spare kunai pouches and checked its storage compartments quickly before Camilla got too impatient and decided to check on him.
'Alright, six kunai and fifteen shurikens along with a pack of thirty explosive tags and three soldier pills. This should do for now.' Naruto walked back with leg holster visibly in hand, jumped through the bushes once more and failed horridly in his exit. Not too horridly, but enough to warrant a peeved yell coming from Camilla.
What happened was, when Naruto jumped out of the bushes again her dad's sleep wear got caught by one of the small branches sticking out at the other side, thus tearing the shirt from his left shoulder to the underside of his left armpit. Now he really needed that change of clothes.
"Damn it Naruto; that was my dad's favorite thing to wear every night." Camilla was peeved because that sleep wear had sentimental value along with anything else that belonged to her father.
"S-sorry, I didn't mean to, I was just excited because I remembered a bunch of stuff about where I came from." Naruto lied with a sheepish expression, although that facial expression was eventually toned down to a frown of regret. "I know this belonged to your dad's so I'll do anything you want me to, to make it up to you." Naruto said this as he was walking back to the warthog's backseat entrance, along with the fact that Camilla was grilling him from the interior rear-view mirror.
Naruto entered the warthog, but Camilla didn't gun it immediately as she stared at him a little longer and then mentally decided to cash in on his idea for later. She also then decided to break the minor tension by asking Naruto if he found anything.
"So . . . Are you gonna tell me if you found anything?" She slightly doubted it due to the randomness of the event that led to him jumping into the forest.
"Actually I found something that belongs to me and my village exclusively; I guess you could say I regained a lot of lost memories when I found this." Naruto finally brought to attention the leg pouch/holster he had unsealed from his hand.
"What's in there?" Camilla's curiosity was well above piqued now, here was physical evidence that tied Naruto to his earlier words of intense training.
"Well, before I tell you of it's contents I'm gonna simply tell you what I am." Naruto said with a serious mask. Here comes the moment of partial revealing. "(Sigh) Camilla, I'm a trained ninja that comes from a village that has always strayed from society to continue their practices; I know this may be hard to believe but it's the truth." Camilla stopped for a second time as she was coming upon a dirt road intersection, but she stayed there as she mentally surveyed what Naruto had metaphorically dropped on her.
"What's in the pouch?" Camilla questioned in an eerily neutral voice, she also positioned herself on the car seat to look directly at Naruto.
"Well, Ha . . . ha ha it kinda proves my point." Naruto said nervously. He took out a Kunai and Shuriken very slowly from the pouch. "Well here is one of the villages manufactured throwing knives, and here's a ninja star. I know you're probably wondering if I'm being serious right now and yes, I'm deathly serious. I don't really know when I arrived on this planet but I can safely assume I wasn't even born yet because all I have ever known was that village surrounded by large mountains and huge tree's. I was never informed of the Covenant, I was never in any kind of contact with the technology I see now, hell I didn't even know the planet had a name."
Camilla was looking at Naruto with a very intense stare that conveyed shock and confusion.
"But, I don't understand. How could things like that be kept from you, what possible way did your family and friends get here besides a colonial civilian transport ship. Most of the people here on Reach are of European roots but here you are, you look more American to me if anything. Were you exposed to any kind of technology? Were you taught anything else besides how to fight and kill? What kind of archaic group of people utilize an advanced Slip-Space ship to get to another world and then just disappear from society? What you're telling me just isn't adding up Naruto, how does any of that make sense?" Disbelief was written all over her face as they just sat there on the dirt path while she vocally broke down what she learned.
"Well I wish I knew myself but that's all I've ever known Camilla, I can honestly say I'm angry at the things that were kept from me but before whatever happened to me that led you to finding me on the side of this dirt path it's all I've ever known, and now that that's changed I want to take steps of changing that useless path into something more productive. You're totally right when you said archaic, compared to everything you've shown me so far it is archaic and also unfair that my people seem to be ignoring the rest of humanity's plight to probably continue their beliefs. Even as I explain this to you now it still sounds ridiculous, but I want to leave all that behind me now and help you help this world." Naruto said in what he hoped was an honest sounding tone of voice, half of what he said was rubbish but he did want to help and he hoped that his speech helped Camilla steer clear of any other questions.
"It still doesn't make sense, but. . . . . . I'll accept your answer. Judging by what you said it doesn't seem to be your fault but I wish I knew where this supposed village was so I could give them a piece of my mind." She said quite angrily. "What kind of human beings are they to ignore the rest of humanity's issues like that, judging by how strong you are we could have used people like that in this god forsaken war." Camilla just sighed tiredly at the end of her tirade and decided it's best not to dwell on the subject much longer. "Regardless let's just end this for now and make it to town before much later, I want to get as much done as possible." Camilla put on a sly smirk in an attempt to break the second bout of tension today. "Besides, you still owe me a favor of whichever of my choosing for ripping my daddy's sleepwear." Her smirk intensified to a grin as she could see Naruto fidgeting nervously.
"Well what are you waiting for then, this thing isn't gonna drive itself. . . . is it?" Naruto asked hesitantly. Camilla just laughed and turned around. She put her foot on the gas pedal, revved the engine, and shifted the gears to start moving forward.
She made a right turn on the dirt path intersection and sped down that path for a couple of minutes until you could see structures of human settlement in the remaining distance.
"For a civilian community we prospered pretty well mining and selling important minerals for the UNSC to use for their computer technology." Camilla commented off-handedly. "In fact I say were pretty lucky we settled next to that specific mountain, it's chock full of tungsten and titanium ore, both things the UNSC rely on to make their ships and computer technology." Naruto nodded his head in understanding.
"Hey, I remember asking you about this other planet called Earth but we never really discussed it." Naruto mentioned as a side note.
"Oh yeah, Well planet Earth is where every human being has ever originated, it's our home world. It's where you and your ancestors came from. Before everything else, all this space ship technology that helped transport us to other worlds. There was only Earth as the home for humanity. But then driven by necessity we had to figure out a way to travel faster than light-speed so we can escape over-population and famine." Camilla summarized.
"Wow, I can see how that works." Naruto was really astounded by how far this plane of existence had come, he wasn't sure if he could say he would have ever seen anything close to what he saw here besides television, radio's and construction equipment. Technological advancement in his world were more focused on chakra utilizing weapons, maybe eventually someone would have figured some kind of technique that uses chakra to transport people to other worlds but he was confident that no one in the elemental nations was smart enough to create the technology from scratch like this dimensions human's.
"It's pretty impressive but it took generations of work and knowledge compounded by thousands of scientists." Camilla added as an afterthought. "Alright, before we do anything let's get you a change of clothes, it's appalling to be seen with you in your current state of dress." She said with a grin.
"Hey! It's not my fault; at least I don't feel like it's my fault." Naruto added carefully. He was still wondering how is he going to fully explain to Camilla his origin's without it sounding to farfetched as it already had. Well it's a challenge and Naruto never backs down, besides if he can't figure something out he would just outright tell her what the hell happened and then prove it with the use of chakra, the worst that would probably happen is that she would faint or something.
Regardless when they finally arrived within the civilian community Naruto was mildly impressed. He could see small stores made of metal that were selling an assortment of all kinds of foodstuffs like fruits and vegetables, and plastic containers filled with odd ingredients he couldn't really discern. All these things were placed on stands inside of wooden crates for all to see outside of the stores themselves.
He passed by other buildings like hotels and offices and even a plaza of stored that sold a variety of metal components he couldn't even begin to guess were purposed for.
Eventually Camilla stopped at a store on the halfway point of the small town. It was called (Lucky's Casual Clothing for the Casual Customer). At least the name wasn't bland.
"Well here we are, I'm sure lucky's will have something that will suit you just fine . . . not that I shop here." She finished quickly for some odd reason; Naruto just concluded that all girls were this weird when it came to clothing and such.
She got out of the car and told Chaser to stay in the car because he wanted to follow her out.
"Come on Naruto don't just sit there." Camilla said exasperated, she seemed to think he was always gonna start spacing out on her.
"What, oh YEAH! Sorry I was just thinking about a few things." Naruto quickly opened the door and followed Camilla inside the store.
It really wasn't anything special, the interior was all metal grey with blue lines outlining the wall's that were painted close to the ceiling. Another notable feature was the large rotund man on the other side of the counter, he immediately looked up when the sensors picked up the opening of his shop and the chiming noise that resulted had him look up from a hunting magazine.
"Well whaddya know, if it ain't little miss Crespo coming to visit little ol' me." The man said with a yellowing toothy smile.
"Don't get the wrong idea lucky I'm just here to buy something for this lug right here and them I'm off to volunteer for the ODST's." Camilla said with a smirk and a jutting thumb towards Naruto's direction. Also notable is that the man's name is actually Lucky.
"Well who's this young lad, haven't seen him around these part's so he must be new." Lucky said with one eye glaring while the other was half closed.
"There's no time to worry about him, I gotta get him something and then. . ." Lucky suddenly interrupted.
"WAIT A MINUTE! Did you say you're following in yer old man's footsteps?" Camilla nodded and quickly told Naruto to find something simple while walking towards Lucky.
"I really don't have much time to talk Lucky, but yeah I decided I'm joining the ODST's with that guy over there, he may not look like much but he's really strong. I can attest to that." Lucky looked at Naruto once more and decided to ignore him for the time being.
"Well I'm sure your father would be proud of you Cammy if he knew about your decision, just be extra cautious and don't take shit from anyone just because you're a pretty girl." Lucky said with a serious expression. Soon Naruto dropped by on the counter with his left arm holding a black t-shirt and light brown khaki's.
"This was the only thing I could find tolerable to wear; everything else would have restricted my movement." Naruto said with a neutral expression.
"Hey you, what's yer name?" Lucky asked Naruto with that critical single eye glare of his.
"Naruto Uzumaki, nice to meet you Mr. Lucky sir." Naruto said with respect.
Lucky nodded. "Cammy here tells me your strong and imma believe her, I was pretty good friends with her dad so on his behalf imma tell you to take good care of her and protect her, ya understand." The single eye glare was still there.
"Yes sir, I was already going to sir. I always protect my precious people with my life." Naruto said with his own serious air about him.
Lucky stared a bit longer then grinned. "Well I can honestly say you find yerself quite the partner Cammy." Lucky said while looking at Camilla.
"Yea lucky me." Camilla smiled at her own joke. "It's better to go with someone to have your back then go by yourself you know." Lucky simply nodded.
"Well, I'm sure I've taken enough of yer time Cammy girl, take the clothing free of charge. It's the least I could do for your future services." Lucky said with a small smirk.
"Wow thanks Mr. Lucky sir, I really appreciate it. I felt bad that Camilla was gonna have to take money out of her pocket for me but you fixed that." Naruto said with a grin while scratching the back of his head in embarrassment with his right hand.
"I really wouldn't have minded Naruto but regardless thank you Lucky . . . although do you think you can do me another favor. I'm a bit short on time now." Camilla asked a bit hesitantly.
"Of Course! Anything for you Cammy, what is it ya need." Lucky said happy to help.
"Well I've been hearing around town that Bruce has quit all his part-time jobs because they're not fulfilling enough as he would put it. Do you think you can give him a call and tell him that I offered him a job to tend to my farm while I'm away, tell him that whatever he makes selling the crops and milk he can have it. I just can't leave the farm as is and I'm sure Bruce would love the job since his old job's lacked any physical movement." Camilla finished with a hopeful gaze.
"Of course I'll tell him. And don't you worry your pretty little head with the farm, I'm sure Bruce is gonna jump on this opportunity once I'm through with him." Lucky said with a reassuring smile.
"Thanks a lot Lucky this means a lot to me, well I've gotta go. I just need to get some stuff from the grocers and then I'm off." Camilla walked behind Lucky's counter and gave him a hug. "Thanks for everything Lucky, I really don't know when I'm coming back so this is goodbye." A lone tear slid down Lucky's eye.
"The town's gonna miss havin ya here Cammy, so you better take care of yourself so you can come back one day." Camilla nodded in the affirmative and started walking towards the door, she gave Lucky one last wave and exited.
Naruto was on his way out as well but stopped at the exit and turned around.
"Don't worry about a single thing old man, I'll protect her." Lucky simply nodded and then smirked.
"You're not gonna find a girl like her so you better take care of her." Naruto nodded and exited the store.
Soon he joined up with Camilla and both of them made their way to the grocery store. All Camilla had to pick up was a couple bottles of water and some pre-made sandwiches that the old lady at the counter sold. Camilla exchanged goodbye's with the old lady as well since they seem to know each other and the old lady gave Naruto a wink and a wave.
Soon they were both back in the car with Chaser barking happily when he saw his owner had come back.
Camilla turned on the car again with a smiling worry free expression as she had Lucky looking out for her and her farm.
Soon she was making way down the dirt road until the town wasn't in sight anymore.
They both had to bear another thirty minutes of dirt road until finally they came across an asphalt highway intersection that was bustling with vehicular activity.
"Alright Naruto, if we keep following this road we'll eventually fall unto one of the more developed communities that has military services housed there. I'm sure we could find some recruiters there, but if not we'll have to take a longer journey to New Alexandria." Camilla was hoping they wouldn't have to go that far.
"Oh yeah I heard of that city, I saw it on t.v during one of these luxury commercials. Actually a city is an understatement, it's a mega city." Naruto said wide eyed in remembrance.
"Yep, your absolutely right." Eventually Camilla saw a break in the traffic and gunned it towards the highway, she made a right turn and soon they merged with the rest of the traffic. "Although New Alexandria isn't the only mega city it's the largest one." Camilla added.
For the three hours Camilla was driving give or take a few minutes she and Naruto just spent it talking. Naruto asking questions about all sorts of stuff he had seen on t.v and his own made up questions and Camilla simply answering them as best she could.
Eventually they were so engrossed in their conversation that they barely noticed all that time had gone by and soon they could both see the skyline of the city they were arriving to.
"Woah, even though it's not as big as New Alexandria it's still pretty awesome to see a city this big in person, do you know what it's called?" Naruto asked.
"Yep, my dad took me here a couple of times when I was little. This city is called New Stendington." Camilla informed.
"Huh, New Stendington. I think that's a pretty weird name for a city but it must belong to whoever funded it right?" Naruto guessed.
"Usually that's the case so it's likely that this city wouldn't be any different. Any way were going to have to stop at a city terminal for directions, I really don't know where there are recruitment offices around here." Once they had entered the city through an exterior tunnel Camilla drove up to a machine on the side of the street.
"This is the Cities terminal box, they are spread out around the city in strategic locations where people would need them most, like the entrance to a city." Camilla pointed out.
"That's interesting, what do they do exactly?" Naruto asked as both he and Camilla got out of the car along with Chaser who just had to get out to stretch a little bit. Camilla walked around the terminus and walked up to the screen. Soon the terminus detected her presence and projected a red colored keyboard onto a flat white surface in front of her.
"Well they are mostly used for directions and emergency calls but on the off chance that were attacked by terrorists or the Covenant the UNSC can use these terminals if the city is overrun and find out through the cities security cameras where the best spots are for counter attacks and the enemies location. I could get into an explanation about artificial intelligence but you're gonna have to ask me later if you're still interested." Camilla eventually finished typing whatever directional questions she had and got back in the car followed by Naruto and Chaser.
Camilla continued driving down the city streets with Naruto in the backseat staring wondrously at all the people sights and sounds. Soon Camilla slowed down and parked next to a building with the words UNSC holographically floating on top of the buildings entrance. Camilla stepped out of the car and allowed Chaser to follow her out, soon Naruto converged upon her position as well as they were getting ready for the change of their lives.
As they were about to enter the building Camilla saw the electronic sign that was on one of the glass doors.
It read.
(Special Divisions recruiting officers will be here for three days from late in the morning to late in the afternoon, this is a UNSC Marine Corps recruitment center but today Recruitment officers from Special Divisions branches will be taking volunteer's for a three day period. Thank you for your continued support of the UNSC's efforts to save humanity and choose your branch wisely.)
"Wow, I guess were pretty lucky in a sense. Now we don't have to go to New Alexandria." Camilla Nodded in agreement to Naruto's assessment.
"Come on let's go in Naruto." Camilla opened the door and Naruto and Chaser followed.
The lobby was huge and there were already lines of people leading to three men behind one long counter. There were individual banners on top of each man's head stating Marines, ODST, and Ranger's respectively.
Naruto was surprised by the amount of people enlisting for the Marines and these so called Rangers but was even more surprised by the seven people that were left in line for ODST recruitment. Eventually he noticed Camilla confidently walking towards the ODST segment and he followed.
The enlistee's couldn't help but stare at the pair of youngsters walking towards the short line of ODST recruitment. People always say you had to be crazy or insane to join the ODST and these two kids had the gall to walk in their midst and straight up to that line without the slightest hint of fear or hesitation. It made them look bad in a sense.
One of the ODST enlistees turned around to see where all the staring was being directed at. Only to widen his eyes himself at what he saw compared to what he expected.
"You two don't look any older than fifteen." He said with a frown on his face. "The ODST isn't for little kids like you two, I hope you know that you're not even going to make it past the mental and physical evaluations." Serious frown still in place on the tall, muscled, complete with mutton chops, man.
Before Naruto could say anything Camilla beat him to the punch.
"For your information Mr. Tough Guy, it doesn't matter how old we are as long as we past the physical and mental screenings were set to join the ODST, and me and my friend here are gonna pass those evaluations whether you like it or not." Camilla was giving the guy a glare while having her arms crossed.
"We'll see about that missy." The guy just turned around and ignored them for the rest of the time that they were in line.
Eventually Camilla was next in line and the ODST recruiting officer looked at them and didn't give it any thought as to how young they were. He's used to seeing most youngsters try out only to fail regardless of how hard they tried and these two won't be any different, and if they did pass, well, their funeral.
"Last and first name along with your date of birth please." The officer said in a very bland voice.
"Last name Crespo and first name Camilla. My date of birth is October 10th, 2533." Camilla retorted in an equally bland tone of voice just to spite the man.
"Holy crap, me and you have the same birthday Camilla." Naruto said with a deer caught in the headlights sort of look. Camilla turned around with a pretty shocked expression herself.
"Huh . . . what are the odds?" She couldn't help it when a giggle escaped, and then Naruto chuckled as well.
"I guess fate wanted us to be partners huh?" Camilla nodded just to go along with this rare cosmic event.
"Come on you're wasting my time just standing there, I don't have all day you know." Camilla faced the officer with a neutral expression.
"Sorry, you have three day's right?" She replied sarcastically. The officer simply frowned but just ignored her for the time being and checked the next person in line.
"You." He got Naruto's attention. "Are you just gonna stand there all day or are you volunteering for the ODST?" He said in a peeved voice.
"Oh yeah, sorry." Naruto walked up to the officer and waited for whatever questions he was supposed to ask.
"(Sigh) Last name and first name along with your date of birth." Bland as ever that one.
"Last name Uzumaki and my first name is Naruto. My date of birth is October 10th, uhhh 2535." Naruto said with a smile at the end.
"Alright can both of you please take the elevator located behind me where you will then wait for transportation to the Montez Military Academy for your Mental and Physical evaluations." Camilla and Naruto did as directed and comically enough the officer never noticed Chaser following Camilla closely into the elevator.
"Well that was pretty easy, now that we passed that guy we just have to punch through those tests and we'll be ODST's in no time." Naruto said confidently while the elevator was going up. Thankfully the dreaded elevator music was not being played.
"If it was as easy as you just made it sound than everyone would be an ODST Naruto, but that just doesn't apply to us cuz were awesome, right?" Camilla asked while looking at Naruto with a smirk.
"We are the most awesome people here so without a doubt we'll kick that evaluations ass!" Naruto was projecting his confidence so much Camilla could swear it was palpable.
Soon they heard the chime of the elevator reaching it's preset designated floor and saw a room full of people who were most likely also waiting for a transport of some kind.
Everyone looked towards the two new comers and the golden retriever with a mixture of emotions from confusion to amusement and even disbelief.
Camilla and Naruto walked towards an empty seat close to a large glass door where you could see a landing dock just outside.
"Well I guess were getting picked up by pelicans if there's a landing dock on this floor." Camilla said absentmindedly.
"Pelicans? You know what tell me later." Naruto took the wait and see approach with all these people looking at him he didn't need Camilla explaining whatever the obvious is to these guy's.
Suddenly the sound of an intercom was heard throughout the room.
"Pelican's inbound for ODST enlistee retrieval." With that the robotic female sounding voice cut off the com's with a resounding static crackle.
"Wow, the UNSC works fast doesn't it?" Naruto commented.
"What do you expect; they need as many people on the front lines as soon as possible. We are combating a genocidal legion of Aliens that are dead set on obliterating us, hasn't it occurred to you that despite you're age that officer still let you through. Before the Covenant made its presence truly known on Harvest the military never operated like this." Camilla educated Naruto.
"So it's also out of necessity huh." Naruto concluded. "I can understand that." He truly can.
"What is he retarded or something, why do you need a girl to tell you something like that pretty boy." Some ugly ass smelly bastard heard the brief conversation and decided it would be fun to interject.
This time Camilla didn't have a chance to say anything as Naruto's senses were almost overloaded by the man's stench, to everyone else it's just a discomfort but no one was going to call him on it because the guy was huge, to Naruto though the man smelled like garbage juice and cigarettes.
"UGH! Man, You smell like shit, no fuck that you smell like a decomposing body covered in shit." Naruto elaborated out loud.
Some of the men and woman waiting for the Pelican to arrive just couldn't help it, they cracked up. This kid just did them the favor that none of them would take on without any hesitation, he immediately called the guy on his smell and the man's face could attest to the embarrassment and anger.
"You little son bitch, I'm gonna wring your neck like chicken." The man started to move forward only for every ones attention to be diverted to the landing pad as a loud mechanical swooshing noise could be heard outside and eventually the hovering form of a D77-TC-Pelican came into view and rotated 180 degrees so the hatch was facing the enlistee's. The hatch was seen opening and out stepped a UNSC Drill Sergeant decked in full battle gear.
He even had his MA37-Assault Rifle hanging limply in his left hand.
He walked towards the automated glass doors and entered the waiting area with a mean look on his face.
The Drill Sergeant was a Caucasian male with dark brown eyes and your stereotypical mean faced Drill Sergeant look complete with the raised upper lip curled into a sneer.
"We'll finish this later punk." With that Mr. Smelly took a seat on the left side while Naruto and Camilla took a seat on the right, with Chaser sitting in front of Camilla.
"SO . . . I'm supposed to train this new batch of creamy chicken shit ay." His voice was very deep and gruff sounding. "Well I'll take my pick then . . . I need the chicken shits on the right side to stand up and follow me, the damn Pelican has a maximum limit of ten passengers not including me and the pilot." With that being said he turned around and started his small trek back to the Pelican.
Camilla stood up and urged Naruto to do the same. "Just ignore his attitude, all drill sergeants are supposed to be like this to mentally prepare the new recruits." Camilla whispered to Naruto as they followed the man at mid-distance. Soon the rest of the people that were located on the right side followed suit after giving each other small glances.
After everyone was seated on the rubber polymer seats of the Pelican the Sergeant made a twisting motion with his hands that the pilot caught through his very own interior rear-view mirror. The Pelican immediately howled within re-ignition and the pilot took off with the new enlistee's.
As the Pelican was flying to the Montez Military Academy the Drill Sergeant was giving everyone a hard critically analyzing eye.
"You there." The Sergeant spoke towards Camilla.
"Yes, sir?" Camilla replied now nervous as to what he might say about Chaser.
"Do you know why I allowed your dog to go this far?" The man asked in a questionably neutral tone of voice.
"Sir, because he is well behaved and also a very intelligent breed that can assist in combat situations and provide emotional relief to other soldiers and crew members of a UNSC vessel and or base." Camilla said mentally hoping that was sufficient enough, she really didn't want to part with Chaser and she'll be damned if she can't convince him otherwise. She knew of some ships that allowed a dog or two as mascots but by adding combat support that was just icing on the cake, even though she knew this would put Chaser in danger she believed that with her and Naruto protecting each other and Chaser's capacity to learn she was confident situations will always turn out alright.
"You know what girly . . . that was a very good assessment and I silently applaud you, I will allow you to keep your dog but the expenses will be covered by you and not the UNSC, understood." Camilla was so happy she could hug the man but she knew that would be greatly inappropriate due to behavioral protocol and such rules.
"Thank you sir, I along with my dog Chaser will not disappoint." The man suddenly leered at her with another mean expression.
"Save that for when you actually pass the screening's girly." With that the Sergeant immediately went into wimp scan mode to find someone else to pick on.
Guess who he chose next.
"Hey you, ." Naruto just knew the man was talking to him but decided to follow Camilla's example of behavior.
"Yes sir?" Naruto asked straightening his back in attention while giving the man a piercing look with his ocean blue eyes.
"How confident are you in passing the screening huh, you don't look like much and let me tell ya those physical trials are nothing to laugh at." The Sergeant said seriously, he was also curious at what this young man's response will be.
"I bet it doesn't compare to my training regimen sir." Naruto responded respectfully but with a small cocky smirk.
"Oh really, hah! And what is your training regimen you scrawny punk?" The Sergeant didn't know what to expect.
"How about instead of telling you, you just watch me breeze through whatever challenge you throw at me, Deal?" Naruto asked haughtily.
"BwaHA HA HA HA! I like your gut's kid, what's your name?" The Sergeant asked with a scary grin that doesn't suit him due to the first impression everyone got from him.
"Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki, and don't you go and forget because I'm gonna have the top scores on this little test of yours." Naruto said with a large confident smirk.
"Well then Naruto, you got yourself a deal. But if you disappoint me I'm gonna shoot ya with tazer rounds until I'm satisfied." He said with an evil smirk and lowered gaze so his military cap shadowed over his eyes a little bit.
"Well let me tell you right now that you're not gonna be doing that I assure you, sir." Naruto added respectfully at the end with a nervous smile to accompany that. This guy sure was scary when he wanted to be.
For the rest of the ride the Sergeant made everyone on board the Pelican sweat a little before finally arriving to the Montez Military Training Academy.
"Well, all you drops of ass sweat may be calling this place home for the next few months if you survive the evaluations that is." He said this so casually it was comical.
Naruto could only frown at the man's unique use of the English language.
"If you would follow me I will lead you to the mental evaluations first, your all going to meet our sweet doctor who will be performing the evaluation's with a small team of psychologist's to aid her." The Sergeant walked towards another much smaller building that was next to the much larger building that was titled Montez Military Academy. He entered a set of double doors and the rest of the enlistee's followed him with Camilla Chaser and Naruto at the front of the group.
Once they entered that Pelican there was no going back, now they entered those life changing doors and there would be no room for regrets, no room for hesitation, no room for mistakes or fear. All these feelings have been put on hold because there is a goal that is currently before them that only requires the will and determination to push forward and succeed. This was another mark of the New Beginning that Naruto has achieved, he along with Camilla and Chaser and any other friends they pick up on their roller-coaster ride of change and pure awesomeness.
Authors Note: Sorry for the one day delay family but yesterday I was too lethargic to even think, I went on a special training exercise with my friends to the Poconos and we literally had a blast but the fun was physically taxing and that is the cause of the delay. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and tell me in a review if my lethargy affected this chapters writing. I'm not perfect and I know it, this is why I'm not afraid to ask for help, take those extra seconds of your time to leave a review and tell me what you think, give me ideas, criticize me, tell me why I suck or why I'm awesome. I WILL APPRECIATE IT. Thank you and peace out family.